Congratulations, Arabic - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
General Material Designation
[Article]
First Statement of Responsibility
van Gelder, Geert Jan
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Leiden
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Brill
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
(833 words)
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Congratulations (Ar. tahānī , sing. tahniʾa ) can be conveyed formally as a literary subject in Arabic prose or poetry. According to Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarī (d. after 395/1005), congratulation was not practised as an independent genre before Islam and whatever resembles it in early poetry is classified under panegyric ( madīḥ ; al-ʿAskarī, 1:91-2)). Early Islamic congratulatory formulas, attributed to the prophet Muḥammad and others, concerning various occasions such as weddings, conversion, pilgrimage, or the weaning of a child, have been preserved (e.g., Ibn Qutayba, 3:68-73).