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Abdellah Guennoun

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Guennoun (standing) during a banquet in Tangier, April 1957, next to Habib Bourguiba (with bow tie) and Allal al-Fassi (with fez)
Moroccan literature
Moroccan writers
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Criticism and awards
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Abdellah Guennoun (Arabic: عبد الله ڭنون ʻAbd Allāh Gannūn; 16 September 1908 in Fes – died 9 July 1989 in Tangier) was an influential Moroccan writer, historian, essayist, poet, academic, administrator, journalist, and faqīh.[1][2] He was one of the leaders of the Nahda movement in Morocco, and served as the general secretary of the League of Moroccan Religious Scholars (رابطة علماء المغرب).[3][4]

He is known for writing an-Nubūgh al-Maghribī fī al-adab al-ʻArabī (النبوغ المغربي في الأدب العربي, Moroccan Intellect in Arabic Literature),[5] a three-volume anthology of Moroccan literature in Arabic[6] that was banned by the French Protectorate.[7][8]

Guennoun also served as a member of a number of linguistic, educational, and Islamic academies and organizations in places such as Rabat, Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, and Amman.[9][10]

Early life

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Abdallah Guennoun was born in Fes in 1908 to a family of noble Idrissid lineage long associated with knowledge.[11] His family moved from Fes to Tangier in 1914.[11]

He had a traditional Islamic education, memorizing the Quran and some Hadith.[11] With access to international books in Tangier, he also taught himself Spanish and French.[11]

Career

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Guennoun began his writing career early; he published in the newspaper Idhar al-Haqq (إظهار الحق) in 1927 when he was 20 years old.[12] He also wrote for publications such as the Egyptian literary magazine Arrissalah.[11][13][14][15][16][17]

He became active and influential in the flourishing intellectual and cultural scene in Tetuan, and he published many of his works there.[12] As part of this intellectual circle in Tetuan, he was involved in the first nationalist publication in Morocco, as-Salaam, which published its first issue October 1933.[18][12]

Guennoun was well-connected, associated with Said Hajji in the French area, Mohammed Daoud in the Spanish area, and Shakib Arslan in the Mashriq.[12] Guennoun became involved with the Moroccan Action Committee in 1934.[9]

He opened the first of the Moroccan free schools in Tangier, the Free Abdallah Guennoun School (مدرسة عبد الله كنون الحرة), and worked as a teacher in 1936.[11]

He was the editor in-chief of a monthly Islamic publication called Lisaan ad-Din (لسان الدين) in the 1940s and published a number of articles.[11][19][10] He also served as the general secretary of al-Mithaq, a journal put out by the faculty of al-Qarawiyyin University.[11][19]

He refused the support Mohammed Ben Aarafa, the puppet monarch chosen by France to replace Muhammad V, whom France had exiled.[9]

Guennoun was, among other members of the Mococcan Nationalist Movement (الحركة الوطنية المغربية) including Allal al-Fassi, Abdelkhalek Torres, Abdallah Ibrahim, a member of a generation of Moroccan intellectuals brought together the political and the cultural, and who criticized the reform movement in the country, arguing that there can be "no reform without independence."[12]

Abdellah Guennoun taught Ahmed Boukmakh [ar] and later assisted him in the creation of Iqra'  [ar] (اِقْرَأ, "Read"), the first series of Arabic textbooks for children in Morocco, published in 1956, 1957, and 1958.[20][21]

an-Nubūgh al-Maghribī

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In 1937, he published an-Nubūgh al-Maghribī fī al-adab al-ʻArabī (النبوغ المغربي في الأدب العربي, Moroccan Intellect in Arabic Literature), his three-volume anthology of Moroccan literature.[22][8] This anthology indexed and contextualized major Moroccan works of literature written in Arabic, and led to the development of a Moroccan literary canon.[5] Affirming both Morocco's contributions to Arabic literature and the long tradition of Arabic literature in Morocco, an-Nubūgh al-Maghribī was seen as a nationalist reaction to colonialism.[5] It was banned by the authorities of the French Protectorate, and could not be brought into the area under French colonial control, nor could it be sold, displayed, or distributed there.[7][8] Spain, however, was receptive of the work; an-Nubūgh al-Maghribī was translated into Spanish and Abdallah Guennoun was granted an honorary doctorate from a university in Madrid.[23]

