Arabic Literature Research Articles

The Narrative Experience of Palestinian Minority Writers in Israel: The Case of Suhayl Kīwān

Abstract The current study identifies the most important stages of Suhayl Kīwān’s narrative experience by adopting an applied semiotic model made up of three stages. These three stages categorize the narrative experience of Palestinian minority writers in Israel. The beginning stage demonstrates the period in which writers are still conforming to the normative foundations of local writing styles and themes. Writers at this stage often avoid taking literary risks that might jeopardize the public approval of their texts. The second is the transitional stage wherein writers expand their use of literary forms, styles, and techniques and begin to take literary risks that somewhat distinguish them in the world of Arabic literature. The third and final stage is the maturity stage in which writers demonstrate that they have achieved their independent creative identity by uniquely excelling in one or more literary forms, styles, or techniques. The current study traces these stages by taking Suhayl Kīwān as a case that exemplifies the narrative experience of Palestinian minority writers in Israel. It further shows how satirical writing plays a significant role in constructing the independent creative identity of Palestinian minority writers.

Parnasianism: An Attempt Existence Aesthetics To Literature

This article discusses one of the sects that emerged in the development of Arabic literature, namely Parnasianism (Barnasiyah). This research aims to discuss matters related to the flow of Parnasianism (Barnasiyah). both in terms of history, figures, vision and mission, urgency, characteristics and examples of application. This research is a descriptive qualitative method, The data collection method used the listening method with a follow up technique, namely the note taking technique. The results obtained from this study are history of the emergence and development of the Parnasianism (Barnasiyah). sect in the second half of the 19th century. The adherents of this sect holds that the most important thing about a work of literature is that its aesthetic is not bound by ethics, morals or religion. Because according to them, the purpose of art is for art itself and nothing else. And one of the figures who realised this flow was Nizar Qabbani in his poem entitled Asy-syaqiqatan

Cognate Object Constructions in Najdi Arabic: An HPSG Approach

Cognate object constructions (COCs) are known for their idiosyncratic properties in that they consist of an intransitive verb that takes an NP whose head is a verbal noun that is semantically and morphologically cognate to the verb. In Arabic literature, this topic is considered one of the understudied linguistic phenomena. Therefore, this paper attempts to contribute to the ongoing linguistic research by exploring COCs in one of the Arabic varieties, namely Najdi Arabic (NA). This paper illustrates the main properties that are shared by all COCs in NA. It also provides a theory-neutral description of the syntactico-semantic properties of one of the COC types, namely the particular event COC. In addition, it offers an analysis of the common core properties of all COCs and the syntactico-semantic properties of particular event COCs using the approach of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG).

ARABIC LITERATURE IN THE ISLAMIC PERIOD: SYI’IR AND NATSAR

Arabic literature during the Islamic period played a crucial role, serving as a central force in shaping the Muslim community. This research aims to analyze the development of Arabic literature during the Islamic period (shadr Al-Islam) in the forms of syi’ir and natsar. It employs a qualitative descriptive research method with a literature review approach. Data were sourced from journals, books, notes, and other documents related to the development of Arabic literature during the Islamic period. Data were collected through documentation techniques and analyzed using qualitative data analysis methods, including data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The research findings indicate that the development of Arabic literature during the Islamic period manifested in the forms of poetry and prose, both of which were present in two periods: the era of the Prophet and the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. The main characteristics include the use of language styles that constantly remind of Allah, containing verses of qauliyah and kauniyah. These literary works uphold the principles of amar ma’ruf nahi munkar, enjoining good and forbidding evil, marked by deep compassion and wisdom, reflecting Islamic teachings. The themes often revolve around profound love and devotion to Allah, the Prophet, parents, and dedication to struggles in the path of God. This love extends to encompass all of Allah's creations, reflecting a holistic and inclusive worldview

Peripheral Orientalism and the Creation of Arab Literary Precursors in Quinteto de Mogador by Alberto Ruy Sánchez

