Arabic Stories Research Articles

Beyond Event-Centric Narratives: Advancing Arabic Story Generation with Large Language Models and Beam Search

In the domain of automated story generation, the intricacies of the Arabic language pose distinct challenges. This study introduces a novel methodology that moves away from conventional event-driven narrative frameworks, emphasizing the restructuring of narrative constructs through sophisticated language models. Utilizing mBERT, our approach begins by extracting key story entities. Subsequently, XLM-RoBERTa and a BERT-based linguistic evaluation model are employed to direct beam search algorithms in the replacement of these entities. Further refinement is achieved through Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA), which fine-tunes the extensive 3 billion-parameter BLOOMZ model specifically for generating Arabic narratives. Our methodology underwent thorough testing and validation, involving individual assessments of each submodel. The ROCStories dataset provided the training ground for our story entity extractor and new entity generator, and was also used in the fine-tuning of the BLOOMZ model. Additionally, the Arabic ComVE dataset was employed to train our commonsense evaluation model. Our extensive analyses yield crucial insights into the efficacy of our approach. The story entity extractor demonstrated robust performance with an F-score of 96.62%. Our commonsense evaluator reported an accuracy of 84.3%, surpassing the previous best by 3.1%. The innovative beam search strategy effectively produced entities that were linguistically and semantically superior to those generated using baseline models. Further subjective evaluations affirm our methodology’s capability to generate high-quality Arabic stories characterized by linguistic fluency and logical coherence.

Crosslingual Transfer Learning for Arabic Story Ending Generation

In the field of natural language processing, the task of generating story endings (SEG) requires not only a deep understanding of the narrative context but also the ability to formulate coherent conclusions. This study delves into the use of crosslingual transfer learning to address the challenges posed by the scarcity of Arabic data in SEG, proposing the utilization of extensive English story corpora as a solution. We evaluated the efficacy of multilingual models, such as mBART, mT5, and mT0, in generating Arabic story endings, assessing their performance in both zero-shot and few-shot scenarios. Despite the linguistic complexities of Arabic and the inherent challenges of crosslingual transfer, our findings demonstrate the potential of these multilingual models to transcend linguistic barriers, significantly contributing to the domain of natural language processing across different languages. This research has significant implications for generating creative text and improving multilingual natural language processing in resource-limited language contexts

Intertextuality of selected Arabic and Western literary works

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the literary-cultural impact of Arabic literature on Western literature. This research focuses on three literary comparisons taken from works that belong to Arabic and Western literature by means of a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the target textual data. The study chooses to address the following items: the Spanish play by Lope de Vega (1562-1635), La Doncella Teodor which has a similar Arabic version among the Arab tales of the Arabian Nights, the literary influence of the story of Zarqa al-Yamamah on Shakespeare’s play Macbeth and the literary mirroring of the Arabic story of Solomon and the Angel of Death onto Marquez’s novel Flee to Samarra by unveiling the aspects of the literary impact of each Arabic literary item. The study illustrates elements of intertextuality and functionality that close the gap between text and culture on each spectrum as well as between the Occident and the Orient by looking at the degree of similarity between these stories. This study contributes to offering insights into the literary intertextuality between Arabic literature and Western literature (Spanish and English) while also sheds light on the cross-cultural perceptions between the two forms of literature by examining the textual, cultural and psychological aspects of each extract compared with each other.

