Arab Authors Research Articles

The Dichotomy within Masculinity in Fadia Faqir's The Cry of the Dove: A Self-Orientalist Approach

The representation of masculinity is a prevalent theme in literary studies that critique Orientalist discourse within Western literature. This exploration often highlights the dichotomy inherent in the portrayal of masculinity, contrasting the representations of Western and Eastern men in Orientalist texts. In her article "Re-Orientalism: The Perpetration and Development of Orientalism by Orientals," Lisa Lau (2009) introduces the concepts of 're-Orientalism' and 'self-Orientalism,' arguing that Orientalist depictions are not only perpetuated in Western narratives but are also internalized within Eastern literary productions. Lau posits that writers from Eastern backgrounds frequently do not wholly reject these Orientalist narratives; instead, they engage with and occasionally affirm them, thereby reinforcing a binary opposition between the East and West in their works. Despite the relevance of this theory, the contributions of Anglophone Arab authors, such as Fadia Faqir, have not been thoroughly analyzed through the lens of Self-Orientalism. Consequently, this study seeks to investigate the representation of masculinity in Faqir's The Cry of the Dove (2007) within the framework of Self-Orientalism, with a focus on determining whether Faqir challenges or internalizes Orientalist stereotypes. This theoretical perspective suggests that Anglophone authors tend to internalize Orientalist stereotypes, constructing a dichotomy that attributes negative characteristics to Eastern individuals while ascribing positive traits to their Western counterparts. Through a detailed examination of male characters in the novel, this study reveals that Faqir internalizes these Orientalist representations, thereby establishing a contrasting portrayal of masculinity: Arab and Muslim men are depicted as lustful, cruel, and hypocritical, in stark contrast to their Western counterparts, who are characterized as respectful, tender, and virtuous.

The Expression of Gratitude in English and Arabic Doctoral Dissertation Acknowledgements

Abstract This corpus-based study explores the expression of gratitude in the acknowledgement section of doctoral dissertations in both English and Arabic. The objective is to analyse how gratitude in academic discourse is structured in these languages and to explore any differences related to gender. The study examines 80 dissertations (40 in English and 40 in Arabic), further divided by the authors’ gender (20 male and 20 female for each language). Data collection involved searching for doctoral dissertations from various sources, verifying the authenticity of the native language through biographical checks, and categorising the acknowledgements based on the year and field of study. The analysis utilised a mixed-methods approach based on Hyland and Tse’s (2004) framework, enabling quantitative and qualitative text analysis. The study revealed distinct differences in gratitude expression patterns between English and Arabic dissertations: English acknowledgements often used performative verbs and adjectives, while Arabic acknowledgements primarily employed nominalisation. Notably, Arabic texts showed no use of passive constructions or adjectives. Gender-related differences were also observed, such as the preference for nominalisation among male Arabic authors and the preference for bare mention among female English authors. These findings underscore the significant cultural and linguistic influences on the construction of gratitude in academic acknowledgements. The research contributes valuable insights into pedagogical approaches to teaching academic writing and highlights the interplay between language, culture, and gender in scholarly communications.

Literary Writing in the Other’s Language in a Pluralist and Multilingual Society: In the Shade of the Jujube Tree by Jeries Tannous

Palestinian-Arab authors in Israel often write in the language of the Other, adopting the language of the Jewish majority as their creative tongue alongside their native Arabic. Despite the powerful creative presence of these authors in the local cultural landscape, they have attracted little scholarly attention. This study explores the political, sociolinguistic, and psychological aspects of Arab authors in Israel who write in Hebrew, focusing on Jeries Tannous’s 2007 novel In the Shade of the Jujube Tree.1 Based on a content analysis of the novel and a semi-structured interview with the author, this study demonstrates that the use of Hebrew by Arab authors in Israel has three purposes. The first of these is the symbolic-normative purpose: using the Other’s language to establish an alternative collective identity and bring the minority culture from the margins to the mainstream. The second is functional: in some cases, the author is more proficient in Hebrew than in his or her mother tongue. The third and final purpose is emotional: using Hebrew to express individual and collective mental distress and traumas.