This essay explores the intentio operis in the use of transatlantic bridges that are sometimes real, other times rhetorical, and others imaginary that Alberto Ruy Sánchez draws between his country and Morocco. It also looks at the representation of Moroccan space and women, arguing that Ruy Sánchez falls into exoticizing Orientalism with tints of colonial nostalgia, particularly when portraying Moroccan women. Finally, it explores how the author creates his own precursors through the quotes and literary references in his five novels. Presenting himself as a reader of Arab erotic literature and Sufi sacred texts, Ruy Sánchez suggests that he is rewriting classic literary texts, thus creating his own literary lineage and diachronically situating his work within a literary tradition that remains on the margins of Mexican national coordinates to approach, instead, the canon of Arabic literature. [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2023 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]

TRANSLATING TAYEB SALIH’S PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA AS REPRESENTED IN HIS NOVEL SEASON OF MIGRATION TO THE NORTH: A SEARCH FOR BELONGINGNESS

Tayeb Salih, a prominent British author of Arabic language and origin is regarded as a pioneer who carved an identity of African-Arab literature globally. Salih acclaimed in one of his interviews in the Arabic press that he attempted to reshape the East and West relationship conceived by the world. He stated that the West romanticizes the idea of the East-West interaction merely as an emotion whereas it is an unresolved conflict that leads a trauma related to loss of identity, belongingness, and existentialism (Salih, 1929). Denys Johnson-Davies, an accredited translator, credited with making Arabic literature accessible to readers of the English language, who also translated Salih’s Season of Migration to the North (1966) regards the author and this literary piece as an intelligent work on East-West conflict produced by any Western or non-Western author. Season of Migration to the North provides a tapestry of events, multi-layered interpretations, traumatic outbreaks, struggles to identify with the world and finally succumbing to the pain. It is not a simple story of physical migration and the life of an African on the European land. It is an embodiment of an emotional, spiritual, religious, and mental search for belongingness. This present research is an attempt to capture the journey of the protagonist Mustafa Saeed and his life from his birth as a slave in the then colony of Britain, Sudan to his migration to Britain as a free individual. The rollercoaster of events that shape him and his destiny. Did he manage to break the clutches of his birth and slavery? Did he attain freedom from his belongingness to a British colony? Did he get peace to fly away from his roots is what makes this novel an extremely viable research material. The authors attempt to explore the psychological trauma and translate the author’s search for belongingness and understand the East-West relationship from his perspective.

Perkembangan Kritik Sastra Arab Pada Masa Kontemporer: Faktor Kemakmuran, Metode Kritik, dan Kritikus

Abstract: The development of literary criticism in the Arab world has gone through a long process, where some methods also changed and developed along with the development of literary works in the Arab world. Not much different from the world of Arabic literature which has been echoed since the jahiliyah era, since that time also literary criticism began to surface. In the realm of Arabic literary criticism, classical literary criticism is the root that exerts an influence on contemporary literary criticism. The popularity of Arabic poetry became a stimulus for the birth of criticism to the point of giving birth to several figures with their own styles of criticism. This article aims to provide a glimpse into the journey of literary criticism in the contemporary period, by presenting some of the figures who struggled and were directly involved in the develoment process of contemporary literary criticism.Keywords: Contemporary, Literary, Criticism, Arabic

From Medieval Sacred Art to Modern Photography

Abstract In this study of image-making, it is argued that from the Middle Ages to the Modern period in Lebanon, coexistence between Christians and Muslims, who maintained contact alternately as a minority or dominant culture, was defined by fundamental ideas about sacred art, namely, the embodiment and depiction of the divine. The central premise holds that in Christianity paintings of a religious character are of importance because they reaffirm belief in the doctrine of incarnation, and thus Christ’s humanity. In Islam, by comparison, such art is idolatrous and deserving of censure. The opposite is asserted: God is invisible, and, therefore, paintings of the divine are impermissible. However, denunciation by Islamic scholars was not absolute; there was no disapproval if imagery did not violate Qur’anic proscription against idol-worship. A more nuanced discussion of the Arab literature demonstrates not only Muslim disavowal and episodes of iconoclasm, but also fascination with and commentary on Christian art. Such views informed Christian-Muslim debate over the value and validity of image-making in Modern-era Lebanon, which was further aroused by European developments in the science of optics, based partly on the works of Arab scientists. The advent of photography offered new ways of seeing the world, and discussion among Lebanese Muslim scholars focused on the efficacy and malevolence of optical technology in Arab society and culture. Outright condemnation of image-making was tempered by views condoning certain artistic practices.

