Course Outline: Pre-Islamic Literature

This course is taught for four hours per week during the first semester and covers the following topics:

Defining the terms used in history, literature, and the pre-Islamic era.

The temporal and geographical boundaries of the pre-Islamic era.

The Arabian environment in the pre-Islamic era: place and people.

Intellectual, social, political, economic, and religious life in the pre-Islamic era.

The language of pre-Islamic poetry and its documentation: oral and written forms.

The Narration of pre-Islamic poetry.

Sources of pre-Islamic poetry.

The issue of plagiarism in pre-Islamic poetry.

The purposes of pre-Islamic poetry.

Prominent poets of the pre-Islamic era.

Prose genres in the pre-Islamic era.

Examples of poetry and prose from the pre-Islamic era.

Applications: Questions, projects, research, discussions, or presentations.

2. Course Outline: Texts from the Pre-Islamic Era

This course is taught for four hours per week during the second semester and covers the following topics:

Introduction: Guidelines for reading pre-Islamic poetry and prose.

Practical examples of reading pre-Islamic poetry and prose, both ancient and modern.

The Mu’allaqat (The celebrated collection of pre-Islamic Arabic odes).

The poetry of the outlaws.

Bedouin and urban poetry.

The language and structures of pre-Islamic poetry.

The structure and artistic characteristics of the pre-Islamic poem.

Analysis of complete examples of pre-Islamic poetry.

The language and structures of pre-Islamic prose.

The structure and artistic characteristics of pre-Islamic prose.

Analysis of complete examples of pre-Islamic prose.

Applications including questions and a presentation project.

1. Course Outline: Literature in the Early Islamic and Umayyad Eras:

This course, taught for four hours per week during the first semester, covers the early Islamic and Umayyad periods as follows:

The influence of the Holy Quran and the Prophetic Hadith on language and literature in the early Islamic and Umayyad eras.

The relationship between Islam and poetry.

Poetry in support of the Islamic call.

The development of poetic themes in the early Islamic and Umayyad eras.

Poetry on the themes of the Islamic call.

Political poetry.

Amorous poetry.

Poetry of invective.

Panegyric poetry.

The development of prose writing in the early Islamic and Umayyad eras.

The aesthetics of the Prophetic Hadith and its impact on the development of writing.

The development of the art of oratory in the early Islamic and Umayyad eras.

The development of the Epistolary Art in the early Islamic and Umayyad eras.

The development of the art of Endorsements and wills in the early Islamic and Umayyad eras.

Applications of the content.

2. Course Content: Texts from Islamic and Umayyad Literature

This course, taught for four hours per week during the second semester, covers the following topics:

Introduction to reading and analyzing literary texts.

Characteristics of Qur’anic expression through a model from the Holy Qur’an.

Characteristics of Prophetic expression through a model from the Prophetic Hadith.

Characteristics of Islamic Da’wah poetry (an applied example from one of the Da’wah poets).

Features of the art of Naqa’id (polemical satire) through examples from the Umayyad era.

Features of Amorous poetry through an example from the Umayyad era.

Features of political poetry through an example from the Umayyad era.

Analysis of examples from each prose genres in the early Islamic and Umayyad periods: oratory, Official Endorsements, Epistolary Writing, and testaments.

Applications of the course content.

1) Literary Outline in the Abbasid and Andalusian Eras:

This course, consisting of four hours per week in the first semester, covers the history of Abbasid and Andalusian literature as follows:

First: Abbasid Literature:

(a) The general influences of Abbasid literature.

(b) The Development of poetry in the Abbasid era and an introduction to its artistic characteristics.

(c) The Development of prose in this era and an introduction to its artistic characteristics.

(d) The flourishing of authorship and its most prominent works.

(e) Literary translations.

Second: Andalusian Literature:

(a) General influences on Andalusian literature.

(b) The classification of Andalusian literature into its various eras, with overview of the development of its literary forms.

(c) Literary biographies of prominent poets and prose writers, and an introduction to the most important literary works and their approaches.

2) Content outline of Abbasid and Andalusian Texts:

Especially four hours per week in the entire second semester:

Introduction to Modern Approaches to Literary Studies:

Stylistics, artistic study, the Psychoanalytic Approach to literature, and Other approaches.

