Arab poets from the Middle Ages to the present. The culture of the East, beauty and wisdom, sung in the verses of poets

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Arabic poetry has a rich history. Poetry was not just an art form for the ancient Arabs, but also a way to convey any valuable information. Today, only some Arabic poets, authors of rubaiyat quatrains, may be known to many, but Arabic literature and poetry has a much richer history and diversity.

Arabic Literature

Arabic literature comes from the oral literature of the tribal communities that once inhabited the Arabian Peninsula. The literature of the ancient poets developed among the local nomads. It spread among the semi-nomadic and sedentary population of local settlements.

Among the Arabians, a group of singers of true "contemplated" love appeared - the poets of the Arab East. They composed poems not only about the world around them, but also about personal feelings and their own attitude towards any person. The love poems of Arab poets were written about famous love couples (Majnun and Leyla, Jamiland Busaina, Qais and Lubne).

The arrival of the Prophet Mohammed and the appearance of the Holy Quran not only brought changes in social and cultural terms, but also significantly changed Arabic literature and, in particular, poetry.

From the 8th century, people from the conquered peoples began to participate in the work of Arabic literature. Gradually, interest in the knowledge of Arabic history developed in the Arab Caliphate, its own theory of language began to be created, as well as metrics of poetic style, translations of some of the most important ancient works into Arabic began to be made. Of great importance for the development of Arabic literature were the translations of Arabic poets from the Persian language. Poetry began to be gradually updated, which was expressed in the preference for qasid - a small poem with its own theme in the so-called "new style" (badit).

The connection of poetry, history and religion

Arabic literature is very closely associated with the history and culture of the people. Specific nomadic life, the rise of Islam, the Arab conquests, the luxury of the early Abbasids, mutual cultural exchange with neighboring civilizations (particularly with Spain), the overthrow of the Caliphate, cultural stagnation, resistance, and, finally, a rediscovery of self-awareness aimed at creating private independent states – every aspect of Arab history is reflected in literature, as the Arabs were passionate about preserving and remembering their history without losing sight of anything.

For example, in the work of al-Nadim "Fihrist" various data are collected aboutMuslim literature and culture: the author created a kind of catalog of all the books of Arab poets and writers known by that time on the topics of history, theology, poetry, jurisprudence, philology, etc. This work clearly demonstrates the fruitfulness of Arabic literature in the first 3 centuries from the advent of Islam. Very little has survived to the present, and in its original form, almost nothing has reached our days at all.

Starting from the "golden age", the influence on the Arab culture and literature of other nationalities became more and more powerful: there was a large-scale mixing of traditions, values and other cultural and historical elements. After the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, the literary language of the Arabs began to become obsolete, and only thanks to a small group of people who made every effort to preserve the language of Arabic literature, the Arabs entered the rich Renaissance in the 19th century.

Perhaps, in no culture is there such a clear symbiosis of literature with religion as in the Arab one. The most important aspect in the history of Arabic poetry is that, despite the existence of pre-Islamic poetry, the Holy Quran is considered the beginning of literature in the full sense of the word in their culture. In addition to some graffiti of the 1st century. AD, which hardly belong to the literary word, there is no other evidence of the existence of certain works in Arabic before the coming of the prophet Muhammad. In addition, the problem of illiteracy was pervasive: those who learned to read or write, as a rule, learned it outside the borders of Arabia. However, this did not become a problem for the nomadic Bedouins:they knew poetry perfectly by heart. Many nationalities and nomads have preserved the tradition of oral reading: there were even special readers who earned their living by memorizing and reciting verses from memory.

Types of Arabic poetry

Many readers also read aloud some famous novels. Unlike author's poems, all prose works were folk. Prose itself was not so interesting in the context of literature.

Poetry played a leading role in the formation of Arabic literature - in its very embryo it was children's lullabies, labor and hunting songs. Quite quickly formed such genres as:

• hija - criticism of the enemy;
• fahr - laudatory verse;
• sar - revenge song;
• risa - elegy;
• mourning song;
• nasib - love lyrics;
• wasf - descriptive lyrics.

In antiquity, fiction was also born, such types of it as:

• battle stories;
• oratory;
• tales about historical events.

V-VII century was marked by the flourishing of Arabic literature. The main forms of ancient Arabic poetry were qasida and an amorphous fragment (kyta, muqat).

