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120-398: Features Types Types Features Clothing Genres Art music Folk Prose Islamic Poetry Genres Forms Arabic prosody National literatures of Arab States Concepts Texts Fictional Arab people South Arabian deities Arabization or Arabicization ( Arabic : تعريب , romanized :  taʻrīb )

240-512: A desert island . A Latin translation of Philosophus Autodidactus first appeared in 1671, prepared by Edward Pococke the Younger, followed by an English translation by Simon Ockley in 1708, as well as German and Dutch translations. Robert Boyle 's own philosophical novel set on an island, The Aspiring Naturalist , may have been inspired by the work. Beginning in the 19th century, fictional novels and short stories became popular within

360-783: A liturgical language . Even within Northern Arabia, Arabization occurred to non-Arab populations such as the Hutaym in the northwestern Arabia and the Solluba in the Syrian Desert and the region of Mosul. On the eve of the Rashidun Caliphate conquest of the Levant, 634 AD, Syria's population mainly spoke Aramaic; Greek was the official language of administration. Arabization and Islamization of Syria began in

480-473: A tribal Semitic people in the ancient Near East , first documented in historical sources from the late 12th century BC. Their homeland, often referred to as the land of Aram , originally covered central regions of modern Syria . The Arameans were not a single nation or group; rather, Aram was a region with local centers of power spread throughout the Levant . That makes it almost impossible to establish

600-524: A coherent ethnic category of "Aramean" based on extra-linguistic identity markers such as material culture, lifestyle or religion. The people of Aram were called “Arameans” in Assyrian texts and in the Hebrew Bible , but the terms “Aramean” and “Aram” were never used by later Aramean dynasts to refer to themselves or their country, with the exception of the king of Aram-Damascus since his kingdom

720-678: A generic term for Semitic wanderers and nomads of varying origins who appeared during the 13th century BCE across the ancient Near East , the Arabian Peninsula , Asia Minor , and Egypt . The Arameans would appear to be one part of the larger generic Ahlamû group rather than synonymous with the Ahlamu. The presence of the Ahlamû is attested during the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BCE), which already ruled many of

840-519: A mixture of Mesopotamian , Hittite and Hurrian influences. The legacy of ancient Arameans became of particular interest for scholars during the early modern period and resulted in the emergence of Aramaic studies as a distinctive field, dedicated to the study of the Aramaic language. By the 19th century, the Aramean question was formulated, and several scholarly theses were proposed regarding

960-530: A much older story written both in Arabic and Assyrian , the author also displays in his work his deep knowledge of sufism , hurufism and Bektashi traditions. Muhayyelât is considered to be an early precursor of the new Turkish literature to emerge in the Tanzimat period of the 19th century. Cultural Muslim poetry is influenced by both Islamic metaphors and local poetic forms of various regions including

1080-567: A part and other times to the whole of the Syrian region during the Iron Age . The expressions “All Aram” and “Upper and Lower Aram” in Sefire treaty inscriptions have been variously interpreted but can suggest a degree of political and cultural unity among some of the polities in the area. Biblical sources tell that Saul , David and Solomon (late 11th to 10th centuries BC) fought against

1200-689: A people appears much later, in the inscriptions of Tiglath Pileser I (c. 1100 BCE). Nomadic pastoralists have long played a prominent role in the history and economy of the Middle East , but their numbers seem to vary according to climatic conditions and the force of neighbouring states inducing permanent settlement. The Late Bronze Age seems to coincide with increasing aridity, which weakened neighbouring states and induced transhumance pastoralists to spend longer and longer periods with their flocks. Urban settlements (hitherto largely inhabited by Amorite , Canaaite , Hittite , and Ugarite peoples) in

1320-521: A short-lived Chaldean dynasty. The Aramean regions became a battleground between the Babylonians and the 26th Dynasty of Egypt , which had been installed by the Assyrians as vassals after they had defeated and ejected the previous Nubian -ruled 25th Dynasty . The Egyptians, having entered the region in a belated attempt to aid their former Assyrian masters, fought the Babylonians, initially with

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1440-663: A tolerant, intellectual island where I can deal with Dostoyevsky and Sartre, both great influences for me". 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

1560-429: A vowel followed by a single-rhyming letter. The most common form of Persian poetry comes in the ghazal, a love-themed short poem made of seven to twelve verses and composed in the monorhyme scheme. Urdu poetry is known for its richness, multiple genres, traditions of live public performances through Mushairas , Qawwali and Ghazal singing in modern times. Ferdowsi 's Shahnameh , the national epic poem of Iran ,

1680-524: Is a sociological process of cultural change in which a non-Arab society becomes Arab , meaning it either directly adopts or becomes strongly influenced by the Arabic language , culture , literature , art , music , and ethnic identity as well as other socio-cultural factors. It is a specific form of cultural assimilation that often includes a language shift . The term applies not only to cultures, but also to individuals, as they acclimate to Arab culture and become "Arabized". Arabization took place after

1800-558: Is a mythical and heroic retelling of Persian history . Amir Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian story. Beginning in the 15th century Bengali poetry , originating depicts the themes of internal conflict with the nafs , Islamic cosmology , historical battles, love and existential ideas concerning one’s relationship with society. The historical works of Shah Muhammad Sagir , Alaol , Abdul Hakim , Syed Sultan and Daulat Qazi mixed Bengali folk poetry with Perso-Arabian stories and themes, and are considered an important part of

