Introduction
literature of Arabic-speaking peoples and one of the main vehicles of Islamic civilization. Classical Arabic literature emerged from religious and erudite reflections.
Medieval period
The most outstanding example of Arabic literature is the Koran, a book that Muslims believe was revealed by God to his prophet, Mohammed, in the 7th century, and which is revered throughout the world.
Hundreds of odes and poems composed a century before the time of the prophet are preserved. Among the most outstanding authors are al-Asha, Amr ibn-Kultum and Imru-al-Qays. AbuTammam's Hamasa, el Mufaddaliyat, summarized by al-Mufaddal, and el Kitab al-Agani are famous compilers of pre-Islamic poetry.
Poetry continued to thrive under the Umayyad dynasty (661-750) with poets such as al-Farazdaq and Jarir. The 10th-century poet al-Mutanabbi is regarded as the last of the great Arab poets.
The oldest surviving prose works, with the pre-Islamic Aiyam al-Arab, are stories commemorating tribal warfare. Ibn-Ishaq wrote a biography of the Prophet.
Thanks to the academies, Islamic philosophical thought was stimulated through the study of ancient Greek philosophers, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Islamic Sufism was expressed through the poetry of Ibn al-Faridand Ibn al-Arabí and in the Writings of the Brothers of Purity . The great medieval philosophers influenced the development of scholasticism. The most outstanding were Averroes (Ibn Rusd), Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Al Ghazali.
Popular literature, made up of narrations by storytellers, forms an oral tradition still alive in this part of the world. The heroes of antiquity and the famous eighth-century caliph Harun al-Rachid became the protagonists of tales such as the Arabian Nights. The famous Maqamat (Soirees) by the poet al-Hamadani and the Maqamat by the writer al-Hariri were created both to instruct and to amuse.
Modern times
One of the most applauded writers today is the novelist, playwright and screenwriter Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel laureate in 1988. The novel is also represented by M. Hussain Heikal; poetry by Shauqi and A. Z. Abushady; the short stories by Mahmud Taimur, and the literary and philosophical essay by Taha Hussein. Tawfiq al-Hakim and Salama Musa, among others, opted for a more westernized literature. The poetry of the Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran, is read all over the world.
Andalusian Arabic Literature
With the introduction of Arabic poetry into the nascent Arab-Andalusian culture, scholars and compilers such as Ibn Abd Rabbini (860-940), Abú al-Qali (901-967), Ibn Bassan de Santarén (?-1147) and Said al- Magrabi. Important autonomous authors were Yahya al-Hakam al-Bakrí (?-864) and Abd al-Malik (796-852), who was the first Andalusian historian.
Abd al-Rahmán III surrounded himself with poets and scholars to achieve a national conscience. Thus emerged the poetic schools of Seville — inclined towards amorous and lyrical poetry — and Cordoba, more intellectual and philosophical. During Al Hakam's reign, the great poet Ibn Hani of Elvira (?-972) stood out and works such as the Livro dos Hortos, an anthology of Arab-Andalusian poets, appeared.
After the Taifa kingdoms, Arabic-Andalusian letters reached a great development. In Seville, al-Mutadid stood out, and in Cordoba, Ibn Hazm (944-1064), author of The necklace of the dove.
The great figures in the lyrical compositions of the Almoravid dynasty were ibn Quzmán (c. 1078-1160), ibn Hafaga of Alcira (?-1134) and ibn al-Zaqqah.
A philosophical literature developed with the Almoravids, in which the aforementioned Averroes and ibn Arabi, the most representative figure of Arab-Spanish Sufism, stood out.
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