Lecture 03

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:01][music] [music] I welcome you to this uh uh new lecture that happens to be the third in this series related to the history of Arabic uh literature.

[00:00:34]Uh we can simply recolct uh the last uh lecture that was related to the tribal system among Arabian peoples. So we had seen the Adrani and Katani tribes.

[00:00:52]And uh the last thing that uh we should recollect is uh that uh we have the concept of Arab issal Arab that is everywhere in the modern world.

[00:01:07]If we have uh the Arabs uh they have their ancestry and this if this ancestry is to be scrutinized on the historical lines on lines of the scientific evidence of the historical evidences then uh they have to trace their ancestry to either the Adanis or the Katanis. Hence all these peoples now living in uh Arabia or in the Afro uh Asian countries or Afro Mediterranean region like Algeria, Tunisia etc. they will be tracing their ancestry to the Arab tribes. So uh on the historical lines it can be established uh with the as it is as it is related to the Arab isklls or jamaajul Arab in preislamic Arabia we have uh many inscriptions and uh if we just enumerate them we'll [clears throat] find that they are thousands in numbers. words.

[00:02:21]There are approximately 15,000 inscriptions known for from pre-Islamic South Arabia. Of these 7,500 have been digitalized into the corpus of South Arabian inscriptions, CAe CI uh project. In total, the number of published inscriptions has been given as 10,000 or even 12,000.

[00:02:45]Of all South Arabian languages, Sabayik is represented by the largest number of the inscriptions.

[00:02:52]And it must be recollected that the Sabine inscriptions are related to the earliest standard Arabic which is classified into the first category of Arabs that is alabal.

[00:03:10]Al Alba who are who also happen to be alida alabulida because uh no human settlements in continuity is to be found in modern day uh uh geographical landscape of Arabia or say uh even uh we won't be finding any traces of them in terms of details.

[00:03:40]locations, legacy recorded in in the middle ages sources in Arabic or in any other languages, European languages or the eastern languages.

[00:03:56]So uh we will be having uh the inscriptions one of the foremost uh heritage uh archeological specimen uh that have arrived to us is the Maharam bilkis or the awam temple uh which was found which was discovered in Maib.

[00:04:27]Yemen. It uh it was built uh during the uh time of uh that is uh Malai Billes or the Queen Billes uh 1500 to 1200 BCE.

[00:04:45]So this is a an example of archaeology.

[00:04:50]The Sabik inscriptions we can find in these uh examples. So what uh is to be clearly seen is that uh we have uh now we you have you we have the Arabic alphabet but compared to uh this uh uh we find that uh this alphabet is quite different from the uh Arabic alphabet as we find in our times.

[00:05:22]There's another example of the Sabai bronze plaque uh and it is uh preserved in the Louvro Museum of Paris. So here the letters are uh quite uh visible. We can distinguish it from uh the other types of letters as we find in modern day Arabic language or the Arabic alphabet. So it is quite different.

[00:05:53]So just to compare this uh that is the sub plaque uh these like this one which is uh so we can find that uh it is quite different from the Arabic as we have now.

[00:06:22]Now look at this. This is uh the alif from the uh just a minute. I'm sorry.

[00:06:56]Well, we're just talking about uh these inscriptions. So, these are the sabayic inscriptions.

[00:07:07]So, these are the letters.

[00:07:10]This one, this one, these are the letters. Different letters. These are just compare these letters with uh some of the earliest uh sort of the calligraphy or the way Arabic language uh was written as it is represented in the leaves of the holy Quran in several manuscripts as we find in kufi that is the Kufi script which is known as ali Al alufi we can simply find that there's a there's a huge gap between this script and the iscript as we find in the early rather the earliest is script in which uh Quran was uh calligraphed as you find in the Bulu Quran. uh besides uh some fragments of the copy of the Quran that is ascribed to uh the fourth califf in the history of Islam that is Hatrat Ali uh which is preserved in its in original inad library of Ali Muslim University.

[00:08:25]So it is again written in Alui. So here we can we we find a uh difference uh between ali as you find over here and al kufi.

[00:08:42]uh this can can be compared to uh the uh another version of al krai uh that is the version of the holy Quran ascribed to hazat Osman Ian it is stored at the topi palace shrine of the sacred relics Istanbul so you have this uh you can have another example of So that in the in Tashkand where uh the very version uh that was uh while he was assassinated where some of the blood also be found still today.

