The Undergraduate's Companion to Arab Writers and Their Web Sites

This companion provides information on the lives and works of about 150 authors who write primarily in Arabic, covering the first known works of Arabic literature in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D. to the present day. While concentrating on literary authors, writers from the fields of history, geography, and philosophy are also represented. The individuals represented were chosen primarily from the Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. Among the major authors are Najib Mahfuz, the 1988 Nobel laureate; Nawal Saadawi, the Egyptian physician who is the leading female literary author in the Arab world and the most frequently translated into English; Abu al-Ala' al-Ma'arri, the 11th century poet whose verses are taught to every Arab schoolchild; and Avicenna, the great physician and philosopher, transmitter and interpreter of Aristotle, whose work on medicine was long the standard not only in the Middle East but also (in Latin translation) in Europe. In addition, entries will be included for the anonymous romances so common in Arabic literature, such as The Arabian nights, a cycle of stories perhaps even better known in the West than in the Arab world.

DONA S. STRALEY is Middle East Studies Librarian and Associate Professor of Library Administration at the Ohio State University Libraries. She received her B.A. with distinction in History from Ohio State University in 1974, a Ph.D in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Edinburgh in 1977, and an M.L.S. from Indiana University in 1981.