Dictionary of Oriental Literatures 3

West Asia and North Africa

Jiri Becka

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781135655679
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Asian Literary Collections
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The Dictionary of Oriental Literatures fills a long-felt gap in Western literature by presenting a concise summary, in three volumes and about 2000 articles, of practically all the literatures of Asia and North Africa. The first volume describes the Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, Korean and Mongolian literatures; the second covers the area of South and South-East Asia, comprising, besides all literatures of India and Pakistan, those of Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines; and the third is devoted to the numerous literatures of West Asia and North Africa. including on the one hand the literatures of the ancient Near East and Egypt, and on the other hand those of Central Asia and the Caucasus, of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and of the various Arab countries including Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

The majority of entries give information about the life and work of the individual writers and poets of the classical, medieval and modern periods of the literatures included and also attempt to evaluate their writings from the historical and aesthetic point of view. The remaining articles describe literary terms, genres, forms, schools, movements etc.

The Dictionary has been prepared by the Oriental Institute in Prague under the supervision of a Advisory Editorial Board of European and American scholars of international reputation and is unique in that it is the fruit of the collaboration of over 150 orientalists from many parts of the world.

Contents include:

Volume I East Asia: The Far East, including Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, Korean and Mongolian literatures.

Volume II South and South-East Asia: Ancient Indian, Assamese, Baluchi, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Indian literature in English, Indo-Persian, Kannada, Kashmiri, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Panjabi, Pashto, Rajasthani, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, Sinhalese, Nepali, Burmese, Thai, Cambodian, Malay and Indonesian, Javanese, Vietnamese and Philippines literatures.

Volume III West Asia and North Africa: The Near East and Egypt, Central Asia and the Caucasus, Turkish, Persian, Afghan, Kurd and Arabic literatures, covering all the Arab states from Iraq in the East to Algeria in the West.

A

Abasheli, Aleksandre (b 1884 Sachochio, near Kutaisi, d 1954), Georgian poet. After leaving secondary school in Kutaisi he studied in Russia, and was arrested and exiled for several years for his part in the 1905 revolution. He began writing in Russian, but his first published volume (Mzis sitsili—Laughter of the Sun, 1913) was already written in Georgian. After the establishment of a Soviet government in Georgia he joined the Academic Association, a literary group led by K. Gamsakhurdia (qv). His meditative and nature lyrics are in the spirit of Pasternak and N. Zabolotskiy, who both translated his verse into Russian. With G. Abashidze (qv) he wrote the words for the Georgian national anthem. Further works: Antebuli kheivani (Burning Avenue, 1923); Mze da samshoblo (Sun and Country, 1939); Gmiruli dgheebi (Heroic Days, 1942).

Trans.: UAGP

VAČ

Abashidze, Grigol (b 1913 Chiatura), Georgian poet and writer. He studied philology at Tbilisi University, completing his studies in Moscow. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Mnatobi and works in the executive of the Union of Georgian Writers. He is very interested in Georgian history, and the glorious moments of his country's past inspired much of his meditative and nature poetry: Aspurtsela (Millefoil, 1940); Samkhretis sazghvarze (On the Southern Frontier, 1949). He also writes film scripts, poetry for children, historical novels (Lasharela, 1957; Didi ghame, The Great Night, 1962) and plays. His drama Mog-zauroba sam droshi (Wandering through Three Times, 1961) gives a lyrical view of the past, present and future of Georgia, and makes use of some science-fiction techniques. In addition to his own work, he has translated Neẓāmī (qv), Petöfi and others. With Aleksandre Abasheli (qv) he wrote the words for the Georgian national anthem.

