About the book:
A collection of Arabian, Persian and Central Asian poems and tales, including some pre-Islamic poetry.
List of authors features:
Abu ‘l-‘Ala al-Ma’arri
Abu ‘l-Atahiya
Abu l’Baka of Ronda
Abu Nuwas
Abu Zura’a of Jurjan
Am’ak of Bukhara
Amr son of Kulthum
Anwari
Attar
Baba Kuhi of Shiraz
Dakiki
Farazdak
Fari’a daughter of Tarif
Faridu’ddin Attar
Firdausi
Hafiz
Hariri
Ibn Arabi
Ibn al-Balkhi
Ibn al-Farid
Ibn Hisham
Ibn Khaldun
Imra’u al-Kais
Jahdar son of Dubai’a
Jahiz
Rumi
Jami
Jamil
Ka’b son of Zuhair
Khansa
Kisa’i of Merv
Labid
Maisun
Masrur ibn Muhammad
Mas’u’di
Muhalhil
Mu’izzi
Murra of Shaiban
Mutanabbi
Rudaki
Sadi
Safiya of Bahila
Shanfara
Ta’abbata Sharra
Tabari
Tarafa
Unsuri
Zuhari
About the author (from Wikipedia):
Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, or R. A. Nicholson (18 August 1868 – 27 August 1945), was an eminent English orientalist, scholar of both Islamic literature and Islamic mysticism and widely regarded as one of the greatest Rumi (Mewlana) scholars and translators in the English language.
Nicholson was lecturer in the Persian language at University College London from June 1902 to 1926, and Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge from 1926 to 1933. He is considered a leading scholar in Islamic literature and Islamic mysticism who exercised a lasting influence on Islamic studies. He was able to study and translate major Sufi texts in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish to English. Nicholson wrote two very influential books: Literary History of The Arabs (1907) and The Mystics of Islam (1914).
