The Classical Arabic
Heritage
Stages of Arabic Poetry
Pre-Islamic (500-622)
Early Islamic (622-750)
Abbasid (750-1258)
Mamluks (1258-1516)
Ottomans (1516-1798)
Modern Period (1798-present)
pre-Islamic Poetry
Lyrical
Social (presence of an audience/tribe)
Epic qualities (stylistic, Thematic)
Meter and rhyme
Verse is divided into two halves of equal
metrical value
Ode (Qasida) / Golden Ode
(Mu'allaqat):
Introduction: Elegiac amatory preamble (nasib)
Consolation: Description of Journey to the
desert
Conclusion: Praise (self/tribe)
Topics (aghrad):
Self-praise (fakhr)
Panegyric (madih)
Satire (hija)
Elegy (ritha')
Description (wasf)
Amatory (ghazal)
Islamic Poetry
Ode with monorhyme, monometer
Amatory prelude
Desert imagery
panegyric
Abbasid Poets
Abu Nuwas: absurdist
Abu Tammam (805-845)
Al-Mutanabbi (915-965)
Abu'lAla' al-ma'arri (973-1058)
The Neo-Classical Arabic Poetry
The emergence of Neo-classical poetry in
Modern Arabic Literature in the 19th
century was not the outcome of the
sudden incursion of a new literary model
upon established system of literature
The Main trend was to go back to the old
model and to relive the glorious
experience of ancient poets. The model
was that of medieval Arabic poetry at its
peak, the pre-Islamic (Jahili) and early
Islamic periods, especially to the abbasid,
such as al-Mutanabbi, al-Buhturi, and Abu
Tammam.
Modern Neo-classical poetry does not
constitute a phase or a stage. For the Arab
poets, writing in traditional fashion never
ceased, even in the darkest of times.
Between the 14th and the 19th century
poetry was produced in fusha and
according to the traditional meters.
Dull, uninspired literary quality was
composed by imitative versifiers who
rarely employed it as a means of
expressing human experience. The public
for whom these poems were composed
was a selected group of ulema and
privileged literati who saw the poets as
entertainers and bon-companions. The
poet was the reciter of his own poetry.
Poetry is the only form that was not
influenced by the imported literary model.
Instead there was a return to the sources
to produce verses which were reminiscent
in their masculinity and lucidity.
(Al-Mutanabbi and his group)
The primary distinctive features of
Neo-classical poetry
1. The poems of the Neo-classical poets are
composed in the traditional meters of classical
Arabic poetry. (As a rule, they are monorhyming).
2. Neo-classical poets continue to use the
classical aghrad (thematic types). Most of the
diwans are arranged accordingly. These
thematic types often impose a pre-determined
structure and sometimes affect the choice of
meters.
3. The poems are frequently impersonal and the
poet's experience is hidden beneath layers of
convention. Sections often appear to be "genre-
bound" rather than spontaneous .
4. The Neo-classical language is essentially
dependent on that of medieval Arabic poetry
especially that of the Abbasid period. Not only
the lexical inventory but the choice of figurative
language which is derived in this way: Invoking
classical place-names, images and personages
is a major feature of most representative Neo-
classical poets.
Mahmud Sami al-Barudi (1839-1904)
Barudi is the true precursor of the modern
poetic revival. His work is a return to the
classicism of early medieval Arabic poetry,
especially the poetry of the Abbasid
period. He combined a return to the purity
of diction, forceful expression and the
classicism of the Abbasids with the ability
to express his own experience. The
renaissance of modern Arabic poetry truly
begins with him.
Barudi is considered the master of the
sword and the pen because he was
distinguished both as a soldier and as a
poet. Ismail appointed him governor of the
Sharquiyya province. Under Taufiq, He
was the Minister of Education and Waqf.
Due to his involvement with the Urabi
rebellion he was tried and exiled to Ceylon
for a period of seventeen years. Both his
wife and daughter died while he was away
and when he came back to Egypt in 1900
he was in poor condition just four years
before his death.
Barudi used main events from his life as
material for his poems. They were filled
with descriptions of the battles in which he
fought as well as the landscapes in the
countries he visited during his travels.
They also dealt with the extreme changes
in his fortune from the greatness of power
to the humiliation of defeat. While in exile
his poems reflect the homesickness and
longing for scenes and places he
remembered in Egypt.
Barudi's works (Diwan) appeared in 1915 long
after his death. Before he died he had written a
preface to his works which is an extremely
important document. It shed light on his poetry
and helped to explain why he occupied a crucial
position in the development of modern Arabic
poetry.
Barudi satisfied a real need in man. He felt that
the love of poetry was "imprinted in the hearts of
men." His view was that the one who has the
gift of writing good poetry and who is virtuous
and pure of soul would have control over the
hearts of men. So according to him, morality is
an essential ingredient. He saw the goal of
poetry to "educate the soul, train the
understanding and awaken the mind to noble
virtue."
Beyond the morality is the basis that
poetry is an art that has to be learned and
mastered. He knew of the difficulty which
faced him since at one point he decided to
give up writing verse. He could not,
however, as he said it would go against
his own nature. In the preface of his
works are three famous lines:
Poetry is difficult and its uphill path is long.
Whoever tries to ascend it, not being
familiar with it,
Will stumble and fall into the abyss.