Share
By Nadia El Kholy |
Jan 1, 2008
The Arab world stretches from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf, from Morocco in the west to Oman in the east, and comprises twenty-two countries. The religion of the majority of the people in Arab countries is Islam, and the language shared by them all is Arabic. This has contributed to the emergence of a strong sense of Arab nationhood, based on what Arabs have in common— namely, language, culture, sociopolitical experience, economic interests, and a collective and shared memory of their place and role in history. The Arab world has been, and is still, referred to by the West as “the Orient,” the land of The Arabian Nights, with its connotations of magic and glamour. However, there has been no clear tradition for writing specifically for children despite the popularity of the famous tales of Aladdin, Ali
Baba, and Sindbad that have been circulating in the Arab world for centuries. Throughout history, tales have been told and retold orally, attesting to the phenomenon that oral tradition exists at the roots of every civilization and that children adopted adult literature that they found diverting. Likewise, storytelling played an important role in the lives of the ancient Egyptians. The deeds of gods and kings were not written in early times and only found their way through oral tradition into the literature of a later date. This treasury of popular tales, myths, and legends was transmitted orally until finally set to writing; examples of this are the first Egyptian Cinderella, written on papyrus under the name Radoubis, and a black-and-red twenty-four-page collection of children's stories made out of papyri. In pre-Islamic Arabia, origins of children's literature can be identified in popular stories, songs, and legends that mostly recounted the valor of various heroes and the wars between the tribes. With the advent of Islam there was a shift in the storytelling tradition to more serious and religious topics drawing from the Qur'an and the prophet Muhammad’s life. Other famous narratives that were popular with children were Hayy Ibn Yakzan written by the medieval philosopher Ibn
Tufayl (d. 1185)—a book that inspired the much later Robinson Crusoe—and the Sirat of Sayf ibn dhi Yazan. Storytelling was popular throughout the Arab world, fueled by the rich and diverse folkloric tradition. Stories about Clever Hassan, buffoons like Goha, and the popular Arabian Nights were part of the Arab cultural fabric. Epics about brave warriors, such as Abu Zaid
Al-Hilali, the Sirat of Al-Amira Zat Al-Hima, the saga of Banu Hilal, the romances of chivalry like Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan, and Sirat ‘Antara, have all contributed to the formulation of the Arab identity through concepts of Arab “Shahama” (chivalry), courage, love for one's country, and the sacredness of honor. This rich repository of narratives was shared from one generation to the next and is still popular today. Animal stories also found their place in Kalila wa Dimna, which originates from the Indian Panchatantra and was Arabized by Ibn
al- Muqaffa’ from its Pahlavi translation. It was in Egypt, the oldest cultural center of the Arab world, that modern Arabic children's literature originated. Early interest in children and their development goes back to the intellectual enlightenment at the end of the 19th century under the reign of Muhammed
Ali, who sent scholars on study missions to France. Sheikh
Rifa’a
al-Tahtawi was extremely impressed by the French educational books for children; he published his own Guide for Boys, a book about child education and development, in 1870. An immediate follow-up to that book was The School Children's Meadows (1870) by Ali
Mubarak, the first school journal for children, which was a channel for the pupils’ own creative literary works in addition to having contributions from professional adult writers. Ahmed
Shawki (1868 -- 1932), the Egyptian poet laureate, who had also been to France and studied French literature, wrote a volume of poems, Shawqiyaat Saghirah (Shawki’s Verses for the Young), strongly influenced by La Fontaine’s Fables in their having a simple, direct, and humorous style suitable for the child. In response to Shawqi’s call to other Arab writers in 1897, Ma’aruf
Al Rasafy from Iraq and Ibrahim
Al Arab responded by producing a number of poems specifically for children. In 1927 a collection of animal fables in verse form similar to La Fontaine’s, called Adab Al Arab (Arabian Ethics), was distributed to all primary schools in Egypt. Later, in 1894, Muhammad Othman
Jalal translated Aesop’s Fables into Arabic. Although these books were important in the development of interest in children's works, they would not be considered suitable for children by modern standards. Their language was difficult, the tone was often didactic, and the topics were not chosen with children's interests and needs in mind. It is the prolific Egyptian writer Mohamed
