Ceyhun Arslan’s monograph, “The Ottoman Canon and the Construction of Turkish and Arabic Literatures” (Edinburgh University Press, 2025) is a comparative overview of how Ottoman Turkish and Arabic texts contribute to the body of work that can be described as the “Ottoman canon” or the “Ottoman literary reservoir.” The book utilizes the practice of close textual reading of Ottoman Turkish and Arabic primary sources within the Tanzimat in the Ottoman context, and the nahda in the Arab context. Arslan analyzes these texts through their common themes and “afterlives,” independent from geographical location, literary movements, or historical time period, and in conversation with each other. In showing how the Turkish and Arabic texts engaged with each other, and with the larger Ottoman canon, Arslan exposes the literary and cultural domains that do not necessarily align with political power hierarchies. He then calls for rewriting literary history by moving beyond nationalist and disciplinary divisions (such as classical vs. modern or Arabic vs. Turkish) and by recognizing the multilingual, imperial, and translational character of the Ottoman canon.

This research is motivated by the pervasive dominance of contemporary materialistic culture which creates the phenomenon of simulacra, where transcendental values are often obscured by shallow imagery that has lost its referential reference to the divine. In response to this spiritual crisis, this study aims to uncover the systematic construction of religiosity in the classic poem Ayya Man Yadda’il Fahm by Al-Hariri through the triadic semiotic approach of Charles Sanders Peirce. The research method employed is a descriptive qualitative approach utilizing the interactive model analysis procedure of Miles, Huberman, and Saldana, which includes data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification. The results show that the sign mechanism in the poem is massively dominated by Index signs which have physical causality relationships, particularly within the indicators of Piety (Takwa) and Repentance (Tobat). Al-Hariri strategically utilizes biological "bluffing" through irrefutable existential facts, such as the appearance of gray hair as a sign of aging and the absolute certainty of death, to force the reader into an immediate confrontation with eschatological reality. The research conclusion confirms that the dominance of these indexical signs functions as an effective social critique instrument to dismantle the simulacra of modern culture through a profound spiritual shock effect. This approach provides a more precise and scientific analytical depth than previous stylistic or linguistic studies because it is capable of dissecting how the triadic sign structure—Representament, Object, and Interpretant—transforms mortal biological objects into a semiotic means to understand the eternal Essence of Allah. Therefore, this study offers a new perspective in understanding classical Arabic literature as a relevant medium for contemporary character education and spiritual awakening.

ABSTRACT The present research study focuses primarily on the common challenges of translation strategies and their negative consequences on comparative literature studies. The problem addressed in the present study centers on the challenges posed by translation methods that create certain obstacles in comparative literature studies. By the way, they explore how urgent it is to develop literary translation strategies for the sake of having valuable results of investigations and treasury findings of Arabic literature and culture throughout the world, and by the way, being perfectly recognized in the world’s literatures and cultures on an equal footing. As a matter of fact, the research study can help translation specialists and experts as well as professors to do intensive studies in this regard on the one hand, and on the other, the literary comparatists will be aware of certain problems and consequently they will make sure of the poetic text details (form and content + denotatively and connotatively) even from the source text – taking help from its bilingual native speakers. The reason fundamentally lies in the significance of fair comparison not only between two literary works or two poems but also between two cultures and societies for literature is being defined as the mirror of life, the mirror of society, the mirror of culture, and the aesthetic reflection of situations and the way people introduce their poetic imageries to be effectively attractive and efficiently influential on their audience or readers.

This study aims to explore the semantics of primary Arabic literature. It compares insights from modern embryology with the texts of the Quran and Hadith. Furthermore, it will attempt to extract key findings that align with modern medical knowledge and authentic religious texts. The semantics of the verse on fetal development in the mother's womb go through several distinct stages. The word "nutfah" (a drop of sperm), which is then transformed into a clot (alaqah), and then into a lump of flesh (mudghah), which takes place over a period of one hundred and twenty days. After this, the bones form and are covered with flesh, culminating in the breath of the soul into the fetus. Some researchers suggest that human development occurs over a period of eighty-four days, while others extend this period to the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy. However, most contemporary scholars interpret the stage after mudghah, when bones begin to develop and become covered with flesh, followed by the stage in which the fetus acquires the ability to survive outside the womb.

