Jamharat_Ash'ar_al-Arab

Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab

Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab

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Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab (Arabic: جمهرة أشعار العرب; The Gathering of the Arabs' Verses) is a pre-Islamic Arabic poetry anthology by Abu Zayd al-Qurashi [ar]. The date of publication is unknown, and al-Qurashi is supposed by various scholars to have lived in the 8th,[1] 9th[2] or 10th centuries.[3] It contains seven sections, each containing seven qasidas.[2]

The Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab is one of five canonical primary sources of early Arabic poetry. The four others are Mu'allaqat, Hamasah, Mufaddaliyat and the Asma'iyyat.[4][5]

Sections

The first section consists of the seven Mu'allaqat.[2] The anthology is the first source to use the name Mu'allaqat; earlier writers describe the poems simply as "the Seven."[6] Al-Qurashi's choice of poems is somewhat idiosyncratic, as he includes Al-Nabigha and Al-A'sha among the seven and excludes Antarah ibn Shaddad and Al-Harith.[7]

The second section is called "al-Mujamharat" ("the assembled").[8] It contains poems by Abid ibn al-Abras, Adi ibn Zayd, Bashar bin Abi Khazm al-Asadi [ar], Umayya bin Abi al-Salat [ar], Khadash bin Zuhair [ar], Al-Namar bin Tulab [ar], and Antarah ibn Shaddad.

The third section is "al-Muntuqayat", "the chosen".[9] Represented poets include Abu Layla al-Muhalhel, Urwa ibn al-Ward, and Dorayd bin Al Soma.

The fourth section, "al-Mudhahhabat" ("the gilded ones") consists solely of poetry from the Banu Aws and Banu Khazraj tribes.[10] It contains poems by Hassan ibn Thabit, Abdullah ibn Rawaha, and Amr ibn Imru al-Qays.

The fifth section contains elegies, and the sixth, "al-Mashubat", contains "testimonies of faith mingled with heresy".[11] One of the Mashubat is by Ka'b ibn Zuhayr, famous for reciting the poem in question in front of Muhammad.

The final section, "al-Mulhamat", is ambiguous in meaning but probably means that the poems refer to bloody fights or struggles.[12] Represented poets include Al-Farazdaq and Al-Akhtal al-Taghlibi.

References

  1. [1]
    Emran El-Badawi (17 December 2013). The Qur'an and the Aramaic Gospel Traditions. Routledge. p. 41. ISBN 978-1-317-92933-8.
  2. [2]
    Orfali, Bilal (1 January 2012). "A Sketch Map of Arabic Poetry Anthologies up to the Fall of Baghdad". Journal of Arabic Literature. 43 (1): 39. doi:10.1163/157006412X629737.
  3. [3]
    Weipert, Reinhard (2007-11-01). "Abū Zayd al-Qurashī". Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  4. [4]
    Wen-chin Ouyang, Literary Criticism in Medieval Arabic-Islamic Culture: The Making of a Tradition, pg. 65. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997. ISBN 9780748608973
  5. [5]
    Shady Nasser, The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān: The Problem of Tawātur and the Emergence of Shawādhdh, pg. 210. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2012. ISBN 9789004241794
  6. [6]
    El Tayib, Abdullah (1983). "Pre-Islamic Poetry". In A. F. L. Beeston; T. M. Johnstone; R. B. Serjeant; G. R. Smith (eds.). Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period. Cambridge University Press. pp. 111–112. ISBN 0521240158.
  7. [7]
    El Tayib 1983, p. 112.
  8. [8]
    Mustafa, Ezzedin Ibrahim (1963). The Methods and Techniques of the Early Arab Anthologists (PhD). University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. p. 119. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  9. [9]
    Mustafa 1963, p. 120.
  10. [10]
    Mustafa 1963, p. 121.
  11. [11]
    Mustafa 1963, p. 122.
  12. [12]
    Mustafa 1963, pp. 125–6.
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