Al Harawy (1885 -- 1939) who wrote songs, poems, and musical one-act plays especially for children. In 1922 he produced an illustrated collection of poems, Children's Companion for Boys, in three parts, and followed it with the Children's Companion for Girls in two parts. He also wrote five plays for children, three of which were in verse form and two in prose. In 1931 he published two collections of stories, Goha and the Children and The Pie Vendor, both of which were very popular at the time. Al Harawy dealt with a wide range of topics—the didactic, the religious, the nationalistic, the social, and the moralistic. However, the real revolutionary movement in children's literature in the Arab world started with the pioneer Kamil
Kilani (1897 -- 1959). During the 1930s, Kilani gained prominence as a publisher by translating and adapting and simplifying more than two hundred foreign titles for children. Kilani’s dedication to children's literature is evident in the works he produced in a span of approximately thirty years. His first book, Sindbad the Sailor, was published in 1927. He translated, rewrote, and Arabized nearly all the children's classics and Western fairy tales for Arab children. Inspired by Kilani, a number of writers were encouraged to translate children's stories from both English and French—writers like Hamid
al Kassaby and Boulos Effendi Abdel
Malek, who translated eight of Hans Christian
Anderson’s stories. This opened the way to more creative writings like Mohamed Said
Al Eriyan’s The Sindbad Stories and Ateya
Al Ibrashi’s series, The Green Library Children's Stories. Longer fiction in the form of novellas for teenagers were the contribution of Mohamed Farid Abu
Hadid, who wrote books like Amrounshah and the long series called Awladouna (Our Children), which was influenced by The Arabian Nights. All these works contributed to the modernization of Arabic children's stories until the end of British rule in Egypt in 1952.
Changes in the 1960s and Beyond
In the 1960s the entire Arab world underwent dramatic changes as the countries gained their independence, and this was in turn reflected in the field of children's books. Research centers and institutes for the study and promotion of children's literature were set up in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq. A few years later, the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 led to a recognition of the need for more authentic national writings for Arab children with more attention to content, style, and production. A series of regional conferences was held in several Arab capitals and a wave of creative writing for children spread throughout the entire Arab world. The Syrian ministry of culture adopted a huge project for writing for children, which led to the appearance of two children's magazines—Osama in 1969 and Rafei in 1970—and Soleiman Al Eissa, a well-known poet, wrote patriotic verses with a strong nationalistic streak for children. Dar al-Fata al-‘Arabi, the first publishing house specifically for children and young people in the area, was established in 1972 with one office in Beirut and another in Cairo. It allocated a quarter of its production to Palestinian conditions and the Palestinian cause and stressed the national identity of Palestinians, affirming their quest for nationhood and providing the Palestinian children with a suitable education to help them cope with their conditions and work toward a better future. Its books reached Palestinian children in the occupied land, in the refugee camps, and all over the Arab world. It chose to work with prominent Arab authors and illustrators and ensured high-quality production in both content and design. Zakariyya Tamer was the leading writer published by Dar al-Fata. He published more than two hundred books and was widely translated. Both Jordan and Palestine combined their efforts in the direction of producing children's literature and they shared many similarities in the choice of themes and overall message. The initial beginning of a children's literature in Jordan was in 1928 with Al-Borashi’s poems for schoolchildren, and this led to similar productions by Al-Betgali and al- Nashashibi. Most of the literature produced at the time was didactic and dry in nature. By 1945, Radi adbel Hadi and Eissa al Na’ouri produced entertaining stories for children in both Palestine and Jordan and most of their books were published in Jerusalem. Because of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, most of the literature produced from the early 1960s through today is of a nationalistic and patriotic quality, with a strong focus on political awareness and Arab heroism—an example of which is the well-known Heroes from Palestine by Al-Na’ouri and Al-Kattan. Writers drew heavily from Arabic folk tales, Islamic religious stories, and historical epics of famous Arab warriors. Among these writers are two Palestinians, Gamal Ka’aawar and Mahmud Al-Abasi, who were strongly influenced by the Egyptian writer Kilani and jointly produced fifteen books along the same vein. The Jordanian Fayez Ali Al-Ghoul contributed extensively to children's literature, and in 1979 the Jordanian writer Rowdat al-Hudhud wrote a series of stories for children in which she retold the heroic story of the Arab nation in its resistance to the British forces and presented a panorama of Arab fighters who died for the Palestinian cause. Between 1968 -- 1976, twenty-five books were published for children, among which were those of Selim Khoury (1934 -- 1991). In 1960 children's journalism started with the launching of Today Is for Our Children, which