Arab literature of language
The Arab literature relates to all the writings (in prose or worms) written in Arab language. That does not include/understand the works written with the Arabic alphabet used to transcribe another language as it is the case with the Persan or the Ourdou. The Arab term used to indicate the literature is adab which derives from a word meaning " to invite somebody with a repas" and which carries the ideas of courtesy, culture and enrichment.
The Arab literature emerged with the Life century. Former testimonys constitute only fragments of written language. It is the Coran in VIIe century which had the most durable influence on the Arab culture and its literature.
Pre-Islamic literature
The period preceding the drafting by the Coran and the development of Islamic civilization is called, in the characteristic and renovating language of the Coran, Jahiliya or " ignorantisme". This d'" term; ignorantisme" , which made use thereafter especially between the Moslems, the idea in a manner connotes of living and of acting clean with the judicious infidels to be unaware of the colonizing presence of God. Although there are few traces of literature written during this period, the oral literary tradition already rich and is developed. It is in the last decades of the end of the Life century that starts to develop a true written literary tradition. The first writings will be compiled two centuries later in two collections of poems: the Mu' allaqât and the Mufaddaliyat. These works of synthesis give only one vision partial of what could be the literature of the time. It is probable that only the poems or the parts of poems considered to be the best were preserved.
The Koranic period and Islam
The Coran had a considerable influence on the Arab language. The language used in Coran gave rise to so that one calls " today; Arabic classique" who always enjoys an important prestige among the speakers of the modern Arab dialects. Not only Coran is the first work significant length written in Arabic, but it also has a structure much more complex than preceding literary work with its organization in 114 Sourate S (chapters) which contain 6536 ayats (verses). It presents many literary figures: injunctions, narrations, homélies, parabolas (regarded as divine words), as well as instructions and even of the comments on Coran itself and the way in which it will be received and included/understood. Paradoxically, he is admired also as much for his multiple complex metaphors than for the clearness of his text, a characteristic which he mentions itself in the sourate 16:103.Although it contains elements at the same time of prose and poetry (what brings it closer to the literary kind Saj' or rhythmic prose), Coran is regarded as a single work which does not use these literary classifications. The text is included/understood like a divine revelation and he is regarded as eternal and is incréé. This particular approach led to the appearance of the doctrines of the I' jaz or “inimitability of Coran”, which affirms that nobody can even copy his literary style nor should not test. By proscribing the writings of Koranic inspiration, these doctrines of the I' jaz perhaps a little limited the impact of Coran on the Arab literature. Coran itself criticizes the poets in his 26th sourate, called “Ash-Shu' macaw” or “the Poets”:
" And as for the poets, they are the stray ones which them suivent." 16:224
This probably exerted a pressure on the pre-Islamic poets of the Life century, whose popularity among the people put them in competition with Coran. Indeed, one notes then a manifest lack poets worthy of this name until VIIIe century. A notable exception is however to raise, it is about Hassan ibn Thabit which composed of the poems to the glory of Mahomet and was known like the “poet prophet”. Just like the Bible held an important place in the literatures of the foreign languages, in the same way Coran marked Arabic durably. It is the source of many ideas, allusions and quotations and its moral message influenced many later work.
Apart from Coran, the Hadith S, which consign the tradition of what Mahomet is judicious to have said and made in its life, constitute a true literary amount. The totality of these acts and work are called Sunnah or “the way”. Among the hadiths, some, considered as more authentic, are distinguished under the name of Sahih. One of the emblématiques collections of hadiths includes those of Muslim ibn Al-Hajjaj and those of Mohammed Al-Bukhari.
