من طرف Arabic poetry
Arabic poetry (Arabic,الِشعر العربي) is the earliest work of Arabic literature. It is composed and written down in the Arabic language either by Arab people or non-Arabs. Knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry is categorized into two main types, rhymed or measured, with the earlier greatly preceding the latter. The rhymed poetry falls within fifteen different meters collected and explained by Al-Farahidi in what is known as “علم العروض” (The Science of Arood). Al-Zamakhshari later added one more meter to make them sixteen. The meters of the rhythmical poetry are known in Arabic as “بحور” or Seas. The measuring unit of the “seas” is known as “تفعيلة” (Taf’eela) with every sea containing certain number of Taf’eelas that the poet has to observe in every verse (bayt) of the poem. The measuring procedure of a poem is very rigorous. Sometimes adding or removing a consonant or a vowel could shift the bayt from one meter to another. Also, in rhymed poetry, every bayt has to end with the same rhyme (qafiya) throughout the poem.
With the expansion of Islam into Persia, Arabic language was greatly enriched by Arabic grammarians and writers of Persian descent. The new converts had also major contributions to Arabic poetry. The quality of Arabic poetry composed has, at times, deteriorated especially during the Mamluks era and onward. In the 20th century, there has been a resurgence of the language for literature and poetry particularly in Egypt and Lebanon.
Stages of Arabic Poetry:
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Pre-Islamic poetry
The pre-Islamic poetry is commonly referred to in Arabic as "الشعر الجاهلي" or the Jahili poetry, which translates to "The poetry of the period of ignorance". This name was most likely coined by later Muslims to differentiate between the poetry of the pre-Islamic era "the era of ignorance" and poetry of the post-Islamic era "The era of enlightenment".
Arabic language in general and Arabic poetry in particular were, and still are, of a central importance to Arabs. Philip Hitti describes Arabs' fascination by poetry by saying "No people in the world manifest such enthusiastic admiration for literary expression and are so moved by the word, spoken or written, as the Arabs. Modern audiences in Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo can be stirred to the highest degree by the recital of poems, only vaguely comprehended, and by the delivery of orations in the classical tongue, though it be only partially understood. The rhythm, the rhyme, the music, produce on them the effect of what they call "lawful magic"
Therefore, poetry held an important position in pre-Islamic society with the poet or sha'ir filling the role of historian, soothsayer and propagandist, similar to the Sibyl in ancient Greek society. Words in praise of the tribe or qit'ah and lampoons denigrating other tribes hija' seem to have been some of the most popular forms of the 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.
Along side the sha'ir, and often as his poetic apprentice, is 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 would allow the transmission of these poetic works and the practice would be adopted later by the hafiz 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. Tufayl trained 'Awas ibn Hajar, 'Awas trained Zuhayr ibn Abî Sûlmâ, Zuhayr trained his son Ka'b bin Zuhayr, Ka'b trained al-Hutay'ah, al-Hutay'ah trained Jamil Buthaynah and Jamil trained Kuthayyir 'Azzah.
Singers who simply performed works included performed Ibrahim al-Mawsili, his son Ishaq al-Mawsili and Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi son of caliph al-Mahdi. Many stories about these early singers were retold in the Kitab al-aghani or Book of Songs by Abu al-faraj al-Isfahani.
Among the most famous poets of the pre-Islamic era are; Imru' al-Qais, al-Nabighah al-Dhubyani, Tarafah ibn al 'Abd , and Zuhayr ibn Abî Sûlmâ. Other poets, such as Ta'abbata Sharran, al-Shanfara, 'Urwah 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. Some of these attacks on the values of the clan and of the tribe were meant to be ironic, teasing the listeners only in order finally to endorse all that the members of the audience held most dear about their communal values and way of life. While such poets were identified closely with their own tribes others, such as al-A'sha, were known for their wanderings in search of work from whoever needed poetry.
The very best of these early poems were collected in the 8th century as the Mu'allaqat meaning "the hung poems" and the Mufaddaliyat meaning al-Mufaddal's examination or anthology. The former is named "the hung poems" being hung on the Kaaba. It also aimed to be the definitive source of the era's output with only a single example of the work of each of the so-called "seven renowned ones", although different versions differ in which "renowned ones" they choose. The Mufaddaliyat on the other hand contains rather a random collection; apparently all that was remembered and perhaps some that was only produced in the 8th century and was not truly pre-Islamic.
There are several characteristics that distinguish the 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 (البيت) 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 a nostalgic preludes with which pre-Islamic poems would often start. In these preludes the poet would remember his beloved and her deserted home and its ruins. This concept in Arabic poetry is referred to as “الوقوف على الأطلال” (standing at the ruins) because the poet would often starts his poem by saying that he stood at the ruins of his beloved or by asking his friends to stand up with him at the ruins etc. The infatuation of pre-Islamic poets with these types of preludes can be understood considering that their life was that of Bedouins who were continuously on the move. This characteristic was later dropped from the Arabic poem and even some Arab poets, like Abu Nuwas, would turn into a source of mockery of the pre-Islamic poetry.
