The Banu Sasan was a name associated with bands of thieves, beggars, and other outcasts beginning in the eighth century. Stories and legends surround them, and many poems were ascribed to them. What follows is one such poem, extracted from a text written down by the tenth-century Iraqi traveler and writer Abu Dulaf. It’s written in slang, and Abu Dulaf ’s version includes lengthy notes, which can be read as satirical, pedantic, or simply interesting. Clifford Edmund Bosworth published a faithful but not very accessible English translation, including Abu Dulaf ’s notes and adding his own, in 1976. I’ve integrated some material from those several layers, while striving for a taste of the original qasida—a poem essentially unrecoverable, but still somehow recognizable.

First published in ArabLit Quarterly’s Crime Issue, with illustrations by Hassân Al Mohtasib. It was later published without a paywall on Medievalists.net:

Marcia Lynx Qualey, editor-in-chief of ArabLit, interviewed me for ArabLit TV. And Emily Selove based a panel from her comic Popeye and Curly on one of the episodes.