CULTURE
Lebanon
has a lively arts scene, both traditional and contemporary. The
national dance, the dabke, is an energetic folk dance. Classical
belly dancing still plays an important role at weddings, representing
the transition from virgin bride to sensual woman, and is also
popular in nightclubs. Traditional Arabic music is created using
unharmonised melodies and complex rhythms, often accompanied by
sophisticated, many-layered singing. Instruments used include
the oud, a pear-shaped string instrument; the tabla, a clay, wood
or metal and skin percussion instrument; the nay, a single reed,
open-ended pipe with a lovely mellow tone; and the qanun, a flat
trapezoid instrument with at least 81 pluckable strings.
Literature
and poetry have always had an important place in Lebanese culture.
One very popular form of poetry is the zajal, in which a group
of poets enter into a witty dialogue by improvising verses to
songs. The most famous Lebanese literary figure is Khalil Gibran,
a 19th-century poet, writer and artist whose work explored Christian
mysticism. Contemporary writers include Amin Maalouf, Emily Nasrallah
and Hanan Al-Shaykh.
