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Prose which is a symbol of societal life does not enjoy rapid growth poetry enjoys in any literature. The reason is not far-fetched as poetry is more natural because of its lyrical nature which is more individualistic. Literary prose, in contrast to poetry, is rendered in a controlled manner that requires ripe thinking which displays maturity relying on logical reasoning presented in a captivating narrative style. Like in many other societies, literary Arabic prose evolved among the Yorubas in Nigeria in the shade of Islamic religion; this resulted in a very long gestation period before indigenous scholars of Arabic come to terms with the reality that prosaic expression is as important and relevant as poetic exercise. This paper aims at studying the thematic transformation of Arabic prose among the Yorubas in Nigeria. To do this, the paper is divided into: introduction, early themes of Arabic prose, transformation from religious to social themes, analytical studies of social themes, critique of selected samples, and conclusion.
Keywords: Theme, Transformation, Didacticism, Imaginative.
Introduction
The Yoruba people of South-Western Nigeria got in contact with Arabic language much earlier than Islam (R. D. Abubakre, 2002:4). This is so because the North African traders who were believed to be Arabs (Al-Iluri, 1976) had been operating constant trade trips to Oyo-Ile and other Yoruba towns before Islam gained wider acceptance among the natives. It becomes clearer when a deep look is taken into the fact that it was recorded that salt was introduced into Oyo-Ile during the reign of Alafin Obalokun (M. O., Abdul-Rahman, 2012:8) and that Arabic scholars enjoyed tremendous royal acceptability and respect during the reign of Alafin Ajiboyede in the same Oyo-Ile. It may be interesting to understand that Arabic had had a reasonable contact with Africa prior to the advent of Islam (Abubakre, 4). Islam eventually became widely embraced and practiced with Arabic language putting on the garb of not only that of religion but also that of a language of knowledge with its various branches. It needs be understood that Yoruba writers started with writing poems but gradually settled to write prose as a result of improved situation of acquisition of appropriate expression to convey their messages. The themes of their writings were mostly religious but with...