Literature in Abbas's Period
At the end of Umayyad Dynasty, political disorder, internal struggle for power and profit, cannibalism, corruption of state machinery, official abuse of power and corruption failed to resist the attack of political storm and were overthrown by the alliance composed of Abasi, Shiites and Khorasan.
Abbasid Dynasty is comparable to Tang Dynasty in China. Especially in its early period, from Harun Rashid (786-809) to Ma Meng (8 13-833), it was the golden age of all-round development and prosperity of Arab politics, economy and culture. At this time, foreign military expansion stopped and social life was stable, which provided a good environment for the development of literature and art.
As far as culture is concerned, this is an era when the wisdom and creativity of the Arab nation have been explored unprecedentedly and the spirit of the Arab nation has been greatly promoted. The Arab Islamic theocracy, confident after completing large-scale territorial expansion, introduced the empire into the stage of peaceful development. At home, in addition to the policy of prospering the economy, it has also adopted a cultural policy of rewarding science, praising academics and encouraging literature and art, opening up to the outside world in all directions and actively absorbing the outstanding achievements of Greek culture, Persian culture and Indian culture. The large-scale translation movement has provided sufficient nutrition for the vigorous new seedlings of Arabic culture. Coupled with the keen sensibility and strong thirst for knowledge of Arabs, this new seedling quickly thrives and becomes a leafy tree. The ideological and cultural potential of the Arab nation has been brought into play. Arab Islamic culture is a new international cultural system based on the blending of multi-ethnic cultures, which radiates unique brilliance in the dark night sky of the Middle Ages.
● Overview
"Wen bian is related to the world, and the rise and fall are related to the time sequence." Under the broad cultural background and rare historical environment, Arabic literature has undergone tremendous changes and prospered.
Compared with previous periods, the literature in Abasi period has the following changes: First, the content has changed. The theme of Arabic literature in the past, although constantly explored, can only be confined to the limited scope of praise, satire, exaggeration and mourning. As far as its tendency is concerned, it is basically a kind of literature that looks at "power" and "post" (past). On the one hand, the appearance of love poems in Wu period broadened the scope of subject matter. But only in the Abbasi period did the theme of literature really get expanded and enriched. In the traditional theme, the content reflecting the current real life and expressing the thoughts and feelings of ordinary people has been added, and all kinds of things with the characteristics of this era have become the objects of literary description.
Secondly, the form has changed. The literary genre in the past was mainly poetry. In the initial stage of Islam, with the religious propaganda, warning essays and speeches were developed. In the Wu period, the so-called "courtier style" political letters made certain achievements. But before the Abasi Dynasty, it was poetry that dominated the literary world. Only in the Abasi period did this change. In this era, not only poetry has been developed unprecedentedly, but also metrical poetry has been greatly enriched and diversified prose has been developed. In addition to religious explanations, political letters, literary letters and academic papers, these essays also include translated novels, long stories, legends, historical anecdotes, geographical chronicles, nautical travel notes and so on. In addition, there are "Macame" rhyme stories, as well as a variety of folk rap stories combined with rhyme.
Third, the object has changed. The initial Arabic literature was basically desert tribal literature, and later it gradually developed into regional and court literature. During the Abbasi period, urban civilization rose, which not only served the court and official literature of the upper rulers, but also appeared a large number of civic literature mainly aimed at businessmen and craftsmen. Many stories in Arabian Nights have been edited and disseminated to meet the growing literary needs of the public.
Finally, the style changed. Previous poets and writers were mostly oriented, that is, they wrote for the object and lacked individuality. Although you can express your inner world and feelings enthusiastically, it is difficult to be subtle and unique, and it is impossible to form your own unified literary style. In Abbasi period, however, a large number of great poets and essayists with unique personalities have been achieved, such as Abu Nouvas, a wine-drinking poet with Li Bai's wild personality, Mutnabi, a talented poet with a magnificent poetic style, Marry, a philosophical poet who showed pessimism and skepticism, and Jāhiz, a great essayist who showed wisdom and humor everywhere. These literary giants not only left a deep and distinct impression on their contemporaries and later generations with their broad contents, but also with their unique artistic style and personality.
