Arabic poetryArabic poetry (الشعر العربي ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy) is one of the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of written poetry in Arabic dates from the 5th century, but oral poetry is much older. Arabic poetry is categorized into two main types, rhymed or measured, and prose, with the former greatly preceding the latter. The rhymed poetry falls within fifteen different meters collected and explained by al-Farahidi in The Science of ‘Arud. Al-Akhfash, a student of al-Farahidi, later added one more meter to make them sixteen.
Religion in pre-Islamic ArabiaReligion in pre-Islamic Arabia included indigenous Arabian polytheism, ancient Semitic religions, Christianity, Judaism, Mandaeism, and Zoroastrianism. Arabian polytheism, the dominant form of religion in pre-Islamic Arabia, was based on veneration of deities and spirits. Worship was directed to various gods and goddesses, including Hubal and the goddesses al-Lāt, al-‘Uzzā, and Manāt, at local shrines and temples such as the Kaaba in Mecca. Deities were venerated and invoked through a variety of rituals, including pilgrimages and divination, as well as ritual sacrifice.
Prose poetryProse poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened , parataxis, and emotional effects. Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associated with poetry. However, it makes use of poetic devices such as fragmentation, compression, repetition, rhyme, metaphor, and figures of speech. In 17th-century Japan, Matsuo Bashō originated haibun, a form of prose poetry combining haiku with prose.
Arabic musicArabic music (al-mūsīqā al-ʿarabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also many linguistic dialects, with each country and region having their own traditional music. Arabic music has a long history of interaction with many other regional musical styles and genres. It represents the music of all the peoples that make up the Arab world today.
AdunisAli Ahmad Said Esber (علي أحمد سعيد إسبر, North Levantine: ˈʕali ˈʔaħmad saˈʕiːd ˈʔesbeɾ; born 1 January 1930), also known by the pen name Adonis or Adunis (أدونيس ʔadoːˈniːs), is a Syrian poet, essayist and translator. He led a modernist revolution in the second half of the 20th century, "exerting a seismic influence" on Arabic poetry comparable to T.S. Eliot's in the anglophone world. Adonis's publications include twenty volumes of poetry and thirteen of criticism.
One Thousand and One NightsOne Thousand and One Nights (أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ ʾAlf Laylah wa-Laylah) is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English-language edition (1706–1721), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment. The work is derived from a pre-Islamic Iranian prototype that relied partly on Indian elements; some of the tales trace their roots back to ancient/medieval-era literature in Arabic, Sanskrit, and Persian, along with Mesopotamian mythology.
Story within a storyA story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which a character within a story becomes the narrator of a second story (within the first one). Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometimes called nested stories. A play may have a brief play within it, such as Shakespeare's play Hamlet; a film may show the characters watching a short film; or a novel may contain a short story within the novel.
Arabic grammarArabic grammar (النحو العربي) is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with the grammar of other Semitic languages. Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic have largely the same grammar; colloquial spoken varieties of Arabic can vary in different ways.
PanchatantraThe Panchatantra (IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, पञ्चतन्त्र, "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story. The surviving work is dated to about 200 BCE, but the fables are likely much more ancient. The text's author is unknown, but it has been attributed to Vishnu Sharma in some recensions and Vasubhaga in others, both of which may be fictitious pen names.
SyriaSyria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. Cyprus lies to the west across the Mediterranean Sea. It is a unitary republic that consists of 14 governorates (subdivisions).
