By TwoCircles.net staff reporter

New Delhi: The Delhi University’s Department of Arabic organized a national seminar on ‘Comedy in Arabic Literature’ on 25th March wherein papers on various aspects of the topic were presented by scholars and researchers.

Speaking at the seminar, Dr. Ibrahim bin Muhammad al-Batshan, cultural attaché of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, said “Tradition of comedy in Arabic literature is very old and like the comedy literature of other languages, comedy literature in Arabic language also carries great value.” He quoted some interesting pieces of comedy works in Arabic literature.

Opening the seminar, Prof. Mohammad Noman Khan, ex-head of the Department of Arabic of the university, presented an overview of comedy in Arabic literature. Prof. Muhammad Salman Ashraf elaborated on history of comedy in great details and shed light on different periods of comedy works in Arabic literature.

Prof. Badruddin al-Hafiz, ex-head of the Department of Arabic at Banaras Hindu University, read his paper on ‘Comedy in Prophetic Literature’, Prof. Zuber Ahmad Farooqui presented his paper on ‘Comedy In Abbasid Period’ and Dr. Ayyub Tajuddin Nadvi discussed ‘Comedy in Arab Culture.’ Besides, Dr. Habibullah Khan presented his paper on ‘Style of Comedies by Ustad Khalid Filistini.’

Papers on ‘Anecdotes in Arabic Literature’, ‘Elements of Comedy in Modern Egyptian Literature’, ‘Comedies by Mazani’ and ‘Importance of Humour in human Life’ were also presented.