ABSTRACT The outbreak of the Great War in 1914 turned some of the territories of the Ottoman Empire into a battlefield, effectively sealing its fate. A political entity that lasted from the fourteenth to the early twentieth century, the empire essentially disintegrated in the span of four years, bringing its former Middle Eastern holdings under British and French military administration, as Occupied Enemy Territory (OETA.) The devastating outcome of the Great War triggered both grief and defiance, but also high hopes and expectations for rejuvenation among the region’s inhabitants. An intriguing prism into those times is provided by the writings of Mikhail Naimy (1889–1988), a Lebanese-American poet, author, and philosopher considered a pillar of modern Arabic literature, a key member of the New York-based Pen League émigré “writers’ guild,” and a contributor to the Arabic literary Nahda (awakening or renaissance) movement. With the outbreak of the war, Naimy, then living in the U.S, was drafted into the American army and sent to the Normandy front in France. There, he came face to face with the veritable butchery that was the Great War, the horrors of mass killing, stirring in him feelings of contempt for power and violence. Naimy channeled these sentiments toward the Middle Eastern front, which in the war’s aftermath fell to Anglo-French control. This article analyzes Naimy’s “anti-war” work, heretofore largely overlooked in traditional scholarship, thus ensconcing it within the historical and cultural context of the time, further enhancing Naimy’s significance as an “avant-gardist” in modern Arabic literature. What was Naimy’s attitude toward the Ottoman Empire, Western civilization, or the idea of nationalism? what was his vision of an “Arab renewal?” Addressing these question sheds light on the intellectual activity of Arabophone émigré writers in North America, hence contributing to both diaspora studies and Nahda studies.

Context, as the environment in which language is used, has a relatively wide scope. It includes not only the narrow context constructed by language units such as words, sentences and texts, but also the broad context composed of non-linguistic factors such as social background, cultural traditions and stylistic environment. Contextual culture refers to all the cultural elements involved in both the narrow and broad contexts, which play an important role in semantic expression and effect presentation. All Arabic and Chinese examples cited in this paper are sourced from the Library of Chinese Classics: Chin P'ing Mei bilingual edition, translated by Arabic literature expert Zhang Hongyi and published by China Translation & Publishing House in October 2017. Abridgments in the text have been duly noted. Based on Hall's theory of contextual culture, this paper divides the contextual culture in the novel Jin Ping Mei into three dimensions: material contextual culture, poetic contextual culture and dialectal contextual culture, and explores the translation methods and the resulting expressive effects in different contextual cultural situations, aiming to further promote the understanding and resonance between Chinese and Arabic languages and cultures.

The Orientalists were interested in studying the Arab and Islamic civilization as the greatest civilizations in the Middle Ages without dispute, to form their studies a war in which all kinds of charges and suspicions, the Orientalists from west to east have been fennel edited differently and their solution and intellectual tendencies to fight the Holy Quran in order to achieve two main objectives: to reduce the value of the Holy Quran, to weaken its status among Muslims and prevent the leakage of the principles of the Holy Quran and its ideas to their skin, to lose the Torah and the Gospels credibility and legitimacy and legitimacy. Many of the religious motives that centered around the Holy Quran because of the danger it posed to the facts contrary to what was stated in the Torah and the Gospels because the Holy Quran gave healing solutions to all the issues that Judaism and Christianity were unable to express just opinion on, and thus characterized the studies and orientalist writings about the Holy Qur'an by exaggerating the uncertainty and many assumptions, and relying on the weak opinions and abnormal of readings and similar verses, they believe history and do not believe the Holy Quran, they consider it a science or a subject on which different rules of the scientific method are conducted. From the study, research and analysis of the mere emotions, but considered him a accused standing before his judges and perhaps their ignorance of the secrets of the Arabic language was a reason for their non-subjectness, and thus varied the motives of the movement of Orientalism, as we find the motives of the movement of Orientalism, as we find the motives of the colonial, political, economic and scientific, and this arrangement is intended because the scientific motive is the last motive, which reflected the diversity of the means of the movement of Orientalism all their means based on scientific efforts that were mocked by orientalists for the studies of Arab literature and Islamic heritage to cover their failure