Poetry in Abbas era developed in the struggle between the old and the new, and the development of literature deepened this struggle. The so-called "old school" refers to those who maintain the value of traditional poetry, including poets and critics. They followed the example of poets from the pre-Islamic period to Umayyad period and followed the ancients step by step. Their thoughts, feelings and aesthetic tastes have always been linked with the desert life in the past, pinned on nomadism, camps, migration, ruins, sadness and mourning. In short, I have an irresistible sense of loss and attachment to the past. They show a disdainful, contemptuous, even exclusive and hateful attitude towards innovative poets and poems in the new period. For example, Ibn Al-Rabbi (767-844), the main figure of the old school and the author of The Meaning of Poetry, once denied the new poet in this way. He said, "Their poems are just herbs. After smelling it for a day, it withered and was abandoned. The poems of the ancients are like musk and dragon saliva. Every time they get close, they add incense. "
The new school tries to reflect the new reality, new life and new changes in the Arab world. They adhere to a philosophy of facing life directly and pursuing worldly joy and happiness. In the form of poetry, they abandoned the sameness of "Gesuida" long poems and adopted colorful poems to reflect the times. Their works are in tune with the times, and they dare to innovate both in content and form.
It was Bashar Ben Boulder (7 14-784), a blind poet of Persian origin, who started the new school of poetry. His poems are free, bold and open in conveying feelings and describing enjoyment, and also deliberately innovative and ingenious in art. As he said in one poem, he has gone beyond the traditional "no" and "yes" and is the leader of the Art Nouveau movement.
Abu Nouvas, a wine poet, is a representative of the New Poetry School and an outstanding poet innovator and practitioner. His poems are full of luxurious scenes and show the passion of pursuing worldly pleasures. His bold description of wine, women and child molestation exudes unrestrained arrogance, which has caused great impact on the poetry world and left a handle for the old school to criticize the new school.
The emergence of the new school is a literary reflection of the change of political system, the development of urban civilization and the infiltration of foreign culture, and also a response to the call of history. In essence, the struggle between the old and the new is not a struggle between poets or general literary interests, but a struggle between innovation and conservatism with rich social content, and a struggle between old and new values. What the old guard is traditional values. Although their poems are natural, simple and unpretentious, they eulogize the past as everything and regard the Bedouin nomadic life as the only theme, which violates the law that literature should encounter the development and change of life and is far from the actual needs. Although some poets and writers of the new school, such as Abu Nuvas, often show a tendency of indulgence of lust and supremacy of pleasure, the main tendency of the new school-breaking the shackles of stereotypes and traditions and reflecting real life-is worthy of full affirmation.
The literature of Abbasid dynasty covers a wide range, including the literature of five regions, namely, Abbasid literature in Baghdad, Buchwitz literature in Persia, Hamdan literature in Syria, Fatmai literature in Egypt and North Africa, and so-called "Andalusian literature" in southern Spain. These documents are all written in Arabic, but the ethnic composition of poets, writers and translators is complicated, most of them are Arabs, and many of them are people of other nationalities within the empire, especially Persians. Therefore, the Arabic literature of this period may be called "Arabic literature" more appropriately.
The literature of Abbasid dynasty has gone through three stages. The first stage, from the middle of the 8th century to the beginning of the 9th century, was represented by poets Bashar bin Boulder, Abu Nouvas, Abou-Ata Shia (748-825) and essayist and translator Ibnal Muqaffa (724-759). The second stage is from the beginning of the 9th century to the beginning of100th century. The representative figures are poets Mutanabbi (9 15-965), Marley (979- 1058) and essayist Jāhiz (775-868). The third stage is from the first half of 10 century to the middle of 13 century. During this period, Arabic literature produced such original manuscripts as Makameyun Story, Legend of antara and Arabian Nights. But the general trend is that with the decline and disintegration of the empire, literature gradually moves towards stagnation and decline. In A.D. 1258, the Mongols captured Baghdad, which declared the end of the 500-year rule of Abbasid dynasty and the end of the golden age of unprecedented prosperity and glory of Arab culture and literature.
● "Wine Poet" Abu Nouas
In the early days of Abbasid Dynasty, many poets emerged, both innovative and traditional. Poets regarded as reformists include Bashar Ben Boulder (7 14-784), Abu Nouas (762-8 13), Abou-Ata Shiites (748-825) and Muslim Ben Walid (747-823). Poets regarded as "anti-reformists" include Abu Temmam (796-843), Bukhari (82 1-897), Ibn Rumi (835-896) and Ibn Muataz (863-908). The so-called "anti-reformists" are actually traditional. In poetry creation, there are conceptual differences with reformist poets, keeping a certain distance.
