Courage in Arabic Language and Poetry

Courage is a word frequently used in Arabic literature as a content both in prose and poetry. The word courage is an etymologically Arabic origin word. The word courage, which is an infinitive in Arabic, corresponds to Turkish meanings such as courage, courageousness, bravery, heroism, pecker, manhood, masculinity, brotherhood, companionship, blindness, gallantness. In Arabic poetry, the first meaning the word courage is often used as courage/bravery. It is shown as a courage to throw your eyes upon the enemy in the front line in wars without avoiding death. In some poems, generosity, smartness, expressing their thoughts without fear of even dying have been expressed as courage. As a term, the word courage is used in the moral literature to mean the middle way achieved by the feeling of wrath or anger by obeying reason. The middle point of aggression and cowardice is also used as the opposite of cowardice. The word courage has been defined as the manifestation of violent anger between imprudence and fear. It is a moderate state of anger that occurs in fear at the level of loose behaviour and in imprudence at the level of excess. Donation of a property that a person needs to another person in need is also defined as courage. In this study, the word courage was first examined etymologically. The dictionary meanings of the word are presented from the classical Arabic dictionaries known to date, especially the first Arabic dictionary Halil b. Ahmed’s Kitâbu’l-ʽAyn. After giving terminological meanings of the word courage, it was tried to give the meaning of the word using a sample of poetry to represent each period from the Ignorance to the Modern period.

Keywords

Arabic Language and Rhetoric, Courage, Bravery, Poetry, Ignorance.