Texts of Islam

Arabian Poetry: The Moallakát: The Poem of Amru

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This is a translation of a classical pre-Islamic Arabic qasida (ode), drawn from the tradition of the Mu'allaqat — the celebrated "suspended odes" — and addressed to a king named Amru, son of Hinda. The poem moves through three distinct registers: an opening celebration of wine as a social and psychological balm, an erotic description of a beloved woman rendered in elaborate physical metaphor, and an extended tribal boast (fakhr) that dominates the poem's second half. The central argument of the boast is a defiant assertion of the tribe's sovereignty and martial supremacy — the speaker refuses submission to any king, invoking a lineage of heroic ancestors to prove the tribe has never been vassals and never been defeated. What makes the poem distinctive is how freely it moves between intimacy and public grandeur: sensuous descriptions of a woman's arms and hips sit alongside graphic battle verse in which enemy skulls are compared to camel bales on rocky ground. The tribal voice is collectivist and proud rather than personal, cataloguing not individual heroism but communal virtues — generosity to guests, protection of the weak, fidelity to alliances — as evidence of nobility. Readers drawn to early Arabic oral tradition, pre-Islamic warrior culture, or the literary conventions of the ode form will find this a compact and vivid example of all three.

Arabian Poetry: The Moallakát: The Poem of Amru

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