MANUEL S.

ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION Document Code: CAS–F–CMT

An Autonomous University Document Title: Course Module Template
LUCENA CITY in LIT 100 Great Books
Page No: 1 of 6
Revision No.: 0
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Effectivity Date: 15 August 2022
Prepared by: Instructor
QUALITY FORM Reviewed by: Department Chair
Approved by: Dean
NAME OF THE GENERAL EDUCATION
PROGRAM
COURSE TITLE Great Books COURSE CODE LIT 100
PREREQUISITE/ CO- None COURSE UNIT 3 units
REQUISITE
COURSE OUTCOME CO1: Ability to describe major literary styles and genres from
multiple parts of the world.
MODULE 3 Part II of Eastern Literature
LESSON LEARNING After successful completion of this module, you should be able
OUTCOME/S to:
a. identify the literary genre and elements;
b. discuss the importance of language and teaching
parables; and
c. distinguish the Arabic and Middle Eastern
Literature.
TOPIC/S Eastern Literature (Arabic and Middle Eastern Literature)
a. Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat
b. Arabian Nights – The Tale of Scheherazade
c. Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet
WEEK / INCLUSIVE Week 3
DATE
MODALITY Online Synchronous and Asynchronous (MS Teams and NEO-
LMS)

▪ LESSON PROPER

OMAR KHAYYAM’S RUBAIYAT

“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”
- Omar Khayyam
Author: Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam (full Arabic name Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ
ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Nīsābūrī al-Khayyāmī; 1048-1131 AD). Omar
Khayyam became a man of two reputations: (1) In his own time and
in his own country today he has been acknowledged as a brilliant
scholar who had mastered mathematics, philosophy, astronomy,
law, medicine, and history. (2) To the English-speaking world he is
known mainly as the author of a small volume of remarkably beautiful poetry.
Prodigiously intelligent and reserved in temperament, Khayyam was an agnostic
who chafed under the orthodox religious state the Seljuk Turks were beginning to impose
in Persia. Among his other scientific achievements, Khayyam discovered a geometrical
method of solving cubic equations by intersecting a parabola with a circle, and helped
design the Jalali calendar, a very advanced solar calendar, a modified version of which is
still in use in Iran.
 MANUEL S. ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION Document Code: CAS–F–CMT
An Autonomous University Document Title: Course Module Template
LUCENA CITY in LIT 100 Great Books
Page No: 2 of 6
Revision No.: 0
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Effectivity Date: 15 August 2022
Prepared by: Instructor
QUALITY FORM Reviewed by: Department Chair
Approved by: Dean

