www.iaset.us editor@iaset.us EXISTENCE OF ARABIC ‘ADAB’ (BELLES-LETTRES): A LINGUISTIC STUDY NOOR UDDIN AHMED Associate Professor in Arabic, Cotton College, Guwahati, India ABSTRACT In Arabic language the term ‘adab’ bears the sense of literature; and it has gradual development in the passage of times and periods. In the Pre-Islamic period, it carried only the sense of ‘banquet’ or ‘feast’ and in the Islamic period, the term ‘adab’ started to mean “polite manners” or “culture” signifying the importance of acquiring knowledge for socio-cultural affairs of the human society. In fact, from the period of the Umayyad dynasty, the term ‘adab’ is meant for literature; as and when different genres of literary works came to existence. In this connection, it has been observed that the Arab lexicographers happened to mean the term ‘adab’ as ‘culture’, of which testimony finds in all the literary works of prose and poetry that accepted by the human hearts and finally it leads to the meaning of aesthetic literature, known as ‘belles-lettres’. KEYWORDS: ‘Adab’, Literature, Linguistic, Belles-Lettres Etc INTRODUCTION Arabic language is the lingua franca of the Arab world. Right from the pre-Islamic period to the modern age Arabic literary genres are being produced by the people of Arab world including Persia and the people of Arabic scholars of different tract of lands of the world and their productions are supposed to consider as ‘Arabic literature’. In this connection, we find a distinct word ‘adab’ which is meant for ‘culture’ or ‘refinement’ by the Arab lexicographers; and in course of times it is meant for all the literary works of prose and poetry that accepted by the human hearts. (1) In fact, the term ‘adab’ comes in singular and âdâb in plural number. In parallel to this term, we may refer to the word ‘belles-lettres’ which is used in English literature. The word ‘adab’ denotes to all elements of educative literature, which are full of good manners, refinement, decency, humanity, humaneness, seemliness including all good qualities ofliterary beauty for human being. As such, it gives to us a clear comprehension of tales, stories and anecdotes of the Arabs and non-Arabs, proverbs and essays which are designed to entertain reform and discipline. (2) Here it may be reiterated that the literary notion of belles-lettres is linked to the concept of ‘adab’ in Arabic literature. The Arabic term ‘adab’ has undergone gradual transformation in meaning over the past centuries. In fact, ‘adab’ has been familiar to the equivalent of the English word ‘literature’ as it gives literary services to the human society. Briefly speaking, the familiar literary topics like style, structuralism, pessimism, aesthetics, prizes, love, war, religion, symbolism, poetry, emotion, woman, drama, criticism, modernism, romanticism, death, and realism are also brought to the consistence of the subheading of ‘adab’ in the famous book entitled al-fihrist (Index) composed by Abû’l-Faraj Muhammad ibn Ishâq ibn Abî Ya‘qûb al-Nadim (d. 996 A.D.). (3) Description It has been observed that the Arabic term ‘adab’ gives a full picture of human society by means of literary elements like prose and poetry, drama and novel, fiction and essays covering all sorts of written documents, which imparts International Journal of Linguistics and Literature (IJLL) ISSN(P): 2319-3956; ISSN(E): 2319-3964 Vol. 5, Issue 5, Aug - Sep 2016; 1-10 © IASET