Persian Translation Study On Arabic Story Of The Collared Dove In Kalila and Dimna/ دراسة الفکر السائد علی قصة الحمامة المطوقة في کلیلة ودمنة وترجمتها الفارسية

“Kalila and Dimna” is considered one of the most famous international literary heritages that has been welcomed by various peoples, as we find that it has been translated into various languages in the world. In this comparative study, the researchers attempt to uncover the differences between the Arabic text of the story “The ring-necked dove” and its translation in Persian, seeking to reveal the contingent additions to that story and the role of culture in the change made by Nasrallah Munshi to the text, relying on the theory of “Framing” by Mona Baker. Due to the presence of some differences between the various versions of Kalila and Dimna, the researchers decided to rely on the version issued by Abd al-Wahhab Azzam and Taha Hussein, while the Persian version relied upon is a version explained by “Mojtaba Minavi,” issued by the University of Tehran Publisher. The story that researchers are focusing on analyzing its translation includes a flock of pigeons falling into a trap The story that the researchers are focusing on analyzing its translation includes a story of a flock of pigeons falling into a trap, but through cooperation with others, they are able to remove the trap, going to a rat to help them. In this study, which was conducted using a descriptive-analytical approach, the Arabic text was compared with its Persian translation to reveal the additions to the Persian text. Then, the researchers tried to uncover the translator’s possible justifications for adding new parts to the text. The results that the researchers reached indicate that Ibn Muqaffa holds the ring-necked dove responsible for what happened to the flock of pigeons because she (the ring-necked dove) was their leader, but the translator (Nasrallah Munshi) tried to reframe the story so that he could exonerate the ring-necked dove and direct responsibility to the flock of pigeons without the ring-necked dove. On the other hand, between the lines of the Arabic text, there is an emphasis on the necessity of cooperation in order to get rid of disasters, but in the Persian text, we find an insistence on values such as sacrifice and altruism, as well as the role that lack of attention to the leader’s orders plays in the occurrence of disasters and misfortunes, as well as the effect of the wisdom that the leader possesses in That's it, people. In other words, the translator is trying to exaggerate the role of the leader in saving his nation. While Ibn Muqaffa tries to focus on the role of cooperation in achieving this salvation. This study helps researchers know the differences in Arabic stories and their translation into various international languages while introducing the Arab literary heritage to students.

جدلية الأنا والآخر في القصة العربية الحديثة "المجموعة القصصية بلاد الطاخ طاخ" للكاتبة إنعام كجه جي نموذجًا: دراسة نقدية تطبيقية

The study entitled: (The Dialectic of the Self and the Other in the Modern Arabic Story “The Country of Takh Takh” by the writer Inaam Kachaji attempts as an example: an applied critical study); The study aims to highlight the dialectic of the self and the other in the novel “Balad: Al-Takh Takh” by the Iraqi writer: Inaam Kachaji, published by the Egyptian Lebanese Publishing House. This is done by shedding light on the conflict between the ego and the other according to a set of relationships that had a clear impact in achieving the same cognitive and dialectical persuasion that was broadcast in the original text. The study consisted of three sections, the third section of which dealt with critical study according to the intersection of the self and the other, preceded by the first two sections. I am concerned with monitoring the self and the other through philosophical studies and intellectual visions, while the second is concerned with revealing the self and the other in the Arabic novel in general.

تنفيذ تعليم مهارة الكلام في المعاهد الإسلامية بربولينجو (دراسة المقارنة بين معهد نور الجديد ومعهد المصدوقية بربولينجو)