VAČ

Abasiyanik, Sait Faik (b 1906 Adapazan, d 1954 Istanbul), Turkish writer. He studied at the Arts Faculty, Istanbul, and later travelled in Switzerland and France. Abasiyanik was a teacher, who also tried trade and journalism before finally devoting himself to literature. The form in which he excels in modem Turkish literature is the short story. Two novels Birtakim Insanlar (A Few People, 1944) and Kayip Aramyor (Wanted—a Loss, 1953), are less famous than his stories, at first emphasizing the plot, later a free lyrical prose form often philosophical in mood. He was the poet of Istanbul and her people, of the sea and its fishermen. In his last volumes the human mind and what goes on hidden in it became his theme, presented in modern prose techniques. Volumes of stories: Semaver (Samovar, 1936); Sarniç (Reservoir, 1939); Lüzumsuz Adam (A Useless Man, 1948); Son Kuşlar (The Last Birds, 1952); Alem-daǧda Var Bir Yilan (The Snake above the World, 1954).

Trans.: Sabri Esat Siyavujgil, Un point sur la carte (Leyden 1962).

LH

Abay, Kazakh folk poet, see Kunanbayev, Abay.

'Abdalmu'ti Ḥijāzi, Aḥmad (b 1935), Egyptian poet. Coming from a small village in the Nile delta, he has a sympathetic eye for poverty. After leaving his village school he went to the teachers' training college in Manūfiya, graduating in 1944. He then went to Cairo, where he has been on the editorial staff of Rose al-Yūsuf since 1956 and is now head of the cultural section. His own experience has made him a socialist. He is one of the finest modern poets in Egypt, together with the older Ṣalāḥ 'Abdaṣṣabūr (qv) and the younger Amal Dunqul. Besides writing poetry he is the author of critical studies and introductions to anthologies, giving preference to the forgotten 'damned' poets like Ibrāhīm Nājī, who foreshadowed the likeness of the present generation of Egyptian poets. He has published three volumes of verse to date: Madīna bilā qalb (City without a Heart, ²1968), Lam yabqa iliā i'tirāf (There Was Nothing for it but to Confess, 1965), Marthiyat lā'ib sirk (Lament for a Circus Clown), which contains verse written since 1965. He has also published a long qaṣīda (qv), Aurès (1956).

ALAC-P 235.

KP

'Abdaṣṣabūr, Ṣalāḥ (b 1931), Egyptian writer. Born in the country, he came to Cairo early; he has travelled widely and met intellectuals of both West and East. A journalist and essay-writer, he has recently turned to play-writing; his play The Tragedy of al-Ḥallāj (1965) gives an interpretation of this Islamic mystic who died on the cross. 'Abdaṣṣabūr translates plays into Arabic (Ibsen, 1961) as well as articles and essays on many subjects, ranging from the works of John Osborne and D. H. Lawrence to books on British politics or atomic submarines. A calm, thoughtful man, he is determined to struggle against all obstacles. Starting as a poet in the traditional manner, he has progressed to the trend now uppermost in Arabic poetry, namely free verse. Unlike the Syrian-Palestinian poets of purely intellectual interests like Adonis (qv) who are reviving old myths and applying their philosophical learning to poetry, 'Abduṣṣabūr draws his subjects and his symbolism from contemporary life. His work reflects the feelings and desires of the individual. His latest volume (The Old Rider's Dreams) stresses the search for new values, disillusionment with the old, and longing for youth and for rural life.

He is rightly claimed as the leader of the modernists in Egypt, by the followers of the movement themselves as well as by the critics. He dealt with the theory of literature in Qirā' a jadīda li-shi'rinā l-qadīm (Rereading Our Old Poetry, 1968) and Ḥaṭṭā naqhur al-mawt (When We Overcome Death, 1966), and above all in the autobiographical Ḥayati fi'sh-shi'r (My Life in Poetry, 1969). His volumes of poetry include an-Nās fi bilādī (The People of My Region, 1957), Aqūlu lakum (I Tell you, 1961), Aḥlām al-fāris al-qadim (The Old Rider's Dreams, 1964); earlier poems appeared (with a translation) in Riḥla fi'l-layl (Way through the Night, 1970). Besides the play given above he has published Laylā wa Majnūn (1970) and Musaāfir layl (Nocturnal Pilgrim, 1969). Other writings have appeared in periodicals. The dīwān (qv) Intiẓār al-layl wa 'n-nahār (Waiting for Night and Day) is perhaps still being printed; his last dīwān is Ta'ammulāt fī zamān jarīḥ (Meditations on Time Wounded).