1920-552: Is a topic of interest among scholars but is never referred to simply as "Aramean". Scholars have difficulty in identifying and isolating characteristic Aramean elements in the culture. Even in North Syria, where more substantial evidence is available, scholars still find it difficult to identify what is genuinely Aramean from what is borrowed from other cultures. Widespread scholarly opinion still maintains that since several ethnic groups, such as Luwians and Aramaeans, interacted in

2040-714: Is any literature about Muslims and their pious deeds. 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 and points of confluence with political themes, such as nationalism . Over the centuries, there have been numerous bibliographies and biographical dictionaries attempting to list authors of Islamic literature, including India -born scholar Maulana Mahmud Hasan Khan of Rajasthan , who passed away in 1946 and whose 60-volume M'ojam-ul-Musannifin (Dictionary of Authors) in Arabic provides

2160-525: Is derived from a Semitic root rwm , "to be high". Newer suggestions interprets it as a broken plural meaning "white antelopes" or "white bulls". However, there are no historical, archaeological or linguistic evidences that those early uses of the terms Aramu , Armi or Arame were actually referring to the Arameans; thus, it is believed to originally be a toponym without any ethnic connotations. The earliest undisputed historical attestation of Arameans as

2280-596: Is written with the Arabic script . The South Arabian alphabet which was used to write it also fell out of use. A separate branch of South Semitic , the Modern South Arabian languages still survive today as spoken languages in southern of present-day Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Dhofar in present-day Oman. Although Yemen is traditionally held to be the homeland of the Qahtanite Arabs who, according to Arab tradition, are pure Arabs; however, most of

2400-478: The Arabic language and Arabic literature ; science ; and medicine . Three of the prizes are widely considered as the most prestigious awards in the Muslim world. Aramean The Arameans , or Aramaeans ( Old Aramaic : 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀 , Aramayya ; Hebrew : אֲרַמִּים ; Ancient Greek : Ἀραμαῖοι ; Classical Syriac : ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ , Aramaye , Syriac pronunciation : [ʔɑːrɑːˈmɑːje] ), were

2520-690: The Arabic language . The Arab Ghassanids were the last major non-Islamic Semitic migration northward out of Yemen in late classic era. They were Greek Orthodox Christian , and clients of the Byzantine Empire . They arrived in Byzantine Syria which had a largely Aramean population. They initially settled in the Hauran region, eventually spreading to the entire Levant (modern Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan), briefly securing governorship of parts of Syria and Transjordan away from

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2640-998: The Byzantine and Sasanid Empires. Several minor states also existed in frontier regions, most notably the Kingdom of Osroene , centred in the city of Edessa , known in Aramaic as Urhay. However, it is not easy in either pre-Christian or Christian periods to trace purely-Aramean elements in Edessan culture. During the Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages , the Ancient Greek custom of using Syrian labels for Arameans and their language started to gain acceptance among an Aramaic-speaking literary and ecclesiastical elites. The practice of using Syrian labels as designations for Aramaic-speakers and their language

2760-789: The Greek alphabet , was spoken in most of Egypt prior to the Islamic conquest. Arabic, however, was already being spoken in the eastern fringes of Egypt for centuries prior to the arrival of Islam. By the Mameluke era, the Arabization of the Egyptian populace alongside a shift in the majority religion going from Christianity to Islam, had taken place. Neither North Africa nor the Iberian Peninsula were strangers to Semitic culture :

2880-643: The Greeks . The early Muslim conquests in the 7th century were followed by the Islamization and the gradual Arabization of Aramaic-speaking communities throughout the Near East. That ultimately resulted in their fragmentation and acculturation . Today, their cultural and linguistic heritage continues to be recognized by some Syriac-Christian or Neo-Aramaic speaking groups, such as the Maronites and

3000-726: The Indo-European -speaking post-Hittite states . The Arameans, together with the Edomites and the Ammonites , attacked Israel in the early 11th century BCE but were defeated. Meanwhile, Arameans moved to the east of the Euphrates and into Babylonia, where an Aramean usurper was crowned king of Babylon under the name Adad-apal-iddin. During the 11th and the 10th centuries BCE, the Arameans conquered Sam'al and renamed it Bît-Agushi ,. They also conquered Til Barsip , which became

3120-516: The Levant diminished in size until fully-nomadic pastoralist lifestyles came to dominate much of the region. The highly mobile competitive tribesmen, with their sudden raids, continually threatened long-distance trade and interfered with the collection of taxes and tribute. The people who had long been the prominent population in what is now Syria (called the Land of the Amurru during their tenure) were

3240-708: The Middle Assyrian Empire . Assyrian annals from the end of the Middle Assyrian Empire c. 1050 BCE and the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 911 BCE contain numerous descriptions of battles between Arameans and the Assyrian army. The Assyrians launched repeated raids into Aramean lands, Babylonia, Ancient Iran, Elam, Asia Minor, and even as far as the Mediterranean to keep its trade routes open. The Aramean city-states, like much of

3360-600: The Muslim conquest of the Middle East and North Africa , as well as during the more recent Arab nationalist policies toward non-Arab minorities in modern Arab states , such as Algeria , Iraq , Syria , Egypt , Bahrain , and Sudan . After the rise of Islam in the Hejaz and subsequent Muslims conquests , Arab culture and language spread outside the Arabian Peninsula through trade and intermarriages between members of

3480-634: The Muslim culture of Bengal. Ginans are devotional hymns or poems recited by Shia Ismaili Muslims . Dante Alighieri 's Divine Comedy , considered the greatest epic of Italian literature , derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter directly or indirectly from Arabic works on Islamic eschatology : the Hadith and the Kitab al-Miraj (translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before as Liber scalae Machometi , "The Book of Muhammad's Ladder") concerning Muhammad 's ascension to Heaven, and

