The medieval Arab poet and the limits of freedom

Abstract

am concerned with the poet and adib, since they are the creators of those classical Arabic works which are the forerunner, or the equivalent of, modern Arabic literature -classical Arabic literature in the narrow sense. Moreover, at least until the end of the third century A.H., it was the poet who was the literary creator par excellence, and many poets, especially in pre-Islamic and Umayyad times, did not write down their own compositions. So I have chosen to modify the title of the session to suit the subject of this paper, the possibilities for freedom of expression open to the Arab poet in the early medieval period, though I shall also refer to prose writers where relevant.