Multilingualism in the literary works of the Arab Nahda (Renaissance)

What is it about?

Against the perception of the nahḍah’s literati in Egypt and the Arab mashriq as being narrowly monolingual, due to their literary use of fuṣḥā Arabic and the various ʿāmmiyyahs, this article highlights literary translingual practices in the nahḍah’s contact zones in Egypt, Syro-Lebanon, and Iraq. Literary translingualisms took various forms such as bi-or-translingual azjāl (“vernacular verse”) and mulammaʿāt (macaronic verse), as well as self-translations. This article focuses on literary translingual practice manifest in the zajal of Muḥammad ʿUthmān Jalāl, Badīʿ Khayrī, Bayram al-Tūnisī, and ʿAlī Diyāb, as well as the mulammaʿāt of ʿAbbūd al-Karkhī. The intricate relations of power among the languages of the nahḍah (i.e. Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and fuṣḥā Arabic in addition to a host of European languages, especially French and English) are also featured in the literary works of authors such as ʿĀʾishah Ismāʿīl Taymūr and Hijri Dede.

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Why is it important?

Our analysis sheds fresh light on less known aspects of some authors of the Arab Nahda (Renaissance) whose Arabic-language literary productions only receive attention and acclaim, unlike the same authors' production in other languages, such as Ottoman Turkish, Persian, French or English.