Bashar Ben Boulder is the pioneer of Abbas's new poetry. He was born blind, but he is smart and eager to learn. It is said that he 10 can still recite poems. He spent his childhood in Basra, the capital of literature. Although he is a descendant of Persians, he has mastered pure Arabic. His disability and experience made him think more about life and destiny, and gradually developed the tendency of atheism and anti-religion. He also showed a tendency to get rid of the shackles of tradition in his poetry creation. He tried to describe real life and reflect social changes. He wrote the theme of daily life that poets looked down upon in the past into his own poems, showing a new feature of popularization. For example, he wrote about how a housewife with ten old hens poured vinegar into the oil; It is simple, humorous and lovely to write about how a donkey talks to him with his dreams.
Bashar is good at writing poems on various subjects, and he has created many. According to himself, he wrote more than twelve thousand poems. His love poems are rich in content, while satirical poems are very sharp. He pointed his finger at the powerful and even attacked the caliph and the prime minister with poetry, making many enemies. Because of his deviant thoughts and views, he was finally accused of "false faith" and was ordered by Khalifa Mehdi to be whipped seventy times and died tragically.
Abu Nouvas, a wine poet
Abu Nouvas is a representative of innovative poetry. His poems are good at expressing luxurious scenes and passion for worldly pleasures. He took the prohibition of alcohol in Islam as an important theme of his poems and sang it repeatedly, becoming one of the most controversial figures in Arabic poetry. He called for breaking through the box of ancient poetry and demanded that this era of enjoyment be clearly reflected in his mind. He wrote in the poem:
Description of ruins, ancient rhetoric.
Give your words to wine.
He regards wine as a symbol of the new era and asks poets to abandon the habit of crying for the past and laughing for today:
Don't cry, Leila, don't cry, Kidd!
Please drink rose for the rose bushes!
Abu Nuvas was born in a slave-released family in Arvas, Persia, and his parents were of Persian descent. His father served in the Damascus army, and it is said that the poet died at the age of six. His mother took him to the city of Basra. The orphan who lost his father led a miserable life and was forced to work as a helper in a spice dealer. Because of his strong thirst for knowledge, he was able to overcome the harsh environment and gain literary and cultural knowledge. He also lived in the desert for a year, mastering pure and authentic Arabic. He was nearly thirty at that time.
Around 795 AD, he went to Baghdad, the capital of the empire. He praised the powerful Balmark family with hymns, hoping to open a road to the court of Harun Rashid, the caliph. His wish came true after the Rabel family came to power, and his hymns were favored by the caliph. But the good times did not last long, and his bohemian and reckless shortcomings were exposed. He became a prisoner of the caliph, but a series of confession poems saved his life. He had no choice but to go to Egypt, and his heart remained in Baghdad.
Abu Nuvas's lucky star is Harun Rashid's son Emin. He was a friend he met by chance when he was young. When Emin ascended the throne of the caliph, abu nuwas became Emin's drinking buddy and court poet. This is the best day of his life. He can not only entertain himself, but also create freely. It was only when he misbehaved and gave orders to others that Emin gave him some punishment and restraint.
In 8 13, Emin was replaced by his younger brother Ma Meng. Abu Nuvas lost his backer, his health went from bad to worse and his life was dying. Only then did he begin to realize that he had not protested in the past and said that he would repent to God. He died in Baghdad and lived only in his fifties.
The creation of Abu Nouvas' poems broke through the scope and form of traditional Arabic poetry and opened up a new world for the development of Arab poetry. He wrote poems praising the imperial court and exhorting the world, but the most famous and valuable are lyric poems praising youth, wine and love, landscape poems describing palaces and gardens, and satirical poems mocking powerful people and small groups. These poems are passionate, imaginative, novel in rhetoric and colorful, creating a poetic style. /kloc-isfahani, the author of The Book of Songs in the 20th century, collected and sorted it out, and handed down more than 12000 couplets.
Abu Nouvas is a life poet. The happiness of youth always attracts him. He is determined to abandon "disguise and hypocrisy" and live an open and free life, although he has paid a heavy price for it. His poems are a portrayal of his own life;
I like listening to bamboo and silk wind music.
Like to drink with a thick sea bowl;
I threw my pious coat aside,
Fall into the abyss of immoral behavior;
I pulled my wild tail,
Walking beside the playful waist.
The pursuit of happiness became his motto.
