Al-Hariri completes the Maqamat

1117

The Basran scholar al-Hariri finished his fifty picaresque assemblies - virtuoso rhymed-prose tales following a silver-tongued vagabond who outwits audiences across the breadth of the Islamic world. The Maqamat became the most frequently copied and lavishly illustrated literary manuscript in all of medieval Arabic literature, a dazzling display of linguistic acrobatics that translators have struggled to render in any other language ever since.