al-Athar al-ʻUmānī fī al-Shiʻr al-Sawāḥilī al-Taqlīdī: Dirāsah fī al-Malāmiḥ al-Māddīyah wa-al-Qiyam al-Ḥaḍārīyah - ʻUthmān, Wāʼil Nabīl Ibrāhīm; Muʼtamar al-Istiqāmah al-Duwalī al-Thānī: al-ʻUmānīyūn wa-al-Sawāḥilīyah bayna al-Taʼthīr wa-al-Taʼaththur (2026) (Mumbāsā) (Mumbāsā : Jamʻīyat al-Istiqāmah al-Khayrīyah al-Islāmīyah al-ʻĀlamīyah, 2026)
This study treats the deep historical and literary roots binding Omanis to the inhabitants of the African coast, concentrating on the reflection of the material features of Omani civilization in traditional Swahili poetry, and examining the organic interpenetration of Omani and Swahili literature so as to move beyond the conventional view that confines influence to the linguistic dimension alone. The research seeks to answer a central question: how was traditional Swahili poetry able to become a vessel for the material features and civilizational values that Omanis carried to East Africa? The importance of the study lies in its illumination of the Arabisation of Swahili literature in form — through prosody and rhyme — and in content, through the reflection of the streams of Omani urbanity and civilisation, thereby documenting a historical period in which Omanis were the pioneers of intellectual renaissance on the coast.
Permanent citation identifier: MHF-MOMBASA2026-004.
Conference theme (in Arabic): المحور الثالث: الأثر العربي في السواحلية.
Text in Arabic; title also romanized (ALA-LC); abstract and keywords in English.
Keywords: Swahili poetry; Omani influence; Comparative literature; Material culture; Prosody; East Africa