was followed by Sindbad, Magalati, Al-Hayat, and Afkar, and they all had vast readerships. Translation of universal and Hebrew children's literature flourished especially through the efforts of Abdul Allah Eisshan (1935 -- ). Credit also goes to the Center of Arab Children's Literature founded in 1995, which helped in the progress of children's literature in the region. Between 1940 -- 1960, a new, simpler Arabic style developed in Lebanon, breaking away from the complexities of classical Arabic. This paved the way for the creation of modern children's literature in the form of poems, stories, and songs in a more accessible style, and also revived the colloquial poetry known as “Zajal,” which was also set to music. Lebanon's central position in the Arab world, its openness to foreign cultures, and its comparatively high rate of literacy all contributed to the development of children's literature. In 1948, Rose Ghurayyib, one of the pioneers of children's literature in Lebanon, produced songs and more than eighty books; Lauren Rihani retold folk tales; and Rasha DarRouth published the popular Bedtime Stories. By the 1990s Lebanon acquired a large number of well-equipped printers and produced children's books of a high quality and a wide range of attractive magazines. In Iraq the famous magazine Majalati, for children from ages five to fourteen, started in 1968, and Al Mezmar, which followed in 1970, were both promising additions to children's journalism in the Arab world. By the 1970s Iraq witnessed a boom in the field of children's literature by establishing a special publishing house for children's books, the Children's Cultural Circle, which produced beautifully illustrated books of superior quality in both content and form. Unfortunately this came to a halt at the time of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, followed by the Gulf war and the blockade imposed on Iraq, and finally by the American invasion in 2003. The rest of the Arab world was notably late in its production of children's literature, despite some sporadic efforts in some Arab countries. The French occupation of the Maghreb had a negative effect on the development of Arabic literary works for children, and what was available was mostly French. In Algeria the Kasbur series in Arabic was a promising beginning, and similar children's creative works appeared in Tunisia, such as the retellings of Sirat Banu Hilal, al ‘Arousy’s Goha Stories, collections of animal fables, and the juvenile periodical Erfan. In Libya, because of the Italian occupation, the first Arabic children's story was The Brave Shepherd, written jointly by Youssef al Sheriff and Mahmud Fahmi. Some scattered writings appeared in the Gulf countries, mostly in children's journals and magazines. In Kuwait the first children's story appeared as late as 1973 with the publication of Ali Sha’rawi’s story Diving for Pearls, followed by anthologies of Kuwaiti stories and the popular magazine Saad in 1969, as well as ‘Al ‘Araby al Saghir (The Young Arab). These found echoes in Saudi Arabia with the publication of a number of periodicals for children, including Hassan, Al Jeel, and Al-Shebl. In Bahrain, Abdel Qader ‘Akeel wrote Who Stole Nada's Pen for young children, and other writers are Fawzia Rashid, Hamdah Khamees, and the playwright Khalaf Ahmad Khalaf. In the United Arab Emirates, Majed, a weekly periodical in Abu Dhabi, made a major contribution for six- to sixteen-year-olds in 1979; it is still distributed in most Arab countries and has a wide circulation. Today there is more awareness as to the importance of children's literature, and it has been encouraged through both the various governments and the private sector. The revenue from the oil industry, especially in the Gulf, has been used to finance publishing houses since 1987. More books on science and information technology are being published, as well as stories that deal with modern social and political issues. In Egypt children's books benefited from the involvement of Mrs. Mubarak, wife of the Egyptian President, who established the Suzanne Mubarak Awards for children's books to encourage a new generation of writers and illustrators, as well as the Reading for All campaign through which children all over Egypt are encouraged to read and books are made accessible to them. Egyptian journals for children had started fairly early in the Arab world, and in the 1960s Samir and the Egyptian edition of Disney’s Mickey Mouse were already popular. By 1978, Sandouk al Donia was published and was widely read. Currently there are a number of magazines for children of all ages. Some leading Egyptian writers for children who have been translated into several European languages are Abdel Tawab Youssef, Yacoub al Sharouni, and Ahmed Nagib. The foundation of the Children's Book Council in 2003, whose main project is to set a regional archive for the Arabic oral folkloric tradition and to promote children's books, is a positive step toward improving the status of children's literature in the area. See also Arabian Nights, The; Israel; Qur'an in Children's Literature, The; Sindbad the Sailor; and biographies of figures mentioned in this article.
1
2
|
Next
© Oxford University Press 2006
2 COMMENTSON THIS ARTICLE
ADD A COMMENT
COMMENTING RULES & FAQ