Related Research Articles
Arabic literature is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is Adab, which comes from a meaning of etiquette, and which implies politeness, culture and enrichment.
Arabic poetry is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existed in Arabic writing in material as early as the 1st century BCE, with oral poetry likely being much older still.
Al-Asmaʿi, or Asmai was an Arab philologist and one of three leading Arabic grammarians of the Basra school. Celebrated at the court of the Abbasid caliph, Hārūn al-Rashīd, as polymath and prolific author on philology, poetry, genealogy, and natural science, he pioneered zoology studies in animal-human anatomical science. He compiled an important poetry anthology, the Asma'iyyat, and was credited with composing an epic on the life of Antarah ibn Shaddad. A protégé of Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi and Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala', he was a contemporary and rival of Abū ʿUbaidah and Sibawayhi also of the Basran school.
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abu Bakr, was an Arab Muslim military commander in the service of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the Rashidun caliphs Abu Bakr, and Umar. His mother was Umm Ruman and he was the full brother of Aisha.
Tarafa, was a 6th century Arabian poet of the tribe of the Bakr. He is one of the seven poets of the most celebrated anthology of ancient Arabic poetry, known as the Muʿallaqāt, however just one of his poems is included. His fellow poets preserved in this work are Al-Nabigha, Antarah ibn Shaddad, Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma, 'Alqama ibn 'Abada and Imru' al-Qais.
The Nahda, also referred to as the Arab Awakening or Enlightenment, was a cultural movement that flourished in Arab-populated regions of the Ottoman Empire, notably in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Tunisia, during the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century.
Ibn Sahl of Seville (1212–1251) is considered one of the greatest Andalusi poets of the 13th century. He was a Jewish convert to Islam.
Ma'ad ibn Adnan is an ancient ancestor of Qusai ibn Kilab and his descendant the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He is featured in ancient Arabic literature.
Abu Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Abu al-Fath (1058–1138/9), called Ibn Khafajah, a native of Alzira, was a poet of al-Andalus during the reign of the Almoravids. He was born in 1058 in Alzira near Valencia where he spent most of his life. He was the maternal uncle of poet Ibn al-Zaqqaq.
Francis bin Fathallah bin Nasrallah Marrash, also known as Francis al-Marrash or Francis Marrash al-Halabi, was a Syrian scholar, publicist, writer and poet of the Nahda or the Arab Renaissance, and a physician. Most of his works revolve around science, history and religion, analysed under an epistemological light. He traveled throughout West Asia and France in his youth, and after some medical training and a year of practice in his native Aleppo, during which he wrote several works, he enrolled in a medical school in Paris; yet, declining health and growing blindness forced him to return to Aleppo, where he produced more literary works until his early death.
The Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Awards are a biannual prize for literary and cultural achievement in the Arab world. It is administered by the Sultan Bin Al Owais Cultural Foundation of the United Arab Emirates. The award was established by the late Emirati businessman and philanthropist Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais. The awards were first given out in 1988-89.
The instance that marked the shift in the whole of Arabic literature towards modern Arabic literature can be attributed to the Arab World-West contact during the 19th and early 20th century. This contact resulted in the gradual replacement of Classical Arabic forms with Western ones. Genres like plays, novels, and short stories were coming to the fore. Although the exact date in which this reformation in literary production occurred is unknown, the rise of modern Arabic literature was "inseparable" from the Nahda, also referred to as the Arab Renaissance.
Zuhayr ibn Janab ibn Hubal al-Kalbi was a chieftain of the Banu Kalb tribe and a pre-Islamic Arabic warrior poet. Much of his biography relies on semi-legendary accounts, but it is apparent that he lived in the early 6th century. He led not only the Kalb, but the entire Quda'a tribal confederation. During his one-time alliance with the Aksumite viceroy Abraha, Zuhayr quelled a revolt by the Taghlib and Bakr tribes, capturing their chieftains, including Kulayb ibn Rabi'a. Later, he destroyed the pagan sanctuary of the Ghatafan tribe, which rivaled the Ka'aba in Mecca. Traditional Arab sources noted that Zuhayr lived an extremely long life, and finally died by suicide after he was disobeyed. His descendants, particularly those belonging to the family of Bahdal ibn Unayf, would later hold high positions under the Umayyad Caliphate.
Rajaz is a metre used in classical Arabic poetry. A poem composed in this metre is an urjūza. The metre accounts for about 3% of surviving ancient and classical Arabic verse.
Zuhayr ibn Jadhīma ibn Rawāḥa al-ʿAbsī was the chieftain of the Banu Abs who ultimately became the leader of the Ghatafan and Hawazin tribal confederations in pre-Islamic Arabia in the mid-6th century.
Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sarī al-Zajjāj was a grammarian of Basrah, a scholar of philology and theology and a favourite at the Abbāsid court. He died in 922 at Baghdād, the capital city in his time.
Abd al-Masih Haddad was a Syrian writer of the Mahjar movement and journalist. His magazine As-Sayeh, started in 1912 and continued until 1957, presented the works of prominent Mahjari literary figures in the United States and became the "spokesman" of the Pen League which he co-founded with Nasib Arida in 1915 or 1916. His collection Hikayat al-Mahjar, which he published in 1921, extended "the scope of the readership of fiction" in modern Arabic literature according to Muhammad Mustafa Badawi.
References
Footnotes
- 1 2 Jayyusi 1977, p. 362.
- 1 2 3 Allen 2012, p. 70.
- ↑ Jayyusi 1977, pp. 513–517.
- ↑ Moreh 1976, p. 311.
Sources
- Allen, R.M.A. (2012). "Arabic poetry". In Greene, Roland; et al. (eds.). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (4th rev. ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 65–72. ISBN 978-0-691-15491-6.
- Jayyusi, Salma Khadra (1977). Trends and Movements in Modern Arabic Poetry. Vol. 2. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 90-04-04920-7.
- Meisami, Julie Scott; Starkey, Paul, eds. (1998a). Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. Vol. 1. London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18571-8.
- Meisami, Julie Scott; Starkey, Paul, eds. (1998b). Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. Vol. 2. London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18572-6.
- Moreh, S. (1976). Modern Arabic Poetry 1800–1970: The Development of its Forms and Themes under the Influence of Western Literature. Studies in Arabic Literature, 5. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 90-04-04795-6.