Abu Nouvas's poems have various themes, but the most distinctive one is his poems about wine. Wine is his companion when he is proud and his comfort when he is frustrated. He injected his passion, imagination, humor, wit, wildness, pride and desire into his wine poems. Islam initially opposed and prohibited Muslims from drinking alcohol, but abu nuwas took pride in doing the opposite. He praised wine as a noble and sacred thing. In his poems, he called wine a "noble soul" and compared wine to a "girl". When his career was bumpy, he wrote one of the most famous poems to persuade wine, which read: "Pour it, sweet wine. /Don't hide it, tell me, this is wine. /When you are awake, you will be sad if you suffer; Only when he is as drunk as a fiddler can I feel happy and rich. /... we don't want vanity, the real pursuit is to eat, drink and be merry. "
In his works, wine has become a living individual life, his "lover", his "close friend" and a magical doctor who can heal his mental trauma.
Abunuvas loves wine, drinking, praising wine, and getting drunk because he has a lot of dissatisfaction and resentment towards the real society, so he wants to drown his sorrows by drinking, escape from reality, and offset his sobriety in reality with the dreamy haze brought by wine. Awakening is the cause of his pain. His drinking poems are a fantasy world created by drinking and an "ideal country" for social rebels.
Before Abu Nouvas, several poets wrote poems about drinking, such as Elsa in the period of Jasiliyah and Akhtar in the period of Umayyah. In his contemporaries and later generations, poets also chanted wine. But no matter who it is, it can't reach the height of this art, just as Li Bai's drinking poems are the best among China poets. I'm afraid these are two poets who can really be called "Brewmaster" in the East and the world.
The philosophical poet Marry.
Among the many poets in the Abasi Dynasty, two blind poets have achieved more than discerning people, one is Bashar Ben Boulder mentioned earlier, and the other is Abu Ala al-Marri (973- 1058).
Known as "philosopher poet", Marry is one of the most thoughtful and bold poets in ancient Arabia. He lived to his eighties and wrote about seventy works, including poems and essays. These works involve society, religion, philosophy, language, culture and other aspects. Most of his works have been scattered, but his works are enough to ensure his permanent position in the history of Arabic literature.
Mali was born in the town of Meara between Homs and Aleppo. He suffered from smallpox when he was three years old, which made him blind. However, his disability did not stop him from pursuing knowledge. When his father's knowledge could not meet his requirements, he traveled all over the country with crutches and visited libraries and scholars. When he finally came to Baghdad, he was full of knowledge and skills, which made scholars in Beijing admire and respect him. But soon came the news that his mother was seriously ill, and he hurried home. He hasn't returned to his hometown, and his mother has passed away. The death of his mother was a great blow to his spirit. He used to like loneliness, but now he has become more introverted. He seems confident that he has enough knowledge to understand the world through thinking. So, he built a car behind closed doors at home and devoted himself to thinking and creation. Although he calls himself "a man with two prisoners" or "a man with three prisoners", he is far from isolated. The so-called "double prison" means that he was "imprisoned" in the world because of blindness and was "imprisoned" at home because he was far away from the hubbub. The so-called "three prisoners" refers to the above two "prisoners", whose spirit is "imprisoned" in their bodies and they cannot fly more freely.
In the voluntary "imprisonment", Marley made great efforts to write books and poems, and he wrote such masterpieces as Luzu Mijat and The Book of Forgiveness. Although he stayed at home, he was known far and wide. Scholars come to ask for advice in an endless stream, and letters often ask for advice. This is how he spent the rest of his life. When he died, the whole literary world was shocked, and more than 80 poets came to offer their condolences.
Marry's poetic achievements are reflected in his poems such as The Fire of the Year and Ruzumijat. Years of Fire is a collection of poems including more than 3,000 couplets. This is his early work before he returned to his hometown from Baghdad. There are praises, exaggerations, mourning, love and so on in this collection of poems, all of which are serious. His boastful poems show his self-affirmation and national pride. Daliyate (the poem of Dale's rhyme) is an elegy in memory of abu hamzah, a close friend and dogmatist. This poem is the best in this collection of poems and is regarded as a pearl in the treasure house of Arabic poetry. The whole poem * * * is sixty-three. Since I received the news of my best friend's death, I have written about the talent and virtue of my late friend before his death. Finally, I entered the deep thinking about life and death, and issued a pessimistic sigh that "there are many troubles in the world, why bother lovers".
Luzu mijat
Ruzu Mijat, also known as Redundancy, is the most profound collection of philosophical poems in Marley, with more than 1 1000. The whole poem is full of unique thoughts on the world and life, which shows the maturity of his thoughts. In this collection of poems, the poet also intends to show his poetic skills. He insists on rhyming in unnecessary places, so this book has an abstruse name "unnecessary necessity".
