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Pre-Islamic Arabic Poetry
Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry is a term used to refer to Arabic poetry composed in pre-Islamic Arabia roughly between 540 and 620 AD. In Arabic literature, pre-Islamic poetry went by the name ''al-shiʿr al-Jāhilī'' ("poetry from the Jahiliyyah" or "Jahili poetry"). This poetry largely originated in the Najd (then a region east of the Hejaz and up to present-day Iraq), with only a minority coming from the Hejaz. Poetry was first distinguished into the Islamic and pre-Islamic by Ḥammād al-Rāwiya (d. 772). In Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid times, literary critics debated if contemporary or pre-Islamic poetry was the better of the two. Pre-Islamic poetry constitutes a major source for classical Arabic language both in grammar and vocabulary, and as a record of the political and cultural life of the time in which it was created. A number of major poets are known from pre-Islamic times, the most prominent among them being Imru' al-Qais. Other prominent poets included Umayya ibn Abi as-Salt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Arabic Poetry
Arabic poetry ( ''ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy'') is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existed in Arabic writing in material as early as the 1st century BCE, with oral poetry likely being much older still. Arabic poetry is categorized into two main types, rhymed or measured, and prose, with the former greatly preceding the latter. The rhymed poetry falls within fifteen different meters collected and explained by al-Farahidi in ''The Science of ‘ Arud''. Al-Akhfash, a student of al-Farahidi, later added one more meter to make them sixteen. The meters of the rhythmical poetry are known in Arabic as "seas" (''buḥūr''). The measuring unit of seas is known as "''taf‘īlah''," and every sea contains a certain number of taf'ilas which the poet has to observe in every verse ('' bayt'') of the poem. The measuring procedure of a p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Greek Poetry
Greek literature () dates back from the ancient Greek literature, beginning in 800 BC, to the modern Greek literature of today. Ancient Greek literature was written in an Ancient Greek dialect, literature ranges from the oldest surviving written works until works from approximately the fifth century AD. This time period is divided into the Preclassical, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. Preclassical Greek literature primarily revolved around myths and include the works of Homer; the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''. The Classical period saw the dawn of drama and history. Three philosophers are especially notable: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. During the Roman era, significant contributions were made in a variety of subjects, including history, philosophy, and the sciences. Byzantine literature, the literature of the Byzantine Empire, was written in Atticizing, Medieval and early Modern Greek. Chronicles, distinct from historics, arose in this period. Encyclopedias al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Al-Nabigha
Al-Nābighah (), al-Nābighah al-Dhubiyānī, or Nābighah al-Dhubyānī; real name Ziyad ibn Muawiyah (); was one of the last pre-Islamic Arabian poets. "Al-Nabigha" means genius or intelligent in Arabic. Biography His tribe, the Banu Dhubyan, belonged to the district near Mecca, but he spent most of his time at the Lakhmid court of al-Hirah and the court of the Ghassanids. In al-Hirah, he remained under al-Mundhir III ibn al-Harith, and then his successor in 562. After a sojourn at the court of Ghassan, he returned to al-Hirah under al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir. Owing to his verses written about the Queen he was compelled to flee to Ghassan, but returned ca., 600. When Numan died five years later he withdrew to his own tribe. His date of death is uncertain, but seems to predate Islam. His poems consist largely of eulogies and satires, and are concerned with the strife of Hirah and Ghassan, and of the Banu Abs and the Banu Dhubyan. He is one of the six eminent pre-Is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Samaw'al Ibn 'Adiya
As-Samaw’al bin ‘Ādiyā’ ( / ) was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet and warrior, esteemed by the Arabs for his loyalty, which was commemorated by an Arabic idiom: "''awfá min as-Samaw’al''" ( / more loyal than al-Samaw'al). He lived in the first half of the 6th century. His clan converted to Judaism when they were in Southern Arabia. Later, they moved to northern Arabia, settling in Taima, where al-Samw'al was born and lived most of his life. He was the maternal grandfather of Safiyya bint Huyayy, one of prophet Mohammed's wives. Background His full name is disputed among Arab scholars. His name is said to be al-Samaw'al Bin 'Adiya or al-Samaw'al Bin 'Arid Bin 'Adiya or al-Samaw'al Bin Awfa or al-Samaw'al Bin Hayyan or al-Samaw'al Bin Hayya. Ibn Durayd said that he was son of a priest called Haroun Ibn 'Amran and that he was from the tribe of Banu Ghassan. While al-Jawaliqi said his mother was from Banu Ghassan and his father was from al-Azd. He was one of the m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Imru Al-Qays
Imruʾ al-Qais Junduh bin Hujr al-Kindi () was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet from Najd in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, and the last King of Kinda. He is sometimes considered the father of Arabic poetry. His qaṣīda, or long poem, "Let us stop and weep" ( ''qifā nabki'') is one of the seven Mu'allaqat, poems prized as the best examples of pre-Islamic Arabian verse. His father was said to be Hujr bin al-Harith ( ''Ḥujr ibn al-Ḥārith''), the Kindan regent over the Arab tribes of Asad and Ghatafan, and it is believed that Imru' al-Qais was born in the territory of Asad. His mother was said to be Fatimah bint Rabi'ah al-Taghlibi ( / ''Fāṭimah bint Rabī‘ah al-Taghlibī''). Legend has it that Imru' al-Qais was the youngest of his father's sons, and began composing poetry while he was still a child. His father strongly disapproved of this habit in his son, believing poetry to be an unseemly pastime for the son of a king. His father also disapproved of Imru' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Hadith
Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ( companions in Sunni Islam, Ahl al-Bayt in Shiite Islam). Each hadith is associated with a chain of narrators ()—a lineage of people who reportedly heard and repeated the hadith from which the source of the hadith can be traced. The authentication of hadith became a significant discipline, focusing on the ''isnad'' (chain of narrators) and '' matn'' (main text of the report). This process aimed to address contradictions and questionable statements within certain narrations. Beginning one or two centuries after Muhammad's death, Islamic scholars, known as muhaddiths, compiled hadith into distinct collections that survive in the historical works of writers from the second and third centuries of the Muslim era ( 700−1000 CE). For ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Caliphate
A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of the entire Muslim world (''ummah''). Historically, the caliphates were polities based on Islam which developed into multi-ethnic trans-national empires. During the medieval period, three major caliphates succeeded each other: the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661), the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), and the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1517). In the fourth major caliphate, the Ottoman Caliphate, the rulers of the Ottoman Empire claimed caliphal authority from 1517 until the Ottoman caliphate was Abolition of the Caliphate, formally abolished as part of the Atatürk's reforms, 1924 secularisation of Turkey. An attempt to preserve the title was tried, with the Sharifian Caliphate, but this caliphate fell quickly after its conquest by the Sultanate o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member of the clan. The family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Mu'awiya I, the long-time governor of Bilad al-Sham, Greater Syria, who became caliph after the end of the First Fitna in 661. After Mu'awiya's death in 680, conflicts over the succession resulted in the Second Fitna, and power eventually fell to Marwan I, from another branch of the clan. Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, with Damascus as their capital. The Umayyads continued the Early Muslim conquests, Muslim conquests, conquering Ifriqiya, Transoxiana, Sind (caliphal province), Sind, the Maghreb and Hispania (al-Andalus). At its greatest extent (661–750), the Umayyad Caliphate covered , making it one of the largest empires in history in terms of ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Tarafa
Tarafa ( / ALA-LC: ''Ṭarafah ibn al-‘Abd ibn Sufyān ibn Sa‘d Abū ‘Amr al-Bakrī al-Wā’ilī''; 543–569), was an Arabian poet of the tribe of the Bakr. He is one of the seven poets of the most celebrated anthology of ancient Arabic poetry, known as the '' Muʿallaqāt'', however just one of his poems is included. His fellow poets preserved in this work are Al-Nabigha, Antarah ibn Shaddad, Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma, 'Alqama ibn 'Abada and Imru' al-Qais. Life Ṭarafah was the half-brother or nephew of the elegist Al-Khirniq bint Badr. He traveled with his uncle Al-Mutalammis to the court of the king of Al-Hirah, ʿAmr ibn Hind, and there became companion to the king's brother. According to one legend, having ridiculed the king in some verses he was sent with a letter to the ruler of Bahrayn, and, in accordance with the instructions contained in the letter, was buried alive. Modern Translations *''The Divans of the Six Ancient Arabic Poets, Ennabiga, 'Antara, Thara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Mu'allaqat
The Muʻallaqāt (, ) is a compilation of seven long pre-Islamic Arabic poems. The name means The Suspended Odes or The Hanging Poems, they were named so because these poems were hung in the Kaaba in Mecca. Some scholars have also suggested that the hanging is figurative, as if the poems "hang" in the reader's mind. Along with the '' Mufaddaliyat'', '' Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab'', '' Asma'iyyat'', and the '' Hamasah'', the ''Mu'allaqāt'' are considered the primary source for early written Arabic poetry. Scholar Peter N. Stearns goes so far as to say that they represent "the most sophisticated poetic production in the history of Arabic letters." History Compilation The original compiler of the poems may have been Hammad al-Rawiya (8th century). The grammarian Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Nahhas (d. 949 CE) says in his commentary on the ''Mu'allaqat'': "The true view of the matter is this: when Hammad al-Rawiya saw how little men cared for poetry, he collected these seven pieces, ur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Fakhr
''Fakhr'', also ''fakhar'' or ''faḵr'' (), is an Arabic word, literally meaning "pride", "honor", "glory". The word may occur as a given name, as part of a given name such as Fakhr al-Din ("pride of the faith"), as part of a ''kunya'', or as a surname. It is also used as a technical term in Arabic literature. Literary term In traditional Arabic poetry, ''fakhr'' denotes a genre or ''topos In mathematics, a topos (, ; plural topoi or , or toposes) is a category that behaves like the category of sheaves of sets on a topological space (or more generally, on a site). Topoi behave much like the category of sets and possess a notio ...'' comprising boasting or self-praise, often opening with the excalamation known as '' wāw rubba''. In ''fakhr'' passages, a poet may praise his tribe or other group, or the praise may be of an individual, particularly the martial success, magnanimity, and strength of the poet himself. In the '' qaṣīda'' form of poetry, personal praise tend ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Nasīb (poetry)
''Nasīb'' () is an Arabic literary form, 'usually defined as an erotic or amatory prelude to the type of long poem called a '' qaṣīdah''.' However, although at the beginning of the form's development ''nasīb'' meant 'love-song', it came to cover much wider kinds of content: 'The ''nasīb'' usually is understood as the first part of the ''qaṣīdah'' where the poet remembers his beloved. In later ages the ''nasīb'' stood alone, and in that sense the meaning came to be understood as erotic and love poetry.' Early and prominent examples of the ''nasīb'' appear in the '' Mu'allaqāt'' of the sixth-century poets Antarah ibn Shaddad and Imru' al-Qais Imruʾ al-Qais Junduh bin Hujr al-Kindi () was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet from Najd in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, and the last King of Kinda. He is sometimes considered the father of Arabic poetry. His qaṣīda, or long poe .... To quote from Imru' al-Qais's ''Mu'allaqah'': Stay! let us weep, while memory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
