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CairoScene
a day ago
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
This Content Creator Brings Classical Arabic Poetry to the Digital Age
This Content Creator Brings Classical Arabic Poetry to the Digital Age At the intersection of heritage and the algorithm, one creator is proving that classical Arabic poetry truly is timeless. Between the soft clink of rings and the mundane rhythm of daily errands, content creator Hala is reviving classical Arabic poetry over social media. Her videos, set to the backdrop of car rides and gentle routines, unspool the linguistic richness of Qabbani and Al-Mutanabbi with a modern cadence, reframing classical verse for a generation raised on scrolls and swipes. As the eldest daughter in an Arab household in the US, Hala's first encounters with classical Arabic weren't through textbooks, but through the melismatic qasidas of singers like Nagat Al Saghira. 'My dad would play them on roadtrips,' Hala tells CairoScene. 'The songs are all super long, the shortest is probably 40 minutes. I was so curious: 'What are they saying?' 'What does it mean?' I would watch him being moved by the music, and I would think: 'She's been singing for forty minutes, how are you still enjoying this?''That curiosity continued to be cultivated by her father, whose quizzes on the meaning and lectures on the pronunciation of classical Arabic fostered a love for classic Arab music, and the verses that came before. Tracing this isnad of classical Arabic, from Pre-Islamic to Nizar Qabbani to Nagat Al Saghira's music, Hala found a new type of entertainment, one that felt rewarding as well-rooted. 'I would recite to my computer and film the poems,' Hala recalls. 'But I never thought I was reciting them correctly, nor that anyone would care.' Then, in August 2024, she posted a casual video - putting on rings, reciting a verse - and it went viral. The clip resonated with a diasporic audience estranged from the linguistic depth and nuance of their language. Go to the comments on any video and you'll find the same thing: 'I'm fluent in Arabic but not in this type of Arabic.' Through these videos, Hala taps into a collective gap in knowledge, offering her audience a piece of heritage that never seemed accessible. 'Poetry is such a deep, intricate form of language,' Hala explains. 'Especially Arabic. Arabic contains such a multitude of words and synonyms for so many things. For people who grew up in the West, they don't understand all the meanings, they didn't grow up around the metaphors and structures exhibited in classical poetry.' Her TikTok playlist, Fikra w Khatira, feels less like a short-form content series and more like a digital majlis. A modern-day salon where the esoteric complexity of Al-Mutanabbi is softened by bilingual subtitles, and the uvular crack of a qaf feels instinctual over the backdrop of a GRWM. In this unlikely setting, Hala has carved out an archive and a classroom where poetry is no longer distant or impenetrable. Asked whether she approves of the moniker 'The Poetry Girl', she laughs: 'What else do I want to get famous for? The Get Ready With Me Girl?! I like being 'The Poetry Girl',' Hala asserts. 'I have tried different ways of storytelling, but poetry touches my heart in a particular way, and it resonates with others too.' Hala's page isn't just a balm for the Arab diaspora; it stands as an advocate for poetic expression. A reminder that poetry, especially in Arabic, is an inimitable means of emotional translation, articulation, and healing. 'I speak three languages,' Hala says. 'None of them describe the process of emotions that a human goes through in the way Arabic does. There are twelve stages of love, twelve ways to describe love: from yearning to delight.' What Hala offers, ultimately, is connection. The same way her father once shared music and meaning on road trips, she now shares verse with strangers. And in her hands - and voice - Arabic poetry, once perceived as lofty and opaque, finds a new intimacy. Whether she is reciting Al-Mutanabbi from the driver's seat, or translating taboo poems by Qabbani in a GRWM, her content doesn't dilute the material, it democratises it.
