The document provides an overview of literature in the ancient Middle East from 300 BC to 200 AD. It discusses the major cultural and historical milestones, including the birth of monotheistic religions and the role of religion in daily life. It then covers the major periods and genres of literature, including pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, classical poetry and folk literature under the Abbasid Empire, and the evolution of styles and influence of other regions over time, culminating in the modern era. Specific works mentioned include One Thousand and One Nights and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

1. THE
ANCIENT
MIDDLE
EAST
(300 B.C. -200 A.D.)
JUNE MAR C. TEJADA
Secondary School Teacher I
English Coordinator
Department of Education
Jelicuon-Cabugao National High School

2. MM.DD.20XX
ADD A FOOTER
2
FACT CHECK
Cultural and Historical Milestones
of the Ancient Middle East
Literature

3. MIDDLE EAST
Located in South- Western Asia
and North-Eastern Africa with
18 countries varying in
religions and ethnic and
linguistic abundance.
3

4. MIDDLE EAST
 The birthplace of all monotheistic
religions.
 Religion, in totality, plays a large
part in the rhythm of daily life, not
only through prayer and study but
also in determining the end of the
work
4

5. PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIC
LITERATURE
Pre-Islamic Arabic literature is
characterized by the mua'allaqat (mid
500s–early 600s), a collection of
poems from the Arabian Peninsula
renowned for their beauty
5

6. CLASSICAL PERIOD
Poetry remained the dominant
literary form during the "classical"
period of the Abbasid (750–1258),
with romantic praise of a beloved,
whether male or female, the most
common theme.
6

7. CLASSICAL PERIOD
A folk literature also emerged,
involving heroic or adventure
narratives; A Thousand and One
Nights is the most renowned
example which began to take
shape around the year 1000

8. 1200s
With the political fragmentation of
the Muslim world in the 1200s,
cultural contributions from Persia,
India, western Asia, and North
Africa intensified, entering the
literature primarily through Sufi
figures. 8

9. MODERN ERA
Napoléon Bonaparte's (1769–1821)
invasion of Egypt in 1798, often
described as the beginning of the
modern era, also marked the shift from
domestic to external literary traditions
as dominant influences on Middle
Eastern literature. 9

10. MID-NINETEENTH
CENTURY
The most notable effect of
European influence was the
emergence of the novel as a
primary literary genre of modern
Arabic literature. Imported
European novels first appeared in
the mid-nineteenth century. 10

11. TWENTIETH
CENTURY
Drama and poetry were also affected
by nineteenth- and twentieth-century
European literary movements.
Absurdist and existential dramatic
styles have aided works whose
political critiques needed to be safely
cloaked in abstraction. 11

12. TWENTIETH
CENTURY
The twentieth century was a time of great
evolution in poetic styles, from the
mysticism of the Lebanese-born writer
Gibran Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) to the
gentle experiments with form and
expression made by Egyptian author
Ahmad Shawqi (1868–1932), the
Palestinian poet Ibrahim Tuqan (1905–
1941), and others in the interwar period. 12

13. MESOPOTAMIAN
LITERATURE
Development and Discussion
13

14. PHASES OF
MESOPOTAMIAN
LITERATURE
The bulk of discovered
Mesopotamian literature comes
from the Old Babylonian period,
and much of that material comes
from Nippur.
Akkadian Phase of
Mesopotamian
Literature
Sumerian Phase of
Mesopotamian
Literature

15. Sumerian Phase of Mesopotamian Literature
Earliest literature is
Sumerian, which
continues to be copied
even after the language
ceases to be a living
language. 15

16. Sumerian Phase of Mesopotamian Literature
The world’s oldest literature—poetry as well as prose—
belongs to the Sumerians, settled over 5,000 years ago on
the shores of the Persian Gulf1 and in the lower
(southern) part of the valley between the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers, in present-day Iraq.
16

17. Sumerian Phase of Mesopotamian Literature
There the Sumerians founded the
world’s oldest civilization. They
invented, for the first time, a means of
communicating language in a
preserved, instead of transitory, form—
in writing. 17

18. Sumerian Phase of Mesopotamian Literature
The writing system they invented is
called cuneiform, a wedge-shaped
script formed by pressing a stylus
into clay tablets that were then
baked in the sun or in a kiln. Later,
other peoples adapted cuneiform
writing to their own languages. The
best known and most widely used of
these written languages is Akkadian. 18

19. Akkadian Phase of Mesopotamian Literature
Akkadian material is sparsely
seen before the middle of the
third millennium. The major
source of Akkadian literature
is the first millennium
‘Library of Assurbanipal’in
Nineveh. 19

20. Akkadian Phase of Mesopotamian Literature
Drawing on the traditions of Sumerian literature, the Babylonians
compiled a substantial textual tradition of mythological narrative,
legal texts, scientific works, letters and other literary forms.
20

