Syrian literature is modern fiction written or orally performed in Arabic by writers from Syria since the independence of the Syrian Arab Republic in 1946. It is part of the historically and geographically wider Arabic literature. Literary works by Syrian authors in the historical region of Syria since the Umayyad era are considered general Arabic literature. In its historical development since the beginnings of compilations of the Quran in the 7th century and later written records, the Arabic language has been considered a geographically comprehensive, standardized written language due to the religious or literary works written in classical Arabic. This sometimes differs considerably from the individual regionally spoken variants, such as Syrian, Egyptian or Moroccan spoken forms of Arabic.
In Arabic, bilad ash-sham refers to the region of the eastern Mediterranean known in Europe as the Levant. The individual areas of this region have close historical, geographical and cultural similarities and during the Ottoman Empire there were only administrative divisions. Especially between the larger cities such as Beirut, Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, there has been active cultural exchange both in the past and present.
The modern states of Syria and neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan, Israel as well as the Palestinian autonomous areas only came into being in the mid-20th century. Therefore, Syrian literature has since been referred to by literary scholarship as the national literature of the Syrian Arab Republic, as well as the works created in Arabic by Syrian writers in the diaspora. This literature has been influenced by the country's political history, the literature of other Arabic-speaking countries and, especially in its early days, by French literature.
Thematically, modern Syrian literature has often been inspired by social and political conditions during the different stages of the country's recent history. Other prominent themes have been everyday life in major cities including Damascus and Aleppo, but also in villages and smaller towns, reflecting the writer's own experience. Especially for women writers, the gender-specific and often dire conditions of life for women have been a central theme. Apart from these specific social settings, general human experiences such as love, sexuality, isolation and existentialist themes have been expressed.
Apart from major literary genres such as Arabic poetry, prose and theatrical works, contemporary Syrian literature also encompasses literature for children and young readers, as well as oral literature and subgenres such as science fiction, including utopian and dystopian fiction.
Definitions of Syrian national literature From 2001 onwards, literary scholars have started to define a distinctly Syrian literature, referring to genres such as the Syrian novel, poetry, or theatre, while other studies have also attempted to define a more general character of Syrian literature.See, for example, the studies by Mohja Kahf (2001), Alexa Firat (2010), Elisabeth Vauthier (2014), Anne-Marie McManus (2014 and 2018) cited in the section below for Literature. The Arabic Encyclopedia, published after 1998 in Damascus, outlined both the history and modern era of literary writing in Syria. Both this Syrian encyclopedia as well as Western scholars have described the beginnings of a Syrian literature starting from the late 19th century, and as a concrete national literature since the mid-20th century.Firat (2017) wrote: "This chapter examines the origins of the novel genre in Syria. Approximately eighteen novels by "Syrians" were published between 1865 and the 1930s, but only a limited number would have a significant influence in subsequent decades. In the 1930s, literary histories described an emerging "new generation" and the beginnings of a modern literary movement in the novel and the short story, and during the 1950s the practice of novel writing took on a truly meaningful proportion in Syria."
In his essay "In Search of the Readers", Syrian literary scholar Abdo Abboud explained the different perspectives and justifications for the overarching literary category "Arabic literature" in contrast with national literatures in Arabic of individual countries, such as Egyptian, Lebanese, or Moroccan literature. As a definition for these national literatures categories, he wrote: "Each of the 22 Arab states has its own literary world, and each of these literary worlds reflects the reality of the region on which it depends to a certain extent." Thus Abboud posited that on the one hand, Syrian literature is marked by national references, but on the other hand, modern Syrian literature may also have a character independent of its place of origin, as in the works of Syrian writers Haidar Haidar, Ghada al-Samman or Adonis. Furthermore, until the founding of the modern state of Syria in 1946, the works of Syrian writers largely developed in similar cultural contexts as the literature in the geographic region of modern-day Lebanon. This is especially true for the works of the Arab Renaissance (Nahda), starting at the end of the 19th century. Syrian literature is therefore also part of a wider Arabic literature, due to the linguistic and cultural similarities of the literary works.
