''Sīra shaʿbiyya'' is a

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

Islamic literature Islamic literature is literature written by Muslim people, influenced by an Islamic culture, Islamic cultural perspective, or literature that portrays Islam. It can be written in any language and portray any country or region. It includes many lite ...

consisting of long heroic narrative. The ''sīra''s are generally

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...

s, using historical settings, characters and events and focussing on military exploits. They are typical written in '' sajʿ'' (rhymed prose) interspersed with

poetry 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 ...

. They are very long. In written form, they are 2000–6000 pages in printed editions. In oral performance, sessions may stretch out over a year. The

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

term ''sīra shaʿbiyya'' was coined by

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 ...

folklorists Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...

in the 1950s to denote what is otherwise called "popular epic" or "popular romance". In the

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

s, most examples of the genre bear titles containing either the word ''sīra'' (biography) or '' qiṣṣa'' (novel). The earliest evidence of specific compositions of the type comes from the twelfth century, although the tradition probably stretches back to the first centuries of Islam. The earliest surviving manuscripts of recorded ''sīra''s date to the fifteenth century. The first printed editions come from the nineteenth century. Although essentially an Arabic genre, several ''sīra''s were translated into other languages of the Islamic world, such as

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. ...

, Georgian,

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

and Malay. ''Sīra''s are episodic and repetitive. Few have identifiable authors, since they originate in oral traditions. They "form a cohesive genre by reason of their shared emphasis on heroes and heroic deeds of battle, their pseudo-historical tone and setting, and their indefatigable drive towards cyclic expansion; one event leads to another, one battle to another, one war to another, and so on for hundreds and thousands of pages." The genre is distinct from other popular tales, such as the ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition ( ...

''.

Examples

;Pre-Islamic history *'' Sīrat Fīrūz-Shāh'', based on

Darius II Darius II ( ; ), also known by his given name Ochus ( ), was King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 423 BC to 405 or 404 BC. Following the death of Artaxerxes I, in 424 BC or 423 BC, there was a struggle for power between his sons. The vic ...

*'' Sīrat al-Iskandar'', based on

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

*'' Sīrat al-Malik Sayf ibn Dhi ʾl-Yazan'', based on Sayf ibn Dhi ʾl-Yazan *'' Sīrat ʿAntar'', based on ʿAntara ibn Shaddād *'' Qiṣṣat al-Zīr Sālim'', based on the War of Basūs ;Islamic history *'' Sīrat Amīr Ḥamza'', based on Ḥamza ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib *'' Dhāt al-Himma'' *'' Ghazwar al-Arqaṭ'' *'' al-Badr-Nār'' *'' Sīrat al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh'', based on al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh *'' Sīrat al-Mālik al-Ẓāhir Baybars'', based on

Baybars Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari (; 1223/1228 – 1 July 1277), commonly known as Baibars or Baybars () and nicknamed Abu al-Futuh (, ), was the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria, of Turkic Kipchak origin, in the Ba ...

*'' Qiṣṣat al-muqaddam ʿAlī al-Zaybaq'', based on the character Aḥmad al-Danaf *'' Qiṣṣat ʿAlī al-Zaybaq'', based on the character ʿAlī al-Zaybaq *'' Sīrat Banī Hilāl'', based on the Banū Hilāl

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{{refend Literary genres Islamic literature Medieval Arabic literature Arabic words and phrases Epic poetry

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