CAR 287; ALAC-P 211.

K.P

'Abduh (Abdo), Muḥammad (1849-1905), Egyptian Muslim theologian and thinker, founder of the Islamic modernism in Egypt. He was educated at the Tanta theological school, the Muslim university al-Azhar, and then became a teacher at the Dar al-ulūm (House of Science) college in Cairo. In 1880 he became editor-in-chief of the official paper al-Waqā'i'al-miṣriya (Egyptian Facts). After the 'Urābī rising of 1882 he went into exile in Beirut, Paris and Tunis. He returned to Egypt in 1889 and held high office in the judiciary, devoting himself also to journalism. In his early public life he was profoundly influenced by Islamic mysticism and tended to asceticism. His ideas were radically changed in 1872 after he met the greatest pioneer of pan-Islamic ideas, Jamāluddīn Afghānī (qv), who turned his attention to the contemporary problems of Islam, and its attitude towards the science and civilization of Europe. In his journalistic writings as in his philosophical and theological works, he called for a renaissance of Islam, drawing on its original impulses. He pondered over the position of Islam in the modern world and stressed the essential need for cultural, social and political reform. He believed that it was possible to combine the fundamental ideas of Islam with modern European thinking and scientific advance, and to achieve a harmonious synthesis of religious and scientific thought. His extensive journalistic and popularizing writings played a very important part in the struggle for social, cultural and political reform in Egypt and thus helped the renaissance in Egyptian literature. Main works: Risālat at-tawḥīd (Treatise on the Oneness of God, 1897); Al-Islām wa'n-naṣrānīya ma'a'l-'ilm wa'l-madanīya (Islam and Christianity in Science and Civilization, 1902).

Trans.: Kenneth Cragg and Isḥāq Musa'ad, The Theology of Unity (London 1966).

Charles C. Adams, Islam and Modernism in Egypt (London 1933).

JO

'Abdulḥamid Mōhmand (d cl732), Pashtun romantic poet. Ḥamīd was born in the village of Māshō Khēl, south of Peshawar, and was a near contemporary of 'Abdur-raḥmān Mōhamand (qv). Less popular than Raḥmān, his verse is more polished, learned and subtle. He translated two romances from Persian and wrote a dīwān (qv), also known as Durr o marjān (Pearls and Coral).

RSPA 85-141.

DNM

'Abdulqādir Khān Khaṯak, (b 1650, d cl720), Pashtun poet and translator. A younger son of Khushḥāl Khān (qv), 'Abdulqādir translated both Jāmī's (qv) Yūsof Zoleykhā and Sa'dī's (qv) Golestān from Persian into excellent Pashto. His own dīwān (qv) has a strongly mystical flavour.

RSPA 268-86.

DNM

'Abdurraḥmān Mōhmand, (b cl650 Peshawar, d cl720), Pashtun religious poet. 'Raḥmān Bābā', as he is known, was born and died in the village Bahādur Kelay, south of Peshawar. Little is known of his life except that it was one of extreme piety and love of God, which is fully reflected in his poetry. This has been published both as two separate dīwāns (qv) and collected into one. He is probably the most popular of all Pashto poets.

RSPA 1-50.