Discovering Appearance of the Franks in Arab Sources (8th–9th Centuries)

At the time of Crusades, the term “franks” (ifranj) was common Arabic word for the crusaders. Since that, almost any study of the Crusades from the “Islamic perspective” tends to discover francs in Arab sources. However, medieval Muslim authors mentioned the Franks since the early 9th century, long before the Crusades, but nobody asks when and how Arabic authors actually learn about the Franks. There is still a half-century-old hypothesis by B. Lewis, attributing the word “franc” (faranj) to the Greek “fráŋkos”. The aim of our article is to discover the original source from which the Arabs first learn about the Franks, so we study the 9th-century Arab texts reporting on the first known contact between Arabs and Franks during the Muslim conquest of Spain. It seems that the Arabic faranj could hardly originate from the Greek fráŋkos, as the combination of letters <γκ> sounds as <nk> during this period (which corresponds to another Arabic form firank appearing in a number of texts in 11th–12th centuries and not widely used). That is why the Arabic franc could actually originate from Syriac as a transcription of the Syriac prangāiā. Based on message of the 9th-century historian Ibn Kutaiba we suppose that Arabs learned this term from the Syrian sailors who ensured the crossing of Muslim army through the Strait of Gibraltar in the spring of 711.

Knowledge of the Milky Way in the Arabic Cultural Region between the 8th and 15th Centuries

We use a comparison of texts by several Arabic authors from the 8.-15. century inorder to explore the role of Milky Way in the early Islamic civilization until the 15thcentury. We refer to texts by Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn Rahiq, Ibn Majid, and al-Marzouqi.First we discuss the description of the Milky Way given by al-Marzouqi in the 21.chapter of his Kitab al-Azminah wa al-Amkinah. Al-Marzouqi also points out how theMilky Way can be used to determine the direction of prayer.Second we discuss Ibn al-Haytham's finding that in comparison with the Moon theMilky Way has no measurable parallax, must belong to the realm of the stars.We compare the situation at Ibn al-Haytham's time to that of the Great Debate in 1920.
 Milky Way: role in early Islamic civilization, astronomical description, Great Debate

The evolution of Arabic historical literature and its current trends: canons and invariants

The study is devoted to the peculiarities of the development of the Arabic historical novel, the consistent transformation and “erosion” of its canons within the framework of the literary trends of the 20th and 21st centuries. The relevance of the topic, on the one hand, is due to the fact that the historical novel has not lost its significance in Arabic national literature. The share of works of this genre is still high, they occupy the first lines in the distribution of literary prizes. On the other hand, against the background of the general process of globalization, it is interesting to trace the trajectory of the development of the genre in the so-called “lagging” literature, to which many researchers rank Arabic literature. Some works of the genre fell into the focus of both Arabic, Western, as well as domestic orientalist-literary critics and were subjected to deep comprehensive consideration. Today, however, the novels of recent decades also require analysis. The purpose of the study was not just to identify the works of Arab authors that have received wide recognition in recent years, but to fit them into the paradigm of the development of the historical genre and thereby determine its direction in the near future. To do this, the authors tried to compare classical historical novels with modern ones, characterizing their heroes, describing the periods in the history of the Arab world that Arab authors addressed and continue to address within the genre, determining the degree of epic, historical authenticity, etc., in modern examples of the genre. It was found out, that classical heroes with a standard set of heroic qualities that influence the course of history are replaced by thinkers, scientists, dervishes, ordinary observers, and critical epochs and specific historical events are replaced by troubles periods - before or after a catastrophe, major transformations. Conclusions were drawn about the historicity of Arabic literature back in the pre-Islamic era, the long-term preservation of the canons of the Early Middle Ages in the genre, the sharp transformation of the genre and the refusal from the canons under the influence of postmodernism that penetration into Arabic soil in the mid 1960s coincided with the military and social upheavals of the history of Arabs. The direction of the genre, which is pronounced today towards ethnoliterature, is emphasized.