Overview
The Rubaiyat
Definition of “rubai”- Persian word for Quatrain or four-line verse; ancient literary
form
Rubaiyat: plural form of “rubai”
Poem format: Quatrain
Rhyme scheme: a-a-b-a
Iambic pentameter: Each line is 5 clusters of 2 syllables= 10 syllables per line; the
stress is on the second syllable
Example:
“Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of spring
You Winter-garment of Repentance fling;
The Bird of time has but a little way
To flutter – and the Bird is on the Wing.
The primary message of a rubai: “LIVE FOR THE DAY”
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the poems “reveal a man of deep
thought, troubled by the questions of the nature of reality and the eternal, the
impermanence and uncertainty of life, and man’s relationship to God.”
Themes:
 Pursuit of eternal reward is fiction
 Our existence is a ripple on the pond
 Beauty’s evanescence
 Importance of sensuous pleasure in this life
Summary:
Human Impermanence and the Search for Wisdom (Quatrains 1-67)
As the sun rises, worshipers crowd to get into a tavern. They know their time is
short. The speaker names many powerful mythological leaders who have died. He
emphasizes how life disappears as quickly as a bird in flight, drops from a wineglass, or
leaves from a tree. Roses fade from gardens as spring and summer vanish.
The speaker finds his own paradise in material pleasures like wine, song, and the
company of his companion and lover. He encourages his companion to "fill the Cup" and
drink wine with him. They will turn to dust soon as their friends have before them. Even
wise men and prophets are eventually silenced by dust. Humans who plan and hope for a
reward in the future will find no certainty.
 MANUEL S. ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION Document Code: CAS–F–CMT
An Autonomous University Document Title: Course Module Template
LUCENA CITY in LIT 100 Great Books
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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Effectivity Date: 15 August 2022
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As the speaker seeks wisdom about his purpose on earth, he finds only one
answer: he came into the world "like Water" and will leave "like Wind." He goes further into
the heavens to seek truth. But he finds darkness, a locked door, and a veil he can't see
beyond. If he could determine truth from falsehood and learn the secret of life, he might
find the Master, an unseen creator who controls all existence.
A wine vessel tells him to drink since he can't return to life once he's dead. The
speaker in turn urges the person he is addressing—either the reader or his companion—to
drink and forget their regrets and worries. The human body is a temporary tent for a
traveler, he adds, just as life is a brief stop between long periods of darkness. Each human
life is small compared to the vastness of the universe. Dismissing logic, reason, and
religious argument, the speaker indulges in wine.
He dismisses "threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise" since no one knows if heaven
and hell are real. Instead, he believes he contains both heaven and hell within himself.
Divine Power, Religion, and Fate (Quatrains 68-90)
An all-powerful Master treats human lives like shadows in a magic lantern or pieces
on a game board. From the beginning of the world, the speaker imagines, creators have
known how the world will end. Humans, however, still don't know where they came from or
where they're going.
The speaker now prefers to find his wisdom drinking in the tavern rather in the
temple. He rebels against the religious concept of facing punishment for sin and refuses to
deny himself pleasure.
As he thinks about the relationship between humans and a divine creator, he tells
a story about pots or clay vessels discussing their absent potter. The pots speak to one
another during the last month of Ramadan, a monthlong Islamic religious observance of
fasting and prayer. The pots worry that the Potter has created them only to destroy
them. One flawed pot wonders if he'll be destroyed because of the Potter's own failings.
Then the pots hear a porter arriving with wine, signaling the end of the Ramadan fast.
Divine and Celebration of Life (Quatrains 91-96)
The speaker expresses his hopes to be buried in the garden he enjoys in life and
to have his dead body washed with wine. He laments the vanishing of spring and the
nightingale. He longs to change fate and shape the world he and his lover desire.
As the speaker reclines in the garden, the moon looks for him and his beloved.
But only one of them is there. He asks the wine pourer to "turn down an empty glass" on
his grave.
 MANUEL S. ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION Document Code: CAS–F–CMT
An Autonomous University Document Title: Course Module Template
LUCENA CITY in LIT 100 Great Books
Page No: 4 of 6
Revision No.: 0
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Effectivity Date: 15 August 2022
Prepared by: Instructor
QUALITY FORM Reviewed by: Department Chair
Approved by: Dean

ARABIAN NIGHTS – THE TALE OF SCHEHERAZADE

“People need stories more than bread itself. They tell us how to live, and why.”
- Arabian Nights
Overview
Also called The Thousand and One Nights, (Arabic: Alf laylah wa laylah), collection
of largely Middle Eastern and Indian stories of uncertain date and authorship. Its tales of
Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sindbad the Sailor have almost become part of Western folklore,
though these were added to the collection only in the 18th century in European
adaptations.
As in much medieval European literature, the stories—fairy tales, romances,
legends, fables, parables, anecdotes, and exotic or realistic adventures—are set within a
frame story.
Its scene is Central Asia or “the islands or peninsulae of India and China,” where
King Shahryar, after discovering that during his absences his wife has been regularly
unfaithful, kills her and those with whom she has betrayed him. Then, loathing all
womankind, he marries and kills a new wife each day until no more candidates can be
found.
His vizier, however, has two daughters, Shahrazad (Scheherazade) and Dunyazad;
and the elder, Shahrazad, having devised a scheme to save herself and others, insists that
her father give her in marriage to the king. Each evening she tells a story, leaving it
incomplete and promising to finish it the following night. The stories are so entertaining,
and the king so eager to hear the end, that he puts off her execution from day to day and
finally abandons his cruel plan.

