adab

Adab is a multi-faceted concept in Arabic, Persian, and South Asian cultures that encompasses etiquette and manners as well as literature and refinement of character. The term connotes not only civility and proper conduct toward God, the Prophet, elders, and peers, but also the cultivation of taste, knowledge, and sensibility through reading and study. Etymologically, it comes from the Arabic root A-D-B, which originally signified instruction in correct behavior and speech; in Persian and Urdu, adab extended to denote literature and cultured letters, with adab commonly referring to both moral conduct and literary culture.

In the Islamic and medieval intellectual world, adab was a formal field of study. It addressed how to speak, write, and behave in salons, courts, and mosques, and it encompassed poetry, rhetoric, history, ethics, and the social arts of life. Treatises and compendia on adab circulated widely, shaping education, courtly culture, and the transmission of knowledge. The adab tradition also produced prose and poetry that illustrate refined taste and moral instruction.

Today, adab remains a live term. In Arabic, it often means literature or the literary arts, as in adabiyat (literature). In Persian, Urdu, and related languages, adab carries both the sense of civility and the broader field of literature and literary culture. The concept continues to influence discussions of ethics, education, and cultural refinement, and it remains associated with both personal conduct and cultivated taste in language and letters.