3600-890: The Nabataeans . The Arab Lakhmid Kingdom was founded by the Lakhum tribe that emigrated from Yemen in the 2nd century and ruled by the Banu Lakhm , hence the name given it. They adopted the religion of the Church of the East , founded in Assyria / Asōristān , opposed to the Ghassanids Greek Orthodox Christianity, and were clients of the Sasanian Empire . The Byzantines and Sasanians used

3720-600: The Near East and Asia Minor since the first half of the 14th century BCE, began to shrink rapidly after the death of Ashur-bel-kala , its last great ruler in 1056 BCE. The Assyrian withdrawal allowed the Arameans and others to gain independence and take firm control of Eber-Nari in the late 11th century BCE. Some of the major Aramean-speaking city states included Aram-Damascus , Hamath , Bet-Adini , Bet-Bagyan , Bit-Hadipe , Aram-Bet Rehob , Aram-Zobah , Bet-Zamani , Bet-Halupe , and Aram-Ma'akah , as well as

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3840-676: The Near East in various dialects. By around 800 BCE, Aramaic had become the lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire , which continued during the Achaemenid period as Imperial Aramaic . Although it was marginalized by Greek during the Hellenistic period , Aramaic in its varying dialects remained unchallenged as the common language of all Semitic peoples of the region until the Arabs ' Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia in

3960-796: The Palestine region , Transjordan and Sinai . Descendant Neo-Aramaic languages of the Eastern Aramaic branch continue to serve as the spoken and written languages of the Assyrians , Mandeans and Mizrahi Jews . These languages are primarily found in Iraq , northwestern Iran , southeastern Turkey and northeastern Syria , and to a lesser extent, in migrant communities in Armenia , Georgia, Russia , Lebanon , Israel , Jordan and Azerbaijan , as well as in Assyrian diaspora communities in

4080-766: The Phoenicians and later the Carthaginians dominated parts of the North African and Iberian shores for more than eight centuries until they were suppressed by the Romans and by the following Vandal and Visigothic invasions, and the Berber incursions. From the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the 7th century, Arabs began to migrate to the Maghreb in several waves. Arab migrants settled in all parts of

4200-570: The Qedarite Kingdom , extended into these regions. Inscriptions and other archeological remains, such as bowls bearing inscriptions identifying Qedarite kings and Nabatean Arabic inscriptions, affirm the Arab presence in the region. Egypt was conquered from the Romans by the Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th century CE. The Coptic language , which was written using the Coptic variation of

4320-810: The Visigothic or Mozarabic Rite . Most of the Mozarabs were descendants of Hispano – Gothic Christians and were primarily speakers of the Mozarabic language under Islamic rule. Many were also what the Arabist Mikel de Epalza calls "Neo-Mozarabs" , that is Northern Europeans who had come to the Iberian Peninsula and picked up Arabic, thereby entering the Mozarabic community. Besides Mozarabs, another group of people in Iberia eventually came to surpass

4440-467: The category of Islamic law dealing with etiquette , or a gesture of greeting . 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

4560-523: The common language of public life and administration, particularly during the periods of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 BCE) and the Achaemenid Empire (539–330 BCE). Before Christianity , Aramaic-speaking communities had undergone considerable Hellenization and Romanization in the Near East . Thus, their integration into the Greek-speaking world had begun a long time before Christianity became established. Some scholars suggest that Arameans who accepted Christianity were referred to as Syrians by

4680-399: The ensí of A-ra-me " ( Arame is seemingly a genitive form), in the course of a campaign against Simurrum in the northern mountains. Other early references to a place or people of "Aram" have appeared at the archives of Mari (c. 1900 BCE) and at Ugarit (c. 1300 BCE). There is no consensus on the origin and meaning of the word "Aram", one of the most accepted suggestions being that it

4800-434: The largest imperial expanses in history . South Arabia is a historical region that consists of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen, yet it also included Najran, Jizan, and 'Asir, which are presently in Saudi Arabia, and the Dhofar of present-day Oman. Old South Arabian was driven to extinction by the Islamic expansion, being replaced by Classical Arabic which

4920-439: The "Ahlamû-Arameans" ( Ahlame Armaia ). Shortly afterward, the Ahlamû disappear from Assyrian annals and are replaced by the Arameans ( Aramu, Arimi ). That indicates that the Arameans had risen to dominance amongst the nomads. Among scholars, the relationship between the Akhlame and the Arameans is a matter of conjecture. By the late 12th century BCE, the Arameans had been firmly established in Syria; however, they were conquered by

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5040-446: The 14th century; the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. Many other Arabian fantasy tales were often called "Arabian Nights" when translated into English , regardless of whether they appeared in any version of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights or not, and a number of tales are known in Europe as "Arabian Nights", despite existing in no Arabic manuscript. This compilation has been influential in

5160-512: The 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize. In 1989, in an interview following the fatwa against him for alleged blaspheme in his novel The Satanic Verses , Rushdie said that he was in a sense a lapsed Muslim, though "shaped by Muslim culture more than any other", and a student of Islam. Oman author Jokha Alharthi (b.1978) was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Man Booker International Prize in 2019 with her novel Celestial Bodies . The book focuses on three Omani sisters and

5280-428: The 7th century AD, when the language became gradually superseded by Arabic . The vernacular dialects of Eastern Old Aramaic, spoken during the Neo-Assyrian , Neo-Babylonian , and Achaemenid Persian empires, developed into various Eastern Middle Aramaic dialects. Among these were the Aramaic dialects of the ancient region of Osrhoene , one of which later became the liturgical language of Syriac Christianity . In

