pre-Islamic Poetry Research Articles

The Metaphorical Sense of Hunting in Pre-Islamic Poetry (A Study in Conceptual Structure)

The Metaphorical Sense of Hunting in Pre-Islamic Poetry (A Study in Conceptual Structure)

An Analysis of Orientalist Approaches to Pre-Islamic Poetry From the Perspective of Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin

This article focuses on the pre-Islamic Arabian Jahiliyya period and the significance of the poetry from this era. The Jahiliyya period is considered a reflection of the pre-Islamic Arabian society and culture. The poetry from this period addresses societal, cultural, religious, and emotional themes, laying the foundation for Arabian literature. The poetry of the Jahiliyya period typically revolves around themes such as praise, criticism, yearning, love, heroism, and courage, while also touching upon the beliefs of the time. These poems serve as a rich reflection of Arabian culture and are regarded as crucial sources in Arabic Language and Literature, Arabic Rhetoric, and Islamic sciences. Orientalists, in their exploration of Jahiliyya period poetry, have produced works based on their own perspectives and methodologies. However, some Orientalists, particularly those focused on Jahiliyya poetry, have raised concerns about potential plagiarism and fabrication. These criticisms have evolved from the early views of Theodor Nöldeke to the radical approach of D. S. Margoliouth and the stance adopted by Taha Hussein. Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin, possessing expertise in Classical and Modern Arabic literature sources, has argued for the originality of Jahiliyya poetry. Sezgin supports this claim by drawing upon classical and modern sources, while also critiquing the works of Orientalists. In this article, the reasons behind the suspicion of Jahiliyya poetry being plagiarized or fabricated are elucidated by examining the works of Orientalists. Furthermore, Sezgin's approach and methodology in asserting the authenticity of Jahiliyya poetry are analyzed.

Elicitation and substitution in pre-Islamic poetry in dictionaries of words until the end of the fourth century AH.

Elicitation and substitution in pre-Islamic poetry in dictionaries of words until the end of the fourth century AH.

Southern Arabia in Pre-Islamic Poetry

The study took upon itself the task of correcting the historical information that spoke about the Arabian Peninsula, and about the life of the pre-Islamic people in it, relying on the field study of the place, and the mental analysis of the antiquities, benefiting from the pre-Islamic poetry, and took from the ancient sources what agreed with its conditions, and approached objectivity in the transmission of pre-Islamic poetry, And his criticism, and the study benefited from environmental data, geographical features, and poetic narrations in order to clarify what it intended to clarify from the facts related to that life and that place. The study showed the reasons for the turmoil of the ancient authors regarding the pre-Islamic period regarding the issues of determining the places settled by the pre-Islamic tribes, and where the poets lived. On the hunt, mixed with travel. The study proved that the pre-Islamic people were concentrated in non-desert regions that were sufficient for their living, as these livable regions cover an area larger than the area of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Tunisia combined, and the study focused on the south of the island, which occupies a large area

Introduction. Epigraphy, the Qurʾān, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia

Abstract A wide range of archaeological finds is rapidly expanding our knowledge of the pre-Islamic cultural milieu and the political structures of the Arabian Peninsula during Late Antiquity, and thereby of the Qurʾān’s cultural context. This material can offer a complementary reading to the literary accounts on pre-Islamic Arabia, which were mostly composed outside of Arabia or long after the late antique period. There is a growing need to make the recent exciting discoveries of scholars working on the Qurʾān and Arabia more widely accessible to historians who may not have a solid background in archaeology and epigraphy. As such, the ERC project “The Qur'an as a Source for Late Antiquity” (QaSLA) organized a conference, titled “Epigraphy, the Qur'an, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia”, which took place in Tübingen on 8 – 10 September 2022. The three-day international conference brought together specialists in epigraphy as well as scholars of the Qurʾān to explore how recent epigraphic and archaeological findings and research have been changing our understanding of the Qurʾān and the Arabian religious, cultural, and political landscape. Accordingly, the conference sought to integrate new archaeological finds with ongoing studies on the genesis of the Qurʾān, its Arabian background, and the broader cultural milieu of pre-Islamic Arabia with a special focus on the dawn of Islam. The conference also featured an important contribution by Peter Webb on pre-Islamic poetry, another neglected corpus of inquiry into the history of pre-Islamic Arabia. Aiming to foster discussion between scholars, each panel was paired with a specialist on the Qurʾān or the wider history of Arabia.