Speaking skills are considered to be one of the most important language skills in learning Arabic, especially for Arabic learners. Because speaking is the goal of Arabic learning, either second language or foreign language. In this study, the researcher found several features in learning speaking skills in Nurul Jadid and Al-Masduqiyyah Islamic boarding schools i.e students often get achievements in the field of speaking skills such as be the champion of the scientific debate in Arabic, Arabic speech contest, Arabic story telling contest, Arabic poetry contest, and Arabic olympics. There is a language environment that strongly supports learning Arabic skills. Therefore, the researcher is interested in doing this study.The purpose of this study are: 1) To find out the implementation of learning speaking skills in the probolinggo Islamic boarding schools. 2) To find out the advantages and disadvantages of learning language skills.In this study the researcher used qualitative descriptive methods. The retrieval of data used by the researcher are interviews, observation and documentation.The resuls of this sudy are : 1). The purpose of learning Arabic skills in Nurul Jadid and Al-Masduqiyyah Islamic boarding schools are the same that is to train students to fluently speak Arabic ell according to thr correct rules. 2). The Arabic language learning material in Nurul Jadid Islamic boarding school are : Vocabularies, conversation, Arabic scientific debate, Arabic specch, story telling, reading news and grammar. The Arabic language learning material in Al-Masduqiyyah are : Vocablaries, conversation, muhadharah, mutholaah, and grammar. 3). The learning methods of Arabic language skills in Nurul Jadid and Al-Masduqiyyah Islamic boarding schools are the memorization method, the direct method and samiyyah syafahiyyah method. 4). The learning media in learning Arabic skills in Nurul Jadid Islamic boarding school are Muhawaroh Al Haditsah book, Jurumiyyah book, Imrithi book, Alfiyah book, Amsilatu Tasrifiyyah book, white board, and LCD projector. Meanwhile, the learning media in learning Arabic skills in Al-Masduqiyyah Islamic boarding school are Jami’ul Mufrodat book, Nahwu Wadhih book, Amsilatu tasrifiyyah book, white board and LCD projector. 5). The learning evaluation in learning Arabic skills in Nurul Jadid and Al-Masduqiyyah Islamic boarding schools are weekly evaluation, formative evaluation and summative evaluation.

Use of Translated Saudi Folk Narratives to Improve Reading and Speaking Skills of Saudi EFL Learners

The present study aims to explore how the use of translated Saudi folk narratives could help improve Saudi EFL learners' reading and speaking skills. (41) EFL elementary-level students from Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University were selected for this study to identify and assess the influences of the translated Saudi folk stories in enhancing the reading and speaking skills of Saudi EFL learners. An experiential teaching method using selected translated Saudi stories into English was adopted. The preliminary findings in the pre-intervention stage have shown that the students were neither motivated to read the content nor speak in English as the students encountered some kind of difficulties in comprehending the translated stories. The post-intervention results demonstrated that the students were motivated to read the Arabic stories in English. It also showed that the students were engaged to speak about Saudi / Arabic oral stories and culture. The effect of using Saudi-translated stories was observed in improving the reading and speaking skills of EFL Saudi learners. Thus, the study concludes that it is essential to use the translated Arabic folk stories as supplementary teaching material in the EFL reading and speaking classes. It also suggests that we need to translate Saudi folk stories into English for the benefit of Arabic and non-Arabic readers and speakers.

Development of Teaching Materials for Serialized Images of Listening to Stories Using Powerpoints to Improve Arabic Language Skills in Junior High School Students of Baitul Arqam Sumedang Islamic Boarding School

Currently, learning media in various schools has become a very important element in the teaching process, because it can contain messages that will be conveyed to students / students during learning using illustrated teaching materials, one of which is at Baitul Arqam Junior High School which will try to apply learning by using PowerPoint-based serial image media in improving students' storytelling skills. This research uses a descriptive method of qualitative research type analysis. The descriptive method is a method in a study to solve, obtain information about a situation, assess, and determine the symptoms found, see or analyze the relationship between existing variables. The results of ni research showed that learning Arabic storytelling method by obtaining a sekor bbased on the Hasil table by students of Baitul Arqam Sumedang Junior High School obtained a score of 80% representation, which is very good. So, it can be concluded that the use of PowerPoint-based serialized image media is effectively applied to improve students' ability to tell Arabic stories.

