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Khutba in Arab Literature As the First Literary Prose Genre JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 3, 2020 KHUTBA IN ARAB LITERATURE AS THE FIRST LITERARY PROSE GENRE Feruza Shukurovna Djuraeva Department of Arabic Philology, Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Phone: +998 909309497, [email protected]. Abstract This article discusses the views on the importance of khatabah in arabic literature as the first literary life. The play discusses the art of rhetoric in Arabic literature, which is one of the oldest genres of prose. Attempts have also been made to shed light on the debate about whether literary prose existed among Arabs in pre-Islamic times. Keywords: khutba, khatabah, Arabic literature, genres of prose. INTRODUCTION Qutbuddun [7], Nicolson M.A. [13], Hanna al'-Fahuri No nation in the world would be as proud of the artistic [4], An nassu, Ihsaan [14], Gibb H. [16], and others. expression as the Arabs, and would not be able to copy themselves in the art of speech, whether written or oral, Admittedly, until recently, historians of Arabic as much as Arabs [1]. literature, literary critics, literary critics and writers, as well as orientalists in the world, have not paid as much The word is a great mystery [2]. Man's ability to speak attention to the study of literary prose in the Arabs as has made him superior to all other beings. Thousands of they did to the study of poetry. peoples around the world are still arguing with each other on the question of which nation was the owner of The Arab writer Zaki Mubarak even says with deep the first human speech and numerous scientists and regret that Arab critics did not analyze any prose work researchers are researching the origin of speech. or genre from the early medieval literature other than the Qur'an [3]. Speech also underlies the earliest knowledge in the history of the world. The word has its own destiny, and However, it is also incorrect to analyze the Qur'an as a its destiny is inextricably linked with the art of public work of fiction, and such an analysis cannot be speaking, which can change the lives of societies, considered a literary work. Everyone who has written peoples, nations and peoples. about the Qur’an has shown only their high intelligence and talent in unraveling the mysteries hidden in this In Arabic literature, khutba, the art of oratory is one of great book, and there is no criticism to be found in these the most ancient genres of prose. However, whether works [3]. literary prose existed among the Arabs in pre-Islamic times has been the subject of much debate. "Historians of Arabic literature have different views on the emergence of fiction in the Arabs. Some literary MATERIALS AND METHODS historians say that prose originated in the Arabs shortly Literature Review before the revelation of the Qur'an and that it existed Views on the importance of khatabah in arabic literature before Islam and continued to evolve until Abdul Hamid as the first literary life are discussed in the scientific al-Katib and Ibn al-Muqaffa fully endorsed fiction, works of the following researchers as Abu Nasr Forobi while others claim that absolutely no prose existed in [17], Philip K. Hitti [1], Al Kalkashandi Ahmad ibn Ali the Arabs before Abdul Hamid al-Katib and Ibn al- [18], Hashim Aliwey Al-Husseini [8], Parandovskij Ja. Muqaffa. [2], Al Zhahiz,Abu Amr bin Bahr [12], Zakij Mubarak [3], I.M. Fil'shtinskij [5], Steel, C. [9], Sulajmonova F. There is no doubt that prose, by definition, was not [10], Mahmud Shaki [11], Reynold A. [13], Tahera popular among Arabs in the pre-Islamic times. The Arabs borrowed prose from the written works of the 1106 JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 3, 2020 ancient Sami, and these works were in colloquial field under study. In that case, how reasonable is the language that did not follow any order or rules. They view that there was no Arabic prose at all in the early were a set of unrelated words, composed of unrelated Middle Ages? What genre was oratory, what is the basis phrases, and did not have a whole meaning. It was not for the skeptical view that it is a literary genre, and what until Islam appeared in the Arab society that prose is its place in Arabic literature? became more widespread, and elements of artistic mastery began to appear in it, albeit to a lesser extent,” It is not surprising that any researcher or literary wrote the famous Arabic literary critic Hannah al- enthusiast gets confused by views of modern European Fakhuri [4] in his time. However, since the time of the scholars such as "the reason for the lack of interest in scholar, a lot of work has