DNM

Abovian, Khatchatur (b 1809 Kanaker near Yerevan, d 1848 Yerevan), Armenian writer active in national revival, of poor peasant family. As a monk of Etchmiatsin he climbed Ararat with Prof. F. Parrot, and with his help then studied theology, philology, philosophy, ethnography and pedagogy in Dorpat (Tartu). As a teacher, inspector, and head of a private boarding school he was victimized by the Church and Tsarist authorities for progressive ideas. The circumstances of his death are obscure. Abovian wrote poems, stories, fables, plays, travel books, pedagogical and ethnographical studies, at first in German and Russian. His goal Was to combat ignorance and backwardness and revive consciousness, reforming education. After writing in the classical Armenian (grabar) he was one of the first to write in colloquial Armenian (ashkharhabar), adapting the Yerevan dialect for his greatest work Verk' Hayastani (The Wounds of Armenia, 1858), the moving story of the peasant rising against Persia in 1826. The heavy style is encumbered with Turkish and Persian elements, and crude in composition, but the description of popular customs, though slow, is informative, and the heroes are well drawn. The satirical treatment of foreigners and priests, the patriotic humanism and the lyrical descriptions of nature are highly convincing. The tendency to hyperbole, holding back the action, and the emotional intensity recall the folk heroic epos. This most important of the literary efforts of the first phase of the modernization in East Armenian literature stimulated the development of the historical and social novel.

Trans.: TPAAM; AB II.

HO7; THLA.

LM

Abū 'Alī Ebne Sīnā, Central Asian scholar, see Ibn Sīnā.

Abubacer or Abū Bakr, Arab philosopher, see Ibn 'Ṭufayl.

Abul'alā Ganjevī, Persian poet, see Khāqānī, Afl=zaloddīn Badīl b 'Alī.

Abu 'I-Atāhiya, (b 748 Kufa, d 825 or 826), Arabian poet of the Abbasid era who lived in Iraq. From a modest home he brought a hatred of wealth and power, but nevertheless he lived at court as the panegyrist of the Caliph al-Mahdī. Under the Caliph Hārūn ar-Rashīd he was imprisoned, but later freed and pardoned. About the year 178 of the Hijra, however, he gave up the gay life reflected in his love poetry and turned exclusively to ascetic verse on a decidedly pessimistic note. He wrote many prayers in verse, in which he criticized those who held power in this world, not excepting the Caliph. He was even accused of heresy. His social origins and lack of a traditional education are reflected in his light, comprehensible style, full of fresh figures of speech. He also introduced new elements into his metres.

BGAL I, 74-6, SI 114-8; NLHA 296-303; GSLA 157-9; WILA 94; AAP 46; EI² 107-8.

KP

Abu 'I-Fidā', Ismā'īl b. 'Alī al-Ayyūbī (b 1273 Damascus, d 1331 Hamāt), Arab historian and geographer. Of the family of the Ayyubid sultans, he took part in the fighting against the Crusaders under the Egyptian Mamluks, and was rewarded with the governorship of Hamāt, which became his hereditary fief. His historical work Mukhtaṣar tārīkh al-bashār (Epitome of the History of Mankind) narrates the history of the world from the creation to the year 1329. Except for the account of his own times, it is not an original work but one based on older chronicles, summarizing the most important events recorded there. His geographical work Taqwīm al-buldān (Gazetteer of the Countries), also based on earlier sources, presents the geographical picture of the world as the Arabs of his times knew it.

Trans, into Latin: J. J. Reiske, Abilfedae Annates Moslemici, 5 vols. (Leipzig 1778); into French: M. Reinaud and St Guiyard, Geo- graphie a Abulféda, 2 vols. (Paris 1848-83).

IH

Abū Mādi, Īlīyā (b 1890(?) Muhayditha, d 1957), one of the most prolific and gifted of the Syro-American or Mahjar poets, he first emigrated from Lebanon to Egypt where he lived in Alexandria in comparative poverty before emigrating again to the USA in 1911-12. From 1916 he cooperated closely with the other Mahjar writers in New York, both as a poet and a journalist. He contributed frequently to their periodical al-Funūn (The Arts). From 1929, he began to edit a periodical of his own c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Original Title
• Original Copyright
• Advisory Editorial Board page
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Contributors
• Note on Volume III
• Abbreviations Used for Books and Journals
• THE DICTIONARY
• List of National Literatures