Woodwind Instruments in al-Fārābī’s Kitāb al-Mūsīqī al-Kabīr

Al‑Fārābī (d. 950 CE), the so-called ‘Second Master’ (Aristotle being the First Master), is known for his influential works on philosophy, especially his commentaries on Aristotle, as well as for his works on logic, physics and metaphysics, ethics, and politics. It was on behalf of al‑Karḫī, Caliph ar‑Rāḍī’s (r. 934–940 CE) wazīr, that al‑Fārābī wrote his Grand Book on Music, explaining musical concepts such as rhythm and melody to the wazīr. As a logician and practicing musician, he combined and improved upon different sources, such as Greek musical theory, as well as on the Arabic authors and musicians al‑Kindī (d. after 870 CE) and Isḥāq al‑Mawṣilī (d. 850 CE). In this paper, I discuss several issues related to woodwind instruments mentioned in al‑Fārābī’s Grand Book on Music. Al‑Fārābī expounds on their interconnections with the tonal production of other instruments, specifying their tone system in terms of finger positions on the fretboard of the ʿūd. Further questions address the relation between theory and practice, as well as some considerations about the modes that seem to be common on woodwinds.

The Nearly Hundred-Year Gap in Finding the New Arab Woman: Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

The study aims to explore the representation of Arab women in Fadia Faqir’s novel, Pillars of Salt and the representation of Western women in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. The study also attempts to compare and contrast between the two writers’ representations of women. To achieve the objectives of the study, the theory of feminism is applied to both novels to analyse them in terms of how women are represented. Moreover, the results of the study show that the representation of women in the writings of some Arab authors today resembles the representation of Western women written by authors in their writings over 100 years ago. The significance of the current study stems from the fact that it sheds light on literary works that are written by two different authors from different times, countries, and consequently different cultural backgrounds.

زمانۂ قبل از اسلام سے تیسری صدی ہجری تک کے عرب مغنّی اور مغنّیات کا احوال : ’ کتاب الاغانی‘ و ’طاؤس و ربابٗ کا مطالعہ

Author of "Kitāb-Al-Aghānī" (Book of Songs), Abu-Al-Faraj Al-Isfahānī was a famous Arab author and poet. He wrote other important books also but "Kitāb-Al-Aghānī" proved a mile stone in his life works. It consisted upon the long tale of pre-Islamic period till 3rd century hijra's musicians, composers, singers and poets. This book presents the true picture of that time's Arab Society and Culture. Prof. Noor-ul-Hassan Khan,s "Tāwos-o-Rubāb" is a single example of such type of books in Urdu literature. In this book most of the references are drawn from " Kitāb-Al-Aghānī ". We can find in Urdu literature a true picture of pre-Islamic period to 3rd century hijra's cultural and moral values through this book. This article is an attempt to show the interaction between the books mentioned above.

Modern Arabic Scholars on Stress

The article comments on the most significant phonetic works, which describe: • theoretical provisions on the physiology of percussive sound generation, • its acoustic features and parameters of the vowel component - syllabic carrier, • rules for placing stress in Arabic words, • Peculiarities and differences in the generation of stress in different idioms of the Arab world. The aim of the paper is to describe the basic concepts of Arab scholars regarding the stress in the Arabic word. The authors take a different look at the articulatory mechanism and acoustic characteristics of stress, highlighting various parameters of the stressed syllable, such as effort, exhaled air volume, intensity, tone, duration and distinctness. The purpose of the description is to identify the common features of Arabic stress. The article examines the works of Ibrahim Anis, Muhammad al-Nuri, Tamam Hassan and Ahmad Mukhtar Umar – authors of the 20th century, when experimental phonetic studies among Arabic linguists were not yet carried out, therefore, the paper describes a purely theoretical study of the issue. As the main factor of the stressed syllable, Arabic authors choose the effort applied for its implementation, as well as the tone – this is noted in the works of all the listed linguists. Two authors highlight the characteristics of distinctness and duration. According to all authors, intensity makes the least contribution to the stress of a syllable. All factors are associated with great effort at the stage of articulation. The article describes the history of interest in stress in Arabic grammatical monographs, as well as the main provisions and approaches to its definition, which made it possible to further experimental study of the issue.

