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Poetry in Arab World from Pre-Islamic Era to Abbasids and its
Effect on Modern Poetry
Ahmed Lekssays Literature December 11, 2016 12
Minutes

Poetry has been a major tool to express the state of a

community. Arab poetry played a great role in establishing,
maintaining, and destroying political systems in Middle East
and North Africa region from pre-Islam to now. It was used to
promote religion, Sultans, and governments because it had a
magical effect on people. They listen to it because of its beauty,
so it can easily stick in their minds. Arab poetry or “Chi’ir” is
totally different from novels, articles, or other form of Arabic
literature because it is very advanced in term of language. Arab
Poets or “Chu’ara” were playing with words by using the
powerful ones that can affect people quickly when they
understand the meaning. It cannot be easily interpreted that is
why it was used to ruin the reputation of a Sultan without being
caught quickly. It has many deep meanings that serve several
purposes besides the ones that we already discussed. It is still
used in education nowadays. It is a part of primary school
program. However, they do not talk about pre-Islamic poetry
because it is very different than the Arabic that is taught in
schools. They teach students the types of poetry which are the
free and the traditional. In pre-Islamic era, there was a single
type of poetry which is the traditional. It had strict and hard
rules to follow that is why it was very advanced. Each poem
should have strict number of “paragraphs” and a unique song at
the end of each line called “Quaf’ia”. It is the part that allows to
people to sing the poem. In addition, each poem should belong
to a ringtone called “Baher”. Arabic poetry has 16 ringtone or
“Baher”, as they are named technically. On the other hand, free
poetry appeared in 20 century. It served several purposes such
as nationalism, love, and revolution of Arab peoples. Nizar
Qabbani used the free poetry to talk about love in an artistic
way. Mahmoud Darwich used it to talk about the Palestine-
Israeli conflict and show the words, from the power of words
that he used, his opinion as a palestinian poet. One of Abu Al-
Qasim Shabi’s poems is as a national anthem of Tunisia. It is a
revolutionary poem that encourages people to change destiny
because they have the power to do so. It was used to motivate
people to push the colonial powers out of their motherlands
which the language was not important because in North Africa
region, especially Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, the
Amazigh poem was a major tool in reaching people who do not
understand Arabic. In fact, they were the soldiers of the
Moroccan army at that time.

Pre-Islamic era poets put the foundations of Arabic poetry. The

culture of this era was oral and what is discussed now in books
is what the authors of after Islamic era transmitted to us. So, it
is, somehow, biased because some actions of the pre-Islamic era
were prohibited later on. For instance, the description of the
girls’ bodies was allowed in pre-Islamic era and prohibited after
Islamic It was known by the dark age of the Arab peoples. In
fact, it was not as Muslim authors described it. It is known as
“Jahilia” which means the ignorance age. However, it is not the
case because the level of language and the power of “Quraish”
leaders’ speeches was advanced comparing to nowadays
leaders’ speeches. “Mu’allaqat” are the long poems that were in
pre-Islamic era or “Jahilia”. They are written with a pure artistic
language to describe the lives of Arab people in the Arab
peninsula at that time. They were hung in Kaaba because of
their importance. It is the origin of their name “Mu’allaqat”
because it means, in Arabic, something that is hung. They can
be divided into seven types. Each type is known by a poet who
are Harith Ibn Halza, Imru Al-Qays, Zuhair Ibn Abi-Salama,
Tarafa Ibn Al-Abd, Amr Ibn Kulthum, Antara Ibn Shadad, and
Labid Ibn Abi-Rabiaa. Each “Mu’alaqa” talks about a different
topic depending on the interest of each poet.

Harith Ibn Halza is one of the great poets in pre-Islamic era. He

was writing about his tribe “Baker Ibn Wael”. He wrote
“Mua’lasa Fakhriya” which was about promoting his tribe. In
other words, he wrote the pride poem in “Mua’laqat”. He was
proud of his tribe, and Arab people were using his name to
describe a prided person in their daily life by saying to him that
he is prouder than Harith Ibn Halza. This “Mua’laqa” talked
about the daily life of his tribe and pushing people to prepare to
war.