Taḥlīl Tārīkh Ansyiṭah al-Tarjamah fi Al-Ālam al-Islāmī

In this context, this discussion covers the history of translation in the Islamic world, which can be divided into various periods including the Ancient Greek-Roman period, the era of Martin Luther, ancient times, the early Middle Ages, the dawn of modern civilization, the Western cultural era, the early modern era, the industrial revolution era, the end of the second millennium, and the 21st century. This research is of a descriptive qualitative nature, using a historical analysis approach to understand and examine events, processes, or phenomena in a historical context. It aims to identify, analyze, and comprehend the changes and developments that have occurred in the field of translation over time in the Islamic world. The primary focus is on the Abbasid Dynasty, which ruled in Baghdad, and the significant role of translation in integrating foreign influences, such as Greek, Persian, and Indian, into Islamic intellectual culture. Translation of scientific, philosophical, and literary works from Greek, Persian, and Sanskrit into Arabic marked the initial step in the development of rich Arabic literature, including works by renowned figures like Aristotle and Plato. This period created a thriving center of Arabic literature and demonstrated the crucial role of translation in bringing forth a variety of intellectual insights.

Rising Star Paradigms: Encoding Seasonal Times in Arabic Sajʿa Rhymes

An ancient art form which may have predated classical Arabic poetry, Arabic rhymed prose—a piece of which is called sajʿa—contains a rhyme at the end of each phrase, but no internal meter, making it easy to memorize and transmit orally. This form of Arabic literature found many uses in pre-Islamic times for orations and in early Islamic times for both religious formulaic practices and secular aphorisms. Among these was a growing set of maxims that used rhymed prose to describe the seasonal conditions that occurred at the heliacal rising of a star or asterism. These pieces of rhymed prose addressed changes in the weather itself, as well as floral, faunal, and social behaviour that occurred during this time. This collection of astronomically-inspired rhymed prose grew over time to incorporate more star names and new rhymed phrases within many of the pieces. This paper draws from original Abbasid-era Arabic sources—including Quṭrub (d. 821 CE), Ibn Qutayba (d. 889 CE) and his contemporary Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 896 CE), and al-Marzūqī (d. 1030 CE)—to provide insight into the content and structure of these pieces of rhymed prose, using the stars of the Scorpion (al-ʿaqrab) as a representative sample.

Evidence of the influence of the Iliad on Arabic literature

This paper explores the influence of the Iliad text which composed during VIII century B.C on Arabic Literature by focusing on four main points, first: how the Arab poets knew the text of the Iliad and how they tried to borrow lines from it, especially during Abbasid era, secondly: what is the relationship between Iliad and the Arab folk biography, and also the relationship between Oral narration and improvisation on both literatures. Thirdly: the influence of the Iliad on the Concept of Arabic tournament appeared in Antara's character who mixed between love and courage in his poems. Finally: the influence of the Iliad on modern Arabic literature, by discussing the different evidence that modern poets took from the Iliad once by using opening dictions, expressions, myths, characters and so on.

The Sufi Writing Tradition in Arabic

Abstract This paper addresses Sufi writing in its contemporary third/ninth-fifth/eleventh century CE context, looking at how writing was shaped by other Sufi and non-Sufi forms. Beginning with an overview of the Sufi writing tradition in Arabic during Sufism's formative period, between the early third/ninth and the late sixth/twelfth centuries, the article goes on to discuss early Sufi piety and the ways it challenged common conceptions and epistemological paradigms of early medieval Islamic thought. Looking at the mid fourth/tenth century case of al-Niffarī shows how mystical piety interacterd with a deep-rooted tradition in Arabic literature to forge the unique dynamics of what we know today as Sufi writing.

