(INTRODUCTION)
Arabic poetry, as explained in introducing the "Assemblies" of Al
Hariri, is based largely on harmonies of sound and striking turns of
phrasing. Hence most of the poems are brief; and a poet's fame depended
upon a few brilliant couplets rather than on any sustained melody or
long-continued flight of noble thought. One distinguished philosophical
poem of some length is the well-known "Lament of the Vizier Abu
Ismael." This we give in full at the conclusion of this section; but
mainly we must illustrate the finest flowering of Arabic verse by
selecting specimens of characteristic brevity.
Many of the Arab caliphs inclined to the gaieties of life rather than
to their religious duties, and kept many poets around them. Indeed some
of the caliphs themselves were poets: The Caliph Walid composed music
as well as verse; and was hailed by his immediate companions as a great
artist. His neglect of religion, however, was so reckless as to rouse
the resentment of his people, and he lost his throne and life.
Most noted of all the Arab poets was Mutanabbi (905-965). His fantastic
imagery and extravagant refinements of language were held by his
admirers to be the very perfection of literature. More than forty
commentaries were written to explain the subtleties of his verse. Such,
indeed, was the intensity of Mutanabbi's poetic ecstasy that he fancied
himself a prophet and began to preach a new religion, until a term in
prison persuaded him to cling to the accepted form of Mohammedanism.
In one well-known passage ridiculed by the great French critic, Huart,
Mutanabbi says of an advancing army that it was so vast
"The warriors marched hidden in their dust;
They saw only with their ears."
The commentators explain, perhaps unnecessarily, that this means that
the warriors' senses were confused by all the tumult, so that while
they thought they saw, in reality they only heard the clamor of the
marchers around them. In translation, Mutanabbi's verses lose all
value. Deprived of their Arabic melody they seem mere bombast and
absurdity. This, in fact, is the general charge which must be made
against the later Arabic poetry. It too often degenerated into empty
sound.