General Background: Artistic imagery is a central element of rhetoric that translates abstract thought into perceptible expression within Arabic literary tradition. Specific Background: In Nahj al-Balagha, the wisdom of Imam Ali (peace be upon him) presents a distinctive rhetorical model grounded in figurative and sensory representation. Knowledge Gap: Despite previous rhetorical studies, limited research has examined the aesthetic structure and integrated functions of artistic imagery in his aphoristic rulings through a focused descriptive-analytical approach. Aims: This study analyzes the composition, types, and aesthetic, semantic, and persuasive roles of artistic imagery in Imam Ali’s wisdom. Results: The analysis shows that simile, metaphor, metonymy, allegory, and sensory, mental, and kinetic imagery embody moral and philosophical meanings in concrete forms, creating a unified expressive system that combines beauty, intellectual depth, and value-oriented guidance. Novelty: The study demonstrates that artistic imagery constitutes the structural core of Imam Ali’s rhetoric through an organic unity between form and ethical content. Implications: The findings position Nahj al-Balagha as a complex literary and rhetorical model for aesthetic and critical studies in Arabic and Islamic literature. Highlights • Identifies sensory and cognitive figurations as structural components of aphoristic discourse.• Demonstrates integration of moral philosophy with figurative composition.• Establishes proverbial sayings as a comprehensive rhetorical system. Keywords Artistic Imagery; Rhetorical Aesthetics; Nahj Al-Balagha; Imam Ali; Arabic Literature

Deixis plays a central role in establishing reference and meaning in narrative discourse, particularly in literary texts that rely on dialogue and shifting perspectives. Despite its analytical potential, deixis has received limited attention within forensic linguistics–oriented literary studies, especially in Arabic short fiction. This study addresses this gap by applying deixis analysis to uncover referential and symbolic clues in the short story Qatilu Qadim by Naguib Mahfouz, with the aim of identifying the murderer of the character Qahiri. Employing a descriptive qualitative approach, the study uses observation and systematic note-taking based on Stephen C. Levinson’s theory of deixis, integrated with principles of forensic linguistics. Deictic expressions related to person, time, space, and social relations are analyzed to trace patterns of proximity, access, and control within the narrative. Legal interpretation of the crime is discussed in relation to the sociocultural and legal context relevant to the author. The findings reveal that Qahiri’s murderer is Abduh Mawahib, his servant, who maintained continuous physical and social proximity to the victim during a period of isolation from relatives and colleagues. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of deixis analysis as a forensic linguistic tool in literary investigation and highlights its pedagogical value in Arabic language education by fostering critical reading and analytical reasoning.

This study aims to explore Fadwa Tuqan's religious expression by examining the relationship between the Qur'an and the poem “Awhamun Fiy Zaitun” through Julia Kristeva's intertextual approach. The focus of this study is on how the poet expresses her religiosity in her poetry. The method used is a descriptive, qualitative method with content analysis techniques designed for library research. The data are analyzed to identify patterns of intertextuality, expressed as intertextual principles, that connect the two texts: poetry and the Qur’an. The results of this study found that Fadwa Tuqan absorbed elements of the Qur'an into the poem “Awhamun Fiy Zaitun” through the principles of dominant transformation, modification, expansion, defamiliarization, existence and excerpts so that the symbol زيتون became the basis for the title of this poem. This reflects the expression of religiosity as a Muslim in Palestine who makes the Qur'an the source of her religiosity. Overall, this study provides insight into the creative relationship between sacred texts and Tuqan's poetry. The implications enrich modern Arabic literature as a metaphysical dialogue with God and provide a theoretical and practical contribution to the study of Palestinian poetry.

