New Images in Old Frames: Ibn Harma (d. ca. 176/792) between Classical Poetry and Abbasid Modernity

Abstract

Classical Arabic sources generally refer to Ibrahim b. Harma (d. ca. 176/792) as one of the “last poets” whose poetry is quoted as lexical and linguistic evidence of sound and “unaffected” language, in other words “pure” Arabic. However, while we argue that the poet’s “pure” Arabic is the main reason for his place of excellence in classical Arabic poetry, we suggest that the poet was well aware of the power of poetic imagery imposed by the new modernity experienced in the Abbasid era. Ibn Harma skillfully developed the new tool as a means of self-expression in a conscious search for poetic immortality. In this article, we aim to explore the poetic imagery of Ibn Harma through textual analysis of a selection of his poetry.