43-514: Banipal is an independent literary magazine dedicated to the promotion of contemporary Arab literature through translations in English. It was founded in London in 1998 by Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon . The magazine is published three times a year. Since its inception, it has published works and interviews of numerous Arab authors and poets, many of them translated for the first time into English. It
86-642: A host of historical novels on similar Arabic subjects. Jurji Zaydan and Niqula Haddad were important writers of this genre. During the Nahda , poets like Francis Marrash , Ahmad Shawqi and Hafiz Ibrahim began to explore the possibility of developing the classical poetic forms. Some of these neoclassical poets were acquainted with Western literature but mostly continued to write in classical forms, while others, denouncing blind imitation of classical poetry and its recurring themes, sought inspiration from French or English romanticism . The next generation of poets,
129-459: A wider audience. The Iraqi poet, novelist and translator Fadhil Al Azzawi has said: What Banipal has achieved for Arab literature and culture in its 21 issues is more important than all the work of all the Arab ministries of culture, which have almost completely failed to do anything for Arab culture. Banipal has enabled the English reader not only to read the works of Arab writers, but also to discover
172-688: Is also co-sponsor of the Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation . As of December 2020, 69 issues of Banipal were published. Each issue usually focuses on a specific theme, recent issues focusing on Libyan fiction, Arab American authors, Iraqi authors, Literature in Yemen Today, Writing in Dutch, etc. The magazine has been praised both by non-Arab and Arab commentators - Gamal el-Ghitani , James Kirkup , Anton Shammas among others - for its role in diffusing Arab literature to
215-562: Is closest to Saj or rhymed prose , the Qur'an is regarded as entirely apart from these classifications. The text is believed to be divine revelation and is seen by Muslims as being eternal or 'uncreated'. This leads to the doctrine of i'jaz or inimitability of the Qur'an which implies that nobody can copy the work's style. Or do they say, “He has fabricated this ˹Quran˺!”? Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “Produce ten fabricated sûrahs like it and seek help from whoever you can—other than Allah—if what you say
258-628: Is generally recognized as the beginning of the Islamic Golden Age , and was a time of significant literary production. The House of Wisdom in Baghdad hosted numerous scholars and writers such as Al-Jahiz and Omar Khayyam . A number of stories in the One Thousand and One Nights feature the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid . Al-Hariri of Basra was a notable literary figure of this period. Some of
301-408: Is known of the details of his life. The story of the mu'allaqa which al-Harith composed is as follows. A dispute had arisen between the men of Taghlib and those of Bakr after a number of young Taghlib men had died in the desert. The men of Taghlib chose their prince, Amr ibn Kulthum , to plead their cause before Amr ibn Hind (d. 569), the king of al-Hirah in southern Iraq. Ibn Kulthum pleaded
344-570: Is referred to in traditional Arabic literature as al-shiʿr al-Jāhilī , "poetry from the Jahiliyyah ". In pre-Islamic Arabia , markets such as Souq Okaz , in addition to Souq Majanna [ ar ] and Souq Dhi al-Majāz [ ar ] , were destinations for caravans from throughout the peninsula. At these markets poetry was recited, and the dialect of the Quraysh , the tribe in control of Souq Okaz of Mecca, became predominant. Days of
387-809: Is the tafsir or commentaries Arab writings relating to religion also includes many sermons and devotional pieces as well as the sayings of Ali which were collected in the 10th century as Nahj al-Balaghah or The Peak of Eloquence . Under the Rashidun , or the "rightly guided caliphs," literary centers developed in the Hijaz , in cities such as Mecca and Medina ; in the Levant, in Damascus ; and in Iraq, in Kufa and Basra . Literary production—and poetry in particular—in this period served
430-552: Is the source of many ideas, allusions and quotes and its moral message informs many works. Aside from the Qur'an the hadith or tradition of what Muhammed is supposed to have said and done are important literature. The entire body of these acts and words are called sunnah or way and the ones regarded as sahih or genuine of them are collected into hadith. Some of the most significant collections of hadith include those by Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj and Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari . The other important genre of work in Qur'anic study