He held a number of different positions. In 1937, he was made director of the Khalifi Institute (المعهد الخليفي),[10][24] then professor at the High Institute of Religion (Arabic: المعهد الديني العالي) and the College of Theology in Tetuan (كلية أصول الدين بتطوان).[24] He held the office of Minister of Justice in the Khalifi government from 1954 to 1956.[10]

He became a member of the Arab Academy of Damascus in 1956, the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo in 1961, the League of Moroccan Religious Scholars, the al-Quds Scientific Commission (هيئة القدس العلمية) in 1973, the Muslim World League in Mecca as a founding member in 1974, the Jordan Academy of Arabic in 1978, the Iraqi Academy of Sciences in 1979, and the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco in 1980.[10]

In 1981, he founded al-Ihyaa' (الإحياء The Revival), a journal published by the Association of Moroccan Academics focusing on Islamic theological sciences and thought from an open, critical perspective.[25]

Death

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Abdallah Guennoun died on 9 July 1989, aged 80, in Tangier.[9]

Notable works

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Abdallah Guennoun's works include poetry, literary fiction, and history. Some of his most notable works include:

  • an-Nubūgh al-Maghribī fī al-adab al-ʻArabī (النبوغ المغربي في الأدب العربي, Moroccan Intellect in Arabic Literature), 1st ed. al-Matba'a al-Mehdia. 1937; 2nd ed. Dar al-Kitab al-Lubnani. 1961; 1st ed. Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyah. 2014.
  • Umarāʼunā al-Shuʻarāʼ (أمراؤنا الشعراء Our Poet Princes). 1941.
  • al-Qudwat ul-Samiya lil-Nashi'at il-Islamiya (القدوة السامية للناشئة الإسلامية). 1945
  • Wahat al-Fikr (واحة الفكر The Oasis of Thought). 1948.
  • Dīwān Malik Gharnaṭah Yusuf al-Thalith (ديوان مالك غرناطة يوسف الثالث The Poetry of Yusuf III, King of Granada). 1958.
  • Aḥādīth ʻan al-Adab al-Maghribī al-Ḥadīth (أحاديث عن الأدب المغربي الحديث On Modern Moroccan Literature). 1964.
  • Mafāhīm Islāmīyah (مفاهيم إسلامية Islamic Concepts). 1964.
  • al-Muntakhab min Shiʻr Ibn Zākūr (المنتخب من شعر ابن زاكور A Selection of the Poetry of Ibn Zakur). 1966.
  • Luqmān al-Ḥakīm (لقمان الحكيم Luqman the Wise). 1969.
  • Adab al-Fuqahāʼ (أدب الفقهاء Literature of the Theologians). 1970.
  • Naẓrah fī Munjid al-Adab wa-al-ʻUlum (نظرة في منجد الأدب والعلوم). 1972.
  • al-Taʻāshīb (التعاشيب). 1975.
  • Dhikrayāt Mashāhīr Rijāl al-Maghrib (ذكريات مشاهير رجال المغرب). 2010.

Legacy

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Abdellah Guennoun's personal library, which he donated in 1985 to the City of Tangier, has been housed since his death in the former building of the Moroccan Debt Administration.[26]

