Shiir al-Futuh al-Islamiyya fi Sadr al-Islam
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Shiir al-Futuh al-Islamiyya fi Sadr al-Islam (The Poetry of the Islamic Conquests in Early Islam) is a literary and historical study by al-Nu'man Abd al-Muta'al al-Qadi that examines the Arabic verse composed by Muslim warriors during the early Islamic conquests .
Background and Purpose
The work originated as an academic study submitted to the Faculty of Arts at Cairo University, where it was awarded a master's degree with distinction . The author undertook the research to counter a common assertion among modern literary historians that Islamic spirituality and religious values left little mark on the poetry of the early Islamic period (sadr al-Islam) . Al-Qadi argued that previous studies had either largely neglected conquest poetry or addressed early war poetry only superficially . To uncover these Islamic influences, he gathered conquest verse widely scattered across classical literary, historical, and geographical sources, subjecting the material to systematic textual and thematic analysis .
Structure and Content
The book opens with a foreword by Shawqi Dayf, an introduction, and a preliminary chapter comparing conquest poetry with epic poetry . The core text is divided into three main parts (abwab) followed by a conclusion :
- Part One: Islamic Poetry in the Conquests (al-Shi'r al-Islami fi al-Futuh): Explores the historical background and geographical distribution of the poetry across three chapters. It examines the motives of jihad, the eastern conquests (Iraq and Khurasan), and the western fronts (Syria, Egypt, and Ifriqiya), noting that the eastern theaters yielded the vast majority of surviving conquest verse compared to the relative scarcity in Syria and North Africa .
- Part Two: Poets of the Conquests (Shu'ara' al-Futuh): Classifies the combatant poets into three chapters. The first addresses veteran pre-Islamic poets who converted (mukhadramun), warriors who were moved to compose poetry only by the events of the conquests, and anonymous figures. The second and third chapters provide detailed profiles of two representative figures: the veteran warrior-poet Amr ibn Ma'dikarib al-Zubaydi and the commander-poet al-Qa'qa' ibn Amr al-Tamimi .
- Part Three: Foundations and Characteristics of Conquest Poetry (Muqawwimat Shi'r al-Futuh wa-Tawabi'uh): Analyzes the genre over four chapters covering poetic forms (qasid and rajaz), inherited and newly emergent themes, religious and Islamic motifs, popular and folkloric traits (such as chivalric tales, heroic legends, and anonymous battle songs), and formal artistic features including brevity, spontaneity, and the disappearance of traditional erotic and ruins preludes (nasib and atlal) .
The conclusion summarizes the artistic, social, and historical value of the corpus, framing conquest poetry as a vital literary reflection of the collective spirit and transformation of Arab society in the early Islamic era .
Reception
In his preface, literary scholar Shawqi Dayf commended the study for opening a new area of inquiry in Arabic literary criticism by offering the first comprehensive examination of early conquest poetry, highlighting its artistic merits and religious dimensions, and recovering the profiles of numerous previously obscure warrior-poets .
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