A characteristic feature of Arabic poetry has become a monorhyme: each verse of an Arabic poet includes one sentence and is an independent semantic aesthetic unit.

Poet and poetry

For the Arabs, poetry has become a harmonious work with its ownsize, rhyme and specific purpose. The Arabs could not call a poem without its specific meaning poetry. Only a person with deep sensuality and intellect, skill and fine taste had the right to be called a poet.

Poetry has been created for various purposes. It was possible to describe something with verses, with a verse it was possible to ridicule and humiliate someone, or, conversely, to praise. With the help of a verse, one could confess one's love, express sadness and joy. In general, all these functions and many others are characteristic not only for poetry, but also for prose works, and this is also true for art in general.

But not all poets aspired to create ordinary works. It was important for some of them to stir up the minds of readers, tell an amazing story, demonstrate the skill of a poetic style, or even just joke, but in such a way that the public would appreciate the joke.

Training

Poetry was also used for educational purposes. Since most of the population was illiterate, the knowledge that needed to be memorized was presented in the format of a poem. Only a few ancient educational texts have survived to the present, for example, the ABC bin Malik and the Al-Shatbi System, which was an early guide to the study of the Koran.

The best Arab poets were able not only to convey their feelings, but also to put valuable knowledge into verses to pass them on to future generations. Educational poems cannot be called poetry in full, since theseworks do not convey the personal feelings and considerations of the author. But since such manuals were meticulously organized and folded into a rhyme that helped memorize a variety of knowledge, these works can be easily distinguished into a special class of Arabic poetry.

Cryptography and cryptography

Poetic language was often used to encrypt valuable information - such poems were called "blind". The poets of the Arab East were able to transform an ordinary text into a secret message, clear only to one specific addressee, or to someone who has a “key” - a clue to solving the cipher. Early authors so skillfully encoded invitations to a date or words of love in their poems that only a particular woman could figure out what it was about - to an outsider, the text would seem like complete nonsense and confusion. The poems of Arab poets about love were very specific due to the complexity of the cipher and the unusual content. However, this feature had its own meaning, which clearly reflects the essence of the people, their temperament and character. Arab poets spoke about love quietly, secretly. For them, feelings are something intimate and personal that should not be available to other people's ears.

One of the well-known legends tells about a poet who described his testament in a poetic form, in which he ordered the bandits who once attacked him to avenge him. The poet's family published this poem and kept it until revenge was accomplished and they de alt with the attackers.

Pre-Islamic poetry

The most common form of a poem was qasida - a special kind of poem that uses rhyme to convey accumulated experience and even some skills through vivid images. Similar qasidas were composed in the 8th and 9th centuries. Ancient scholars recognized the importance of preserving the ancient traditions of poetry as a source of inspiration for a new poetic tradition. In addition, Arabic is an invaluable tool for explaining the Holy Quran.

The list of Arab poets of the pre-Islamic period is not too long, but the Arabs appreciate their preserved heritage:

• Tarafa.
• Zuhair ibn Abi Sulma.
• Imru al-Qays is a great Arabic poet, a possible author of the classical type of qasida.
• Harith ibn Hillisa al-Yashkuri.
• Antara ibn Shaddad al-Absi and others

In the earliest examples of Arabic poetry, the authenticity of which has been reliably established, a special sophistication and simplicity is noted: the verses of Arab poets describe exclusively the observed. Often you can meet the reception of personification and direct association. The choice of the type and theme of the verse is rooted in a long-established tradition.

The technical complexity of some early poems is so high that it is easy to conclude that poets began to create poems long before that. Such a well-developed poetic style and form could not have arisen unexpectedly, most likely being the result of a long work on the style. So Arabic poetry is even older than we think.

The best literary works of this time period are found inanthologies collected after the rise of Islam. Deserving special attention:

• "Mufaddaliyat" compiled by al-Mufaddal;
• Hamas Abu Tammam;
• "To China al-Aghani" Abu-l-Faraj al-Isfahani;
• Muallaqat.

The latter includes 7 harmonious poems by different authorship of Arab writers and poets: Imru al-Qais, Haris, Tarafa, Antara, Ambr ibn Kulsum, Zuhayr, Labid. These poems add up to the true voice of Jahiliya - the Days of Ignorance - that is how pre-Islamic life is called. These works are the most important legacy of pre-Islamic Arabia.

