shuʿūbīyah

…literary-political movement known as the shuʿūbiyyah, which celebrated the excellence of non-Arab Muslim peoples, particularly the Persians, and set the stage for the resurgence of Iranian literature and culture in the decades to come. Regard for poetry—the Arabs’ vehicle of folk memory—increased, and minds and imaginations were quickened. Philosophical enquiry…

Soon a movement called shuʿūbiyyah arose to champion the superiority of non-Arabic tastes over the alleged crudeness of the poetry so dear to Arabic litterateurs. However, the great writer of early ʿAbbāsid times, al-Jāḥiẓ, produced a type of adab that fused pre-Islamic and Islamic concerns in excellent Arabic style.…