recognized for his religious stories. Ahmed Naguib, who received the State Prize for
Children’s Literature, published several children’s books, including Tales of the Blue
Bird, Adventures of Shater Hassan and Tales for the New Generation. He is the most
modern and popular of Egyptian story writers today.
Meanwhile, between 1940 and 1960, the Arabic language was evolving in Lebanon,
developing a new, simpler style, which broke away from some of the complexities of
traditional Arabic and introduced newly created vocabulary and words borrowed from the
colloquial. These changes helped to pave the way for the creation of modern children’s
literature.
In the early part of the twentieth century, a few poets from Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq
produced poems for children. With the availability of a simpler style of Arabic, Lebanese
writers began to produce poems, stories and songs for the young. Folk-tales and folk-
tunes, with their simplicity, local colour and imaginative elements, were a valuable basis
for children’s literature. The revival of colloquial poetry known as ‘Zajal’ encouraged
writers to use colloquial expressions in these songs and stories for children.
In 1948 a collection of original songs, written and set to music by Rose Ghurayyib,
was published in Lebanon. Some were written in colloquial Arabic, while others were
classical. The colloquial songs proved to be the more successful and popular, and this
encouraged the further use of colloquial Arabic in children’s literature. Lebanon has
continued to make an important contribution to the development of children’s books in
the Arab world because of its central position, openness to foreign cultures and the
comparatively high rate of literacy. In the 1990s, it has a large number of well-equipped
printers, and publishers capable of producing books of high quality.
Rose Ghurayyib was a very popular children’s writer with over eighty books to her
credit. Other pioneers of children’s literature in Lebanon include Habbouha Haddad,
who began to tell stories for children on the radio in the 1940s, Lauren Rihani, who
retold folk-tales, and Rashad DarRouth, the author of Bedtime Stories, told first to his
own children. Edvich Shyboub wrote a series of illustrated books for young children in
the 1950s and then wrote realistic stories for young people.
Dramatic changes came in the 1960s. Foreign publishing houses became aware of the
Arab market and a flood of poor translations which used a sophisticated classical Arabic
far beyond the comprehension of most children, provoked a strong reaction. Research
centres and Institutes for children’s literature were set up in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.
The defeat of the Arab countries in the 1967 war also seems to have led to a recognition
of the need for national literatures that will take positive action to improve the quality of
children’s books and a combination of events led to conferences and workshops
designed to bring this about.
In 1981 the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World at Beirut University
College in Lebanon, together with the Lebanese Section of IBBY, evaluated Arabic books
for children available in Lebanon. This revealed a plethora of poor translations which
had no bearing on the lives and culture of Arab children. Despite the earlier efforts,
there was a scarcity of good books that addressed the needs of the young. In 1983, a
programme of research and action was launched by the Institute which involved
research into the vocabulary, language structures, style, and concepts familiar to
782 THE WORLD OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE