Episode 2: Mastery of the Unbroken Word

Maqāmāt al-Ḥarīrī by al-Ḥarīrī is a classic work of Arabic literature comprising 50 rhymed prose encounters between the narrator al-Ḥārith ibn Hammām and the linguistically brilliant trickster Abū Zayd al-Sarūjī, serving both to instruct readers in Arabic grammar and rhetoric and to offer a vivid snapshot of Abbāsid society.