The Archimedean Revolution of Nicolaus Copernicus

The year 2023 marks the 550th anniversary of the birth of the Polish scholar Nicolaus Copernicus. Usually deemed one of the most emblematic examples of the scientific revolution and the theory of paradigm shift in the history of science, the heliocentric theory proposed by Copernicus in 1543 has fed the minds of philosophers and historians for centuries. Recently, increasing attention has been put on the recognition of the sources that might have influenced Copernicus’s creativity. The outcomes showed that the claims on paradigm shift are pretty shaky, because Copernicus was deliberately in dialogue with Ancient Greek and Arabic authors, and his On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres deliberately emulates Ptolemy’s Almagest. In this sense, the essence of the scientific revolution is more an attempt to recreate the debate with ancient authors then a breaking with their paradigms. This study takes a closer examination of Copernicus’s early draft on heliocentrism, the Commentariolus (1510-1515 ca.) and it argues that the birth of the heliocentric theory was first conceived as an attempt to write an Archimedes-like treatise, while the efforts to emulate Ptolemy come at a later stage. On this account, the early Copernicus can be considered an Archimedean.

O'Neill's Theatre: Arab Reviewers' Critics on Its Presentation and Appeal

One of the most contentious personalities in contemporary play is Eugene O'Neill. His life experiences and inner problems, which influenced his creativity and contributed to his renown as a dramatist, have drawn criticism from Arab and European scholars and critics. His theater stands out for its variety and is present everywhere. The page concentrates on four Arab reviewers: Brahim Alariss, Sameer Mohammed Ismaiel, Riyadh Assmat, and Dr. Yessin Attiya. They offer their perspectives on O'Neill and his work. The critic of Brahim Alariss is featured in the first section of this study and talks about O'Neill's accomplishments, his realistic approach, his styles and techniques from symbolic to naturalistic to expressionism to theater of masks as well as some personal matters. His theater stands out for its variety and is present everywhere. The article focuses on some of the reviews by Arab authors. In the second half, Sameer Mohammed Ismaiel discusses Hisham Kaferneh's efforts to revive "Desire Beneath the Elms" for a new performance by the Damascus National Theater Group. In the Syrian version, the program is categorized as "House of Desire." In the third section, Dr. Yessin Attiya writes on the usage of masks and the relationships between the characters in addition to explaining the role of the characters, monologues, and stage directions.The fourth section examines how the article "O'Neill Noble Prize in the Theater Excursion and the Search for Gold" “جائز أوجين أونيل في رحلة المسرح و البحث عن الذهب” in Meo Midst Online demonstrates O'Neill's talent, brilliance, and life experience. The piece by Riyadh Assmat, who discusses American theater celebrating the resurrection of Eugene O'Neill's work, is found in the last section (1888-1953). Keywords: Arab reviewers, form, experience, style, theatre, techniques DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-13-05 Publication date: May 31 st 2023

The Soviet East European Policy in the Arabic Press on the Eve of the World War II (August — December 1939)

