Bayad wa Riyad by Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Sahili al-Gharnati

In Bayad and Riyad by Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Sahili al-Gharnati, Dr. Fayez Al-Qaisi resolves a long-standing literary debate regarding one of the few surviving illustrated Arabic manuscripts from Al-Andalus (currently preserved in the Vatican Library).

Through rigorous philological, historical, and text-critical methods, Al-Qaisi establishes the authorship of this iconic romance, attributing it to the 14th-century Andalusian poet, scholar, and architect Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Sahili al-Gharnati (d. 747 AH). The book provides a detailed analysis of the story's narrative techniques, poetic insertions, and artistic illuminations. Crucially, it draws an extensive comparative reading between "Bayad and Riyad" and Ibn Hazm's masterwork "The Ring of the Dove", illuminating how courtly love and romantic narrative evolved in medieval Islamic Iberia.

Because it solves a major manuscript mystery in classical Arabic literature while offering a rich comparative exploration of love and storytelling in Al-Andalus.

Scholars of Andalusian literature, researchers in manuscript studies and Arabic codicology, students of comparative literature, and readers interested in medieval romantic traditions.