5400-425: The 7th century, and it took several centuries for Islam, the Arab identity, and language to spread; the Arabs of the caliphate did not attempt to spread their language or religion in the early periods of the conquest, and formed an isolated aristocracy. The Arabs of the caliphate accommodated many new tribes in isolated areas to avoid conflict with the locals; caliph Uthman ordered his governor, Muawiyah I , to settle

5520-461: The 8th century BC, local Aramaean city-states were gradually conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire . The policy of population displacement and relocation that was applied throughout Assyrian domains also affected Arameans, many of whom were resettled by Assyrian authorities. That caused a wider dispersion of Aramean communities throughout various regions of the Near East, and the range of Aramaic also widened. It gained significance and eventually became

5640-505: The Ahlamû", apparently the region of Jebel Bishri in northern Syria. The emergence of the Arameans occurred during the Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 BCE), which saw great upheavals and mass movements of peoples across the Middle East , Asia Minor , the Caucasus , the East Mediterranean , North Africa , Ancient Iran , Ancient Greece and the Balkans and led to the genesis of new peoples and polities across those regions. The Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BCE), which had dominated

5760-456: The Amorites, a Northwest Semitic -speaking people who had appeared during the 25th century BCE, destroyed the hitherto dominant state of Ebla, founded the powerful state of Mari in the Levant and during the 19th century BCE also Babylonia , in southern Mesopotamia . However, they seem to have been displaced or wholly absorbed by the appearance of a people called the Ahlamu by the 13th century BCE and disappear from history. Ahlamû appears to be

5880-419: The Arab world and beyond, is responsible for appointing six new judges each year, and for the overall management of the prize. The King Faisal Prize ( Arabic : جائزة الملك فيصل ) is an annual award sponsored by King Faisal Foundation presented to "dedicated men and women whose contributions make a positive difference". The foundation awards prizes in five categories: Service to Islam ; Islamic studies ;

6000-460: 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

6120-446: The Arabic tradition of Qasida actually beginning since ancient pre-Islamic times. Some Sufi traditions are known for their devotional poetry . Arab poetry influenced the rest of Muslim poetry world over. Likewise Persian poetry too shared its influences beyond borders of modern-day Iran particularly in south Asian languages like Urdu Bengali etc.. Genres present in classical Persian poetry vary and are determined by rhyme, which consists of

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6240-481: The Arabization of Christians was completed before the First Crusade . By the thirteenth century, Arabic language achieved dominance in the region and its speakers became Arabs. Prior to the Islamic conquests, Arabs had been inhabiting the Sinai Peninsula , the Eastern desert and eastern Delta for centuries. These regions of Egypt collectively were known as "Arabia" to the contemporary historians and writers documenting them. Several pre-Islamic Arab kingdoms, such as

6360-413: The Arabs to migrate to the Maghreb in search of security and stability. After establishing Cairo in 969, the Fatimids left rule over Tunisia and eastern Algeria to the local Zirid dynasty (972–1148). In response to the Zirids later declaring independence from the Fatimids, the Fatimids dispatched large Bedouin Arab tribes, mainly the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym , to defeat the Zirids and settle in

6480-493: The Aramean groups is derived from excavated objects and temples and by Aramaic literary sources, as well as the names they had. Their religion did not feature any particular deity that could be called an Aramean god or goddess. It appears from their inscriptions and their names that the Arameans worshipped Canaanite and Mesopotamian gods such as Hadad , Sin , Ishtar (whom they called Astarte ), Shamash , Tammuz , Bel and Nergal , and Canaaite - Phoenecian deities such as

6600-415: The Aramean inhabitants of Maaloula and Jubb’adin near Damascus in Syria. The toponym A-ra-mu appears in an inscription at the East Semitic -speaking kingdom of Ebla listing geographical names, and the term Armi , the Eblaite term for nearby Idlib , occurs frequently in the Ebla tablets (c. 2300 BCE). One of the annals of Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2250 BCE) mentions that he captured "Dubul,

6720-407: The Aramean tribal polities of the Gambulu , Litau and Puqudu . Akkermans and Schwartz note that in assessing Luwian and Aramean states in ancient Syria, the existing information on the ethnic composition of the regional states in ancient Syria primarily concerns the rulers and so the ethnolingustic situation of the majority of the population of the states is unclear. Furthermore, they mean that

6840-569: The Berber, Arab, and other ( Saqaliba and Zanj ) Muslims who became collectively termed in Christian Europe as " Moors ". The Andalusian Arabic was spoken in Iberia during Islamic rule. A similar process of Arabization and Islamization occurred in the Emirate of Sicily ( as-Siqilliyyah ), Emirate of Crete ( al-Iqritish ), and Malta ( al-Malta ), during this period some segments of the populations of these islands converted to Islam and began to adopt elements of Arabic culture , traditions , and customs . The Arabization process also resulted in

6960-545: The Byzantine authorities and thus secured religious tolerance. The Byzantines extended their rule up to Edessa (1031) but were forced into a general retreat from Syria during the course of the 11th century and were pushed back by the newly-arrived Seljuk Turks , who took Antioch (1084). The later establishment of Crusader states (1098), the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa , created new challenges for local Aramaic-speaking Christians, both Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox. The Iron Age culture of Syria

