Early Arabic Poetry Research Articles

The Qurʾān and the Putative pre-Islamic Practice of Female Infanticide

Abstract In this article, I take issue with one alleged characteristic of pre-Islamic Arabia: namely, the notion that the Arabians frequently, and disturbingly, practiced female infanticide by burying their daughters alive. This is what the Islamic-era religious scholars inferred on the basis of two qurʾānic passages (Q Naḥl 16:57–59 and al-Takwīr 81:8–9). However, I will argue that the classical Muslim scholars’ interpretation of these verses is highly tendentious. By analyzing the specific qurʾānic passages and comparing the crucial word al-mawʾūdah (Q 81:8), usually translated as “the daughter buried alive,” with early Arabic poetry, I conclude that the conventional understanding of it is unlikely.

Cultural Conceptualizations of shame & dishonor in Early Poetic Arabic (EPA)

Persisting in a binary relationship with honor, shame was an important element of the pre-Islamic Arabic social evaluation system. In my study, I analyzed the two most important EPA concepts parallel to English shame – ˁayb and ˁār – applying the Cultural Linguistic approach. Based on the analyses on corpus of Early Arabic poetry and Classical Arabic dictionaries, I represented cultural schemata encoding the knowledge shared by pre-Islamic Arabs about those phenomena. The paper presents also metaphoric, metonymic, and image-schematic models, which account for the specifics of associated linguistic frames. Moreover, I posit a hypothesis on the existence of a schema subsuming the honor- and shame-dishonor-related schemata in form of social evaluation of usefulness, which seems to correspond to the historical and linguistic data.

Fragmentation and Reassembly: Decoration, Technique, and Meaning at an Early Islamic Platform

Diverse plants, animals, humans, and supernatural hybrids decorate the paving stones of an early Islamic reservoir platform in the Azraq oasis, Jordan. Built for an unknown Umayyad-era patron in the late seventh or early eighth century, the platform is typically eclectic in its iconography but features an unusual composition adapted from Roman-Byzantine zodiac diagrams and unprecedented “jigsaw-puzzle” interlocking masonry. The stone pieces of this Umayyad puzzle echo the rhetoric of political and cosmic fragmentation and reassembly that appears in early Arabic poetry and chronicles, suggesting that Umayyad patrons and builders articulated meaning through technique as well as composition and content.

Allegories of Ruin: Architecture and Knowledge in Early Arabic Poetry

Abstract This study examines the architectural lexicon (ṭalal, dār, rasm, bayt) of early Arabic poetry, interrogating the relation between built and linguistic form in the nasīb. I argue that the interpenetration of the aṭlāl and khayāl motifs and of other structural elements of the qaṣīdah allegorizes the fleeting and phantasmatic nature of all linguistic and material structures. In the early Arabic episteme, poetic forms materialize history, delineating realities even as they fall endlessly into ruin. The implied theories of language and knowledge may inflect our understanding of the entire tradition of Arabo-Islamic expression emerging from this literary milieu.

Abasener und Adulis

The publication of the first volume of a new critical edition of the Ethnica of Stephanos of Byzantium gives occasion to enumerate the eleven toponyms on the Ethiopian side of the Erythraean Sea which are mentioned in this geographical lexicon. Furthermore an attempt is made to localize the Abasenoi, a tribe in Arabia, which are identical with the Ḥabašat, taking in account the agricultural products of their country. Concerning the harbour of Adulis, which is the origin of the ʿadawlī-ships in early Arabic poetry, further testimonies of this town in literary sources are adduced and a plausible South-Arabian etymology of the name Adulis is proposed.

Holistic Poetic Imagery: a partnership of the senses in alliance with primal language – some considerations from classical Arabic desert poetry

The epistemological primacy of the sense of sight, over all other senses combined, is quantitatively established from the Qur’ān and the lexica. Sight (ba ar) and insight (ba īrah), though etymologically related, are not the same. The pictorial is the gate to the visionary, and, in poetic imagery, it is only one element in an ‘inter-sensory mix’. For it to qualify as great, poetic imagery must transcend the direct yields of the optic nerve. This is accomplished through a ‘partnership of the senses’. This partnership is what produces the ‘inter-sensory mix’, or the ‘sixth’ sense which is the whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. This is still one step short of the concept of ‘holistic poetic imagery’. To attain that, this partnership allies itself to ‘primal language’ which is the product of revitalising language by elucidating its primordial power which subsists in the system of derivation. Close analytical examinations of great poetic images, taken from early Arabic poetry, attempt to establish the foregoing.

