Editorial in English
Authors: Mabrook Murad 
Published: September 2023

Modern and contemporary Qatari literature constitutes an essential axis in Arabic literature, especially Gulf literature, since the first half of the twentieth century until now (2023) in many areas, including; Poetry, short stories, novels, theater and public literature. Eloquent poetry was the first of the most common literary genres in Qatari literature, followed by p public poetry, short stories, novels and theater. No one doubts that Qatari literature has developed on the quantitative and qualitative levels in the last three decades. Therefore, the editorial board of the magazine decided to allocate an issue of Ansaq magazine to Qatari literature. Despite the fact that the announcement of this issue coincided with the major international preparations and events for the World Cup in Qatar (November 18 - December 18, 2022), the editorial board was keen on doing that out of its belief on the importance of Qatari literature and its role in the Arabic literature. This is mainly because the renaissance witnessed by the State of Qatar in the recent decades did not stop at sports activities only, but extended to include all types of literary, critical, cultural, intellectual, political, economic, social, scientific and other varieties of life. Therefore, this issue expresses some literary genres in Qatari literature, through critical studies in which some researchers and critics participated. This included studies on novels, folk tales and poetry. In addition, this issue included the literary achievement of the Qatari Nation Magazine. The issue did not include the theater and literary criticism, in which researchers did not submit studies - in the period specified for sending research - that are compatible with the goals and mission of the journal, and we hope to achieve this in the upcoming issues. The studies included in this issue are as follows:  In the Field of Novel Criticism: Dr. Abdelhak Belabed, and Dr. Emtenan Al-Smadi, participated in research on the Qatari novel as follows: • Dr. Abdelhak Belabed's research “The environmental novel in Qatari narration (An ecocritical approach to the novel Our World...The Feast of Days and Nights by Dalal Khalifa)”. The researcher tried to apply the environmental criticism to Dalal Khalifa's novel (Duniana... Festival of Days and Nights) in order to reach the writer's ability to experiment in novels her understanding of new issues within her narrative work, especially since the writing in the environmental novel is still new in the Arabic narrative. At the end of his research, Dr. Abdelhak presents the results he reached at, namely: The ability of the Qatari narrative to be analyzed from the perspective of environmental criticism and inter-studies. Moreover, the Qatari novelist’s awareness of the environmental problems and his attempt to address them narratively. The early narrative maturity of the Qatari novel and its presentation of local and global environmental problems. In addition, the Qatari novel, while trying to monitor the social transformation that the State of Qatar has gone through, was able to practice fictional experimentation to understand it. • Next is Dr. Emtenan Al-Smadi’s research entitled: “The fantasy of history in the novel "Water of Roses" by Qatari writer Noura Farag”. The researcher studied different aspects of it; Narrative discourse, the use of fantasy and historical reference, the nature of imaginary vision, and the approach to historical and imaginary figures. The research was built on an attempt to reveal the narrative perspective in the ways it calls historical references, which were associated with the fourth century AH. This is in the light of the interpretive approach. She showed that the novel is problematic in its relationship to historical references and fantasy. It was characterized by its condemnation of some historical events, the overturning of the truth, and the illusion of others. It was also managed to generate a sense of the historical event beyond telling to fictional imagination. The researcher also believes that the novel revealed the importance of employing fantasy in reshaping the audience's view of the world. Moreover, it showed that the author's vision is to raise the level of presence of the fictional character in comparison with the historical personality, and the victory of the imaginary over the historical.  In the Field of Popular Literature Criticism: the issue dealt with two critical studies: The first is about the poetry of the popular Mawwal, entitled “Inspiration of traditional values and symbols in the poetry of the popular Mawwal in Qatar,” by Dr. Mahmoud Kaheel. The second is about Qatari folk tales, entitled “The Stereotypical Patterns of the Man in the Qatari Folk Tale Popular Stories in Qatar by Muhammad Al-Dweik as a Model," by the researcher Aisha AL-Muftah. • Dr. Mahmoud Kaheel’s research tried to clarify the most prominent elements of the value system and its traditional symbols that were inspired by the popular poets in Qatar, and they were able to employ them artistically in one of the most important types of popular poetry, which is the art of the Mawwal (Al-Zuhairi). Therefore, Dr. Kaheel raised his questions and visions on this topic, stating that "Since the art of the mawwal has a historical dimension dating back to the middle of the Abbasid era, and the depth of its heritage, which includes a group of inherited Arab and Islamic values, and it is one of the seven arts that occupied a clear part of the Arab poetic heritage”; it is supposed to ask the question: To what extent does the art of the Mawwal reflect what it has stored of those values and their religious, historical and popular symbols, in its own artistic methods of expression in a way that shows its general popular features, and its heritage values that it was known for, especially in Qatar.” He believes that “the aim