Indian Express
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Despite flaws, new NCERT textbooks try to reconnect youngsters with their civilisation's moral foundations
Written by R S Krishna Rupamanjari Hegde's critique of recent Class VII NCERT history textbooks ('In NCERT textbooks, a history full of holes', IE, May 5) highlights a recurring trend in liberal-secular discourse: A focus on inconsistencies between curricular frameworks (like the NCF 2023) and textbook narratives, while overlooking the deeper philosophical and civilisational dimensions of how India should relate to its past. While Hegde rightly points out the dissonance between pluralistic curricular intentions and selective textbook content, this perspective misses a crucial point: Such selectivity, often labelled 'presentism' or 'teleology,' can be necessary and legitimate in crafting a national historical consciousness. The liberal-secular viewpoint often assumes that only histories emphasising disjunction, pluralism, conflict, and power are truly honest, casting any narrative of harmony, unity, or coherence as inherently fabricated or aligned with communal ideologies. This perspective, rooted in Marxist and postcolonial paradigms, views civilisational continuity or cultural cohesion with scepticism, interpreting them as mere apologetics for majoritarianism or nationalism. However, this approach itself commits a form of presentism, retrojecting a modern suspicion of unity onto the past and privileging discontinuity as the sole valid historical lens. History as a quest for civilisational self-understanding A civilisationally self-aware modernity cannot afford to discard the potential for collective memory, moral exemplarity, and a unifying vision of the past. Nations are not solely defined by constitutions; they are also 'imagined,' 'felt,' and 'remembered' into being. Consequently, history education cannot be reduced to a mere catalogue of empirical disputes, caste hierarchies, and dynastic rivalries. This necessitates interpretation, selection, and narrative framing, which are inherent to the process and therefore legitimate. For decades, Indian school textbooks, particularly after the NCERT's 2006 revisions, aimed at 'detoxifying' earlier 'saffron' narratives', have often prioritised a seemingly 'objective' approach, foregrounding multiplicity and conflict, emphasising regional variations, and downplaying any overarching sense of pre-colonial Indic unity. However, this has not fostered a deeper understanding of India's civilisational past, but rather an inability to articulate it except in mostly fragmented and contestatory terms. Pre-Islamic India, despite its political disunity and social hierarchies, did share cosmologies, Sanskritic idioms across its regions and languages, integrated diverse deities and contributed to a porous but coherent cultural order. This coherence, while not homogeneous, was not a mere colonial invention. The new NCERT textbooks, despite their flaws, represent an attempt to reinstate this coherence, reconnecting young Indians to their civilisation's moral and cultural foundations. The ethical imperative of presentism So a degree of presentism and even teleology in historical narratives is not a betrayal of historiography, but a civilisational necessity. A modern democratic republic needs a usable past, a memory that resonates normatively. History textbooks should certainly have source criticism or highlight socio-economic mechanics; but they should also guide students to locate themselves within a broader narrative of how a people conceived a certain kind of socio-cultural order across time and traditions. And such orders were not merely oppressive caste and patriarchal institutions and practices. While liberal-secular historians advocate for narratives that avoid privileging any single religion or moral arc, it's important to recognise that all historical storytelling, particularly in school education, involves moral construction. Even previous NCERT attempts, which celebrated Bhakti and Sufi syncretism, implicitly endorsed a normative vision of India as plural and tolerant. However, they often failed to acknowledge that this pluralism could have indigenous Indic roots, predating Islamic influence, as seen in Buddhist missions, Ashokan dhamma, and pan-Indic pilgrimage networks. The new textbooks, by emphasising certain pre-Islamic periods, attempt to recover these threads, not to demonise Islam, but to re-anchor India's pluralism in a deeper Indic context. And possibly, let us wait to see if between classes VIII to X, the new textbooks do bring in Mughals, Delhi Sultanate, Bahmani or Bengal Sultans into some reckoning. As things appear, few apprehend the risk of Hindu triumphalism. Yet liberal-secular historians have also been guilty of selectively emphasising pluralism while minimising the sociopolitical subordination and subjugation of non-Muslims under Islamic regimes for constructing a secular past. The need for new imaginations So while the new textbooks have a laudable impulse, their execution lacks nuanced explanations and dialogical pedagogy. I agree with Hegde at one level when she highlights that they do not adequately explain how history is constructed, how different kinds of sources yield different truths, or how moral judgments must be distinguished from factual claims. However, I contend it fails not just Hegde's test of pluralism but also the deeper civilisational project that it ostensibly champions. It merely gestures towards civilisational memory but offers only superficial fragments, lacking philosophical grounding and pedagogic possibilities. The need of the hour is a curriculum that would not sanitise the past or erase conflict, but present them within a broader ethical framework, where critique doesn't descend into cynicism, and diversity doesn't preclude coherence. It would draw upon figures like Chanakya, Ashoka, Harsha, Pulakesin, Raja Raja Chola, Ramanuja, and Basava, not as mere icons, but as windows into India's diverse civilisational strategies. It would teach students not just to dissect the past, but to inhabit it, exploring the ideas, institutions, and beliefs that enabled societies to endure, reform, and flourish. Hegde's critique reflects a broader failure within Indian academia to envision history as a space for moral and civilisational reflection. It forgets that nations are not solely born from protest, but also from shared narratives of song, scripture, myth, and memory. Educating a generation without these resources risks creating mere inhabitants, not citizens where having a civilisational selfhood is key to navigate modernity. What we need is not less narrative, but better narrative, one that can carry the weight of a civilization into the classrooms of a republic. The writer is a retired school teacher based in Bengaluru, who has worked with TVS Educational Society institutions and Azim Premji Foundation, Bengaluru
