Adab (gesture)

Adab, from the Arabic word Aadaab (آداب), meaning respect and politeness, is a hand gesture used as a Muslim greeting. It is associated with the culture of south Asian Muslims, especially of Urdu-speaking communities of Uttar Pradesh and Hyderabadi Muslims and Bengali Muslims.

Since the normal greeting of Muslims i.e. "Assalamu Alaikum" was meant for Muslims only, and Muslims in India lived in a multi-faith society, this alternative form of greeting was coined. Fundamentalist elements in the society oppose the use of "Adab" in an all-Muslim society.

The gesture involves raising the right hand towards the face with palm inwards such that it is in front of the eyes and the finger tips are almost touching the forehead, as the upper torso is bent forward. It is typical for the person to say "adab arz hai", or just "adab".

In popular culture today, the adab is often associated with the courtly culture of the Muslim Nawabs.

See also

References

Adab

Adab can refer to:

`Adab

`Adab is a village in eastern Yemen. It is located in the Hadhramaut Governorate.

External links

Coordinates: 15°37′N 48°19′E / 15.617°N 48.317°E / 15.617; 48.317

Islamic literature

Islamic literature is literature written with an Islamic perspective, in any language.

One term for this is adab. Although today adab denotes literature generally, 'in earlier times its meaning included all that a well-informed person had to know in order to pass in society as a cultured and refined individual. This meaning ... started with the basic idea that adab was the socially accepted ethical and moral quality of an urbane and courteous person'; thus adab can also denote the category of Islamic law dealing with etiquette, or a gesture of greeting.

Medieval adab works

According to Issa J. Boullata,

Key early adab anthologies were the al-Mufaḍḍaliyyāt of Al-Mufaḍḍal al-Ḍabbī (d. c. 780 CE); Abū Tammām's Dīwān al-Ḥamāsa (d. 846 CE); ʿUyūn al-Akhbār, compiled by Ibn Qutayba (d. 889 CE); and Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih's al-ʿIqd al-Farīd (d. 940 CE).

Islamic literature more generally

The best known fiction from the Islamic world is The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), a compilation of many earlier folk tales set in a frame story of being told serially by the Persian Queen Scheherazade. The compilation took form in the 10th century and reached its final form by the 14th century; the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. All Arabian fantasy tales were often called "Arabian Nights" when translated into English, regardless of whether they appeared in any version of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, and a number of tales are known in Europe as "Arabian Nights" despite existing in no Arabic manuscript.