Arabic literature is rich in anthologies. The tradition of composing literary anthologies has a long history. It came into existence at a very early stage of literary development and continued through many centuries, till the time of cultural renovation of the Arab world in the 19th century. The earliest anthologies were made most probably in the first half of the 8th century, under the last Umayyads, at the same time when the first records of the oral Arab tradition came into being — both of the old and the recent, some of it folklore, some created by individual authors. None of these first collections have survived, though some of their materials are preserved in later anthologies…
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