| Description |
The Shu'ubiyyah movement emerged during the end of the Umayyad period (661-750 A.D.) and ended in the tenth century A.D. It was an anti-Arab superiority movement developed out of the discontents of the non-Arab Muslims who. in spite of their advanced cultural achievements. suffered from the misrule of the Arabs. The movement was enforced by a group of scholars through the channel of literary writings. Few people outside the literary circle was involved in the movement. It is, therefore, improper to ascribe this movement as a nationalist movement, since we find little evidence of the existence of the national sentiment. These Shu'ubites first demanded the equality with Arabs within the Islamic community and later they Olamide their superiority over the Arabs. The present study discusses the movement from the literary point of view, with special reference to the pross writing. In order to give a fuller picture of the movement, the study traces its root from the very early Islam. Therefore, in the first chapter, the development of the Arabic literature, beginning from al-jahiliyyah, is briefly studied in order to assess its achievement. In the findings, we experience that only Arabic poetry was an indigenous production of the Arabs, while prose writing was benefited from the translation of foreign works, specially those of the Persians'. The second chapter discusses the situation of the non-Arab Muslims in the Islamic community in order to see why they had to claim for equality. The findings show that they suffered political, economical and social maltreatment from their Arab brethren, though Islam preaches equality among all Muslims. In the third chapter, Persian literary development is examined to prove that the Persians were superior in literature to the Arabs who owed so much to the former in formulating a beautiful style of prose writing. The most brilliant achievements in later Arabic literature were the products of the Persian Muslims. Chapter four presents the most prominent prose writers involved in the Shu'ubiyyah argument. In conclusion, the writer calls for further study of Arabic literature in the light of the contribution of the Shu'ubites. |
