For this Fall 2022 WEDDINGS issue of ArabLit Quarterly, the music is starting up, henna is setting, belly dancers are dancing, and marital partners are about to face off. In this issue, we look at the sublime, the surreal, the superlative, and the (occasionally) soul-destroying aspects of weddings. With a glossary of special terms from Yemeni weddings assembled & illustrated by Atiaf Alwazir; lyrics from wedding songs from Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Algeria, and Iraq; the all-too-true tale of infamous wedding crasher Abd al-Halim Hafiz, written for us by Nicholas Mangialardi, a classic poem of getting wed to a glass of wine by Abu Nuwas, a grim look at weddings in Algerian folk literature by Ouissal Harize, and much more.
This issue includes...