In my paper I will analyze al-A?sha's madia poem to al-Muaallaq al-Kalbi using J.L Austin's concept of speech act to understand the conventional procedures of utterance in the praise poem to al-Mu allaq in the context of the traditional praise poem of the madio. In al-Aisha's madi- to al-Musallaq , he breaks the traditional structure of praise poetry in the pre-Islamic period; I believe that the madie here, in Austin's terms, does a different function than the madit that he composed, for instance, in praise of King Iyas ibn Qubayysah. I will examine to what extent al-A sha utilizes the available poetic traditions of the madip, and at what point he departs from the traditional madip. I will also analyze how and why al-Aisha constructed his poem differently making use of other themes and images, and how the discourse of gift exchange operates as speech act in the madio. Scholars have argued that a successful poet/negotiator virtually entraps his addressee by engaging in a ritual exchange that obligates the patron to respond to the poet's proffered gift with a counter-gift. I argue in my paper that the gift of al-Arsha's madip to al-Mu allaq works exactly the other way around, for al-A sha has already received the gift from al-MuMallaq. Hence, al-Aesha has to reciprocate al-Mulallaq by taking up the challenge of praising him. A recent critic observes, separately that "the panegyric ode performs, on the one hand, the illocutionary act of declaring allegiance to the ruler and, on the other hand, the act of obligating the patron to reward the poet and to protect him". In the case of al-Aasha's madit to al-Murallaq, the critic's claim about the ritual of gift exchange is inverted: I will show how this poem works as an illocutionary act. The construction of this poem, the multiple sections, images, and the tone of the poet have a poetic function different from the function of the poem to King Iyas. The poet uses specific poetic images and style that are appropriate for the humbler mamdue. Al-Aasha's madiy for al-Mueallaq is composed in public; He does not eulogize him as patron of opulence or heap on him unacceptable praise. Instead, al-Amsha limits himself to a favorable limited description of a noble but ordinary man, a man who belonged to a recognizable world.

Abstract: The courtly panegyric poetry played a new political role at the time of the Umayyad dynasty. The Umayyad caliphs who were surrounded by enemies needed this type of poetry to establish their authority, claim their legitimacy, and to protect their Caliphate against al-khaw?rij in Najd and al-Irrq, al-H-usayn bin 'Ali and his Shite in al-K fah, and Ibn al-Zubayr in al-Hnijlz and Yemen. In order to do so, the Umayyad court started to attract the greatest poets of their time, such as al-Farazdaq, Jardr, and al-'Akht al. The same thing was done by Umayyad's rivals, except for the fact that the Umayyad dynasty had the upper hand financially. My goal in this paper, above all, is to examine the influence of this kind of poetry in terms of persuading the public opinion, refuting the rival's argument, and eventually legitimizing the patron. Looking at the role of poetry in these politico-cultural conflicts from a modern perspective and based on the work on Verbal Duel in Western literature, this paper argues that poetry was the only possible expedient through which Caliphs and caliphate hopefuls could appeal to the public. It is actually very similar to the presidential debates of our days where each candidate gets the opportunity to appeal to the public by comparing his agenda to his rivals'.

Out of Bashshar ibn Burd's body of work, his well known ba'iyyah (ode in ba' rhyme) is probably his only qasida that could have reached canonical status. The books of literary records never fail to make a mention of it as a testimony to Bashshar's poetic prowess. However, the discussion of this ode in particular has been reduced to a fascination with one of its visual verses that contains, without a doubt, a most striking double-simile and the wonder this image evokes for being the construction of a blind poet. First of all, the paper will reflect on the implications of focusing on this line as it works to reinforce the notion of "the blind poet." On a poetic level, the double-simile we find in this famous line is only one example in this ode of a complex process of constructing multiple narratives in a particularly monologic genre such as the qasida. In this light, I hope to demonstrate in this paper the significance of this double-construction in this particular qasida as relates to Bashshar's position in-between two cultures. By showing how Bashshar subverts major canonical qasidas in order to express a double-consciousness of sorts the paper will demonstrate how the poet manipulates the qasida as a genre. Bashshar's identification with two cultures was not merely achieved explicitly. On a much deeper level this hybrid expression was part of the very build up of his poetic creation. In other words, Bashshar was able to use the qasida for expressing one thing and its opposite at once and by doing so Bashshar was able to negotiate his position between two cultures, giving expression to both and canceling both at the same time.

Although the blind poet and litterateur of 10/11th century CE Syria, Ab? al-'Al?' al-Ma'arrM, is well known for pessimism and for ironic play with the religious and "philosophical" ideas of his day, particularly in his programatically double-rhymed Luzemiyymt ("Compulsories"), the ironic distance achieved in the poem that opens "Some day people will ask 'What is Quraysh and what is Meccar'" is nevertheless quite extraordinary. This paper argues that the source of this irreverent irony lies at the intersection of the two major components of the Ara-Islamic traidtion, the Qasida (poetry) with its roots in the Arab autochthony of the Jehiliyyah, and the Qur'hn with its roots in the Arab, but also broader Judaic, Christian and Near Eastern (including Persian) traditions. An intriguing anecdote recorded by al-Qiftn points toward this intersection. He tells us that when told of a Latin inscription discovered in the excavations of 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan for the foundation of the Umayyad mosque in Damascus, al-Ma'arra recited this opening line (or a variant of it). In the Islamic and Qurvanic view of history, ancient peoples, such as 'wd and Thamyd, had perished as victims of divine wrath for straying from proper piety and devotion to Allrh. Islam, as the true and final religion, and its believers, the Muslims, were to supercede the failed peoples, religions, and civilizations of the past. Thus, from an Islamic perspective, the discovery of ancient ruins should reinforce the message of the triumph of the last and true religion and its community. Al-Ma'arrn's chilling response is altogether at odds with this. He does not celebrate the destruction of past peoples and civilizations as clear signs of the eternal triumph of Islam, but rather as forebodings of the inevitable demise of his own Islamic civilization as well. This paper will argue that the source of this perception lies in that most essential and conventional motif of the Arabic qasida tradition, the stopping at the ruins (al-wuqaf 'alt al-ailnl). Altogether at odds with the Qur?nic interpretation of extinct peoples of the past, the motif of the poet stopping at the ruined abode of his beloved expresses the poet's realization of his own mortality. He does not see in the ruined abode the divine destruction of the wicked "other," but rather the adumbration of his--and mankind's--own ineluctable fate.