ABSTRACT
Transmission, much more than authorship, seems to shape large parts of Arabic literature, since the author himself, rather than expressing his views with his own words, hands down materials quoted from earlier authorities. This aspect of literature is not only found in historical writing—quite naturally, where the quotation of eye-witnesses is concerned—but in most other fields as well, especially in the refined literature of the adab-type, characterized by a didactic intention or attitude which impregnates the narration. With the exception of the Prophetic tradition (ḥadīth), most of the material this literature consists of can eventually be defined as self-contained narrative units which we will designate here by the term akhbār. Such texts differ widely in theme and structure, and they range from simple statements or utterances to complex stories.
