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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

You would not be reading this book had I not received the help of many people. Gratitude first and foremost goes to the late Peter Heath, for his selection of texts and encouragement. Were it not for the guidance of two inspirational teachers and gifted translators, Peter Cole and Richard Sieburth, the project would have taken a very different direction. Richard made such contributions to the translations that in the end he became joint translator of the volume, though I claim responsibility for the mistakes in the book. Peter Cole encouraged me to listen for the poems—only my wrongheadedness and tin ear got in the way.

My collaborators at the Library of Arabic Literature (LAL), fellow editors, colleagues, and friends responded to my requests promptly and placed a great deal of trust in me: the meaning of true collaboration is yielding your words entirely to another’s discretion. Robyn Creswell and Jeannie Miller, the guest translators who popped in from time to time to help us out, made key interventions and provided an objective correlative to many of our exuberant notions.

My volume editor, Tahera Qutbuddin, has been as generous with her time as with her erudition. Her deep intimacy with classical Arabic poetry has saved me many a blush. LAL’s general editor, Philip Kennedy, and my fellow executive editor, Shawkat Toorawa, have been unflagging in their support and enthusiasm.

LAL is fortunate to have such a capable (and patient) editorial director in Dr. John Joseph Henry (Chip) Rossetti (how he manages to answer so many emails in the course of a day is a mystery to me), and our assistant editor Lucie Taylor is the epitome of intelligent efficiency. My copyeditor, Keith Miller, my proofreader, Wiam El-Tamami, LAL’s amazing digital production manager, Stuart Brown, and our paperback designer, Nicole Hayward, have done a splendid job in producing such handsome books.

On behalf of LAL I would like to thank Gila, Manal, Antoine, Amani, and the team at the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, who make our visits there so memorable, enjoyable, and productive. We are indebted to the audiences who turned up in Abu Dhabi and Dubai during December 2013 to hear a trial run of some of our translations. Their words of engagement came at just the right time. Nnedi Okorafor, the writer of Antar the Black Knight, kindly let me see the scripts for the first two issues of the comic-book series.

Over the course of the project, I amassed electronic copies of over twenty-five manuscripts. Anyone familiar with the labyrinths of manuscript collections will know that I have had to rely on the kindness of many experts—in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, the British Library in London, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Universitäts- und Forschungsbibliothek Erfurt/Gotha, the Austrian National Library in Vienna, and Dār al-Kutub in Cairo. I would like to thank Sumayya Ahmed for skillful help in liaising with the Bibliothèque Nationale du Maroc in Rabat; Dr. Mohamad Al Idreesi for providing me with such wonderful images of the manuscripts from al-Khizānah al-Ḥasaniyyah in Rabat; Khaleel Hasan Abdel Wahab for his help; and Dr. Ferruh Ozpilavci, associate director of the Manuscript Division of the Ministry of Culture, Turkey, and Prof. Hayrettin Yücesoy for advice on the collections of the Süleymaniye Library, Istanbul. Emily Selove and Geert Jan van Gelder graciously assisted by consulting volumes of The Epic of ʿAntar held at Exeter University Library. Geert Jan also provided advice on a few tricky verses. Elizabeth Key Fowden commented on the introduction and was liberal with her infectious enthusiasm.

Thanks are also due to my PhD student Robert Gard, who told me about camel burials and provided me with a reading list. Steven Bustos and his team at the Soho Grand Hotel, New York, helped the project in so many ways. I am grateful to them for providing a home away from home.

For the last three years, I have been fortunate to train two hours a week with Jonas Zimnickas, one of the most naturally gifted instructors I have ever met. Under his patient insistence I have developed a deep respect for ʿAntarah’s feats of strength.

I have looked after this project for more than six years. The last four years have been very difficult for my family, yet never once did my wife, Yvonne, and children, Natasha, Sam, and Josh, waver in their dedication to making it possible for me to see the volume through to publication. I am humbled by their love and devotion.