Maulidis are at once enjoyable musical performances and Islamic venerations during social and religious celebrations, such as weddings and commemorations of the Prophet's birthday. Throughout the maulidi performance qasidas 'hymns' are recited alongside chapters of the 'Mawlid Barzanji', a prose hagiographic account of Muhammad's life written by Imām Ja'far al-Barzanji (1690-1766 AD). Another less frequently performed type is Maulidi ya Homu, which arranges a mosaic of several qasidas in a dahala. The compositions praise the Prophet, recount his life or relate to their respective context of performance, combining moral appeals and celebration in their poetry. The qasidas can be 'a cappella', or accompanied by frame drums, or even synthesizers. Music, dancing, and audience participation are integral parts of the event. There is a gradual increase of speed, volume and flexibility across a maulidi. This climaxing is balanced by the codified structure of the events, which is defined by an alteration of readings from the Barzanji and the chanting of qasidas. The transitions are marked by formulae in a framing and nesting technique. Within, and possibly because of, this rigid framework there is a heterogeneity of styles. Music and text vary enormously between traditional and innovative forming a matrix of styles. Intertextual relations with past and contemporary texts from local and translocal genres are palpable in qasida. In the East African archipelago of Zanzibar, qasidas are a centuries-old tradition every more ubiquitous in the urban landscape. Social transformations and technological innovations (recordings and mobile phones) have contributed to its recent rise. Qasida is a vital genre because it integrates new features and (media) contexts while at the same time keeping some core properties. It simultaneously creates and preserves tradition and there is no doubt its ultimate principles: to praise the Prophet and to party (have fun).

This thesis explores the nature of literary reception in Classical Arabic rhetoric, in particular the concept of horizon of expectations, by undertaking a detailed analysis of a key critical work from the fourth century AH, al-Āmedī’s Al-Muwāzanah. It begins by tracing those ideas that contributed to the development of reception theory and then examines in depth two concepts which are of central importance in this research, namely, the horizon of expectations (Hans Robert Jauss) and the role of the reader (Wolfgang Iser). In addition to outlining the Western understanding of the elements of this theory, consideration is given to its counterpart in Arabic rhetoric and the obstacles which prevented it from developing along similar lines. The main sociocultural influences that contributed to the formation of the Arab worldview during the Abbasid era are discussed together with the main philosophical debates which served to shape the reading strategies and horizon of expectations of Classical literary scholars. Close textual reading of al-Āmedī’s Al-Muwāzanah is used to analyse the methodological principles which underpin his explicit critical framework and to reveal the implicit criteria, including ʿamūd al-shiʿr, which he uses to evaluate the poetry of Abū Tammām and al-Buḥturī. It is argued that identification of these aspects of the text can be used to provide an insight into al-Āmedī’s horizon of expectations and, more broadly, to reflect the strategies which were used to read, interpret and evaluate literary texts during the Classical period.

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Entitled ‘Dams, Displacement and Development in Narratives of the Nubian Awakening’, this thesis is explicitly interdisciplinary and straddles the fields of literary, postcolonial, and critical development studies. It demonstrates how a literary approach to the study of Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement (DIDR) can enhance our understanding of the long-term impact of forced displacement and resettlement on communities like the Nubian people of Egypt, whose historical homeland was flooded to make way for the Aswan High Dam in 1964. It examines how contemporary Egyptian Nubian fiction written between 1968 and the present day, particularly that associated with the revivalist movement known as the ‘Nubian Awakening’, has responded to, and represented, the legacy of dam-building on the Nile over the course of the twentieth century on Nubian culture and society. Speaking through the silences within hegemonic development discourses that celebrate large dams as symbols of economic, scientific and social progress while glossing over their local costs, I argue that the fiction of Muhammad Khalil Qasim, Yahya Mukhtar, Haggag Hassan Oddoul and Idris ‘Ali rewrites the postcolonial history of the Aswan High Dam from a subaltern perspective and constitutes a form of transnational cultural advocacy for Nubian rights. Moreover, by highlighting Egypt’s African identity, Nubian literature challenges hegemonic understandings of Egyptian national culture as Arab, thereby creating a more democratic space in which marginalised minority groups can claim a place for their subjectivities, political aspirations and cultural practices within the national imaginary.