473-470: Is true!” And if you are in doubt about what We have revealed to Our servant, then produce a sûrah like it and call your helpers other than Allah, if what you say is true. But if you do not - and you will never be able to - then fear the Fire, whose fuel is people and stones, prepared for the disbelievers. Say, "If mankind and the jinn gathered in order to produce the like of this Qur’ān, they could not produce
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#1733085898850516-655: The Hebrew alphabet . Fatima al-Fihri founded al-Qarawiyiin University in Fes in 859, recognised as the first university in the world. Particularly from the beginning of the 12th century, with sponsorship from the Almoravid dynasty , the university played an important role in the development of literature in the region, welcoming scholars and writers from throughout the Maghreb, al-Andalus, and
559-565: The Mediterranean Basin . Among the scholars who studied and taught there were Ibn Khaldoun , al-Bitruji , Ibn Hirzihim ( Sidi Harazim ), Ibn al-Khatib , and Al-Wazzan ( Leo Africanus ) as well as the Jewish theologian Maimonides . Sufi literature played an important role in literary and intellectual life in the region from this early period, such as Muhammad al-Jazuli's book of prayers Dala'il al-Khayrat . The Zaydani Library ,
602-545: The Quraysh , the tribe of Muhammad . As Islam spread, the Quran had the effect of unifying and standardizing Arabic. Not only is the Qur'an the first work of any significant length written in the language, but it also has a far more complicated structure than the earlier literary works with its 114 surah (chapters) which contain 6,236 ayat (verses). It contains injunctions , narratives , homilies , parables , direct addresses from God, instructions and even comments on how
645-678: The Shia–Sunni split over the rightful caliph , had a great impact on Arabic literature. Whereas Arabic literature—along with Arab society—was greatly centralized in the time of Muhammad and the Rashidun , it became fractured at the beginning of the period of the Umayyad Caliphate , as power struggles led to tribalism. Arabic literature at this time reverted to its state in al-Jahiliyyah , with markets such as Kinasa near Kufa and Mirbad [ ar ] near Basra , where poetry in praise and admonishment of political parties and tribes
688-600: The golden age of Jewish culture in Iberia . Most Jewish writers in al-Andalus—while incorporating elements such as rhyme, meter, and themes of classical Arabic poetry—created poetry in Hebrew, but Samuel ibn Naghrillah , Joseph ibn Naghrela , and Ibn Sahl al-Isra'ili wrote poetry in Arabic. Maimonides wrote his landmark Dalãlat al-Hā'irīn ( The Guide for the Perplexed ) in Arabic using
731-486: The 19th century, a revival took place in Arabic literature, along with much of Arabic culture, and is referred to in Arabic as " al-Nahda ", which means "the renaissance". There was a strand of neoclassicism in the Nahda, particularly among writers such as Tahtawi , Shidyaq , Yaziji , and Muwaylihi , who believed in the iḥyāʾ "reanimation" of Arabic literary heritage and tradition. The translation of foreign literature
774-474: The 5th century with only fragments of the written language appearing before then. The Qur'an would have the greatest lasting effect on Arab culture and its literature. Arabic literature flourished during the Islamic Golden Age , but has remained vibrant to the present day, with poets and prose-writers across the Arab world , as well as in the Arab diaspora , achieving increasing success. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry
817-845: The Arabs , tales in both meter and prose , contains the oldest extant Arabic narratives, focusing on battles and raids. Notable poets of the pre-Islamic period were Abu Layla al-Muhalhel and Al-Shanfara . There were also the poets of the Mu'allaqat , or "the suspended ones", a group of poems said to have been on display in Mecca . These poets are Imru' al-Qais , Tarafah ibn al-‘Abd , Abid Ibn al-Abrass [ ar ] , Harith ibn Hilliza , Amr ibn Kulthum , Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma , Al-Nabigha al-Dhubiyānī , Antara Ibn Shaddad , al-A'sha al-Akbar , and Labīd ibn Rabī'ah . Al-Khansa stood out in her poetry of rithā' or elegy . al-Hutay'a [ ar ]
860-540: The Hijra, deal primarily with Sharia and prescriptions of Islamic life. The word qur'an comes from the Arabic root qaraʼa (قرأ), meaning "he read" or "he recited"; in early times the text was transmitted orally. The various tablets and scraps on which its suras were written were compiled under Abu Bakr (573-634), and first transcribed in unified masahif , or copies of the Qur'an, under Uthman (576-656). Although it contains elements of both prose and poetry, and therefore
903-701: The Middle East throughout the first half of the 20th century. Prominent poets of the Nahda , or "Renaissance," were Nasif al-Yaziji ; Mahmoud Sami el-Baroudi , Ḥifnī Nāṣif [ ar ] , Ismāʻīl Ṣabrī [ ar ] , and Hafez Ibrahim ; Ahmed Shawqi ; Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi , Maruf al Rusafi , Fawzi al-Ma'luf [ ar ] , and Khalil Mutran . Rifa'a at-Tahtawi , who lived in Paris from 1826 to 1831, wrote A Paris Profile [ ar ] about his experiences and observations and published it in 1834. Butrus al-Bustani founded
