Naqāʾiḍ Poetry in the Post-Umayyad Era

Abstract

Naqāʾiḍ(biting refutations) are a type of lampoon in which two poets exchange satirical poems that make use of the same prosodic meter and rhyme. Although satire had already been a staple of Arabic poetry in the pre-Islamic era,naqāʾiḍwere further developed and enhanced as an art form in the Umayyad period thanks to three poets: Jarīr, al-Farazdaq and al-Akhṭal.A distinctive feature of earlynaqāʾiḍwas the centrality of tribalism as a key motivator of composition. This paper seeks to show thatnaqāʾiḍpoetry did not disappear, as some have suggested, nor did it become limited to the personal or sectarian; rather, it continued to flourish throughout the Abbasid period as an expression of tribal pride. Two cases ofnaqāʾiḍfrom the Abbasid period are investigated; the poets in question were regarded as belonging to the group ofsāqat al-shuʿarāʾ(rearguard poets).