A Stylistic Analysis of Lexical, Cohesion and Context Features of the Literary Styles in the Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar' by Roald Dahl and 'The Little Lantern' by Ghassan Kanafani: A Contrastive Study

The most popular field in literary studies is stylistics. Its goal is to discover the language use and meaning patterns seen in literary writings and to demonstrate the formal elements' functional value in such texts. This study is an attempt to discuss the linguistic and stylistic features of two famous English and Arabic children's short stories in the 20th century by famous writers. The English story being Roald Dahl's Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, and the Arabic story: the Little Lantern by Ghassan Kanafani. Due to their differences in grammar and syntax, Arabic and English belong to separate language families. This paper's major goal is to compare and contrast the lexical, contextual, and coherence aspects used in English and Arabic children's stories. This study is based on a stylistic examination of two works, one in Arabic and the other in English. The writer of both texts employs lexical, context, and cohesion aspects to depict the social and cultural contexts of their respective texts. The study of stylistic variety in languages and how its users take advantage of it is known as 'stylistics'. This definition is unquestionably broad enough to include everyone who uses the word 'stylistics' and would wish to be included. To examine the two texts in this study, the Short and Leech (2007) approach will be used. The researcher explains the linguistic devices utilized in each text and demonstrates the reasons for doing so.

How Parents Promote English and Arabic Language Proficiency in Elementary School Children in Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, English is taught starting from kindergarten at National Public and Private Schools. At International schools, English is the medium of instruction. This study aims to explore how parents promote children’s language development, their evaluation of their children’s proficiency level, which language the children use in communicating with family members and on WhatsApp. Surveys with parents revealed that English is stronger and preferred by children in International Schools and many children in Private Schools. More parents worry about their children’s proficiency level in English than Arabic and promote English more than Arabic. Watching English cartoons and movies, using English educational and entertainment apps/programs, playing English games, and enrolling the children in English courses during holidays are common home-based activities. To promote Arabic, some parents hire a tutor. Others encourage their children to read Arabic stories and watch Arabic cartoons. Results and recommendations are given in detail.

Sociolinguistic Phenomena in Arabic Language Learning Through Direct Method

This study was aimed at analyzing the sociolinguistic phenomena during the implementation of the direct method in Arabic language learning at PP Al Iman Putri. The method used in this study was a case study method with a qualitative approach. The results of this study reveal that the sociolinguistics contributes to language learning, i.e., sociolinguistics as is a sub-discipline that studies language related to social factors to be the main provision for students when they pursue their studies in Middle Eastern countries. Sociolinguistics phenomena found in learning Arabic through the direct method were carried out by the means of various linguistic activities i.e., morning dialogue activity, correction of incorrect or inappropriate vocabularies, Arabic speech, learning activities using Arabic (with direct method), language court program (a program held by language department to punish those who do not use Arabic in their daily communication), Arabic drama, Arabic story telling, news reading in Arabic, Arabic vocabulary, and competition of nahwu and sharf (Arabic grammar) and mahfudzat.

The depletion of masculine voices in Persian and Arabic novels by the application of feminine signs (Case Study: “Riyadh Girls” Raja Abdollah Alsane’ and “My Bird” Fariba Vafi )

Feminine writing is a systematic linguistic action that realized just through the frequent application of feminine signs and subsequently to the recognition of the feminine voice in order to provide a feminine pattern of writing by emptying the [single] masculine voice in the text. Feminine signs are a set of linguistic constructs that convey the ideas of femininity to the audience. Current research attempts to study the process of depletion of the masculine voice with descriptive-analytic approach through the application of feminine signs in Persian and Arabic stories. Case Study are novels of “Riyadh Girls” by Raja Abdollah Alsane’ and “My Bird” by Fariba Vafi. The results of the study suggest that both novels have a feminine voice in the high frequency application of feminine signs, and both authors have had different experiences in applying their signs to their stories; so that in the novel Girls of Riyadh among the 248 female signs included in the story, the particular female colored word are more frequent with 70 times application. On the other hand, in the novel My Bird among the 258 female signs included in the story, the particular female specific names are more frequent with 124 times application.

