Description

This collection of Egyptian proverbs was compiled in the early 19th century by the traveler and Arabist John Lewis Burckhardt (1784–1817). It is based on an unpublished manuscript by Sharif al-Din ibn Asad, an unknown author of the early 18th century. The proverbs are given in the original Arabic, as well as translated into English and provided with explanatory notes on language and cultural practices. Many of the proverbs can be readily understood by the non-Egyptian reader. “The beetle is a beauty in the eyes of its mother,” for ...