FACULTY

Address: 307 Knox Hall
Mail to 401 Knox Hall
Tel: (212) 854-4732
Office Hours : Wed, Thu 4-5 p.m.
Muhsin al-Musawi

Muhsin al-Musawi is professor of classical and modern Arabic literature, comparative and cultural studies at Columbia University. A renowned scholar and literary critic, his teaching and research interests span several periods and genres. Professor al-Musawi is the author of thirty-nine books (including 6 novels) and over sixty scholarly articles. His books include: Scheherazade in England (1981); The Society of the Thousand and One Nights (2000); The Islamic Context of the Thousand and One Nights (2009),Anglo-Orient (2000); The Postcolonial Arabic Novel: Debating Ambivalence (2003); Arabic Poetry: Trajectories of Modernity and Tradition (2006); Reading Iraq: Culture and Power in Conflict(2006); Islam on the Street: Religion in Arabic Literature (Rowman &Littlefield, 2009), selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2010; The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters: Arabic Knowledge Construction (University of Notre Dame Press, 2015); Arabic Disclosures: The
Postcolonial Autobiographical Atlas (University of Notre Dame Press,
2022); The Arabian Nights in Contemporary World Cultures (Cambridge University Press, 2021).His edited volumes include Arabic Literary Thresholds: Sites of Rhetorical Turn in Contemporary Scholarship (Brill, 2009); Arabic Literature for the Classroom (Routledge, 2017). He also wrote the Introduction and Notes to the Barnes & Noble Classics Edition of The Arabian Nights (2007). Professor al-Musawi is the editor of the Journal of Arabic Literature, the foremost academic journal in the field of Arabic literature. He has also served as academic consultant for numerous academic institutions in the US and abroad.
Professor al-Musawi is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the highly prestigious 2002 Owais Award in Literary Criticism, the 2018 Kuwait Prize in Arabic Language and Literature , King Faisal Prize in Arabic Literature in English, Jan.2022; and Sheikh Zayed Book Award, May 2022.

Reviews of The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters

 

Recent Books:

Arabic Disclosures: The Postcolonial Autobiographical Atlas

The Arabian Nights in Contemporary World Cultures: Global Commodification, Translation, and the Culture Industry

The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters: Arabic Knowledge Construction

Islam on the Street

The Arabian Nights in English Literary Theory

  • Arabic Literature for the Classroom: Teaching Methods, Theories, Themes and Texts. Routledge, 2017.
  • Sulaf Tavern of Baghdad (Sulaf Baghdad; Beirut: Arabic Center Publications, in Arabic, 2016)
  • Arabic Literary Thresholds: Sites of Rhetorical Turn in Contemporary Scholarship
    edited, Brill, 2009
  • The Islamic Context of the Thousand and One Nights
    Columbia University Press, 2009
  Address:  401 Knox Hall, MC9628
606 West 122nd St,
New York, NY 10027
  Tel: (212) 854-2556
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