[00:09:34]Uh so it is preserved in the Bashan library. uh I have visited this place and seen that version.

[00:09:46]So again we can simplify the huge gap between these letters as well as the sabayak uh letters which uh uh are classified by the historians as the earliest specimen of the written Arabic belonging to the very first phase that is alab ba then we have this nam inscription this nam inscription is very close to modern Arabic although it happens to be something in between modern Arabic.

[00:10:21]Arabic as we have with the advent of Islam and uh Arabic that was uh sometime before that uh that happens between the Arabic script and uh the uh Nabatian script. So where it happens to be a mix of the of the two. So here again is this the difference.

[00:10:47]This is the original of the Namar inscription in Basil and it is preserved in Lubri Museum is associated with Imr the foremost poet in preIlamic Arabia among the Jahia poets Malakad among Malakad.

[00:11:13]So he had this uh kingdom in alkinda especially in and this has been now located in modern day Saudi Arabia. Yeah.

[00:11:35]forchech.

[00:12:13]Besides that, we'll be having the Petra city in Jordan and uh the Madan in modern day Saudi Arabia.

[00:12:25]the rock inscriptions in Madina Fared in Alula which is nearby Medina.

[00:12:38]Uh and it must be noted that these monuments are related to those nations some of whom has been mentioned in the Holy Quran.

[00:12:54]foreignity.

[00:13:37]So the most important thing is that uh these uh very much and these archeological sites are related to the early phase of Arabian peoples who are located now in different parts of uh of modern day Arabia.

[00:14:03]We have seen uh the LM kingdom.

[00:14:10]So uh themed of Al with their castle that is known as alak alongside the mention of which has been found in some poetry prelamic Arabic poetry one poet says something like that he says that when I'm intoxicated. I just feel imagine myself to be the lord of harak and sad. But when this is gone uh then or I regain my uh my my senses uh I simply find myself as a herder of the sheep of the sheep a sheep herder.

[00:15:04]of so in some Arabic sources as well as Persian sources we'll be having uh these uh informations besides uh an image of this in a Persian source.

[00:15:22]So the historicity of Arabic literature uh is represented uh by some many perspectives some of which we have already described that is the Arabic language and the questions of interaction there have been interaction between Arabic and non-Arabic languages and uh this theme that is the ashwan Arab besides pros and the sources of Arabic literature and uh the ways of authentication. How to authenticate the things? These are some of the some some of the things perspectives we uh should take account of after passing to uh the main uh domains of uh of uh thought or uh the coverage related to Arabic history of Arabic language and literature.

[00:16:18]Related to poetry we have the Jahalia poetry. The significant thing is that the Jahalia poetry which constitutes uh the core of the first core of a classical poetry.

[00:16:31]It is represented in 16 ision patterns or aanas or alawi which came to be known or classified at a later stage as the khalian proi alan.

[00:16:49]Why alanaly? because uh they were uh uh uh elaborated for the first time or codified for the first time not invented of course because the patterns were there he actually uh classified them analyzed them and classified them and gave them the nomenclature.

[00:17:11]So that's why they are known as the alan or the khalian proi khalmed alahi was born in 718 and he died in 719.

[00:17:23]Uh he was a very prolific writer and manifas and uh he's better known for his book that is kabhain. uh this line although it is designated as a book an exigis Arabic exigences or muajam but uh it surpasses the narrow boundaries of or well- definfined boundaries of muajam or al- muaj and it happens to be uh a mudana or grand book of many things related to Arabic language and teacher and poetry also rhetoric.

[00:18:12]Then uh we have the poets the emerald the poet like aldi and others then it's very concept that is the malak poetry is the most celebrated part of Arabic poetry that have that has arrived to us uh from the pre-Islamic period.

[00:18:48]The Arabic poetry consists of the malakad is constituted by malakad primarily the malakad they are seven in numbers sometimes they are enumerated as nine sometimes it is 10 then we have the madaya the madaya or they are the panagarics we have the satire that is alhaja we have the nature prelude that is in which the poet depicts the nature uh it is the landscape, it is the desert uh and anything that is related to the atmosphere, the love of poetry also alazal it's also known as al- gazal or and where the political poetry that is asheras or poetry related to to the political atmosphere of the Although we will finding that it was only later during the year period that we find something known as the uh political poetry.

[00:20:11]Uh, CS foreign.

[00:21:07]Then we have the uh philosophical poetry.