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#1733085898850946-680: The Moors ending in 1614. Ibn Abd Rabbih's Al-ʿIqd al-Farīd (The Unique Necklace) and Ibn Tufail's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan were influential works of literature from this tradition. Notable literary figures of this period include Ibn Hazm , Ziryab , Ibn Zaydun , Wallada bint al-Mustakfi , Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad , Ibn Bajja , Al-Bakri , Ibn Rushd , Hafsa bint al-Hajj al-Rukuniyya , Ibn Tufail , Ibn Arabi , Ibn Quzman , Abu al-Baqa ar-Rundi , and Ibn al-Khatib . The muwashshah and zajal were important literary forms in al-Andalus. The rise of Arabic literature in al-Andalus occurred in dialogue with
989-625: The Qu'ran will be received and understood. It is also admired for its layers of metaphor as well as its clarity, a feature which is mentioned in An-Nahl , the 16th surah. The 92 Meccan suras , believed to have been revealed to Muhammad in Mecca before the Hijra , deal primarily with 'usul ad-din [ ar ] , or "the principles of religion", whereas the 22 Medinan suras , believed to have been revealed to him after
1032-472: The Qu'ran's content and form, is forbidden for Muslims. And as to the poets, those who go astray follow them Do you not see that they wander about bewildered in every valley? And that they say that which they do not do Except those who believe and do good works and remember Allah much and defend themselves after they are oppressed; and they who act unjustly shall know to what final place of turning they shall turn back. This may have exerted dominance over
1075-518: The Taghlib's cause by reciting the sixth of the mu'allaqāt . A quarrel then broke out between Ibn Kulthum and al-Nu'man, the Bakr spokesman, as a result of which the king dismissed them both and asked al-Harith to act as spokesman for the Bakr tribe instead of al-Nu'man. Whereupon, al-Harith recited the seventh mu'allaqa . It is said that al-Harith was an old man by this time, and afflicted with leprosy, so that he
1118-456: The expansion of the press and the rights of the people. Jamāl ad-Dīn al-Afghānī and Muhammad Abduh founded the revolutionary anti-colonial pan-Islamic journal Al-Urwah al-Wuthqa , Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi , Qasim Amin , and Mustafa Kamil were reformers who influenced public opinion with their writing. Saad Zaghloul was a revolutionary leader and a renowned orator appreciated for his eloquence and reason. Ibrahim al-Yaziji founded
1161-606: The important poets in Abbasid literature [ ar ] were: Bashshar ibn Burd , Abu Nuwas , Abu-l-'Atahiya , Muslim ibn al-Walid , Abbas Ibn al-Ahnaf , and Al-Hussein bin ad-Dahhak [ ar ] . Andalusi literature was produced in Al-Andalus , or Islamic Iberia, from its Muslim conquest in 711 to either the Catholic conquest of Granada in 1492 or the Expulsion of
1204-571: The journal Al-Jinan in 1870 and started writing the first encyclopedia in Arabic: Da'irat ul-Ma'arif in 1875. Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq published a number of influential books and was the editor-in-chief of ar-Ra'id at-Tunisi [ ar ] in Tunis and founder of Al-Jawa'ib [ ar ] in Istanbul . Adib Ishaq spent his career in journalism and theater, working for
1247-406: The journal Al-Machriq in 1898. Other notable figures of the Nahda were Mostafa Saadeq Al-Rafe'ie and May Ziadeh . Harith ibn Hilliza Al-Ḥārith ibn Ḥilliza al-Yashkurī ( Arabic : الحارث بن حلزة اليشكري ) was a pre- Islamic Arabian poet of the tribe of Bakr , from the 5th century. He was the author of one of the seven famous pre-Islamic poems known as the Mu'allaqat . Little
1290-827: The library of the Saadi Sultan Zidan Abu Maali , was stolen by Spanish privateers in the 16th century and kept at the El Escorial Monastery . During the Mamluk Sultanate , Ibn Abd al-Zahir and Ibn Kathir were notable writers of history. Significant poets of Arabic literature in the time of the Ottoman Empire included ash-Shab adh-Dharif [ ar ] , Al-Busiri author of " Al-Burda ", Ibn al-Wardi (died 1349), Safi al-Din al-Hilli , and Ibn Nubata . Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi wrote on various topics including theology and travel. During
1333-412: The like of it, even if they were to each other assistants." This doctrine of i'jaz possibly had a slight limiting effect on Arabic literature; proscribing exactly what could be written. Whilst Islam allows Muslims to write, read and recite poetry, the Qur'an states in the 26th sura ( Ash-Shu'ara or The Poets) that poetry which is blasphemous, obscene, praiseworthy of sinful acts, or attempts to challenge
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1376-540: The newspaper an-Najah ( النجاح "Achievement") in 1872, the magazine At-Tabib , the magazine Al-Bayan , and the magazine Ad-Diya and translated the Bible into Arabic. Walī ad-Dīn Yakan [ ar ] launched a newspaper called al-Istiqama ( الاستقامة , " Righteousness") to challenge Ottoman authorities and push for social reforms, but they shut it down in the same year. Mustafa Lutfi al-Manfaluti , who studied under Muhammad Abduh at Al-Azhar University ,
