Death and Immortality Symbolism in Pre- Islamic Poetry

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study is to unveil the vision and imagery of pre-Islamic poetry about death and immortality and how pre-Islamic poets expressed this phenomenon in their poetry. This is explored based on the vision of the nature of death, and thoughts and myths related to it, in the view of pre-Islamic people.
 Methods: The study followed the descriptive-analytical approach in tracking the idea of death and immortality in the poetry of the pre-Islamic era. 
 Results: It was found that the pre-Islamic poet held certain belief about death as an absolute destiny. Also, pre-Islamic poetry showed connections with pre-Islamic religious beliefs, hence, it represents their faith of the idea of recreation and reckoning. In addition, there can be noticed a representation of ancient burial ritual of the Arabs, and the cases of individual and collective death.This poetry also indicated an attempt to find ways to confront death and achieve immortality.
 Conclusions: Researchers in the future should give the duality of death and mortality the necessary attention and identify it as a prominent phenomenon in pre-Islamic poetry in particular and Arab poetry in general. This phenomenon (the duality of death and mortality) can be traced in the classical Arabic books. The subject needs a variety of studies analyzing the aspects of death and the other phenomena emerged in this poetry at that time