Texts of Islam

Arabian Poetry: The Moallakát: The Poem of Amru: The Argument

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This is a scholarly introduction from W. A. Clouston's 1881 anthology of Arabian poetry, providing historical and critical context for two pre-Islamic Arabic poems — tribal orations composed by rival clan leaders, Amru and Hareth, representing the Tagleb and Becr tribes respectively. The poems were apparently delivered before the King of Hira in Mesopotamia, who had agreed to arbitrate a prolonged war between the two tribes stemming from the murder of a Taglebite noble named Coleib. Clouston argues, following the commentator Tabreizi, that the most plausible reading is that these are competitive political declamations presented before a royal arbiter, though manuscript traditions differ and some omit one poem entirely. The main poem by Amru ibn Cultum is described as extravagantly boastful rather than argumentative — opening in an Anacreontic lyric mode before pivoting to tribal self-glorification, praising the Taglebites' valor, horses, women, wealth, and even their naval power. Clouston's most striking claim is that contemporary Arabian writers credited the Taglebites with such dominance that, had Muhammad not emerged, they might have unified Arabia and built a major maritime state. The piece is primarily useful as an entry point into pre-Islamic tribal poetry and the conventions of Arab panegyric, though it offers more antiquarian framing than close literary analysis.

Arabian Poetry: The Moallakát: The Poem of Amru: The Argument

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