Taha Hussein's The Days: A Guided Study for Arabic Learners(Great Works of Arabic Literature: Guided Texts for Arabic Learners)

Volume one of Taha Hussein's classic work, unabridged, and supported with robust comprehension, interpretation, and analytical exercises, for advanced learners of Arabic Taha Hussein's autobiographical novel The Days helped usher in the era of modern Arabic writing and remains one of the most influential and best-known works of Arabic literature. With this guided study, the complete first volume of the novel is accessible to students of Arabic in a way never previously available. While Arabic literature provides a vast body of texts as a window into diverse cultures and eras, the lack of useful teaching material has often forced teachers to spend much of their time creating supplemental material, rather than focusing on the exploration of literary art and themes. This study will walk Arabic students through the unabridged novel in manageable lessons, supported with robust comprehension, interpretation, and analytical exercises, focusing on the historical context, elements of literature, and social themes. This book is organized to mirror the way an experienced teacher of Arabic literature would structure the lessons, and is thus perfectly suited as a textbook for an advanced Arabic or Arabic literature class, or as an independent study package for learners.

About the Author :
David DiMeo is an associate professor and director of the Arabic program at Western Kentucky University and has taught Arabic for over twenty years. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and an MA from Princeton University. He is the author of Committed to Disillusion: Activist Writers in Egypt from the 1950s to the 1980s and co-author of The Travels of Ibn Battuta: A Guided Arabic Reader (both AUC Press, 2016), and hosts the podcast The Golden Age of Islam.

Review :
"David DiMeo’s learner’s edition of The Days is a fantastic book. I wish it had been available for me to use when I was studying Arabic."—Luke Leafgren, Harvard University “This invaluable study guide to a canonical work can be used successfully by independent learners of Arabic literature, language, and literary theory, while Arabic literature and/or language instructors will be able to benefit from it to introduce a detailed analysis of the work.”—Heba Salem, The American University in Cairo "This volume by the AUC press brings together a huge number of texts as windows onto various cultures and eras, using Hussein’s book as a portal and glossing his references in brilliant and unexpected ways. It is a rich, innovative and impressive introduction to Arabic literature for anyone."—Al-Ahram Weekly