Qasem Mokhtari; Mozhgan Nassiri
Abstract
Epic is the poetic narration of heroes' prowess and gallantry in quest of a great desire through a noble style, which has a symbolic structure. Arabic literature has not been familiar ...
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Epic is the poetic narration of heroes' prowess and gallantry in quest of a great desire through a noble style, which has a symbolic structure. Arabic literature has not been familiar with Epic genre in its real meaning due to several reasons, including the lack of a deep imagination and insight, a tendency to adopt imitative styles, and the lack of a unique and all-inclusive nationality. Lack of a lengthy epic masterpiece in the old Arabic literature urged the contemporary Arab poets and writers to fill this gap. Therefore, they started composing epic poems, including Islamic epics. Islamic epics, which are based on the Islamic-historical events, are narrative poems in the form of didactic poetry that depict history of the early days of Islam and its events. Some researchers believe that encountering Western culture and development of nationalistic thoughts in the Arab world led classic poets to find interest in this type of literature, though other political, social and cultural events have been also effective. One of the outstanding Islamic epics is Ahmad Muharram's "Majd al-Islam", where he uses Quranic words and phrases to compose a great and remarkable epic, one which has truly come to be called by critics as "al-Elyazah al-Islamiyah ". In addition, Ahmad Shawqi's " the States of Arabs and the Great Men of Islam" and Bules Salamah's "Eid al-Ghadir" enjoy epic elements and features more than any other Islamic epic does, and so, are considered among the top Islamic epics.