Another important literary composition in the Koranic studies is the Tafsir or “comment on Coran”. The Arab writings in relation to the religion also include many sermons and texts of prayers, as the words of Ali which were collected during Xe century in the Nahj Al-Balaghah or “the way of the eloquence”
Islamic scholarship
Research on the life and the time of Mahomet and the determination of the authentic parts of the sunnah, was one of the first major causes of the development of the scholarship in Arab language. One of the reasons of the gathering of pre-Islamic poetry is due to the fact that some of these poets were close to the prophet (such as for example Labid, who met really Mahomet and converted with Islam) and whom their writings lit the time to which these events had occurred. Mahomet also inspired the first Arab biographies, known under the name of Al-sirah Al-nabawiyyah. The very first one was written by Wahb ibn Munabbih but it is Muhammad ibn Ishaq which will write most famous. While treating life of the prophet, the well-read men also told the events and the battles of the beginning of the Islamic era, and their accounts present also many digressions on the old biblical traditions.A certain number of the first work studying the Arab language were started in the name of Islam. The tradition reports that the caliph Ali, after having read Coran which presented errors, required of Abu Al-aswad Al-Du' Ali to write a book which would codify Arab grammar. A little later, Khalil ibn Ahmad will write the " Kitab Al-Ayn" , first Arabic dictionary who also included work on the prosody and the music. Its pupil, Sibawayh, will produce the most respected work Arab grammar, known under the name of " Al-Kitab" who means “the book simply”.
Other caliphs exerted their influence on Arabic like Abd Al-Malik, which made of it the official language of the administration of the new empire, and Al-Mamun which founded the Bayt Al-Hikma or “house of wisdom” with Baghdad, research center and of translation. The cities of Al Basra and Koufa, which maintained a tough competition, were two other important hearths of teaching in the Arab world being born.
The institutions founded mainly with an aim of analyzing in-depth the Islamic religion, provided a contribution priceless in the study many other subjects. The caliph Hicham Ben Abd Al-Malik was determining in the enrichment of the literature while teaching with the well-read men to translate foreign works into Arabic. The first of these texts was probably the correspondence of Aristote with Alexandre Large the, translated by Salm Abu Al “Went”. In the east, and in a literary kind very other, Abdullah ibn Al-Muqaffa translated the animal fables of the Panchatantra. These translations kept alive the scholarship and teaching, in particular that of ancient Greece, whereas Europe was in the full Middle Ages. Many of this work were then reintroduced in Europe by the means of the Arab versions.
Arab poetry
Principal article: Arab PoetryMost of the Arab literature preceding the XXe century is appeared as poetries, and even the writings which do not belong strictly speaking to this kind contain bits of poetry or take the form of rythmée prose or “Saj'”. The topics of the poetic register go from the solemn speeches to the sour lampoons or from the mystical and religious compositions to the poems celebrating the sensuality and the wine. One of the essential characteristics of the poetic kind, and which will be also required in all the other literary kinds, is the idea that it must be pleasant with the ear. The poetry and the major part of prose were written with an aim of being déclamées with high voice, and a great care was taken to make all the compositions as mélodieuses as possible. Indeed “saj'” meant at the origin “roucoulement of the dove”.
Nonfictional literature
Compilations and handbooks
Towards the end of, Ibn Al-Nadim, a bookseller bagdadi, compiled a work of very first importance for the study of the Arab literature. Its Kitab-Al-Fihrist is a catalog of all the books available to the sale in Baghdad and it gives an attractive overall vision of the state of the literature of this time.
One of the most frequent forms of literature during the period of the Abbassides was compilation. They were collections of facts, ideas, poems and instructive stories dealing with only one topic at the same time and recovering subjects as various as the house and the garden, the women, the resquilleurs, the blind men, the jealousy, the animals and avarice. The three last of these compilations were written by Al-Jahiz, an uncontested Master of the kind. These collections were very useful for the Nadim (companion of a chief or noble) whose role was often to level their Master with stories and news used to distract or for advising.
Another type of work was associated close with the collections: it is about the handbook, in which the writers as Ibn Qutaybah gave instructions on subjects as the label, the manner of controlling, of being a good bureaucrat and of even writing. Ibn Qutaybah also wrote one of the very first stories of the Arab people while drawing at the same time from the Biblical stories and the popular tales, but more especially while referring to the historical events.
