The Process of Changes in meaning of the Word ‘Adab’ With Focus on the First Three Centuries after Islam
Subject Areas : Research in Iranian classical literature
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Keywords: ‘Adab’ ‘Ta’dib’ Literature ‘Adib’ Teaching Training,
Abstract :
“Adab” in tradition of the pre-Islamic Arabic culture was a word for good manners and customs inherited through generations. Due to the importance of teaching and training, the term applied to all branches of knowledge, except divinities, but the word Ta’dib (teaching ‘Adab’/ good manners) was considered synonymous with teaching. So it went after Islam. Arabs’ contacts with other nations, especially during the first three centuries, caused the extension of the term’s significance so that it included all sciences, crafts, and sports. In this period, ‘Adab’ meant witty, innovative and subtle points. A learned witty person was referred to as ‘Adib’, i.e. a man of ‘Adab’. By the end of the third century, the term was commonly used for word study. In the fifth and sixth centuries it referred to inflection, syntax and rhetoric. Changes in connotations of the term ‘Adab’ was linked with the social history of nations. In Farsi language, it means courtesy and good manner; it also is a word for literature.