Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period [Hardcover]

The History provides an invaluable source of reference of the intellectual, literary and religious heritage of the Arabic-speaking and Islamic world.Contributors to this volume, which ranges from the sixth century A.D. to the fall of the Umayyad dynasty two centuries later, discuss the nature of the Arabic language and the Arabic book; pre-Islamic literature; the Qur'an itself; the body of Hadith literature that records the traditions of the Prophet.Contributors to this volume, which ranges from the sixth century A.D. to the fall of the Umayyad dynasty two centuries later, discuss the nature of the Arabic language and the Arabic book; pre-Islamic literature; the Qur'an itself; the body of Hadith literature that records the traditions of the Prophet.Originally published in 1983, The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature was the first general survey of the field to have been published in English for over fifty years and the first attempted in such detail in a multi-volume form. The volumes of the History provide an invaluable source of reference and understanding of the intellectual, literary and religious heritage of the Arabic-speaking and Islamic world. This volume begins its coverage with the oral verse of the sixth century AD, and ends with the fall of the Umayyad dynasty two centuries later. Within this period fall major events: the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the founding of the Islamic religion, the great Arab Islamic conquests of territories outside the Arabian Peninsula, and their meeting, as overlords, with the Byzantine and Sasanian world. Contributors to this volume discuss an array of topics including the influences of Greeks, Persians and Syrians on early Arabic literature.Editorial introduction; Maps; 1. Background topics A. F. L. Beeston; 2. Pre-Islamic poetry Abdulla el Tayib; 3. Early Arabic prose R. B. Serjeant; 4. The beginnings of Arabic prose literature: the epistolary genre J. D. Latham; 5. The role of parallelism in Arabic prose A. F. L. BelÓ<