Plagiarism in Arabic Criticism Heritage

Abstract

The phenomenon of plagiarism has been commonly dealt with in Arabic criticism heritage,and many traditional Arab critics have written a specific part in their books covering this phenomenon under the title of "literary thefts".  Literary thefts have been condemned in Arabic heritage as one poet takes some expressions or phrases from his predecessors, and such a tendency leads to the underestimation of the poet’s status. This phenomenon is called "citation" in Arabic rhetorics when the cited materials are extracted from the Glorious Qur'an or the Prophetic Traditions. This phenomenon has been given different names in Arabic heritage depending on the source of taken materials like sayings, poetry, etc.The phenomenon of plagiarism can be found in the poetic antithesis. Accordingly, plagiarism is the focus of this study. This study is organized around an introduction and three sections. Section one presents the concept of plagiarism from linguistic and terminological perspectivesa long with its history. Section two is limited to the different types of plagiarism in Arabic criticism heritage. Section three deals with the construction patterns of Arabic criticism heritage. Finally, conclusions are drawn out.