From oral poetry to written poetry
The population tends to be concentrated in the capital, Doha. Nevertheless, the rest of the country boasts numerous villages - some of them abandoned for centuries but miraculously preserved by the sand - that are not to be missed, such as Al Jassasiya, where 874 rock engravings have been discovered, the earliest form of "writing" dating back to the Neolithic period. Another emblematic site - Al Khuwayr - is a reminder of pearl fishing, a flourishing activity until the early 20th century, and of the man who was born here and is considered one of the first Qatari poets, whose memory has been preserved in popular culture to the point of making him a quasi-mythical figure: Qatari ibn al-Fuja'a. He is said to have died at the very end of the 7th century, after having had a coin minted bearing the motto of the Kharidji Islam to which he belonged, leaving a rather warlike poetry glorifying martyrdom. In the same way, the story of the pirate Rahmah ibn Jabir Al Jahami (1760-1826) inspired the English journalist James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855) and became a legend in its own right. Local folklore also included a number of tales often inspired by maritime activities. One of the best-known is Gilan and May, the story of a wealthy Al Khor man and owner of pearl boats (dhows) who, not without some annoyance, sees a woman, May, starting to encroach on his territory. During a pearl harvest in which they once again found themselves in competition, Gilan, furious, observed a grasshopper whose wings he imagined imitating, thus inventing the sailboat that enabled him to never again fall behind. In a different vein, Bu Daryā, an aquatic djinn from the Persian Gulf, is still said to scare sailors.
Like folklore, poetry - known as Nabati and specific to the Arabian Peninsula - has long favored oral transmission. Practiced by the Bedouin, a nomadic people, it followed fixed forms(qasidas) similar to those used by pre-Islamic poets, and was broken down into recurring themes, such as the "ritha", the lamentation practiced by women as funeral elegies. Indeed, poetry was not only used to pass on traditions and ancient stories, it was also used in everyday life, playing a social role that made community life more fluid, for example, by resolving conflicts or, on the contrary, by serving as a declaration of war! In any case, the fact that a tribe could claim to have a poet in its midst was a source of great pride, and some went on to achieve widespread renown. Nabati tended to wither away at the dawn of the twentieth century, but it has been reviving with fervor for some decades now in certain emirates close to Qatar.
While a number of foreign poets had spent time in Qatar, to the extent that their passage is at least remembered - Abdul Jalil Al-Tabatabai or Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Uthaymin - one of the first natives was Majid Al-Khulaifi (c. 1873-1907). His poems retained the versification of the Nabati and spoke as much of war as of the death of his wife. They were included in the 1969 anthology From Qatari Poetry, which also featured Mohammed bin Jassîm al Fayhani (1907-1939), although he lived in Al Muharrig (Bahrain). This sailor, from a wealthy family, had a great love affair, tragic and platonic, which inspired verses of such beauty that they were taken up in song.
From poetry to novel
With the growing literacy rate, literature began to be written in earnest in the mid-twentieth century. This ebullience coincided with another revolution, that of the emergence of an artistic scene in a country where, until then, figurative art had not been taken for granted, as Islam rejected the representation of beings. These changes benefited from a number of factors: Qatar enjoyed a new-found prosperity thanks to oil, the status of women improved and - noteworthy enough - they became just as involved in literature as men, independence came and went in 1971, the University of Doha opened its doors two years later... Journalism also developed: 14 titles were created in the 1970s. Last but not least, borders were porous: student stays abroad became widespread, and immigration movements opened the door to new cultures. Today, this state of affairs poses a problem as Arabic finds itself in competition with English, which has naturally become the language of communication - and the second recognized as official - but cultural services are trying to stem this phenomenon, for example with the creation of the Katara Prize, which since 2014 has rewarded Arabic-language authors (even non-Qatari ones).
Yousef Ni'ma published two collections of short stories in 1970(Bin Al-Khaleej: Fille du Golfe, and Liqa fi Beirut: Une Rencontre à Beyrouth), followed by Kattham Jaber in 1978, who, with Ania wa Ghabat as-Samt wa at-Taraddud, became the first woman to publish a work more substantial than poems in newspapers. She paved the way for the Khalifa sisters, novelists who published three titles in 1993: al-Ubur ila al-haqiqa (Passage to Truth) and Ahlam al-bahr al-qadima (Old Dreams of the Sea) by Shu'a, and Usturat al-Insan wa-l-buhayra (The Myth of the Man and the Lake) by Dalal. These novels do not hesitate to question society, its rapid evolution and the social problems that ensue. Women, in any case, claim their place in this societal restructuring. They will gain the right to vote and stand for election on the same day as men, the symbolic date of March 8, 1999.
In 2011, Abdulaziz Al-Mahmoud became the country's first best-selling author with a historical novel(Al Qursan, translated into English as The Corsair), such as Ahmed Abul Malik's Ahdan al-manafi (The Embraces of Exile) in 2005, Jamal Fayiz's Mud Foam in 2013, or Hashim Al-Sayed's Roots of a Life, translated into French by Érick Bonnier éditeur in 2017. This aspiration for freedom of tone sometimes creates sharp tensions with the authorities, as was the case in 2012 when Iben Al-Dhib (Mohamed Al-Ajami) was tried for undermining the symbols of the state and inciting the overthrow of power.
