900 Years of Trickery: Al-Ḥarīrī From Leiden to Los Angeles

Abstract Al-Ḥarīrī’s sixth/twelfth-century story collection (the Maqāmāt , or Impostures ) is famous for its rhymes, obscure vocabulary, and complex wordplay. Despite difficulty, it was used as a text to teach Arabic, function continued serve even after introduced Europe in the seventeenth century CE . After reverent reception at hands of early Dutch English scholars, condemned by later French readers emblematic “Oriental decadence.” Of various translations, most successful are those into Hebrew German, both which celebrate ludic element original. The recently published translation attempts work from same principle.