Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry

Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry (or simply pre-Islamic poetry) refers to the corpus of Arabic poetry composed in pre-Islamic Arabia roughly between 540 and 620 AD. Traditional Arabic literature called it al-shiʿr al-Jāhilī, "poetry from the Jahiliyyah". Surviving works largely originate from Najd (then defined as the region east of the Hejaz mountains up to present-day Iraq), with a minority coming from the Hejaz.

Pre-Islamic poetry constitutes a major source for classical Arabic language both in grammar and vocabulary, and as a reliable historical record of the political and cultural life of the time. A number of major poets are known from the time period, perhaps most prominent among them being Imru' al-Qais. Other prominent poets included Umayya ibn Abi as-Salt, Al-Nabigha, and Zayd ibn Amr.

Social role

Poetry held an important position in pre-Islamic society with the poet or sha'ir filling the role of historian, soothsayer and propagandist. Words in praise of the tribe (qit'ah) and lampoons denigrating other tribes (hija') seem to have been some of the most popular forms of early poetry. The sha'ir represented an individual tribe's prestige and importance in the Arabian Peninsula, and mock battles in poetry or zajal would stand in lieu of real wars. 'Ukaz, a market town not far from Mecca, would play host to a regular poetry festival where the craft of the sha'irs would be exhibited.

Transmission

Alongside the sha'ir, and often as his poetic apprentice, was the rawi or reciter. The job of the rawi was to learn the poems by heart and to recite them with explanations and probably often with embellishments. This tradition allowed the transmission of these poetic works and the practice was later adopted by the huffaz for their memorisation of the Qur'an. At some periods there have been unbroken chains of illustrious poets, each one training a rawi as a bard to promote his verse, and then to take over from them and continue the poetic tradition.

In the mid-8th century, a number of seminal transmitters are named, including Ḥammād al-Rāwiyah (d. ca. 772), Khalaf al-Aḥmar (d. ca. 796), and Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ (d. 771 or 774).

According to Nathaniel Miller, the early corpus of surviving poetry underwent four semi-independent lines or strains of transmission: musical, exegetical, historiographical, and philological. Thus, they all drew on a common set of Umayyad-era poetry compiled by tribal transmitters (written down as memory aids), but they also drew from each of their own independent sources. Hejazi poetry, in particular, was utilized for musical purposes, especially as attested by the Kitab al-Aghani of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (d. 972). However, musical poetry also suffers from the fact that its mode of transmission was not greatly interested in preservation, verification, or attribution. Its place in Iraqi court culture also makes earlier poetry difficult to distinguish from later additions. Exegetical poetry, such as those appearing in Al-Tabari's Jāmiʿ al-bayān, usually cannot be located in the diwans (collections of the poetry of a single author). It is likely that exegetical poetry drew both on forged and early materials. The poetry found in chronicles is usually patently inauthentic.

Poets

Among the most famous poets of the pre-Islamic era are Imru' al-Qais, Samaw'al ibn 'Adiya, al-Nabigha, Tarafa, Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma, and Antarah ibn Shaddad. Other poets, such as Ta'abbata Sharran, al-Shanfara, Urwa ibn al-Ward, were known as su'luk or vagabond poets, much of whose works consisted of attacks on the rigidity of tribal life and praise of solitude.

