Jinns’ Eggs and Giants’ Bones: Translating the Marvels of Abū Ḥāmid al-Gharnāṭī’s Tuḥfat al-albāb

May 8, 2023

Abū Ḥāmid al-Gharnāṭī (473-565 H/1080-1169 or 70 CE) was a widely-traveled Andalusi scholar best known today for two extant ʿajāʾib texts. The longer of the two, Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nukhbat al-aʿjāb, is a compact survey of the wonders of the world, drawing heavily on his own travels, as well as on earlier written sources. Like Ibn Faḍlān before him, al-Gharnāṭī traveled to central Russia, and lived for three years among the Bashghird people in what is now Hungary. Tuḥfat al-albāb had an outsize impact, serving as a source for later cosmographers such as al-Qazwīnī and al-Ibshīhī. The book is divided into four chapters: a description of the world, its human inhabitants, and the jinn; marvels within different lands and unusual buildings; marvels of the seas; and a chapter on notable graves and those buried within them. Among other things, al-Gharnāṭī offers detailed descriptions of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Mt. Etna, unusual fish, zebras, caviar from the beluga sturgeon, and the tombs of holy men and semi-legendary rulers. The text is also replete with al-Gharnāṭī’s own eyewitness anecdotes. This talk will address some of the challenges involved in producing a reliable Arabic edition and a modern, lucid English translation of this fascinating 6th/12th-century text.

Presenter:
Chip Rossetti, Senior Research Fellow, Library of Arabic Literature

Moderator:
Julia Stephens, Senior Humanities Research Fellow, NYUAD

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About the Humanities Research Fellowship for the Study of the Arab World:

The Humanities Research Fellowship for the Study of the Arab World is a program that aims to build a platform of outstanding research relevant for the study of the Arab World from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. The program started in 2014 and for the last seven years has hosted over 50 junior, mid-career as well as senior scholars from all over the world.

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