Nights is a composite work

consisting of popular stories
originally transmitted orally and developed during several centuries, with material added
somewhat haphazardly at different periods and places. The tales’ variety and geographical
range of origin—India, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, and possibly Greece—make single
authorship unlikely.
 MANUEL S. ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION Document Code: CAS–F–CMT
An Autonomous University Document Title: Course Module Template
LUCENA CITY in LIT 100 Great Books
Page No: 5 of 6
Revision No.: 0
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Effectivity Date: 15 August 2022
Prepared by: Instructor
QUALITY FORM Reviewed by: Department Chair
Approved by: Dean

KHALIL GIBRAN’S THE PROPHET

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.”
- Khalil Gibran

Author
Khalil Gibran, Gibran also spelled Jibran, Khalil
also spelled Kahlil, Arabic name in full Jubrān Khalīl
Jubrān, (born January 6, 1883, Bsharrī, Lebanon—died
April 10, 193 1, New York, New York, U.S.), Lebanese-
American philosophical essayist, novelist, poet, and artist.
Gibran’s literary and artistic output is highly romantic in
outlook and was influenced by the Bible, Friedrich
Nietzsche, and William Blake. His writings in both
languages, which deal with such themes as love, death,
nature, and a longing for the homeland, are full of lyrical outpourings and are expressive of
Gibran’s deeply religious and mystic nature.
Overview
The Prophet, book of 26 poetic essays by Khalil Gibran, published in 1923. A best-
selling book of popular mysticism, The Prophet was translated into more than a dozen
languages. Although many critics thought Gibran’s poetry mediocre, The Prophet achieved
cult status among American youth for several generations.
Gibran’s narrative frame relates that the Prophet, about to board a ship that will take
him home after 12 years in a foreign city, is stopped by a group of the city’s inhabitants,
who ask him to speak to them about the mysteries of life. He does so, discussing love,
marriage, beauty, reason and passion, and death, among other topics.

▪ ACTIVITY/ EXERCISE/ ASSIGNMENT

Written Exercises
 MANUEL S. ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION Document Code: CAS–F–CMT
An Autonomous University Document Title: Course Module Template
LUCENA CITY in LIT 100 Great Books
Page No: 6 of 6
Revision No.: 0
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Effectivity Date: 15 August 2022
Prepared by: Instructor
QUALITY FORM Reviewed by: Department Chair
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1.) Identify and explain the common themes of the literary treasures discussed. What are
their main messages?

▪ SUPPLEMENTARY LEARNING MATERIALS

 Read: The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/58585/58585-h/58585-h.htm
 Read: On Love by Kahlil Gibran
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/148579/on-love
 Watch: The Tale of Scheherazade [Video]. (n.d.). YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLj3EBX72QU&t=121s

▪ REFERENCES

Britannica. (2023). Khalil Gibran. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Khalil-Gibran
Britannica. (2023). Omar Khayyam. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Omar-Khayyam-Persian-poet-and-
astronomer
Britannica. (2023). The prophet. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Prophet-by-Gibran
Britannica. (2022). The Thousand and One Nights. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Thousand-and-One-Nights
Gutenberg. (2013). Rubaiyat of omar Khayyam. Retrieved from
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/246/246-h/246-h.htm
The Tale of Scheherazade [Video]. (n.d.). YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLj3EBX72QU&t=121s

Prepared by: Reviewed by: Approved by:

OLIVIA B. PALANCA MARIA AZELA L. TAMAYO, PhD CLAUDIA ODETTE J. AYALA, PhD
Faculty Department Chair Dean