Seyyed Muhammad Mirhusseini; Hishmatullah Zarei Kefayat
Volume 2, Issue 5 , December 2012, , Pages 58-39
Abstract
Al-A’shā is one of the erudite men of Mu'allaqāt ("The Suspended Odes" or "The Hanging Poems")– the title of a collection of seven pre-Islamic Arabic qaÒīdahs (odes) – and one of the elite poets of pre-Islamic upper class in whose poems, due to taking many voyages to ...
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Al-A’shā is one of the erudite men of Mu'allaqāt ("The Suspended Odes" or "The Hanging Poems")– the title of a collection of seven pre-Islamic Arabic qaÒīdahs (odes) – and one of the elite poets of pre-Islamic upper class in whose poems, due to taking many voyages to neighboring regions, elements of different civilization such as Persian, Roman, Abyssinian, Nebatian, Egyptian, Turkish, Kabuli, etc can be observed.
Since he travelled to neighboring areas toearn afortune, his poems represent symbols of civilization and culture such as divorce, marriage, war,pastime, means of pleasure and musical instruments.
Furthermore, different religions, religiousbeliefs and rituals can beobserved in his poems. Besidesinfluencing his imagination, civilizationhas influencedthe language, subjects and the poetic music of al-A’shā’spoems.
As an effect of listening to the instruments and songs of the bondwomen, unlike other poets of the pre-Islamic era, such as TarafatibnAbd, his poetic language was simple and lacked complexity. The effect of civilization and culture on hispoetic subjects is so much so that in eulogy,he exaggerates like Abbasid era poets and in satire he pokes fun at his subjects, as in lyricism heuses a variety of approaches to describe the beloved.
This poet chooses rhythmic metrics for his poetic music. He often uses bahretavil ('lengthy meter') and mutiqārib ('convergent meter'). By using rhymes suchaswords ending withflowing letters of "lām""dāl" and "rā", repetition of letters and words, and their agreement, some newfiguresof speech such as tansīq-i Sifāt ("synathroesmus"), tibagh ("antithesis"), radd al-'ajzallaal-sadr ("epanalepsis"), different types of pun, etche steps up the music of his poems and excites the readers.
