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Unique in pre-twentieth-century Arabic literature for taking the countryside as its central theme, Yusuf al-Shirbini’s Brains Confounded combines a mordant satire on seventeenth-century Egyptian rural society with a hilarious parody of the verse-and-commentary genre so beloved by scholars of his day. Suggested…

Funny, bawdy and vicious Yusuf al-Shirbini’s Brains Confused is a battle between those who are “coarse” rural people against the “refined” urban populace. The first volume discusses three different rural “types”–peasant farmer, village man of religion and rural dervish. He also provides examples…