Kafka’s Messages

Reading Kafka's literature today, in Jerusalem/Al-Quds, presents us with a challenge. Reading Kafka ‘here and now’, following his ‘messages’, concealed in his prose, notes and letters, demands us to engage anew with our traditions. It calls us to reconsider the legacies of Kafka's own literature, revising European modernism, while studying Talmudic and Kabbalistic texts, learning Chassidic tales and reading Arabic and Persian stories. A ‘Kafkan’ reading thus demands a permanent interruption in our fields of study, reflecting the very idea of Studium (studying, Talmud). Kafka's Messenger, who carries with him—on an endless path—the secret of literature, invites us to a journey, a path of studying that spreads into a Eurasian map of readership. This method of reading, namely a reflection about ‘the way’, is perhaps the first (and most significant) lesson of Kafka's readers. Our own (rather short) journey will follow the figure of a Messenger, as it appears in Kafka's story ‘An Imperial Message’, turning, however, to the Talmudic legend and the Chassidic tale, and to a Sufi Persian epic poem, in a search for a proper echo of the untold secret. This study reflects not only the possibilities of the comparative approach but also the radical, ‘messianic’ potential, being kept on the paths of Kafka's writing.

Putting the Net Back into the Internet: The Materiality of Networks from a Premodern Perspective

This essay engages head on with this special issue’s central question—what do medieval things have to tell us about connectivity and object-mediated communication?—by comparing the depiction of nets in medieval sources with our contemporary imaginations of the Internet. The Internet is popularly thought of as immaterial—as wireless and ethereal lines of communication—rather than as pipelines and server villages. While the terms network, Internet, and World Wide Web are modern, nets are among the oldest human technologies. Medieval sources portray them as composed of both material and immaterial elements; as both strings and the gaps between. The elements of a net that are seen as immaterial—the spaces between the strings—are essential to its function. Whether a net is used for carrying, hunting, or decorating, those spaces ensure that prey cannot see it from the outside, that it is stretchable, and that it allows a glimpse into what is within. The material strings are equally essential: they are the elements that capture and hold. Medieval texts and images (for instance, various depictions of Vulcan’s net and Arachne’s net and weft, the German Arthurian romance Daniel of the Blossoming Valley, and the Arabic story collection Kalila and Dimna) emphasize the tension between material and immaterial components by exaggerating the inescapability of the nets from the inside and the invisibility of the nets from the outside. They also stress the nature of nets as traps rather than connectives and use them as metaphors for narratives, much as network analysis uses nets as metaphors for a variety of structures and areas of knowledge. In this essay I suggest returning to a notion of nets, including the Internet, as material, as a corrective to current perceptions. I also argue that the fear of nets as traps might persist in modern imaginations of the Internet.

Non-native speakers’ attitudes towards the use of short Arabic stories in language classes

This study aims to investigate the attitudes of non-Arabic students towards reading short stories in Arabic at universities in Malaysia, with a focus on three variables: the students’ university, gender, and mother tongue. A mixed-methods approach was employed, using a questionnaire and semi-structured focus group discussion with 58 participants. The study found that the students had positive attitudes toward reading short stories. There were no statistically significant differences between the participants’ attitudes based on type of university, gender, and mother tongue. With respect to the types of short stories students prefer, comic stories were read most frequently by students. Finally, students also found it very encouraging and supporting to use short stories to enhance their Arabic language skills. The study concludes with some recommendations for further research.

Een Arabische Orestes

Summary In this paper I point out remarkable similarities between the Orestes myth and the Arabic story of al-Zir. In addition to the parallels adduced by the Egyptian critic Louis ‘Awad (1968) and in my earlier study ‘Blood on the Wedding Bed’ (2017), I argue here that the killing of a she-camel which ignited the Arabic Basus War is a parallel to Agamemnon’s killing of a sacred deer on the eve of the Trojan War. I propose five criteria to distinguish between weak and strong parallels, and argue that there are not only similarities between single episodes from the Orestes myth and the story of al-Zir, but that the main plot line of both stories is also conspicuously similar.

