Satirical verse on society and its hypocrisiesA master of satire known for his ribald humor selfdeprecation and invective verse hija the poet medan alShweir was an acerbic critic of his society and its morals. Living in the Najd region of the Arabian Peninsula medan wrote in an idiom widely referred to as Nabai here a mix of Najdi vernacular and archaic vocabulary and images dating to the origins of Arabic poetry. In Arabian Satire medan is mostly concerned with worldly matters and addresses these in different guises as the patriarch at the helm of the family boat and its unruly crew as a picaresque antihero who revels in taking potshots at the established order its hypocrisy and its failings as a peasant who labors over his palm trees often to no avail and with no guarantee of success and as a poet recording in verse how he thinks things ought to be.The poems in Arabian Satire reveal a plucky headstrong yet intensely socially committed figurerepresentative of the traditional Najdi ethoswho infuses his verse with proverbs maxims and words of wisdom expressed plainly and conversationally. medan is widely quoted by historians of the Gulf region and in anthologies of popular sayings. This is the first full translation of this remarkable poet.An Englishonly edition.