The Hajj Before Muhammad: The Early Evidence in Poetry and Hadith

Abstract Scholarly debate on the nature of the Hajj before Muhammad and radical questions of whether Mecca was a ritual site at all in pre-Islamic times are answerable from the large corpus of pre-Islamic poetry, which has been underutilised as a source for pre-Islamic history. This paper reveals the poetry to be both a reliable and valuable witness. It demonstrates that the Hajj was performed in the generation before Muhammad in substantially similar terms to subsequent Muslim practice. Some modifications and shifts are discernible, but ritual continuity emerges as a major theme. The poetry also underscores the restricted ambit of the pre-Islamic Hajj: we uncover a highly-localised ritual followed primarily by groups living near Mecca – the expansion of the Hajj into a pan-Arabian phenomenon with an intimate role in informing communal identity and political power are new in the Islamic period. This paper closes with comparison of the poetry and hadith on the Hajj, which reveals a major Muslim-era reinterpretation of the pilgrimage as an Abrahamic rite.

Representations of Reification in Pre-Islamic Poetry: Selected Samples

This study deals with the concept of reification, its motifs, aspects and the mechanisms for resisting it, to reveal the pre-Islamic poetry in confrontation with the state of reification that was imposed on these poets, and how they expressed it artistically and aesthetically, taking into account that psychological, social or economic perspective, as well as the angle of view that surrounded their poetic expression.

Death and Immortality Symbolism in Pre- Islamic Poetry

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

The Terms Used For Woman's Veil In The Pre-Islamic (Jahili) Poetry: A Pragmatic Study

The present research intends to investigate the names used for the woman's veil in pre-Islamic poetry (Jahili Poetry) using a pragmatic method to determine the significance of those phrases, how they were passed down through the generations, and how they evolved. The study will be conducted along three axes: the pragmatic approach concept, the status of the veil among Arabs, and the presentation of specific terms and texts relevant to the veil, as well as a "lexical semantic analysis" of those terms. Research findings and suggestions: The poetry of Jahili contains a plethora of tongues for woman's vile. Poets utilized them in various ways based on the conditions of women and their social standing since women can be free, enslaved, urban, nomadic, large, and little. Research on the languages and components of the woman's veil throughout Islamic history should be prioritized. Additionally, the interrelationships between the modern and ancient veil should be investigated, and its importance and cultural and literary qualities should be sought through literary texts of poetry and prose. Overall, the study of pre-Islamic poetry and the veil can significantly impact the teaching of Arabic. By gaining a deeper understanding of the Arabic language's cultural, social, and linguistic aspects, students can better appreciate the historical context and cultural richness of the language. This research can provide important insights into the interrelationships between the modern and ancient veil and can help to deepen students' understanding of the language and its use throughout history.

THE SEMANTIC GRAMMATICAL DIMENSIONS OF AL-RUMANI IN HIS EXPLANATION OF SIBAWAYH'S BOOK

The grammatical significance is an extension of the sentence system, arrangement and syntactic movements ([i]), or is the relationships between the words of one sentence, and the significance divided by Ibn Jinni in his characteristics on three ranks, according to the force, "the strongest semantics and then followed by industrial and then followed by moral ... Do you not see that he has risen, and the indication of his word on its source, and the indication of its construction on its time, and the indication of its meaning on its subject, for these are three indications of its word, its form and its meaning."[ii]
 
 Semantic[i] development between the language of pre-Islamic poetry and the language of the Holy Qur'an: 276.
 Characteristics[ii]: 3/100.

Qur’anic Metaphors: Between the Historicity of Poetic Imagination and the Continuity of Context

Due to their contextual breadth and hermeneutic continuities, Qur’anic metaphors are held to be manifestations of Qur’anic iʿjāz that outshine the metaphors and imagery found in pre-Islamic poetry: they transcend temporal and spatial limits and are accessible to all languages and cultures. The historicity of metaphors and rhetorical images that characterise the Arabic poetic heritage is contextualised by their location within the temporal and spatial regions in which they were produced, the conceptual connections to which have been lost due to changing cultural beliefs, ideas, and contexts. In contrast, Qur’anic rhetoric has enduring continuity due to its observance of similarities in the construction of its metaphors, as well as the fact these are revealed within a religious, legislative text, whose contexts enjoy a rich continuity that encompasses meaning and connotations that accommodate the knowledge paradigms of different cultures.

