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The contents of the future are the contents of a cloud.So begins translator David Larsen’s introduction for the
Book of Rain, the earliest known catalogue of Arabic weather-words, by early Arabic linguist Abū Zayd al-Anṣārī. In Larsen’s translation, Abū Zayd’s lexicography of rain is simultaneously an academic, archival, and poetic pursuit.
After the fashion of Larsen’s award-winning translation of
Names of the Lion, these rich, extensive lists provide detailed descriptions of specific kinds of rainfall, including
al-tahtān, or “The Outpour,” a kind of continual rain, or
al-waṭfā’, or “The Beetle-Brow” which is a “briskly-flowing rain that is counted among the continual rains, whether it is of long or short falling.” Here, we are provided language for frosts, dews, thunder, lightning, clouds, and, of course, the various and plentiful words for waters. Coupled with Larsen’s introduction, the
Book of Rain is a source of endless interdisciplinary inquiry which will continue to fascinate readers for centuries to come.
List of contents
ContentsAbbreviations and Symbols
Translator’s Introduction
Folio 1v of BnF MS 4231 Arabe
(Incipit of the Book of Rain)
The Book of Rain
Asterisms and Seasons
Names of Rain
Frost and Dew
Dust Clouds
Names of Thunder
Names of Lightning
Names of Clouds
Names of Waters
Folio 14r of BnF MS 4231 Arabe
(Conclusion to the Book of Rain)
Endnotes
Appendix: On the names of the wind by Ibn Khālawayh.
Sources
About the author
