Arabic culture is a relatively late form among various cultures in the world. In the early period of the Abbasid Dynasty (750~1258), the Arab culture reached its peak. Its spatial range starts from the western end of North Africa and Spain in the west, the Pamirs in the east, the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains in the north, and the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden in the south. Among them, the Middle East is the main region. Arabian culture is an eclectic compound culture, which is formed by the convergence of three cultural sources: Arab native culture and Islam, Western Greek culture and Roman culture, Eastern Persian culture and Indian culture, so it has the culture of nomads. characteristics and cultural features of agricultural societies.
The extensive and profound ancient Arab culture has made outstanding contributions to the development of world culture. In this regard, former US President Nixon once commented as follows: "When Europe was in a state of savagery in the Middle Ages, Arab culture was experiencing a golden age... The key progress in almost all fields was made by Muslims during this period... When Europe When the great men of the Renaissance expanded the boundaries of their knowledge, they were able to look far and far, and they depended on the foundation of the giants of the Muslim world." In the following, we will appreciate the features of ancient Arab culture and find the original traces of modern civilization.
Architecture is the embodiment of individuality of nation and civilization. Compared with the dignified and upright European classical architecture, the steep and vigorous Gothic architecture, the ancient Arabian architecture is whimsical, solemn, elegant and full of changes. Domes, openings and ornamentation reflect the characteristics of Arabian architecture. Among them, the ornaments are almost all plant and geometric patterns, but there are no portraits and statues of people and animals, which originates from the idea of Islam against idolatry. Damascus Mosque and Samara Mosque are typical examples of early and late Arab Empire architecture.
Arabic dance is one of the oldest dances in the world. Some data show that it originated 8,000 years ago, but there are different opinions about its origin. The dancers wear veils on their faces and tassels on their waists. They should be in harmony with the romantic and unique Arabic music. In the process of later spreading, Arabic dance has integrated a variety of cultural elements, showing different charms all over the world. In the middle of the 20th century, American Hollywood movie stars showed in their films that Arab dance has the dual functions of artistic enjoyment and body sculpting, so that the ancient Arab dance has become popular again in the modern world as waist dance (belly dance). . In China, numerous slender dance halls, salons, performances and training institutions all over China have shown the lasting influence and charm of Arab dance.
Arabic music is one of the three major music systems in the world, along with the Greek (European) system and the Chinese (Oriental) system. In ancient Arabia, from the king caliph to the peasant hawker, all showed their preference for music. This musical tradition has natural and historical roots. The melody of Arabic music is beautiful, and the tune is full of a lot of changing tones. Its basic scale is completely different from the well-known western heptads, which are based on 1/4 tone, which is equivalent to the "gap" between the black and white keys in the piano. From this point of view, the expressive energy of Arabic music is unmatched by pentatonic and seven-tone music. In the Middle Ages, there were hundreds of musical instruments in Arabic music, mainly strings, flutes, drums, castanets and so on. Rapid changes in melody and light drums are the distinctive features of Arabic music. Today, we can find traces of different shades of ancient Arabic music from Spanish music, Chinese Muslim music, Xinjiang music, North African music, and even music from Greece and Turkey.
In the field of literature, ancient Arab scholars also created remarkable achievements. There were two kinds of literature in the early period of the Abbasids, one was pure Arabic literature, which was not influenced too much by the cultures of other nationalities; the other was urban literature, which was deeply infiltrated by Persian culture and also absorbed The essence of Indian literature. With the continuous integration of foreign cultures, Arabic literature has gradually evolved from a subjective literature with a strong perceptual color to a unique style of elegant literature. His representative works include "The Koran" and "The Arabian Nights".
The Koran is not only a classic of Islam, but also a masterpiece of ancient Arabic prose. Its language is the supreme example of Arabic; it contains a large number of beautiful myths and legends that promote the development of narrative literature; it creates an elegant style, free and easy, but also rich in beautiful rhythm and cadence, is A model of Arabic prose style, it had a profound influence on later Arabic, African and oriental literature. The Arabian Nights is a well-known masterpiece of world literature. Its first draft was based on the ancient Persian "A Thousand Tales", which contained a large number of stories originating in India, Persia, Iraq and Arabia. During the writing of the book, stories and folklore of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Hebrews were added. It expresses the social features of many periods and regions through romantic literary means, and is a precious legacy left by medieval Arabic literature for the people of the world.
In addition, poetry is the most accomplished form of literary creation by the Arabs. The love poems that originated in Muslim Spain had a profound impact on Europe. Ordinary love became an important theme of medieval European literature. One can find the origin of some Western classic love poems in Spanish Muslim poetry.
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