Vulgar Pleasures

Abstract This essay examines Richard Francis Burton’s The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1885–1888), an English translation of the Arabic Alf Laylah wa-Laylah stories that was enormously popular in its own time and continues to be widely admired today – despite the fact that Burton plagiarized extensively from the work of another translator. I argue that Burton’s Nights is neither a faithful nor an original translation of the Arabic stories, but rather an English text whose aesthetic enjoyment is proffered as an affective engagement with the literary aesthetics of the source text, translated through Burton’s own pleasurable experiences of Arabic literary language. Framing the reception of Burton’s Nights, through the Arabic concept of ṭarab, as a process of iterative cycles of pleasure that move between the translator and his readers, I contend that what makes Burton’s Nights enjoyable to read also makes it scandalous to the world literary system within which it has circulated.

Building multimedia repository for composing images perspective

Multimedia repository is helpful for educational activities since it offers several illustrations that facilitate the learning process and the text understanding. In this paper, we propose to build a multimedia repository from collected images using object extraction techniques. Then, we associate Arabic captions to all extracted objects. These extracted objects are used to compose new scenes that could illustrate efficiently the most important events in an Arabic story. We extend, thereby the notion of image composing to our approach as the task of constructing new images based on a set of toolboxes and a set of extracted objects as our multimedia repository of common animal behaviors. Our preliminary results show that the composed scenes using single objects provided a fair understanding of the main events of the stories as well as a coherent visual layout of all single objects. The diversity and the precision of the single objects images for the domain of animals have shown a great impact on composing new scenes either manually or dynamically.

Effect of designing children's stories on the Marketing Process (A comparative study of Arab and foreign children stories)

Design is one of the visual communication arts which has an active and vital role in various areas of life in the world, because the nature of the design which depends on a group of elements that change and are formed according to the design requirements. The design is the organization and coordination of a group of elements to achieve its purpose (To sell the product itself in the market), and the choice of the child to the story is different according to the design, where the child depends on the design elements that used in design, which build design attracts attention and make him request for this story to buy, If the design elements are integrated, the story will be a silent vendor who will market herself at the highest marketing rates. Research problem: The insufficiency of Arab children's stories of some design elements compared to the foreign stories that make them less attractive to children, which have negative effects on the marketing of Arab stories in publishing houses. Research goal: The research aims to explanation the most important points that missing in Arab children's stories design, which makes them unable to compete in the marketing of foreign children's stories. Research importance: The research shows the importance of design in raising the marketing value of children 's printed stories. Methodology: The research is based on descriptive analytical approaches to achieve the desired goal of research. Results: The cover of the Arabic story miss some elements and the foundations of design, which plays a vital role in the expression of content and attract attention, and thus does not achieve the power of marketing In front of the cover of the foreign story. Check the covers of children's stories of foreign high marketing elements and to follow the scientific of foundations design. The distinctive design effect to attract the attention of customers to the product marketer, which the product may sell the itself through the good supply of it. Recommendations: All designs should be presented and reviewed by specialized designer to judge if they are identical to the scientific foundations of the design elements. We should not be attention to designed that produced by non-specialists to raise the level of Arab children designed stories .

Study of the echoes of the Arabic story in Nigerian Arabic literature: Ilorin as a case study

The story is an art of prose literature. Arab writers and others have done valuable works of fiction, showing the extent of their artistic ability; however, this art has witnessed in the modern era developed and developed to add to it another form known - in Western literature - poetry story; which has no era - before - in literature Old Arab, and the poems appeared stories woven on the Western vein. After looking at the story in Arabic literature, this article looks at some of the echoes of the Arab story in Arabic literature, with an emphasis on what the thinkers of the city of Eulen produced as a living model reflecting the many stories that were presented at the Arab literature table in Nigeria. For a commendable effort by the writers of Nigeria to expand the Arabic language and create a clear atmosphere for artistic creativity and conscience.