Arabic literature

Definitions

Both terms in the title of this article are in need of elaboration. The use of the term literature in English to imply those writings that are susceptible to aesthetic analysis (as opposed to everything that is written) is of relatively recent vintage, and the development of a field of study devoted to it is yet more recent (with the study in the West of non-Western literary traditions being even more so). In Arabic the term for “literature” in the narrow English sense is adab, best translated by the French term belles-lettres (“beautiful letters”), which conveys the combination of the aesthetic and didactic elements found in adab more effectively than does the English term literature. However, it is important to observe that, as is the case with many literary traditions, the origins of this Arabic term in the premodern period lie in the realms of correct behaviour (“polite letters”).

The English language, unlike many other European languages, uses several adjectives—Arab, Arabic, and Arabian—to depict phenomena of the particular region and people that are linked to the notion of “Arab,” a word that has the original sense of “nomad.” For the purposes of this article, the term Arabic will be used to refer only to the Arabic language. The sections that follow will be concerned only with literature that has been composed in Arabic; it thus excludes works written by Arabs in other languages.

The Arabic language

The Arabic language in its earliest phases was relatively well protected from the forces of rapid change by the peninsular environment within which it developed. It is the best-preserved model of the Semitic languages. Its syntax and morphology—recorded and systematized as part of the massive research endeavour that followed the production of an authoritative version of the text of the Qurʾān in the 7th century (although this date is a matter of controversy)—provide evidence of early features of the Semitic languages. These features have since disappeared from sister languages, of which Hebrew is perhaps the most prominent. As the history of the revelation, memorization, and eventual recording in written form of the Qurʾān makes clear, the society of Arabia was one that relied to a large extent on human memory to preserve details of important events and principles and to pass on such information and artifacts to succeeding generations. That very reality makes it extremely difficult to pinpoint precise details regarding the earliest development of the Arabic language and its literary tradition. What has survived as the earliest examples of Arabic literary compositions consists of a highly elaborate system of poetic composition and a series of oratorical and often homiletic utterances, all couched in language of a variety and at a level that was to be later reflected in the style of the Qurʾānic revelations themselves. It is unclear, however, whether this apparently elevated language (perhaps reserved for special occasions, such as poetry competitions) was ever the means of spoken communication for any particular group.

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Whatever may have been the linguistic environment of pre-Islamic Arabia, the rapid spread of the faith across Africa and into Asia soon created a situation in which written and spoken Arabic inhabited opposite ends of a linguistic spectrum. At one end was the language of written communication and Islamic scholarship, which regarded the language of the Qurʾān as its inimitable yardstick; from this belief developed the later critical doctrine of iʿjāz al-Qurʾān (the “inimitability of the Qurʾān”), which resulted in a written (literary) language that has undergone remarkably little change over the centuries. At the other end was the spoken language of Arabs, which, from Spain (known as Al-Andalus during the Moorish period) and Morocco in the west to the Arabian Gulf and Iraq in the east, displayed—and continues to display—enormous variety, hardly a surprising linguistic phenomenon in view of the great distances involved and the wide variety of cultures with which Islam came into contact.

Context

The Arabic literary tradition began within the context of a tribal, nomadic culture. With the advent and spread of Islam, that tradition was carried far and wide during the course of the 7th to the 10th century. It initially sought to preserve the values of chivalry and hospitality while expressing a love of animals and describing the stark realities of nature, but it proceeded to absorb cultural influences from every region brought within the fold of “Dār al-Islām” (“Abode of Islam”). Early contacts with the Sasanian empire of Persia (present-day Iran) led to a noisy but fruitful exchange of cultural values. The foundation in 762 of Baghdad, built expressly as a caliphal capital, brought about further expansion to the east and contacts with the cultures of India and beyond; one of the results of such contact was the appearance in the Middle East of the world’s greatest collection of narrative, Alf laylah wa laylah (The Thousand and One Nights). In that same capital city was founded the great library Bayt al-Ḥikmah (“House of Wisdom”), which, until the sack of the city by the Mongols in 1258, served as a huge repository for the series of works from the Hellenistic tradition that were translated into Arabic. Al-Andalus became to the rest of Europe a model of a society in which the religions and cultures of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism could work together and create a system of scholarship and teaching that could transmit the heritage of older civilizations and the rich cultural admixture of Andalusian society. Western science, mathematics, philosophy, music, and literature were all beneficiaries of this fascinating era, of whose final stages the fabulous Alhambra palace complex in Granada, Spain, remains the most visible token.

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By the 10th century, the political fragmentation of the larger Islamic community was evident in the existence of three separate caliphates: that of the Abbasids in Baghdad, that of the Shiʿi Fāṭimids in Cairo, and that of the Umayyads, in Spain at this time after having been earlier removed from power in the eastern regions by the advent of the Abbasids. Ironically, this fragmentation worked to the advantage of literature and its practitioners; the existence of a continuing series of petty dynasties provided ample opportunity for patronage at court, which was the primary means of support for poets and scholars. However, literary production and creativity were inevitably marked by the ongoing series of Crusades, carried out by Christians from western Europe, the Mongol invasions and later those of the Turkic conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the fall of Granada in the Reconquista in 1492, and the fall of Cairo to the Ottomans in 1517. It has been customary in surveys of the Arabic literary tradition to write off the era between 1258 and 1800 by declaring it a “period of decadence.” However, a more nuanced analysis of the situation would acknowledge the political turmoil that characterized many regions and periods and would also suggest that a degree of caution is needed in applying Western criteria for literary evaluation to a period in which the aesthetic yardsticks were clearly different.

The nature of “the modern” in the context of Arabic literary history involves twin processes: first, renewed contacts with the Western world, something that was considerably accelerated by European imperial incursions during the 19th century, and, second, a renewed interest in the classical heritage of the Arabic language and Islam. Particularly in analyzing the earlier stages in the process known as al-nahḍah (“renaissance”), Western historians have for a long time placed much more emphasis on the first of these factors. It is certainly true that the 19th century witnessed a vigorous translation movement that introduced to the readership of Arabic literature examples of genres such as the novel, the short story, and the drama. All these genres were subsequently produced within the literary milieu of Arabic, although the chronology and pace of that process varied widely in different regions. However, as Arab literary historians endeavoured to trace the development of a modern literary tradition in different regions and as creative writers themselves strove to find indigenous sources of inspiration and modes of expression, a perceived need to incorporate the second category mentioned above—that of the linkage between the classical heritage of the Arab past and the creativity of the present—became more pressing and led in many regions to a reexamination of the balance between these two forces.

At the turn of the 21st century, the Arab creative writer operated at a local level within a social environment that, more often than not, constrained freedom of expression and indeed subjected literature to strict forms of censorship. Many prominent Arab authors spent large segments of their life in exile from their homelands for political reasons. More broadly, the confrontation between secularism and popular religious movements, which might in the best of circumstances provide for a fruitful interaction of opinions, instead—because of local, regional, and global factors—created an atmosphere of tension and repression that was often not conducive to creative thought. This confrontation also prompted Arab litterateurs to view the global environment with considerable circumspection.