Arabic literature: Ali Ahmed Ba-Kathir’s Omar ibn Al-Khattab an epic verse drama (1)

Abstract

This paper attempts to cast light on a leading poet-playwright who signifies several Arabic cultures, proficiencies, and skills. The study aims at revealing to what extent the play Omar is a modern Arabic poetic play. Omar is a historical drama that deals with social problems. Omar presents a vision of Arabic drama in the modern age, but it is also a poetic play. For that, it is the task of the researcher to try to prove that Omar bears several grounds, such as poetic devices and connotative symbols, to be called a poetic drama. The investigator adopts the critical-descriptive method in analyzing the first scene of the introduction of the play, Omar. The paper is planned with an introductory overview dealing with a brief view of poetic drama and blank verse. The second part deals with Ali Ahmad Ba-Kathir as a pioneer poet-dramatist. The main part of the study deals with the epic play Omar with reference to the first scene of the introduction, shedding light on the skillfulness of the writer in manipulating poetic and musical devices. The task finishes with recommendations and a brief conclusion.