Abstract To what extent can the two versions of Rabeh Sebaa’s novel Fahla, written in Algerian Arabic and published in two different scripts, be considered self-translations? While the author claims that the text is identical, written in the same language but in two different alphabets, the traces of self-translation and the multilingual dimension of the novel in the two versions of Fahla lead us to conclude that the text is not exactly the same. This article sketches out some answers and reflections on the degree of visibility of self-translation as well as the creative linguistic strategies in the Algerian contemporary literature.

This research examines the representations and influence of Arabic literature in the poetry of Muhammad Iqbal, renowned as the poet of the East. Despite never traveling to Arab lands, Iqbal's profound mastery of the Arabic language and literature profoundly shaped his poetic style, themes, and symbolism. The study employs a literary-analytical approach to identify how Iqbal drew from classical Arabic poetry, Quranic texts, and Arab cultural history. Through close reading of poems such as "The Mosque of Córdoba" and "Khidr-e-Rah," the analysis reveals his extensive use of Arabic vocabulary, adaptation of motifs like ruins and longing (al-atlal), and symbolic references to Arab figures and history. The findings demonstrate that Iqbal creatively reshaped these elements to formulate a modern poetic discourse centered on Islamic revival and civilizational renewal. His work thus serves as a bridge between classical Arabic literary traditions and contemporary Islamic thought. This study highlights the centrality of Arabic heritage in Iqbal's vision and contributes to understanding the intertextual connections within the Islamic literary sphere.

This study examines the use of indirect expressions in Nizar Qabbani’s poem “Uḥibbuki Uḥibbuki wal-Bāqiyātu Taʾtī” to uncover the multidimensional meanings of love conveyed through symbolic and figurative language. As a leading figure in modern Arabic poetry, Qabbani employs indirect expressions to represent emotional depth, psychological nuance, and humanistic values within the experience of love. This study aims to identify the types of indirect expressions used in the poem namely talwih, ta‘ridh, ramz, and ima’/isyarah and to analyze how these expressions articulate the dimensions of love proposed by Erich Fromm, including care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge. The scope of this study is limited to a stylistic and textual analysis of a single poem using the framework of balaghah and humanistic psychology.This research uses a qualitative content analysis method. The primary data consist of Qabbani’s poetic text, while the secondary data are drawn from scholarly works on balaghah, modern Arabic poetry, and Erich Fromm’s theory of love. Data collection was conducted through close reading and systematic note-taking, followed by data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The findings reveal that Qabbani’s indirect expressions form layered meanings of love that reflect Fromm’s concept of productive love. These expressions enhance the poem’s aesthetic quality while simultaneously deepening its psychological and humanistic resonance. This study contributes to the field of modern Arabic literary studies by integrating rhetorical analysis with psychological theory. Future research is encouraged to examine a broader corpus of Qabbani’s poetry, apply comparative approaches, or employ interdisciplinary perspectives to further explore representations of love in modern Arabic literature.

In Arabic language pedagogy, students often demonstrate adequate grammatical accuracy yet struggle to produce introductions that are thematically coherent, rhetorically engaging, and contextually appropriate, reflecting a limited integration of classical rhetorical principles in modern writing instruction. This study explores the pedagogical value of Barāʾat al-Istihlāl, a classical rhetorical device traditionally used in Arabic literature to craft meaningful openings, within the context of modern Arabic language teaching. Conducted at Pondok Pesantren Darullughah Wadda’wah with 30 male Aliyah-level students, the research employed a qualitative design involving classroom observations, focus group discussions, and interviews. Findings reveal that practicing rhetorical openings not only enhanced students’ ability to write coherent and stylistically engaging introductions but also enriched their vocabulary, with learners acquiring ten to fifteen new lexical items per session. Furthermore, the practice cultivated emotional sensitivity, training students to align openings with appropriate moods and contexts such as using uplifting language for joyful occasions or solemn expressions for serious ones thereby fostering both linguistic awareness and rhetorical taste (al-Ḥass al-Lughawī wa al-Dhawq al-Balāghī). The study concludes that Barāʾat al-Istihlāl is a powerful pedagogical strategy that bridges classical rhetorical heritage with contemporary education, offering dual benefits for written composition and oral communication. Implications suggest its integration into writing classes and public speaking training to enhance students’ linguistic competence, cultural sensitivity, and persuasive ability.

