ABSTRACT
Arabic literature, both classical and popular, has always abounded in forms of prose narrative. In the classical tradition, one can cite works like Ayyam al-cArab (the Battle-Days of [PreIslamic] Arabs); the eighth-century animal fables of Kalila wa Dimna, which Ibn al-Muqaffac translated from Pahlavi; and the maqamat, or picaresque adventures, written by al-Hamadhani (967-1007) and al-Hariri (1054-1122) and believed to have influenced the emergence of picaresque fiction in sixteenthcentury Spain. In the popular tradition, on the other hand, mention can be made of The Thousand and One Nights (also known as The Arabian Nights) and the many medieval works of sira (epic accounts of heroic exploits) such as Sirat Bani Hilal and Sirat cAntar, to name but two. The above works are very different literary expressions composed over a long period of many centuries; some are classical compositions, others are folk works of oral origin; some were written by known authors at a particular time, others composed by anonymous ones over many generations and across several countries. There is, however, one element which is common to all of them: the episodic quality of their form. Some of these works, like Kalila wa Dimna and The Arabian Nights, have their semi-independent episodes held together by a frame story, while others, such as the maqamat, enjoy no more semblance of unity than the fact that all the episodes or adventures figure the same picaroon or rogue as hero, otherwise being virtually independent of each other. Evidently none of these Arabic narrative forms conforms to the traditional Western definition of plot as laid down by Aristotle in his Poetics, and which has largely governed the structure of the Western novel
since its evolution and until fairly recently. Late last century and early in this century, during the nascent days of modern Arabic fiction, attempts were made to revive, and adapt to the modes of the modern Arabic language and contemporary society, one of these indigenous narrative forms, namely the maqama.1 Those attempts proved, however, out of step with the times and attempts to revive the maqama were quickly ousted by the growing trend to evolve modes of fiction in Arabic along the lines of Western tradition.