7080-463: The Ghassanids and Lakhmids to fight proxy wars in Arabia against each other. The most significant wave of "Arabization" in history followed the early Muslim conquests of Muhammad and the subsequent Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates . These Arab empires were the first to grow well beyond the Arabian Peninsula, eventually reaching as far as Iberia in the West and Central Asia to the East, covering 11,100,000 km (4,300,000 sq mi), one of

7200-455: The Islamic state such as viziers, courtiers, chancellors, judges, and government secretaries seeking useful knowledge and success in polished quarters. Key early adab anthologies were the al-Mufaḍḍaliyyāt of Al-Mufaḍḍal al-Ḍabbī (d. c. 780 CE); Abū Tammām 's Dīwān al-Ḥamāsa (d. 846 CE); ʿUyūn al-Akhbār , compiled by Ibn Qutayba (d. 889 CE); and Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih 's al-ʿIqd al-Farīd (d. 940 CE). Some scholar's studies attribute

7320-432: The Israelite royal dynasty, the House of David . In the early 11th century BCE, much of Israel came under foreign rule for eight years according to the Book of Judges until Othniel defeated the forces led by Cushan-Rishathaim , who was titled in the Bible as ruler of Aram-Naharaim . Further north, the Arameans gained possession of post-Hittite Hamath on the Orontes River and became strong enough to dissociate with

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7440-413: The Maghreb by Maqil and Beni Hassan in the 13th-15th century and by Andalusi refugees in the 15th-17th century. The migration of Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym in the 11th century had a much greater influence on the process of Arabization of the population than did the earlier migrations. It played a major role in spreading Bedouin Arabic to rural areas such as the countryside and steppes, and as far as

7560-471: The Maghreb, coming as peaceful newcomers who were welcomed everywhere, establishing large Arab settlements in many areas. In addition to changing the population's demographics, the early migration of Arab tribes resulted in the Arabization of the native Berber population. This initial wave contributed to the Berber adoption of Arab culture . Furthermore, the Arabic language spread during this period and drove local Latin ( African Romance ) into extinction in

7680-412: The Maghreb. The invasion of Ifriqiya by the Banu Hilal, a warlike Arab Bedouin tribe, sent the region's urban and economic life into further decline. The Arab historian Ibn Khaldun wrote that the lands ravaged by Banu Hilal invaders had become completely arid desert. The Fatimid caliph instructed the Bedouin tribes to rule the Maghreb instead of the Zirid emir Al-Mu'izz and told them "I have given you

7800-401: The Maghrib and the rule of al-Mu'izz ibn Balkīn as-Sanhājī the runaway slave. You will want for nothing." and told Al-Mu'izz "I have sent you horses and put brave men on them so that God might accomplish a matter already enacted". Sources estimated that the total number of Arab nomads who migrated to the Maghreb in the 11th century was at around 1 million Arabs. There were later Arab migrations to

7920-412: The Mozarabs both in terms of population and Arabization. These were the Muladi or Muwalladun , most of whom were descendants of local Hispano-Basques and Visigoths who converted to Islam and adopted Arabic culture, dress, and language. By the 11th century, most of the population of al-Andalus was Muladi, with large minorities of other Muslims, Mozarabs, and Sephardic Jews . It was the Muladi, together with

8040-443: The Near East and Asia Minor, were subjugated by the Neo Assyrian Empire from the reign of Adad-nirari II in 911 BCE, who cleared Arameans and other tribal peoples from the borders of Assyria and began to expand in all directions. The process was continued by Ashurnasirpal II and his son Shalmaneser III , who destroyed many of the small Aramean tribes and conquered Aramean lands for the Assyrians. In 732 BCE, Aram-Damascus fell and

8160-399: The Neo-Assyrian Empire and followed by the gradual linguistic Aramization of non-Aramean populations, created a specific situation in the regions of Assyria proper among ancient Assyrians , who originally spoke the ancient Assyrian language , a dialect of Akkadian, but later accepted Aramaic. Eber-Nari was then ruled by the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire, which was initially headed by

8280-597: The Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BCE, and the native Assyrians and Babylonians began to make a gradual language shift towards Aramaic as the most common language of public life and administration. The Neo Assyrian Empire descended into a series of brutal internal wars from 626 BCE that weakened it greatly. That allowed a coalition of many its former subject peoples ( Babylonians , Chaldeans , Medes , Persians , Parthians , Scythians , Sagartians and Cimmerians ) to attack Assyria in 616 BCE, sack Nineveh in 612 BCE and finally defeat it between 605 and 599 BCE. During

8400-406: The Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian times, as the Persians, seeing themselves as successors of previous empires, maintained Imperial Aramaic as the main language of public life and administration. Provincial administrative structures also remained the same, and the name Eber Nari still applied to the region. The conquests of Alexander the Great marked the beginning of a new era in the history of

8520-451: The West since it was first translated by Antoine Galland in the 18th century. Many imitations were written, especially in France. In the 12th century, Ibn Tufail wrote the novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan , or Philosophus Autodidactus ( The Self-Taught Philosopher ), as a response to al-Ghazali 's The Incoherence of the Philosophers . The novel, which features a protagonist who has been spontaneously generated on an island, demonstrates

8640-695: The West, particularly in the United States , Canada , Great Britain , Sweden , Australia and Germany . Western Neo-Aramaic , the only surviving modern variety of the Western branch, is now spoken by Muslims and Christians solely in Maaloula and Jubb'adin in the Qalamoun mountains of southwestern Syria. During the early modern period , the study of the Aramaic language, both ancient and modern,

