A stout defense the poetic genius of Abu Tammam (d. 231 or 846, 232/845, or) is among the most well-known poets in the Arabic language. The poet was born in Syria to Greek Christian parents, he changed his religion to Islam and swiftly established himself as one of the most renowned Arabic poets of the courts of the caliphals of Baghdad and promoting a revolutionary style of poetry that combined complex and abstract imagery with the archaic Bedouin language.
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Highly controversial and popular, this sophisticated poem was the basis for the poetry that followed in Arabic and embodied what was known as the “modern style” ( badi’), an avant-garde aesthetic that was closely aligned with the artistic, intellectual and cultural dynamism of the Abbasid Dynasty.
The book the biography of Abu Tammam, and Times of Abu Tammam which was translated to English in the very first edition the scholar and courtier Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Suli (d. 335 or 336/946 or 947) presents a strong defence against “modern” poetry and of Abu Tammam’s importance as a poet in the face of his critics, as well as creating a vibrant depiction of life as a literary artist of Baghdad as well as Samarra.
The son of a prestigious family that was of Turkish heritage, the al-Suli served as the courtier and companion and teacher to his fellow courtiers and the Abbasid caliphs. He wrote extensively about caliphal poetry and history, and as an expert on “modern” poets, made significant contributions to the study of Arabic literary history. Much like the poets it advocates the text, it is groundbreaking and represents a significant stage in the evolution of Arabic poetry, and also appoints an extensive series of books on innovation in poetry.
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A bilingual Arabic-English edition.
- ASIN : B010VIKVTA
- Publisher : NYU Press; Bilingual edition
- Publication date : December 1, 2015
- Language : English
- File size : 958 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Print length : 572 pages
- Lending : Not Enabled