[00:21:11]We have the kamriat especially kamriat developed or the wine poetry especially developed dur during the abbasi times.

[00:21:21]We have with the Gmana that sort of astray love uh that goes beyond the traditional uh love and stereotype types of love uh where the the the object or the subject happens to be the uh male not the female. So this has been designated as almanata. Also it is known as al kazal al- muzakar. It was a byproduct of the mixed society that we had during the ambassadi times. Then we have the Sufi poetry because Sufiism emerged at the time emerged and became something very prominent uh in society uh both uh in the domain of uh of uh the cognitives the thought the the the philosophy of life.

[00:22:23]So Sufi poetry was there with many names like we have the the very prominent figure of Fahlaj uh during the Abasi times and uh we have Farad among other very prominent Sufi poets as we have Mahbn Arabi among the very very prominent Sufi poets especially in the one that is Talan Alashwak which has been translated into English also uh uh uh among others like Alhalaj. Alhalaj has been dealt with extensive similarly by the orientalists chiefly the French orientalist or the scholars of Islam and Sufism. So uh we have this uh Sufi poetry. Then we have philosophical poetry chiefly represented by Abdul Ali al- Marib who was very much given to Indian philosophical systems and uh then we have moshahad which is a byproduct of andalucia or spain moshahad which was something new because it went a little bit uh against the traditional iskansion system uh where the last line one of the line lines happened to be in non-Arabic.

[00:23:46]So it was something like uh mixing Arabic with the non-Arabic. Then we have a uh ajal was something quite different.

[00:23:55]It happened to be in vernacular combining between Arabic vernacular and non-Arabic vernacular. Ujuat we have versifications without being poetry without being refined poetry with the philosophical notions and specific uh parameters of iscansion. Uh there they were they are divided into several categories like the pedagogical, the mystic, the scientific in which they simply composed the data the scientific data into poetic lines like uh in these two lines the poet simply composes versifies the information or it says its So these things are known as we have alia. We have a we have a tremendous legacy of urad in Arab in Arabic literature. We have juzad in in grammar. We have juzad in alk. We have urad in hadith. We have urad in history.

[00:25:10]So uh this is again something very significant. Even we have urati in mathematics in mathematical sciences.

[00:25:17]So in the Arabic pros we'll be having the oratory represented by Zubi the sayings represented by Zakali alab and we'll be having many examples while we'll be dealing with these topics as we'll be having the idioms and aphorisms and correspondences among the Arabic literary traditions before Islam and early Islamic period as we'll be having the religious literature the grammar the rhetoric the literary pros the ornate pros represented by makamat literary criticism besides the sciences in physics and biology and chemistry and mathematics and engineering and medicine and astrology in which we'll be having numerous encyclopedias alongside the sufi literature and the tlogs the history the geography the philosophy, the logic, the translations from Greek from different languages like Greek and also Sanskrit because several books from Sanskrit were translated during the Abbasi times either by the individuals or by the society.

[00:26:32]So like punchantra was translated by Abdul Abdan Mukafa and uh during the Abbasid times in the Abbasid court several translators translated the Indian legacy into Arabic. Indian legacy that is Sanskrit legacy into Arabic. We'll be having many examples of that. We'll be talking about the theme deliberating upon the theme uh related to the Ambassadi times. Then we have the Arabic literature in Europe especially that is in Spain in Province that is the south of France then Sicily and the Turbadors the translations schools of Palmo Toledo Paris etc. Latin Aism that is the Latin school of Imina of often Latin aism that is the Avisinism that is the Latin school ofina and orientalism because that legacy of Islam and uh and Arabism Arabic language and literature uh in Europe formulated primarily the basis of a discourse that emer that came to know to be known after that as orientalism.

[00:27:42]So then of course we'll be having the non Arab east that is Anatolia, Persia, Transocana, Indian subcontinent, South Asia, China and the development of Arabic language and literature in these areas alongside the Arab Arab diaspora is spread uh now everywhere in the modern world in Europe and Americas in Australia.

[00:28:07]uh then we'll be going through the primary sources that is aliqashi abuhammed alumi among others. So these will be the things we'll be going through and uh these things actually highlight the the grander of that legacy associated with Arabic language and literature uh to which we are just having sort of proleadma in this lecture. Other things would be followed in the second lecture in the fourth lecture of course. So with this we conclude this third lecture. Thank you.