8760-495: The biographical sketches of some 40,000 writers from all over the Islamic world. Among the best known works of fiction from the Islamic world is The Book of One Thousand and One Nights ( Arabian Nights ), a compilation of many earlier folk tales set in a frame story of being told serially by the Persian Queen Scheherazade . The compilation took form in the 10th century and reached its final form by

8880-595: The chief town of Bît-Adini , also known as Beth Eden. North of Sam'al was the Aramean state of Bit Gabbari, which was sandwiched between the post-Hittite states of Carchemish , Gurgum , Khattina , Unqi and the Georgian state of Tabal . One of their earliest semi-independent kingdoms in northern Mesopotamia was Bît-Bahiâni ( Tell Halaf ). The first certain reference to the Arameans appears in an Assyrian inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I, which refers to subjugating

9000-529: The cities. The Arabization took place around Arab centres through the influence of Arabs in the cities and rural areas surrounding them. Arab political entities in the Maghreb such as the Aghlabids , Idrisids , Salihids and Fatimids , were influential in encouraging Arabization by attracting Arab migrants and by promoting Arab culture. In addition, disturbances and political unrest in the Mashriq compelled

9120-536: The country's history of slavery. 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". He was the first Muslim author to receive such a prize. With regard to religion Mahfouz describes himself as, "a pious moslem believer". The 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature

9240-467: The development of the now extinct Siculo-Arabic language, from which the modern Maltese language derives. By contrast, the present-day Sicilian language , which is an Italo-Dalmatian Romance language , retains very little Siculo-Arabic, with its influence being limited to some 300 words. Contacts between Nubians and Arabs long predated the coming of Islam, but the Arabization of the Nile Valley

9360-414: The diverse influences on their culture. For example, the earliest Syriac legal documents contain legal formulae that could be considered Aramean, but they could also be interpreted as Neo-Assyrian or Neo-Babylonian . After the establishment of Roman Syria in the 1st century BCE, Aramean lands became the frontier region between two empires, Roman and Parthian , and later between their successor states,

9480-605: The dominant language of Islamic prayer and worship but also as a common language of public and domestic life. The acceptance of Arabic language became the main vessel of the gradual Arabization of Aramean communities throughout the Near East and ultimately resulted in their fragmentation and acculturation . Those processes affected not only Islamized Aramaic-speakers but also some of those who remained Christians, which created local communities of Arabic-speaking Christians of Syriac Christian origin who spoke Arabic in their public and domestic life but continued to belong to churches that used

9600-627: The entire Near East, including the regions inhabited by Arameans. By the late 4th century BCE, two newly created Hellenistic states emerged as main pretenders for regional supremacy: the Seleucid Empire (305–64 BCE) and the Ptolemaic Empire (305–30 BCE). Since earlier times, ancient Greeks commonly used "Syrian" labels as designations for Arameans and heir lands, but it was during the Hellenistic (Seleucid-Ptolemaic) period that

9720-520: The first centuries AD, the Christian Bible was translated into Aramaic and by the 4th century, the local Aramaic dialect of Edessa ( Syriac : Urhay ) had evolved into a literary language known as Edessan Aramaic (Syriac: Urhaya ). Since Edessan Aramaic ( Urhaya ) was the primary liturgical language of Aramaic Christianity, it also became known as Edessan Syriac and was later defined by Western scholars as Classical Syriac . This laid

9840-482: The formal language of the state prompted the cultural and linguistic assimilation of Syrian converts. Those who remained Christian also became Arabized; it was probably during the Abbasid period in the ninth century that Christians adopted Arabic as their first language; the first translation of the gospels into Arabic took place in this century. Many historians, such as Claude Cahen and Bernard Hamilton, proposed that

9960-520: The foundation for the term Syriac Christianity . The Eastern Orthodox patriarchates were dominated by Greek episcopate and Greek linguistic and cultural traditions. The use of the Aramaic language in liturgical and literary life among Melkites of Jewish descent persisted throughout the Middle Ages until the 14th century, as exemplified in the use of a specific regional dialect known as Christian Palestinian Aramaic or Palestinian Syriac in

10080-610: The harmony of religion and philosophy and the virtues of an inquiring soul. In the same century, Ibn al-Nafis wrote the novel Theologus Autodidactus ( The Self-Taught Theologian ) in response to Ibn Tufail’s work; the novel is a defense of the rationality of prophetic revelation. The protagonists of both these narratives were feral children (Hayy in Hayy ibn Yaqdhan and Kamil in Theologus Autodidactus ) who were autodidactic (self-taught) and living in seclusion on

10200-713: The help of remnants of the Assyrian army, in the region for decades before they were finally vanquished. The Babylonians remained masters of the Aramean lands only until 539 BCE, when the Persian Achaemenid Empire overthrew Nabonidus , the Assyrian-born last king of Babylon, who had himself overthrown the Chaldean dynasty in 556 BCE. The Arameans were later conquered by the Achaemenid Empire (539–332 BCE). However, little changed from

10320-637: The influence of the earlier Aramaic culture, the neighbouring Hebrew culture of the Hasmonean kingdom, as well as the Hellenistic cultures in the region (especially with the Christianization of Nabateans in the 3rd and 4th centuries). The pre-modern Arabic language was created by Nabateans, who developed the Nabataean alphabet which became the basis of modern Arabic script . The Nabataean language , under heavy Arab influence, amalgamated into

10440-547: The lands in which the Ahlamû arose in the Babylonian city of Nippur and even at Dilmun . Shalmaneser I (1274–1245 BCE) is recorded as having defeated Shattuara , King of the Mitanni and his Hittite and Ahlamû mercenaries. In the next century, the Ahlamû cut the road from Babylon to Hattusas . Also, Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244–1208 BCE) conquered Mari , Hanigalbat and Rapiqum on the Euphrates and "the mountain of

