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Sīrat Banī Hilāl
Al-Sirah al-Hilaliyyah (), also known as the Sirat Bani Hilal (سيرة بني هلال ''Sīra Banī Hilāl'') or the al-Hilali epic, is an Arabic epic oral poem that recounts the tale of the journey of the Bedouin tribe of the Banu Hilal from Najd in Arabia to Tunisia and Algeria via Egypt. It is built around historical events that took place in the 11th century. The Banu Hilal were dominant in central North Africa for over a century before their annihilation by the Almohads. The epic is folkloric and oral, not having been committed to writing until relatively recent times, and doesn't have a well-defined date of creation. Of the dozen odd major oral epic poems that developed within the Arab folk tradition between the Middle Ages and the 19th century, ''Sirat Bani Hilal'' is today the only one that is still performed in its integral musical form. The longest notable version contains 1,000,000 lines, the poet could sing this version about 100 hours. The epic, once widespread ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abu Zayd Al-Hilali
Abū Zayd Barakāt ibn Rizq al-Hilalī () was an 11th-century Arab leader and legendary hero of the Banu Hilal and a character of the Sirat Bani Hilal. His father was ''Rizq'' who was the ruler of the ''Bilād al-Sarw'' and his mother was ''Khadrāʾ'' who was daughter of the Sharif of Mecca. He had dark skin. On the orders of the Ismaili Fatimid caliph, Abu Zayd moved his tribe to Ifriqiya to punish the Zirids for adopting Sunniism. The Banu Hilali weakened largely the Zirid state and sacked Kairouan. The event was fictionalized in the epic '' Taghribat Bani Hilal''. In the epic it is said that he was murdered by his rival Dhieb bin Ghanim. In a modern context, the events experienced by Bani Hilal and their cousins Bani Sulayma at the time of Abu Zayd have been portrayed in two Arabic TV shows. The first modern drama discussing these events is the 1997 Egyptian show "Al-Seera Al-Hilalia", composed of three 38-episode seasons following Abu Zeyd throughout the migration fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arab Folklore
Arab culture is the culture of the Arabs, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, in a region of the Middle East and North Africa known as the Arab world. The various religions the Arabs have adopted throughout their history and the various empires and kingdoms that have ruled and took lead of the civilization have contributed to the ethnogenesis and formation of modern Arab culture. Language, literature, gastronomy, art, architecture, music, spirituality, philosophy and mysticism are all part of the cultural heritage of the Arabs. The countries of the Arab world, from Morocco to Iraq, share a common culture, traditions, language and history that give the region a distinct identity and distinguish it from other parts of the Muslim world. The Arab world is sometimes divided into separate regions depending on different cultures, dialects and traditions, such as the Arabian Peninsula (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen and the United Arab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abdel Rahman El-Abnudi
Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi (, 11 April 1938 – 21 April 2015) was a popular Egyptian poet, and later a children's books writer. He was one of a generation of poets who favored to write their work in the Egyptian dialect (in Abnudi's case, Upper Egyptian dialect) rather than Standard Arabic, the formal language of the state. This literary stance was associated with a militant political engagement: Abnudi and other Egyptian writers of this school sought to make their literary production part of the process of political development and movement towards popular democracy in Egypt. Life He was born in the village Abnud in Upper Egypt. He wrote his first poetry when he was a high school student. In 1958, he traveled to Cairo. First of his works were published in the weekly magazine . In 1961, he moved to Cairo where he worked as a songwriter. He married the former President of the Egyptian Television Network and television presenter and interviewer Nehal Kamal, and they had two children ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bard
In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities. With the decline of a living bardic tradition in the modern period, the term has loosened to mean a generic minstrel or author (especially a famous one). For example, William Shakespeare and Rabindranath Tagore are respectively known as "the Bard of Avon" (often simply "the Bard") and "the Bard of Bengal". Oxford Dictionary of English, s.v. ''bard'', n.1. In 16th-century Scotland, it turned into a derogatory term for an itinerant musician; nonetheless it was later romanticised by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832). Etymology The English term ''bard'' is a loan word from the Celtic languages: Gaulish: ''bardo-'' ('bard, poet'), and ('bard, poet'), ('singer, poet'), Middle Breton: ''b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poem
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in place of, Denotation, literal or surface-level meanings. Any particular instance of poetry is called a poem and is written by a poet. Poets use a variety of techniques called poetic devices, such as assonance, alliteration, Phonaesthetics#Euphony and cacophony, euphony and cacophony, onomatopoeia, rhythm (via metre (poetry), metre), and sound symbolism, to produce musical or other artistic effects. They also frequently organize these effects into :Poetic forms, poetic structures, which may be strict or loose, conventional or invented by the poet. Poetic structures vary dramatically by language and cultural convention, but they often use Metre (poetry), rhythmic metre (patterns of syllable stress or syllable weight, syllable (mora) weight ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Su'da
