Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf ExpoundedUnique in pre twentieth century Arabic literature for taking the countryside as its central theme, Ysuf al Shirbns Brains Confounded combines a mordant satire on seventeenth century Egyptian rural society with a hilarious parody of the verse and commentary genre so beloved by scholars of his day. In Volume One, al Shirbn describes the three rural typespeasant cultivator, village man of religion and rural dervishoffering numerous anecdotes testifying