Imru' al-Qais

Imru' al-Qais was a poet of the first half of the sixth century AD. Today, he is one of the most famous and celebrated Arabic poets, with some viewing him as the very best (though this was debated among Arabic poetry specialists). Unfortunately, no contemporary information exists and biographical information about him from the ninth and tenth centuries was shaped by heroic narrative conventions. His name, "Imru' al-Qais," means "Worshiper of the Qays" referring either to a deity called Qays or an attribute of the goddess Manat. Most sources identify his father as Ḥujr ibn al-Ḥārith, who became the king of the Kinda tribe in 528 AD, shortly after Imru' was born. According to his work, he adopted a lifestyle of poetry, wine, and women; he strayed from the conventional morality of the court which led to his expulsion. He lives a wandering life until he learns of his fathers death at the hands of the Asad tribe. This effectively transforms him into a warrior, and he raises the support of several other tribes in order to take vengeance. He loses his support, however. He seeks to regain momentum by appealing to the Byzantine court, though he is unsuccessful and dies soon thereafter. The poetry of Imru' al-Qais was collected in the late eighth century in Iraq. The authenticity of it is disputed, with al-Asma'i believing that his vagabond group as he wandered in the aftermath of his expulsion composed much of what is attributed to him. Some of his poetry is widely agreed upon as genuine however, including his contribution to the Mu'allaqat.

Jewish poets

Islamic compilations of pre-Islamic poetry occasionally mention Jewish poets, although it is difficult to assess their authenticity and, compared to epigraphs, are more difficult to date and are subject to later influences of Islamicization. The Ṭabaqāt fuḥūl al-shuʿarā ("The generations of the most outstanding poets"), composed by the Basran traditionalist and philologist Muḥummad ibn Sallām al-Jumaḥī (d. 846), records a list of Jewish poets. The Arabian/Arab antiquities collector Abū l-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī (d. 976) also has scattered reference to eleven Jewish poets in his Kitāb al-agānī ("Book of Songs"). The poets they refer to are as follows, followed by (J) if mentioned by al-Jumahi and (I) if they are mentioned by al-Isfahani:

• Samaw'al ibn 'Adiya (J) (I)
• Al-Rabi ibn Abu al-Huqayq (J) (I)
• Ka‘b ibn al-Ashraf (J) (I)
• Shurayḥ ibn ʿImrān (J) (I)
• Saʿya (Shuʿba) ibn Gharīḍ/ʿArīḍ (J) (I)
• Abū Qays ibn Rifāʿa (J) (I)
• Dirham ibn Zayd (J)
• Abū l-Dhayyāl (J) (I)
• Sarah of Qurayẓa (I)
• Kaʿb ibn Saʿd of Qurayẓa (I)
• Aws ibn Danī of Qurayẓa (I)

The poetry ascribed to these figures rarely make reference to precise historical details or religious expressions, although some poems ascribed to al-Samaw'al in the Asma'iyyat collection are explicitly religious. In addition, al-Jumahi offers very little by way of biography for each of these figures other than to recount popular anecdotes that a few are associated with. Al-Isfahani gives more detailed biographical information. For example, he says Al-Samaw’al ibn ‘Ādiyā was a native of Tayma (in northwestern Arabia) whose father had ties to the Ghassanids. He lived in a family home often called a castle and whose name was al-Ablaq. Popular stories described his fidelity and loyalty, such as one where he refuses the surrender of the possessions of Imru' al-Qais to Imru's enemies despite their attempt to besiege his castle. Asides from Samaw'al, the only other Jewish poet to earn some renown was al-Rabī‘ ibn Abī l-Ḥuqayq, chief of the Naḍir tribe. The earliest sources make no mention of this figure, but only his son Kināna. Instead, it is only with the work of al-Isfahani that the exploits of al-Rabī‘ are described.

Christian influences

Al-A'sha refers to God as al-ilāh, a possibly connected the poet with a Christian affiliation. In one poem, he refers to swears by "the lord of those who prostrate themselves in the evening", which might be a reference to Christian prayers. However, despite the implicit monotheism, there is no explicit identification (neither by himself nor by others) of al-A'sha as a Christian.

Al-Nabigha, whose own religious convictions are unclear, praises his patrons (the Ghassanids) as pious Christians. Adi ibn Zayd was a prominent Christian Arab poet, stationed in al-Hira. One line of his work, from a particularly famous and lengthy poem (though also of disputed authenticity), involves swearing by "the lord of Mecca and of the cross": thus, Abi ibn Zayd understood God to be the protector of both Mecca and Christianity. In the poem, he continues to compare himself to a monk based on the manner that he conducts his prayers. Adi ibn Zayd also composed a poem on the creation of the world.

