The Wine Song in Classical Arabic Poetry Abu Nuwas and the Literary Tradition

by Kennedy, Philip F.

• ISBN13: 9780198263920
• ISBN10: 0198263929
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-11-13
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

The classical period of Arab civilization produced the most extensive and highly developed bacchic tradition in world literature, In this book, the author traces the history of classical Arabic wine poetry from its origins in sixth century Arabia to its heyday in Baghdad at the turn of theninth century. The focus is on the greatest and perhaps most likeable of Arabic poets, Abu Nuwas. Although wine poetry is only one of the many genres for which he is known, it is the one that has ensured his fame, and the one on which this book concentrates. The wine songs of the poet are analysedand their connections with poetics, ethics, and religion are explored. The author also puts Abu Nuwas in perspective by comparing him with his most important predecessors and contemporaries and by discussing his interaction with other poetic genres such as amatory, invective, ascetic, or gnomicverse.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(18)
1. Khamr, Nasib, and Ghazal	19	(67)
Developments in Ghazal	19	(7)
Feminine Imagery	26	(10)
The Manipulation of the Role of Nasib	36	(25)
Seduction and Mujun	61	(25)
2. Islam and al-Dahr in the Khamriyya	86	(63)
The Qasida	86	(14)
The Khamriyya	100	(48)
Conclusion	148	(1)
3. Hija, the Bacchic Naqa'id, and the Rhetorical Wine Poem	149	(45)
The Jahiliyya	149	(3)
The Invective of `Antara against Khamr	152	(2)
The Umayyad Period: From Hija' to the Bacchic Polemic	154	(16)
The `Abbasid Period	170	(24)
4. Hilm and Tawba	194	(47)
Abstinence in the Jahiliyya	195	(1)
Hilm	196	(2)
Abstinence and Hilm in al-A `sa	198	(2)
Other Jahili Poets	200	(2)
Tawba in the Early Islamic Period	202	(6)
The Ambivalence of Abu l-Sis	208	(1)
Hilm in the Khamriyya	209	(5)
Abu Nuwas and the Caliph's Prohibition(s)	214	(3)
Tawba in Abu l-`Atahiya	217	(2)
Tawba in the Khamriyyat of Abu Nuwas	219	(1)
Poems which Grow Increasingly Irreligious	220	(3)
Tawba?	223	(3)
Three Poems of Abu Nuwas	226	(14)
Conclusion	240	(1)
Conclusion	241	(4)
Appendix A: The Qasidas of al-A sa containing Khamr	245	(17)
Appendix B: Texts and Translations of Selected Khamriyyat of Abu Nuwas	262	(18)
Glossary of Arabic Terms	280	(6)
Bibliography	286	(9)
Index of authors	295	(2)
General Index	297