Global InformationSirat Bani Hilal information
Al-Sirah al-Hilaliyyah (Arabic: السيرة الهلالية, romanized: as-Sīra al-Hilāliyya, lit. 'Chronicle of the al-Hilalis'), also known as the Sirat Bani Hilal (سيرة بني هلال Sīra Banī Hilāl) or the al-Hilali epic, is an Arabic epic oral poem that recounts the tale of the journey of the Bedouin tribe of the Banu Hilal from Najd in Arabia to Tunisia and Algeria via Egypt. It is built around historical events that took place in the 11th century. The Banu Hilal were dominant in central North Africa for over a century before their annihilation by the Almohads. The epic is folkloric and oral, not having been committed to writing until relatively recent times, and doesn't have a well-defined date of creation. Of the dozen odd major oral epic poems that developed within the Arab folk tradition between the Middle Ages and the 19th century, Sirat Bani Hilal is today the only one that is still performed in its integral musical form. The longest notable version contains 1,000,000 lines, the poet could sing this version about 100 hours. The epic, once widespread throughout the Middle East, is today performed only in Egypt. In 2008 it was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.[1]
- ^ "Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyyah epic". UNESCO.