10560-654: The literary circles of the Ottoman Empire . An early example, the romance novel Taaşuk-u Tal'at ve Fitnat (تعشق طلعت و فطنت; "Tal'at and Fitnat in Love"), was published in 1872 by Şemsettin Sami . Other important novels of the period included Muhayyelât by Ali Aziz Efendi , which consists of three parts and was written in a laconical style contrasting with its content, where djinns and fairies surge from within contexts drawn from ordinary real life situations. Inspired by

10680-546: The liturgical Aramaic/Syriac language. In the 10th century, the Byzantine Empire gradually reconquered much of northern Syria and upper Mesopotamia, including the cities of Melitene (934) and Antioch (969) and thus liberated local Aramaic-speaking Christian communities from the Muslim rule. Byzantines favoured Eastern Orthodoxy, but the leadership of the Antiochian Oriental Orthodox Patriarchate succeeded in reaching agreement with

10800-577: The material culture shows no distinctions between states dominated by the Luwians or the Arameans. Aramean tribal groups were identified by family names that often began with the Semitic prefix Bit , meaning "house of", such as "Bit Adini". This naming convention was influenced by the writing system used by the coastal Phoenicians . Each tribe's name signified the house or ancestral lineage to which it belonged. The term "Aram" sometimes referred only to

10920-419: The new tribes away from the original population. Syrians who belonged to Monophysitic denominations welcomed the peninsular Arabs as liberators. The Abbasids in the eighth and ninth century sought to integrate the peoples under their authority, and the Arabization of the administration was one of the tools. Arabization gained momentum with the increasing numbers of Muslim converts; the ascendancy of Arabic as

11040-486: The non-Arab local population and the peninsular Arabs. The Arabic language began to serve as a lingua franca in these areas and various dialects were formed. This process was accelerated by the migration of various Arab tribes outside of Arabia, such as the Arab migrations to the Maghreb and the Levant . The influence of Arabic has been profound in many other countries whose cultures have been influenced by Islam. Arabic

11160-406: The one hand, and Canaanite , which comprises languages further south in the speech area such as Hebrew , Phoenician , and Moabite , on the other hand. All three branches can be subsumed under the more general rubric Northwest Semitic and thus share a common origin. The earliest direct witnesses of Aramaic, which were composed between the 10th and 8th centuries BC, are unanimously subsumed under

11280-547: The opening centuries of the Iron Age , when several newly-emerging chiefdoms decided to use it as a written language . The process coincided with a change from syllabic cuneiform to alphabetic scribal culture and the rise of a novel style of public epigraphy , which was formerly unattested in Syria-Palestine. The language is considered a sister branch of the idiom used in the Bronze-Age city-state of Ugarit , on

11400-554: The region during this period. Even many non-Arabic-speaking groups claim descent from Arab forebears. The two most important Arabic-speaking groups to emerge in Nubia were the Ja'alin and the Juhaynah . Islamic literature 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

11520-678: The region of Aram was commonly labelled as "Syria", and the Arameans were labelled as "Syrians". When reflecting on traditional influences of Greek terminology on English translations of the Septuagint, American orientalist Robert W. Rogers noted in 1921 that it was unfortunate that the change also affected later English versions. In Greek sources, two writers spoke particularly clearly on the Arameans. Posidonius , born in Apamea , as quoted by Strabo , writes: "Those people whom we Greeks call Syrioi, call themselves Aramaioi". Further, Josephus , who

11640-604: The region, one material culture with "mixed" elements resulted. The material culture appears to be so homogeneous that it "shows no clear distinctions between states dominated by Luwians or Aramaeans". Arameans were mostly defined by their use of the West Semitic Old Aramaic language (1100 BCE – 200 CE), which was first written using the Phoenician alphabet but over time modified to a specifically- Aramaic alphabet . Aramaic first appeared in history during

11760-478: The religion while not believing in a personal connection to God. When asked if he considered himself a Muslim, Pamuk replied: ": "I consider myself a person who comes from a Muslim culture. In any case, I would not say that I'm an atheist. So I'm a Muslim who associates historical and cultural identification with this religion. I do not believe in a personal connection to God; that's where it gets transcendental. I identify with my culture, but I am happy to be living on

11880-522: The role of Islamisation of Muslim individuals and communities, social, cultural and political behavior by legitimization through various genres like Muslim historiographies , Islamic advice literature and other Islamic literature. The British Indian novelist and essayist Salman Rushdie 's (b.1947) second novel, Midnight's Children won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two separate occasions, marking

12000-467: 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. 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

12120-540: The sedentary Yemeni population did not speak Old Arabic prior to the spread of Islam , and spoke the extinct Old South Arabian languages instead. Before the 7th century CE , the population of Eastern Arabia consisted of Christian Arabs , Zoroastrian Arabs, Jews , and Aramaic -speaking agriculturalists. Some sedentary dialects of Eastern Arabia exhibit Akkadian , Aramaic and Syriac features. The sedentary people of ancient Bahrain were Aramaic speakers and to some degree Persian speakers, while Syriac functioned as

12240-438: 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

12360-535: The small Aramean states ranged across the northern frontier of Israel: Aram-Sôvah in the Beqaa , Aram-Bêt-Rehob ( Rehov ) and Aram-Ma'akah around Mount Hermon , Geshur in the Hauran , and Aram-Damascus. An Aramean king's account dating at least two centuries later, the Tel Dan stele , was discovered in northern Israel and is famous for being perhaps the earliest non-Israelite extra-biblical historical reference to