Collections

History

The first extant written collection of poetry containing pre-Islamic works was by al-Mufaddal ad-Dabbi (d. after 780 AD). His collection included 126 poems, usually involving one or two poems per poet, and was attributed to a number of early Islamic and pre-Islamic figures. 67 poets are represented, only 6 of whom are thought to have been born Muslim. 78 of the poems (or 62%) are from Najdi/Iraqi tribes. Another 28% were technically from technically Najdi tribes but in cultural contact with the Hejaz. Only 13 (10%) are from the southern Hejaz, with 2 from the Quraysh (who were ultimately not a poetically significant group in this period, though their status as-such would be inflated later). His collection came to be known as the Mufaḍḍaliyyāt and appears to have been composed as a pedagogical text for the Abbasid family. The second major extant collection to be made was the Asma'iyyat, by the grammarian al-Asma'i (d. 828). 69% of his poems are Najdi, 17% southern Hijazi, and 11% Yemeni. Both these figures were members of the Najdi tribe. Both authors wrote numerous other works across a wide range of subjects, including lexicography, phonetics, Arabian topography, and more.

List of major collections

The five major collections of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry were made in the 8th and 9th centuries and are, alongside published editions and translations:

• The Mu'allaqat ("The Suspended Odes" or "The Hanging Poems"), a group of seven long poems collected in the 8th century. It may have been collected by Hammad Ar-Rawiya.
  • Arberry, The Seven Odes: The First Chapter in Arabic Literature, Routledge, 1957. Available
  • Johnson, Frank (ed.). The Seven Poems Suspended in the Temple at Mecca, Education Society's Steam Press, 1893. Available.
  • King Fahad National Library, The Mu'allaqat for Millennials: Pre-Islamic Arabic Golden Odes, King Abdullazizz Center For World Culture, 2020. Available.
• The Mufaddaliyat ("The Examination of al-Mufaḍḍal"), a group of 126 poems collected by Al-Mufaddal ad-Dabbi in the 8th century.
  • Lyall, Charles James (ed.), The Mufaddaliyat, Clarendon University Press, 1918. Available.
• The Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab ("The Gathering of the Arabs' Verses"), collected between the 8th and 10th centuries.
• The Asma'iyyat, a collection of 92 poems.
  • Lambden, Stephen. "The Kitab al-asma' II - Select Excerpts in Translation." Available.
• The Kitab al-Hamasah, a ten-book anthology of 884 Arabic poems compiled in the 9th century by Abu Tammam.

Additional editions and translations

• Elmeligi, Wessam. The Poetry of Arab Women from the Pre-Islamic Age to Andalusia, Routledge, 2019.
• Lyall, Charles James (ed.), Translations of Ancient Arabian Poetry, chiefly pre-Islamic, Hyperion Press, 1981. Available.
• Montgomery, James E. (ed.), War Songs by ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād, Library of Arabic Literature, 2018.
• Montgomery, James E. (ed.), Diwan 'Antarah ibn Shaddad: A Literary-Historical Study, Library of Arabic Literature, 2018.

Authenticity

Initial rejection of the authenticity of the corpus of pre-Islamic poetry came in the early 20th century, from a paper by D.S. Margoliouth in 1925 and the book On Pre-Islamic Poetry by Taha Husayn in 1926. Use of pre-Islamic poetry in the field of Quranic studies also declined compared to earlier eras after the skeptical turn of the field in the 1970s, a trend lamented by a number of relevant experts. Most work from previous decades is now obsolete, however. Margoliouth argued the monotheism of the poetry was out of place, but archaeological findings have since shown monotheism was widespread in pre-Islamic Arabia, contrary to later representations. Margoliouth also relied on the assumption that authentic pre-Islamic poetry would need to share the dialect of the Quran, which is no longer accepted.