Applied reading of Abbasid and Andalusian poetry and prose texts, both old and new editions.

Poetry samples from various poets

Bashar ibn Bard, Abu Nawas, Abu al-Atahiyah, Abu Tammam, al-Mutanabbi, Abu al-Ala al-Ma’arri, Ibn al-Farid, Mihyar al-Daylami.

Poetry samples from various poets

Ibn Khafajah, Ibn Zaydun, Moatamad ibn Abbad, Hamduna.

Prose from Abbasid and Andalusian literature: Abu al-Ala al-Ma’arri’s (Risalat al-Ghufran), Al-Imtaa’ wal-Mu’ansa li’l-Tawhidi, and others.

The Language and Structures of Abbasid Poetry: The language and structures of Andalusian poetry – The structure and artistic characteristics of Abbasid poetry – The structure and artistic characteristics of Andalusian poetry – The language and structures of Abbasid and Andalusian prose – Analysis of complete models of Abbasid and Andalusian poetry and prose.

Applications include questions and a project.

(3) Literary Courses: This course, with two hours per week during the academic year, clearly outlines a collection of diverse literary texts from different literary periods, encouraging reading and brief analysis of these texts.

(1) Course Outline for Modern Literature:

This course, taught for four hours per week during the first semester, covers modern literature and focuses on:

The temporal and spatial boundaries of modern literature.

Political, social, and scientific influences on modern literature:

Napoleon’s campaign, the 1952 Revolution, and modern Western philosophies and schools of thought: Marxism, existentialism, symbolism, and structuralism.

Literary movements and schools in the modern era: the Revivalist School, the Emigrant School, the Romantic School, the Diwan School, the Apollo School, the Realist School, modernism, and postmodernism.

The relationship between the information age and literary arts, and their development.

The evolution of poetry in terms of form and content in the modern era.

The emergence and development of the novel and the short story in the modern era.

The emergence and development of drama in the modern era.

Prominent poets and writers of the modern era (Al-Baroudi, Shawqi, Mutran, Al-Aqqad, Naji, Al-Sayyab, Nazik Al-Malaika, Gibran Khalil Gibran, Al-Fayturi, Amal Dunqul, Adonis, Tawfiq Al-Hakim, Nageib Mahfouz, Ali Ahmed Bakathir, Al-Rafi’i, Taha Hussein, Mahmoud Taymour, and others).

Examples of poetry, novels, short stories, and plays from the modern era.

Applications, questions, research projects, discussions, or presentations.

(2) Course Outline: Texts from Modern Literature

This course is taught for four hours per week during the second semester and covers:

An introduction to modern literary studies methodologies:

Russian Formalism, Structuralism, and Deconstruction.

Practical examples of reading modern poetry and prose texts, according to the aforementioned methodologies.

Poetic examples by the poets Al-Baroudi, Shawqi, Al-Aqqad, Khalil Mutran, Abd al-Rahman Shukri, Ibrahim Naji, Ali Mahmoud Taha, Mahmoud Hassan Ismail, Nazik al-Malaika, Ahmed Abdel-Mo’ti Hegazi, Al-Fayturi, Al-Sayyab, Amal Dunqul, Mahmoud Darwish, Adonis, and Muhammad al-Maghout.

Examples from the novel, short story, play, and essay by: Taha Hussein, Al-Aqqad, Naguib Mahfouz, Mahmoud Taymour, Tawfiq al-Hakim, Al-Rafi’i, Ahmed Hassan al-Zayyat, Ali Ahmed Bakathir, Youssef Idris, Muhammad Abu al-Ma’ati Abu al-Naja, Muhammad Munif, Ibrahim al-Kufi, San’allah Ibrahim, Baha’ Taher, Khalil Roman, Majid Tobia, Tayeb Salih, Zakaria Tamer, Mu’in Bseiso, and Muhammad Bennis.

The structure and artistic characteristics of the modern poem, the novel, the short story, the play, and the essay.

Analysis of complete examples of modern poetry and prose.

Applications containing questions and activities.