THE D�W�N SCHOOL (Editor's Note: In its general lines, the history of the D�w�Schooln is well- known, as is its indebtedness to English poets and critics; its importance in modern literary history is also widely recognized. But the quarrel which ended it and the polemics in which its one-time members came to be involved have obscured the nature of their interrelationships and the precise identity of their sources of inspiration. In this study-part of a Ph. D dissertation on al-'Akk�d's critical theories submitted to the University of Edinburgh-Dr. Zubaidi reviews the early history of the School as a preliminary to a close examination of its critical standards.) THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCHOOL While on the staff of ad-Dustür between 1907 and 1909 'Abbds Mahmud al-'Akkdd engaged in formulating a new theory of poetry and expressing new critical principles. With this aim in mind he wrote critical essays on Arabic and Persian poets. The most characteristic passages were reprinted in his Kbuli jat al Yawmfyyah (The Quintessence qf the Diary), which appeared late in 1911. In 1909 there also appeared a collection of poems which conformed with al-'Akkdd's new principles. This was 'Abd al-Rahman Shukri's volume paw) al-Fajr (The Light of Dawn). Both and Shukri were writing under the influence of 19th century English literature. While al-`Akkad was deriving his critical views from his reading of Matthew Arnold, Hazlitt and Macaulay, Shukri was drawing on the poetry of Shelley, Byron and Wordsworth as represented in Palgrave's s anthology The Golden Treasury. Al-'Akkdd was also acquainted with this anthology and wrote a number of poems along the new lines. Besides the English influences, mainly confined to poetic themes, structures and moods, there appear in the poetry of both Shukri and al-'Akkdd other vigorous influences exercised by al-Barudi and the 'Abbdsid poets. At any rate, the two works, al-'Akkdd's The Quintessence of the Diary and Shukri's The Light of Dawn marked the birth of a new movement in modern Egyptian literature, which was to flourish between 1913 and 1921. Shukri was a student in the Teachers' Training College at Cairo. Al-Marsafi's Al-Wasilah al ?ldabiyyah (The Literary Apparatus) was the most influential Arabic work in his early literary education; it formed his literary taste and led him to al-Barudi and the "Abbdsid poets, particularly ash-Sharif ar-Radi and Abu Nuwas. The Makdmit 37 of al-Hamadhani were also among his early reading. The two English poets who had a profound influence on him were Byron and Shelley. They counterbalanced the influences of the 'Abbasid poets, their conceits and hyperboles, and enabled him to separate the poetry of art, represented by Muslim Ibn al-Walid, Abu Tammam, al-<Abbäs Ibn al-Ahnaf and Ibn al-Mu"tazz, from the poetry of nature and pas- sion. In Byron, Shukri admired his strong passion and language, his revolt against the "lies" of society, and his cult of freedom. Shelley also attracted him by his aspiration to the world of ideal, his love of freedom and his hatred of hypocrisy 2. While the two English poets inspired him to the pursuit of knowledge, freedom, ideal and perfect- ion, they planted in him a melancholy sense of life. Love as a vital force, beauty (in the romantic sense), and death as the destroyer of all beautiful things became the central themes of his poetry. At the Teachers' Training College Shukri met another student, Ibrahim "Abd al-Kadir al-Mazini, who became the third member of the new movement. At the time al-Mazini's knowledge of Arabic poetry was restricted almost entirely to the works of Ibn al-Farid, lbn Nabatah, and al-Baha' Zuhayr. He found in Shukri, however, a guide who introduced him to the 'Abbdsid and English romantic poets. Ash-Sharif ar-Radi and Shelley became then his two favourite poets. Both Shukri and al-Mazini spent their time reading Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, Burns, Hazlitt, Carlyle, Leigh Hunt, Lamb, Macaulay and other English writers. Palgrave's The Golden Treastl1y was the English work which reshaped their literary taste and poetical tendencies.3 In 1909 Shukri was sent to England on a governmental educational mission to study English literature. Al-Mdzini, who remained in Cairo, continued his studies in Arabic and English literature. In English his reading concentrated on the writers of the 19th century. He also read Shakespeare's works and Johnson's The Lives of the Poets. In Arabic he read al-Jurjani and al-Jahiz and some outstanding 1 Shukri "Fasl Min Nash'at�al-Adabiyyah", al-Muktataf, No. 5 vol. 94, May, 1939, p. 545. See also ar-Ris�lah,No. 302, 17th April, 1939, p. 793. Al-Hil�l, No. 10, August, 1936, p. 1106. 2 Shukri, "Fasl Th�ninMin Nash'at�al-Adabiyyah", al-Muktataf, No. 1, Vol. 95, pp. 33-4. 3 Al-M�zin�Sab, �all Hay�h,Cairo edition, pp. 66-7. See also al-Maz��"Shukrn�, � wa Kitab Ruwwad ash-Shi'r al-Had�th", al-Bal�ghnewspaper, 1st September, 1934, and "Hakadh� Sh�'at al-Akd�r", Akhb�r al- Yawm newspaper, No. 155, 25th October, 1947, p. 6, Al-Hil�l, No. 3, vol. 36, January, 1937, p. 276. Shukri, "Fasl Min Nash'at�al-Adabiyyah," op. cit. p. 546. .