Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
LABID
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: KRO-LAP
del.icio.us it!
|
LABID is the only one of these poets who embraced See also:Islam. His Mo`allaga, however, like almost all his other poetical See also:works, belongs to the See also:Pagan See also:period. He is said to have lived till 661, or even later; certainly it is true of him, what is asserted with less likelihood of several others of these poets, that he lived to a ripe old See also:age. The seven Mo'allaqat, and also the poems appended to them, represent almost every type of See also:ancient Arabian See also:poetry in its excellences and its weaknesses. In See also:order rightly to appreciate these, we must translate ourselves into the See also:world of the Bedouin, i See See also:Tabari's Geschichte der Perser and Araber . . . iibersetzt von Th. Niildeke (See also:Leiden, 1879), p. 171. 2 See Niildeke's Tabar-a, pp. 170,172. 2 Ibid. p. 311.and seek to realize the See also:peculiar conditions of his See also:life, together with the views and thoughts resulting from those conditions. In the Mo'allaqa of Taraf a we are repelled by the See also:long, anatomically exact description of his See also:camel; but such a description had an extraordinary See also:charm of its own for the See also:Bedouins, every See also:man of whom was a perfect connoisseur on this subject down to the minutest points; and the remaining parts of the poem, together with the other extant fragments of his songs, show that See also:Tarafa had a real poetic See also:gift. In the Mo'allaqat of `Amr and Harith, for the preservation of which we are especially grateful to the compiler, we can read the haughty spirit of the powerful chieftains, boastfully celebrating the splendours of their tribe. These two poems have also a certain See also:historical importance. The See also:song of See also:Zuhair contains the See also:practical See also:wisdom of a sober man of the world. The other poems are fairly typical examples of the customary gasida, the long poem of ancient See also:Arabia, and bring before us the various phases of Bedouin life. But even here we have See also:differences. In the Mo'allaqa of `Antara, whose heroic temperament had overcome the scorn with which the son of a See also:black slave-See also:mother was regarded by the Bedouins, there predominates a warlike spirit, which plays practically no See also:part in the song of Labid. It is a phenomenon which deserves the fullest recognition, that the needy inhabitants of a barren See also:country should thus have produced an See also:artistic poetry distinguished by so high a degree of uniformity. Even the extraordinary strict metrical See also:system, observed by poets who had no inkling of theory and no knowledge of an See also:alphabet, excites surprise. In the most ancient poems the metrical See also:form is as scrupulously regarded as in later compositions. The only poem which shows unusual metrical freedom is the above-mentioned song of `Abid. It is, however, remarkable that `Abid's contemporary Amra'al-Qais, in a poem which in other respects also exhibits certain coincidences with that of `Abid (No. 55, ed. Ahlwardt), presents himself considerable See also:licence in the use of the very same See also:metre —one which, moreover, is extremely rare in the ancient period. Presumably, the violent deviations from the schema in `Abid are due simply to incorrect transmission by compilers who failed to grasp the metre. The other poems ascribed to `Abid, together with all the See also:rest attributed to Amra'al-Qais, are constructed in precise See also:accord with the metrical canons. It is necessary always to See also:bear in mind that these ancient poems, which for a See also:century or more were preserved by oral tradition alone, have reached us in a much mutilated See also:condition. Fortunately, there was a class of men who made it their See also:special business to learn by rote the works either of a single poet or of several. The poets themselves used the services of these rhapsodists (rawl). The last representative of this class is Ilammad, to whom is attributed the collection of the Mo'allaqat; but he, at the same See also:time, marks the transition of the See also:rhapsodist to the critic and See also:scholar. The most favourable See also:opinion of these rhapsodists would require us to make See also:allowance for occasional mistakes: expressions would be transposed, the order of verses disarranged, passages omitted, and probably portions of different poems pieced together. It is clear, however, that See also:Hammad dealt in the most arbitrary See also:fashion with the enormous quantity of poetry which he professed to know thoroughly. The seven Mo'allaqat are indeed See also:free from the suspicion of See also:forgery, but even in them the See also:text is frequently altered and many verses are transposed. The loose structure of Arabic poems was extremely favourable to such alterations. Some of the Mo-'allaqat have several preambles: so, especially, that of `Amr, the first eight verses of which belong not to the poem, but to another poet. Elsewhere, also, we find See also:spurious verses in the Mo'allaqat. Some of these poems, which have been handed down to us in other exemplars besides the collection itself, exhibit See also:great divergences both in the order and number of the verses and in textual details. This is particularly the See also:case with the See also:oldest Mo'allaqa—that of Amra'al-Qais—the See also:critical treatment of which is a problem of such extreme difficulty that only an approximate See also:solution can ever be reached. The See also:variations of the text, outside the Mo'allaqat collection, have
here and there exercised an See also:influence on the text of that collection. It would be well if our See also:manuscripts at least gave the Mo'allaqat in the exact form of flammad's days. The best text—in fact, we may say, a really See also:good text—is that of the latest Mo'allaqa, the song of Labid.
The Mo'allagat exist in many manuscripts, some with old commentaries, of which a few are valuable. They have also been several times printed. Especial mention is due to the edition of See also: An See also:attempt at such a See also:translation, in See also:conjunction with a commentary based on the principles of See also:modern See also:science, has been made by the See also:present author: " Ftlnf Mo'allagat iibersetzt and erklart," in the Sitzungsberichte der kais. Akad. d. Wiss. in Wien. Philos.-hist. Classe. Bde. cxl.—cxiv. A supplement to this is formed by an See also:article, by Dr Bernh. Geiger, on the Mo'allaqa of Tarafa, in the Wiener Zeitschrift See also:fur See also:die Kunde See also:des Morgenlands, xix. 323 sqq. See further the See also:separate articles on the seven poets. (Tx. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] LABICI |
[next] LABID (Abu 'Agil Labicl ibn Rabi'a) (c. 56o-c. 661)... |