'
Desert Songs of the Night is a wonderful introduction to fifteen centuries of a literature still largely unknown in the West, without which much of our civilizations would not have developed as they have, from the rediscovery of Aristotle by Arab commentators to the lyric poetry of Europe, from the magical world of the
Arabian Nights to the modern revolutionary poets of Palestine. Absolutely essential reading for our troubled times.' Alberto Manguel, author of
A History of Reading 'At a time when the world obsesses about violence and bloodletting in the Arab world, this remarkable anthology, which spans 1,500 years of Arab literary genius, is a stark reminder that there exists an untold story we keep missing about the region.' Hanan al-Shaykh, author of
One Thousand and One Nights