THE ‘ARAB REASON’ AND ITS GROUNDS IN THE BEDOUIN POETRY

Abstract

The term ‘Arab reason’, suggested by M. A. al-Jabiri, directly relates to the problem, which is being discussed among the Arabian intellectuals over the last hundred years, namely what you have to start with in the revival of the Arab world? The majority of ideologists is convinced that the fi rst thing to do is to alter the minds and renounce the outdated cultural attitudes. To understand which of them hinder the expansion, one must reconsider the content of the fundamental forms, through which the functioning of culture in history operated and bring to light the dominant ones. These structures are not to be associated with the Islamic period of history. But for all that the origin of the Islamic civilization implied the break with the previous tribal living and Jahiliyya (ignorance), its principal constituents nevertheless continued in the new culture. The Bedouin poetry serves as one of such constituents, having fi xed and propagated the organizational standards of life, specifi cs of mindset, of a world view and morale of nomads, as well as peculiar features of language with its logic and rhetorical technique.