Lecture 04

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:01][music] [music] >> I welcome you to this lecture that happens to be the fourth related to the introduction to Arabic language and literature.

[00:00:36]In the last lecture we had talked about different aspects of Arabic language and literature right from the pre-Islamic period up to the modern times.

[00:00:52]If you just recollect something the last points we can see that uh there has been expansion of Arabic to the non-Arab East like the modern-day Turkey that is Anatolia, Persia, modern-day Iran Transoxiana that is Central Asia Samarkand, Tashkent, these regions, Khiva, Bukhara.

[00:01:21]The Indian subcontinent India, Pakistan, Bangladesh which has been great centers of Arabic learning through different phases of history which has a great legacy of Arabic language and literature.

[00:01:45]Then the South Asian countries and the China. So, this this actually constitutes the expansion of uh Arabic language and literature to the non-Arab East domain.

[00:02:03]Then we have the Arab diaspora.

[00:02:06]Arab diaspora that is found in uh almost in all parts of the modern world, whether it is Europe or America or Australia.

[00:02:19]Then the primary sources and the secondary sources we'll be having.

[00:02:23]So in the next 20 or 25 minutes we'll be having some glimpses of some very illustrious examples of Arabic language and literature our literary traditions uh which has been recorded in history and which happens to be part of our legacy still till modern day. Some of that are related to the movement of translation that absorbed uh non- Arab wisdom and literature sciences into into into Arabic initiated by the translation movement and beyond that during the Abbasid times.

[00:03:16]So, Panchatantra was translated by Ibn al-Muqaffa, Abdullah ibn al-Muqaffa.

[00:03:21]And this is the example of Panchatantra.

[00:03:24]It was not a direct translation from Sanskrit. First it was translated into Pahlavi and from Pahlavi that is Old Persian, it was translated by Abdullah ibn al-Muqaffa into Arabic.

[00:03:42]In the domain of astronomy we have just seen that uh uh there are tremendous legacies of science uh during the Middle Ages in Arabic.

[00:03:56]So, in the domain of astronomy we have this that is preserved in the Khalili collection.

[00:04:05]Ibn al-Shatir who died in the year 1375 was a great mathematician.

[00:04:12]This is an example of his of the diagrams he made in his books.

[00:04:19]This example is related to Qadi Zada who died in the year 1436.

[00:04:24]It is a 15th century manuscript written in the northeastern Timurid Empire, now Central Asia in the 15th century. The manuscript is a commentary on an earlier work from the 13th century. The author of the commentary is Salah al-Din Musa ibn Muhammad, also known as Qadi Zada. He worked in Samarkand, the Timurid capital at the court of Ulugh Beg.

[00:04:46]So uh usually what is projected in uh modern times is that Arabic is nothing but uh a language deep-rooted in literary traditions and again these literary traditions are classified into the classics the classical themes not the modern themes that is only the poetry or the prose or the fine arts and that they don't have any relation to do with science and technology.

[00:05:22]No, this this is again something that is to be demolished. This is not This doesn't represent the reality.

[00:05:31]So, during the Middle Ages we have a tremendous legacy of science and technology.

[00:05:37]And these are present preserved in manuscripts which are again preserved by libraries of East and West.

[00:05:48]So, this al-Ghazali's example alongside this example of Ali Qushji in the domain of mathematics a mathematical figure from Ali Qushji's book in Risala al-Fathiya al-Ilmiya which is present preserved in Sulaymaniyah Library in Aya Sophia.

[00:06:09]Suhayl al- Quhi who died in the year 1000.

[00:06:18]Uh this is again a very good example of the mathematical writings in Arabic.

[00:06:28]In the domain of optics we have Ibn al-Haytham from 965 to 1020.

[00:06:37]Uh he's uh the well-known scholar in the domain of optics, ophthalmology who is still valid and has the relevant in modern times.

[00:06:51]And we can hardly find any institute of ophthalmology or this domain of ophthalmology which projects the things, discusses the things or where the optics discourse can be conceived in negation of uh of of Ibn al-Haytham.

[00:07:14]So, this is an image.

[00:07:17]In the domain of for botany we have Ibn al-Baytar who died in the year 1248.

[00:07:25]Uh in his Jami Mufradat al-Adwiya wa al- al-Aghdiya it is preserved in Sulaymaniyah Aya Sophia.

[00:07:33]The manuscript number is the 3748.

[00:07:37]Uh can you imagine that even in the domain of robotics uh we have our we have the the legacy in Arabic language and literature.

[00:07:50]So, Ismail al-Jazari who died in the year 1206, he had written many books related to robotics and significantly these books uh represent into some diagrams, some maps, some images related to robotics.