The topic of sexuality was frequently explored in the Arab literature. The Ghazal or poem of love has a long story, being sometimes tender and pure, and at other moments much more explicit. In the tradition soufie, the poems of love will know a broad mystical and religious range. Sexual guides were also written, like “the scented garden”, the Tawq Al-hamamah (“Collar of the dove”) of Ibn Hazm and the Nuzhat Al-albab FIMA the yujad fi kitab (“Jubilation of the hearts concerning what will never be found in a book”) of Ahmad Al-Tifachi. Other works will be opposed to such works, like the Rawdat Al-muhibbin wa-nuzhat Al-mushtaqin (“the meadow of in love and distraction with in love éperdus”) of Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah, which gives councils on the manner of separating the love and the lust and thus of avoiding the sin.
Biographies, chronicles and accounts of voyages
Apart from the first biographies of Mahomet, the first major biographer to deepen characters rather than to limit itself to the drafting of anthems of praise was Al-Baladhuri which, with its Kitab ansab Al-ashraf or “Delivers genealogies of noble”, presents a true collection of biographies. Another important biographical dictionary was started with Ibn Khallikan then supplemented by Al-Safadi. Finally the Kitab Al-I' tibar, which reports us the life of Usamah ibn Munqidh and its experiment of the battles of the crusades, constituted one of the first autobiographies of importance.
Ibn Khurradadhbih, apparently a civil servant of the postal service of the time, wrote one of the very first guides of voyage. The form was popularized thereafter in the Arab literature through the works of Ibn Hawqal, of Ibn Fadlan, Al-Istakhri, Al-Muqaddasi, Al-Idrisi as those of Ibn Battûta whose voyages remained memorable. These works gave an attractive vision of the many cultures of the Islamic vast world and also offered prospects for conversion of the nonMoslem people at the ends of the empire. They made known also at which point the Moslems had become a commercial power of foreground. Generally, these works took the form of reports abounding with geographical and historical details. They gave rise to a literary kind with whole share which one names in Arabic: Rihla (رحلة) what translates means " voyage".
Certain writers concentrated on the history in general, like Al-Ya' qubi and Al-Tabari, whereas others were focused on precise periods and spot, as Ibn Al-Azraq which reports the history of the Mecque or Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur which wrote that of Baghdad. Among the Arab historians, it is Ibn Khaldun which is regarded as the largest thinker. Its chronicle Muqaddima, which takes for object of study the company, is a text founder of sociology and Arab economy.
Fictional literature
There is comparatively little fiction in prose in the Arab literature, although many not-fictional works contain short stories. A broad proportion of those were probably invented of all parts or clearings. The absence of complete fictional works is partly due to the distinction between “a-fusha”, the language érudite, and “Al-ammiyyah”, the popular language. Some writers endeavoured to write works in popular language, but it was felt that this literature was to improve and present more precise objectives, i.e. to be more instructive rather to have simply a diverting objective. This point of view however did not put an end to the traditional role of the “hakawati” or storytellers of stories which continued to tell the episodes distracting from educational works as well as the many fables and tales popular which were not usually consigned in writing.tales from the Arabian Nights, which is among most known of the Arab literature and which always has an significant impact on the ideas that the not-Arabs have Arab culture, however constitute a notable exception to the absence of fiction. Although regarded as Arab origin, they in fact were developed starting from works Persians, and perhaps the stories itself have roots in India. The stories of Aladdin and the marvellous lamp and of Ali Baba constitute good examples of the absence of fictional prose popular in Arabic. Usually regarded as episodes of Thousand and One Nights, they do not form in fact not part of the original tales. They were included there for the first time in the French translation of the tales by Antoine Galland, which had heard them mouth of a traditional storyteller. Previously they existed only in incomplete Arab manuscripts. The other colourful character of the fictional Arab literature, Sinbad, comes well, him, of Thousand and One Nights.
Thousand and One Nights are generally arranged in the kind of the epic Arab literature, at the side many other works. They are usually collections of short stories or episodes threaded together in a long single tale. The wide versions were consigned in writing, most of the time rather tardily, after XIVe century, though number of them were undoubtedly collected earlier and that several of the original stories probably go up at the time pre-Islamic. In these collections one can find many types of different stories such as: animal fables, proverbs, stories on the Jihad and propagation of the faith, the humorous tales, the moral tales, and even of the tales treating characteristic characters like the swindler crafty one Ali Zaybaq or the Juha joker.