REVIEWS

REVIEWS Get access ALAN JONES, Early Arabic Poetry. Volume I, Marāthī and Su‘lūk Poems. Ithaca Press, Reading 1992. Pp. ix+270, and 16 (Arabic), £25 hardback. ISBN: 0-86372-160-5. M.V. McDONALD M.V. McDONALD UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume XXXIX, Issue 2, AUTUMN 1994, Pages 364–365, https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/XXXIX.2.364 Published: 01 October 1994

Alan Jones, Early Arabic Poetry, Volume One: Marāthī and Su'lūk poems. Ithaca Press, Reading, for the Board of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Oxford University, Oxford 1992, iv + 270 pp., 14 pp. Arabic Text

Alan Jones, Early Arabic Poetry, Volume One: Marāthī and Su'lūk poems. Ithaca Press, Reading, for the Board of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Oxford University, Oxford 1992, iv + 270 pp., 14 pp. Arabic Text

Taqlid and Ijtihad

The Lexical and Technical Meanings of TaqlidThe lexical meaning and structure of the word “taqlid” clearly indicate thenegative connotations surrounding its technical meaning as well as its retentionof much of the literal sense. The Arabic root q-ld comes from qald, which means”to twist or to twine.” As most necklaces were twined or braided, the word cameto refer to necklaces, and the active form of the verb (taqlid) to putting on anecklace. An example from early Arabic poetry uses taqlid in this sense:They placed on her (round her neck) amulets,To ward off evildoers and enviers.The same word is also used to refer to the marking made around the neckof an animal destined for sacrifice during hajj. In addition, a camel is said tobe “necklaced” (muqallad) when a rope is placed over its head and around its neck.In a less literal usage, this word has the sense of placing responsibility onan individual, as in “The sultan charged (q-I-d) someone with a duty,” as charginga person in such a manner resembles putting a necklace around hidher neck.Here, the one who accepts the responsibility is as one who wears a necklace.‘The classical~uh’di efine taqlid as one’s ”acceptanceo f another‘s madhhQbwithout knowing the other person’s justification.” (In this definition, Madhhabincludes everydung that fills within the purview of ijtihad.) Although the fuqaha’have defined the term in different ways, all agree that it signifies the acceptanceof and acting upon another‘s word without trying to substantiate it. In other words, ...

The cansos and sirventes of the troubadour Giraut de Borneil: a critical edition (review)

