Parts of Arabic Poetry

Poetry in the Arab world was a source of politics and cultural life. It was an oral tradition. Poets had rawis (reciters) to preform the poem. They were vital to its preservation. These rawis would learn the poet’s techinques and use it for their own poetry. This continued to be passed down. They had mock battles and contests. The best ones were hung on the kabaa.

With this practice sound and rhythm played an important part in the formation of the poems. Language was expressive and firguartive. One characteristic is imagery. There are decriptions of nature, paticularly animals and garden scenes. The adjectives were descriptive. Some pieces had mystical significance. Another characteristic was that they poems were romantic and nostaglic. Several themes helped carry that:

Hija: Lampooning is crizitzing the opoosing tribe.

Madih: Panegyric is praising of their tribe, person or homeland.

Rahil: Recounting a (desert) journey.

Nasib: Nostaglic about the the past and of an absent beloved.

Fakhr: boasting.

A common rhyme scheme used is monorhyme. It’s a single rhyme where all the lines have the same end rhyme. Two poetry forms that use it:

Qasidah (ode): It consists of 20–100 veres about the poet’s journey. The poem is divided into 3 parts. The first part is about feeling nostalgic about a beloved. The second part is about their journey, which includes descriptions of wildlife and danger. The last part praises the tribe and criticizes other tribes.

Ghazal: Love poem about a beloved or homeland. It consists of 5 pairs of couplets.

Leave a comment: What did you learn from reading this?

Stay inspired,