Poetry of the VI century. still speaks to readers in Arabic, which was then spoken throughout Arabia.

Arabic poetry of the Middle Ages

From the beginning of our era until the 18th century, Arab poets did not leave the boundaries of a clearly established circle of genres - qasida, kyta and ghazal. All this time, the verses of Arab authors were similar to one another in terms of poetic techniques, form and style - the same motive sounds in creativity, the storylines are monotonous, and the landscape is universal. However, this poetry is original, spontaneous and alive: it is overwhelmed with genuine sincerity, realism.

With the beginning of the 7th-8th centuries, Arabic poetry ends up in Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Central Asia, moves to the Maghreb countries and, bypassing the Strait of Gibr altar, seeps into Spain. Over time, the work of Arabic-speaking authors began to depart from the primary sources: with the advent of a new religion and way of life, culture also changed. Soon the criterion of literary value was compliance"classical" examples of Bedouin poetry. Any deviation from it was perceived as a distortion of the norms of beauty. These signs are harbingers of canonization.

Arabic poetry quickly moved to the territory of the caliphate, absorbing the cultural values of the local population. This greatly diversified and enriched Arabic poetry, introducing completely new ideas, multiplying and diversifying the means of literary expression. Since the Abbasid era, poetry could no longer be called Arabic, because under the influence of the course of history it has changed a lot, mixing with third-party cultures and traditions - now it could be called Arabic. Over the next few centuries, the centers of the flourishing of poetry shifted from East to West and back, from one gifted poet to another. New samples of poetic literature are being composed, but the canons of the old Bedouin poetry still remain in the foundation.

From the advent of poetry and up to the 8th-10th centuries, its keepers were professional readers, who were also called Ravi. Each of them brought a piece of himself into the works of oral folk art, whether it was an extra word, emotional coloring or personal commentary. Thus, already recorded poetry may differ from its oral source.

The subsequent development of Arabic poetry is predetermined by the new religion and the creation of the Koran. Poetry undergoes a certain crisis in connection with this, after which it "resurrects" under the Umayyad dynasty in Arab-colonized Iraq and Syria. During this period, such court readers as al-Akhtal, al-Farazdak, Jarir. They glorified their patrons, singing their courage, wisdom and benevolence, defiling and denigrating the opponents of the dynasty. Now, behind the legalized scheme and canons, the outlines of reality turned out to be blurry. All innovations in poetry came from the aristocratic environment of the large cities of the Arab Caliphate, where the genre of love lyrics flourished. Among the typical creators of this period are Umar ibn Abu Rabia, as well as al-Ahwasi caliph Walid II.

In the meantime, love lyrics did not disappear anywhere: the traditions of the nasib were supported by poets at the Abbasid court, among whom the master Abu Navas stood out especially. The subsequent defeat of the Arab Caliphate led to changes in literature - it began to gradually spread in Iraq, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Lebanon. Abu al-Tayib al-Mutanabbi became the most significant representative of the time: his comedy and laudatory qasidas are decorated with stylistic decorations, deep metaphors, powerful hyperbole and non-trivial associations. His work was continued by the Syrian poet Abul-Ala al-Maarri, who managed to improve the method of versification by inventing complex double rhymes.

As for prose, at-Tanukhi and Abu Hainyan at-Tawhidi were famous representatives of the workers in this sphere. Abu Bar al-Khwarizmi wrote his famous "Messages" ("Rasael"), and Badi az-Zaman al-Hamadani invented a new genre called maqamu.

By the XI century, despite the increase in the number of Arab poets and writers, Arabic literature is undergoing a qualitative decline. Mysticism began to appear in poetry, whileas in prose - didactics. But even among the adherents of mystical poetry there were genuine diamonds, for example, Ibn al-Farid and Ibn Arabi. Ibn Yaafar left his contribution to literature by inventing the genre of the historical novel. Around the same time, Usama ibn Munkiz wrote an autobiography, unique among medieval Arabic literature, called The Book of Edification.

Then - in the IX-X centuries. a new form of poem appeared - rubaiyat. This form of lyrics is a quatrain with philosophical reasoning. Among the most famous Arab poets, the authors of the rubaiyat quatrains:

• Omar Khayyam.
• Heyran Khanum.
• Zakhiriddin Babur.
• Mehseti Ganjavi.
• Abu Abdallah Rudaki.
• Amjad Hyderabadi and many more.

