Abstract

Ahmad Shawqi, the most famous Egyptian poet, used the animal world to narrate children stories. He began using this genre as a student in France to express his moral, national, and social desires and to awaken his fellow countrymen’s outrage against colonialism and its machinations. He narrated fifty-six tales, the first of which, entitled “Al-Deek Al-Hindi wa Al-Dajaj Al-Baladi” (The Indian Rooster and the Local Chicken), was published in the newspaper Al-Ahram in 1892. Shawqi’s tales were often written in the form of odes, following the rajaz rhythm, and using variable rhymes. They are easy to read, short, often educational, and can be easily memorized. Shawqi used the Holy Quran, books of proverbs, and Arabic wise sayings as his primary influences. Indeed, Shawqi’s tales are definitely Islamic in nature and tone.

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