Love and Poetry in the Middle East

Atef Alshaer is Senior Lecturer in Arabic Language and Culture at the University of Westminster, UK. He is the author of Poetry and Politics in the Modern Arab World (2016), and co-author of The Hizbullah Phenomenon: Politics and Communication (2014).

• Introduction: Love and Poetry in the Middle East: From Antiquity to the Present, by Atef Alshaer (University of Westminster, UK)1. Akkadian Love Poetry: From the Lewd to the Learned, Mark Weeden (SOAS, University of London, UK)2. “Be My Baby” in Babylonia: An Akkadian Poem of Adolescent Longing, Andrew George (formerly University of Heidelberg, Germany)3. The Poetry of love in Ancient Egypt, Robert Anderson (Late, City University, UK) 4. The Love of Jacob and Rachel in Modern Hebrew Poetry, Tamar S. Drukker (SOAS, University of London, UK) 5. An Arab and Islamic View of Love: The Poetry of the ‘Udhris, Atef Alshaer (University of Westminster, UK)6. A Comparison Between the Ideas of Love Found in Al-Ghazali’s ‘The Alchemy of Happiness’ and the first volume of Rumi’s ‘Mathnawi’, Huma Baig (UK BioBank)7. Unveiling Desire: Love in Modern Turkish Poetry, Laurent Mingon (University of Oxford, UK)8. Kurdish Love poetry, Mariwan Kanie (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)9. Modern Persian Poetry, Seyedeh Paniz Musawi Natanzi (Peace of Mind Afghanistan)10. Poetics and politics of love in Modern Arabic Poetry: The Case of Nizar Qabani and Mahmoud Darwish, Atef Alshaer