12480-815: The southern areas near the Sahara . It also heavily transformed the culture of the Maghreb into Arab culture, and spread nomadism in areas where agriculture was previously dominant. After the Umayyad conquest of Hispania , under the Arab Muslim rule Iberia ( al-Andalus ) incorporated elements of Arabic language and culture. The Mozarabs were Iberian Christians who lived under Arab Islamic rule in Al-Andalus . Their descendants remained unconverted to Islam , but did however adopt elements of Arabic language and culture and dress. They were mostly Roman Catholics of

12600-478: The spiritual writings of Ibn Arabi . One term for Islamic literature is al-adab al-islami , or adab . 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

12720-445: The storm-god, El , the supreme deity of Canaan, in addition to Anat (‘Atta) and others. The Arameans who lived outside their homelands apparently followed the traditions of the countries in which they settled. The King of Damascus , for instance, employed Phoenician sculptors and ivory-carvers. In Tell Halaf-Guzana, the palace of Kapara , an Aramean ruler (9th century BCE) was decorated with orthostates and with statues that display

12840-477: The surrounding areas. Bilingual texts in Aramaic and the Assyrian dialect of Akkadian are among the earliest examples of Aramaic writing. In the western regions, Aramean states had close contact with Israel, Phoenicia , and northern Arabia . The Phoenician god Baʿalšamem was even incorporated into the Aramean tradition. Identifying distinct elements of the Aramean heritage in later times is challenging because of

12960-476: The term " Old Aramaic ". The early writings exhibit variation and anticipate the enormous linguistic diversity within the Aramaic language group. Despite the variation, they are connected by common literary forms and formulaic expressions. As early as the 8th century BCE, Aramaic competed with the East Semitic Akkadian language and script in Assyria and Babylonia and then spread throughout

13080-408: The term "Syria" was finally defined to designate the regions west of the Euphrates , as opposed to the term " Assyria ", which designated the regions further east. In the 3rd century BCE, various narratives related to the history of earlier Aramean states became accessible to wider audiences after the translation of the Hebrew Bible into the Greek language . Known as Septuagint , the translation

13200-430: The war against Assyria, hordes of horse-borne Scythian and Cimmerian marauders ravaged through the Levant and all the way into Egypt. As a result of migratory processes, various Aramean groups were settled throughout the ancient Near East, and their presence is recorded in the regions of Assyria , Babylonia , Anatolia , Phoenicia , Palestine , Egypt and Northern Arabia . Population transfers, conducted during

13320-421: 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

13440-662: Was a major source of vocabulary for various languages . This process reached its zenith between the 10th and 14th centuries, widely considered to be the high point of Arab culture, during the Islamic Golden Age . After Alexander the Great , the Nabataean Kingdom emerged and ruled a region extending from north of Arabia to the south of Syria. The Nabataeans originated from the Arabian peninsula, who came under

13560-483: Was a gradual process that occurred over a period of nearly one thousand years. Arab nomads continually wandered into the region in search of fresh pasturage, and Arab seafarers and merchants traded at Red Sea ports for spices and slaves. Intermarriage and assimilation also facilitated Arabization. Traditional genealogies trace the ancestry of the Nile valley's area of Sudan mixed population to Arab tribes that migrated into

13680-423: Was also called Aram. "Arameans" is merely an appellation of the geographical term Aram given to 1st-millennium BC inhabitants of Syria. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, several Aramean-ruled city-states were established throughout the ancient Near East . The most notable was Aram-Damascus which reached its height in the second half of the 9th century BCE during the reign of King Hazael . During

13800-527: 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". Pamuk was the first Turk to receive the Nobel Prize, He describes himself as a Cultural Muslim who associates the historical and cultural identification with

13920-569: Was born in Jerusalem , defines the regions of "Aram's sons" as the Tranchonitis, Damascus "midway between Palestine and Coelo-Syria", Armenia, Bactria, and the Mesene around Spasini Charax. The ancient Arameans lived in a close relationship with other distinct societies in the region. Throughout much of their history, they were heavily influenced by the cuneiform culture of Mesopotamia and

14040-401: Was conquered by Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser III . The Assyrians named their Aramean colonies Eber Nari but still used the term "Aramean" to describe many of its peoples. The Assyrians conducted forced deportations of hundreds of thousands of Arameans to both Assyria and Babylonia, where a migrant population already existed. Conversely, the Aramaic language was adopted as the lingua franca of

14160-547: Was created in Alexandria , the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt that was the most important city of the Hellenistic world and was one of the main centres of Hellenization . Influenced by Greek terminology, translators decided to adopt ancient Greek custom of using "Syrian" labels as designations for Arameans and their lands and thus abandon the endonymic (native) terms that were used in the Hebrew Bible. In Septuagint,

14280-414: Was initiated among Western scholars. This led to the formation of Aramaic studies as a broader multidisciplinary field, encompassing the study of the cultural and historical heritage of Aramaic. The linguistic and historical aspects of Aramaic studies have been further expanded since the 19th century through archaeological excavations of ancient sites in the Near East . What is known of the religion of

14400-535: Was very common among ancient Greeks, and under their influence, the practice also became common among the Romans and Byzantines. An Arabization process was initiated after the Arab conquest in the 7th century. In the religious sphere of life, Aramaic-speaking Christians (such as Melkites in Palestine) were exposed to Islamization , which created a base for gradual acceptance of the Arabic language not only as

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