Extracting the Historical Authenticity of Numbers in the Sīra: The Case of Khadījah’s Marriage to the Prophet Muḥammad

There have been numerous studies devoted to examining the historical content of the Sīra. These studies have varied from being cautious of minute and specific details, such as the specifics of conquests, to full-blown scepticism of the entire tradition. This article seeks to contribute to this discussion by examining one of the most ubiquitously held positions on age, that of Khadījah marrying the Prophet Muhammad at the age of 40. Based on the earliest narratives and contextual information, we argue that this age is unlikely. Instead, this number serves more as a symbolic literary device because of the way it is used in contemporaneous Arabic literature. Aspects of her biography, such as the number of children she had with the Prophet, also make this older age less likely. However, this does not necessitate disregarding the Sīra tradition. On the contrary, we argue that by working closely with this tradition we are able to extract a far more likely age of 28.

The Translation Flow of Arabic Novels into English Over Time

The discipline of Translation Studies has been criticized for being limited to only Euro-American perspectives and cultures, and thus scholars have called for expanding the scope of study beyond the Western conceptualizations of translation. This paper attempts to fill that void in the knowledge of the translation archaeology of Arabic novels translated into English. It creates an up-to-date bibliography of Arabic novels translated into English published worldwide across three decades (1988–2018) by consulting the US Library of Congress global union library catalogue and Good­reads. The collected materials are presented across two major historical periods: the post-Nobel Prize phase (1988–August 2001) and the post-9/11 phase (September 2001–2018). The bibliography includes 277 translated Arabic novels. It identifies the main actors involved in the process of translation, namely the authors, translators, and publishers. In addition to the quantitative analysis of this bibliographical data, this study adopts a comprehensive model by Allen (1995) to apply qualitative analysis to identify the topics being selected for translation into English. The study reveals that an increase in the number of translated works does not necessarily correlate with a greater understanding of the source text culture. In fact, increased translation flows can signal a reinforcement of known cultural stereotypes in the target culture.

Review of Arabic Poetics: Aesthetic Experience in Classical Arabic Literature


 
 
 Arabic Poetics: Aesthetic Experience in Classical Arabic Literature. By Lara Harb. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. xviii + 298. $99.99 (cloth); $29.99 (paper); $18.49 (ebook).
 
 

The problematic of the term "receipt" between Arabic monetary heritage and modernist criticism

The arabiccritical area is teeming with terms and concepts translatedand transferred from Western criticism,but there are several problems that accompany these terms, such as their roots, their terms of reference, their intellectual load, their multiplicity of translations and their change of concept from one translation to another, One of the most important current terminology prevailing in modernist criticism is the term "receipt" that belongs to German criticism. So, our goal was to search for this contemporary monetary concept in the old Arabic monetary achievement and its roots. And how our monetary heritage is abundant with the treasures of knowledge that should be derived and invested in contemporary criticism. In fact, the term "receipt" is a term associated with the beginning of creativity in all literature, including Arabic literature,and it was found that it was associated with poetry and the Holy Quran, and that by reading them,it showed everything that could define its concept and the frameworks that could make it an independent Arabic concept, Although there is a partnership between old Arabic criticism and modernist criticism in some areas around this concept, there is something that cannot be compatible with the Arabic text in general and the revelation's texts in particular.

A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY OTTOMAN SOLUTION TO THE LIAR PARADOX BY ḪAṬĪBZĀDE MUḤYIDDĪN

AbstractThis paper deals with a solution to the infamous liar paradox, usually known in the Arabic literature as Maġlaṭat al-ǧaḏr al-aṣamm. The solution is raised by a fifteenth-century Ottoman treatise that is attributed, among others, to Ḫaṭībzāde Muḥyiddīn Efendī. The paper also compares it with the solution by the contemporary Persian philosopher, Ǧalāl al-Dīn al-Dawānī. The short treatise devoted to the paradox is one of the few works by Ottomans on the subject and it comprehensively addresses the paradox in its two forms. An analysis of the solution offered by the treatise to the paradox, the paper aims to bring Ottoman discussions of the liar to the attention of contemporary scholarship and contribute to filling the obvious gap in the literature on the paradox in Islamic thought.

