ARABIAN LITERATURE

ARABIA
“The Cradle of Islam”
Mediterranean Sea

KUWAIT

SAUDI ARABIA

Arabia Peninsula

YEMEN

Arabian
Sea
 ARABIA
“The Cradle of Islam”

There are two holy cities found in

Saudi Arabia

MECCA MEDINA
 ARABIAN LITERATURE

Arabian Literature is rich and varied,

mostly made of
Poems, anecdotes, tales or romances,
historical accounts and philosophies.
 ARABIAN LITERATURE

Arabs possessed a highly develop

poetry transmitted orally from
generation to generation.
 ARABIAN LITERATURE

Qasidahs or
elaborated odes.
It reflects and praise
the customs and
values of the desert
environment which
they arose.
 ARABIAN LITERATURE

The written literature, began to be

known with the collection of
KORAN, the sacred book of Islam.
 ARABIAN LITERATURE

The Three Periods of

Written Arabic Literature
 ARABIAN LITERATURE

UMAYYAD PERIOD
(A.D. 661 -750)
Arabic prose was limited primarily to
grammatical treatises, commentaries on
the Koran and the compiling of stories
about Mohammed and his companions.
 ARABIAN LITERATURE

UMAYYAD PERIOD
(A.D. 661 -750)
GHAZALS or love lyric, wine songs and
hunting poems rose during this period.
These describes the conditions and
manners found in places conquered by
Islam.
 ARABIAN LITERATURE

ABBASID PERIOD
(A.D. 750 - 1258)
Regarded as the “Greatest Period of
Development and Achievement”
 ARABIAN LITERATURE

ABBASID PERIOD
(A.D. 750 - 1258)
ADAB, an Arabic prose sprinkled with
poetry and utilized rhyme prose known as
“saj”
The style of Koran came to existence.
 ARABIAN LITERATURE

ABBASID PERIOD
(A.D. 750 - 1258)
Arabian Nights or The Thousand and
One Nights,
Contains inventive type of folk literature,
which based on the recitation of rawis.
 ARABIAN LITERATURE

MODERN PERIOD
19th Century - Present
Arabic Literature declined during the
Ottoman Turkish domination, however the
Renaissance Period took place, so then Arabs
revived their classical genres and they came
into contact to Western Literature and
Civilization.
 ARABIAN LITERATURE

MODERN PERIOD
19th Century - Present
The 20th Century witnessed the real birth of
modern Arabic Literature.
Short story and Novel came to being in this
period.