The Muallaqat of Imru' al-Qays: The Lost Kingdom and the Alternative Victory

The Muallaqat are the most famous of the pre-Islamic poetry that reached us, the most versed, the most complete in structure, and the farthest in impact. These muallaqat that we inherited from the pre-Islamic era were not without precedent. Rather, they are a mature end to the initial attempts that preceded and led to them. Poetry in its purest form. It exceeded the scope of admiration and imitation until it became a present text - even if it was absent - in the Code of Arab Poetry. And her poets won this prestige among their peers among the poets of the pre-Islamic era, and Imru’ al-Qais’ commentary is the mediator of the contract, as its owner was the first of the first class among all scholars and critics of Arabic poetry.
 Imru' al-Qays's mu'allaqa has accomplished itself outside the limits of time and space, and within the circle of eternity, as it is the genius that keeps its secret.
 The apparent structure of Imru’ al-Qais tells that it does not address a specific topic, but rather its verses are distributed in different scenes: the scene of ruins, the scene of storytelling, the scene of the night of tragedy, the scene of the horse, and the scene of rain and torrential rain. However, critical reflection on its inner worlds reveals that these scenes, despite their plurality, lead to their deep structure, which is concentrated in the poet's defense of his grieving self, due to the loss of his possession and that of his father. Therefore, his flirtatious pride and extraordinary chivalry were his alternative victory, so that the end of the battle remains suspended between the vanquished reality and the victorious imagination.
 
 
 

Scenes from the narrative and story features in pre-Islamic poetry

إنََّ (مشاهد من الملامح السردية والقصصية في الشعر الجاهلي) بحث في الجوانب الفنية للمشاهد الحوارية في بعض نصوص قصائد الشعر الجاهلي ، انطلاقاً من كون المشهد تقنية فنية يلجأ إليها الشاعر/السارد لغرض إعادة عرض وقائع الحياة عرضاً أدبياً يفضي إلى نوع من التطابق ين زمن الخطاب وزمن الحكاية ، ليؤدي ذلك إلى إبطاء حركة السرد ، ومسار الأحداث. لقد تم معالجة ذلك ، من خلال ضم الشعر الجاهلي في نصوصه الكثير من المشاهد الحوارية الأمر الذي يفضي إلى نفي صفة الغنائية المطلقة عنه ، وبثلاثة مباحث متسلسلة : المقدمة ، اللمحات السردية ، المشهد الحواري الآني والذي كان يجري بوتيرة متتابعة في النص الشعري الجاهلي ، وتبين أن للمشهد الشعري وظائفه العديدة التي لا تختلف كثيراً عن تلك التي يؤديها داخل الرواية أو المسرحية.

Revisiting Wansbrough’s Perspective on the Qurʾān’s Synoptic Problem

Abstract The occurrence of variant versions of the same story is not uncommon in the Qurʾān. In response to this phenomenon, different approaches have been developed; one of which was Wansbrough’s variant traditions hypothesis. The hypothesis, which emerged mainly from an analysis of three accounts of the prophet Shuʿayb’s story in the Qurʾān, posits that the different tellings of the same story existed as independent pericopes that later found their way into the text of the Qurʾān, a claim that has many implications on the authorship and composition of the Qurʾān. Consequently, the reactions to this hypothesis were varied. In this paper, I present one of the critiques to the hypothesis, that of Stewart. Then, I employ elements of textual criticism to provide further ways for viewing the variant traditions. I do this by drawing attention to empirical evidence from the Near East, pre-Islamic poetry, orality theory, and to some of the internal characteristics of the Qurʾān. The general conclusion is neither surprising nor new: Wansbrough’s findings regarding the genealogy of the variant traditions and the authorship of the Qurʾān are far from self-evident.

Deviation from Tribal Traditions: The Other Face of Poetry in Pre-Islamic Arabia

Poetry in pre-Islamic Arabia is a social document (dīwān) and the most authoritative source possessed by the Arab people. This fact does not imply that pre-Islamic poetry is monotonous with a single pattern of tendency. On the contrary, pre-Islamic poetry is a collection of various tendencies that are divided into different aspects and diversities, both in expression (al-ta‘bīr) and content (al-muḥtawá). Therefore, this study aims to describe the facts about pre-Islamic poetry that not only revolves around tribal fanaticism (‘aṣabīyah qabalīyah) but also exhibit deviations from tribal (qabīlah) traditions. The research method employed in this study essentially utilizes historical methods, including the heuristic, criticism, and interpretation steps in analyzing the acquired data sources. The results of this study indicate that the other side of the content of pre-Islamic poetry which deviates is reflected in two tendencies: first, deviations that arise from individual subjective experiences (al-tajribah al-dhātīyah), such as the poems of Imru’ al-Qays and Ṭarafah ibn al-‘Abd; second, deviations that arise from political and ideological experiences (al-tajribah al-siyāsīyah al-īdiyūlūjīyah), as reflected in the poems of the brigand (Ṣa‘ālīk) group.

