Related Papers
The Qur'an and the Aesthetics of Premodern Arabic Prose. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
Sarah R bin Tyeer
Journal of Arabic Literature
Sarra Tlili's REVIEW of The Quran and the Aesthetics of Premodern Arabic Prose in the Journal of Arabic Literature 50:2 (2019)
2019 •
Sarra Tlili, Sarah R bin Tyeer
Book Review of The Qur'an and the Aesthetics of Premodern Arabic Prose in the Journal of Arabic Literature, volume 50:2, (2019)
Devin J. Stewart Review of the Qur'an and Aesthetics of Arabic Prose RQR | Review of Qur'anic Research
Sarah R bin Tyeer
Review of The Qur'an and the Aesthetics of Premodern Arabic Prose in Marginalia Book Review by Kevin Blankinship
Sarah R bin Tyeer, Kevin Blankinship
"The Qur'an and the Aesthetics of Adab: Hikayat Abi'l-Qasim al-Baghdadi" by Abu'l-Mutahhar al-Azdi (fl. Fifth/Eleventh Century) in The Qur'an and Adab: The Shaping of Literary Traditions in Classical Islam. Edited by Nuha Alshaar. Oxford University Press
Sarah R bin Tyeer
"Though there have been many studies on the Qur'an's importance in tafsir (Qur'anic commentary), there are comparatively few which look at the impact of the Qur'an on other forms of literature. The Qur'an and Adab: The Shaping of Literary Traditions in Classical Islam bridges the gap in the scholarship by placing the Qur'an in its broader cultural and literary contexts. It explores the Qur'an's relation to classical literary traditions (adab) from pre-Islamic times until the fifteenth century CE, focusing on the various ways in which the classical literati (udaba) engaged with the Qur'anic text, linguistically, conceptually, structurally, and aesthetically, to create works that combined the sacred with the profane, thereby blurring the boundaries between formal tafsir and adab. Through a detailed introduction and a series of case studies, the volume rethinks the concept of adab and the relation of scripture to humanistic traditions in classical Islam and questions the general classification of adab as belles-lettres. It examines the religious aesthetic found in different types of adab works--poetry, literary criticism, epistles, oratory traditions, anthologies, "mirrors for princes," folklore, and mystical/Sufi literature. Featuring contributions by leading scholars, the collection investigate the intertextuality between pre-lslamic poetry and the Qur'an, and the innumerable approaches to the Qur'an by classical authors. It discusses the various citation techniques employed in the udaba's borrowing of Qur'anic language, concepts, and stories. The chapters explain how the choice of these techniques was determined by the literary conventions of the particular genres and contexts within which the udaba were working, as well as by their authorial intention, theological, and ideological outlooks. They also highlight the link between the functions ascribed to Qur'anic quotations in a specific text and the need to convey a particular message to specific audiences." 1 Introduction: The Relation of Adab to the Qur'an: Conceptual and Historical Framework Nuha Alshaar Section I: The Qur'an and Classical Arabic Poetry: Intertextuality and Sensibilities 2 The 'Discovery of Writing' in the Qur'an: Tracing a Cultural Shift in Arab Late Antiquity Angelika Neuwirth 3 The Qur'an and the Character of Pre-Islamic Poetry: The Daliyya of al-Aswad b. Ya'fur al-Nahshali (d. 600 CE) Ghassan el Masri 4 Abbasid Poets and the Qur'an Beatrice Gruendler Section II: The Qur'an in Literary Criticism 5 The Qur'an in Kitab al-Badi'by Ibn al-Mu'tazz (d. 296/908) Geert Jan van Gelder 6 'I See a Distant Fire': Tha'alibi's (d. 429/1030) Kitab al-Iqtibas min al-Qur'an al-karim Bilal Orfali and Maurice Pomerantz Section III: The Qur'an as a Moral, Literary and Aesthetic Model 7 The Place of the Qur'an in 'The Sermons and Exhortations' of Abu 'Ubayd (d. 224/838) Andrew Rippin 8 Rhythmical Anxiety: Notes on Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri's (d. 449/1058) al-Fusul wa'l-Ghayat and Its Reception Devin Stewart 9 The Qur'an and the Aesthetics of Adab: Hikayat Abi'l-Qasim al-Baghdadi by Abu'l-Mutahhar al-Azdi (fl. Fifth/Eleventh Century) Sarah R. bin Tyeer Section IV: Approaches to the Qur'an in Adab: Five Case Studies 10 Qur'an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khutba): Mnemonic, Liturgical and Testimonial Functions Tahera Qutbuddin 11 The Impact of the Qur'an on the Epistolography of 'Abd al-Hamid b. Yahya al-Katib (d. 132/750) Wad?d al-Q??? 12 The Qur'an in Literary Anthologies: A Case Study of al-'Iqd al-Farid by Ibn 'Abd Rabbih al-Andalus? (d. 328/940) Nuha Alshaar 13 Wisdom and Justice: The Reception of the Qur'an in Some Arabic and Persian Mirrors for Princes Louise Marlow 14 Solomon's Ring in the Arabic Literary Imaginary Wen-chin Ouyang Section V: The Qur'an in Sufi Literature 15 Sufi Negotiation of the Qur'anic Text and its Prophetic Stories in the Literature of Abu Sa'id al-Kharraz (d. 286/899) Nada Saab 16 Ibn 'Arabi (d. 637/1240) and the Qur'an: A Series of Poems Denis McAuley 17 'Serving from Afar': Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 672/1273) on the Adab of Interpreting the Qur'an Steffen Stelzer Bibliography Index of Qur'anic Citations General Index
