{"collection":"Texts of Islam","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_arp_arp136_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_arp_arp136_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_isl_arp_arp136_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/arp/arp136.htm","summary":"This is an excerpt from W. A. Clouston's 1881 anthology *Arabian Poetry*, specifically a prose-and-verse passage from the legendary cycle of *Antar* (also rendered *Antara ibn Shaddad*), the pre-Islamic Arabic warrior-poet epic. The passage recounts the climactic wedding of Antar \u2014 a celebrated warrior of the Abs tribe, born of a slave mother \u2014 to his beloved cousin Abla, for whom he fought across countless battles. It describes the elaborate wedding festivities: jousting knights, lavish gifts, and a striking tribal custom in which the bridegroom must physically fight through a gauntlet of kinsmen wielding staves and stones to reach his bride (a ritual waived for Antar out of fear his enemies might exploit the chaos to kill him). A notably vivid scene depicts the women of the tribe throwing aside their veils in communal celebration, followed by the formal procession of Abla adorned in Chosroan regalia and bearing a drawn sword \u2014 undercut by a barbed remark from onlookers about Antar's dark complexion, reflecting the racial prejudice he faced throughout the epic. The passage closes with two lines of Antar's own verse expressing hard-won contentment. It's of interest to readers curious about pre-Islamic Arab culture, oral epic tradition, or the *Sirat Antar* specifically \u2014 but this excerpt is celebratory narrative rather than critical analysis.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Arabian Poetry: The Romance of Antar: Marriage of Antar a...","tradition":"Texts of Islam","translated_text":null,"word_count":807}