Notes

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  1. ^ Literatura Marroqui [1] (retrieved 13 February 2009)
  2. ^ ""النبوغ المغربي" لعبد الله كنون في طبعة جديدة". Hespress (in Arabic). Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  3. ^ هيسبريس: ذاكرة العلامة عبد الله كنون تؤسس لذاكرة مغربية حقيقية تاريخ الوصول: 14 فبراير 2010]] Archived 16 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "علماء المغرب.. من رابطة العلماء إلى الرابطة المحمدية". Hespress (in Arabic). Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  5. ^ a b c Simour, Lhoussain (2016-10-21). Larbi Batma, Nass el-Ghiwane and Postcolonial Music in Morocco. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2581-2.
  6. ^ Fernández Parrilla, Gonzalo; Calderwood, Eric (2021-04-16). "What Is Moroccan Literature? History of an Object in Motion". Journal of Arabic Literature. 52 (1–2): 97–123. doi:10.1163/1570064x-12341421. ISSN 0085-2376.
  7. ^ a b "دعوة الحق - [كتاب] النبوغ المغربي في الأدب العربي (لـ ع.ل.كنون)". www.habous.gov.ma. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  8. ^ a b c "النبوغ المغربي لعبد الله كنون.. موسوعة الأدب المغربي في خصوصيته وتعدده". مغرس. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  9. ^ a b c d "عبد الله كنون". www.aljazeera.net. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
  10. ^ a b c d e "عبد الله كنـون". uemnet.free.fr. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h "عبد الله كنون". www.aljazeera.net. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  12. ^ a b c d e "عبد الله كنون 1 - المغرب". الجزيرة الوثائقية (in Arabic). Aug 24, 2016. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15.
  13. ^ "مجلة الرسالة/العدد 86/البريد الأدبي - ويكي مصدر". ar.wikisource.org (in Arabic). Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  14. ^ "مجلة الرسالة/العدد 129/المتنبي في ديوانه بمناسبة ذاكره الألفية - ويكي مصدر". ar.wikisource.org (in Arabic). Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  15. ^ "مجلة الرسالة/العدد 130/المتنبي في ديوانه - ويكي مصدر". ar.wikisource.org (in Arabic). Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  16. ^ "مجلة الرسالة/العدد 269/ماضي القرويين وحاضرها - ويكي مصدر". ar.wikisource.org (in Arabic). Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  17. ^ "مجلة الرسالة/العدد 270/ماضي القرويين وحاضرها - ويكي مصدر". ar.wikisource.org (in Arabic). Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  18. ^ "دعوة الحق - مجلة السلام أول صحيفة وطنية مغربية". www.habous.gov.ma. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
  19. ^ a b "دعوة الحق - عبد الله كنون وأثره في الثقافة المغربية -2-". www.habous.gov.ma. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  20. ^ Yabiladi.com. "Ahmed Boukmakh, the teacher behind Morocco's first Arabic-language textbooks". en.yabiladi.com. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
  21. ^ "أحمد بوكماخ .. من المسرح والسياسة إلى تأليف سلسلة "اقرأ"". Hespress (in Arabic). Retrieved 2020-08-19.
  22. ^ Fernández Parrilla, Gonzalo; Calderwood, Eric (2021-04-16). "What Is Moroccan Literature? History of an Object in Motion". Journal of Arabic Literature. 52 (1–2): 97–123. doi:10.1163/1570064x-12341421. ISSN 0085-2376.
  23. ^ "الذكرى المئوية لميلاد صاحب 'النبوغ المغربي'". Belpresse | بلبريس (in Arabic). 2019-09-20. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
  24. ^ a b الهاني, كريم (2019-09-17). "في ذكرى ميلاده: عبد الله كنون… العلامة الذي أعاد الاعتبار للفكر والأدب المغربي". Marayana - مرايانا (in Arabic). Retrieved 2020-03-30.
  25. ^ "نبذة تعريفية عن مجلة الإحياء". بوابة الرابطة المحمدية للعلماء (in Arabic). 2019-06-19. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
  26. ^ Khouloud Haskouri (2021-08-22). "Abdallah Guennoun Library in Tangier Goes Digital". Morocco World News.

References

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  • Memoirs of important Men of Morocco: Ibn Battuta, Rabat:Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 1996
  • Dhikrayat Mashahir Rijal al-Maghrib: Ahmad Zarruq, 1954
  • Mohammed Tozy, Zakya Daoud, Abdallah Guennoun ou le dernier des Lettrés. LAMALIF (188), 1987:05, 13-16
  • Rom Landau, Portrait of Tangier, ed. Hale, 1952, chapter 30: "Guennoun"
  • CHAYBI, Ahmed. Al-Dirâsa al `adabiyya fî al-Magrib: Al-ustâdh `Abd`allâh Kanűn numudhadj, Tánger: Madrasa al-Malik Fahd al-Uliyâ li-l-Tardjuma, 1991.
  • HABABI, Fatima al-Djamiya al. Abd allâh Kanűn, Mohammedia: Mat:ba`a Fadhâla, 1991.
  • HABABI, Fatima al-Djamiya al. Abd allâh Kanűn, Casablanca: Mu`asasas Űnâ, 1997.
[edit]
  • Afrique info (in French) [2] Archived 2012-02-20 at the Wayback Machine (retrieved Feb. 13, 2009)
  • Tangier.free.fr (in French) [3] (retrieved Feb. 13, 2009)
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