arabic epic literature encompasses epic poetry and epic fantasy in arabic literature. virtually all societies have developed folk tales encompassing tales of heroes. although many of these are legends, many are based on real events and historical figures. ==epic poetry== taghribat bani hilal is an arabic epic recounting the banu hilal's journey from egypt to tunisia and conquest of the latter in the 11th century. it was declared one of mankind's masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity by the unesco in 2003. in the 13th century, an arabic epic poem entitled antar was created based on antarah ibn shaddad, a pre-islamic arabian-abyssinian warrior-poet. in 1898 the french painter Ãtienne dinet published his translation of antar, which brought antar bin shaddad to european notice.pouillon, francois (1997) les deux vies d'Ãtienne dinet, peintre en islam: l'algerie et l'heritage colonial editions balland, paris; it has been followed by a number of derivative works such as diana richmond's antar and abla,richmond, diana (1978) antar and abla: a bedouin romance quartet books, london, isbn 0-7043-2162-9 which furthered western exposure to the antar bin shaddad legends. ==fantasy epic literature==   the one thousand and one nights (arabian nights) is easily the best known of all arabic literature and which still shapes many of the ideas non-arabs have about arabic culture. a second book with a persistent global impact beyond arabic culture is kalila and dimna written by ibn al-muqaffa' in 750ce. its journey into europe began over 500 years earlier through spain (al-andalus). a good example of the lack of popular arabic prose fiction is that the stories of aladdin and ali baba, usually regarded as part of the tales from one thousand and one nights, were not actually part of the tales. they were first included in french translation of the tales by antoine galland who heard them being told by a traditional storyteller and only existed in incomplete arabic manuscripts before that. the other great character from arabic literature, sinbad, is from the tales. the thousand and one nights is usually placed in the genre of arabic epic literature along with several other works. they are usually, like the tales, collections of short stories or episodes strung together into a long tale. the extant versions were mostly written down relatively late on, after the 14th century, although many were undoubtedly collected earlier and many of the original stories are probably pre-islamic. types of stories in these collections include animal fables, proverbs, stories of jihad or propagation of the faith
Arabic_literature