The maqâma
The kind Maqâma (مقامة), an intermediate form of rimée prose, does not exceed only the opposition between prose and poetry: it is also an intermediate way between the kinds fictional and nonfictional. Apart from the series of short accounts which are fictions drawn from situations of the real life, other topics are considered. A famous example is the Maqâma on the musk , which is presented in the form of a comparison of the characteristics of various perfumes, but which is in fact a masked political satire making the comparison between several competitor sovereigns. The maqâma also makes use of the doctrines of the " badi" who consists of the addition deliberated on complex literary turnings intended to show the linguistic dexterity of the writer. Al-hamadhani is regarded as the founder of the kind maqâma and its work was resumed by Abu Muhammad Al-Qasim Al-Hariri, writer of a maqâma which constitutes a work study of Al-Hamadhani itself. The maqâma was an incredibly popular kind of the Arab literature. It was one of the rare forms which one continued to use during the decline of the Arab literature with XVIIe and XVIIIe century.
Decline of the classical Arabic literature
The expansion of the Arab populations in VIIe and VIIIe centuries made them come into contact with a variety of different people which have, little by little, influenced their culture. Old civilization Perse was, of all, that which have the most important impact on the Arab literature. Persia had always liked to be regarded as the quintessence of the Islamic culture in spite of the regression of its influence for several centuries. “Shu' ubiyya” is the name of the quarrel which opposed the hard life, rural and desert of the Arabs to that of the Persian, easier and more refined world. Although that caused passionate debates among the scholars and contributed to the diversification of the literary styles, it was not a conflict prejudicial because there was more important to make at the time, such as for example forging a single Islamic cultural identity. The Persan writer Bashshar ibn Burd summarized his own position in the few lines of following poetry:
Never he sang the songs of the camels behind a scabious animal,
Nor did not transpierce the bitter coloquinte, completely affamé
Nor did not unearth a lizard of the ground and ate it…
The cultural heritage of the Arab habitats of the desert continued to show its influence even if many writers and scholars lived in the large Arab cities. When Khalil ibn Ahmad enumerated the parts of poetry, it named the stanzas “bayt”, which means “tent”, and the feet “sabah”, which means “cord of tent”. Even during the XXe century this nostalgia for the simple life of the desert appeared in the literature or at least the posterior writings were conscientiously given to the last style. A slow resurgence of the Persan and a delocalization of the government and principal training colleges to Baghdad reduced the production of the Arab literature. The topics and the kinds of Arab prose were mainly taken again into Persan by authors like Omar Khayyam, Attar and Rumi, which all was obviously influenced by the first works. At the beginning, the Arab language preserved its importance in the fields policy and administrative, but with the rise of the Ottoman Empire its use was restricted with that of the religion only. Thus beside the Persan one, the many alternatives of the Turkish Langues will dominate the literature of the Arab areas until the XXe century, all by integrating some sporadic influences of Arabic.
