Baghdad, The Shining City in Islamic Civilization - V

Baghdad, The Shining City in Islamic Civilization - V

Hasan A. Yahya, a writer from Palestine

As is well known from monuments and manuscripts, calligraphy was an important art in Muslem countries. The most famous of the calligraphers of the time was Ibn Muqla, who was unfortunate enough to have been the vizier of three caliphs, an honor that earned him the cruel punishment of having his right hand amputated. It is said that he attached a reed pen to his arm and wrote so well that there was no difference between the way he wrote before and after he lost his hand.

Baghdad had become an intellectual metropolis, an achievement which was to overshadow the elorts made by its two rival cities, Kufa and Basra. The work of the en- thusiastic translators was only the beginning; there was a very intimate rapport between the Arab writers and Greek thought, and the attempted assimilation was often quite successful.

A little later, there also developed in Baghdad the famous quarrel between the partisans of culture stemming from the text of the Koran and the pre-Islam poets and their adversaries, the writers of Persian origin who controlled the administration of the caliphate. The writers' leader, Sahl ibn Harun, was director of the Academy of Wisdom, which played a considerable role in literature. The discussions, which were very violent at times, were favorable to the development of Arab literature. The "Arab" party, if it can be called that, defended itself stubbornly and glorified as well as it could its religious position which made of the Koran a revelation in the Arabic language. It also exalted its ancient poems, which were not really under attack. Both sides carried on the entire campaign in Arabic. Thus adversaries and partisans of Arab intellectual life agreed in honoring Arabic.

In two of his letters, Ibn Muqaffa' freely used the Arabic word adab, a term which needs some explanation since it covers a wide variety of ideas, such as to conform to the dictates of a strict religious spirit, to adhere to the customs of polite society. The term is somewhat similar to the ancient arete, with the omission of military courage. There are the same elements of practical morals, the feeling for justice, strength of soul, and piety. Good manners and courtesy became almost a technique and were, together with pure morality, the basis of Moslem education. But under the influence of the desire for cultural attainment, the term acquired a figurative sense which necessarily included the knowledge of Arab philosophy, of poetry and ancient stories, and of stylistic elegance. (437 words) www.askdryahya.com

Source:

- http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/wiet.html and Islamic History,

- Yahya, Hasan A. Brief Islamic History, 2010, Createspace

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