Arabic literature is the literature of people who speak the Arabic language. Arabic is widely spoken in the Middle East and North Africa. Because it is also the language of the Qur’ān, the holy book of Islam, Arabic is read and chanted by millions of Muslims throughout the world.
The earliest examples of Arabic literature date from the A.D. 500’s, though they were not written down until up to 200 years later. Likewise, the Qur’ān originally had no written form. When the Muslim community in the mid-600’s felt the need for a recorded version of the sacred text, the Qur’ān and other memorized texts from the earlier period were written down.
From its origin in the Arabian Peninsula, Islam spread to the west and east from the 600’s to the 900’s. With the spread of Islam, Arabic literature became known over a vast area, which, at its height, stretched from Spain across North Africa, through the Middle East, and to India. Today, the Arabic-speaking area still extends across North Africa and the Middle East.
From the earliest beginnings in the 500’s to the present day, poetry has been the most important form of literary expression. During the 1800’s, increased contacts with the Western world introduced Arab authors to new ideas and forms. They included the novel, short story, and drama. Poetry still holds a special place in people’s hearts and minds, but fiction—and its transfer to motion pictures and videos—has become more popular.
Poetry
is described as the “register of the Arabs” in their literary tradition. Poetry is a powerful source of identity within Arab culture. From the beginning, it has been a public form, to be recited and sung. Tribal poets celebrated the qualities of their tribe: courage, loyalty, the beauty of their women, the speed of their horses, and the hardiness of their camels.
With the spread of Islam, poetry moved from the tribe in the desert to the court of the ruler in various Islamic cities, such as Damascus and Aleppo, Syria; Cairo, Egypt; Baghdad, Iraq; Fez, Morocco; and Cordoba, Spain. New themes were added, including wine, hunting, philosophical reflections on the individual’s role in life, and the glory of the ruler. These themes were mostly expressed in the ancient poetic forms. However, new poetic structures emerged, particularly in Spain starting in the 900’s, which combined aspects of both Arabic and Spanish poetry. Among the most famous classical poets are Imru al-Qays, Abu Nuwas, Abu Tammam, al-Mutanabbi, and al-Maarri.
In the 1900’s, Arab poets imported Western forms, such as free verse and the prose poem. Perhaps most significantly, Arab poets felt free to break with tradition and compose their poems in a variety of forms and on a range of topics unavailable to their predecessors. Among the major poets of the 1900’s were Kahlil Gibran and Khalil Hawi from Lebanon; the Syrian-born Lebanese poet Ali Ahmad Said (also known as Adunis or Adonis); Badr Shakir al-Sayyab from Iraq; and Salah Abd al-Sabur from Egypt.
Fiction.
Several types of stories are found in early Arabic literature. For example, the maqamah usually contains short, witty narratives in which two characters visit cities through the Middle East. They observe the way people behave and play tricks on them. From the 1300’s, the famous collection of stories called The Thousand and One Nights, or Arabian Nights, was gathered. These tales were mostly performed in public by storytellers. Written versions were fairly rare until they were translated into Western languages.
In the 1900’s, the novel and short story became popular in Arabic literature. The most famous modern fiction writer is Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian who in 1988 became the first Arab author to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Other important modern fiction writers include Yusuf Idris and Gamal al-Ghitani from Egypt, al-Tayyib Salih from the Sudan, Emile Habibi from Palestine, Hanan al-Shaykh from Lebanon, and Zakariyah Tamir from Syria.
Drama.
Before the 1800’s, there were several types of dramatic performances in the Arab world, though few of them were written down. In the 1800’s, Arab writers visited Europe, where they saw plays performed. They began the process of transferring the form to the Arab world. One of the first major dramatists was Tawfiq al-Hakim of Egypt. He wrote many plays, ranging from one-act comedies of manners to long tragedies.
Since the 1950’s, drama has flourished in many Arab countries. The most famous playwrights include Alfred Farag and Yusuf Idris of Egypt, Sa’dallah Wannus of Syria, Al-Tayyib al-Siddiqi of Morocco, and Yusuf al-Ani of Iraq.