Imru Al-Qays is one of the famous poets of pre-Islamic era. He

wrote about love. He described in his “Mu’allaqa” his love to
Leila who is a girl from his tribe. His story with Leila is similar
to the one of Romio and Julliet. Qays and Layla story is a
famous love story in the Arabic culture. He was known by
describing girls’ bodies in his poems which was not accepted
after Islam, so the authors who talked about him described some
of his poems as obscene. He has been inspiring Arab poets such
as Nizar Qabbani.

Zuhair Ibn Abi-Salama was writing his poems in one month and
prepare them in one year which means “Hawl” in Arabic. His
poems were called “Hawliyat” because of their long preparation.
His poems were respectful in the sense that they were accepted
after Islam. He was eulogizing people with what they are known
with. Omar Ibn Al-Khattab named him the poet of poets due to
his beautiful style. He was writing about what he knew about, so
his poems were genuine.

Tarafa Ibn Al-Abd is considered one of the best poets of the pre-
Islamic era. His poems are about ethics, Humanity, life, and
Arab peoples traditions at that time. He tried to show the
shining side of the Arab peoples by describing their daily lives
and how they were helping each other. In addition, he was
describing the tools and the industrial development that they
were achieving. Historically speaking, his “Mu’allaqa” helped
researchers to know the lifestyle of Arab people in pre-Islamic
era and comparing it to after Islam in order to know what
changes Islam brought to the Arab culture.

Amr Ibn Kulthum is another great poet from the pre-Islamic era.
His poems were about motivating people to participating in the
wars against his tribe. He was proud of it, and that is why he
talked about it in a prestigious way in his poems. He was
thanking brave people who belong to the same tribe. He
described them as models of the others.

Antara Ibn Shaddad is one of the famous poets of the pre-

Islamic era because he wrote about his love story and its
relationship with the slavery life. Antara lived a different life
from the other poets because his father is his owner according to
slavery rules. He talked about his father’s wife because she was
the source of its problems. She told his father that Antara is
harassing her just to see him beaten every time. The interesting
part of these stories is that she talked to his father to stop beating
him whenever she felt that it is enough for him what he
experienced. Antara’s poems were seeing the Arab culture at
that time from another angle because he talked about the
miserable life of the slaves. He showed to the world that the
slaves can love as well. He is known by his poems about Abla
who is his lover and cousin. He loved her, and he wrote long
poems about her describing his deep feelings towards her. She
was one the beautiful girl in his tribe, and he was meeting her
secretely because meeting a girl at that time was prohibited. He
went to his uncle in order to marry Abla. His uncle completely
refused because Antara was a slave and black. He talked in his
poems about the racism and how the slaves did not have the
right to marry. The exact end of the story is not known because
some authors said that he did not marry her and others claimed
that he married her even if her father refused. Their story was
inspiring many writers because it is seen as a love story model
nowadays especially after the formalization of human rights.

Labid Ibn Rabia is the last poet of “Mu’allaqat” because he

lived after Islam for a long time, so he is one of the poets who
experienced the pre-Islamic and post-Islamic eras. He wrote
about the hospitality of Arab people, wine, love, and pride of the
belonging of his tribe. After he became Muslim, his poetry
changed because he did not talk about what the Islam prohibited
such as the obscene description of the girls’ bodies and wine.
Labid is one of the poets that we can touch the change that Islam
brought to the Arab peoples in the Arab peninsula at that time.
Some of the topic that were dominant in the pre-Islamic era
were prohibited after words. So,Islam changed the topics that
poets can cover in their poems.

The era between “Jahilia” and Islam was a critical era because
poetry was seen as unethical action that the Muslim can do
because poets in “Jahilia” were known by drinking wine and
obscene description of what the Islam prohibited. So, it was a
critical time which changed the topics to the pride of belonging
to a tribe, motivation to participate in wars, and promotion of
the Islam and prophet.

