Orellana 1

Rebeca Orellana
ARAB 2231
Prof. Sabahat Adil
2/6/17
Summary 1: Love ideologies in Classical Arabic literature
Love ideologies
Continuity and reinvention are two most interesting simultaneous processes to be observed in
the readings on classical Arabic poetry. It could seem paradoxical to level both terms, especially if we
consider the absolute dichotomy between the old and the new conceptions and forms. But close
analysis and comparison between texts from the Jahili period, as well as later developments in the
Umayyad and Abbasid eras show that there isn't a total rejection of the old in favor of the new. As
researchers, it is true that closer attention to each era's (historical) conditions of production must be
observed, but studying each phenomenon in a vacuum can only lead to a very shallow comprehension
of what is being studied. Instead, like many other scholars, I propose to seek the continuities in specific
motifs, so that they can shed some light into deeper issues like transmission, translation, and
reappropriation in different contexts (and for different means). I propose to look at how love (and the
love interest) is represented in Arabic poems from different periods to contrast and compare what we
could define as different ideologies on love, starting from the depiction of the love
episode/remembrance in the qasida from the Jahiliyya to the Umayyad ghazals.
It is interesting to note that form or structure had a great relevance in the qasida (ode) poems,
as much as the representation of theme or topics, which structure demanded that they be presented in a
specific order (Van Geert 2). It is understandable that expectations about topical order were a reality,
especially if we consider that orality was the norm for poetry in this earlier pre-Islamic context. In these
poems, love and love interests (the nasib portion of an ode) appear in a diffuse manner, with two
specific purposes: the poetic voice's boasting of his sexual prowess, and the appeal to a nostalgic
sentiment in the audience. I would like to focus on a few segments from two qasida poems: the first by
Imru al-Qays and the second one by Abid ibn al-Abras. I have chosen these two odes because of the
first one's importance (being one of the seven poems of the Mu'llaqat), and the second one on account
of clarity.
In al-Qays' Mu'llaqa, love and the love interest are represented as part of a way of life. The
poet's masculinity is constructed in terms of what he can do and what he can offer to his brief love
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interest. The depiction of women is always in connection to sensorial elements: Oh yes, many a day
I've dallied with the white ladies,/ and especially I call to mind a day at Dra Juljul, / and the day I
slaughtered for the virgins my riding beast / (and how marvellous was the dividing of its loaded
saddle),/ and the virgins went on tossing its hacked flesh about / and the frilly fat like fringes of twisted
silk (Irwin 8). The segment works not only to show the power that an action can inflict on women, but
it also shows, by methonimy, the degree of desirability that the poet is boasting about in his own
person. The way the repartition is presented to the auditor shows a great deal of savagery and carnality,
as well as elegance. It seems to suggest that the poetic voice thinks of himself as a valued commodity.
This message is reinforced in the next parts of the poem, when he prides himself in being able to make
mothers forget their infants in order to lay with him. The poem then shifts into less abstract
representation by presenting Ftima, the conquest he remembers in length. The encounter is introduced
by the lover begging Ftima to grant her favor to him., when he claims that my love for you's killing
me/ and that whatever you order my heart to do, it obeys (idem). These elements (the ruined heart,
love as painful and the lover as subservient) are present in other poems from the Ummayad period, but
it is interesting to note that in this ode they serve a specific purpose: to persuade the woman to be
intimate with the poet. The pragmatic nature of the expression of feelings is reinforced by the detailed
description of the woman's attributes: I twisted her side-tresses to me, and she leaned over me; /
slender-waisted she was, and tenderly plump her ankles, / shapely and taut her belly, white-fleshed, not
the least flabby, / polished the lie of her breast-bones, smooth as a burnished mirror (9). After the
affair, the focus on the poem is on traveling and the description of the journey.
I would like to briefly compare this section with another in Abid ibn al-Abras' qasida.
