History of Arabic literature: periods, genres and figures
History questions are name-and-period questions with a reason attached. For every figure, know the period, the genre and the specific contribution.
Periods
- Jahili: the Mu'allaqat and the qasidah with its nasib; tribal values; Imru' al-Qays, Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma, al-Nabighah.
- Sadr al-Islam: the Qur'an's shaping of prose, the khutbah, and the diwan.
- Umawi: political verse and naqa'id; Jarir, al-Farazdaq, al-Akhtal.
- Abbasi: al-Mutanabbi, Abu Tammam, al-Buhturi in poetry; al-Jahiz and Ibn al-Muqaffa' in prose; al-Hamadhani and al-Hariri in the maqamah.
- Andalusi: the muwashshah; Ibn Zaydun, Ibn Khafajah.
- Modern: the Nahda, the mahjar writers (Jibran, Mikhail Naima), neoclassicism (Shawqi, Hafiz Ibrahim), and Taha Husayn and al-Aqqad in prose.
Genres
Qasidah, qit'ah, khutbah (oral sermon), risalah (epistle), maqamah (rhymed narrative), maqal (essay), shi'r manthur.
Worked example
Who created the maqamah and what is it? Al-Hamadhani created it in the fourth Islamic century; al-Hariri later refined it. It is a short rhymed narrative with a narrator and a trickster hero, mixing adab with entertainment. A full answer names creator, period, form and purpose.
Traps
Merging the Jahili and Umawi periods; crediting the maqamah to al-Jahiz; swapping Shawqi's and Hafiz Ibrahim's themes; giving a date without the contribution.