Arabic literature

Arabic literature emerged in the 5th century with only fragments of the written language appearing before then. The Qur'an,^[2] would have the greatest lasting effect on Arab culture and its literature. Arabic literature flourished during the Islamic Golden Age, but has remained vibrant to the present day, with poets and prose-writers across the Arab world, as well as in the Arab diaspora, achieving increasing success.^[3]

Literary criticism[edit]

For multiple centuries, there has been a vibrant culture of literary criticism in the Arabic speaking world. The poetry festivals of the pre-Islamic period often pitched two poets against each other in a war of verse, in which one would be decided to be winner by the audience. Literary criticism also relates to theology, and gained official status with Islamic studíes of the Qur'an. Although nothing which might be termed 'literary criticism' in the modern sense, was applied to a work held to be i'jaz or inimitable and divinely inspired, textual analysis, called ijtihad and referring to independent reasoning, was permitted. This study allowed for a better understanding of the message and facilitated interpretation for practical use, all of which helped the development of a critical method important for later work on other literature. A clear distinction regularly drawn between works in literary language and popular works has meant that only part of the literature in Arabic was usually considered worthy of study and criticism.


Some of the first Arabic poetry analysis are Qawa'id al-shi'r or The Foundations of Poetry by Kufan grammarian Tha'lab (d. 904)^[97] and Naqd al-shi'r or Poetic Criticism by Qudamah ibn Ja'far. Other works continued the tradition of contrasting two poets in order to determine which one best follows the rule of classical poetic structure. Plagiarism also became a significant topic, exercising the critics' concerns. The works of al-Mutanabbi were particularly studied with this concern. He was considered by many the greatest of all Arab poets, but his own arrogant self-regard for his abilities did not endear him to other writers and they looked for a source for his verse.^[98] Just as there were collections of facts written about many different subjects, numerous collections detailing every possible rhetorical figure used in literature emerged, as well as how to write guides.


Modern criticism first compared new works unfavourably with the classical ideals of the past, but these standards were soon rejected as too artificial. The adoption of the forms of European romantic poetry dictated the introduction of corresponding critical standards. Taha Hussayn, himself well versed in European thought, would even dare to examine the Qur'an with modern critical analysis, in which he pointed out ideas and stories borrowed from pre-Islamic poetry.


An outstanding Sudanese scholar and literary critic with a long list of publications on poetry or other genres, and on Arabic language in general, was Abdallah al-Tayyib (1921–2003). Arguably his most notable work is A Guide to Understanding Arabic Poetry, written over thirty-five years and published in four volumes of several thousand pages.^[99]

Outside views of Arabic literature[edit]

In al-Andalus, Arabic literary culture had a massive impact on Jewish literary culture in the tenth to thirteenth centuries; this included the assimilation of features, genres, and stylistic devices of Arabic poetry as well as—influenced by the classicizing Quranic language of classical Arabic poetry—the decision to write poetry in Hebrew and in a register rooted in Biblical Hebrew.^[100]


Literature in Arabic has been influential outside the Islamic world. One of the first important translations of Arabic literature was Robert of Ketton's translation of the Qur'an in the twelfth century, but it would not be until the early eighteenth century that much of the diverse Arabic literature would be recognised in the West. This was mostly due to Arabists, like Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot and his books such as Arabic Authors: A Manual of Arabian History and Literature.


Antoine Galland's French translation of the Thousand and One Nights was the first major work in Arabic which found great success outside the Muslim world. Other significant translators were Friedrich Rückert and Richard Burton, along with others working at Fort William, India. Since at least the 19th century, Arabic and many works in other Western Asian languages fuelled a fascination in Orientalist thinking and artistic production in the West. Works of dubious 'foreign' morals were particularly popular, but even these were censored for content, such as homosexual references, which were not permitted in Victorian society. Most of the works chosen for translation helped confirm the stereotypes of the audiences. Compared to the variety and scope of literature written in Arabic, relatively few historical or modern Arabic works have been translated into other languages.


Since the mid-20th century, there has been an increase of translations of Arabic books into other languages, and Arabic authors began to receive a certain amount of acclaim. Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz had most of his works translated after he won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. Other writers, including Abdul Rahman Munif and Tayeb Salih have found critical acclaim by Western scholars, and both Alaa Al Aswany's The Yacoubian Building and Rajaa al-Sanea's Girls of Riyadh attracted significant Western media attention in the first decade of the 21st century.