The greatestof classical Arabic poets, Al-Mutanabbi
(the prophet: 915-965) was also a political firebrand. He
was born in Kufa, educated in Damascus, lived with the desert
Bedouin, and participated in revolutionary movements. During
his 948-957 imprisonment he started writing poetry, which
attracted the patronage of the Syrian prince Sayf 'd Daula.
Political activities unfortunately obliged him to flee to
Egypt and thence to Baghdad. For a while he worked as court
poet in Shiraz, but his opinions again made enemies, and
he was killed by brigands on a journey to Baghdad when bravado
got the better of common sense. Al-Mutanabbi was the master
of the exuberant panegyric, as impossible to render into
adequate English as the very different Pindar,
but arousing the greatest
enthusiasm in native speakers.
Classical Arabic poetry
Arabic
is very different from the Indo-European languages in
its letter
forms, grammatical
structure and sounds.
Its poetry is quantitative, and builds on rich oral traditions
of pre-Islamic Arabia. Poets glorified the legends and achievements
of their tribe, and this very public role later transferred
itself to the patronage sought of rulers in the urbanised
Islamic world. Increasingly rhetorical and innovative in
its imagery, this badi
style was combined with gnomic phrases in superb control
of the language to furnish the splendid eulogy (and sometimes
lampoons) of Al-Mutannabi. His Diwan (collected poems)
are famous for their long-livedqasida
and madin. The classical period ended with the 1258
sack of Baghdad by the Mongols, but Al-Mutannabi has been
an inspiration to poets trying to recapture an earlier vigour
and purity — to poets like Nasif
al-Yaziji (d. 1871) and Mahmud
Sami al-Barudi (d. 1904).
Islamic poetry today
Islam
created a distinctive civilisation
that is still alive
in various forms in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia,
Morocco, etc.
Chief among its literature
was poetry, to be freely quoted in home, palace and bazaar
— as readers of The
Arabian Nights will know. Poetry was written for speaking,
or singing
even, and modern Arabic poetry can retain something of that
fervour and majesty of expression. Hence its importance to
the west, where an appreciation of a 1000 years of Islamic
poetry (Arabic. Persian
and Urdu) could help
to reinvigorate what has become somewhat apologetic and introverted.
Nonetheless, contemporary
Arabic poetry generally looks to the west for inspiration,
envying its greater freedom of political and social expression.
