fandomhigh | Classics/Foreign Lit, Period 2, 4/06

Dream stands before class dressed in his robes. He seems to be in a good mood -- at least, he has provided coffee and pastries for the students.

"Hello. The assignments I have for you today may require some concentration; if the classics students wish to go work in the library, that is fine."

Classics: "Select a story from The Metamorphoses and write your own translation. This is classwork and homework, with the results due next Thursday."

Foreign Lit: "We are transitioning into a brief unit on Arabic literature."

The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a word meaning "to invite someone for a meal" and implies politeness, culture and enrichment. Adab -- or arabic literature -- is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by speakers of the Arabic language. It does not usually include works written using the Arabic alphabet but not in the Arabic language, such as Persian literature and Urdu literature.

Arabic literature emerged in the 6th century of the common era, with only fragments of the written language appearing before then. It was the Qur'an in the 7th century which would have the greatest lasting effect on Arabic culture and its literature."

Dream continues with his lecture.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hamlet pays close attention to the lecture and takes notes.

"So professor, would you say that the Qur'an had the same impact on the medieval Arabic language as Biblical translations into the vernacular had on languages such as German and English in the Renaissance era?"

Dream contemplated this for a moment. "I would say the Koran was more important than the bible," he said. "There was more English and German literature before the bible became widely available than there was Arabic literature."

[OOC: Not a classics scholar, so Dream may be wrong like a wrong thing on this point.]

Classics/Foreign Lit, Period 2, 4/06

Re: Classics/Foreign Lit classwork, 4/06

Re: Classics/Foreign Lit classwork, 4/06