[00:08:14]Even in the domain of aeronautics we have Abbas ibn Firnas uh who died in the year 887 uh who had this experimentation of flying who is regarded to be the first uh man to fly a flying machine in that part of the city that is known as Madinat al-Zahra in in Spain. That was a palatine city uh that was reserved for the rulers uh in Spain.

[00:08:52]So, this experimentation was over there, Abbas ibn Firnas.

[00:08:56]So when we see aeronautics, robotics botany, optics, mathematics mathematical sciences astronomy Panchatantra alongside the books of physics and medicine like books written by Ibn Sina and uh Ibn Rushd and the and and the generations of of of atibba or hukama alongside these books in pure mathematical sciences like mathematics and optics and botany and uh robotics and aeronautics we can simply imagine the grandeur of the Arab legacy in these domains.

[00:09:56]Now, coming to the modern and post-modern times, which will be dealt again in greater details in the coming in the lectures to come.

[00:10:05]We have the East-West interactions.

[00:10:08]So, after the end of the of of the Middle Ages, we have the we had the East-West interaction epicentered in the domain of in relation to Arabic language and literature epicentered around Egypt uh during the times of Muhammad Ali Pasha who sent emissaries embassies to Europe. Al-Ba'that uh waladi arsala al-ba'that al-ilmiya ila ila Europa.

[00:10:38]Uh fi awalan fi Italia ila Roma thumma ila ila Fransa. Ila Baris. Wa kanat uh uh hadhihi al-ba'that ila Baris hiya al-muhimma, walakin awwal ba'that innama kanat ila Roma.

[00:10:52]Uh allati fi al-haqiqa ghurisat al- al-buzur li al-ihtikak al-thaqafi wal-ilmi wal-adabi bayna al-sharq wal-gharb.

[00:11:01]Because of this grand initiative taken by Muhammad Ali Pasha, uh the interaction between East and West in the domain of thought, language, and literature uh was initiated of or kicked started.

[00:11:19]So, this is important because according If you just look at the classical legacy, the legacy that was inherited from the pre-Islamic times up to up to that is the uh uh Ottoman times, we'll be having the things uh classified as a classical as classical.

[00:11:49]What the only difference was that during the later ages Arabic the language and literature became uh very much uh devoid of originality and the natural promise or natural beauty.

[00:12:08]Uh because of so many factors, historical factors, geographical factors.

[00:12:13]So, here the Arabic language and and literature uh lost its authority. So, there was the necessity to revive the things.

[00:12:23]This uh revival of the things happened within the very concept of what is language, what is literature.

[00:12:33]So, here the uh definition that was uh given uh regarding language and literature, it was something that was uh fundamentally revisited. It was a byproduct of uh revisiting or revision. It was revised, revisited, and reformulated, reconstructed.

[00:12:58]So, here we have the modern concept.

[00:13:00]This modern concept of language that represents the actual life, not something imaginary, not not something deeply uh steeped into into into mere classicism or the mere thoughts. These thoughts are the are the ideals that would hardly have anything to do or must to do with the the realities, harsh realities, or hard realities of life.

[00:13:29]So, that's why we find this great difference between uh the modern language language literature and the and the ancient language and literature. Yani hadha al-farq al-asasi bayna al-lugha al-haditha wal-adab al-hadith wal-adab al-qadim. Yani uh adatan ma ana wa'kid hadha al-farq uh bayna al-lughat al-qadima wal-lughat al-haditha wal-adab al-hadith wal-adab wal-adab al-qadim.

[00:13:56]Bi'tibara anna al-adab al-qadim khasatan hadha alladhi uh fi al-haqiqa tatawwara fi asr al-inhitat uh fi awakhir al-asr al-Abbasi wal-wal-wal-wal-wal-adwar wal-fitrat al- al-mutalahiqa asbahat fiha al-lughatu dha'ifatan.

[00:14:17]Wa asbaha al-madmun al-adabi the literary content ayda asbaha hazilan.

[00:14:24]Asbaha ghayr asilan.

[00:14:26]Fa al-shu'ara' kanu yamdahuna al-salatin faqatt. Yani al-shu'ara' baqiya fi al-haqiqa ibaratan an al-madh faqatt.

[00:14:33]Innahu lam yakun al-adab lam yakun yumaththilu al-hayat bi kulli awjuhihi bi kulli ab'adihi. Fa kanat hunaka darura uh muraja'a al-tasawwur al-adabi al-tasawwur li al-lughati wal-adab.

[00:14:46]Hadha kana fi siyaqi al-ihtikak bayna al-sharq wal-gharb.

[00:14:51]Hadha adda ila dhuhur ittijahat wa madaris uh mithla al-rumansiya al-klasikiya al-ramziya al-wujudia al-qawmiya al-unthawiya wa ghayr dhalika. Thumma innana najidu hunaka al-asr al-hadith wa ma ba'da al-asr al-hadith.