Following the description (atlal) of the deserted place, the poetic voice introduces a remembered love
interest in two verses: For grayness has now come over my locks; the fair/ bade me farewell, forever,
in disgust (emphasis added, Van Gelder 3). The remembered loved one serves a specific function
within the poem: the woman is not granted agency, but her existence (and representation in the poem)
serves to emphasize the passage of time in the eyes of the poetic voice. The poem seems to favor the
topic of tempus fugit, by reiterating the motif of the graying hair (the passage of time and ending of
youth) at the end, when the poet laments the loss of his black locks. There is one other section of the
poem where the nasib appears, but it is in the frame of the personal boasting or fakhr: year after year, /
have I drunk in the early morning.../ with many a girl, plump, soft like a gazelle of Jaww, / saliva
tasting as if mixed with water sweet/ have I spent half the night; I play with her and she with me, /and
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then I leave her while she is still on my mind (idem). Once again, the affairs depicted in the ode work
on a surface level to emphasize the great sexual prowess of the poetic voice.
There is a difference in the conception of the loved one after the revelation of the Qur'an and the
founding of Islam, since monotheism changed the way love was perceived (this can be contrasted to a
much later development in Italy, with Dante and Cavalcanti's dolce stil nuovo). Concerns with
trascendence and purity change the way love is represented in the poetic tradition that follows.
Structurally, the love poem detached itself from the qasida and developed into its own genre, the ghazal
(Irwin 49). Robert Irwin refers to the Udhrite school of poetry as a poetic tradition that focuses on a
more idealized and chaste love, partly due to the fact that many of the poems are about unreciprocated
love (57). . In contrast, the Hijazi courtly poetry recaptures the more superficial perspective on love
found in the Jahili period, but adds a cynical, urban, and stereotypical element to it when
representing love affairs in poetry (55). I would like to briefly analyze some poems that show these two
opposing ideologies on love.
First, I would like to refer to a ghazal attributed to Majnun Layla. This poem presents certain
elements in a very concise manner, through the motif of the dust. In the poem, the poetic voice laments
the loss of the loved one, displaying grief but also identifying love as an illness, a topic that is also
covered in later literary traditions. Absence is conveyed in the image of the dust and the identification
of it as the only remains of the woman that abandoned his lover. The second recurrent motif is the love
as flames or fire, and the last is love as madness. Unlike the pragmatic function of the affairs
depicted in the qasidas, this ghazal focuses on the feelings of hopelessness and deep emotion evoked by
an unreciprocated love. Such intensity can also be found in the love poem by Umm Khalid, who also
articulates her suffering through the motifs of the tears caused by her lover, love as a fire, and the
metaphor of captivity (Van Gelder 33).
On the other hand, the poet 'Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah is known for his verses that speak about his
lack of success with women (Irwin 50). Even though he uses the same formulas that the Udhrite poets
use at the beginning of their laments, his focus is more on the transience of pleasures and the need to
seize them while one could (idem). Thus, he represents the frivolous current of poetry that focuses
on short lived affairs and flirtationship. The opening verses for his ghazal echo those of the Udhrite:
Who'll help my heart, enslaved, doting? (Van Gelder 31). But the topic of the ghazal, the gazing upon
women during the hajj rituals, which borders on sacrilege, demonstrates the real tone of the poem. The
poetic voice focuses on the women's gentle coquetry with bashfulness when he sees them for the first
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time, and after he gains his anonymous lady's favor, he boasts about what he has possessed: Whoever
drinks, when she awakes, the water of/ her mouth, drinks musk and cool, refreshing water / Her eyes
are large and black; she's plump and lovable, / and, flirtingly, she tosses stones with her left hand (32).
The mix between the idealized tone and the twisted (tongue in cheek) ending shows the relevance of
the male gaze on the submissive, unnamed woman. The ending also lacks to provide the listener with
closure, something that seems to point the fugacity of the affair even more.
I would like to keep exploring the way in which certain motifs are reappropriated by later
traditions, and the way we can or we cannot limit them in their specificity, in order to construct a
chronology on how love was perceived in Classical Arabic poetry and literature.

Works cited
Classical Arabic Literature. A library of Arabic literature anthology. Ed. Geert Jan Van Gelder. New
York: New York UP, 2013. Print.
Irwin, Robert. Night & horses & the desert. An anthology of Classical Arabic Literature. New York:
Anchor books, 2002. Print.