This study examines students’ interpretive bias toward Arabic lexical terms in Qur’anic gender-related verses through the perspective of thematic exegesis (tafsīr maudhū‘ī). The main issue lies in the tendency to reproduce key terms such as jilbāb (Q. al-Aḥzāb [33]:59), ḍaraba (Q. al-Nisā’ [4]:34), and qawwāmūna (Q. al-Nisā’ [4]:34) from classical exegesis with patriarchal nuances, often without contextual critique. The research employed a qualitative combined design, integrating field research and content analysis. The approaches used were thematic exegesis and Arabic lexical semantics. Textual data were collected through a reading and note-taking method from primary sources, including the Qur’an, classical tafsirs (al-Ṭabarī, al-Qurṭubī, Ibn Kathīr), and contemporary interpretations (al-Manār, al-Miṣbāḥ, Fazlur Rahman, Amina Wadud, and Quraish Shihab). Field data were obtained through in-depth interviews with 12 students from different study programs (Islamic Family Law, Qur’anic Studies, Arabic Language Education, Arabic Literature, and Islamic Education), selected using stratified purposive sampling. Data validation was conducted through source and method triangulation as well as peer discussion. The analysis followed Miles and Huberman’s model, consisting of condensation, display, and conclusion. The findings reveal that lexical meanings in gender-related verses show diverse interpretations across classical and contemporary exegesis. Classical interpretations emphasize patriarchal aspects, while contemporary interpretations highlight contextual and egalitarian dimensions. Field research indicates that most students reproduce classical patriarchal readings, although a small number have attempted to present more egalitarian and contextual interpretations. These findings underline the urgency of strengthening critical exegesis literacy and gender awareness in Qur’anic studies, so that Qur’anic interpretation can be more just, humanistic, and aligned with the universal values of justice in Islam.

Semantic studies of Arabic literature, in this case, hadith texts, face the problem of Mushkil al-Hadith (Problematic Interpretation of Hadith). One of the leading causes of Mushkil al-Hadith is the development of the semantics of words or phrases in Arabic. This research aims to solve the problem of Mushkil al-Hadith by tracing the development of the semantics of problematic terms. This research uses descriptive-analytical methodology, which involves the description and analysis of words and their meanings. This research examines how the meaning of these words in our contemporary linguistic reality has deviated from that of the Prophet's hadith as understood by previous scholars, both hadith experts and lexicographers. One example is the hadith of Tamim al-Dari, the Prophet Muhammad said: "Religion is al-nasihah." Here, al-nasihah means sincerity, not, as is commonly understood today, "a statement that calls for goodness and forbids evil." For three centuries before the Hijrah, its meaning revolved around sincerity in giving advice and similar contexts. Other examples discussed include the problem of singing girls, the problem of the Prophet drinking nabidh (wine), the issue of giving honor in charity, and the problem of dipping flies when they fall into a container. This research concludes that semantic development is a key factor in solving Mushkil al-Hadith and that words that acquire new semantic content do not always lose their original meaning.