Early responses to sweeping rejections of the authenticity of pre-Islamic poetry came from Arafat and, in recent decades, historians have retreated from blanket skepticism of these poems, viewing the majority of them as potentially pre-Islamic in origin. A recent study of the toponyms in pre-Islamic poetry suggest they refer to real places though unknown in later periods, indicating an origin in periods at least a few generations prior to compilation. Archaic grammatical forms indicate written transmission of the poetry by at least the 1st century AH. Another investigation suggests general authenticity with respect to its treatment of Hajj rites. Hajj references in pre-Islamic poetry are few, especially in comparison to in Muslim-era poetry, and concentrated in poets living in and near Mecca but largely absent from the poetry of authors from northern and eastern Arabia (contrasting Islamic-era histories which conceived of the Hajj as a pan-Arabian ritual of pre-Islamic Arabia). Archaic names and practices are referred to absent from Muslim-era ritual, and, like the Quran but unlike later Arabic-era historiographies, describe the Hajj not as a practice involving a polytheistic pantheon but instead centered around the worship of Allāh. Structural features of the poetry may have also helped its preservation, such as the meter and rhyme. At the same time, there is also much inauthentic material in pre-Islamic poetry, such as in the corpus attributed to Umayya ibn Abī al-Ṣalt. As such, pre-Islamic poetry cannot be blinded trusted either.

Criteria have been proposed to distinguish authentic from inauthentic material: lines attributed to pre-Islamic poetry are suspect if they use or depend on overtly Quranic or Islamic phraseology, or if they are recruited by the authors that record them as support for specific political or exegetical positions. Likewise, heightened confidence might be placed on poems or lines which cluster with other poems or lines absent any suspicious material, lack anachronisms, and comport with beliefs held by pre-Islamic Arabs, especially when those are the views attributed by the Quran to its opponents but differ from the types of views attributed to Muhammad's opponents in later Arabic histories.

Relationship to post-Islamic poetry

There are several characteristics that distinguish pre-Islamic poetry from the poetry of later times. One of these characteristics is that in pre-Islamic poetry more attention was given to the eloquence and the wording of the verse than to the poem as whole. This resulted in poems characterized by strong vocabulary and short ideas but with loosely connected verses. A second characteristic is the romantic or nostalgic prelude with which pre-Islamic poems would often start. In these preludes, a thematic unit called "nasib," the poet would remember his beloved and her deserted home and its ruins.

Relationship to the Quran

Style

The Quran distinguishes itself from shiʿr, a term that would later be taken to mean "poetry". The Quran itself largely rhymes, however, it does not contain any meter, and there is no evidence that early Islamic or pre-Islamic Arabic was ever defined only with respect to rhyme. Instead, 86% of lines in the Quran are sequences of variable length that end with a rhyme (rhymed prose, akin to saj').

Narrative

The Quran has what historians have called an "ahistorical" view of the past: the passage of time ultimately is of little consequence across human history as the human condition is ultimately one where the individual must choose between good and evil. Therefore, stories of punishment and destruction occur across in the same, repetitive pattern, across times and places. The Quranic view of mankind is therefore not "historical" but "moral". This has been compared to the view of man in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, which also depicts an essentially ahistorical and moral view of man across time. The chief difference between the two is instead in the moral values that they elevate for humanity across time: whereas this is belief (imān) for the Quran, it is manly virtue (murūwa) and tribalistic chauvinism in pre-Islamic poetry.

Another similarity raised between the two, is that some pre-Islamic Arabian odes, like the Quranic punishment narratives, begin with evocations of ruined or destroyed historical sites. However, the two texts invoke these ruined habitations for different purposes. For the odes, it is to emphasize the permance of nature, even as human civilizations come and go. For the Quran, it is to warn its audience about God's ability to destroy their civilization if they fail to obey him.

