Dr. Mahmoud al-Ashiri, Georgetown Professor, publishes a book on Arabic Poetry Criticism

Dr. Mahmoud al-Ashiri, an Associate Professor of Arabic at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), has recently published a new Arabic language book titled Poetry as Narrative: A Study in the Text of AL-Mufadaliyyat. His book presents an essential critical study of Arabic poetry, with a focus on the pre-Islamic, or Jahili, genre of poetry, and is based on one of the oldest collections of Arabic poetry called “Al-Mufadaliyyat”, collated by famed 8^th century scholar, al-Mufaddal al-Dabbi.

“This book is an important critical contribution to the catalog of Arabic literature, as well as to the historical study of the Arab world through the important record of ancient verse. Not only does the work of one of our faculty here at GU-Q present important new insights into classical poetry, it also revives an interest in studying these works, which in turn will inspire further scholarly research and analysis,” commented GU-Q dean Dr. Gerd Nonneman.                                            

The author chose to focus on ancient Arabic poetry for a specific reason. “Poetry was the creative art that dominated all of the arts in historical Arabic culture, to the extent that it was within poetry that Arabs’ cultural and social values were compiled, recorded and preserved,” said Dr. al-Ashiri.  Delving deep into the narrative structure of this poetry, the author identifies specific literary characteristics shared across the collection of al-Mufaddal al-Dabbi’s volume, including the use of lyrical verse and first-person narration.  “My research and analysis of this ancient text indicates that beyond the artistic appeal and impact, these poems serve the important role of ‘narrative text’, as well,” added the professor.

The book discusses the relationship between poetry, as a narrative, with life, concluding that the Jahili peom is an independent artistic work that also functions as a communication tool. The book also studies the relationship between poetry and historical record, focusing on the letter-like form that is used by some poems. In addition to studying the narrative of reality, the book also studies the narrative of myth; drawing connections between the concepts of both the real and imagined world of myth.

Beyond teaching courses in Arabic language at GU-Q, Dr. Mahmoud al-Ashiri also works on the development of Arabic Language skills on an official governmental project, in addition to organizing workshops for Arabic teachers and contributing to the development of educational contents for language instruction.