At the Kuala Lumpur Book Fair…a Saudi cultural symposium discusses the approaches to Andalusian stanzas and Malaysian pantun

2026/06/05 2:23:51 PM

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At the Kuala Lumpur Book Fair…a Saudi cultural symposium discusses the approaches to Andalusian stanzas and Malaysian pantun

A specialized cultural symposium entitled “Andalusian Muwashahat and Malaysian Pantun: An Approach to Structure and Rhythm,” moderated by journalist Ahmed Al-Alkami, and presented by Dr. Suad Abu Shaal, in the presence of a group of people interested in literature, music, and Arab and Asian cultures.

This evening comes within the activities of the rich cultural program in which the Literature, Publishing and Translation Authority leads the participation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through it as a guest of honor in the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair for the year 2026 AD.

During the symposium, Dr. Abu Shaal discussed the subtle aspects of intersection between Andalusian muwashshahs and the Malaysian pantun art, as two unique poetic and expressive forms that arose in two completely different geographical and cultural environments, but they clearly met in the rhythmic structure, the internal musical composition, and the close connection to popular conscience and societal identity.

Advanced poetic art

The speaker reviewed Muwashahat is considered an advanced poetic art that has transcended the strict traditional structure of the vertical Arabic poem, while she described “pantun” as an ancient Malaysian oral art based on disciplined rhythm, deep implicit condensation, and inherited popular wisdom, noting that the name of both arts was linked to their special artistic nature and the cultural environment in which they are incubated.

Abu Shaal also made an extensive historical and artistic comparison between the two forms in terms of origin, construction, language, content, and musical composition; Explaining that the Andalusian muwashahat was characterized by a multiplicity of rhymes, a variety of meters and graceful lyrical rhythms, while the Malaysian pantun maintained a short, dense structure and an organized rhythm based on harmonious vocal parallelism.

At its conclusion, the symposium concluded that the poetic arts, despite their different languages, environments and geographical sources, carry a common and enormous human ability to express human conscience, stressing that a study such as this The intersections and approaches between world literatures contribute strongly to deepening and building bridges of cultural and cognitive dialogue between peoples.