Literature

Arabian. During the Dark Ages, that period from the sixth to the eleventh century when European learning was almost extinct, literature in Arabia was developing in a maner which seems little short of marvelous. Two centuries before the time of Mahomet the Arabians has produced poetry of remarkable vigor and beauty. Their laws of meter and rhythm were simple, yet produced most artistic results. Poems of love and war, odes and songs, eulogies of distinguished men, elegies, and didactic poems are plentiful. Poetical contests were held at Mecca and at Okad, and every encouragement was given to the cultivation of the poetic art. The first prose of any importance is that of the Koran, but it is far inferior to Arabian poetry. It is irregular, possesses a sort of rhythm which seems unsuitable rather than pleasing, and is often ornate.

The eighth and ninth centuries were rather less favorable to poetry than those which preceded, owing to civil dissensions, but as the Arabians came into contact with Persia and Greece a new and brilliant school of poetry developed. In the eleventh century, through the intercourse which the Crusades established with the East, and that between the troubadours and the Moors in Spain, the learning which the Arabians had collected and cultivated began to affect the progress of literature in Europe. Mr. William Gifford Palgrave says:

To the Arabians, directly and indirectly, we owe the revival of learning and philosophy in western Europe, and the first awakening of the critical and inquiring spirit that has in great measure rescued Europe from the lethargy of monkish ignorance and ecclesiastical bigotry; to them also, at least indirectly and by deduction, are due most of the useful arts and practical inventions laboriously perfected by later nations. Widespread as was the empire of the Arab sword, it has been less extended and less durable than the empire of the Arab mind.

Prose works were produced, however, modeled more or less closely after the style of the Koran. The Arabians delighted in romances and have many novels, often biographical in form. Their great work of fiction is The Arabian Nights' Entertainments which is known the world over. History seems to be beyond the power of the Arab mind. For several centuries no literature worthy of note has been produced in Arabic.

See Troubadours; Koran; Arabian Nights'; Arabia; Mohammed