A festival and an art of writing

This lesson asks you to use texts you read to identify communities where Arabic is spoken and to find out about aspects of their cultures. The museum offers one festival and one art of writing. The festivals of other communities, television programmes, songs and comic strips you read, your class brings. ¹

Ask of the text: which tradition does it describe, when does it recur, and what does it resemble in your community's traditions?

The Encyclopaedia of Islam says that Eid al-Fitr, the festival of breaking the fast, is also called the minor festival, and in Turkish the sugar festival, and that it is celebrated on the first of Shawwal and the days that follow ². It records two canonical festivals in the Muslim year: Eid al-Adha on the tenth of Dhu al-Hijja and Eid al-Fitr on the first of Shawwal ³. In practice, the article says, the two festivals last three or four days ³.

The record follows two books of different kinds. The Kuwaiti encyclopaedia of jurisprudence says the Muslims have two festivals, the day of fitr on the first of Shawwal and the day of adha on the tenth of Dhu'l-Hijja ⁴. The Encyclopaedia of Islam says that on both festivals people put on new clothes or at least their best, visit one another, congratulate one another and exchange presents ³.

The article gives the festival a name in Turkish, "the sugar festival", beside its names in Arabic ². Using a festival of your own community, explain why one festival might have different names in different languages. Which of its names would you use with a stranger, and why?

• Eid al-Fitr: its names and days in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, and the takbir of the festival as the jurists describe it.
• Islamic calligraphy: the art of writing and shaping the Arabic letter beautifully, with scripts such as kufic, naskh, thuluth and diwani.

Read the records on Eid al-Fitr and on Islamic calligraphy. Report to the class what you found about one tradition, then look for an example of Arabic writing and name what you see in it.