GETTING TO KNOW THE LANGUAGE ARABIC

-Arabic is one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations (+ English, French, Chinese, Russian,
and Spanish)

-Arabic is the fourth most widely-spoken language, after English, Spanish, and Chinese

-number of native speakers: 220-280 million

There are 3 functional types of Arabic language:

Classical Arabic is the language of the Qur’an, and is used primarily for reading and reciting Islamic
holy text

Spoken Arabic has 4 regional dialects, but over 30 actual varieties of colloquial (spoken) Arabic
around the world

Modern Standard Arabic is used in the news and on TV—the “common language” used by speakers
of different dialects

Dialect: A dialect is a different way of speaking the SAME language to say the SAME thing

ARABIC LITERATURE

Arabic has been a highly developed literary language for over 1,500 years (including poetry).

Some writers:

Hafiz (poet) Khalil Gibran (poet) Mourid Barghouti

Naguib Mahfouz – living novelist from Egypt (Nobel Prize for literature, 1988)

Algebra (al Jabr) Cipher (sifr, the name for “zero”) Alcohol (al quhul) Sugar (sukkar)

Cotton (qutun) Coffee (kahwa) Lemon (limon) Checkmate (shek mat, “the king is dead”)

CHARACTERISTICS OF ARAB LANGUAGE:

Arabic an Afro-Asiatic language of the Semitic group

Arabic is considered one of the “younger” Semitic languages (4th century)

As the religious language of the Qur’an (7th century), it expanded rapidly during the rise of Islam
in the 8th century

Literature

The Quran (Koran) was a major contribution to Islamic literature and is the standard for all Arabic
literature and poetry. Fictional adventure stories also played an important part in Islamic literature.
The most famous is A Thousand and One Nights (also called The Arabian Nights). It’s tales include
Aladdin and his magic lamp.

Architecture

Islamic architecture is a blend of Arab, Turkish, and Persian traditions. Mosques were the most
important buildings of the Arab World. Mosques featured minarets, domes, and walls decorated
with gold and mosaics (small tiles). One of the finest examples of Islamic architecture is the
Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.

Math

Islamic Scholars made contributions to mathematics and the natural sciences. Al-Khwarizmi, a
Muslim mathematician, wrote a book about al-jabr, the Arabic word for algebra.

Science

The Muslims made major advances in astronomy through scientific observation. They perfected the
astrolabe, an instrument used by sailors to determine their location by observing positions of stars
and planets. The astrolabe helped later explorers like Christopher Columbus.

Medicine

Islamic doctors developed advanced techniques like surgery with anaesthesia. The most famous
Muslim doctor, al-Razi studied infectious diseases. Cordoba, Spain became known for its medical
care, and patients came from all over the world to Cordoba for treatment.

Art

The Prophet Mohammad and the Quran forbid any portrayals of himself or other living things,
especially in mosques. Therefore, Islamic art does not generally include representations of people or
animals. Instead, Islamic art focuses on calligraphy (the art of beautiful handwriting), geometric
shapes, and tessellations.

ARABIAN LITERATURE

A written Arabic literature began to be known with the collect of Quran, the sacred book of Islam , in
Arabia in 17th century A.D. with the spread of the Islamic faith into Asia, Africa and Europe, the
Arabian language soon became a major world language. Today it is read or understood by hundreds
of millions of People. Even before the revelations of Muhammad were collected in the Koran,
however, the Arabs possessed a highly developed poetry, composed of recitation and transmitted
from generation to generation. The most famous examples are the elaborated odes, or qasdahs, of
Mu’allagat (“the suspended odes”), beginning with those of Imru’ Alqais. These poems reflected and
praised the customs and values of the desert environment in which they arose.

Pre-Islamic

The structure of the Arabic language is well-suited to harmonious word-patterns, with elaborate
rhymes and rhythms. The earliest known literature emerged in northern Arabia around 500 AD and
took the form of poetry which was recited aloud, memorized and handed down from one generation
to another. It began to be written down towards the end of the seventh century. The most
celebrated poems of the pre-Islamic period were known as the Mu’allgqat ("the suspended"),
reputedly because they were considered sufficiently outstanding to be hung on the walls of the
ka'ba in Makkah.

