Ahmed Shawqi and the generation of development

02Ahmed Shawqi and the generation of development

• Shawqi combined with his Arab culture a European culture: he studied law in France and read French literature.
• He watched the European theatres, sat with Western poets, and read the marks of renewal among the masters of French poetry: Victor Hugo, Lamartine and de Musset.
• To this was added his Turkish culture and his exposure to the audience, the critics and the national movement.

The marks of his development

• He turned from panegyric to history in his poem "The Great Events of the Nile Valley".
• In part of his poetry he took an Islamic direction, and turned to modern achievements — like his description of the aeroplane — abandoning the old poets' motif of the she-camel.
• At the opening of "The Great Events" he begins with the description of a ship instead of standing on the ruins.

His leadership of the theatre

• He led Arabic verse drama, beginning with "Oli Bakr al-Kabir", which he wrote in France.
• He then returned to the theatre and wrote "The Death of Cleopatra", "The Madman of Layla", "Cambyses", "Antarah", "Sat al-Huda" and "The Princess of Andalusia".
• For all of this he was titled the Amir al-Shu'ara (Prince of Poets).

Others of the generation

• Ahmed Moharram tried to turn poetry towards heroic historical narrative in his long work "Diwan Majd al-Islam", which some call "the Islamic Iliad".