Al-Abhath: Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, American University of Beirut
As Barren as Mother Eve: Why Some Poems End Badly, According to Premodern Arabic Critics | Al-Abhath
2023 •
Kevin Blankinship
Premodern Arabic literary critics often discuss why poems are good, or at least, why some poems are better than others. This article discusses why critics think poems are bad, or at least, why some poems are worse than others. Specifically, why some poems are bad in terms of how they end. Examples of allegedly poor poetic closure, al-intihāʾ or al-khitām, appear in works of “practical criticism” like anthologies, rhetorical manuals, books on writing craft, and evaluations of specific poets. Such works avoid theorizing, thus demanding a bit of educated guesswork. Given this, premodern Arabic critics disdain poems without a “punchline,” which keeps poetry from being like prose, going on and on. They think poems should end with rhetorical force, couched in a witty saying or image, while avoiding farfetched metaphors that distort the message. That message should not be ill-suited to the occasion, and it should be integral to the poem, which signals a tacit sense of poetic unity beyond the line.
New review of The Qur’an and Adab by Helen Blatherwick, in the Journal of Qur’anic Studies:
Blatherwick 2020 The Quran and Adab The Shaping of Literary Tradi 120200702 99530 1fu5pog
2020 •
Nuha Alshaar
New review of The Qur’an and Adab by Helen Blatherwick, in the Journal of Qur’anic Studies: https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2020.0431 (pdf attached). Blatherwick concludes: “The workshop that generated the papers for The Qur’an and Adab came at the very beginning of the recent move towards studying the relationship between Arabic literary traditions and the Qur’an, a field that has massive potential for enriching our understanding of premodern adab culture, and of the development of Arabo-Islamic literary thought and genres. This is an area that has grown somewhat since the publication of this volume in 2017, but The Qur’an and Adab is still a ground-breaking collection of papers that holds considerable value for anyone wanting to explore the ways that premodern adab authors engaged with and were influenced by the Qur’an, how it shaped their understanding of how literature works and their conceptualisation of the literary world around them, and how they made intertextual reference to it in their writings.”
Arabic Poetics: Aesthetic Experience in Classical Arabic Literature
Arabic Poetics, Introduction
2020 •
Lara Harb
The Introduction presents the argument that aesthetic judgment in classical Arabic literary theory came to depend on the ability of poetry or eloquent speech to produce an experience of wonder in the listener. This experience of wonder is not merely a reaction of amazement and bedazzlement, but it also entails a process of discovery. After presenting an account of the nature of classical Arabic literary theory, its various approaches to literary assessment, its topics and historical development, the Introduction highlights that the main aspects of literary expression Arabic criticism was concerned with lay in rhetorical figures (badīʿ), simile (tashbīh), figurative speech (majāz), metaphor (istiʿāra), metonymy (kināya), and sentence construction (naẓm). It is in these aspects of linguistic expression that an aesthetic theory of wonder can be uncovered in the classical Arabic critical tradition, including in discussions of poetry proper, engagements with Aristotelian Poetics, and works on eloquence and the miraculousness (iʿjāz) of the Quran, culminating by the thirteenth century in the formalized study of eloquence in ʿilm al-balāgha (the science of eloquence).
"The Relation of Adab to the Qur'an" in the Qur'an and Adab: The Shaping of Literary Traditions in Classical Islam
Chapter 1 The Relation of Adab to the Qur'an: Conceptual and Historical Framework
2017 •
Nuha Alshaar
Although there have been many studies on the Qur’an’s recep tion in the field of Qur’anic exegesis (tafsīr),1 there are compar at ively few which look at the recep tion of the Qur’an in other forms of liter at ure, specific ally how it lends itself to a wide spec trum of inter pret a tions in differ ent cultural media. Tafsīr has been considered of such import ance that it may have preven ted the Qur’an from being explored more fully in other areas. The research presen ted here seeks to rectify this gap in the schol ar ship by placing the recep tion of the Qur’an within its broader cultural and intel lec tual contexts. The chapter examins the Qur’an’s interaction with the kind of activity that came to be known in classical Islam as adab; the development of the concept of adab, and its religious elements. It also offers a better understanding of the concept of adab in its religious, literary and intellectual contexts.
Bint al-Shati's approach to tafsir: An Egyptian Exegete's Journey from Hermeneutics to Humanity
2012 •
Shuruq Naguib