This paper analyzes Arabic newspaper and magazine publications devoted to the assessment of the USSR foreign policy towards the East European countries after the signing of the Soviet-German non-aggression treaty of August 23, 1939. The article presents the opinions of Arab journalists and writers about the prerequisites and consequences of the signing of the so-called «Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact», the peculiarities of relations between Moscow and Berlin in the end of 1939, the reasons for the invasion of the Red Army in Poland, as well as the motives that prompted the Soviet leadership to strengthen its presence in the Baltic region. It is concluded that many authoritative Arabic newspapers and magazines, despite a dependence on the Western European information agenda, sought to independently comprehend the actions of the Soviet government in different parts of Europe, sometimes even emphasizing the forced nature of an aggressive and ultimatum policy. At the same time, it is impossible to talk about the existence of a dominant position on this problem. Arab authors frequently criticized the military and political actions of the Soviet government in the autumn-winter of 1939. It should be added that the volume and number of articles published in the press testify to the true interest of the Middle Eastern publics in the state of affairs in the distant Soviet Union.

Prostheses of disability: Islamic fundamentalism and the disabled body in postcolonial Arab fiction

This essay focuses on the representational relationship between disability and Islamic fundamentalism in select contemporary postcolonial literary texts by Arab authors. The essay draws mainly on critical disability theory on...

How cranial surgery was performed in Italy during the centuries after the Roman Empire but before the rise of the medieval universities: Integrating paleopathology and medical history

How cranial surgery was performed in Italy during the centuries after the Roman Empire but before the rise of the medieval universities: Integrating paleopathology and medical history

Comparative Study on Advertising as a Means of Communications; its Issues and Characteristics

This article is meant to provide some initial notions, materials, and concept for the study of advertising communication. It draws on advertising communication definitions. I analyzed vary definitions of advertising communications for English, Russian, and Arabic authors. I committed to bridging the gap between the huge body of research on advertising communications definitions. I am hoping that this lays a solid enough foundation for researchers to dig deeper into some of the issues brought up. The characteristics of advertising communication are particularly explained in the second half of the article. We need to understand how advertising communications work in order to arm ourselves with knowledge about practical forms of social communication. Advertising communications have an impact on our lives, our perspectives, and feelings. In addition to introducing researchers to the most crucial definitions of advertising communications, this article aims to teach them how to study, research, and investigate this field of communication as well as how it influences and shapes our social lives.

On the Dangers of International Maritime Trade in the Tang Era (The Incidents of Genocide of the Arab-Persian Population of China in 760 and 879)

At the end of the Tang Empire (618–907), the universally recognized “golden age” of imperial China, the country entered a long period of socio-political and ethnic turmoil. The broader set of problems associated with the An Lushan uprising (755–763) is widely known — this civilizational catastrophe marked a turning point in the development of the dynasty and, by impacting all aspects of a powerful empire, caused the sun to start setting on Tang China. Still, many episodes remain relatively unexplored, among them the crises that befell Arab-Persian communities in southern China, which fell victim to the echoes of the An Lushan and Huang Chao uprisings (878–884), which also aimed to put an end to the Tang Dynasty. In layman’s Asian studies and public consciousness, the tragedies that occurred in Yangzhou and Guangzhou a little more than a century apart and took the form of largescale massacres of foreign merchants of Arab and Persian descent are often taken out of context and extrapolated to the entire system of interactions between China and foreigners — in particular, Muslims from West Asia arriving in the ports of the Tang Empire. This article seeks to place these dramatic events in a tighter historical context. Part of the difficulty here lies in the absence of Chinese sources about the Guangzhou massacre, known to researchers only from reports by Arab authors. The paper aims to consider some of the pre-requisites of these incidents, showing the role of Arab-Persian merchants not only as victims of violence by rebels and locals alike, but also by analyzing their own raid on Guangzhou at the very beginning of the events in question. The author also warns against simple projections around conflicts in China’s coastal cities because these sunset episodes of the Tang Dynasty do not extrapolate well to later history.

