“Life Was Poetry, Poetry Was Life” in Ancient Arabia

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Author: Cordelia Kenney

With the reassuring ease of a seasoned orator, Professor Bassam Frangieh of Claremont McKenna College began his lecture on Nov. 9 with a lyrical, rhythmic recitation of several ancient Arabic verses. Cosponsored by the Remsen Bird Fund and the English Literature and Comparative Studies department, Frangieh’s talk outlined the intimate relationship between Arab thought and Arabic poetry.

“Every Arab person is a poet,” Frangieh said at the beginning of his talk. “Either you are a poet by nature or you enjoy poetry.” The very essence of Arabic culture, according to Frangieh, is rooted in this essential oral expression. “You cannot understand Arabic culture if you do not understand Arabic poetry,” he said.

Poetry served as a means of measuring the power of a tribe for pre-Islamic Arabs. In a large market space where different ethnic groups traded spices, fabrics and other commodities, poets from each Arabian tribe competed for 20 days. They recited their odes of love, battle, and courage in front of experienced judges. The winning poem was then transcribed with golden letters onto Egyptian cloth, according to Frangieh. “Poetry represents the identity [of the Arab people]—it records the victories, the defeats, the political developments,” Frangieh said. “You won’t find it in books; you have to go to poetry [to understand the history of the region].”

A typical pre-Islamic ode, which generally consists of 25 to 125 verses, is composed of three portions. “You must start with love, whether it is true or not,” Frangieh explained. He proposed an example of this amorous first portion with verses that describe a man traveling a great distance to where his lover resides who, he finds, has already left. This discovery leads to the second portion of the poem, which describes the hardship of the journey through the unforgiving desert landscape. The final part of the poem praises the man’s own tribe while denigrating his enemies.

Although many odes conform to this general thematic and structural form, each ode and each particular verse demonstrate the sophisticated manipulation of language. From the florid desert imagery in the second portion to the romantic allusions in the first, the pre-Islamic ode embodies the pinnacle of thoughtfully articulating human experience. “There is so much rational and emotional thinking behind one verse,” Frangieh said. “The highest manifestation of language is poetry.”

Poets in ancient Arabic society, moreover, were the most important figures of guidance and wisdom, according to Frangieh.  “The poet is a possessor of knowledge that others do not possess,” he said. “The poet is one who feels the knowledge and tells you what to do.” Before the advent of Islam, poets acted as the spiritual leaders for the community, Frangieh explained. “Poetry was life and life was poetry,” he said, relating the permeation of poetry into Arabic thought and culture and vice versa. After Islam expanded in the Arab world, the pre-Islamic ode remained the form used by poets for 1,500 years. Not until the last century has the meaning, composition and sound of the ode changed. As Frangieh explained, a poet’s job now is to be countercultural and oppositional to the leaders. “They call for the rebirth of civilization and to destroy the entire stagnant oppressive culture,” he said.

For Arabic scholars interested in reading more modern than ancient poetry with contemporary, thematic and stylistic construction, Frangieh suggests referring to his works “Arabian Love Poems” and “Love, Death, and Exile.” Frangieh’s latest book published earlier this year, “Arabic for Life,” offers a comprehensive and tailored instruction of Arabic for students as well.

 

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