Hadith Bayad wa Riyad

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).

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

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)