Riedel Dagmar A. author Columbia University. Center for Iranian Studies Columbia University. Center for Iranian Studies originator text Reviews 2003 English The pleasures of Arabic poetry would be lost on a reader who does not relish the subtleties of rhetoric. Roger Allen clearly relishes them. In the preface he recalls that most colleagues considered the writing of this work "intrinsically impossible or, at least, unwise" (p. x). The author humbly admits the daunting nature of a project that covers roughly 1500 years of Arabic literary history, and then graciously passes the buck to his critics. Islamic culture 80 2 359 363 2003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/islm.2003.80.2.329 http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14534 NNC NNC 2012-08-28 14:49:52 -0400 2012-08-29 13:06:12 -0400 8555 eng