Modern Arab literature
The nahda
One calls modern Arab literature the literature which begins with the Nahda (نهضة). This term, which it is agreed to call Renaissance, literally means awakening, rise, take-off. This movement is historically given as from the XIXe century. It accompanies the long anguish by the Ottoman Empire, which at the beginning of the century still includes/understands most of the Middle East and of the Maghreb. It is contemporary the first Western covetousnesses, the France, the the United Kingdom and the Italy disputing these provinces of the Empire which will be dismembered little by little until disappearing definitively in 1923. It is the indirect effect of two reformisms politico-monk which emerged in the middle of the XVIIe century: that of Mohamed ibn Abd Al-Wahhab (1703-1792), which preached the return to a primitive Islam, disencumbered of the posterior innovations in IXe century; and that of the brotherhood of the Sénoussis (Libya) which preached, since 1835, national resurrection and fought against the Othoman initially, Italians then. This alarm clock is also the result and one of the engines of the economic reforms, social and policies that the Sublime Door was little by little obliged to agree, and of those which, following the countryside of Napoleon Bonaparte (1798-1801), were started in Egypt with Muhammad `Alî (1805-1839), then continued by his/her son `Ismâ `it (1863-1879). It is finally, in Lebanon and in Syria, the consequence of the increased activity of the missionaries, who make use of Arabic for their teaching and their propaganda, found establishment school, then military, and install printing works. This whole of factors little by little will transform mentalities, so that about the middle of the century in the Middle East emerges what one could call the modern intellectual. It is medium of XIXe which one dates sometimes Nahda, the occurring alarm clock of the Arab letters at that time. However, it is often considered that the event which marks the beginning of it is the Campagne of Egypt of Napoleon, since it is at this time that the modern world made its intrusion in the area. Between 1798 and 1801, Bonaparte will occupy Egypt in order to cut the road of the Indies to the British and to make a colony of it. The French Army puts in rout the governors Mamlouks, and occupies the country, which will complete to discredit old controlling with the eyes of the Arabs. It is accompanied technicians, administrators, scientists, who excite the curiosity of the `ulamâ' and initiate them with the Western knowledge. The chronicler and historian `rear-Rahmân Abd Al-Jabartî (1753-1825) gives an invaluable testimony of this amazement of the elites, doubled awakening of the delay of their country on Europe. The military project of the French fails; however, with their departure, the `ulamâ' will make very to prevent the return to the capacity of the Mamlouks and elect as governor Muhammad `Alî, officer Albanian of the Turkish army. This one, military, has as a priority the modernization of the army and the apparatus of State. Nevertheless, it is aware that any reform passes by the formation of an elite and thus by the installation of an open educational policy. To this end, it founds the first Egyptian printing works with Bûlâq in 1822, opens public schools, primary and secondary, and sends stock exchange students to be formed in Europe. These three factors will be the crucial factors of the revival of the Arab literature.
This rebirth was not only felt within the Arab world, but also beyond, through a great interest of Europeans for the translation of Arab works. Although the use of Arabic was revived, much Trope S of the traditional literature which made it so complex and decorated were given up by the modern writers. In addition, the Western literary forms like the New or the Romance were preferred with the forms of the Arab traditional literature.
Just like at the 8th century, when a movement of translation of the old Greek revitalized the Arab literature, another movement of translation since the Western languages will offer new ideas and new materials for Arabic. One of the very first the successes was the Count of Assembles-Cristo which inspired then a crowd of historical novel on specifically Arab topics. Rifa' has Al-Tahtawi and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra was two of the important translators of this time.
At the time of second half of the 20th century, major political changes in the Arab world made the life of the writers more difficult. Number of them suffered from the censure, such Sun' allah Ibrahim, and others were imprisoned like Abdul Rahman Munif. At the same time, those which had written works favorable to the governments were promoted at stations raised in the cultural institutions. Chroniclers and well-read men also wrote political polemics and criticisms having for goal to reorganize the Arab policy. Among most known one finds the future of the culture in Egypt of Taha Hussein, which was a major work on Egyptian nationalism, or works of Nawal el Saadawi which militated for the women's rights.
The contemporary Arab novel
The revival of the period nahda was characterized by two major tendencies:
- the neo-classic movement , " Ihyâ'" (احياء), which means " literally; réanimation" or " revivification" and which consists in turning to the classical Arabic inheritance to reinvent it. This movement sought to redécouvrir the literary traditions of last and was influenced by the traditional literary kinds like the Maqâma and Thousand and One Nights.
- the modernistic movement , " Iqtibâs" (اقتباس), which means " literally; lighting of its fire to the hearth of another " and which consists in drawing its inspiration in European literary works, even to adapt them or to imitate them. This movement occurred with the translation of Western works, primarily the novels, in Arabic.
