A History Of Arabic Literature

DESCRIPTION:

This book is a chronological study of the history of Arabic literature. Beginning with a brief discourse on geographical and cultural influences on Arabic writers, and touching on the earliest forms of pre-Islamic poetry, the author continues with a deeper study of the 'Golden Age' of Arabic literature, when writers and artists flourished under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. Later chapters are devoted to the medieval period, and a final section looks to the future. First published in 1903, this work remains a standard, concise history of Arabic literature. Its author, Clement Huart, Professor of Oriental Languages in Paris, was one of the most accomplished orientalists of his day, and was a leading authority on Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Romaic literature.

DETAILS:

ISBN: ​9788187570684
AUTHOR: Clement Huart
LANGUAGE: English
BINDING: Paperback
PAGES: 208 Pages
DIMENSIONS: 12 x 18 x 1.4 cm
WEIGHT: 0.58 kg
PUBLISHER: Goodword Books

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

HUART, CLÉMENT (Marie-Clément Imbault-Huart, dit), French orientalist (b. 16 February 1854 in Paris, d. 30 December 1926 in Paris). He is especially renowned as editor and translator of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish sources and for his prolific works covering this vast linguistic area, from Morocco to the Turko-Persian zone. He dealt with many aspects of Oriental studies, including art and literature, calligraphy, history of religions, linguistics (grammar, dialectology), philology, and political history.

Son of a lawyer, he started studying Arabic at the age of 14 with Amand Caussin de Perceval (d. 1871, professor of colloquial Arabic and dialects at the Ecole des langues orientales). He graduated in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Modern Greek, at the Ecole des langues orientales. He then became a pupil of the Ecole pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Section des sciences religieuses, where he wrote his thesis: (translation of) “Cheref-ed-din Râmi, Anis-el ‘Ochchâq, Traité des termes relatifs à la beauté” (Bibliothèque de l’EPHE, fasc. 25, 1875;(see ANIS AL-ʿOŠŠĀQ). He was appointed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and sent as student dragoman to Damascus (1875-78). He served at Constantinople as vice-consul and consul (1878-98). Upon Charles Schafer's death (1898), he took over the chair of Persian at the Ecole des langues orientales, where he was succeeded by Henri Massé (1886-1969). In 1908, he was also appointed Directeur d’études of Islam and religions of Arabia at the EPHE, Section des sciences religieuses. He also kept his appointment as “secrétaire-interprète” at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which he left as “Consul général de France” in 1912. In January 1919, he was elected to the Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres, over which he presided in 1927. He was a member of the Société asiatique (1898, vice-president 1916-26) and the Académie des sciences coloniales, president of the Société de linguistique (1903-04, 1918) and of the Société d’ethnographie. He participated in congresses of orientalists: Algiers, 1905; Copenhagen, 1908; Cairo, 1909.

His erudite knowledge of Oriental studies was further served by his good command of European languages (English, German, Italian). His achievements in the fields of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish studies were praised by his biographers (see bibliog). According to his contemporaries, his “secret preferences” were for Arabic (Boyer), and he knew Turkish better than Persian, which he pronounced “un peu à la turque” (Jean Deny, in Cent-cinquantenaire de l’Ecole des langues orientales, Paris, 1948, p. 29). He was repeatedly quoted by E. G. Browne for his contributions to Persian studies in dialectology, the dialectal poetry of Bābā Ṭāher (q.v.), linguistics, literary history, horufism, etc. (see Lit. Hist. Persia, 4 vols., index). Browne points out Huart’s refusal to apply the term “Dari” to some Persian dialects which he includes under the general appellation of “Pehlevi Musulman” or “Modern Medic” (A Year Amongst the Persians, London, 1893; repr., London, 1984, pp. 204-5; Lit. Hist. Persia I, pp. 26-27). His works retain some of their interest, although they are partly superseded (mainly the notes, based on outdated historical sources). Many of his numerous articles in the first edition of the Encyclopædia of Islam were reprinted in the second edition (sometimes revised and with additional bibliography).