ARN News Center
21-04-2025
- Science
- ARN News Center
3,000-year-old Iron Age cemetery discovered in Al Ain
The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has announced the discovery of the UAE's first major Iron Age cemetery in the Al Ain Region. The 3,000-year-old necropolis, believed to contain over 100 tombs, offers new insight into burial practices during a previously undocumented period of the country's history. Unearthed by DCT Abu Dhabi's Archaeology Section, the site includes burial chambers filled with grave goods such as pottery, metal weapons, shell containers and jewelry. "This discovery transforms our understanding of the ancient Emirates,' said Jaber Saleh Al Merri, Director of the Historic Environment Department at DCT Abu Dhabi. "It brings us closer to the people who lived here 3,000 years ago and supports our mission to protect Abu Dhabi's heritage," he added. Human remains found at the site are being studied to determine age, health and lineage. DNA analysis may also reveal ancient migration patterns and family relationships. The cemetery's unique tombs were built underground with no surface markers, which may explain why Iron Age burials in Al Ain remained undiscovered until now. The discovery was made as part of the Funerary Landscapes of Al Ain Project, launched in 2024 to investigate tombs uncovered during construction. The project supports ongoing efforts to research the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Al Ain. "We know how people in the Bronze Age and Late Pre-Islamic period buried their dead, but Iron Age burials were the missing piece of the puzzle. This find helps us trace the evolution of local customs and beliefs," said Tatiana Valente, Field Archaeologist at DCT Abu Dhabi. @dctabudhabi #AbuDhabi 's rich heritage. — مكتب أبوظبي الإعلامي (@ADMediaOffice) April 21, 2025
Dubai Eye
21-04-2025
- Science
- Dubai Eye
3,000-year-old Iron Age cemetery discovered in Al Ain
The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has announced the discovery of the UAE's first major Iron Age cemetery in the Al Ain Region. The 3,000-year-old necropolis, believed to contain over 100 tombs, offers new insight into burial practices during a previously undocumented period of the country's history. Unearthed by DCT Abu Dhabi's Archaeology Section, the site includes burial chambers filled with grave goods such as pottery, metal weapons, shell containers and jewelry. "This discovery transforms our understanding of the ancient Emirates,' said Jaber Saleh Al Merri, Director of the Historic Environment Department at DCT Abu Dhabi. "It brings us closer to the people who lived here 3,000 years ago and supports our mission to protect Abu Dhabi's heritage," he added. Human remains found at the site are being studied to determine age, health and lineage. DNA analysis may also reveal ancient migration patterns and family relationships. The cemetery's unique tombs were built underground with no surface markers, which may explain why Iron Age burials in Al Ain remained undiscovered until now. The discovery was made as part of the Funerary Landscapes of Al Ain Project, launched in 2024 to investigate tombs uncovered during construction. The project supports ongoing efforts to research the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Al Ain. "We know how people in the Bronze Age and Late Pre-Islamic period buried their dead, but Iron Age burials were the missing piece of the puzzle. This find helps us trace the evolution of local customs and beliefs," said Tatiana Valente, Field Archaeologist at DCT Abu Dhabi. @dctabudhabi has unearthed a major Iron Age cemetery, the first discovery of its kind in Al Ain Region. The site, containing more than a hundred tombs and an array of artefacts, casts a new light on a previously unknown chapter of #AbuDhabi 's rich heritage. — مكتب أبوظبي الإعلامي (@ADMediaOffice) April 21, 2025
TAG 91.1
21-04-2025
- Science
- TAG 91.1
3,000-year-old Iron Age cemetery discovered in Al Ain
The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has announced the discovery of the UAE's first major Iron Age cemetery in the Al Ain Region. The 3,000-year-old necropolis, believed to contain over 100 tombs, offers new insight into burial practices during a previously undocumented period of the country's history. Unearthed by DCT Abu Dhabi's Archaeology Section, the site includes burial chambers filled with grave goods such as pottery, metal weapons, shell containers and jewelry. "This discovery transforms our understanding of the ancient Emirates,' said Jaber Saleh Al Merri, Director of the Historic Environment Department at DCT Abu Dhabi. "It brings us closer to the people who lived here 3,000 years ago and supports our mission to protect Abu Dhabi's heritage," he added. Human remains found at the site are being studied to determine age, health and lineage. DNA analysis may also reveal ancient migration patterns and family relationships. The cemetery's unique tombs were built underground with no surface markers, which may explain why Iron Age burials in Al Ain remained undiscovered until now. The discovery was made as part of the Funerary Landscapes of Al Ain Project, launched in 2024 to investigate tombs uncovered during construction. The project supports ongoing efforts to research the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Al Ain. "We know how people in the Bronze Age and Late Pre-Islamic period buried their dead, but Iron Age burials were the missing piece of the puzzle. This find helps us trace the evolution of local customs and beliefs," said Tatiana Valente, Field Archaeologist at DCT Abu Dhabi. . @dctabudhabi has unearthed a major Iron Age cemetery, the first discovery of its kind in Al Ain Region. The site, containing more than a hundred tombs and an array of artefacts, casts a new light on a previously unknown chapter of #AbuDhabi 's rich heritage. — مكتب أبوظبي الإعلامي (@ADMediaOffice) April 21, 2025
