Hadith Bayad wa Riyad

Hadith Bayad wa Riyad, Arabic manuscript for Qissat Bayad wa Reyad tale (late 12th century)

Hadīth Bayāḍ wa Riyāḍ (Arabic: حديث بياض ورياض, "The Story of Bayad and Riyad") is a 13th-century Arabic love story. The main characters of the tale are Bayad, a merchant's son and a foreigner from Damascus; Riyad, a well-educated slave girl in the court of an unnamed Hajib (vizier or minister) of 'Iraq (Mesopotamia); and a "Lady" (al-sayyida).

Manuscript

The Hadīth Bayāḍ wa Riyāḍ manuscript, Vatican City, Vatican Library, Codex Vat. Arabo 368, is one of three surviving illustrated manuscripts from medieval al-Andalus (in modern Spain and Portugal). Many non-illustrated Andalusi books do survive, so illustrated manuscripts may have been rare.

Gallery

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See also

• Arabic epic literature
• Arabic literature

Further reading

• Alois R. Nykl. Historia de los amores de Bayad wa Riyad: Una chantefable oriental en estilo persa (Vat. Ar. 368). New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1941.
• Arianna D'Ottone, Il manoscritto Vaticano arabo 368: Hadith Bayad wa Riyad. Il codice, il testo, le immagini: alcune note, «Rivista di Storia della Miniatura» 14 (2010): 55-70
• La storia di Bayad e Riyad (Vat.ar. 368). Una nuova edizione e traduzione, ed. and trans. Arianna D'Ottone. Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2013 (Studi e Testi 479). ISBN 978-88-210-0908-2.
• The Story of Bayad and Riyad - Qissat Bayad wa Riyad Archived 2017-11-20 at the Wayback Machine.
• Cynthia Robinson, Medieval Andalusian Courtly Culture in the Mediterranean: Hadith Bayad Wa Riyad. New York: Routledge, 2007. ISBN 978-0415595926.

External links

• Al-Andalus: the art of Islamic Spain, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Hadith Bayad wa Riyad (see index)