Language and Ecology: Contemporary oral poetry in Antiochian Arabic

Time period:

1 January 2026 – 31 December 2029

Project leader:

Mahmut Agbaht

Funder:

Swedish Research Council

Type of award:

Grant for positions or stipends

Total funding:

3,900,000 SEK

Traditions of singing poems still persist in the southeast Mediterranean and the Middle East. They tell stories of daily life, social changes, and historical events, but also of plants, animals, landscape and nature. The poems are continuously renewed in accordance with social, cultural, and political developments as well as environmental changes, addressing current issues such as political protests, loss of mother tongue, gender debates or natural disasters. Modern poet-singers thus continue and reinvent a practice going as far back as Homer. However, these traditions remain understudied to this day.This study will provide the first comprehensive analysis of oral poetry forms in Antiochian Arabic varieties as dynamic practices embedded in a declining multicultural and biodiverse environment. It will address three main aims: first, to examine how oral poetry depicts human relations to nature and conveys ecological knowledge; second, to analyze the structural, functional, and performative dimensions of the traditions across communities, including their continuity and decline; and third, to situate Antiochian oral poetry within broader Levantine and Turkish contexts through qualitative comparison. By integrating these approaches, the project will contribute both to advancing scholarship and to supporting local language revitalisation and ecological awareness.This 36‑month study will take place in Uppsala (Sweden), Vienna (Austria) and Istanbul (Turkey).