Hassan Ibn Thabit was one of the famous poets of that era
because his poems were all about prophet Muhammad. Before
Islam, Medina was divided into two tribes “Aws” and
“Khazraj”. Hassan Ibn Thabit was the poet of “Khazraj” and
Qaiss Ibn Khatim was the poet of “Aouss”. He was defending
his tribe and talking about wine as a major element in the Arab
culture at that time. After Hassan joined Islam, he changed
totally the topic of its poems to the life of the prophet
Muhammad. He wrote his poems to defend Islam and push
people to join it. He was taking it as an intellectual war against
people who attack Islam at that time. He was considering
defending Islam by poetry is like defending it by weapons.

This transition era gave a birth of a new type of poetry. After the
conflict between Muawiya and Ali which is the source of the
division between Shia and Sunni, poets were in both sides. They
were communicating their political opinion through poems. In
the Amaoui State, a new types of literature was born. It is the
Islamic literature which is another variation of the “Jahilia”
literature in the sense that it respect the new rules that Islam set
up to Muslims. In addition, another type of poetry appeared
called “Naqa’id” which is about writing a poem that promotes a
poet and ruin the reputation of the others. Al Akhtal was one of
the great poets in Amaoui state because he was promoting
Amaoui caliphs and firing the other poets who did not agree
with the caliphs with his strong words. Jarir is another famous
poet of this era. He was in a war with Al Akhtal because they
were exchanging harm poems which showed to the Arab
community the powerful mastering of the language and its
beauty in transmitting messages without any offensive or
disrespectful words. The other type which was dominant at that
time is praise poetry. It served political purposes because the
level of Arabic language of these poets was extraordinary that is
why they were special and important in any era of the Arab
history. Al-Tarmah Ibn Al-Hakim was one of the famous poets
who were writing this kind of poetry. The new type is “Zuhd”
poetry. It is what the Sufi movement used later on to express
themselves. Hassan Al-Basri, the founder of the Sufi movement,
used this kind of poetry to show to people the rules of Islam and
push them to join it. In addition, he used it also in “Da’awa” to
attract people to religion and forget the life to work for the life
after death. It appeared because of the effect of Islam on Arab
people. They were looking for a way to get closer to Allah.
“Zuhd” poets were different because they were not social. They
believed that the real life is after the death. Poets should
contribute in sharing Islam and defending it as well.

After the Amaoui state was destroyed. A new Islamic state

appeared which were the Abbasids. They were more open-
minded, so the topics of their poetry were more rich. In addition
to that, other words were added to Arabic because of the
translation of books from other language to Arabic. Moreover,
the poetry had changed because of the new lifestyle of the Arab
people at that time. The translation of the books influenced the
topics of the poetry and changed its language. It was a
revolution in poetry’s history because it started to use non-
Arabic words. So, the poetry started to get out from the
traditional and pure Arabic words that were used in pre-Islamic
era and Amaoui state. This change produced open-minded poets
such as Abu Firas Al-Hamadani, Abu Tayeb Al-Mutanabbi, and
Abu Al-Alae Al-Maarri.
Abu Firas Al-Hamadani was a great poet in Abbasids era
because he was the cousin of Saif-Al-Dawla Al Hamadani the
governor of Aleppo at that time. The governor was discussing
with Ulama and poets the situation of the State. So, he was
meeting with Al Mutanabbi, Al Farabi, and Abu Firas. Abu
Firas became Amir of Manbij, but he faced some political
problems with his ministers. Thus, they put it in jail for more
than 7 years. So, his poems were about the patient and his hard
experience in jail. His poems were full of negative emotions
because he was suffering and transmitting what he was feeling
in jail.

