Islamic literature

Islamic literature is

The definition of Islamic literature is a matter of debate, with some definitions categorizing anything written in a majority-Muslim nation as "Islamic" so long as the work can be appropriated into an Islamic framework, even if the work is not authored by a Muslim. By this definition, categories like Indonesian literature, Somali literature, Pakistani literature, and Persian literature would all qualify as Islamic literature. A second definition focuses on all works authored by Muslims, regardless of the religious content or lack thereof within those works. Proponents of the second definition suggest that the Islamic identity of Muslim authors cannot be divorced from the evaluation of their works, even if they did not intend to infuse their works with religious meaning.^[2] Still other definitions emphasize works with a focus on Islamic values, or those that focus on events, people, and places mentioned in the Quran and hadith. An alternate definition states that Islamic literature is any literature about Muslims and their pious deeds.^[3]

Some academics have moved beyond evaluations of differences between Islamic and non-Islamic literature to studies such as comparisons of the novelization of various contemporary Islamic literatures^[4] and points of confluence with political themes, such as nationalism.^[5]

Literary genres

Fiction

Among the best known works of

This compilation has been influential in the West since it was first translated by Antoine Galland in the 18th century.^[7] Many imitations were written, especially in France.^[8][9]

In the 12th century, Ibn Tufail wrote the

Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the national epic poem of Iran, is a mythical and heroic retelling of Persian history. Amir Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian story.

Beginning in the 15th century

One term for Islamic literature is al-adab al-islami, or adab.[16]^[17] Although today adab denotes literature generally, in earlier times its meaning included all that a well-informed person had to know in order to pass in society as a cultured and refined individual. This meaning started with the basic idea that adab was the socially accepted ethical and moral quality of an urbane and courteous person'; thus adab can also denote the category of Islamic law dealing with etiquette, or a gesture of greeting.^[18]

According to Issa J. Boullata,

Adab material had been growing in volume in Arabia before Islam and had been transmitted orally for the most part. With the advent of Islam, its growth continued and it became increasingly diversified. It was gradually collected and written down in books, ayrab literature other material adapted from Persian, Sanskrit, Greek, and other tongues as the Arabic language spread with the expansion of Islam's political dominion in the world. It included stories and saying from the Bible, the Qur’ān, and the Ḥadīth. Eventually, the heritage of adab became so large that philologists and other scholars had to make selections, therefore, each according to his interests and his plans to meet the needs of particular readers, such as students seeking learning and cultural refinement, or persons associated with the Islamic state such as viziers, courtiers, chancellors, judges, and government secretaries seeking useful knowledge and success in polished quarters.^[18]

Key early adab anthologies were the

Some scholar's studies attribute the role of Islamisation of Muslim individuals and communities, social, cultural and political behavior by legitimization through various genres like Muslim historiographies,^[20] Islamic advice literature and other Islamic literature.

Literary prizes

Booker prize

The British Indian novelist and essayist

Nobel prize

The 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature was given to the Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006), "who, through works rich in nuance—now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous—has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind".^[23][24] He was the first Muslim author to receive such a prize.^[25] With regard to religion Mahfouz describes himself as, "a pious moslem believer".^[26]

The 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Turkish author Orhan Pamuk "(b. 1952) famous for his novels My Name Is Red and Snow, "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures".^[27][28] Pamuk was the first

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is a literary prize managed in association with the Booker Prize Foundation in London and supported by the Emirates Foundation in Abu Dhabi. The prize is for prose fiction by Arabic authors. Each year, the winner of the prize receives US$50,000 and the six shortlisted authors receive US$10,000 each. The aim of the award is to recognise and reward excellence in contemporary Arabic fiction writing and to encourage wider readership of good-quality Arabic literature in the region and internationally. The prize is also designed to encourage the translation and promotion of Arabic language literature into other major world languages. An independent board of trustees, drawn from across the Arab world and beyond, is responsible for appointing six new judges each year, and for the overall management of the prize.

King Faisal Prize

The

• Arabic literature
  • Arabic epic literature
• Persian literature
• South Asian literature
• Turkish literature

References