The art of entertainment and sociability in Abbâsîd literature

Undoubtedly, literature is one of the closest arts to human life, as it entirely relies on human emotions, feelings, and sensations and provides a depiction of them. The Abbâsîd civilization was distinguished by its cultural richness in various fields of knowledge. However, it had a particular interest in literature, both poetry and prose, leaving behind a vast and rich literary heritage through which Abbâsîd writers and poets portrayed the cultural reality in Abbâsîd society. In this thesis, the researcher attempts to focus on an aspect of literary life in the Abbâsîd era, by researching how an integrated literary art was formed that can be termed "the art of entertainment and sociability." It is an art whose literary styles are varied and expressed in poetry and one that found fertile ground in prose through stories, proverbs, news, dialogues, and Maqamat (assemblies). The research does not only delve into aspects of leisure and entertainment, but it also addresses the concept of entertainment in its broad sense, encompassing entertainment, criticism, education, preaching, and incitement. It primarily focuses on the critical message of entertainment literature in the Abbâsîd era. The significance of this research lies in the fact that it studies this literary phenomenon, "the art of entertainment and sociability," in the Abbâsîd era regarding its origins, development, objectives. It also investigates its major literary and linguistic characteristics, expressive methods, and its relationships with the poetic and prose purposes prevalent in the Abbâsîd era. Furthermore, the research attempts to explore the common ground between purposes such as praise, satire, asceticism, and how these purposes converged to form a literary phenomenon with its independent pillars and qualities. The research emphasizes the role of the writer in that era, their influence, how they expressed their emotional state, and the prevailing intellectual, political, social, and economic conditions of their time, and their interaction with them, both negatively and positively. It seeks to provide answers to questions related to the emergence of courtly literature, intrusive literature, foolishness, neglect, and other literary genres related to the art of entertainment and sociability, which portrayed an accurate picture of Abbâsîd society in both its public and private classes.