of the research is to monitor the representations of these values and their symbols in Al-Mawwal's poetry, and their impact on its enrichment and its continuity to this day by studying it, and showing its features, according to a descriptive and analytical approach.” Through this study, he concluded that the art of Al-Mawwal Al-Zuhairi, with its artistic richness and cognitive richness, is commensurate with and collective popular culture, and its renewable components; through three axes: Drawing inspiration from different values and their symbols, represented by the religious heritage, the value heritage, and the popular narrative heritage. However, the Islamic religious heritage with its concepts, values, and symbols constituted the largest resource for popular culture, most of whose elements were manifested in the texts of the art of Mawal in particular; as many of the Mawal poets in Qatar were keen to enjoy the springs of heritage, and linked the experiences of contemporary man with the experiences of traditional personalities. The art of al-Mawwal’s poetry still needs vigorous efforts to collect what was not collected from it, which paves the way for the preparation of rigorous studies (stylistic, aesthetic, cultural, etc.) that adopt modern critical approaches. • As for the research on "The Stereotypical Patterns of the Man in the Qatari Folk Tale Popular Stories in Qatar by Muhammad Al-Dweik as a Model," by the researcher Aisha AL-Muftah. This is also drawn from her master's thesis entitled "Cultural Patterns in Qatari Folktales, Popular Stories in Qatar by Muhammad Al-Dweik as a Model". The researcher studied Qatari folk tales, taking cultural criticism as its method, in an attempt to contemplate and characterize the cultural patterns contained in these ancient tales, and based on the assumption that Qatari folk tales include these cultural patterns within them. The researcher limited the Qatari folk tales to reach the stereotypical patterns of the man in the folk tales and divided them into two parts: the stereotypical patterns of the evil man, and the stereotypical patterns of the good man. She concluded a set of results related to the images of men in the Qatari popular imagination. The dominance of popular belief at the expense of established facts, because of the strength of the heritage that led to deep-rooted convictions reflected in those folk tales, and represented by multiple systemic patterns. Furthermore, she found the manifestation of male narcissism and self-centeredness in the images of authoritarian men, where virility and power are sufficient to justify action. Folk tales also highlighted civilized dimensions, such as the image of the ego with the other, and the stereotypical patterns of charitable men expressed the moral charter of society and what they aspire to, such as courage, intelligence, good management, loyalty, family love, sacrifice, patience, good faith in Allah, and sincerity of trust in Him. The systematic patterns expressing charitable men crystallized some of the Arab customs such as Arab generosity, protection of the neighbor, magnanimity, relief for the needy, and others that present the ideal Arab man from the perspective of Arab culture, as well as the reflection of religious belief on the popular storytelling imagination.  In the Field of Poetry Criticism: The researcher Dr. Rodan. A. Murai's research “Self- Semiotics in the Poetry of Souad Al-kuwari” in which she dealt with the approach of the self in her poetry from the semiotic perspective. The researcher relied on the semiotic approach and concluded that , "the perceiving self is the one that is in contact with its subject, present in its details through the phenomena of suffering and pain experienced by the perceptive body of Suad al-Kuwari, while the uttering self is separate from it and is able to control his themes, arrange and synthesize them in a poetic language or in dramatic glossaries that speed up the movement of the narration, or scenes that dramatize the relationship with existence by slowing down the narrative in the prose poem.  In the Field of Bibliographic Descriptive Reading: the work prepared by Dr. Issa Odeh Barhouma entitled “The Qatari Nation Magazine: A Descriptive Reading in the Literary Achievement. It is tantamount to descriptive and bibliographic literary reading in the literary production derived from the Qatari Nation Magazine throughout its issuance period. Dr. Barhouma dealt with this reading: the starting points and foundations on which the magazine relied, beginning with its first issue in Muharram in the year one thousand four hundred and one of the Hijra, The starting point of the magazine was the religious unity emanating from Islam to establish an intellectual, political and economic unity, and what was presented to him in this article - as he put it - is a bibliographic trace of the most important literary issues discussed in the issues issued by the magazine during its issuance period between the years 1980/1401 AH to 1986/1406. He also made an inventory of the most important fictional, poetic, critical and cultural works, especially Islamic culture, which were dealt with by the magazine and placed them in timetables that correspond to the historical sequence of the magazine's timeline. Hence, we can say that Qatari literature has developed artistically and semantically in recent decades, on the quantitative and qualitative levels. In many of its literary genres, it became accommodating with the modern and contemporary Arabic literature. We express our thanks and appreciation to all the researchers who enriched this issue with their critical studies. Thanks also to the fellow members of the editorial board, and Ms. Maryam Al-Maliki, the editorial secretary. We also particularly thank Professor Fatima Al-Suwaidi, Editor-in-Chief, whose encouragement and follow-up had the greatest impact on the completion and issuance of this issue.