Haggag Salama 

The book "Mauritania: Culture, State and Society", which was contributed by a group of Mauritanian writers and published by the Center for Arab Unity Studies more than two decades a, remains an important source for every researcher and reader, thanks to the rich material it includes within its pages that records immortal stations in the history of Mauritanian culture, and sheds light on important aspects of the journey of the state and society in that brotherly Arab country.  

We learn from our tour among the chapters and pages of this book how Mauritanian cultural radiation reached its peak in the thirteenth century AH, witnessing the first scientific renaissance that has continued to arouse the fascination of historians of literature and culture. 

The authors of the book showed, through their perusal of Mauritanian indexes, manuscripts and classifications, the level these people reached in digesting Sharia sciences and Arabic literature, and the noble additions they added to these fields of knowledge. The influence of this renaissance exceeded the scope of the Chinguetti desert into the depths and wilderness of Africa, and it reached the heart of the Arab region through those whom Al-Khalil Al-Nahwi called (ambassadors of the Mahadhra). 

Arab and Western sources agree on the primary role played by these ambassadors in establishing the foundations of Arab-Islamic culture in sub-Saharan Africa, and the African states and religious empires had a relationship of direct loyalty to the Mauritanian scientific and religious centers.  

The "Chinguetti" were famous for this pioneering role, which many writings we quote from confirmed that "the image of the Chinguetti still remains in the Arab countries as the faithful representatives of Arab-Islamic culture in its purity and authenticity, and that they are its city in the farthest reaches of the stream of Islam, stationed in its borders to preserve it, spread it, and radiate through it." 

The pages of the book highlighted the testimonies of Taha Hussein, Ahmed Hassan al-Zayyat and other figures of the Mashriqi (Eastern) renaissance regarding the prominent role played by the Chinguetti figures in renewing the springs of modern Arab thought. Among these are Muhammad Mahmoud bin al-Talamid al-Chinguetti, Ahmad bin al-Amin, Sheikh Muhammad al-Amin, Muhammad Mahmoud al-Tandaghi, Sheikh Muhammad al-Mami bin Zain... and others for whom Al-Khalil Al-Nahwi translated in detail and accuracy in his book Chinguetti, the Lighthouse and the Ribat. 

However, Mauritania was famous in Arab countries as being the "homeland of poetry," until some Lebanese critics in the early sixties named it the country of a million poets, and the naming became widely known.. 

The pages of the book "Mauritania: Culture, State and Society" take us to literature, which is meant – here – as Arab literature written in classical Arabic by writers who grew up in the current Mauritanian field, which predecessors defined as being between Saqiya al-Hamra in the north and the Senegal River in the south, and between the bend of the Niger River in the east and the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Here we find a brief description of the available sources of this literature, its origin in this field and its development, its types, purposes, and status. 

Biographies of the Chinguetti Writers 

In this framework defined for us by the authors of the book, we can consider the first literary collection that includes texts written by Mauritanians as the book "Al-Wasit fi Tarajim Udaba Chinguetti" by its author Sid Ahmed bin al-Amin (d. 1913) published in Cairo in the year 1911. It has been printed 4 times and includes 70 biographies of poets who lived between the early eighteenth century and the end of the nineteenth century. The book includes many of their texts and only contains a rare few pieces of prose mentioned in the section of the book dedicated to the cultural and social history of the country. 

As for the second collection, it is a group of poetic texts collected by a Lebanese from the Lebanese community in Senegal during World War II named Yusuf Muqallid and published in Lebanon in 1962 under the title Poets of Mauritania, Ancient and Modern. 

The third collection is a group that includes about six thousand verses for about a hundred poets who all lived before the year 1900. This collection was not published before, collected by Muhammad al-Mukhtar bin Abah (born in 1924) and published in Tunisia in the year 1987 under the title Poetry and Poets in Mauritania, and the author introduced it with a historical introduction chronicling the origin of this poetry, its purposes, and styles. He also translated 94 of the poets in a brief biography.. 

According to the texts of the book, perhaps the most important source of this literature is the encyclopedia of the historian Al-Mukhtar bin Hamid (d. 1993) about the life of Mauritania, its environment, history, inhabitants and culture. In it, the author spoke about the peoples who inhabited Mauritania since ancient times, about the tribes and their history, and within this culture he talks about the scholars of the tribe and its poets, translates for them, and lists the titles of their works and samples of their poetry. 

The book tells us that a large group of poetic collections have been achieved, as well as a few prose texts, including Maqamat (assemblies) such as the assemblies of Abdullah al-Atiq bin Dhi al-Khalal (d. 1342 AH / 1924 AD), and among them historical and social prose texts that include some texts of a literary nature, such as the texts of Muhammad al-Yadali (d. 1166 AH / 1753 AD), Walid bin Khalna (d. 1212 AH / 1798 AD), Sheikh Sidi Muhammad al-Kunti (d. 1243 AH / 1823 AD) and the letters of Sheikh Sidi (d. 1284 AH / 1867 AD), Sheikh Saad Abihi (d. 1335 AH / 1957 AD) and Sid Muhammad bin Ahmed bin Habt (was alive in the year 1327 AH / 1909 AD). 