Throughout the 19th century, many authors explore the relations between Orient and Occident. Among them one finds the reformer Rifa' has Al-Tahtawi (1801-1873) or Alî Mubârak (1823-1893). Individual authors in Syria, with the Lebanon, and in Egypt created original works by imitating traditional the Maqâma. One of most remarkable was Muhammad Al-Muwaylihî, whose book Hadith de Issa ibn Hisham (حديثعيسىبنهشام) constituted a criticism of the Egyptian company under the reign of Ismaïl Pasha. This work represented the first stage of the development of the modern Arab novel. This tendency was followed by Georgy Zeidan, a Lebanese Christian writer who emigrated with his family in Egypt following the riots of Damas in 1860. At the beginning of the XXe century, Zeidan published its historical novels in the form of serials in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Hilal . These novels were extremely popular thanks to the clearness of their expression, with their simple structure and the sharp imagination of the author. Khalil Gibran and Mikha' he Na' ima were two other major authors of this period. Both incorporated philosophical daydreams in their works.
Nevertheless, the literary critics do not regard works of these four authors as being true novels, but rather as precursory of the forms which the modern Arab novel will incarnate. Many these criticisms indicate Zaynab , the novel of Muhammad Husayn Haykal, like the first true novel of Arab language; but of others Adraa Denshawi to him Muhammad Tahir Haqqi prefer. One of the recurrent themes of the modern Arab novel is the study of the family life, which presents a parallel obvious with the international Arab family of the world. Many novels could not avoid the political questions and the conflicts of the areas in which the war often played a basic part in the appearance of the family dramas. Works of Naguib Mahfouz depict the life with the Cairo, and its Trilogie of Cairo , which describes the fights of a modern family of Cairo through three generations, was worth the to him Nobel Prize of literature in 1988. He was the first Arab writer to obtain this price.
Performing arts
It is only at the time contemporary that the theater and the performing arts became a visible part of the Arab literature. There is to be have little an older theatrical tradition, but she was probably never regarded as being legitimate and the major part of these works was never consigned. There exists however, an old tradition of public representations among the Moslems Chiites who consist of a part depicting the life and the death of Hussein Ben Ali at the time of the Bataille of Kerbala in 680 ap-JC. One can also find many parts composed by Aldine Shams Muhammad ibn Daniyal at the 13th century. At that time it mentions that the old plays became obsolete and thus offers its works like new material.New plays started to be written at the 19th century, mainly in Egypt. It, at the beginning, primarily imitations of French works or at least were strongly influenced by them. It was necessary to wait the 20th century to see developing a style more typically Arab which will be spread. Most important of the Arab playwrights was Tawfiq Al-Hakim, whose first parts put in scene the Koranic history of the Seven Door frames of Éphèse and the second an epilog of Thousand and One Nights. Yusuf al' Ani of Iraq and Sa' dallah Wannus of Syria was two other important playwrights of this time.
Arab literary reviews
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Yearly of the inheritance: Review of the university of Mostaganem.
- Arabesque, literary and cultural review Algerian of Arab language.
- the review the Maghreb-Machrek, published by the Institute Choiseul, devoted a file to the Arab literature heading " Arab letters, Arab literature seen of Occident" in number 197, published at spring 2007.
Poetic liveliness in Tunisia
- the glance of the literary critic often owes its judgments with the reception of the texts of contemporary Tunisian authors. Its task is not so easy, because it is impregnated with a hybrid cultural heritage, implicit reference with the French literature and echo of an Arab literature mother which sets up like an authentic model. The camp of investigation of this relatively young literature remains that of the universal sets of themes except strongest: the expression of a tragedy cornélien or élisabéthain, the effervescence of comic inherent in nature to be it… The contemporary Tunisian literature is often carrying this conscience of the future and of the most varied forms, it draws from the universe arabo-Moslem his richnesses, in the punic image, Carthaginian or Roman reflections and in Berber art its tonality. That could be presented as speculations but the notes which we will try to communicate follow the poetic editions of works or in prose during the contemporary time. It is necessary for us consequently to stress the polyphonic aspect of this literature in becoming which is expressed in two languages without knowing limits to Article the poetic writing comes to make gleam the gifts of Ego which reports a wandering identity. Its only concern would be to sit in the paradoxical universe of saying and making to nourish the roots of the country: but which country? , that of the origin or that of the imaginary one.
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