Introduction to the Tafsir of Tabari. Translation from Arabic and Commentary. Part Three: the Names of the Qur’ān and the Concepts of Surah and Ayah

This publication is the fi nal part of the commented translation into Russian of the Introduction (muqaddimаh) to the tafsir “Jami’ al-bayan fi ta’wil al- Qur’ān” (The Comprehensive Exposition of the interpretation of the Qur’ān) by Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (839–923). This part contains sections devoted to the names of the Qur’ān, the concepts of surah and ayah. The fi rst of them contains the four main names of the holy scripture of Islam — qur’ān, furqān, kitāb and dhikr, their etymology is defi ned on the basis of pre-Islamic poetry and statements of early Muslim authorities. The following section describes the classifi cation of suras into groups — s even long (sab‘ ṭiwāl), of hundred ayahs (mi’ūn), repeated (mathānī) and divided into parts (mufaṣṣal). The last section talks about the origin of the concepts of surah and ayah.

A Rhetorical Image of the Biggest Poets of the Pre-Islamic Poetry

يتناول هذا البحث بالدراسة فحول شعراء من العصر الجاهلي، وهم: «امرؤ القيس، وزهير، والنابغة الذبياني، والأعشى»، ويحاول رصد نسبة التصوير الفني القائم على الصورة البيانية بأنواعها «التشبيه والاستعارة والكناية»، والصورة القائمة على الوصف اللغوي الحُرّ، مستفيداً من إجراء إحصاء شامل يبيِّن الفروق الدقيقة للفنون «البلاغية البيانية» بين الشعراء المبحوثين، وذلك بقياس نسبة كل فن بلاغي لدى الشاعر الواحد، ونسبة ما يتفرع عنها من أقسام. إضافة إلى إجراء موازنة بين الشعراء الأربعة لرصد الفروق في نسبة كل فن من تلك الفنون وفروعه التي تلحق به عندهم، وبذلك تتجلى الخصائص الفردية في علم البيان لدى كل شاعر على حدة، والسمات المشتركة فيما بين الشعراء الأربعة.

تجليات الآخر المسيحي في الشعر الجاهلي من منظور "سيميائيات الثقافة"

This study incorporates "culture semiotics" to present an accurate reading of the revelations of the ‘Other’ that belongs to Christianity in pre-Islamic poetry, and it reveals the various signs that represent this ‘Other’ that belongs to Christianity in the aesthetic text in order to know the levels of self-awareness of the poet of the ‘Other’ that belongs to Christianity and the nature of the relationships between the pagan Bedouin culture and the Christian culture within the semiotic space of this text. The study is divided into two parts: a theoretical part which discusses the critical foundations of cultural semiotics theories, the relationship between the semiotics and cultural analysis of texts, and the position of the cultural system in the structure of the sign. A practical part which studies the semiotic cultural revelations of the ‘Other’ that belongs to Christianity in pre-Islamic poetry through three axes: the image of the ‘Other’ that belongs to Christianity as a cultural threat, the image of the ‘Other’ that belongs to Christianity as a source of enlightenment, and the image of the ‘Other’ that belongs to Christianity as a model of religiosity. The study concluded that the pre-Islamic poets were concerned about cultural identity, which made them insist on isolating the ‘Other’ that belongs to Christianity, and stigmatize it as weak. However, their indirect invocation of this ‘Other’ that belongs to Christianity reveals the consolidation of his model in wisdom and reliable knowledge, with the cultural desires of these poets to satisfy the needs of a spirituality that is not satisfied by the pagan culture nor the political model of Arab Christianity.

