ARABIAN RELIGION

AND LITERATURE
BY: VALEN JOY D. CAPOTE
• Religion in pre-islamic arabia was
a mix of polytheism, christianity,
judaism, and iranian religions.
• Arab polytheism is a belief in
deities and other supernatural
beings.
• Gods and goddesses were
worshipped at local shrines, such
as the Kaaba in mecca. The Kaaba. The Kaaba is a cube-shaped
building in Mecca held to be sacred both by
Muslims and pre-Islamic polytheistic tribes.
 MONOTHEISM IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA

JUDAISM

• The most well-known monotheists were the Hebrews, although the Persians and the
Medes had also developed monotheism. Judaism is one of the oldest monotheistic
religions
• A thriving community of Jewish tribes existed in pre-Islamic Arabia and included both
sedentary and nomadic communities.
• Jews migrated into Arabia starting roman times. Arabian Jews spoke Arabic as well as
Hebrew and Aramaic and had contact with Jewish religious centers in Babylonia and
Palestine.
 CHRISTIANITY

• AFTER Constantine conquered Byzantium in 324 CE, Christianity spread to Arabia.

• The main areas of Christian influence are on the Northeastern and Northwestern
borders and in what was to become Yemen in the south.
• Both Jews and Christians believe in the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for Jews the
god of the Tanakh, for Christians the god of the old testament, the creator of the
universe.
• Both religions also reject atheism on one hand and polytheism on the other.
• The spread of Christianity was halted in 622 CE.
 Muḥammad
ibn ʿAbdullāh 
BORN: C. 570, MECCA, ARABIA
[NOW IN SAUDI ARABIA]
DIED JUNE 8, 632, MEDINA),
THE FOUNDER OF ISLAM AND
THE PROCLAIMER OF THE 
QURʾĀN.
 ISLAMIC IN ARABIA

MUHAMMAD’S FIRST REVELATIONS

• When he was nearly 40, Muhammad began spending many
hours alone in prayer and speculating over the aspects of
creation.
• The moral degeneration of his fellow people, and his own
quest for a true religion, further lent fuel to this, with the
result that he began to withdraw periodically to a cave called
mount Hira, three miles north of mecca, for contemplation
and reflection.
• Islamic tradition holds that during one of his visits to mount
Hira in the year 609 CE, the angel Gabriel appeared to him The cave Hira in the mountain Jabal al-Nour
and commanded Muhammad to recite verses that would where, according to Muslim belief,
later be included in the Quran.
Muhammad received his first revelation from
the angel Gabriel.
 A depiction of muhammad receiving his first
revelation from the angel gabriel. Muslims regard
the quran as the most important miracle of
• Muslims believe that the quran was verbally muhammad, the proof of his prophethood, and the
revealed from god to muhammad through culmination of a series of divine messages revealed
by the angel gabriel from 609–632 CE. (From the
the angel gabriel manuscript jami’ al-tawarikh by rashid-al-din
hamadani, 1307, ilkhanate period)
• According to the quran, one of the main
roles of muhammad is to warn the
unbelievers of their punishment at the end
of the world.
• According to muslim tradition,
muhammad’s wife khadija was the first to
believe he was a prophet.
 The five pillars of islam are five basic acts in islam; they are considered mandatory by
believers and are the foundation of muslim life. They are summarized in the famous hadith of
gabriel. The five pillars are:

1. Shahada (faith): there is only one god (Allah), and Muhammad is god’s messenger.
2. Salat (prayer): consists of five daily prayers, the names referring to the prayer
times: fajr (dawn), dhuhr (noon), ʿaṣr (afternoon), maghrib (evening),
and ʿishāʾ (night). All of these prayers are recited while facing in the direction of the
Kaaba in mecca, and are accompanied by a series of set positions including bowing
with hands on knees, standing, prostrating, and sitting in a special position.
3. Zakāt (charity): the practice of charitable giving based on accumulated wealth. It is
the personal responsibility of each Muslim to ease the economic hardship of others
and to strive towards eliminating inequality. Zakāt consists of spending a portion of
one’s wealth for the benefit of the poor or needy, like debtors or travelers.
1. Sawm (fasting): three types of fasting are recognized by the quran:
ritual fasting, fasting as compensation for repentance, and ascetic
fasting. Ritual fasting is an obligatory act during the month of ramadan.
The fast is meant to allow muslims to seek nearness to and look for
forgiveness from god, to express their gratitude to and dependence on
him, to atone for their past sins, and to remind them of the needy.
2. Hajj (pilgrimage to mecca): every able-bodied muslim is obliged to
make the pilgrimage to mecca at least once in his or her life. The main
rituals of the hajj include walking seven times around the Kaaba,
termed tawaf; touching the black stone, termed istilam; traveling seven
times between mount safa and mount marwah, termed sa’yee; and
symbolically stoning the devil in mina, termed ramee.
• As islam spread in mecca, the ruling tribes began to oppose
muhammad’s preaching and his condemnation of idolatry.
• The quraysh tribe controlled the kaaba and drew their religious and
political power from its polytheistic shrines, so they began to
persecute the muslims and many of muhammad’s followers became
martyrs.
• When muhammad’s wife khadijah and uncle abu talib both died in
619 ce, abu lahab assumed leadership of the banu hashim clan and
withdrew the clan’s protection from muhammad.
 The constitution of Medina
• In 622 CE, Muhammad and his
followers migrated to Yathrib in the
Hijra to escape persecution, renaming
the city medina in honor of the prophet.
• Among the first things Muhammad did
to ease the longstanding grievances
among the tribes of medina was draft a
document known as the constitution of
medina.
• After eight years of fighting with the
Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an
army of 10,000 followers and conquered
the city of mecca, destroying the pagan
idols in the Kaaba.
• By the time of Muhammad’s
unexpected death in 632 CE, he had
united Arabia into a single Muslim
religious policy.
 ARABIAN
LITERATURE
 ARABIC LITERATURE
• 17th century A.D.
• Began to be known with the collect of Qur’an, the sacred book of Islam.
• Arabs possessed a highly developed poetry, composed of recitation and transmitted
from generation to generation.
Example:
qasdahs, of Mu’allagat (the suspended odes)-reflects and praise the
customs and values of the dessert environment in which they arose.