Due to the specificity of the language of Arabic poets, it is practically impossible to transfer the rhythm of the original poems to other languages: most often translators resort to iambic pentameter, although this is also not entirely accurate.

In XIII the genres of zajal and muwashshah were widely demanded in Syria and Egypt. Sufis tried to compose in the folk language, which is close to the common people. Already in the XIII-XV centuries, sira (biography) began to spread - a series of stories on love and heroic themes associated with certain historical or fictional events and personalities - they are classified, including, as chivalric novels. The most important sirs include the world-famous collection “A Thousand and One Nights”, which, along with various materials and folklore, includes an important sira about Omar ibn al-Numane.

The decline of canonical traditions in Arabic literature has contributed to the emergence of a completely new literature. The genre of dastan became the most popular. In Egypt, historical novels began to emerge. By the XIX-XX centuries in Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Yemen and Tunisia, a branch of national literature began to develop along with the general Arabic. With the advent of a new direction, such a concept as “Islamic modernism” began to appear. For example, a romantic novel (A. Reihani), a macame novel (M. Muwailihi) and others.

Arab poets of the Middle Ages presented history as a rigid chain of events inseparably connected with each other. At the same time, Arabic poetry itself is an indispensable link in the historical chain of world human culture.

Writing the Quran

On the eve of the coming of the Prophet Muhammad, dissatisfaction with the Bedouin method of life and various superstitions in connection with this began to grow among thinking people. It is only natural that poetry lost its popularity when renewed religious ideals began to supplant traditional values. The production of poetry came to a virtual h alt as new believers began to seek the Prophet in order to hear revelation in person. After the death of the Prophet, there was an urgent need to preserve the revelations that appeared to him in writing - and the Holy Quran was born.

The first suras were carefully recorded almost immediately, scrupulously and accurately, in order to fix the Divine Word truly and extremely accurately. Many of these surahs, as well as others in later chapters -seemed too obscure and blurry to the ancient scholars. Even today, most of the complex images and metaphors need to be deciphered and detailed explanations. Some branches of Arabic literature grew out of the need for expository commentaries on the Qur'an, including lexicography and grammar.

The Quran became the first representative of Arabic writing. The influence of the Qur'an can be easily traced throughout subsequent Arabic literature. This period was marked by new famous authors:

• Kaab ibn Zuhair;
• Abu Dhuayb al-Biga al-Jadi;
• Hasan ibn Thabit.

Modern Arabic poetry

Modern Arabic literature can be called the totality of all types of literature of the Arab countries, united by a single Arabic literary language and the integrity of cultural and historical traditions.

For example, the collection "Modern Arabic Poetry" presents to the public the works of contemporary Arabic poets from eight countries: Lebanon, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, Iraq, Sudan, UAE, Tunisia. The collection includes poems that reflect such historical events as the confrontation for independence, the liberation of the peoples of Africa and Asia from colonization, and the theme of world peace and the denial of war is also a leitmotif through all the poems. The collection includes a variety of poets - from the most important masters of the poetic style, such as Abd al-Wahhab al-B alti, Ahmad Suleiman al-Ahmad, Maaruf ar-Rusafi, Ahmad Rami, to poems by young poets - Lyamia Abbas Amara, AliMuhammad Hamad, Ali Hashim Rashid, Osman Abdullah. The themes and ideas of these famous Arab poets are close and understandable to the common people. The authors, in one way or another, continue the traditions begun many hundreds of years ago by their ancestors.

In addition, now many people know the Arab Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, the owner of many prestigious literary and poetic awards. One of his most famous collections is called "Birds Without Wings" - it was his debut book, which he wrote at only 19 years old.

Arabic literature and, in particular, poetry originated many hundreds of years ago. It has gone through different periods of its development - both ups and downs. But thanks to the sensitive attitude of Arab poets to culture and cultural heritage, great Arabic works have come down to our times, which still excite the soul. Poetry does not stand still: at present, more and more new poets appear who continue the traditions of canonical oriental poetry and bring something new to art. Poetry grows and develops together with humanity, its future is in our hands: we must not let it wither, it is necessary to preserve the existing monuments of a great culture and create new inspiring and powerful works.