NEOCLASSICISM 15imitativeness and lack of originality, the same addiction to hyperbole and
verbal tricks, the same fundamental lack of seriousness in the writings of
the Egyptians Sheikh Hasan al-'Attar (1766-1834) - who incidentally
rose to the position of Head of al-Azhar during Muhammad Ali's reign—his
friend Isma'il al-Khashshab (d. 1815), or al-Sayyid 'ATI Darwish (d. 1853),
just as much as in those of the Syrians Butrus Karama (1774—1851) or Sheikh
Amin al-Jundi (d.1841). Butrus Karama, for instance, chose to write a poem
of twenty-five lines all ending with the same word, used in a different sense
in each line.^2 Similarly the Lebanese Haj 'Umar al-UnsI wrote a panegyric to
Prince Amin Arslan in a multiplicity of metres and rhymes, arranged in such
an intricate way that at least nineteen different poems of different metres,
each having a different rhyme repeated throughout, can be extracted from it
if certain parts of it are taken together and read in a certain order.^3 This sort
of verbal jugglery could in no way be described as poetry in any meaningful
sense of the word, and yet such acrobatic exercises met with much approba-
tion at the time. The subject matter of these poems was confined to the
narrow range of conventional empty panegyric addressed to local rulers and
officials, commemoration of events in poems ending in chronograms, trivial
social occasions like congratulations on a wedding or greetings to a friend.
These were often treated in inflated and high-falutin terms, the Arabic being
poor and stilted, the style generally turgid and the imagery merely conven-
tional and lacking in original perception. This tradition continues well into
the second half of the nineteenth century in the works of poets like the Egyp-
tians al-Sayyid 'AH Abu'l Nasr (d. 1880) and Sheikh 'All al-Laithi( 1830-96).
The true precursor of the modem poetic revival was in fact the Egyptian al-
Barudi, in whose work is abundantly clear the conscious return to the
classicism of early medieval Arabic poetry, especially the poetry of the
Abbasid period. This neoclassicism, or return to the Arab heritage of the
past, marks the first stage in the modern literary revival — a stage in which
the modern Arabs asserted their own cultural identity in a world threatened
by alien forces. Barudi's appearance, however, might have been retarded had
it not been for certain factors, not the least important of which was the
growing realization of the excellence and relevance of the ancient Arabic
poetic heritage, which was being continually rediscovered and edited
throughout the nineteenth century, thanks to the indefatigable efforts of
scholars, particularly orientalists. This can easily be detected in the work
of many writers like Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq (1804-87), MahmudSafwat
al-Sa'ati (1825-80) and especially Nasif al-Yaziji (1800-71)
Al-Yaziji's poetry, which appeared in three volumes under picturesque
titles between 1864 and 1883, is not particularly remarkable for its originality