The purpose of this study is to look at the novel Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih by applying the Cultural Criticism- looking at the novel as a creative text, but beyond the aesthetic storytelling, the cultural and ideological frameworks underlying the modern Arabic discourse. This study is premised on the assumption that the novel is an open cultural dialogue which is a conflict of identity between the East and the West, the conflict between self and other in the context of the postcolonial society. Theoretical framework covers important terms language like cultural criticism and identity, and the applied part explains the novel in terms of four primary dimensions, namely; identity and selfhood, spatial symbolism, image of women and environmental structure in an attempt to identify how these dimensions lead to the creation of cultural meaning throughout the text. The results illustrate that Tayeb Salih manages to turn his story into the polyphonic space that integrates the aesthetic and intellectual resorting to stating the crisis of the Arab man trapped between the belonging and the alienation. In this way, Season of Migration to the North is an important paradigm of Arabic literature that could pose questions to itself and its cultural roots, putting them through the prism of the reality of the modern world.

This article aims to examine the author’s worldview toward betrayal in the short story Sirrul Marquise. Before exploring the author’s worldview, this study first discusses the historical and social background that underlies the creation of the work. The study employs a descriptive qualitative research method by textual data analysis and interpretation it through the lens of Lucien Goldmann’s genetic structuralism theory. The data consist of primary sources in the form of the contemporary Arabic short story titled Sirrul Marquise and secondary data obtained from related journal articles and previous studies. Through this method, the researcher found that Nabil Al-Othmani, the author of “Sirrul Marquise,” was influenced by Morocco’s social conditions, particularly those related to power struggles and the territorial conflict in the Sub-Saharan region. The short story reflects the author’s worldview on betrayal through four main dimensions: betrayal of social institutions, parental betrayal of children, betrayal of moral and humanitarian values, and betrayal of oneself. Each form of betrayal illustrates a deeper social criticism against the moral decay and crisis of trust in modern Moroccan society. This research contributes to expanding the discourse on betrayal in literary studies, especially within the framework of genetic structuralism, by connecting individual moral collapse to collective social structures. The findings also provide implications for further application of genetic structuralism in modern Arabic literature studies, particularly in works addressing postcolonial identity and social conflict. It is hoped that this study can fill the research gap concerning betrayal in macro social contexts and inspire future studies to explore Goldmann’s theory more comprehensively in various literary works.

Abstract: This article examines the representation of the desert in the Arab imagination through an ecocritical reading of Barzakh (1994) by the Mauritanian novelist Moussa Ould Ebnou. After situating the work within the literary tradition of the desert, ranging from classical Arabic poetry, where the desert constitutes a major identity and aesthetic space, to the contemporary “desert novel”—the study highlights the evolution of this space, which has shifted from being a cultural matrix to a territory increasingly undermined by political, economic, and environmental upheavals. The analysis shows how Barzakh renews this heritage by placing the desert at the heart of a historical, mythical, and futuristic narrative, where it becomes a full-fledged character threatened by pollution, corruption, and industrial exploitation. The ecocritical approach reveals that the work brings together cultural memory and environmental critique, thus contributing to global debates on ecosystem preservation while offering a distinctive Arab perspective on ecology. Keywords: Desert - Arabic literature - Desert literature – Ecocriticism - Moussa Ould Ebnou.

This paper discusses digital disconnection and the search for identity by comparing Don DeLillo’s White ‎Noise, published in 1985 with some Arabic novels that were published after 2000. DeLillo’s novel is one ‎of the most important works of postmodernism as it presents a reality that has been overtly saturated by ‎media abundance and technological revolution where human experience becomes commodified. ‎Contemporary Arabic literature, Iraqi, and Arab fiction after 2000 spoke about similar issues in different ‎sociopolitical contexts. Works like Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi show the reader how ‎technology and media can be associated with violence, memories, and feelings of alienation that take place ‎within a postwar environment. By contrast, these narratives bring out similarities and differences in the ‎representation of identity in technologically influenced societies. The paper thus becomes a study of how ‎American and Arabic writers respond to the same questions: In what ways does technology reshape self-‎identity? Which media narratives replace individual memory and identity? The comparative framework ‎demonstrates that despite coming from different backgrounds, both literary traditions engage with the same ‎universal problem – technological intervention in human identity – thus foregrounding the way ‎comparative literature maps cross-cultural modes of estrangement even as it registers cultural specificity.‎