"Der Arabische Diwan: Die Schonsten Gedichte aus Vorislamischer Zeit" ("The Arab Diwan: The Most Beautiful Poems from the Pre-Islamic Era and Beyond"), compiled and translated by German Arabist Stefan Weidner, has won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award in the Arab Culture in Other Languages category. The anthology gathers roughly a thousand verses of Arabic poetry from the sixth and seventh centuries, and is set to be featured at the Frankfurt International Book Fair.
What sets Weidner's work apart is his choice to render the poems in contemporary German rather than the archaic, 19th-century style typically used for such texts, making them more accessible to modern readers. He argues that pre-Islamic poetry functioned as far more than literature: it served as "a mixture of newspaper, social media, official communications in diplomacy, waging war and advertising" for the tribes that produced it.
The subject matter spans a striking range, from close observations of nature, bees, birds and horses, to accounts of tribal warfare and personal boasting. The collection brings together verses from the sa'alik, outcast poets on the margins of tribal society, alongside towering figures of the canon such as Imru' Al Qais.
Weidner contends that pre-Islamic Arabian poets possessed what he calls a "scientific mind," shaped by the constant, careful observation of their environment that survival in the desert demanded — a quality he says comes through clearly across the anthology. The Sheikh Zayed Book Award, held annually in the UAE, is among the most prominent cultural prizes in the Arab world, aimed at promoting outstanding Arabic literary and cultural work internationally.