Muhammad Arif Mahmud Husayn

Muhammad Arif Mahmud Husayn is an Egyptian scholar of Arabic literature who served as a lecturer at the Faculty of Arabic Language at Al-Azhar University al-Naqd al-Adabi wa Maqay…+1.

Scholarly contribution

Husayn's research focuses on the history and methodology of early Arabic literary criticism, analyzing its origins, aesthetic criteria, and development from the pre-Islamic period through the early Islamic era al-Naqd al-Adabi wa Maqay…+1. In his study Malamih al-Naqd al-Adabi wa Maqayisuhu fi al-Asr al-Jahili ("Features of Literary Criticism and Its Standards in the Pre-Islamic Era"), he examined the emergence of criticism as an intuitive taste and natural disposition among early Arabs, arguing that critical appreciation developed concurrently with poetic and prose composition long before criticism became a codified discipline with formal rules in later centuries Majallat al-Jami'a al-Isl….

In his treatise al-Naqd al-Adabi wa Maqayisuhu Khilal Ahd al-Rasul wa Asr al-Khilafa al-Rashida ("Literary Criticism and Its Standards During the Era of the Prophet and the Age of the Rightly Guided Caliphate"), Husayn investigated the profound intellectual and linguistic transformation brought by Islam to Arabic literary arts al-Naqd al-Adabi wa Maqay…. He delineated the foundational criteria governing literary appraisal in the era of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the Rashidun Caliphate, identifying two principal benchmarks: a religious standard that evaluated literary meaning and social purpose against Islamic ethics, and a rhetorical standard that prioritized clarity, natural eloquence, and freedom from artificial affectation al-Naqd al-Adabi wa Maqay….