I have written before about Abdelrahman Munif and his untranslated masterpiece Ard Al-Sawad, about early nineteenth-century Iraq, and I recently came across an entire issue (pdf) of the MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies devoted to Munif. It includes, among many other pieces, an extensive article by Sabry Hafez called "An Arabian Master" that discusses in detail his life and works and one by Ferial Ghazoul specifically on Ard Al-Sawad. It's annoying that it's only available as a 217-page pdf—you'd think they could at least provide each article separately—but hey, it's free, and anyone interested in Munif will find it worth the minor trouble involved.
Posted by languagehat at July 12, 2008 08:34 PMI could chop it up into smaller PDFs, but I can't read it anyway because of the abominable type color: too faint, too gray.
Posted by: John Cowan at July 13, 2008 11:13 AMExcellent! Many thanks, MMcM.
Posted by: language hat at July 13, 2008 02:41 PM