Texts of Islam

Arabian Poetry: The Romance of Antar: Marriage of Antar a...

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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 — a celebrated warrior of the Abs tribe, born of a slave mother — 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 — 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 — but this excerpt is celebratory narrative rather than critical analysis.

Arabian Poetry: The Romance of Antar: Marriage of Antar a...

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