Arabic-L:GEN:Shawqi Dayf info

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Thu 13 Apr 2000
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1) Subject: Shawqi Dayf info
2) Subject: Shawqi Dayf info
3) Subject: Shawqi Dayf info
4) Subject: Shawqi Dayf info
5) Subject: Shawqi Dayf info

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1)
Date: 13 Apr 2000
From: "Muhammad S. Eissa" <eissa at umich.edu>
Subject: Shawqi Dayf info

Shawqi Dayf is the very famous scholar in Arabic language and literature whose
name is known to a  generation of his students and readers. His writings
cover a wide spectrum in Arabic and Islamic themes He is the author of the
8 volumes on the history of Arabic literature published by Dar al-Maarif,
Cairo.. His numerous works, 42 titles, cover a wide range of Arabic
literature genres and linguistic studies in addition to a number of
biographies and manuscript editing. He was a professor in Dar al-Uluum
College, Cairo University and now, I believe, he is the head of Arabic
Language Academy in Egypt.  Please forgive this hasty reply that falls way
short of fulfilling Dr. Shawqi Dayf his due and well deserved respect.

	salaam
Muhammad S. Eissa,

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2)
Date: 13 Apr 2000
From: Mohammed Sawaie <ms at virginia.edu>
Subject: Shawqi Dayf info

Head of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo, former professor of Arabic
and author of zillions of books on the history of Arabic lit and other
subjects. now, septo- or octogenerian!

ms

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3)
Date: 13 Apr 2000
From: Muhammad Deeb <mdeeb at gpu.srv.ualberta.ca>
Subject: Shawqi Dayf info

	The title of this query gave me quite a jolt, for I feared
something sad has befallen Shawqi Dayf.  Long a professor emeritus of
Arabic literature, in the University of Cairo, and president of the Arabic
Language Academy, Dr. Dayf still contributes to the academic critical
scholarship of Arabic literature in all its phases and genres.

	In the tradition of his mentor, Taha Husayn, Shawqi Dayf has
taught many generations of students in the Arab world who have been since
shaping the study and appreciation of Arabic literature and language.
Dayf, who is likely in his late eighties, has bequeathed the Arabic
library with over 50 works (until 1990), covering the whole panoply of
Arabic studies.

	The foci of his studies range from the history of classical Arabic
literature, its artistic manifestations in poetry and prose, Arabic
linguistics, semantics, grammar and rhetoric, to the study of modern
Arabic poetry and its major representatives, such as Ahmad Shawqi,
al-Barudi and beyond.  His 7-volume encyclopedic history of classical
Arabic literature is an assiduous, patient and highly informed work that
has become deservedly indispensable in Arabic studies.  His writings on
modern Arabic literature, esp. on poetry, are those of the entrenched
classicist, and that may well account for his rather conservative and, at
times, hasty-to-unfair views (see his position on Ali Mahmoud Taha, for
instance).

	Of particular interest to our linguist colleague, Dr. Parkinson,
are Dayf's works: *Al-Madaaris an-NaHwiyyah,* *al-Balaaghah: TaTawwur wa
Taariikh,* *Tajdiid an-NaHw* and *Taysiir an-NaHw at-Ta at liimiyy Qadiiman
wa Hadiithan ma at a Mannhaj Tajdiidih.*

	Shawqi Dayf's two-volume autobiography, *Ma at ii,* in the Iqra'
series, while revelatory of the development of its author, chronicles the
the vicissitudes of the cultural landscape in Egypt in the early sixty
years of the 20th century.  God bless the halcyon university days under
Shawqi Dayf's mentorship!  I cherish, with deep nostalgia, our unrelenting
class discussions of modern Arabic poetry.  May God grant him happiness
and healthy longevity.

				M. Deeb

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4)
Date: 13 Apr 2000
From: Pilar Lirola Delgado <pilar.lirola at uca.es>
Subject: Shawqi Dayf info

        The information I have about Shawqi Dayf is of 1994: an Egyptian
intellectual, professor in the University of Cairo, member of Mayma` al-Luga
al-`Arabiyya, general secretary of this institution, membrer of al-Maylis
al-Qawmi li-l-Thaqafa wa-l-Funun wa-l-Adab, member of al-Mayma` al-`Ilmi
al-Misri, etc. Awards: Ya´izat al-Dawla al-Taqdiriyya fi l-Adab, Ya´izat
al-Malik Faysal al-`Alamiyya fi l-Adab al-`Arabi...

        His prolific research works (about 50 volumenes.) are about classic
and modern language and literature, edition of texts, literary criticism,
and meanly studies on al-Andalus: al-Adab al-`arabi al-mu`asir fi Misr
(1957), Tarij al-adab al-`arabi (5 vols.), al-Madaris al-nahwiyya (1978),
Taydid al-nahw (1982)...

        Pilar Lirola
        Universidad de Cádiz (Spain)

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5)
Date: 13 Apr 2000
From: Wen-chin Ouyang <wo at soas.ac.uk>
Subject: Shawqi Dayf info

Shawqi Dayf is one of the "essential" historians and critics of pre-modern
and modern Arabic literature with whose works (and they are very many)
undergraduate  and graduate students in Arab universities must be familiar.
He is known for his series of history of classical Arabic literature
(Al-'asr al-jahili, al-'asr al-islami, al-'asr al-'abbasi al-awwal and
al-'asr al-'abbasi al-thani) but primarily for his *Al-fann wa madhahibuhu
fi al-shi'r al-'arabi* (considered is best), and *Al-fann wa madhahibuhu fi
al-nathr al-'arabi.  His other works include titles stuch as *Al-balagha:
tatawwur wa tarikh*, *Al-madaris al-nahwiyya*, *Al-tatawwur al-tajdid fir
al-shi'r al-umawi*, etc., and a number of works on modern Arabic
literature.  He is very prolific and considered solid but not necessarily
very innovative in his approach.  His works are all published by Dar
al-Ma'arif in Cairo.  To the best of my knowledge, he is based in Cairo.

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End of Arabic-L: 13 Apr 2000