Date:
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The Alwaleed Bin Talal Book Talk Series presents
William E. Granara (Harvard) on his recent publication Ibn Hamdis the Sicilian: Eulogist for a Falling Homeland (2021)
This event is open to Harvard ID holders only due to COVID-19 restrictions. Register here: https://bit.ly/3uSUG7p.
'Abd al-Jabbar ibn Hamdis (1055-1133) survives as the best-known figure from four centuries of Arab-Islamic civilisation on the island of Sicily. There he grew up in a society enriched by a century of cultural development but whose unity was threatened by competing warlords. After the Normans invaded, he followed many other Muslims in emigrating, first to North Africa and then to Seville, where he began his career as a court poet.
Although he achieved fame and success in his time, Ibn Hamdis was forced to bear witness to sectarian strife among the Muslims of both Sicily and Spain, and the gradual success of the Christian reconquest, including the decline of his beloved homeland. Through his verse, William Granara examines his life and times.
William E. Granara is professor of the practice of Arabic language and literature at Harvard University in the departments of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Comparative Literature, and is currently the director of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He is also the founding director of Harvard Summer School’s program Postcolonial Studies: France and the Arab World, in Aix-en-Provence, France. Professor Granara specializes in the literature and history of the Arab Mediterranean in both the medieval and modern periods. He writes extensively on Muslim Sicily, and has authored two monographs, Narrating Muslim Sicily: War and Peace in the Medieval Mediterranean World (2019) and Ibn Hamdis the Sicilian: Eulogist for a Falling Homeland (2021). He is also co-editor of the recently published The Thousand and One Nights: Sources and Transformations in Literature, Art, and Science (2020)
In addition, he lectures and writes on contemporary Arabic literature and has published translations of several Arabic novels into English: The Earthquake [2000]; Granada [ 2004]; and The Battle of Poitiers [2011]. His work on literary criticism focuses on postcolonialism and cross-cultural poetics. His articles include: “Nostalgia, Arab Nationalism, and the Andalusian Chronotope in the Evolution of the Modern Arabic Novel” (2005); “Nile Crossings: Hospitality and Revenge in Egyptian Rural Narratives” (2010); “A Room of One’s Own: The Modern Arab Heroine between Career and Domesticity” (2014); and "The Mediterranean in North African Literature: Contesting Views” (2019).
This event is open to Harvard ID holders only. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Co-sponsor: Center for Middle Eastern Studies