Nicola Carpentieri, Writing the Twilight: The Arabic Poetics of Ageing in Medieval Sicily and al-Andalus. Transcultural Medieval Studies, 2. Turnhout: Brepols, 2023, pp. 187.

This wonderful book brings readers close to two poets, men of advanced age living in the waning years of two Western Mediterranean Islamic polities. The book’s lessons may have special resonance for those who find themselves growing old in a world presently burdened by its share of crises. There is much to discover here about aging, as both a process of growing old and as an occasion for reflection. But even more, this is the sort of book that codgers like me hope that students will take up and learn from. Nicola Capentieri invites readers to consider the writing craft, even when employed in late life, as a tool for personal expression and political change. Beyond wrinkles and white hair, the book illuminates the social complexities of eleventh-century Dar al-Islam, including the engagement of two individuals coming to grips with a life of loss and a world of unrelenting politics.