PRE-ISLAMIC
• The typical poem of this period is the :
• Qasidah(ode)- consist of 70-80 pairs of half-lines
 HISTORICAL PERIODS

• The history of Arabic literature is usually divided into periods making the dynastic changes
and divisions that took place within the Islamic world.

• A. Umayyad period (A.D. 661-750)

• Arabic prose was limited primarily to grammatical treatise, commentaries on the koran , and
compiling of stories about Muhammad and his companions.
• Umayyad poets who favored Ghazals( wine songs and hunting poems)
1. Al-akhtal
2. Al-farazdaq
• B. Abbasid empire (750-1258)
• Greatest period of development and achievement
• Presence of persian influence
• Adab ( ibn l-muqaff )- often sprinkled with poetry and utilizing rhyme
prose.
Masters of adab :
1. Al jahiz
2. Al hariri

An inventive type of folk literature, exemplified is “the thousand and

one nights” (known as the arabian nights), drew upon the recitations of
wandering storytellers called Rawis.
• Abu Nuwas- famous for using the Arabic language with greater freedom and
imagination.

• C. Modern period
• During the centuries of ottoman Turkish dominations, Arabic literature fall into decline.
• Revived by its intellectual movement in mid-19th century known as Nahdah (reawakening),
which originate in Syria and spread to Egypt.
• Prose and poetry has gradually freed itself from centuries of neglect and has assumed it’s
former place among the world’s greatest literatures.

• Arabic writers of the past hundred years have been extremely versatile. Most OF
THEIR WORK is characterized by strong concern for social issues.
 ARABIC PROSE
Saj “rhymed prose” – consist of succession of pairs of short rhyming expression with
rhetorical and antithetical balance of sense between the pairs of expression with a certain
loose of rhythmical balance not bound by strict meter.

Khutba “formal, written in rhymed prose style”- religious verses in the earliest time of
Islam.
Most famous: ibn ubatah at-Farigi.
 D. GOLDEN AGE OF ARABIC PROSE
Mora- instructive and assuring anecdotes
Tanukhi- most outstanding compiler of anecdotes
* Niswar al-muhadarah( the table of mesopotamian judge)
* Mustajad (anecdotes of generousity)
*Farah ba’d al shiddah( deliverance after anguish)

Maqamat(assemblies) initiated by al-hamadhani

*Hamadhani’s maqamat- a collection of short stories
 ARABIC POETRY
Poetry was constructed in elaborate meters of which are universally recognized

All verses are divided into two types:

* Occasional poems- consist of 2-20 lines whose themes are usually war and revenges and praise of one’s
own tribe.

* Collection or anthologies-group of pre-islamic odes

3 kinds of collections
1. Al-mu-Allkat
2. Al Hamasa
3. Mujaddiyat
 FAMOUS LITERARY WORKS

• The ten thousand and one nights

• The voyages of Sinbad
• The collection of fables to the Areek Aesop
• The romance of Antar
 RENAISSANCE OF ARABIC CULTURE/ AN-NAHDA

• Marked by the introduction of new ideas and new methods, imitations, and at the same time reform and
development of traditional Arabic Literatute. The national reawakening of consciousness rom 1880’s onward.

The opening of the Suez canal in 1869

Historical novel “Mohammed” by Abduk Zirpe Zaydan
Master of modern Arabic prose” Al Anfalutu

Famous Arabian immigrants in America:

Aminal Rayhani-poet
Kahlil Jibran- story writer, artist and philosopher
Muhailo nu-Agma- writer of the note america
• THE END!!!