Riddles are historically a significant genre of Arabic literature. The Qur’an does not contain riddles as such, though it does contain conundra.[1] But riddles are attested in early Arabic literary culture, 'scattered in old stories attributed to the pre-Islamic bedouins, in the ḥadīth and elsewhere; and collected in chapters'.[2] Since the nineteenth century, extensive scholarly collections have also been made of riddles in oral circulation.
Although in 1996 the Syrian proverbs scholar Khayr al-Dīn Shamsī Bāshā published a survey of Arabic riddling,[3] analysis of this literary form has been neglected by modern scholars,[4] including its emergence in Arabic writing;[5][6] there is also a lack of editions of important collections.[7]: 134 n. 61 A major study of grammatical and semantic riddles was, however, published in 2012,[8] and since 2017 legal riddles have enjoyed growing attention.[9][10][7]: 119–56
^A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010), pp. 14-15.
^Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cf. A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010), 14-18.
^Cite error: The named reference :9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ abElias G. Saba, Harmonizing Similarities: A History of Distinctions Literature in Islamic Law, Islam – Thought, Culture, and Society, 1 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019), doi:10.1515/9783110605792.
^Christian Mauder, “In the Sultan's Salon: Learning, Religion and Rulership at the Mamluk Court of Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī (r. 1501–1516)” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Göttingen, 2017).
^Cite error: The named reference :4ra was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
and since 2017 legal riddles have enjoyed growing attention.: 119–56 Riddles are known in Arabic principally as lughz (Arabic: لُغز) (pl. alghāz ألغاز)...
However, the Arabic loan-word lughaz is also used. Traditional Persian rhetorical manuals almost always handle riddles, but Persian riddles have enjoyed...
many playful riddles, but songs and legends which have been a part of popular culture in South Asia ever since. Additionally, his riddles and songs and...
and their riddles." In Proverbs 30:15, in which sets of three or four objects are mentioned were likely originally in the form of riddles. In Ezekiel...
large corpus of roughly contemporary, poetic Arabicriddles. The riddles are in the wāfir metre.: 142 Riddles plausibly attributed to Dunash are known to...
Arabic poetry (Arabic: الشعر العربي ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy) is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk...
to 1995, and it featured riddles, acting scenes and elaborately choreographed dance routines. Viewers could solve the riddles at the end of the month to...
(Iraq), and Sudan. Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by speakers of the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature...
The Kufic script (Arabic: الْخط الْكوُفِي; Romanized: ‘Al-khat ‘al-Kūfī) is a style of Arabic script that gained prominence early on as a preferred script...
Arabic epic literature encompasses epic poetry and epic fantasy in Arabic literature. Virtually all societies have developed folk tales encompassing tales...
Arabic music (Arabic: الموسيقى العربية, romanized: al-mūsīqā al-ʿarabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres...
century. Modern Arabic literature Copto-Arabic literature Arabic short story Riddles (Arabic) Arabic music Arabian mythology Literary Arabic Islamic Golden...
is noted as the most prolific composer of Hebrew riddles, with a corpus of at least sixty-seven riddles, some of which survive in his own hand, and even...
Arab identity (Arabic: الهوية العربية) is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as an Arab and as relating to being Arab. Like other...
Arabic weddings (Arabic: زفاف, فرح, or عرس) are ceremonies of matrimony that contain Arab influences or Arabic culture. Traditional Arabic weddings are...
Hearts Mark Sakamoto 1977 memoirist Forgiveness Trish Salah poet Wanting in Arabic Rebecca Salazar poet sulphurtongue G. Herbert Sallans 1895 1960 novelist...
One Nights (Arabic: أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ ʾAlf Laylah wa-Laylah) is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during...
Global Information