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Introduction

Culture is the spirit of a nation and the mark of its identity. It is an essential pillar in the founding of nations and their progress. Every nation has its own culture from which it derives its elements, components and attributes, by which it is characterized and to which it belongs. Every society has its own  culture that characterizes it, and each culture has its own features and characteristics. Human history has known many a culture: Greek, Roman, Hellenic, Indian, ancient Egyptian, and Persian. When the Arabs held the reins of thought and culture in their hand for the whole of humanity during the seventh century A.D., a remarkable position which they occupied until the, fifteenth century, the world witnessed the Arab-Islamic culture  at its apogee. But no sooner had the Arabs and the Moslems dropped down from the top position as leaders of world culture; and no sooner had weakness began to creep up in their  existence and had they waned in creativity in the fields of thought, science and human enlightenment than the expansion of their culture began to shrink. They were conquered by inactivity and imitation, and they grew enfeebled in the face of  the mighty currents of the Western culture which had a tremendous impact on their literatures, arts, and way of life.

Culture is a deeply-rooted word in Arabic; it means "to  refine the soul, speech and intelligence." Al-Muhit gives the following definition of the word culture:" to become intelligent, agile, and smart; to straighten the lance, to make straight."

In modern times, culture has been used to mean the intellectual, literary and social progress of individuals and communities. However, culture is not just a collection of ideas; it is also a perspective on behavior that charts the way of life on the whole, and reflects the general character of a particular people. Culture is a set of aspects of the components that distinguish a nation from other communities. These components include such singularities as beliefs, values, language, principles, behavior, sacrosanct things, laws and experiences. On the whole, culture is a complex whole that includes enlightenment, beliefs, arts, ethics, laws and customs(1).    

The characteristics of culture are many:

  1. it is a human phenomenon; that is, a specific separator between the human and all other creatures, because it expresses his humaneness, and because it is the ideal way for him to meet others.

  2. it defines the human himself and his relationship with the people of his kind, with nature and with metaphysics through his interaction and relationship with it in the various fields of life.

  3. it is the basis of social life in term of both function and movement; for no social, artistic or aesthetic, or intellectual activity can humanly take place outside its scope. It is culture that puts at man's disposal the ways of interacting with his environment: matter, people and institutions.

  4. it is a regenerated creative operation that contrives the new and the futuristic through the talents that represent and express culture. Interaction with the real world, whether to make adjustments to it or to go beyond it towards the future, is one of culture's dynamic functions.

  5. it is a quantitative and historically continuous achievement; that is, the more accessions it accumulates, the more protective it is of its former heritage. Culture renews the spiritual, the intellectual and the moral values of former, heritage, and standardizes along the way the identity of the new, in terms of spirit, course, and model. This is one of culture's principal engines and one of its fundamental dimensions(2).