Ahmad Shawqi and Educational Poetic Stories on the Tongues of the Animals

Nada Yousuf Al-Rifai

doi:10.5539/ells.v5n4p108

Abstract

<p>Ahmad Shawqi, the most famous Egyptian poet, used the animal world to narrate children stories. He began using this genre as a student in France to express his moral, national, and social desires and to awaken his fellow countrymen’s outrage against colonialism and its machinations. He narrated fifty-six tales, the first of which, entitled “Al-Deek Al-Hindi wa Al-Dajaj Al-Baladi” (The Indian Rooster and the Local Chicken), was published in the newspaper Al-Ahram in 1892. Shawqi’s tales were often written in the form of odes, following the rajaz rhythm, and using variable rhymes. They are easy to read, short, often educational, and can be easily memorized. Shawqi used the Holy Quran, books of proverbs, and Arabic wise sayings as his primary influences. Indeed, Shawqi’s tales are definitely Islamic in nature and tone.</p>

Highlights

Ahmad Shawqi, the most famous Egyptian poet, used the animal world to narrate children stories
Shawqi’s work at the palace played a great role in facilitating ways to gain information, knowledge, and access to European arts, as the Khedive sent him to Europe to learn about both French and English literature
Shawqi was pleased by La Fontaine’s poetry and fables. He was influenced by the French poets in their dealings with new subject matter and their ways of forming their poems