Marcel Kurpershoek
Visiting Scholar
Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: PhD, Leiden University
Research Areas: Nabati poetry, a traditional art in the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula, and Bedouin culture
About Marcel
Marcel Kupershoek joined NYUAD in January 2015, as a Senior Research Fellow in the Humanities Research Fellowship Program.
His research subject is Nabati poetry, a traditional art in the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula, and Bedouin culture. Its roots go back to the pre-Islamic classical Arabic poetry of famous bards like Imru ‘l Qays. His fieldwork started in 1989 in central-Arabia, at the edge of the Empty Quarter, where he found illiterate poets who were great masters of this poetry’s more recent Nabati version, with vernacular elements. These poems he recorded and published with a translation, introductions, and glossaries in five volumes, Oral Poetry & Narratives from Central Arabia (Brill). He wrote about his fieldwork in Dutch books that were translated into English (Arabia of the Bedouins) and Arabic (al-Badawī al-Akhīr, The Last Bedouin, both Saqi Books).
At NYUAD he has published two further editions and translations, based on manuscripts and oral tradition, and fully explained and introduced, with the Library of Arabic Literature (LAL) of NYU Press: Arabian Satire (18th century) and Arabian Romantic (19th century). His forthcoming work with LAL is the first edition and translation of the 17th century poet who is considered the father of Emirati poetry and culture, al-Māyidī ibn Ẓāhir, and the stories of his saga that continue in Emirati oral circulation until today. His next book will be on poets from the Nafūd Desert in northern Arabia.
Also at NYUAD, he has designed and hosted two TV documentary series on Bedouin culture and poetry in Arabia with Al Arabiya TV (Dubai): “The Last Traveler” (ar-Raḥḥālat al-Akhīr), based on his book The Last Bedouin; and “Monuments of Poetry” (Qāmāt al-Qaṣīd), both in Arabic. In 2019 he produced two documentaries on Emirati poetry with Abu Dhabi TV.
He has participated in workshops at NYUAD and contributed articles on the subject in The National. He has worked as a Dutch diplomat in Egypt (where he did his PhD on modern Egyptian literature), Syria, Saudi Arabia, and as Netherlands ambassador in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Turkey, Poland, and as Dutch special representative for Syria based in Istanbul.
Publications
Books
Kurpershoek, Marcel, ed. & tr. Arabian Hero: Oral Poetry and Narrative Lore from Northern Arabia by Shāyiʿ al-Amsaḥ. New York University Press, 2024.
Kurpershoek, Marcel, ed. & tr. Bedouin Poets of the Nafūd Desert by Khalaf Abū Zwayyid, ʿAdwān al-Hirbīd and ʿAjlān ibn Rmāl. New York University Press, 2024.
Kurpershoek, Marcel, ed. and tr. Love, Death, Fame. Poetry and Lore from the Emirati Oral Tradition by Al-Māyidī ibn Ẓāhir. New York University Press, 2022.
Kurpershoek, Marcel, ed. and tr. Arabian Romantic. Poems on Bedouin Life and Love by ʿAbdallāh ibn Sbayyil. New York: New York University Press, 2018.
Kurpershoek, Marcel, ed. and tr. Arabian Satire. Poetry from 18th Century Najd by Ḥmēdān al-Shwēʿir. New York: New York University Press, 2017.
Kurpershoek, Marcel. Oral Poetry and Narratives from Central Arabia (5 vols). Leiden: Brill, 1994-2005.
Kurpershoek, Marcel. Arabia of the Bedouins. London: Saqi Books, 2001 (Arabic translation: al-Badawi al-Akhir, i.e. The Last Bedouin).
Kurpershoek, Marcel. De Laatste Bedoeïen. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1995 (‘The Last Bedouin’).
Kurpershoek, Marcel. Diep in Arabië. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1992 (‘Deep Inside Arabia’).
Kurpershoek, Marcel. The Short Stories of Yusuf Idris, a Modern Egyptian Author (PhD thesis). Leiden: Brill, 1981.
Journals / Magazines
Kurpershoek, Marcel. "Muhiq al-Ghannami, Man with Tresses." Al-Majallah al-Arabiyyah 544 (2022): 129.
Kurpershoek, Marcel. Review of Tamplin, W.: Poet of Jordan. The Political Poetry of Muḥammad Fanatil al-Hajaya. Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes WZKM 110 (2020).
Kurpershoek, Marcel. “Politics and the Art of Eulogy in Najdi Nabaṭi Poetry: Ḥmēdān al-Shwēʿir’s (al-Shuwayʿir) Apologies to Ibn Muʿammar and Ibn Sbayyil’s Ode on Ibn Rashīd.” Quaderni Di Studi Arabi 13 (2018): 87-102.
Kurpershoek, Marcel, and Claude Lorenz. “Two Manuscripts of Bedouin Poetry in Strasbourg National and University Library and the Travels of Charles Huber in Arabia.” La Revue de la BNU 17 (2018): 100-111.