Reviews 111 the legal and administrative implications of stray phrases in Ammianus, for example, or the Notitia Dignitatum. Because of the nature of the material Shahid devotes more space to analysis than exposition though the final section of each book consists of a comparatively brief narrative of the sequence of events whose political, military and economic interrelationship has been established in the previous pages. Points that are of especial concern to Shahid are the reasons for the usually derogatory image of the Arabs in Byzantine writers and the interestingly strong evidence for the extent of the early Christianization of the Arabs. The strengths of these books are that they are Arabo-centric. It is salutary to read Shahid's analyses, for example, of the evidence for Arab tribal structures and federations in the third and fourth centuries, of the extent to which the sedentary and nomad groups were Romanized, of the role played by Arab troops in the frontier zones, and of the extent to which Arab blood ran in the veins of the Severan House. The evidence is clear (cf. G. W . Bowersock, Roman Arabia, Cambridge, Mass., 1983 for the earlier period) but is rarely brought out so forcefuUy. Shahid makes the point well that the all-pervasive nature of the Arab 'presence' in Syria and the Roman province of Arabia is concealed by the use of Roman names and the apparent assimilation of many groups into the cities. The weaknesses are that the scanty nature of the evidence leads to some over-stretched arguments (e.g., on the identification of Victor, husband of the daughter of Queen Mavia, and of that daughter herself, or on the nature of early Arabic poetry), though Shahid is careful to indicate the hypothetical nature of his constructs. EquaUy the frequent re-use of the same scraps of text leads to much repetition, of which Shahid is aware and against which he defends himself. This reader at least would have been very happy to have seen more succinct discussions attached to a set of fuUy quoted texts. That said, there is much valuable material contained in these books and more doubtless to come from the remaining volumes. Elizabeth Jeffreys Department of M o d e m Greek University of Sydney Sharman, R. V., ed., The cansos and sirventes of the troubadour Giraut de Borneil: a critical edition, Cambridge, C. U. P., 1989; cloth; pp. xiv, 504; R. R. P. AUS$221.00. Although relegated to the status of 'second-best troubadour' by Dante, who preferred Arnaut Daniel (See Purgatorio, XXVI, 115-120), Giraut de Borneil (1162-99 A.D.) was for his fellow troubadours their master, and so they dubbed him 'maestre dels trobadors'. Giraut was regarded so highly not only because he 172 Reviews provided a synthesis of poetic ideas on love, but also because he was equaUy at home in the allusive (trobar clus) and clear (trobar plan) styles of composition and in the combinations of these two styles. This appellation of 'master' was obviously destined to attract modern editors to present the extant poems, which number about seventy-five, give or take one or two doubtful attributions. While A. Kolsen was in 1910 the first to publish the corpus (Sdmtliche Lieder des Trobadors Giraut de Borneth), B. Panvini offered his edition in 1949 (Giraldo di Borneth, trovatore del sec. X1T). Naturally, one or two poems of Giraut have always figured in the standard anthologies of Old Provencal, the most important of which can be found Usted in R. A. Taylor's La littirature occitane du moyen age. Bibliographie selective et critique (Toronto, 1977). Following in the tradition of H. J. Chaytor, S. C. Aston, J. H. Marshall, P. T. Ricketts and L. T. Topsfield (the last of w h o m has been honoured by the dedication in the present book), R. V. Sharman has, with the publication of her edition of Giraut's works, carved herself a place in the illustrious tradition of 'provencalisants brittaniques' who have contributed this century to the progress of occitan studies. Sharman's edition is competently accomplished, according to the lights of traditional philological procedures which consider as important, nay, essential, the collation of...

The khayāl motif in early Arabic poetry

Anybody who takes the trouble to read and to compare literary studies on classical Arabic poetry published in the course of this century, will notice a surprising conformity of judgement. Scholars tend to be unanimous concerning three points in particular: 1. all basic features of Arabic poetry are already present in pre-Islamic verse; 2. pre-Islamic tribal poetry is the most characteristic expression of the literary genius of the Arabs; 3. medieval Arabic poetry never really changed, even if at certain times, especially in the early Abbasid period, some innovations have been added. In recent studies these views have been slightly modified, but, as far as I see, never seriously challenged. Thus Jamaleddine Bencheikh in his Poetique arabe, a brilliant and perceptive study, explains in his closing chapter that the norms of Arabic classicism were determined during the 6th and 7th century, and that later poetry, despite of some truly innovative poets among the moderns (almuhdathun), completely lost contact with reality. According to him, experience is possible on the linguistic level only; reality is replaced by a poetic and linguistic inventory, un arsenal linguistique.1 If we turn to poetry, in order to verify this view, there is doubtless much to support it. No student of medieval Arabic literature can escape the feeling of a certain monotony. For ever and ever, it seems, the poet is roaming through the desert, discovering the ruins of an abandoned camp and weeping over his lost beloved. The same words, phrases, images, motifs and genres continue to be used, providing rich evidence of the medieval poet's conventional attitude and the ritualistic character of his verse. However, when considering the question from a theoretical point of view, there seems to be reason for some doubt. If it is true that poetry is rooted in society, expressing its values, ideas and problems, then we should expect that the important political and social changes which occurred from the 6th century till the later Middle Ages had left their traces in the poetry of successive historical periods. It is incon-

The "Khayāl" Motif in Early Arabic Poetry

The "Khayāl" Motif in Early Arabic Poetry

Archetype and Attribution in Early Arabic Poetry: Al-Shanfarā and the Lāmiyyat 'Al-Arab

