'Alnisyan': How the Arabic word for forgetfulness is a poetic shorthand for sorrow

The National

18-07-2025

Tunisian author Mahmoud Messadi published a novel in 1945 titled Mawlid Alnisyan, which translates as Birth of Oblivion. The book is a philosophical and symbolic work that explores the tension between memory, identity and the desire to escape history. As the protagonist confronts questions of time and the human condition, the novel probes whether forgetting is a form of liberation or a path to self-erasure.
Our Arabic word of the week is alnisyan, which translates to forgetfulness and oblivion. Rooted in the triliteral Arabic root noon, seen, yaa, which means to forget, it conveys a graceful nuance, evoking the gentle slipping of memories into the mists of time.
Unlike the term nisyan, which simply means forgetting, alnisyan conjures a poetic surrender: the embrace of forgetting, the dissolving of events, people, even entire eras from collective memory, descending into complete oblivion. It sits alongside expressing solace or emotional release, captured by a second meaning of silwan, which translates to consolation through forgetting.
The word can be seen in poetic Arabic phrases such as dakhal fee ghumrat alnisyan, which translates to 'he descended into the depths of oblivion', or alnisyan ahhab teeb, which translates to 'forgetfulness is the best healing'.
Alnisyan can also carry a warning. It can hint at a culture losing touch with its roots, or a society willing to forget injustice for the sake of comfort. Alnisyan could also become a path to finding oneself and breaking the shackles of the past. In the Sufi concept of al fana, practitioners are encouraged to annihilate the self in pursuit of divine truth. Here, forgetting is not a fault but a virtue, a surrendering of ego that brings one closer to enlightenment.
In Arabic music, the word is often used to express sorrow. In Libyan singer Ahmed Fakroun's 1977 song Nisyan, he describes a relationship that has faded away, exemplified by the looks of forgetfulness in his former lover's eyes.
In 2021, Lebanese singer Assi El Hallani released a song titled Keif Ansak, which translates to 'how to forget you'. In it, he asks himself and his former lover how to forget all the times they spent together, the good and the bad.
In today's fast-moving world, where memory often feels fleeting, alnisyan reminds us that forgetting is not always passive. Sometimes, it is deliberate. Sometimes, it is essential. And sometimes, it is what allows us to move on.