Studies on Arabic Language and Literature

Abstract Awareness about eloquent points and their hidden meanings is of much importance in Quranic science, so much so that the scholars from early Islamic periods paid attention to it. They believed that eloquence is the foundation for understanding the Quranic meanings. This research aims to investigate the semantic significance of a rhetorical device called chiasmus. Application of this technique results in the replacement of part of the word or language chunk with another verbal chunk. As studying this figure of speech has been very difficult and involved complications, scholars have not paid much heed to it. But chiasmus plays an important role in understanding many Quranic verses. Some commentators, in spite of their mastery of Arabic language, have not been able to provide the true meaning of the verses in the holy book. The reason is that they did not pay sufficient attention o the deep meanings expressed through rhetorical devices. They also have not grasped the eloquent mysteries and miraculous character of the Quran, for they did not consider chiasmus, neither briefly nor elaborately. This study does not want to deal with the definitions of this device which can be found in books on rhetoric (e.g., Minhag al-Bulagha) but attempts to show the semantic and rhetorical consequences of this figure of speech in some Quranic verses, something which has not been dealt with in books on rhetoric. This is what is needed very much in order to get to many rhetorical beauties in the Holy Quran.

Abstract As human knowledge and ability is limited, stories are told from first person point of view, third person point of view, or omniscient point of view and one single narrator cannot tell all aspects of a story. Even if the narrator is very able, s/he cannot illustrate and describe all aspects and layers of a story. Najib Mahfous, in his novel, Miramar, has described various dimensions of Egypt revolution by using narrative techniques such as multiple narrators, repetition, or narrating different ideas and experiences from different points of view. He has conveyed different or contrasting views by using the technique of multiple narrators without taking side with any specific person or party. In this novel the narrator describe both the internal and external dimensions of events by stating what he has in mind and what has happened around hm. Using this style of storytelling, this author expresses different sides of life including love and hate, ignorance and knowledge, revenge, and good and evil. In some parts of the novel the narrator uses the technique of conversiation and presented the events like scenes of a play.

Abstract As Muallaqat is of considerable significance in Arabic literature, syntactic studies, interpretation, and other language-related sciences, and because they include words from pagan (Jahlieh) period, many of commentators have paid much attention to them. The present study intended to examine the method of Ibn al Anbari in explaining Muallaqat’s Vocabulary. It employs a descriptive-analytical method. The most important findings are that Ibn al Anbari paid especial attention to lexicon and the term Muallaqat and spared no effort to explain phonological and syntactic points. Therefore, His commentaries include the meanings and synonyms many strange and difficult words and deals with syntactic issues related to them. His frequent reference to various pieces of evidence in explaining and defining the words displays his mastery of syntax and vocabulary.

Abstract The Holy Quran and the Bible are two main sources used by contemporary Arab poets in expressing their views and opinions. Al Syyab is probably a pioneer.
He was a clever and adept poet who could employ noble stances, various values and imaginative symbols. These strategies caused the materialization of the poet’s personal intentions and the expression of general and human experiences. When he displays symbols for disobedience, enmity, and abnormalities in people, places and communities, he shows realities of destruction, fear, and discontent. Moreover, he employs the symbols of patient righteous man and selfless hero as a model he presents a revival of civilization in the east and west of the Arab world, which starts at Iraq. He displays this with a farsighted vision which is deeper than the ideological positions.

Abstract This article briefly explores the basic thoughts behind the predicative structure of sentences according to Sibawayh and his followers and also explores how this system developed and grew. As Sibawayh’s book is the first trustworthy source which has come down to us, the views in it are the points of departure for the study of syntax. This is also true about the predicative structure of sentences, which we find the most developed version in the contemporary works. The present research investigates the beginnings of this syntactic notion. The article can be divided into two parts: part one talks discusses predicative structures in nominative sentences part two deals with predicative structures in sentences with verbs. In both parts, there are statements from Sibawayh to show the structural relations in this linguistic form. Brief references are also made to later scholars in syntax when discussing the diachronic development of this structure.

Abstract The purpose of this research is to seek a foundation (i.e. shifting) for literary criticism in the Arabic critical tradition. It claims that attempts of previous researchers have not been satisfactory and failed to discover its delicacies and secrets. A survey of shifting highlights an image of elegance in our critical tradition: a shift from pronouns to tenses, to meanings and intentions, from word embellishment to word formation and semiotics, from line of verse to poem, and from figures of speech to rhetoric and semantics, leading to criticism. Such delicacies and secrets, together with similar considerations in other researches, may contribute to launching a dialogue between our rhetorical and critical heritage and the present-day criticism. Hopefully, this dialogue may result in a new vision to monitor the poem structure and in a comprehensive, practically and theoretically sound, method to handle creativity, by understanding the whole that organizes the parts, and the unity that systematizes the varieties. This is achievable through shifting from sentence-syntax, sentence rhetorics, and sentence-criticism to text-syntax, text rhetoric and text-criticism.

Abstract The narrative tradition has an important place in Haidar Haidar's fictional strategies as he has paid especial attention to employing these strategies in style، conversations، and topics together، and he has sought to produce new meanings through using narrative techniques (the story-teller، narration، the logic of the story) in the present time and interpreting each of them in the light of the others in a unique anecdotal language that shows the substantive essence of this heritage and redrafts it in a creative artistic way which goes along with the pillars of fiction and its modern principles. The narrator is able to employ this tradition to tie the past and the present together. He has written wrote about a vision in the past which correspond with the realities of his society. He has also established a narrative style which relies on the tradition and matches with it without recopying it. This has led to a new narration that presents a grim image of society which has inherited injustice from the past and has added more injustice to it. The author expresses the crises of his characters in their respective communities in the past and present.