21. EPIC OF
GILGAMESH
Sumerian Literature
21
2500 B.C.

22. EPIC OF GILGAMESH
Gilgamesh was the actual king of
ancient Uruk about 2700 B.C.
Gilgamesh is depicted as a
powerful ruler and
lion-killer
22

23. EPIC OF GILGAMESH
Gilgamesh was written down on clay
cuneiform tablets
Scholars were able to translate Sumerian
cuneiform by comparing it to later
Akkadian tablets with similar stories
This cuneiform writing consists of wedge
shapes read right to left
23

24. The setting is Uruk and
Hammurabi is introduced
as a tyrannical Urukian
king. Enkidu's creation is
told, including his
civilization by the goddess
Shamhat who has dreams
foretelling Enkidu's arrival
in Uruk.
TABLET I
Gilgamesh's reign, prowess and tyranny
Creation of his rival Enkidu
24

25. Enkidu prepares for his trip
to Uruk, and upon his
arrival fights with the tyrant
Gilgamesh until they
stalemate. They become
friends and decide to
campaign in the cedar
forest. They get ready for
their trip.
TABLET II
The taming of Enkidu; his fight and
friendship with Gilgamesh; the proposed
journey to the Forest of Cedar
25

26. City elders advise
Gilgamesh and Enkidu
about the monster
Humbaba in the cedar
forest. Giglamesh’s
mother Ninsun implores
Enkidu and also the sun
god Shamash to look
after him.
TABLET III
Preparations for the journey to the
Forest of Cedar
26

27. Gilgamesh and Enkidu run
three days non-stop at a time
(covering the equivalent of a
45-day journey each time)
with breaks in between to
rest. During these rests,
Gilgamesh has nightmares.
They finally make it to the
Cedar Forest.
TABLET IV Journey to the Forest of Cedar
27

28. Gilgamesh and Enkidu
find Humbaba. An
argument leads to
combat and Shamash
aids Gilgamesh.
Humbaba pleads for his
life until Gilgamesh
fatally strikes him.
TABLET V Combat with Humbaba
28

29. When Gilgamesh bathes afterward, Ishtar sees him and asks
proposes herself to him. Gilgamesh rejects her, listing how
she ruined past lovers. She furiously goes to her father Anu
and demands the Bull of Heaven so she can set it upon
Gilgamesh to kill him. She threatens to open the underworld
if she does not get her way, allowing the dead to rise and eat
the living. Anu makes Ishtar promise she has been taking
good care of Uruk, then gives her the reigns. However,
Enkidu and Gilgamesh cleverly kill the Bull. Ishtar proclaims
how heartbroken she is, to which Gilgamesh responds by
tearing off one of the Bull's legs and throwing it at her.
TABLET VI Ishtar and the Bull of Heaven
29

30. The gods are displeased
with Gilgamesh and Enkidu,
and decide one of the must
die: it will be Enkidu.
Gilgamesh weeps. Enkidu
curses various people
including Shamhat before
descending into the
netherworld.
TABLET VII Enkidu's vision of the Netherworld
and his own death
30

31. Gilgamesh continues to
lament his friend’s death
and prepares a proper
burial.
TABLET VIII The Funeral of Enkidu
31

32. Gilgamesh wanders and ponders his friend and
his own mortality. He has a dream about Ut-
Napishtim, a man who gained immortality, and
embarks on a journey to find him.
TABLET IX The wanderings of Gilgamesh
32

33. Gilgamesh arrives at the tavern on the edge of the world. The
ale-wife Siduri gives Gilgamesh more advice on reaching Ut-
Napishtim. He crosses the ocean with the help of a ferryman,
finally reaching Ut-Napishtim. The latter gives a long
monologue on the duties of kingship, indicating that by
wandering around, Gilgamesh is failing those duties. He also
tells Gilgamesh that in searching for immortality, he has done
the opposite, sapping energy and shortening his own life.
TABLET X Gilgamesh travels to Uta-napishti at the
edge of the world
33

34. Almost exact Akkadian translation of the final part of the
Sumerian story Enkidu and the Netherworld where Enkidu
describes what it is like in the netherworld.
TABLET XII
34

35. THANK
YOU!

36. REFERENCES
36

37. https://studentreader.com/QNWR1/mesopotamia-literature/
http://www.ancientmesopotamians.com/literature-of-mesopotamia.html
https://www.slideshare.net/AytekinM/gilgamesh-16508903
REFERENCES
37

38. 38
DISCLAIMER:
This presentation is a compilation of some of the
definitions of Literature and the strategies on how to
teach literature inside the classroom. All the sources
were cited accordingly. Photos were grabbed via Google