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ARBC 210 Introduction to Pre-Islamic Poetry

ARBC 210 Introduction to Pre-Islamic Poetry. Important vocabulary: Qasída : monorhymed, polythematic ode Fus-há: classical Arabic, oratorical register Ráwí: transmitter of memorized poetry Mu ’ állaqah : one of the 7 “ suspended ” odes Nasíb: lyric opening sequence

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ARBC 210 Introduction to Pre-Islamic Poetry

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  1. ARBC 210Introduction to Pre-Islamic Poetry Important vocabulary: Qasída: monorhymed, polythematic ode Fus-há: classical Arabic, oratorical register Ráwí: transmitter of memorized poetry Mu’állaqah: one of the 7 “suspended” odes Nasíb: lyric opening sequence Atlál: traces of abandoned campsite Rihla: desert journey Náqa: she-camel

  2. Chief Characteristics of Jahiliyya-era Qasida: - Minimalism- Homogeneity- Functionality- Associated with bedouin (semi-nomadic) lifestyle- “Amateur” poets- Oral composition

  3. Minimalism “Arabic poetry is minimalist in form. What in Shakespeare would be a soliloquy is in Arabic a line or even a hemistich. Seven lines of the Lâmiyyat al-’Arab would have provided the Greek tragedians with the plot for a full play” -Roger Allen, Early Arabic Poetry (vol. 1), p. 3

  4. How is it a ‘Minimalist’ Literature? Networks of Association Atlál: Náqa: memory, abandonment, unfulfilled (?) love, youth, desolation, nature = eternity, humanity = ephemera, two riding companions, antisocial patience, endurance, self-denial, self-sacrifice, the poet, desert journey, independence, sustenance

  5. Homogeneity: A Formulaic Structure Amatory prelude, elegaic (intersection of love and grief motivated by departure, not death), existential wistfulness, atlál, departing womenfolk, “halting at the traces”, “effaced abodes”, room for sexuality, passivity Nasíb: Ríhla: “Boast”: Journey, agency, activity, solitude, wilderness, the desert, heat, cold, rain, wild animals, hunger, vigor, náqa, the hunt Society, self-assertion, interdependence, commensal feast, wine, companionship, the tribe, gentle rain, promise of pasturage

  6. Functionality of Qasída Ibn Sallám al-Júmahi (d. 846 AD): In the Jáhiliyya, verse was to the Arabs the register of all they knew, and the utmost compass of their wisdom; with it they began their affairs, and with it they ended them. Ibn Rashíq (d. 1065 AD) : The poet was a defence to the honour of them all [the tribe], a weapon to ward off insult from their good name, and a means of perpetuating their glorious deeds and of establishing their fame for ever. And they used not to wish one another joy but for three things – the birth of a boy, the coming to light of a poet, and the foaling of a noble mare.

  7. “Suspended” Ode? mu’allaq = hung or < ‘ilq, ‘a’láq = necklace?

  8. “Tuck-bellied brindle leg” (Arabian oryx)

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