been done on the deep study Arab literature in the genre of oratory is probably that of Arabic studies, especially Arabic literature, and some medieval Arabic critics did not have a clear approach to scientific views have begun to reflect. oratory," oratory (khutba) in Arabs does not deserve serious attention as “it was not sufficiently developed But many scholars who have studied the history and and of low quality” [7, 1]; “oratory relates to not literature of the Arabs acknowledge that the Arabs had literature, but to philosophy” [7] or, as the famous literary prose genres as early as the time of ignorance historian Albert Knowz put it, the first khutbas were [5]. “fabrications from beginning to end [7]. "Many modern European studies on rhetoric have reacted to the According to many scholars who have studied the traditions of the khutba genre as if they did not exist at history of Arabic literature, the Arabs have long been all." [7] masters of the art of eloquence. "The traditions of oratory trace back to a long way in Arabs. Even in pre- Perhaps all these contradictory views are explained by Islamic times, Arabs - nomads and settlers of the oases - the fact that the genre of speech in the Arabs has not organized exhibitions at certain times of the year, where been extensively and comprehensively researched over Bedouin poets and orators competed with each other in the years, perhaps by the need for in-depth and thorough poetry and oratory. Such competitions were accepted by analysis of the issue from a direct perspective of Arabic the Arabs throughout the Middle Ages [6]. literary criticism. In fact, the Arabs are famous in the world for their eloquence and miraculous language and "The Arabs have long valued oratory and the skillful use we believe that Arabic oratory, khutba, fully reflects of the word. There is no doubt that the culture of Arabic these two qualities of the Arabic language, and has risen speech, which existed in the days of ignorance and from a simple word to a higher-level art. So, what could reached us, indicates that the Arabs were highly be the reason for the indifference to studying, analyzing developed in the first centuries AD, so to speak [7]. and the issue of delivering it to the Arabic public, as Sources about the early socio-political and literary life well as to millions of people who find it interesting and of the Arabs during the period of ignorance, important? unfortunately, have not reached us in full except the few sources made it to this day. However, these two factors Of course, in recent years, the Arabs have paid more do not mean that the Arabs did not have literature in attention to the study of the genre of khutba, but they during the period of ignorance. The fact that the Arabs have preferred to focus their studies more on the paid great attention to the genres of prose in pre-Islamic mechanisms of influence of khutbas on the audience, times is evident in the sources that have reached us. The the behavior of the speaker (khatib), or the emotional or uniqueness of this prose became known through the political nature of public speaking in today's fast-paced sermons of the orators and the pamphlets of the world. secretaries” [8]. In the mass media, some articles analyze individual "While it is true that there was not a great need for prose khutbas on their own. In some encyclopedias [7] the genres before Islam, the fact that they were not of descriptions and information about khutbas are similar sufficient size does not mean no attention was paid to to small but useful sections on oratory. prose in pre-Islamic times," he said [3]. At the same time, Takhira Kutbiddin, who has It should also be noted that such scientific views are extensively studied the genre of Khataba oratory, says found in almost all written and published works in the that: “the reason for Albert Noose’s such negative views 1107 JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 3, 2020 on khutbas, which reflect great talent in reality, is the down, memorized, narrated, and all or some of them consequence of the assumptions that the samples of would have come down to us as they were done in khutbas presented to the European scientists were made Persia, India and Rome.” In response to Marceau's up and not from real life” [7]. comments, Zaki Mubarak said in his letter that, "Their disappearance does not deem such prose works non- However, R.V. Sergeant, on the other hand, argues that existent. The Qur'an itself is enough for us as a great the initial khutbas were exactly true and that they were example of literary prose, which contains traces of pre- in a language unique to only Arabs [5].
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