[00:15:08]So, the East-West interactions represented yielded many things like classes in the concept of classicism in modern Arabic, new classicism, classicism alongside new classicism, romanticism and symbolism, existentialism existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre and others, and feminism.

[00:15:36]So, uh and these played very significant role. In the domain of literature, we find that these tendencies are represented in fiction, in free verse, in drama, in journalism.

[00:15:48]So, the fiction as such was not found in what as as per the modern definition of fiction, fiction was not found in our ancient legacy of Arabic. Free verse was not found. Al-shi'r al-hurr drama and journalism.

[00:16:03]And here we find that it culminated into into Nobel Prize being offered to Naguib Mahfouz in the year 1988.

[00:16:18]Then we have post-modernism and post-modern period.

[00:16:23]The post-modern literary scene is represented by literary theories and literary criticism.

[00:16:30]Something uh breaking away from the traditional ways, methodologies, tools of understanding the language and literature, and figuring out the the the role which is to be played by language and literature uh in human society.

[00:16:53]So, this opened vistas of revisits, reconstructions with tools that were designated as the deconstruction, the argumentative, the semiotics, post-colonialism, etc. Fa yani ba'da al-asr al-hadith najidu hunaka al-asr ma ba'da al-hadith. Asr ma ba'da al-hadith.

[00:17:17]Al-musamma bi post-modernism, post-modern period.

[00:17:21]Haythu najidu hunaka yani tahawwulan kabiran fi al- turuq al-mu'alaja, turuq al-tafkir wal-mu'alaja al-mustakhdama fi siyaqat al-lughati wal-adab.

[00:17:34]Yani ma hiya al-lugha? Kayfa nafhamuha?

[00:17:37]Ma huwa al-adab? Kayfa nafhamu dawra al-adab? Wa ma ila dhalika?

[00:17:41]Kayfa naktabu al-riwaya?

[00:17:43]Kayfa yuqra'u al-shi'r?

[00:17:46]Kayfa yumkinu tahlilu al-riwaya wal-shi'r? Yani al-binya al-asasiya lil-shi'r, lil-riwaya.

[00:17:53]Lil-amal al-adabi lil-intaj. Ma huwa?

[00:17:57]Tasawwur al-qari man huwa al-qari wa ma huwa al-qari? Ma al-farq bayna al-qari wal-mu'allif?

[00:18:05]Al-mu'allif nazariyatu mawt al-mu'allif.

[00:18:07]Nazariyatu mawt al-mu'allif.

[00:18:09]Deconstruction theory, it is something written related to the death the theory of death of of author.

[00:18:21]Meaning the traditional way was to understand uh the legacies of language and literature in well-defined parallelisms which were drawn from or inherited from the antiquity, from the past ages.

[00:18:40]Uh but and here the actual text was simply pushed into a little bit into oblivion.

[00:18:50]But here the deconstruction theory, the argumentative theory, the semiotics, and post-colonialism uh these theories focused on understanding the language and literature on parallelisms related to the reality as it is lived in modern society.

[00:19:09]And here the buzzword is that because of these theories, deconstruction, argumentative, semiotics, post-colonialism, etc. These literary sciences, these domains of humanities humanities domain become closer to the domain of social sciences, sometimes the social sciences.

[00:19:33]So, here now when a word is explained, for example, it is explained in uh the semiotic perspectives, the argumentative perspectives, the deconstruction perspectives.

[00:19:46]If the scansion system is given or analyzed, it is analyzed mathematically, very much mathematically, using the mathematical symbols.

[00:19:55]So, this way or the acoustic measurement of sounds acoustic measurement measurements applied rules of acoustic measurement applied in the domain of acoustic in the domain of Al Awzan Al Arooz.

[00:20:11]Uh where like fa'ilun would be written something like uh fa a lun, something like that.

[00:20:31]In a way that is quite different from the traditional uh patterns.

[00:20:37]So, these will be the things we'll be going through in the series of lectures that would be uh following.

[00:20:45]We'll be having bibliographies. I have given some of them.

[00:20:49]Alongside other things.

[00:20:51]Uh it includes some of the books written by me.

[00:20:55]We'll be having lots of of books written in Arabic as well as in other languages.

[00:21:02]So, uh what we can simply infer after all these things is that Arabic language and literature constitutes uh uh very significant repertoire of literary history history of thought of humanity history of culture and civilization related to East, West, and eventually to humanity at large as we can have in our times.

[00:21:49]So, I will be welcoming you to the uh specific lectures related related to the Jahiliyyah period followed by uh early Islamic period, Umayyad period, Abbasid period.

[00:22:09]Then modern period, Ottoman period, then modern period, then post-modern period.

[00:22:15]The Arabic language and literature in Europe besides Arabic language and literature in the Indian subcontinent.

[00:22:24]With this this lecture comes to an end.

[00:22:26]Thank you very much.

[00:22:28]>> [music]