Transnationalism and the Influence of Migrancy: A Critical Study of the Haiku Poem and the Overlapping of Literary Genres

The purpose of this study is to examine haiku poetry in Arabic literature as well as the issue of literary variety, and criticize it. Especially after the rapid spread of this poem in Arabic literature, also that It attracted writers both intentionally and frequently subconsciously, depending on what it was. Due to the haiku poem's problematic overlap with various literary genres, this article was compelled to pursue such tracks. This will be explained in the study's folds. Since poetry is the primary medium on which this study is focused, any representation of things of existence in poetic texts is natural. However, investing the same things of existence repeatedly in poetry attracts attention and gives the audience the impression that this concentration has implications and dimensions. Reading and the arts establish a certain discourse that the author of the book and the text itself desire.

Aqqād’s Poetry in the Critical Scale of Syed Qutb

The research aims to discuss how Syed Qutb has done the critical study of Aqqad’s Poetry and how he valued its status in his critical scale. Despite mutual agreement among Poets and Critics over Aqqād’s eminent place in Prose Literature and Criticism, there is a conflict upon his status in the realm of Poetry among Critics. Whereas some of the critics including Marun ‘Abood and Mahmud Mandur consider him an average poet, some others acknowledge his eminent place in the field of Poetry but at the same time they criticise the dominance of thoughts over emotions in his poetry and the leading one among them is his genius and favourite student, Syed Qutb, who availed of his long company. Keeping in view the same, the paper is an endeavour to assess Aqqad’s Poetry on the critical scale of Syed Qutb and specify his status in the Arabic Literature with overwhelming evidence and bright proof mentioned by Syed Qutb to prove his correct stance towards Aqqad’s Poetry. The analytical and critical methodology has been followed throughout the paper.

Kajian Historis: Corak Sastra Arab (Zaman Jahiliyah, Shadr Islam dan Umawiyah)

Abstract: This paper aims to examine the style of Arabic literature during the time of Jahiliyah, Shadr Islam (the beginning of Islam) and Umawiyah. The method used in this study is the analytical descriptive method, namely by describing how the form or pattern of Arabic literature during the time of Jahiliyah, Shadr Islam (the beginning of Islam) and Umawiyah. While the approach applied in this study is a historical approach, where researchers look for histories related to the style of Arabic literature during the Jahiliyah, Shadr Islam (the beginning of Islam) and Umawiyah. The results of this research are 1) in the Jahiliyah era, the style of Prose and Poetry in this era is almost the same, starting from the lafadznya which is clear and eloquent, has a deep meaning, rhymes. Prose at this time also consisted of Sermons, Testaments, Matsals, Hikmah, and Qissoh. 2) Shadr Islam In this age Prose and Poetry also developed, but Prose was much more developed than poetry. Especially in the Khutbah, this is because at this time the Khutbah is used to ignite the spirit of the warriors to fight to spread Islam. While poetry has not developed enough, this is because poets at this time are busy fighting and studying the Qur'an and hadith. So, in terms of meaning, imagination, lafadz, and language style do not achieve high dignity. Prose at this time included the Khutbah, Matsal, and Kitabah. 3) The Age of the Umayyad Dynasty, in this age Prose and Poetry are much developed rapidly compared to the previous two eras. This development was due to the emergence of political parties so that many sermons and poems developed to support their respective parties, and this became a source of income for poets. However, at this time poetry had begun to deviate from its original purpose of spreading Islam using good language, but after the establishment of the Umayyads they used the politics of violence and deceit which made it compulsory to buy oral poets. Prose at this time included the Khutbah, Rasail, and Kitabah which in terms of language imitated and decorated from the language style of the Qur'an which was smooth, clear, and had a deep meaning.