Mustafa Lutfi al-Manfaluti i počeci arapske esejistike
Mustafa Lutfi Al-Manfaluti and the Development of Arabic Essay

Summary/Abstract: Despite considerably long history of essay in European history, Arabic essay began to develop at the dawn of 19th century. However, after long period of literary and cultural decadence, unlike the other prosaic literary forms, the form of essay was very well and fast welcomed from Arabic literature taking in consideration that poetry has been holding primacy for centuries. The paper deals with questions of subordinate position of Arabic prose analyzing the roots of essay in earlier prosaic forms such as adab or ”polymorphic literature”. The conclusion is that binary structure of essay is very suitable for the spirit of Arabic literature. The second part of this paper presents the main characteristics of early essay form trough essays of Mustafa Lutfi al- Manfaluti who was pioneer in this literary composition and very important person in Arabic literary and cultural awakening, nahda. The simplicity and sincerity of his essay overflows readers. In amazingly qualitative way Al- Manfaluty conveys pure humanistic and peaceful messages that were so necessary to his age as well as to ours.

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