Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial introduction
- 1 The tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia
- 2 The Umayyad Empire, c. A.D. 750
- 1 Background topics
- 2 Pre-Islamic poetry
- 3 Early Arabic prose
- 4 The beginnings of Arabic prose literature: the epistolary genre
- 5 The role of parallelism in Arabic prose
- 6 The Qur'ān-I
- 7 The Qur'ān–II
- 8 Qiṣaṣ elements in the Qur'ān
- 9 Aspects of the Qur'ān today
- 10 Ḥadīth literature–I: The development of the science of Ḥadīth
- 11 Ḥadīth literature-II: Collection and transmission of Ḥadīth
- 12 Shī'ī Ḥadīth
- 13 Narrative elements in the Ḥadīth literature
- 14 European criticism of Ḥadīth literature
- 15 The impact of the Qur'ān and Ḥadīth on medieval Arabic literature
- 16 The Maghāzī literature
- 17 The Sīrah literature
- 18 The poetry of the Sīrah literature
- 19 Fables and legends in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times
- 20 Umayyad poetry
- 21 Music and verse
- 22 The Greek impact on Arabic literature
- 23 The Persian impact on Arabic literature
- 24 The Syrian impact on Arabic literature
- Appendix Bibliography of translations of the Qur'ān into European languages
- Glossary
- List of sources
- Index
15 - The impact of the Qur'ān and Ḥadīth on medieval Arabic literature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial introduction
- 1 The tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia
- 2 The Umayyad Empire, c. A.D. 750
- 1 Background topics
- 2 Pre-Islamic poetry
- 3 Early Arabic prose
- 4 The beginnings of Arabic prose literature: the epistolary genre
- 5 The role of parallelism in Arabic prose
- 6 The Qur'ān-I
- 7 The Qur'ān–II
- 8 Qiṣaṣ elements in the Qur'ān
- 9 Aspects of the Qur'ān today
- 10 Ḥadīth literature–I: The development of the science of Ḥadīth
- 11 Ḥadīth literature-II: Collection and transmission of Ḥadīth
- 12 Shī'ī Ḥadīth
- 13 Narrative elements in the Ḥadīth literature
- 14 European criticism of Ḥadīth literature
- 15 The impact of the Qur'ān and Ḥadīth on medieval Arabic literature
- 16 The Maghāzī literature
- 17 The Sīrah literature
- 18 The poetry of the Sīrah literature
- 19 Fables and legends in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times
- 20 Umayyad poetry
- 21 Music and verse
- 22 The Greek impact on Arabic literature
- 23 The Persian impact on Arabic literature
- 24 The Syrian impact on Arabic literature
- Appendix Bibliography of translations of the Qur'ān into European languages
- Glossary
- List of sources
- Index
Summary
THE QUR'ĀN AND ARABIC POETRY
To the Arabs the Qur'ān was not only a religious book which set up for them new principles of religious, moral and social conduct, but also a literary work of the highest quality, the very Speech of God that no man can surpass or rival and, therefore, the final authority regarding language and grammar and the standard by which a literary work might be judged. But in spite of this, and of the fact that Muhammad was taken by his Meccan opponents to be a poet and soothsayer, the influence that the Qur'ān has exerted on the development of the Arabic poem, its themes, structure, language and general spirit, is less significant than that exercised by the works of the pre-Islamic poets. The pre-Islamic qasīdah or ode remained the model after which the new poets, who were born after Islam, composed their works, and the standard by which these works were judged. This happened in spite of the hostile attitude expressed by the Qur'ān and the Prophet towards heathen poetry and poets, an attitude which amounts to a condemnation of poetic imagination and truth.
Three main reasons seem to have contributed to this peculiar phenomenon. At the time when Muhammad began his prophetic career the Arabic qasīdah was fully developed in structure, language and metrical scheme, the poetic traditions firmly established and the whole imaginative range of life in Arabia explored by the poets. Therefore, it was impossible for Islam to switch the course which the Arabic qasīdah was following or to abolish the poetic traditions which were created by the heathen poets.
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- Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period , pp. 322 - 343Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1983
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