Hadith Bayad wa Riyad

Hadith Bayāḍ wa Riyāḍ (Arabic,حديث بياض ورياض The Story of Bayad and Riyad) or Qissat Bayad wa 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 girl in the court of an unnamed Hajib (vizier or minister) of 'Iraq (Mesopotamia) and a "Lady" (al-sayyida).

The Hadith Bayad wa Riyad manuscript is believed to be the only illustrated manuscript known to have survived from more than eight centuries of Muslim and Arab presence in Spain. The sole manuscript is in the Vatican Library, where it is catalogued as Codex Vat. Arabo 368.

See also

• Arabic epic literature
• Arabic literature

Further reading

• D'Ottone A., Il manoscritto Vaticano arabo 368: Hadith Bayad wa Riyad. Il codice, il testo, le immagini: alcune note, «Rivista di Storia della Miniatura» 14 (2010), pp. 55-70
• The Story of Bayad and Riyad - Qissat Bayad wa Riyad, Web Archive archived page.
• Medieval Andalusian Courtly Culture in the Mediterranean: Hadith Bayad Wa Riyad, by Robinson, Cynthia, ISBN 97804153224.