Fiction Among the best known works of
fiction from the Islamic world is
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (
Arabian Nights), a compilation of many earlier folk tales set in a
frame story of being told serially by the
Persian Queen
Scheherazade. The compilation took form in the 10th century and reached its final form by the 14th century; the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. Many other Arabian
fantasy tales were often called "Arabian Nights" when translated into
English, regardless of whether they appeared in any version of
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights or not, and a number of tales are known in Europe as "Arabian Nights", despite existing in no Arabic manuscript. Many imitations were written, especially in France. , which can be used to transport its passengers quickly or instantaneously to their destination. In the 12th century, Ibn Tufail wrote the
novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, or
Philosophus Autodidactus (
The Self-Taught Philosopher), as a response to
al-Ghazali's
The Incoherence of the Philosophers. The novel, which features a protagonist who has been
spontaneously generated on an island, demonstrates the harmony of religion and philosophy and the virtues of an inquiring soul. In the same century, Ibn al-Nafis wrote the novel
Theologus Autodidactus (
The Self-Taught Theologian) in response to Ibn Tufail’s work; the novel is a defense of the rationality of prophetic revelation. The
protagonists of both these narratives were
feral children (Hayy in
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan and Kamil in
Theologus Autodidactus) who were
autodidactic (self-taught) and living in seclusion on a
desert island. A
Latin translation of
Philosophus Autodidactus first appeared in 1671, prepared by
Edward Pococke the Younger, followed by an English translation by
Simon Ockley in 1708, as well as
German and
Dutch translations.
Robert Boyle's own philosophical novel set on an island,
The Aspiring Naturalist, may have been inspired by the work. Beginning in the 19th century, fictional novels and short stories became popular within the literary circles of the
Ottoman Empire. An early example, the romance novel ''Taaşuk-u Tal'at ve Fitnat'' (تعشق طلعت و فطنت; "Tal'at and Fitnat in Love"), was published in 1872 by
Şemsettin Sami. Other important novels of the period included
Muhayyelât by
Ali Aziz Efendi, which consists of three parts and was written in a laconical style contrasting with its content, where
djinns and
fairies surge from within contexts drawn from ordinary real life situations. Inspired by a much older story written both in
Arabic and
Assyrian, the author also displays in his work his deep knowledge of
sufism,
hurufism and
Bektashi traditions.
Muhayyelât is considered to be an early precursor of the new
Turkish literature to emerge in the
Tanzimat period of the 19th century.
Poetry Cultural Muslim poetry is influenced by both Islamic metaphors and local poetic forms of various regions including the Arabic tradition of Qasida actually beginning since ancient pre-Islamic times. Some Sufi traditions are known for their
devotional poetry. Arab poetry influenced the rest of Muslim poetry world over. Likewise Persian poetry too shared its influences beyond borders of modern-day Iran particularly in south Asian languages like Urdu Bengali etc.. Genres present in classical Persian poetry vary and are determined by rhyme, which consists of a vowel followed by a single-rhyming letter. The most common form of Persian poetry comes in the ghazal, a love-themed short poem made of seven to twelve verses and composed in the monorhyme scheme. Urdu poetry is known for its richness, multiple genres, traditions of live public performances through
Mushairas,
Qawwali and
Ghazal singing in modern times.
Ferdowsi's
Shahnameh, the national epic poem of
Iran, is a mythical and heroic retelling of
Persian history.
Amir Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian story. Beginning in the 15th century
Bengali poetry, originating depicts the themes of internal conflict with the
nafs,
Islamic cosmology, historical battles, love and
existential ideas concerning one’s relationship with society. The historical works of
Shah Muhammad Sagir,
Alaol,
Abdul Hakim,
Syed Sultan and
Daulat Qazi mixed Bengali folk poetry with Perso-Arabian stories and themes, and are considered an important part of the
Muslim culture of Bengal.
Ginans are devotional hymns or poems recited by
Shia Ismaili Muslims.
Dante Alighieri's
Divine Comedy, considered the greatest epic of
Italian literature, derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter directly or indirectly from Arabic works on
Islamic eschatology: the
Hadith and the
Kitab al-Miraj (translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before as
Liber scalae Machometi, "The Book of Muhammad's Ladder") concerning
Muhammad's ascension to Heaven, and the spiritual writings of
Ibn Arabi.
Medieval adab works One term for Islamic literature is
al-adab al-islami, or
adab. Although today
adab denotes literature generally, in earlier times its meaning included all that a well-informed person had to know in order to pass in society as a cultured and refined individual. This meaning started with the basic idea that
adab was the socially accepted ethical and moral quality of an urbane and courteous person'; thus
adab can also denote the
category of Islamic law dealing with etiquette, or a
gesture of greeting. According to Issa J. Boullata, {{Cquote Key early
adab anthologies were the
al-Mufaḍḍaliyyāt of
Al-Mufaḍḍal al-Ḍabbī (d. c. 780 CE);
Abū Tammām's
Dīwān al-Ḥamāsa (d. 846 CE);
ʿUyūn al-Akhbār, compiled by
Ibn Qutayba (d. 889 CE); and
Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih's
al-ʿIqd al-Farīd (d. 940 CE). == Role in Islamisation ==