Poems Of Wine & Revelry

One of the greatest of Arabic poets - indeed, the greatest in the opinion of some critics - Abu Nuwas wrote accomplished verse that demonstrated his technical mastery of all the major genres. This work offers a glimpse of the hedonistic and dissipated world he inhabited: the world of Baghdad high society at the zenith of the Abbasid caliphate.

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First published in 2005. Arabic literature has a distinguished tradition of bacchanals but none are so consistently entertaining or explicit or iconoclastic as those of Abu Nuwas al_hasan ibn Hani al-Hakami (c. 756-c.815), the 'bad boy' of Abbasid poetry. In his khamriyyat, Abu Nuwas offers a glimpse of the hedonistic and dissipated world he inhabited: the world of Baghdad high society at the zenith of the Abbasid caliphate. Yet there is also a modern and up-to-date feel about his poetry that makes it ideal for presentation to an English-speaking readership, some twelve centuries after his death.