Paper Title
Text And Inter-Textuality in Yoruba Poetry in Arabic

Abstract
Studies have shown that Arabic literary texts from classical times to the modern often exhibit marks of semblance with one another, in the areas of dictions, meanings, styles and ideas. Thus, the contents of literary writings of later writers and poets frequently intersect and interconnect with those ofthe earlier, suggesting evidence of borrowing of the new from the old. This paper examines poetic texts produced by modern Yoruba poets in Arabic, in orderto investigate how they inter-textualize with poetic texts of classical and early modern poets in Arabic. It does a close reading of select poems from the collections of Isa Abu-Bakr, Abdul WāhidAriyibī, Abdul Rahmānaz-Zakawī, and AfisAyinde Oladosu. From the quadruple, only the latter,Afis Oladosu has his collections composed in free verse, the former triad, Abu-Bakr, Ariyibī and az-Zakawī,all follow the traditional systemin the composition of their poems. The paper adopts historical, descriptive and analytical methods, and hingesits discussions on the works of John Clayton, Influence and Intertextuality in Literary History, Graham Allen, Intertextuality and Ahmad az-Za’bī’sAt-Tanās, NazariyyanWatatbīqan(Intertextuality, Theory and Practice). The study concludes that the poetical compositions of modern Yoruba poets in Arabic often intersect, inter-textualize and interconnect, not only with poetical texts of classical and early modern poets in Arabic, but also with texts of the Quran and Hadith, which are major sources of Arabic literary traditions. Keywords - Text, Intertextuality, Arabic, Poetry, Yoruba Tribe.