Classical Arabic poetry is one of the world's longest continuous literary traditions; it can also feel impenetrable from outside. The list below is built around bilingual or facing-page editions in English.
02
Selected Poems
The greatest Arabic poet of any period. Library of Arabic Literature has the best bilingual edition.
03
Wine, Boys and Song
The wine and love poet of Abbasid Baghdad. Witty, libertine, formally perfect.
05
The Book of Misers
Not poetry but the great Abbasid prose, comic and theological at the same time.
06
The Muqaddima
Late classical, technically a prose history, but the cycles of dynastic rise and fall it describes are central to the poetic imagination of subsequent Arab literature.