Abu Tayeb Al-Mutanabbi played a major political role in Saif-

Al-Dawla state. He was one of the decision makers in the state.
He was proud of himself and his race. He was writing about
himself in his poems. He was dreaming a lot that is why his
friends were amirs and caliphs. He was praising them to get
money and authority. He wanted to be a wali in the Abbasids
state. He was writing about Saif-Al-Dawla. He lived a luxury
life because of that. However, other poets wanted to create the
conflict between him and Saif-Al-Dawla in poems. They
succeeded to create it, and he leaved Aleppo. He traveled to
Egypt, and he wrote poems against Saif Al-Dawla asking him
about the cause that let him to trust the other poets. The same
story appeared again with Kafur the governor of Ikhshidid
dynasty. He talked also about the failure of some aspects of the
intellectual revolution that appeared in Abbasids dynasty from
his own experience and failures. He described how he was
living in a luxury life and ended up with a miserable life. It was
the main cause of the critical change in the topics of his poems.
He stopped promoting caliphs and started talking about his
miserable experience. His poems played a major role in
illustrating the change between Amaouis and Abbasids
dynasties. After the Mongols burned books in Baghdad and
defeated the Abbasids dynasty, the Arab world was introduced
to a new era which is less productive and creative that what they
experienced with the Abbasids. It was known by decadence age
or “Al Inhitat”.

Abbasids played an important role in making Arab people more

open-minded by discovering other cultures. However, as Al
Mutanabbi stated in his last poems, the Arab world was facing a
critical failure. So, the level of the poetry was decreasing. The
important productions of that era was “Al Muqaddimah” of Ibn
Khaldoune and “Lisan Al-Arab” of Ibn Mandour.

Arab world inherited some western concepts such as the

political parties. They played a major role in creating the Arab
renaissance movement or “Al-Nahda”. So, the poetry and
literature, in overall, recovered from the critical status that it was
facing. The topics of poems were enriched again because some
of the Arab poets were living in western countries, and they
integrated the western culture in poetry. In addition, the poems
were fighting the concept of tabous. A new type of poetry was
born based on the introduction that the Abbasids’ poets
provided. They introduced the concept of free poetry which was
different than the traditional one that was inherited from the pre-
Islamic era. However, at that time, they changed just some
aspects of the formatting of the poem. In “Al-Nahda”, they
totally changed the free poetry because they changed even the
ringtone that the poem should have. It served several purposes
because of the development of the Arab world. Some poets
chose it as a way to defend their nations such as Mahmoud
Darwish. He used it as a tool to share with the entire world the
Palestinian thoughts about the Palestine-Israel conflict. It was
used also in the national anthems of several countries. For
instance, “Al Qadar” poem of “Abu Al-Kassim Al-Shabi” is the
official anthem of Tunisia nowadays. It was easy to understand
comparing to “Mu’allaqat” which helped this new style to serve
in promoting nationalism. Another example of the use of the
free poetry is Nizar Qabbani. He used it to express his emotions
towards women. He broke the taboo of talking about women in
a sexual way. Ahmed Shawki was a great poet of that era. He
wrote a lot of poetic stories for children that influenced the
famous french poet “Jean de La Fontaine”.

To sum up, poetry is a powerful tool that can influence people

easily. It was used by most of the Arab governors to control
their peoples and to promote themselves. It was improved to
 share the political opinions and promote nationalism after the
introduction of free poetry in the Abbasids era. It participated in
identifying the history of Arab people before Islam and in
defining their life style.

References

Daif, Chaouki. History of Arab Literature. Beirut: Dar Al-

Maarif, 2008.

Hourani, Albert. A History of Arab Peoples. Cambridge, MA:

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1991.

Hussein, Taha. On Pre-Islamic Poetry. Cairo: Egyptian General

Book Authority, 1926.

Stetkevych, Suzanne Pinckney. Early Islamic Poetry and

Poetics. Farnham, Surrey, Uk: Ashgate/Variorum, 2009.

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Published by Ahmed Lekssays

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by Ahmed Lekssays

PublishedDecember 11, 2016

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