The school of al-Diwan and the Revivalists

02The school of al-Diwan and the Revivalists

Why they differed

• The school held that its view of poetry differed from that of the Revivalists: those men look backwards, while they express the tragedy of their own age.
• They attacked the Revivalists, foremost among them Ahmed Shawqi, Hafiz Ibrahim and Mustafa Sadiq al-Rafii.
• Their most famous and harshest writing is "al-Diwan in Literature and Criticism" (1921), from which the school took its name — though their poetic work and critical opinions appeared before it.

Their criticisms of the Revivalists

• Taking the old rhetorical models as the highest ideal, and the dominance of the rhetorical side over content and idea.
• Exaggeration in panegyric and dishonesty in expressing the human self — although al-Aqqad held that sincere panegyric is not a fault.
• Caring for the husks of things and their surfaces.
• Excessive imitation of the old in language and imagery.
• No regard for artistic unity, passing within one poem from one subject to another.
• Exaggerations and the absence of evident sincerity in their poetry.