1419-424: The pre-Islamic poets of the 6th century whose popularity may have vied with the Qur'an amongst the people. There was a marked lack of significant poets until the 8th century. One notable exception was Hassan ibn Thabit who wrote poems in praise of Muhammad and was known as the "prophet's poet". Just as the Bible has held an important place in the literature of other languages, The Qur'an is important to Arabic. It
1462-404: The previous literature, which served to make it so ornate and complicated, were dropped. Just as in the 8th century, when a movement to translate ancient Greek and other literature had helped vitalise Arabic literature, another translation movement during this period would offer new ideas and material for Arabic literature. An early popular success was The Count of Monte Cristo , which spurred
1505-546: The real craft of modern Arab literature. We have only one real minister for Arab culture: Margaret Obank. Arab literature By century Arabic literature ( Arabic : الأدب العربي / ALA-LC : al-Adab al-‘Arabī ) 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 literature emerged in
1548-512: The so-called Romantic poets, began to absorb the impact of developments in Western poetry to a far greater extent, and felt constrained by Neoclassical traditions which the previous generation had tried to uphold. The Mahjari poets were emigrants who mostly wrote in the Americas, but were similarly beginning to experiment further with the possibilities of Arabic poetry. This experimentation continued in
1591-514: The spread of Islam. There was also poetry to praise brave warriors, to inspire soldiers in jihad , and rithā ' to mourn those who fell in battle. Notable poets of this rite include Ka'b ibn Zuhayr , Hasan ibn Thabit , Abu Dhū'īb al-Hudhalī [ ar ] , and Nābigha al-Ja‘dī . There was also poetry for entertainment often in the form of ghazal . Notables of this movement were Jamil ibn Ma'mar , Layla al-Akhyaliyya , and Umar Ibn Abi Rabi'ah . The First Fitna , which created
1634-617: Was a major element of the Nahda period. An important translator of the 19th century was Rifa'a al-Tahtawi , who founded the School of Languages (also knowns as School of Translators ) in 1835 in Cairo. In the 20th century, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra , a Palestinian - Iraqi intellectual living mostly in Bagdad, translated works by William Shakespeare , Oscar Wilde , Samuel Beckett or William Faulkner , among many others. This resurgence of new writing in Arabic
1677-455: Was a notable Arab ruler, writer, and orator . Aktham Bin Sayfi [ ar ] was also one of the most famous rulers of the Arabs, as well as one of their most renowned speech-givers. The Qur'an , the main holy book of Islam , had a significant influence on the Arabic language, and marked the beginning of Islamic literature . Muslims believe it was transcribed in the Arabic dialect of
1720-540: Was a prolific essayist and published many articles encouraging the people to reawaken and liberate themselves. Suleyman al-Boustani translated the Iliad into Arabic and commented on it. Khalil Gibran and Ameen Rihani were two major figures of the Mahjar movement within the Nahda. Jurji Zaydan founded Al-Hilal magazine in 1892, Yacoub Sarrouf [ ar ] founded Al-Muqtataf in 1876, Louis Cheikho founded
1763-450: Was confined mainly to cities in Syria , Egypt and Lebanon until the 20th century, when it spread to other countries in the region. This cultural renaissance was not only felt within the Arab world, but also beyond, with a growing interest in translating of Arabic works into European languages. Although the use of the Arabic language was revived, particularly in poetry, many of the tropes of
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1806-449: Was prominent for his madīh , or " panegyric ", as well as his hijā' [ ar ] , or " invective ". As literature was transmitted orally and not written, prose represents little of what has been passed down. The main forms were parables ( المَثَل al-mathal ), speeches ( الخطابة al-khitāba ), and stories ( القِصَص al-qisas ). Quss Bin Sā'ida [ ar ]
1849-851: Was recited. Poets and scholars found support and patronage under the Umayyads, but the literature of this period was limited in that it served the interests of parties and individuals, and as such was not a free art form. Notable writers of this political poetry include Al-Akhtal al-Taghlibi , Jarir ibn Atiyah , Al-Farazdaq , Al-Kumayt ibn Zayd al-Asadi , Tirimmah Bin Hakim [ ar ] , and Ubayd Allah ibn Qays ar-Ruqiyat [ ar ] . There were also poetic forms of rajaz —mastered by al-'Ajjaj [ ar ] and Ru'uba bin al-Ajjaj [ ar ] —and ar-Rā'uwīyyāt, or " pastoral poetry "—mastered by ar-Rā'ī an-Namīrī [ ar ] and Dhu ar-Rumma . The Abbasid period
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