The overarching dimension of Arabic literature can also be identified in the areas of publishing and readership. Many Syrian writers publish their works outside their home country, especially in Lebanon and Egypt, with publishers in Gulf countries also gaining importance after 2011. Further, an important reason for the wider Arabic literature lies in the use of the Arabic written language:
The American literary scholar of Syrian descent Mohja Kahf began her 2001 essay "The Silences of Contemporary Syrian Literature" with the provocative thesis that there is no Syrian literature, which she blamed above all on the ambiguous definition of the country in geographical and historical terms. Nevertheless, she described the works of numerous Syrian authors as Syrian literature, focusing on the conditions of writing under the dictatorship of the political regime. She especially emphasized the absence of certain political themes, due to the writers' dependence on the goodwill of the government, censorship and publication bans, such as the 1982 Hama massacre and other forms of repression, which she saw absent in modern Syrian literature. Given the violations of human and political rights in the country, she emphasized the "silence" around these issues as an overarching feature: Following the outbreak of the war in Syria in 2011, Kahf wrote that partially as a result of social media and the Internet, this silence had changed and "A new Syrian identity and literary tradition are being formed around the events of the last few years." Referring to works written under the influence of long-lasting government repression and the war since 2011, other scholars have discussed sub-genres such as Syrian prison literature and Syrian war literature.
In 2022, scholars of Arabic literature Daniel Behar and Alexa Firat stressed that the history of literature of Syria should not merely be categorized as reflections of political events, but rather as "a long literary past that feeds into literary production in the present." As Syrian literature is made up of "a rich tradition of styles, genres, tropes, and sensibilities", the authors posit "that Syrian literature should be examined with reference and regard to internal dynamics and autonomous modes of engagement with diverse literary and historical worlds rather than as determined by regime violence."
Pre-modern literature in Syria
Scholars have treated literature from the historical periods of Syria as part of the wider field of Arabic literature. Overviews on Arabic literature, such as the Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature only write of "Syrian" poetry, novels or drama from the modern period onwards and speak of Arabic literature "from Syria" in pre-modern times.Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey (eds.): Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. Routledge, London 1998, p. 748.
At the time of the Umayyad Caliphate ( to 750 CE), with its seat of government in Damascus, praise poems about high-ranking personalities at court, written in the classical form of the qasida, and poems of ridicule against rivals played an important role. The poets al-Farazdaq (640–728), Al-Akhtal (640–708), and Jarir ibn Atiyah (c. 653 – c. 729), who had come to Damascus from various regions of the caliphate, were some of the important literary figures of this period. The four-volume anthology Yatīmat by the Arab poet and medieval literary critic Al-Tha'alibi (961–1038) and his subsequent anthology Tatimmat contain works by numerous poets in Syria at the time. These anthologies were followed by the historian Imad al-Din al-Isfahani's (1125–1201) work Kharidat al-qasr wa-jaridat al-'asr. This anthology, written in the service of the Sultan of Syria Nur al-Din Zengi and his successor Saladin, contains numerous mentions of Syrian poets and their verses.Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey (eds.): Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. Routledge, London 1998, ISBN 0-415-06808-8, pp. 747–748.
The blind poet and philosopher Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (973–1057) from Maarat an-Numan in northern Syria is considered as one of the greatest classical Arab poets. His risalat al-ghufran has been compared with Dante's Divine Comedy. Usama ibn Munqidh (1095–1188), a Syrian writer and poet, politician and diplomat, was one of the most important contemporary chroniclers of the Crusades from an Arab perspective. Due to his work as a diplomat, he knew important personalities personally, both on the Arab and Christian sides. His memoir Kitab al-I'tibar provides insight into the living conditions and the relationship between Christians and Muslims at that time.Robert Irwin, "Usama ibn Munqidh: an Arab-Syrian gentleman at the time of the Crusades reconsidered." The Crusades and their sources: essays presented to Bernard Hamilton ed. John France, William G. Zajac (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998) pp. 71–87. In the 13th century, Ibn Abī Usaybiʿa (c. 1194 – 1270), a Syrian physician, medical historian, and biographer, wrote his Literary History of Medicine, which is primarily a collection of 380 biographies, mainly of Arabic-speaking physicians and scientists.