An-Nubūgh al-Maghribī fī al-Adab al-'Arabī

an-Nubūgh al-Maghribī fī al-adab al-ʻArabī

Author	Abdellah Guennoun
Original title	النبوغ المغربي في الأدب العربي
Published	1937 (al-Matba'a al-Mehdia)

An-Nubūgh al-Maghribī fī al-adab al-ʻArabī (Arabic: النبوغ المغربي في الأدب العربي ‘Moroccan Ingenuity in Arab Literature’) is an anthology of Moroccan literature compiled by the Moroccan scholar Abdellah Guennoun and published in three volumes in 1937. It has been considered the first literary history of Morocco.

This anthology indexed and contextualized major Moroccan works of literature written in Arabic, and led to the development of a Moroccan literary canon. 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.

Contents

Volume I: Study

Introduction

Abdellah Guennoun introduces the book as an endeavor to trace the course of intellectual life in al-Maghrib al-Aqsa, the far west, over the centuries from the conquest of Al-Andalus in 711 led by Tariq ibn Ziyad. He writes:

هذا كتابٌ جمعنا فيه بين العلم والأدب والتاريخ والسياسة ورميْنا بذلك إلى تصوير الحياة الفكرية لوطننا المغرب وتطورها في العصور المختلفة من لدن قدوم الفاتح الأول إلى قريب من وقتنا هذا؛ فالحركة العلمية وما طرأ عليها من نشاط وفتور، في جميع العصور، مبسوطة فيه أحسن البسط. والسياسة واتجاهاتها التي كانت تتخذها بحسب طبيعة كل دولة مفصلة فيه تفصيلا ً مستوفى This is a book in which we have collected from knowledge, literature, history, and politics, with the objective of imagining the intellectual life in our homeland al-Maghrib (Morocco) and its development over the various periods, from the first of the Muslim conquests until close to our time. The intellectual trends, through periods of activity and lull, through all the eras, is explained thoroughly, and politics and the directions they took according to the nature of each state are explored in detail.

Guennoun describes the neglect and disregard with which the Mashriq, the Arab East, tended to regard the literature of al-Maghrib al-Aqsa, the far west as his motivation for the project. He argued for the inclusion of Maghrebi literature in the wider Arabic literary tradition, though explicitly not asserting, in the words of Gretchen Head, "the existence of a national literary canon detached from its broader heritage." Head also notes the use of the phrase waṭanina al-Maghrib ('our homeland Morocco') and places the work within a trend of textual production by intellectuals associated with the Moroccan Nationalist Movement.

Study

The section is then divided into the periods according to ruling dynasty: ʿaṣr al-futūḥ (Idrissid, lit. 'era of Islamic conquest'), ʿaṣr al-murābiṭīn (Almoravid), ʿaṣr al-muwaḥḥidīn (Almohad), ʿaṣr al-Mariniyīn (Marinid), ʿaṣr as-Saʿadiyīn (Saadi), and ʿaṣr al-ʿAlawiyīn (ʿAlawi).

Volume II: Prose

The second volume contains excerpts of prose.

Volume III: Poetry

The third volume contains excerpts of poetry.

Censorship

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. 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.

Editions

• al-Matba'a al-Mehdia Tetuan (1937)
• Dar al-Kitab al-Lubnani, Beirut (1961)
• Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyah, Beirut (2014)