The aim of this study is to examine al-Marzubän i's contribution to Arabic literary theory, as reflected in his so far available complete work on the subject, that is al- Muwashshah. His documentary importance with regards to many reports that would not have otherwise been available, he be°t n9 their exclusive source, compensates for his not being one of the great system builders and places classical literary theory in his debt. The Introduction is a brief survey of the early history of Arabic literary criticism, with particular attention to factors responsible for its evolution, as well as an examination of the early works on the subject. Each of the chapters is divided into two sections. The first section of Chapter One gives a detailed biography of al- Marzubäni. Its second part reviews al-Muwashshah, within the context of material-presentation, source-selection, and source-utilisation. The major subjects of discussion among the theorists, as reflected in the literary corpora of the eras covered by al- Muwashshah, are examined in the other chapters. Prosodical defects are examined in the first section of Chapter Two, showing in a historical progression the development of the relevant concepts culminating in explicit categorisation by al-Marzubäni. The second section of this chapter analyses various poetic licenses, darurät al-shi`r, illustrated in al-Muwashshah. The arrangement followed in the analysis of the various categories contained in the chapters is other than that of the author. The reason being that although some sort of subtle order can be identified with the author's presentation, a more coherent and systematic order is required in order to reduce, or possibly, eliminate duplication and discursiveness not rarely encountered in the original arrangement. In Chapter Three, the concepts of originality and plagiarism are examined, and in particular, the development of the theory on sariqa. This is the theme of the first part of this chapter. That there was a remarkable gap between theory and application, resulting from either the use of non-literary criteria or inadequate perception of the contexts associated with specific illustrations of the concepts, is recognised by al-Marzubäni, and this is discussed in the second section of this chapter. Various propositions by theorists on the concept of lafz and ma `n ä are examined in the first section of Chapter Four, while the other section analyses the relationship between those propositions and their application, as illustrated by al-Marzubäni. Essentially, what we have tried to demonstrate is that the characteristic lack of order for which Arabic poetics was known in its nascent stage was remarkably improved by al-Marzubäni. This he was able to do by systematically reorganising the extant materials as well as by furnishing Arabic literary theory with a logical framework.

The topic of this research is Arabic Literary Criticism until the 5th. Century of Hijra, with special reference to `Abdul Qähir's Theory of Construction. Our study of Arabic Literary Criticism consists of its history in the first four centuries of Hijra in PART ONE, and Abdul Qähir's Theory of Construction in PART TWO. Having chosen the historical method, we have had to start with the primitive stage of Arabic Criticism, without lingering too long in that period. With Tabagät Ibn Salläm, criticism becomes a subject of literary research among the Arab critics: Ibn Salläm, Ibn Qutaiba, Aljähiz, Ibnel Mu`tazz and Qudama. By the fourth century we find literary criticism involved in vehement disputes between the supporters of the ancient and the modern schools of poetry. The controversies around Abn Tammäm and Almutanabbi resulted in the practical criticism of Al'Ämid'i and Aljurjän1. The first part of our thesis ends with Al `Askari in a kind of anticlimax. In the fifth century of Hijra `Abdul Qähir Aljurjani established a new and original theory in Arabic Criticism, This fundamental and general principle in literary criticism, which we called The Context Theorem of Meaning takes up the entire second part of this thesis.

Thin Thesis dose not attempt to give a comprehensive history of Arabic drama, nor does it deal with the work of the producer and actor. It concentrates on the work of five leading playwrights who are representative of movements in the modern Arabic theatre, and discuses this from the literary and dramatic angle.

The present work is a critical edition of Ibn Baba's mal an-nadim, (part 1) 9 with Introduction (2), Summary (3) and Annotations The Ra's mal an-nadim. is a literary compendium composed in 501/ 1108 by Abu l-Abbas Ahmad b. Ali b. Baba of Qashan. The present edition is the first and is based on two manuscripts in Istanbul (Mss. S. and N. ) which are assumed to have been transcribed in the early 11th/16th and 12th/18th centuries respectively. It consists of facts and information about diverse aspects of the Arab-Islamic culture and was compiled to edify the reader and to serve as essential background knowledge for the nadims or "boon-companions". The present writer has classified the contents of his work (originally falling under about 120 headings), in seven major chapters.

This thesis embodies studies on the poetical and alchemical works of Al-Tughra'i. It consists of four chapters and five appendices. The first chapter is a short historical account of the Seljuqid Period (for it is in these times that the whole of Al-Tughrä'i's life lies) with special attention to the literary and scientific character of the period. The second chapter is a biography of A1-Tughräti with special reference to his political life and his execution at the age of sixty-two on a charge of heresy. The third chapter deals with Al-Tughra'i's poetical works. Special care is taken of his poetic masterpiece, the Lämiyya and its associated works. His alchemical poetical works are studied here in respect to their form, and a discussion of his elegant prose (of which there is no extant example) concludes the chapter. The fourth chapter, which is the most important, deals with Al-Tughrä'i's works on alchemy about which no studies have been made. There is an introduction to alchemy in general and Islamic alchemy in particular, followed by detailed studies on nine of the works concerning their authenticity, content as well as other relevant information about their extant manuscripts. Several other works attributed to Al-Tughrä'i are discussed and his authorship of them disputed.