The typical poem of this period is the Qasidah (ode), which normally consists of 70-80 pairs of half-
lines. Traditionally, they describe the nomadic life, opening with a lament at an abandoned camp for
a lost love. The second part praises the poet's horse or camel and describes a journey, with the
hardships it entails. The third section contains the main theme of the poem, often praises the poet's
tribe and vilifying its enemies.

Historical Periods

The history of Arabic literature is usually divided into periods making the dynastic changes and
divisions that took place within the Islamic world.

Umayyad Period (A.D. 661-750)

Arabic prose literature was limited primarily to grammatical treatise, commentaries on the Quran,
and compiling of stories about Mohammad and his companions.

The Umayyad poets, chief of whom were Al-Akhtal and Al-Farazdaq, favored poetic forms such as
love lyrics called (Ghazals) , wine songs and hunting poems. These forms the conditions of life and
manners found in territories conquered by Islam.

B. Abbasid Empire (750-1258)

In the early years of this empire, many forms were invented for Arabic literature , which then
entered what is generally regarded it’s greatest period of development and achievement. It is
certain that the Persian influences contributed significantly to this development. For example,
translations from Persian , such as those of Ibn al-Muqaff’, led to a new refinement in Arabic prose
called adab, often sprinkled with poetry and utilizing rhyme prose (saj’), the style of QURAN. The
greatest masters of adab were Al jahiz and Al Hariri.

An inventive type of folk literature ,exemplified in

“The Thousand and One Nights” (popularly known as The Arabian Nights), drew upon the recitations
of wandering storytellers called rawis. Abu Nuwas was acknowledged as the foremost among the
new poets who used the Arabic language with greater freedom and imagination. An experimental
tradition now vied with classical traditions, some poets excelled in both traditions ; al-Maarri and al-
Mtanabi are regarded as the greatest among them. In Spain an independent poetic tradition
culminated in the exquisitive lyrics of Ibn Zaydun and Ibn Quzman. The Romance Of Antar, closest
work to an epic in Arabic, was also written about this time.

C. Modern Period

During the centuries of Ottoman Turkish domination, Arabic literature fall into decline. Not until the
mid-19th century was it revived by it’s intellectual movement known as Nahdah (“reawakening”),
which originated in Syria and spread to Egypt. From being imitative to Europeans, Modern Arabic
literature, both prose and poetry, has gradually freed itself from centuries of neglect and has
assumed it’s former place among the world’s greatest literatures.

Arabic writers of the past hundred years have been extremely versatile. Most of their work is
characterized by strong concern for social issues.

Outstanding among the recent Arabic novelists, dramatists, and essayists:

Tawfig al-Hakim,

Novelist Naguib Mahfouz, Taha Husayn

Poets, Ihiya Abu Madi, Adonis , Ahmad Shawqi, Abu Shadi and Abbas al Aqqad
Many other works have been translated and are enjoyed by non-Arab connoisseurs (specialist) of
literature everywhere.

ARABIC PROSE:

Saj or “rhymed prose” is most striking characteristics feature of the Arabic prose.

Consists of succession of pairs of short rhyming expression with rhetorical (verbal) and antithetical
(contrary) balance of sense between the pairs of expressions with a certain loose of rhythmical
balance not bound by strict metre.

The Khutbah or “formal written in rhymed prose style” is of great antiquity (old times). Turned out
to be religious verses in the earliest time of Islam.

Most famous : Ibn Nubatah at-Farigi. Arabic prose began in the latter days of the Umayyad Empire. It
exhibits use of the Khutbah style and more sophisticated and fluent style derived from the literary
traditions of Sasanian Persian . The most celebrated work of Ibn Muqaffa, “Klila wa Dimna” is
translation from a Pahlavi version of the Indian fable, Pachantantra (The Panchatantra is an ancient
Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in verse and prose, arranged within a frame story).