Kurpershoek, Marcel. “Praying Mantis in the Desert. The Najdi Poet Ibn Subayyil Consumed with Love for the Bedouin.” Arabian Humanities 5 (2015): 1-49.
Kurpershoek, Marcel. “Heartbeat: Conventionality and Originality in Najdi Poetry.” Asian Folklore Studies 52, no. 1 (1993): 33–74.
Book Chapters
Kurpershoek, Marcel. “Free and/or Noble? The Hunting Falcon and Class in Arabian Nabaṭi Poetry.” In Falconry in the Mediterranean Context During the Pre-Modern Era, eds. Charles Burnett and Baudouin Van Den Abeele. Geneva: Droz, 2021.
Kurpershoek, Marcel. "Burckhardt's Quest for Bedouin Purity. Arabic Antecedents and European Followers." In Johann Ludwig Burckhardt – Sheikh Ibrahim. Discoveries in the Orient around 1800, eds. L. Burckhardt, L. Burkart, J. Loop, and R. Stucky. Basel: Christoph Merian Verlag, 2019.
Interview
“From Majlis to Media: Nabati Poetry in the Gulf and the Arabian Interior”
In the News
In 1989, diplomat and linguist Marcel Kurpershoek set out to meet poets and record their verses. It became a lifetime project that continues to illuminate roots of the Arabic language and Arabian Peninsula cultures.
Marcel Kurpershoek Wins 2022 Kanz Al Jeel Award
Visiting Scholar Marcel Kurpershoek wins the inaugural Kanz Al Jeel Award in the Creative Personality category for his dedication to studying Nabati poetry over more than a quarter of a century.
Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center | November 12, 2022
Bedouin Poetry and Culture Through the Ages — with Marcel Kurpershoek
In this podcast, Marcel Kurpershoek catches up with New Lines’ Kevin Blankinship to talk about Nabati poetry, the thousand-year-old oral poetic tradition of the Arabian Peninsula.
New Lines Podcast | May 20, 2022
Beyond the Headlines: Saudi Arabia from Bedouin culture to a leading power
As the kingdom celebrates its 90th anniversary this week, we reflect on the growth of one of the Middle East's most important countries
The National | September 23, 2020
A Dutchman's quest to translate Bedouin poetry takes him to Ras Al Khaimah
Marcel Kurpershoek is seeking to understand the 17th century writings of folk hero Ibn Dhaher for an English-language book.
The National | March 8, 2020
Arabian Romantic: Translating and ‘Cherishing the Irrational’
In this second part of a back-and-forth that took place over email, Kurpershoek discussed what is unique about Ibn Sbayyil’s work and the translational challenges of bringing it into a contemporary English.
Library of Arabic Literature | October 19, 2018
Arabian Romantic: A “Linear Descendant” of Early Arabic Classics
In a back-and-forth over email, Kurpershoek discussed why this sort of “romantic” poetry has disappeared from the landscape, why he calls it “romantic” at all, and how the survival of this type of poetry “hangs by a very thin, tenuous thread.” This is the first in a two-part series of interviews about Arabian Romantic.
Library of Arabic Literature | October 16, 2018
The Poems of the Story
Marcel Kupershoek is featured in an episode of a new poetry program. The subject of his episode is on Humeidan al-Shuway'ir, an early 18th-century satirical poet. The program will feature six poets.
Al Arabiya (in Arabic) | March 17, 2018
Coaxing the Lizard Out of His Burrow: Marcel Kurpershoek on Hmedan al-Shwe’ir and Najdi Poetry Before Wahhabism
In a talk over Skype, Kurpershoek and M. Lynx Qualey discussed the critical importance of this little-translated poetry. In this second part of their discussion, Kurpershoek talks about the available manuscripts, the ways in which the print editions of Hmedan’s work were censored, the Golden Age of Nabati poetry, and more.
Arablit | December 13, 2017
Marcel Kurpershoek on Translating 18th-century Nabati Poetry That Still ‘Smells Like Fresh Bread’
In this first part of their discussion, Kurpershoek touches on the relationship between this poetry and pre-Islamic works; how it illuminates life in the eighteenth-century Najd; what we know about Hmedan’s life; and how his poems live on in contemporary Central Arabia.
Arablit | December 4, 2017
Bedouin Nabati Poetry in the Arabian Peninsula
For centuries, Nabati poetry has been a touchstone of identity and tribal values in the Arabian Peninsula.
June 2017
NYUAD Researcher Stars in Arabic TV Series About Bedouin Life
An NYU Abu Dhabi researcher who roamed the deserts of Saudi Arabia in the 1980s is now starring in an Arabic TV series about his experiences.
October 2, 2016
Syria, Children of War & Digital Diplomacy
These two experienced scholars/diplomats discuss the war in Syria, ways to provide education to children displaced by war, and the role that digital diplomacy can play in the future.
January 27, 2016
Ancient Bedouin verse, the ‘people’s poetry’, has found a new audience
This ancient Bedouin verse has found a new audience thanks to a well-known television show but for academics, Nabati poetry is a cultural touchstone.
The National | November 7, 2013