Early Islamic Poetry and Poetics

This book assembles reprints of fourteen well-wrought articles on the Arabic poetry of the Jahili and early Islamic periods (c. 500-950 CE). Like other volumes in Ashgate’s “Formation of the Early Islamic World” series, Early Islamic Poetry and Poetics was compiled with a view to mapping, as far as possible, the current state of knowledge on the topic: the debates that have shaped it, the ideas that inform it, the headings that orient it. In this respect the collection succeeds and will prove indispensable to those who would venture into this field.

Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych’s introduction surveys the critical and methodological developments that have dominated the study of Arabic poetry over the past four decades: the shift away from traditional approaches of Orientalism and Near Eastern Studies towards a clearer disciplinary focus, the impact of literary theory, and the greater self-awareness of the scholar working on Arabic poetry, ever conscious of the challenge posed by presenting his or her work to a broader audience. The rest of the introduction defines the rubrics into which the anthology’s contents are divided: studies of the qasidah, studies of lesser genres like ghazal, and studies dealing with poetics proper. Between the macropoetic investigation of the place of poetry in the many contexts of Arabic-Islamic life, and the micropoetic analysis of just how individual poems work, the myriad possibilities available for showcasing the strategic uses of the poetic voice are foregrounded.