The content of the Quran has been compared several times to the poetry of Umayya ibn Abi as-Salt. Both Umayya and the Quran treat similar prominent topics in the domains of creation, eschatology, and episodes of biblical prophetology. Both treat the story of the tribe of Thamud and the she-camel, describe an ascent by demons/jinn to the firmament where they are pelted by heavenly defence systems, and contain a similar story of the Annunciation to Mary. Both contain a flood narrative. Both texts use the word tannūr in their flood narratives, which appears as a hapax legomenon in the Quran.

Poetry in Quranic exegesis

At first, the use of poetry in the exegesis of the Quran was occasional and infrequent. The philologist Abū ʿUbaydah (d. 825) was one of the first to do so in his Majāz al-Qurʾān. He brings up a line of poetry from Amr ibn Kulthum in trying to argue that the word Quran semantically derives, not from the common Semitic lexeme used in other languages to mean "to read" (or the like), but instead "to combine" (in the sense that its surahs are combined). He then cites a line of poetry from Al-Nabigha to again offer an etymological derivation of the word for "surah" independent of Syriac or other non-Arabic languages. Abū ʿUbaydah ends with another Arabizing argument for "ayah" although without poetic citation.

See also

• List of Arabic-language poets

References

Sources

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• Arafat, Walid (1958). "Early Critics of the Authenticity of the Poetry of the "Sīra"". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 21 (1/3): 453–463. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00060110. JSTOR 610611.
• Arafat, Walid (1966). "The Historical Significance of Later Anṣārī Poetry – I". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 29 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00060766. JSTOR 611089.
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• Hainthaler, Theresia (2005). "Adi Ibn Zayd al-Ibadi, the Pre-Islamic Christian Poet of al-Hira and his Poem Nr. 3 Written in Jail". Parole de l'Orient. 30: 157–172.
• Hoyland, Robert (2011). "The Jews of Hijaz and their Inscriptions". In Reynolds, Gabriel Said (ed.). New Perspectives on the Qur'an. Taylor & Francis. pp. 91–116.
• Hoyland, Robert (2015). "The Jewish Poets of Muḥammad's Ḥijāz". In Robin, Christian Julien (ed.). Le judaïsme de l'Arabie antique. Brepols. pp. 511–522.
• Husayn, Taha (1926). Fi al-shiʿr al-jahili. Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya.
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• Mongellaz, Olivier (2024). "Le four de Noé : un cas d'intertextualité coranique". Arabica. 71 (4–5): 513–637.
• Sinai, Nicolai (2011). "Religious poetry from the Quranic milieu: Umayya b. Abī l-Ṣalt on the fate of the Thamūd" (PDF). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 74 (3): 397–416.
• Sinai, Nicolai (2019). Rain-giver, bone-breaker, score-settler: allāh in Pre-Quranic poetry. Lockwood Press.
• Sinai, Nicolai (2023). Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary. Princeton University Press.
• Sinai, Nicolai (2024). "The Christian Elephant in the Meccan Room: Dye, Tesei, and Shoemaker on the Date of the Qurʾān". Journal of International Qur'anic Studies Association: 1–62. doi:10.1515/jiqsa-2023-0013.
• Stetkevych, Suzanne Pinckney (1993). The Mute Immortals Speak: Pre-Islamic Poetry and the Poetics of Ritual. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801480461.
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Further reading

• El Tayib, Abdulla (1983). "Pre-Islamic poetry" (PDF). In A.F.L., Beeston; Johnstone, T.M.; Searjeant, R.B.; Smith, G.R. (eds.). Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period. Cambridge University Press. pp. 27–113.
• Imhof, Agnes (2010). "The Qur'an and the Prophet's Poet: The Poems by Kaʿb b,. Mālik" (PDF). In Neuwirth, Angelika; Sinai, Nicolai; Marx, Michael (eds.). The Qur'an in Context. Brill. pp. 389–406.
• Montgomery, James (2015). The Vagaries of the Qasidah. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-909724-52-5.

External links

• Medieval Sourcebook: Pre-Islamic Arabia: The Hanged Poems, before 622 CE (Internet History Sourcebook)