{{Short description|Malay genre of story telling}} {{multiple issues| {{Expand language|topic=|langcode=De|otherarticle=Syair|date=May 2026}} {{one source|date=May 2026}} }} '''Syair''' (Jawi: '''شعير''') is a form of traditional Malay (also Brunei and Malaysian) poetry that is made up of four-line stanzas or quatrains. The syair can be a narrative poem, a didactic poem, a poem used to convey ideas on religion or philosophy, or even one to describe a historical event.
In contrast to the pantun, the syair conveys a continuous idea from one stanza to the next, maintains a unity of ideas from the first line to the last line in each stanza, and each stanza has a rhyme scheme ''a-a-a-a''. Syair is sung in set rhythms that differ from syair to syair. The recitation of a syair, which can take up several hours, can be accompanied by music.
==Etymology== The word syair is derived from the Arabic word shi’r, a term that covers all genres of Arabic/Islamic poetry. However, the Malay form which goes by the name syair is somewhat different and not modeled on Arabic poetry or on any of the genres of Perso-Arab poetry.<ref>{{cite book |title=Qasida Poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa: Classical Traditions and Modern Meanings (Studies in Arabic Literature)|page=363|author=Stefan Sperl & C. Shackle|isbn=978-90-04-10452-5|year= 1996|publisher=Brill}}</ref>
==History== The earliest known record of syair is from the work of Hamzah Fansuri, a famous Malay poet in the 17th century.
The most famous syair is an 1847 poem by Raja Pengiran Indera Mahkota Shahbandar: Syair Rakis. It is considered to be the passage to modern Malaysian literature and mourns the loss of Labuan.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{Commonscatinline|Syairs}}
Category:Syairs Category:Poems in Malay