Suʾda (), also known as Sa'ada (fl. eleventh century), was a legendary Berber princess who is an important character in the oral epic ''Al-Sirah al-Hilaliyyah.'' Biography Suʾda appears as an important character in the ''Al-Sirah al-Hilaliyyah'', an epic poem that describes the march of Arab tribes westward. Her father, known as al-Zanatı Khalıfa, held her in esteem, and unusually, had adopted part of her name as his own: Abu Suʾda al Yafrani al Zanatai. He was a Berber general from the Zenata tribe, who fought for the ruler of the Zenata Kingdom Ifranid of Tlemcen It is probable they lived in the region of modern-day Tunisia. Whilst little is known about her early life, she features as an important character in the ''Al-Sirah al-Hilaliyyah.'' One episode of the epic tells how Su'da fell in love with an Arab, but her father refuses to allow her to marry him, so as revenge, Su'da promises to help the Arab enemies of her Berber father. Another version tells how she falls in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berber People
Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connections are identified by their usage of Berber languages, most of them mutually unintelligible, which are part of the Afroasiatic language family. They are indigenous to the Maghreb region of North Africa, where they live in scattered communities across parts of Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and to a lesser extent Tunisia, Mauritania, northern Mali and northern Niger. Smaller Berber communities are also found in Burkina Faso and Egypt's Siwa Oasis. Descended from Stone Age tribes of North Africa, accounts of the Imazighen were first mentioned in Ancient Egyptian writings. From about 2000 BC, Berber languages spread westward from the Nile Valley across the northern Sahara into the Maghreb. A series of Berber peoples such as the Mauri, Masaesyli, Massyli, Musulamii, Ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years. In the 9th century BCE, the Assyrians made written references to Arabs as inhabitants of the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. Throughout the Ancient Near East, Arabs established influential civilizations starting from 3000 BCE onwards, such as Dilmun, Gerrha, and Magan (civilization), Magan, playing a vital role in trade between Mesopotamia, and the History of the Mediterranean region, Mediterranean. Other prominent tribes include Midian, ʿĀd, and Thamud mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, Bible and Quran. Later, in 900 BCE, the Qedarites enjoyed close relations with the nearby Canaan#Canaanites, Canaanite and Aramaeans, Aramaean states, and their territory extended from Lower Egypt to the Southern Levant. From 1200 BCE to 110 BCE, powerful ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zenata
The Zenata (; ) are a group of Berber tribes, historically one of the largest Berber confederations along with the Sanhaja and Masmuda. Their lifestyle was either nomadic or semi-nomadic. Society The 14th-century historiographer Ibn Khaldun reports that the Zenata were divided into three large tribes: Jarawa, Maghrawa, and Banu Ifran. Formerly occupying a large portion of the Maghreb, they were displaced to the south and west in conflicts with the more powerful Kutama and Houara. The Zenata adopted Islam early, in the 7th century. While other Berber tribes continued to resist the Umayyad Caliphate conquest well into the 8th century, they were quickly Islamized. They also formed a substantial contingent in the subsequent Muslim conquest of Iberia. Language As Berbers, the Zenata spoke one of the Berber languages. Ibn Khaldun wrote that their dialect was distinct from other Berber dialects. French linguist Edmond Destaing in 1915 proposed " Zenati" as a loose subgrouping wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khalifa Al-Zanati
Khalifa al-Zanati (Arabic: خليفة الزناتي) one of the main characters in the Bani Hilal epic, where he appears as the Berber king of Tunis. The epic says that during the siege of Bani Hilal to Tunis he asked their knights for duels every day and killed many of them, not even Abu Zayd al-Hilali was able to defeat him. His destiny was to be killed by Dhieb bin Ghanim who thrust a spear into his eyes. The epic also says that one of the reasons of his defeat was the betrayal of his daughter Sadaa who fell in love with Maree, a Hilalian prince held captive in her fathers prison. The historical Khalifa Al-Zanati may have been a general serving the ruler of Tlemcen Tlemcen (; ) is the second-largest city in northwestern Algeria after Oran and is the capital of Tlemcen Province. The city has developed leather, carpet, and textile industries, which it exports through the port of Rachgoun. It had a population of ... in present-day Algeria. References History of North Afric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epic Poetry
In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to oral tradition, epic poems consist of formal speech and are usually learnt word for word, and are contrasted with narratives that consist of everyday speech where the performer has the license to recontextualize the story to a particular audience, often to a younger generation. Influential epics that have shaped Western literature and culture include Homer's ''Iliad'' and '' Odyssey''; Virgil's '' Aeneid''; and the anonymous '' Beowulf'' and '' Epic of Gilgamesh''. The genre has inspired the adjective '' epic'' as well as derivative works in other mediums (such as epic films) that evoke or emulate the characteristics of epics. Etymology The English word ''epic'' comes from Latin , which itself comes from the Ancient Greek adject ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
