Celebrate words of wisdom

You may not think it, but your Arabic literary culture is a survivor. Authors and researchers both within, and outside the region, point to a remarkable 600,000 different documents having survived the heat, humidity, and deprivations of this often inhospitable region.

Frenchman Constantin Chassebouf was one who, in 1780, was confounded by the work required to produce, copy, and reproduce the local literature, while compatriot and Orientalist Etienne-Marc Quatrienne, during the early 18th century commented on the drastic impact of the Mongol hordes on learning and literature from the additional perspective of occupation, a narrative that has appeared Omni-present in the Middle East since time began.

To demonstrate the effects of this, what has become a cultural diaspora, and the European pillaging of this element of the Arab culture, it appears to be a signature lesson that the Rousseau family, so prominent in the French hierarchy, following the death of their scion John-Jacques in 1864, sold ‘his’ Quranic manuscripts to the city of St Petersburg, in Russia. It can be a complex question ‘ownership, can’t it? It’s clear to me, in my brief study of the phenomena, that this acquisition of Arabic manuscripts was probably an overflow from the European fascination with the Orient following the cultural envelopment of the trade route known as the Silk Road, which offered a land-based trade route to the West. The cloths, fashions, and sophistication of the East overpowered their counterparts in France and Italy in particular, and Oriental script was full of mystery, so was attractive to the West, and so it proved for your culture.

Ahmed al Shamsy writes of rediscovering his literary culture, that it had allowed its books to, “rot, be devoured by insects, and destroyed by neglect,” though they will never tear up a page. He also recounts that French soldiers under General Kleber had, at the end of the 17th century, risked life and limb to rescue a Quranic parchment from the Azhar Mosque in densely populated Fustat City, in Cairo, so there was some literary compassion.

Such Arabic giants have emerged from the 8th and 9th centuries as Persian scholar Abu Dishr Amr ibn Qanbar Al Asri, also known as Sibawayah. His ‘Al-Kitab,’ or ‘The Book,’ is among the first and greatest of the enduring, 8th century, Arabic literary icons, a five volume dissemination on the Arabic language and linguistics that has become the foundation for the region’s written word, lauded even outside the region. Abu Yayiib Al Buwayti’s Arabic language and law writings of the 8th century are also highly rated, but his reputation was tainted by criticisms of the Holy Quran, and he died in prison, in chains.

The Imam Malak Anas’s ‘Muwatta,’ of the 9th century, was an early collection of the hadiths of the faith embracing the cultural norms of the time, traditions, rituals, and the revisionist laws of his time. Abu Jarir Al Tabari’s interpretation of the Holy Quran of the same generation, marked him as an author of profound wisdom within the Sunni branch of the faith described as a “truly righteous person, worshipful, ascetic, and pious,” though he too perished in disgrace, under home imprisonment. It was clearly a difficult time to have an opinion.

Another literary great was Abu Abdullah Al Shafii, whose legal essays on the principles of jurisprudence ensured his prominence. He too fell afoul of religious dogma, no little jealousy, and politics, and was killed, ironically, in the city of Fustat (Cairo), in his fifties. Al Maaki’s Sufi manual, Al Ashari’s theological survey, and Al Hariri’s, ‘Maqamat,’ Ibn Khaldun’s extensive historical and sociological tomes, are all notable during the 9th to 12th century, all however, just drops in the sea, threads in the tapestry of a language and written record of how your ancestors lived, thought, wrote, prayed, loved, and died.

I myself, have been guilty of accepting the narrative of Arabic being a largely oral literary tradition, however I respectfully bow to history and fact as being more authentic sources, and encourage you to discover, and celebrate, your heritage in the written word.