Lu Zu Michael is rich in content, involving a series of issues such as politics, economy, ethics and social life. It is a concentrated expression of his world outlook, time and space outlook, nature outlook, material outlook, life and death outlook and happiness outlook.
In this collection of poems, Marley shows the depth of a philosopher. He especially respects reason and puts forward that "there is no prophet in the world, only reason often gives you inspiration ... reason is your prophet." So he praised the "soul" and belittled the "body", saying that "body" is the "filthy container" of the soul. He explored the mysteries of the universe and matter and expressed doubts about the concept of eternity. He said: "I don't believe that the planet is immortal, and I don't believe that the world has existed since ancient times." He believes in the power of inevitability and fate, and thinks that people can't live, die or die by themselves. "Nothing is free to choose." On religious issues, he admits the existence and omnipotence of God, but sometimes he thinks all religions are absurd and chaotic. On the issue of religious belief, he was caught in a difficult contradiction, and he criticized the priest's belief as irrational. On ethical issues involving good and evil, he showed extreme pessimism. He believes that the whole world is shrouded in evil, and people can't resist evil, because evil is within themselves. After comparing animals with humans, a terrible conclusion is drawn: "every creature is cruel to its own kind,/but the most cruel is human." When analyzing the source of good and evil, he seems to be inclined to the view that evil comes from human nature and good is forced. He advocates that goodness should come from itself rather than utility, and emphasizes that goodness should also be guided by reason, otherwise it will not become true goodness.
When talking about social problems, he boldly pointed out that powerful people are only greedy people. He feels that the whole society is corrupt, full of greed, ignorance, fraud and pandering. Since it is so corrupt, people can only settle for second best and do good deeds. However, he is biased against women, and he is almost the enemy of women. He thinks women are useless and pursues enjoyment. They are the web of chaos and the source of all evil. He advocates that women wear veils and don't need education. Mary, who loves her mother, really doesn't understand how she looks at women.
Marley's pessimism in Flint and Ruzumijat is not only related to his own unfortunate life experience and disability, but also related to the social situation at that time. He lived in the late period of Abasi, which was an era of national decline, political corruption, people's anxiety and despair. Such a social environment cannot but cast a thicker shadow over his already lonely heart. However, he is pessimistic, but he is not world-weary. He just used this "pessimism" to warn the world; He talked about the universality of evil, but he was still obsessed with good. His only hope lies not in religion, but in reason, which is his most precious thing as a poet and philosopher.
Marley is not only a poet, but also an essayist. He once wrote the book "Chapter and Purpose", warning the world with rich admonitions and teachings. This book is similar to Ruzu Mijat in content, and it is a collection of his complex views. At the same time, it also reflects his ideological contradictions and his distress.
Book of forgiveness
Maia's real masterpiece is The Book of Forgiveness, which is a prose work. It is this book that makes him a person worthy of writing in the history of world literature.
The Book of Forgiveness is his reply to a man named Ibn Griha. This person asked him many important questions in his letter, involving history, religion, language, philosophy, literature and other fields. Marley turned his thoughts into images in the form of letters and criticized the falsehood of religious "forgiveness" with stories satirizing heaven and hell. By doing so, he skillfully responded to the attack of the writer Ibn Griha on atheists. Of course, he faced more than just a challenger.
The Book of Forgiveness is like a religious myth novel. Basically divided into two parts. The first part is ibn griha's travels in heaven and hell, which is full of legends. Marley is describing the hero roaming to heaven on a camel and then entering hell through the "devil's land". He found that some poets and writers who he thought should go to hell went to heaven; Those who deserve to go to heaven go to hell. He asked why, why people who went to heaven were forgiven. Why are people who occasionally go to hell not forgiven? These people always tell him in detail. That's why this book is called the book of forgiveness.
The second part of this book discusses in detail the questions raised in Ibn Griha's letter by way of questions and answers, including mysticism, reincarnation, pantheism and so on. This part is not as artistic as the first one, but there are many places worthy of attention in terms of ideology. He denied the concepts of "resurrection", "resurrection" and "reincarnation", which is very realistic and targeted.
The Book of Forgiveness is a very serious book, but it also adopts a very humorous novel art technique, criticizes all kinds of fallacies in absurdity, and is a successful attack of Marley's "rationality" on social ignorance.
Critics believe that The Book of Forgiveness is an important work, which shows Marley's "great talent and extremely high talent". Literary historians have been studying why there are so many similarities between Dante's Divine Comedy (1265- 132 1) and Marley's Forgiveness Book (1032).