Love and Poetry in the Middle East: Love and Literature from Antiquity to the Present [Paperback]

Love has been an important trope in the literature of the region we now call the Middle East, from ancient times to modern. This book analyses love poetry in various ancient and contemporary languages of the Middle East, including Akkadian, ancient Egyptian, Classical and Modern Standard Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Turkish and Kurdish, including literary materials that have been discovered and highlighted for the first time.

Together, the chapters reflect and explore the discursive evolution of the theme of love, and the sensibilities, styles and techniques used to convey it. They chart the way in which poems in ancient poetry give way to complex and varied reflections of human sentiments in the medieval languages and on to the modern period which in turn reflects the complexities and nuances of present times. Offering a snapshot of the diverse literary languages and their relationship to the theme of love, the book will be of interest to scholars of Near and Middle Eastern Literature and Culture.

Introduction: Love and Poetry in the Middle East: From Antiquity to the Present, by Atef Alshaer (University of Westminster, UK)

1.Akkadian Love Poetry: From the Lewd to the Learned, Mark Weeden (SOAS, University of London, UK)
2.Be My Baby in Babylonia: An Akkadian Poem of Adolescent Longing, Andrew George (formerly University of Heidelberg, Germany)
3.The Poetry of love in Ancient Egypt, Robert Anderson (Late, City University, UK)
4.The Love of Jacob and Rachel in Modern Hebrew Poetry, Tamar S. Drukker (SOAS, University of London, UK)
5.An Arab and Islamic View of Love: The Poetry of the 'Udhris, Atef Alshaer (University of Westmins