The premier position of theLāmiyyat al-'Arabamong the poetry ofal-shu'arā' al-Ta'alīk(the brigand-poets) of the Jāhiliyya is undeniable. Among scholars and philologists, both Arab and Orientalist, it has remained over the centuries the object of the most minute philological commentaries. Its Arab commentators number more than 20, among them the foremost names in classical Arabic literary scholarship: al-Mubarrad (d. 285/898), the doyen of the Basran school, whose commentary is said actually to have been taken from his Kufan archrival, Tha'lab (d. 291/904); the renowned poetic commentarist al-Tibrīzī (d. 502/1109); and the famed grammarian and Qur'anic commentator, al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1143). Its European popularity—a phenomenon that Blachére attributes to its appeal to the sensibilities of nineteenth-century Romanticism—dates to Sylvestre de Sacy's study and translation of 1826, followed by Rückert's German translation in hisHamāsaof 1846. In philological studies, of note are the more than 20 pages of hisBeiträgethat Nöldeke devotes to lexical matters and Jacob's extensive two-partSchanfará-Siudien.

Name and Epithet: The Philology and Semiotics of Animal Nomenclature in Early Arabic Poetry

Previous articleNext article No AccessName and Epithet: The Philology and Semiotics of Animal Nomenclature in Early Arabic PoetryJaroslav StetkevychJaroslav Stetkevych Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 45, Number 2Apr., 1986 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/373173 Views: 9Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1986 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Davida Eisenberg-Degen, Steven Rosen Chronological Trends in Negev Rock Art: The Har Michia Petroglyphs as a Test Case, Arts 2, no.44 (Oct 2013): 225–252.https://doi.org/10.3390/arts2040225 Bibliographic Orientations, The Medieval History Journal 9, no.11 (Apr 2006): 185–193.https://doi.org/10.1177/097194580500900110

The Abstracted Self in Arabic Poetry

Whatever must be accepted from new insights in the nature of collective and oral composition, and the concomitant shakiness of the status of 'the poet', there can be no doubt that the poet himself, or rather his 'lyrical I' is very much present in classical Arabic poems. In almost every poem, and certainly every nasFb, the poet speaks himself, or about himself, or even to himself; although his persona usually speaks in a somewhat impersonal way.-I hasten to make the necessary distinction between, on the one hand, the personae in the poem (the Poet, the Beloved, the Companions, the Mamdiih and others), and, on the other, the persons in the situational context of the poem (the poet, the beloved, the mamdiTh, or whoever). Several scholars have studied this poetic voice and the way the poet sees himself in the world. I only mention Von Grunebaum's Wirklichkeitweite of 1937, which contains a long chapter entitled 'Das Ich und seine menschliche Beziehungsfihigkeit',' and more recently Jaroslav Stetkevych's 'The Arabic Lyrical Phenomenon in Context' of 1975.2 There is one small thing about the poet's persona that has often been observed, to which I would like to draw attention once more: it is the fact that the poets very regularly and often confusingly do not only speak for themselves but to and about themselves as well. In itself, this is not typical of Arabic poetry; I suppose that poets have addressed themselves in any literature. For instance, in western literature we find, according to Curtius from late antiquity onwards, poets invoking themselves or their own souls instead of the Muses.3 Shakespeare addresses his 'Pour soul, the centre of my sinful earth'; Yeats wrote 'A Dialogue of Self and Soul'. But early Arabic poetry is distinguished by the frequency of its occurrence as well as by the sudden shifts. A shift, for instance, from second to first person singular in consecutive lines is extremely common, and not rarely one poem contains an erratic sequence of several of these shifts. For example, Imra' al-Qays's mu'allaqa begins in the first person

Poetry as a Source for the History of Early Islam: The case of (al-)ʿAbbās b. Mirdās

We expect poetry to be poetical, an expression of emotions, meditative and the like. It seems unusual to even consider the value of poetry as a historical source, but given the characteristics of early Arabic poetry this objective becomes less farfetched: Arab poets used their poetic compositions sometimes as the media of the time, to state publicly their points of view and their deliberations. By studying these we come across motivations, reflections of discussions and considerations of the options that these individuals had. For an era of turmoil like the beginning of Islam we can hardly come closer to the persons who witnessed it than reading and interpreting their own words.Keywords: Ancient Arabic poetry, early Islam, genesis of religions in context