11.05.2015 | 18:15

Dominance of religious discourse in Omani poetry in the 19th and 20th centuries

Vortrag anlässlich der Internationalen Woche an der Martin-Luther-UniversitätGastaufenthalt von Wissenschaftlern der Universität Nizwa, Oman, im Rahmen des Universitätsabkommens mit der MLU

Dr. Mohamed Al-Mahrouqi [University of Nizwa, Assistant Professor, Arabic Language, College of Arts and Sciences, & Director of the Farahidi Center]

Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Regionalstudien; Seminar für Arabistik und Islamwissenschaft/Orientalisches Institut
Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Regionalstudien
Reichardtstraße 6
06114 Halle/Saale

Omani poetry in general is influenced to a great extent by religious discourse, and the poet used to be a religious scholar as well. The Imamate tradition (Islamic political governing system) discouraged any type of non-religious sciences. Themes and styles of old Omani poetry are classic with no innovation.
Towards the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, Omani poetry witnessed a modernising trend led by poets such as al-Bahlānī, Abū Wasīm and al-Khalīlī. Abū Muslim al-Bahlānī, who died in Zanzibar in 1920, is the pioneer of this “modern classic” poetical trend in Omani poetry.
This paper will argue that classical Omani poetry lost a great deal of its artistic virtues as a result of religion dominating everyday life in Oman and the country’s remote geographical location far away from major centers of Arab civilization such as Damascus and Baghdad.

Dr. Mohamed Al-Mahrouqi holds a PhD from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. He is currently an Assistant Professor of classical Arabic literature at the College of Art and Sciences and the Director of the al-Farahidi Center for Arabic Studies at the University of Nizwa in Oman. He is Editor in Chief of Al-Khalīl, the Journal of the University of Nizwa for literary and linguistic studies. He is specialised in Arabic literature and criticism and he has published widely on Omani poetry.