Abü-l-'Ala' Al Ma'arri has been the subject of a great number of scholarly works both in Europe and the East. The history of his life and his times has been dealt with by Professor Margolioth and by Dr. Taha Husayn, to whose works we are much indebted in this thesis. The wealth of thought corntained in his Luzum has carefully been studied by Nicholson, and a number of western and Eastern critics. In 1945, the millenium of Abi-l-'Ala' was held at Damascus end it was attended by many eminent literary figures both from the Arab world and Europe, who contributed valuable lectures, and essays dealing with different aspects of Al Ma'arri's life and works, which were in the same year published in a volume entitled Al Mihrajan al Alfi li Abi-l-Ala.

The literary works of Saudi women have not long been recognised as an individual culture. This study aims to introduce Saudi women's novels to a wider audience. Arab, English and other readers need to examine how much Saudi women have achieved in this genre. Women and their novels have developed with the movement of the wider Saudi society; women have achieved different rates of progress in terms of themes and style. The purpose of this study is to look at Saudi women's novels as the most important literary genre through which women can express their views and desires. Many questions are raised throughout the study, some refer to culture and others to genre. The study aims to examine women's novels, what they have written about and what they have achieved. Culturally, the study covers three aspects: women as gender, the novel as a literary genre and the developing culture of Saudi society. The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter One gives an account of existing works related to the topic, giving a brief historical account of the Saudi women's movement and examining different aspects of Saudi women's literature, in particular the novel and how it has moved forward as women's position in society has developed. From Chapter Two to Chapter Five, the study deals with the women novelists' works chronologically, examining them in terms of the most important cultural and literary phenomena. Thus, Chapter Two sheds light on the beginnings of women's fiction in Saudi literature and covers the period from 1960-1980. It examines the novels of the liberal writers Samira Khdshugji and Hudä al-Rashid. Chapter Three deals with the period from 1980 to the Second Gulf War in 1991, when the novel began its rise in status in Saudi literature, examining some of the technical styles and themes of two of the best Saudi women novelists, Safiyya `Anbar and Amal Shatä. Chapter Four covers the same period and examines how the novels of Bahiyya Bü Subayt and Raja' `Alim deal with the common cultural phenomena of the period, in particular so-called Islamic literature and modernism. Chapter Five deals with women novelists since 1991. It outlines the changes in Saudi society since the Second Gulf War and September 11th (9/11), and the parallel developments in Saudi literature up to the year 2002, as young novelists from a new generation came up with new ideas. Chapter Six gives a general conclusion to this thesis.

This is a study about the early history of usal al-fiqh as a literary genre. An attempt is made to make a comparative analysis of five texts of uscil al-fiqh, all belonging to the Hanafi school. These five texts are: al-Fusfil fi- al-Usul by Jassas (d. 370/98 1), Taqwim al-adilla by Ab-a Zayd al-Dabusi (430/1039), Kitab al-Usul by Shams al-a'imma al-Sarakhsi (483/1090). Kanz al-wusul ila ma'rifat al-usul by Fakhr al-Islam al-Pazdawl (482/1089) and Usfil al-Shdshi, whose author is unknown. In this study, I endeavoured to show that the first four texts of usul display a methodological continuity which is characterised by a juristic outlook. This continuity is bolstered by the fact that one can also trace a terminological and structural development of these texts in conjunction with their chronology. In addition, I argued that the so-called Usull al-Shashi cannot be dated prior to the final text above, i.e. Pazdawi's Kanz, as some have believed, on the basis of my analysis of the language and structure of this text in comparison with the former four.

This thesis is a detailed literary analysis of the innovative elements in the novels of four of the most significant contemporary Arab authors: the Moroccan Muhammad Barrāda, the Egyptian Idwār al-Kharrāṭ, the Lebanese Ilyās Khūrī and the Iraqi Fu'ād al-Takarlī. These novels were published between 1979 and 1999, a period during which the work of these authors reached literary maturity. While this thesis (unlike many critical studies of Arabic fiction written in English) is based on close textual analysis of the texts in question, it places its findings within a wider framework: its introduction (the first part of an essay on literary innovation) defines what is meant by innovation in the Arabic novel; its conclusion (the second part of that essay), is an attempt to connect the innovative methods adopted by the above mentioned writers with the wider literary scene: it shows how these writers have contributed to promoting some of the main innovative trends of the Arabic novel in the last few decades. In adopting a literary approach to these novels, we have considered how the writers' formal choices and techniques have shaped the content of their texts. In this way, we have not only highlighted the importance which the novelists' socio-political discourse assumes in Arab societies, but have also underlined how this discourse is more or less successful because of its artistic merits. The first chapter of this thesis deals with the highly fragmented nature of these texts (lack of ordered development or plot); the second chapter tackles the problems inherent in narrative voice and the position of the authors within their texts; the third chapter explores the intertextual connections these writers use to shape a certain discourse; the fourth chapter deals with the way these novelists promote a self-referential kind of fiction.

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