In the context of a growing scholarly literature devoted to the topics of biography and autobiography, especially in the Arabic literary tradition, the essays in this volume explore the forms and meanings of these genres with particular reference to Persian writings, as well as to writings in Arabic and Turkish that were also composed in Persianate societies.
The authors address, among other topics, biographies and autobiographies of women; biographies of specific occupational groups, such as poets; the relation of traditional "lives of poets" to the reception of their literary works; intertextuality across biographical and autobiographical writings and across languages; and the processes involved in translating written biographies for the contemporary television screen.
Readers are invited to glimpse the lives of figures from the past and to appreciate the historical, cultural, and literary contexts that shaped their biographical and autobiographical narratives, and to reflect on the continuing significance of these narratives into the modern era.
L. Marlow is Director of Middle Eastern Studies at Wellesley College.
Stephen Frederic Dale is Professor Emeritus of History and Distinguished University Scholar at The Ohio State University.
Olga M. Davidson is a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations at Boston University.