The current technique of teaching classical Arabic poetry in the Department of Arabic at the University of Dhaka and the necessity of adopting a new approach

Abstract

The Department of Arabic at the University of Dhaka is like any other language and literature-related department which is supposed to teach classical poetry at both honours and master’s degree levels. However, the present (and thereby the past too) method of the teaching of classical Arabic poetry practised by the poetry course teachers in the department of Arabic at Dhaka University seems to be ineffective, non-literary - in terms of methodology- and merely translation (Arabic-Bengali) based.  This method is being carried out by the instructors. As a result, the students are being deprived of having the opportunity to experience the expected literary test of the classical poetry. Therefore, a comprehensive technique of how to teach classical Arabic poetry is of utmost importance at present. Hence, this paper presents a new method of teaching classical Arabic poetry, which is inspired by and deduced from a book titled “Qira’a fi al-Adab al-Qadeem” written by Muhammad Muhammad Abu Musa. To do so, this article is divided into four main sections. The first section is an introduction to the current article. The second section deals with the overview of the present method followed and practised by the respective course teachers while teaching classical poetry, and also touches upon the necessity of adopting a new approach. The third section attends to a brief narrative of Muhammad Muhammad Abu Musa and his book wherein he has broached a literary method of how to read classical poetry. This section is further divided into five sub-sections to elaborate on a five-step-by-step level of teaching. The fourth and final section is comprised of a partial application of the method to the “Daliyyah” of the great Jahili poet Zuhair bin Abi Sulma. As for the research method followed in this article, the researcher has taken recourse to the deductive and rhetorical method that conform to the subject matter of the article. As to the major findings, it can be pointed out that this new approach to teaching of classical Arabic poetry ensures an in-depth knowledge of the literariness of the poetic texts and makes the act of reading more enjoyable at once. It is hoped that both the teachers and students of classical poetry are benefited greatly from this article.