Essay
أئمة الأدب
Not translated into English
Khalil Mardam · 1930
Synopsis
The masters of letters: five portraits, one per volume. There is the polymath of Basra who wrote about animals as he did about misers, the secretary of Persian origin who brought into Arabic the fables that came from India, two viziers who ran both a chancellery and a court of poets, and the satirist whose invective has travelled across a thousand years. Each volume follows a life, quotes the texts, and leaves the reader to judge what remains.
Context
A series rather than a book, written during the years when its author taught Arabic letters at the National College of Damascus. The first three volumes appeared in 1930 and 1931 from the Arafa bookshop, the last two in 1932 and 1939 from the al-Taraqqi press, each devoted to a great name of the early centuries. The man who wrote them had studied in London and read the English poets. The greater part of his other writings appeared only after his death, through the efforts of his son.
Who it is for
Five volumes in Arabic, with no French edition. It helps to know that each can be read on its own, and that it assumes familiarity with its subject's place in the letters of the early centuries.
Prizes and reception
The series for which its author is still read, with his editions of old divans, while the rest of his writings appeared only after his death.