Https://habibiaislamicus.com/index.php/hirj/article/view/69

Profusion of poetic citations in the Arabic Linguistics books point to the fact that the study of Arabic language has been, from the very outset, based upon poetic evidence. There are many traditions where the Companions of the Prophet (PBUH) resorted to the pre-Islamic poetry for the interpretation and explanation of the Quranic words. "Tafseer Ghareeb ul Quran" by Abdullah bin Abbas testifies to it. In this book Abdulla bin Abbas has used work of the pre-Islam poets as evidence for the interpretation and explanation of Quranic verses. Later periods saw an expansion and the use of poetic evidence was extended to all branches of Arabic Linguistics such as morphology, semantics, grammar and rhetoric.In our paper thesis we have done research on the poetic citations found in Ibn Jani's "Sar Sanat al Arab". It is considered to be the most authentic source of the use of poetic evidence after "Alkitab" by Imam Sehwiya. It contains more than 700 verses used as reference. We have made an effort to find out the method of Ibn Jani regarding the use of poetic evidence. We have also made an effort to to know as to which problems and issues of Arabic linguistics have been resolved by him with the help of poetic evidence. At the same time we have made an effort to know the source of these poetic references.This dissertation consists of a preface, three chapters and a conclusion. In the introduction we have introduced the book "Sar Sanat al Arab" by Ibn Jani. In the first chapter we have covered the sources of the poetic evidence used by Ibn Jani. In the second chapter we have described the method of Ibn Jani regarding the use of poetic evidence. In the third chapter detailed discussion has been made on the salient features of Ibn jani's use of poetic evidence. And in the conclusion the researcher has presented the results of his research

شعرية القصيدة العربية الجاهلية في عيون المستشرقين: ريناتة ياكوبي أنموذجا

Jāhiliyya poetry in Arabic literature has always been a major focus of interest for researchers in this field. Historically considered, this period also includes the first century of Islam. Modern-day interest in Arabic literature, particularly in Jāhiliyya poetry, seems to have arisen from religious reasons on the one hand, and from the consciousness of national history on the other. During the Jāhiliyya Period, the Arabs attached so much importance to poetry that it functioned as their council, history, culture and worldview. Arabic poetry reached the peak of its maturity during the Jāhiliyya Period and formed an indisputable model for all subsequent times.
 Arab literary critics have substantially contributed to the art of criticism and have produced seminal works. Particularly studies on poetry criticism have deservedly earned a special position in literary appraisal. In this field, orientalists have also carried out many studies on old Arabic poetry. However, they have failed to act prudently in these studies and made methodological mistakes, such as comparing Arabic poetry with European literature. Despite these biased and non-objective studies, there are also some approaches in which there is no prejudice against and disregard for Arabic poetry. One of these conscientious works belongs to the German orientalist Renate Jacobi. Jacobi and Ukrainian orientalist Susan Stetkevich carried out similar studies in this area; both researchers addressed the ancient Arabic poetry in integrity. Using this method, they went beyond the traditional approaches of orientalism and examined Arabic literature from technical and literary perspectives beyond the social and geographical properties and cultures of the Arabs.
 Globally considered, we can say that German orientalists studying pre-Islamic poetry are more prudent and impartial than their European counterparts. Jacobi developed a unique critical horizon and a methodological path by examining texts without looking at the external contexts accompanying them. Jacobi introduced a new method in her work titled 'the Formal Principles of Arabic Poetry', by classifying the structural properties of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry into sections. She also suggested that this poetry is regular and interconnected and that it hardly exists in a disconnected structure depending solely on couplets. Therefore, this work of Jacobi has changed the prejudiced view of Arabic poetry. She reformed the traditional orientalist view, which considered the ancient Greek literary taste as a benchmark and studied Arabic poetry accordingly, and evaluated the Arab culture according to its own resources and cultural norms. Therefore, with this work, she approached Arabic literature from a different perspective than other orientalists.
 The most important thing Jacobi did in her work on the structure of pre-Islamic poetry was to try to answer a conjectural question that sought to uncover the structure and form of the text. The basic question she explored was: How was the structure of pre-Islamic poetry? To answer this question, Jacobi examined pre-Islamic poems in terms of their styles. She also analyzed the text and evaluated its structure, language, style and internal relations. After examining the elaborate structures of Arabic poetry, Jacobi showed that Arabic poetry is based on description, and it moves from ghazal to encomium. These claims made by Jacobi were previously voiced by such critics as Ibn Sallām and Ibn Kutayba. However, Jacobi’s changing the orientalist view, along with her serious and objective presentation, reveals the importance of her work.