A Multidimensional Comparative Analysis of MENA and International English Research Article Abstracts in Applied Linguistics

By implementing Biber’s multidimensional analysis (MDA), the present study explored the linguistic co-occurrence patterns of English research article abstracts written by native speakers of Arabic authors residing in the Arab World and international authors from different contexts. The study analyzed three specialized corpora of 300 English abstracts in the field of applied linguistics. Each corpus comprised 100 abstracts named as Middle Eastern Arabs, North African Arabs (MENA), and international authors. Several linguistic features were extracted and tagged using Nini’s Multidimensional Analysis Tagger (MAT). Then, six dimensions representing several communicative functions were identified after conducting factor analysis. Overall, the study showed that the MENA Arabs abstracts tended to be more evaluative and currently information-focused, while the international abstracts showed more informational density features and narrative style. Finally, the study suggests pedagogical implications for raising the international community’s awareness of writing abstracts with linguistic features.

Sources and studies on the historical geography of ancient and medieval settlements in the Syr Darya, Talas, and Semirechye areas

The article reveals information from Chinese, Arabic and Persian sources on the historical geography of ancient and medieval settlements in Syr Darya, Talas and Semirechye areas. It also reports on the introduction of this information into academic circulation, as well as on the scientists’ judgments regarding these sources. Thus, the article covers the official written sources included in The Twenty-four Histories, travel notes of such travellers as Xuánzàng, Jiǎ Dān, Dù Huán, works by medieval Arab authors Ibn Khordadbeh, Ibn al-Faqih, Qudama ibn Ja'far, al-Balkhi, Ibn Hawqal, Al-Maqdisi, al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamaawi, and later works in Persian by Ala ad-Din Atâ-Malek Juvayni, Rashid al-Din, Jamal Karshi, Muhammad Haydar Dulati and Sharafeddin Ali Yazdi all related to ancient cities and settlements in the Syr Darya, Talas, Chu, Semirechye areas, and Eastern Tian-Shan. Accentuating these works, the authors analyze their potential and reliability, the complementarity of the data given and their unique features. Furthermore, the article presents source data about Kazakhstan and adjacent territories, namely about Eastern Tian-Shan and Kashgaria, and ancient cities along Syr Darya , collected by world’s academics, and shows the advantages and disadvantages of historical and geographical research based on this data. Such analysis contributes to further development of source study and historiography, which has originated in domestic science relatively recently and is now actively developing. The article analyses works by Michael Yang de Gu, Song Xian, V.Minorsky, H.Yule, Zhang Xingliang, Feng Chengjun, Cen Zhongmian, Zhou Liankuan, Th.Watters, V.V.Barthold, A.G.Malyavkin, P.Pelliot, A.M.Belenitsky, E.Chavannes, S.L.Volin, Matsuda Hisau, B.E.Komekov, R.B.Komekova, et alia.

Home in the Poetry of Saudi Arabia Poets: Abdus-Salam Hafeth an Example of a Distinguished Arab (3)

<p>With particular reference to the Saudi poet Abdus-Salam Hashem Hafeth, this study tries to shed light on some literary characteristics of modern Saudi Arabic poetry. It specifically focuses on the concept of homeland as an illustration of the status of modern Saudi Arabic poetry. One may argue that Arabic poetry is in a good place right now among Arab authors, critics, and poets. By using the poet's magnificent city as a representation of his affection for his big country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the researcher attempts to demonstrate the poet's intelligence by showing his gorgeous city as a symbol of his love.</p><p>An introduction starts the study, then, it analyzes the subtitle Arabic Poetry: The Tongue of the Arabs. Afterward, a brief analysis of Glimpse at Eternal Saudi Poetry and the Conception of Home in Saudi Poetry. The study's primary section employs a critical-analytical method to evaluate Abdus-Salam Hafeth's poem Nostalgia, Oh My Home. The examination of the poem concentrates on the idea of home as its central theme and covers verse lines nine through eleven. Finally, the research comes to a brief conclusion with some remarks.</p>