Arabic Poetry

Description in classical Arabic poetry

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This work deals with "wasf" or description which is one of the salient characteristics of the "qasidah" (classical Arabic poetry) tradition.

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Arabic Poetry

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Since the late 1940s, Arabic poetry has spoken for an Arab conscience, as much as it has debated positions and ideologies, nationally and worldwide.

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Modern Arabic Poetry

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Beginning with Kahlil Gibran`s prophetic claim, down to the daring sexual imagery of today`s Arab women, the last century witnessed the most radical transformation Arabic Poetry has ever undergone.

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Wanting in Arabic

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Modern poetry

The revival of Arabic poetry in the late 19th, early 20th century first displayed a neo-classical style. It consciously used the themes and forms of some of the earliest poets with Hafiz Ibrahim being one of the best exponents. Later poets would reject the purely Arabic neo-classical style and instead many would seek inspiration from romanticism and particularly the romanticism of English poetry. Poets such as Sa'id 'Aql from Lebanon, with its closer ties to France, would be more influenced by the symbolist movement.

A common theme in much of the new poetry was the use of the ghazel or love song in praise of the poet's homeland. This is manifested either as a nationalism for the newly emerging nation states of the region or in a wider sense as an Arab nationalism emphasising the unity of all Arab people. The poems of praise or the madih, and the hija or lampoon also returned. Ahmed Shawqi produced several works praising the reforming Turkish leader Kemal Atatürk, but when Atatürk abolished the caliphate Shawqi was not slow in attacking him in verse. Political views in poetry were often more unwelcome in the 20th century than they had been in the 7th and several poets faced censorship or, in the case of Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayyati, exile.

After World War II there was a largely unsuccessful movement by several poets to write poems in ''shi'r hurr'' or free verse. Most of these experiments were abandoned in favour of prose poetry. The growth of modernist poetry also influenced poetry in Arabic.

Court poets

Ghaylan ibn 'Uqbah (c. 696 - c. 735), nicknamed Dhu al-Rummah, is usually regarded as the last of the bedouin poets. His works had continued the themes and style of the pre-Islamic poets particularly eulogising the harsh but simple desert life, traditionally told round a campfire. Although such themes continued—and were returned to by many modern, urban poets—this poetic life was giving way to court poets. The more settled, comfortable and luxurious life in Ummayyad courts led to a greater emphasis on the ghazal or love poem. Chief amongst this new breed of poet was Abu Nuwas. Not only did Abu Nuwas spoof the traditional poetic form of the qasidah and write many poems in praise of wine, his main occupation was the writing of ever more ribald ghazal many of them openly homosexual.

While Nuwas produced risqué but beautiful poems, many of which pushed to the limit what was acceptable under Islam, others produced more religiously themed poetry. It is said that Nuwas struck a bargain with his contemporary Abu al-Alahijah: Abu Nuwas would concentrate on wine and love poems whilst al-Alahijah would write homilies. These homilies expressed views on religion, sin and the afterlife, but occasionally strayed into unorthodox territory. While the work of al-Alahijah was acceptable, others like the poet Salih ibn 'Abd al-Quddus were executed for heresy. Waddah al-Yaman was also executed for his verse but this was probably due to his over familiarity with the wife of the caliph Al-Walid I.

The Sufi tradition would also produce poetry closely linked to religion. Sufism is the mystical offshoot of Islam and it emphasised the allegorical nature of language and writing. Many of their works appear to be simple ghazal or khamriyyah. Under the guise of the love or wine poem they would contemplate the mortal flesh and attempt to achieve transcendence. Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah, Abd Yazid al-Bistami and Mansur al-Hallaj are some of the most significant Sufi poets, but their poetry and doctrine were dangerous and al-Hallaj was eventually crucified for heresy.

The caliph himself could take on the role of court poet with Al-Walid II a notable example, but he was widely disliked for his immorality and was deposed after only a year

An important doctrine of Arabic poetry from the start was its complexity but during the period of court poetry this became an art form in itself known as badi. There were feature such as metaphor, paronomasia (basically puns), juxtaposing opposites and tricky theological allusions. Bashar ibn Burd was instrumental in developing these complexities which later poets felt they had to surpass. Although not all writers enjoyed the baroque style, with argumentative letters on the matter being sent by Ibn Burd and Ibn Miskawayh, the poetic brinkmanship of badi led to a certain formality in the poetic art, with only the greatest poet's words shining through the complex structures and wordplay. This often makes Arabic poetry even less easy to translate then poetry from other languages and much of a poet's skill is usually hidden.

Arabic poetry declined after the 13th century along with much of the literature due to the rise of Persian literature and Turkish literature. It flowered for little longer in Andalucia (Islamic Spain) but ended with the expulsion of the Arabs in 1492. The corpus suffered large-scale destruction by fire in 1499 or 1500. It was at the orders of Cisneros, Archbishop of Granada and was apparently due to the 'indecent' nature of a large part of the poetry, though Cisneros conceived of Islam as constituting a state within a state: inspite of this, however, it continued to exert a subtle, almost underground influence, as evidenced by the love poetry of Sebastiano de Córdoba, whose eroticism was re-inverted for a spiritual purpose by the Christian mystic poets Saint John of The Cross and Saint Teresa of Ávila.

Poetic forms

Poetry in Arabic is traditionally grouped in a diwan or collection of poems. These can be arranged by poet, tribe, topic or the name of the compiler such as the ''Asma'iyyat'' of al-Asma'i. Most poems did not have titles and they were usually named from their first lines. Sometimes they were arranged alphabetically by their rhymes. The role of the poet in Arabic developed in a similar way to poets elsewhere. The safe and easy patronage in royal courts was no longer available but a successful poet such as Nizar Qabbani was able to set up his own publishing house.

A large proportion of all Arabic poetry is written using the monorhyme. This is simply the same rhyme used on every line of a poem. While this may seem a poor rhyme scheme for people used to English literature it makes sense in a language like Arabic which has only three vowels which can be either long or short.

Mu'rabbah: literary Arabic

• Qarid
• *Qit'ah, an elegy or short poem about an event
• *Qasidah, an ode, designed to convey a message. A longer version of qit'ah
• Muwashshah, meaning "girdled", courtly love poetry
• Dubayt or Ruba'i, a quatrain
• Rajaz, a discourse in rhyme, used to push the limits of lexicography

Malhunah: informal poetry

• Kan wa-kin, meaning "once upon a time"
• Quma,
• Zajal, meaning "shout", a strophic poem usually an attack
• Mawwal or Mawaliya, folk poetry in four rhyming lines