Episode 19 Arabic Verse: Love Poetry and Wine Songs 

Islamic Golden Age (2017)

By Eamon Gearon

Film Review

According to Gearon, the three most important poets of the Islamic Golden Age were

• Abu Nuwas, born in 756 AD in Persia (wrote poems celebrating wine)
• Abu Taba, born in 805 AD in Syria
• Al-Mutunabbi, born in 915 AD in Iraq.

Prior to 610 AD Arabic had no written language and all poetry (which was valued above all other artistic endeavors) was recited from memory. The physician Ibn Sina wrote half of his medical texts in Arabic and Persian verse.

Poems from the Islamic Golden Age took one of six forms:

• poems of praise (of a leader or rich person)
• love poems
• war poems
• poems praising wine and drunkenness
• insult poems
• laments – usually for warriors who died in battle

Mohammed’s attitude towards poets, who he once described as ungodly, deceitful and dishonest, was ambivalent. Some hadith (see The House of Wisdom and How the Sunni Muslim Religion Was Defined) permit poems written in praise of god or wisdom or to attack poems attacking Islam.

Abu Nuwas (756-814) was of mixed Persian-Arabic ancestry. He moved to Baghdad shortly after the founding of the Abassid caliphate. Most historians view him as the greatest poetic of the Islamic Golden Age and some as the greatest ever to publish in Arabic.

The topic of his poems ranges from wine, drunkenness, love, lust, masturbation, homosexuality and sex with young men.

A religious skeptic, he delighted in offending all religious systems, as well a poking fun at liars, cheat and hypocrites. He was a personal friend of Harun al-Rashid and receives mention in The Arabian Nights. The caliph threw him in jail more than once from public drunkenness and debauchery and eventually exiled him to Egypt. He returned to Baghdad following the caliph’s death, having tutored his son and successor Al-Alimin. There are rumors Al-Alimin shared his debauched lifestyle.

Al-Rshid drank alcohol, like many prominent Muslims at a time when Islamic orthodoxy had yet to be established. The Koran itself only forbid drinking prior to prayer, though some hadith forbid drinking.

AbuTamman revived neoclassical Arabic poetry by compiling early Arabic verse. Converted to Islam after being born and raised a Christian. He was the court poet and historian for Caliph Motassen. He wrote the 10 volume Book of Exhortations.

Al Musinabi made his living writing odes (70-100 line monorhymes) about honor, courage, loyalty, friendship and chivalry. Witty, arrogant and honest, he was murdered at age 50 for insulting someone.

The Persian poets Omar Kayam (1048-1131 AD) and Hafez (1325-1390 AD) were both profoundly influenced by Arabic-Islamic culture.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5756987/5757025