Important studies have been prepared, the most important of which is the study of Ahmed bin al-Hassan about Chinguetti poetry in the 13th century AH / 19th century AD, which focused on the study of styles in thirteen collections of thirteen poets in the mentioned century, which are collections collected by students of the Higher Teacher Training School in Nouakchott between the years 1982 and 1984. The student introduced his study with a chapter chronicling the cultural and social life that framed his text (University of Tunis, 1986). Among them is the study of Abdullah Hassan on the emergence of eloquent poetry in the land of Chinguetti, which aimed to define a date for the first texts written by the poets of Mauritania (Cairo University, 1986). 

Then the study of Muhammad bin Abdul Hayy "Innovation in Arab Literature in Mauritania in the Modern Era", which was interested in studying the genres, purposes, and styles that emerged in the literature of this country since it came into contact with contemporary literatures (completed at the University of Tunis in 1989). 

Then the study of Muhammad al-Mahjoub bin Beyah "History of Resistance Poetry in Mauritania", across the last half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century up to the year 1973, which is a review of the most important events in this period and the accompaniment of the two types of poetry, eloquent and popular, to them, prepared at the Sorbonne University in 1986. 

Then the study of Muhammad Mahmoud bin Sid Al-Mukhtar about Tea in Mauritanian Literature. It is a study that took as its subject a number of poetic texts, assemblies and prose stories of writers most of whom lived in the late last century and the beginning of this century (Rabat University, 1989).. 

Then a study on "Oppositions" in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries prepared by Abdullah bin Ahmed Salem (Rabat University, 1991),. And the study of Abdullah bin Hamdi for literature, which reflected Islamic political concerns, in which he reviewed the texts that reflected this purpose since the middle of the nineteenth century (prepared at Oujda University, 1992).. 

Add to these independent studies four studies that preceded the achieved works mentioned above, which aimed to describe these works, evaluate them, and place them in their context: achieving the collection of Muhammad bin Hamid by Ahmed bin Habib Allah (Cairo University, 1989), achieving the biography section of the book Al-Wasit fi Tarajim Udaba Chinguetti by Muhammad bin Ma'' al-Aynayn (Rabat University, 1991), achieving the collection of Muhammad bin Sid Ahmad by Mariam bint al-Sheikh, and achieving the collection of Muhammad Hamid by Ahmed Salem bin Muhammad (Rabat University, 1992).  

In addition to this, a large number of graduation theses were prepared at the University of Nouakchott and in the Higher School in Nouakchott and in some Arab universities, which are studies closer to artistic presentations than to solid studies, and it is difficult in this place to aim to count them. 

Recorded Texts 

According to the book, scholars have not yet found rhetorically acceptable literary texts dating before the last quarter of the seventeenth century AD. The most important existing texts are the texts of the generation of Ibn Razaka, whom sources agree died around the year 1143 AH / 1731 AD. These are texts, some of which show maturity and practice not explained by the few existing systems that precede this period, which makes these texts look like a sudden leap. This led the researcher Muhammad al-Mukhtar bin Abah to describe this beginning saying: "In the middle of the eleventh century AH, a massive poetic renaissance exploded, among its prominent leaders being Sid Abdullah bin Muhammad Al-Alawi - Ibn Razaka, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Yadali, Ad-De''eb Al-Hasani, Bufimin Al-Majlisi and Al-Ma Al-Arabi and others. Their poetry was of an integrated image, and despite the differences in sources, they agree that there were only jurist system-makers before this generation who could correct Arabic speech to be acceptable in grammar and prosody but was not literary in any way." 

As for poetry in Mauritania, it has become since the beginning of the 12th century AH / 18th century AD, the title of knowledge, the badge of chivalry and the decisive weapon in intellectual battles and tribal wars. Its purposes diversified and spread, including those that were prohibited at the beginning, such as ghazal (love poetry) and satire. Their places were taken by praise, ghazal, pride, lamentation, satire, description, wisdom and guidance, along with the purposes of supplication, prayer and istisqa (rain prayer) which were used in educational rajaz poems. 

By induction of the authors of the book to the sources mentioned previously, especially the book Al-Wasit in Biographies of Chinguetti Writers by Ibn al-Amin, Poetry and Poets by Ibn Abah, and Mauritania''s Life by Ibn Hamid, it appears that the groups of poets that occupied the time span from the beginning of the 12th century AH / 18th century AD to the end of the 14th century AH / 20th century AD, i.e., over three centuries, which is the historical range of this literature, can be classified into six generations in the Khaldunian sense of generation, which overlap much chronologically and artistically but are distinguished by history. 

It remains for us to point out that the book "Mauritania: Culture, State and Society" was co-authored by the following Mauritanian writers: As-Sayyid Walid Abah, Sayyid Abdullah al-Mahboubi, Babah Muhammad Nasser, Lemrabet Walid Aslamo, Al-Nani Walid al-Hussein, Dud Walid Abdullah, Muhammad al-Amin Walid al-Sheikh Abdullah, Muhammad Abdul Hayy, and as-Sayyid Walid Abah (Mammad).