This study examines the crisis of the Arab critic at the present time; it focuses on the works of the Saudi critic ʽAbdullah al-Ghadhāmī as a case study. The function of criticism has always been affected by political and cultural developments; critics have constantly adapted their role in order to maintain their credibility as intellectual leaders of society. However, this role has been recently called into question by global changes. This research examines the critic’s anxiety about these transformations; cultural criticism provides a lifeline that helps critics to address daily-life issues and engage with reality. However, the situation in the Arab world is complicated; the cultural dilemmas of the Arabs have long affected their development. In this context, Arab intellectuals have lost their role, being no longer able to influence and lead change; political reaction and social rejection have made them exiles in their own homeland. This study investigates the mechanism that rendered the discourse of modern Arabic criticism socially ineffective. Al-Ghadhāmī’s intellectual career, the study argues, illustrates the crisis of the Arab critic; his critique, in line with changes in social and political circumstances, can be divided into three distinct periods: the early works of the 1980s show his great enthusiasm for modernising the critical discourse by embracing modern structuralist and post-structuralist theories. Nevertheless, the efforts made by al-Ghadhāmī and his fellow modernists were crushed by the Islamic movement al-Ṣaḥwa al-Islāmiyya, which was given a virtually free hand to dominate Saudi society. The effect of this defeat is evident in al-Ghadhāmī’s works of the second period; he adopts a moderate position, from which he tries to revive the heritage and question it at the same time. However, this attempt does not last long; the third period begins with al-Ghadhāmī’s dramatic announcement of the death of literary criticism, urging his fellow critics to replace it with cultural criticism. This radical proposal is the most extreme of al-Ghadhāmī’s reactions to the crisis of the Arab critic.

This thesis consists of five chapters and a critical edition of a previously unpublished collection of poems by the celebrated Muslim scholar al-Zamakhsharī’s, entitled "Dīwān al-Zamakhsharī"; thus adding yet another of his many works to the comparatively short list of those already published. In this way it is hoped to reveal not only tithe student of al-Zamakhsharī but also Arabic Literature in general, another facet of his skill which had hitherto escaped attention. In editing the text all known manuscript copies of the Dīwān together with the biographies in which some portions of al-Zamakhsharī’s poetry were quoted, have been completely collated. Variant readings are given in the apparatus. A table of metres and rhymes together with an index of proper names, place-names and tribes have been provided. Chapter One studies the life of al-Zamakhsharī in detail. Because of the scarcity of concrete facts given in biographical works, most of the information has been derived from his own works, namely his Dīwān and Atwāq al-dhahab. Chapter Two deals with his personality and thoughts, paying particular attention to his Mu‘tazilism and anti Shu‘ūbism, his attitude towards some of the scholars and Şūfīs and his madhhab. Chapter Three attempts to give a complete enumeration of his works, grouping them under three headings; works published, works still in manuscript form and works attributed to him but have not come down to us.

The present project investigates two problematic issues in Qur’ān translation: polysemy (see Chapters One, Three, and Four) and culture-specific expressions (see Chapter Five). In the treatment of the former, the current research adopts theories of context and culture in translation and related fields, such as anthropology and linguistics (see 2.5). In treating the latter, approaches to ‘culture’ and ‘function’ in translation studies are adopted (see 5.2). The central argument postulated is that the cultural dimension involved in the use of polysemy and culture-specific expressions in the Qur’ān requires expanding the scope of analysis to include not only the linguistic but the cultural aspects as well (see 1.4.2.2; see also 1.2.3). The current research has four main original contributions. First, it is original to examine polysemy and culture-specific expressions in the Qur’ān from a translation perspective. To carry out this task, a contextual view of meaning, which embraces both the language and culture of the Qur’ān, has been adopted. Central to this type of analysis are: (i) theories of context in anthropology, linguistics and translation (cf. Malinowski 1923/1949; Firth 1964; Halliday 1978; Halliday and Hasan 1989, Gee 1999/2011; Baker 2006, House 2006, Paltridge 2006/2011, Keating and Duranti 2011), (ii) the ‘cultural turn’ in translation studies (cf. Katan 1998/2009; Sturge 1998/2009; Katan 1999/2004; Appiah 2000; Hermans 2003; Faiq 2004; Abdul-Raof 2005; Snell-Hornby 2006; Katan 2009; House 2009; Hatim 2009; Bassnett 2011(a) and (iii) approaches to culture and function in translation (cf. Holz-Mänttäri 1984; Reiss and Vermeer 1984/2013; Vermeer 1989/2000) (see Chapter Two; see also 5.2). Second, the linguistic and cultural layers of meaning involved in the translation into English of polysemy in the Qur’ān have been analyzed in the light of Nida and Taber’s ‘contextual consistency’ (Nida and Taber 1969/1982: 15; see 2.6). These aspects of meaning are intended to be a guide for the future translators of the Qur’ān in their never-ending attempts to resolve the linguistic as well as cultural ambiguity involved in the translation into English of polysemy in the Qur’ān. Third, seven linguistic as well as cultural tools of textual analysis involved in the translation into English of polysemy in the Qur’ān have been suggested. These tools are: (i) the collocational relations and oppositeness, (ii) general meaning and anaphoric signals, (iii) cataphoric signals, (iv) grammatical aspects, (v) metaphoric interpretation, (vi) 'context of situation' and (v) ‘context of culture’ (see 4.5; see also 4.7). The ultimate goal is to raise the future Qur’ān translators' awareness of the correlation between language and culture in Qur’ān translation (see 4.4; see also 4.6). Fourth, the cultural implications involved in the translation into English of culture-specific expressions in the Qur’ān have been investigated in the light of Hall and Trager’s ‘technical’ level of culture (Hall 1959) (see 5.4). The point at which polysemy and culture-specific expressions in the Qur’ān intersect is the correlation between translation and culture (see 1.4.4). The research data on polysemy was collected both from the Qur’ān itself and from six Qur’ān dictionaries, where polysemy is a central issue: Ibn al-cImād (1977), Ibn al-Jawzī (1979), Al-Dāmaghānī (1983), Al-Zarkashī (1988), Al-Sayūṭī (1999) and Ibn Sulaymān (2001). The research data on culture-specific expressions in the Qur’ān was collected from the Qur’ān itself, with particular emphasis on the categories of culture proposed by Newmark (1988) and Katan (1999/2004) (see 5.5). The research has shown that polysemy in the Qur’ān expands to communicate five layers of meaning: (i) the metaphoric meaning, (ii) the collocated and situational meaning, (iii) the emotive meaning, (iv) the general meaning, and (v) the cultural meaning (see 4.3). It has also been found that ‘technical’ culture-specific expressions in the Qur’ān cover ten semantic fields: (i) theological expressions, (ii) social customs, (iii) family expressions, (iv) behaviour expressions, (v) Qur’ān legal terms, (vi) material culture, (vii) nature expressions, (viii) culture-specific times, (ix) culture-specific figures, and (x) culture-specific emotions (see 5.6). These categories have closely been analyzed with one central argument in mind: appreciating the language and culture of the Qur’ān is the key to decode the cultural implications involved in the treatment of culture-specific expressions in the Qur’ān.

