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The story of Abu Faraj al-Isfahani’s Book of Songs is itself based on a novel, and the protagonist of the novel is a book, and there are many books that are the subject of narratives in Arabic and foreign novels. Perhaps you remember the novel The Name of the Rose by the Italian Umberto Eco, which is partly based on the fire that burned down the monastery library and the murders that took place not far from the library. The shadow of mystery is also similar to the mystery surrounding the theme of books in the novel.
Abu Al-Faraj Al-Isfahani (died 356 AH) spent about 50 years writing Al-Aghani, and the history of the book states that Isfahani dedicated it to Saif Al-Dawla Al-Hamdani, to whom he dedicated the book. He spent a thousand dinars, but judging by this great research work, the author actually did not do it. His goal was not money, on the contrary, he wanted to record the sounds of his time, which were nothing more than songs, songs. The sounds of his time and the time of the poets who chanted poetry, the sound of a time when poetry was both “song” and history and documentation.
But if we consider the Book of Songs to be a storybook, where did the idea of this living book come from in our Arab culture, language, aesthetics and storytelling today? Did the idea for this book come from Isfahan, China? When you read the historical summary included in the book “History of World Culture” published by Kalima in 2014 and translated by Imad Tahina, you will think of the following: In the sixth century BC, the Chinese writer Shi Cheng wrote a book called “Songs”, which was also a collection of songs in the Chinese era when Zheng lived, when singing constituted an important part of Chinese culture and music.
Did Isfahani read the literature, history and music works of the Asian civilization period, which are not far from Chinese literature and art? Whatever the answer to this hypothetical question, it is certain that Arab culture since its historical roots has not been a culture of isolation, prejudice and stagnation, on the contrary, it has always been a culture of openness, dialogue and exchange of knowledge, science and aesthetics, based on the Arabic language written and thought by hundreds of Muslim scholars, whose roots can be traced back to Asia and China.
Today, we live in an era of openness to the languages of the world, and Arabic fits this openness culturally and historically, which is mainly reflected in the UAE’s translation culture and its international outlook. In particular, the translation circle is expanding from world languages to Arabic and from Arabic to world languages, which is a true cultural feature of the UAE, with its balanced literary and cultural objectivity. The exchange between Eastern and Western languages and cultures has actually translated the term “cultural dialogue” into reality and integrated it into cultural, educational and BroadCast Unitedlectual institutions, and the first of these institutions are those related to translation.
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