All verses are divided into two types:

1)Occasional Poems – Consisting 2 to 20 lines whose themes are usually war and revenge and praise
of one’s own tribe.

Various genres (specific type of music, film, or writing) fall to this are:

Elegies (a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead) Praising the dead; the most
famous type was Kansa.

The Odes or Quasida. Elaborate ode usually of 60 to 100 lines

Themes were usually about exploits of narrator, his old passion, and descriptions of camp life in
honor of his patron. The oral transmission of poems lasted for 350 years.

2)Collection or Anthologies – Al-Mu’allgqat, a group of pre-Islamic Odes.

“3 KINDS OF COLLECTION”

Al-Mu-Allkat means “suspended” because these poems were supposed to have been displayed by
the Arabs on the Kaaba at Mecca. These collections are ascribed to Hammed-al-Ravisya in 8th
century A.D. by Imru' al-Qais (father of Arabic poetry). Showed the nomadic life, views and
philosophies, visions and their dreams arising from such condition.

-Al hamasa is an anthology compiled by poets ABRETAMMAN about 836 A.D. Derive it’s name from
the beginning of books and poems. Themes were usually about valor and constant battles, patience
when comforted reality , seeking vengeance ,pagan rituals, myths, temptations, treasure and Arab
traditions.

-Mujaddiyat is a collection of poems named after MUFADDALIBN YA’LA who compiled them for the
future caliph Mahdi between 762 and 784. Showed hospitality, charity, valor, faithfulness, lavish
entertainment.

In The first century after the death of Mohammed, in 622 A.D. called Umayyad period there were no
outstanding literary productions but, there were
4 NOTEWORTHY POETS:

AKHATAL

FARAZDAK

JARIR

DHU RUMMA

Abbasid Period (750-1258)

New tendencies were favored and Arabic poetry became popular. The classical tradition kept faith
with the past, particularly desert poetry , with one modification – the substitution for the old
imaginative phrases of rhetoric types, a fashion set by MUSLIM IBN WALKD followed by TAMMAN
and extravagantly exploited by MUTANNABI. Some critics often call this period as The Golden Age up
to 1055 A.D. and 1258 as The Silver Age. Poets become more original in their crafts. Influenced by
Hellenistic and Persian Art. The Golden Age up to 1055 A.D. and 1258 as The Silver Age. Poets
become more original in their crafts. Influenced by Hellenistic and Persian Art.

Outstanding Authors:

IBN ISHAQ – author of Mohammad’s life

Rabia Basri and Sufi poetess

ABU NUEVAS – greatest Arab lyricist

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Rumī, in full Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, (born c. Sept. 30, 1207, Balkh [now in Afghanistan]—died Dec. 17,
1273) the greatest Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language, famous for his lyrics and for his
didactic epic Mas̄navī-yi Maʿnavī (“Spiritual Couplets”), which widely influenced mystical thought
and literature throughout the Muslim world. After his death, his disciples were organized as the
Mawlawīyah order.

Hariri, (born 1054, near Al-Baṣrah, Iraq—died 1122, Al-Baṣrah) scholar of Arabic language and
literature and government official who is primarily known for the refined style and wit of his
collection of tales, the Maqāmāt, published in English as The Assemblies of al-Harîrî (1867, 1898).

Of the popular prose romances, the most famous are The Ten Thousand and One Nights, The
Voyages of Sinbad and The Collection of fables related to the Greek Aesop (Greek fabulist or story
teller), ascribed to LUQMAN.

The Koran or Qur’an (The Reading)

It is the sacred scripture of Islam. Muslims acknowledge it as the actual words of god revealed by
Muhammad. Contains 114 chapters or suras, arranged, except for the opening , approximately
according to length, beginning with the longer chapters. Termed as the glorious and wonderful,
describes the absolute truth, healing mercy, light and guidance of God to people’s everyday lives.
Has a great contribution with the Arabian literature.