This study presents an attempt to understand how social transformations in modern Saudi society are represented in the fiction of Saudi novelist Ibrahim al-Nassir. Chapter one highlights the aims of the study and its importance, outlines the research questions, the data used and the methodology applied. Chapter Two explores the meaning of the term ‘social novel’, discussing some related theoretical and methodical themes and issues. Chapter Three provides a detailed account of the social transformations in Saudi society, focusing on two major factors that have contributed to the speed of the transformation there: the discovery of oil and globalisation. Chapter Four describes the literary career of al-Nassir, identifying some of his key thematic and stylistic concerns. Chapter Five investigates the manifestations of identity in al-Nassir’s novels by discussing the relationship between self and the other in three contexts: Islamic identity, Arab identity, and Saudi identity. Chapter Six aims to show how space is represented in the works of al-Nassir by studying the complex relationship between village and city. Chapter Seven considers the representation of relationships in the Saudi family through al-Nassir’s novels in the context of social transformations. Chapter Eight discusses al-Nassir’s representation of women in his work, focusing on the role played by female characters in these narrative texts. The research questions are revisited in the concluding chapter which presents the major findings of the study and discusses opportunities for future research on Saudi social novel. This thesis concludes that the Saudi novel has paid close attention to social transformation from its earliest appearance, whilst some studies claim that this theme is only clear in the novels written during and after the Second Gulf War in 1990.

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Since 2000, Jordanian literature has witnessed a rise in the number of novels that address women’s daily struggles with gender discrimination, marking a shift away from literary texts that overtly focus on Palestine. Yet, despite the rise in Jordanian feminist novels, there has been little cross-fertilisation between literary criticism and the perspectives of Arab women’s movements. This thesis attempts to bring these fields together. My main aim is to use the lens of Arab feminism to investigate how perceptions of womanhood and manhood are negotiated in Jordanian novels (2000–2012) written by both women and men. I argue that the political debate about how tradition and modernity can advance women’s status in the Arab world influences the ways in which these novelists shape and re/frame notions of womanhood and manhood. I identify three categories of novels, based on the authors’ strategies for conceptualising and overcoming gender inequality. The first advocates a rebellious stance against patriarchal structures, deploying notions of sexuality, escape or suicide as available solutions. The second calls for a return to tradition, and in particular to Islamic Holy Scriptures as texts that endow women with great value and status, viewing this as an alternative to imitating or adopting forms of western feminism. The final group emphasises the need to dissociate from perceiving tradition as the antithesis of modernity. They attempt to bring together useful aspects of both paradigms in ways that help women combat gender inequality. Thus, through their various techniques, these novels offer insightful depictions of women’s and men’s everyday struggles and promote ideas about gender and feminism in ways that are beneficial for women. I conclude by calling for a stance in line with the third category, a middle way based on acknowledging women’s everyday experiences rather than either advocating an Islamic or pro-West ideology.