as a “slave with a pierced lower lip, fat, with misshapen feet and thick hands.”
Al-Mutanabblpraised him, and then wrote very vindictive satires against him.
For a good account, see Suzanne P. Stetkeyvch, The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy:
Myth, Gender, and Ceremony in the Classical Arabic Ode(Bloomington, IN: Indiana
University Press, 2002), pp. 237–40.
6 Al-Jawmhirl, Dlwmn, vol. 5 (1975), p. 357.
7 Ibid., p. 361.
8 Ibid., vol. 2 (1973), pp. 279–86.
9 Ibid., p. 284.
10 Al-Jawmhirl, Dlwmn, vol. 3 (1974), p. 91.
11 See cAbd Allmh Ibn Muslim Ibn Qutaybah, “Introduction,” Kitmb al-Shicr
wa- al-Shucarm’, ed. M. J. de Goeje (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1904), pp. 14–15;
Reynold A. Nicholson, A Literary History of the Arabs(Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1956), pp. 77–78; also in Stefan Sperl, Mannerism in Arabic
Poetry(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 9–10. For a very
focused critical assessment, see Suzanne P. Stetkevych, The Mute Immortals Speak:
Pre-Islamic Poetry and the Poetics of Ritual(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
1993), pp. 3–8; and for a superb reading of the cultural and aesthetic dimensions
of the form, see Jaroslav Stetkevych, The Zephyrs of Najd: The Poetics of Nostalgia
in the Classical Arabic Naslb(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
12 Al-Jawmhirl, Dlwmn, vol. 3 (1974), p. 83.
13 Ibid., p. 84.
14 The dialogic principle in Mikhail Bakhtin’s use refers to the polyphonic het-
erogeneity of the text. See Encyclopedia of Literary Terms(Toronto, ON: Toronto
University Press, 1993), pp. 31–34.
15 See Ymhm>usayn’s introduction to Tacrlf al-qudamm’ bi Ablal-cAlm’(The Ancients’
Explication of Abnal-cAlm’), eds Muxyafmal-Saqqm, ‘Abd al-Ra.lm Ma.mnd, ‘Abd
al-Samm Hmrnn, Ibrmhlm al-Ibymrl, and >amid ‘Abd al-Majld (Cairo: Al-Hay’ah
al-cMmmah li-al-Kitmb, n.d.; reprinted from Dmr Al-Kutub 1944 edition), p. iii.
16 >usayn, introduction to Tacrlf al-qudamm’, p. iii.
17 Tawflq al->aklm, “Nazrah Jadldah ilmAblal-cAlm’,” in Fann al-Adab(The Art
of Literature) (Cairo: Maktabat Al-Mdmb, 1952), pp. 36–39, at p. 37.
18 Salm.cAbd al-Xabnr, >aymtlflal-shicr, al-Dawmwln al-shicriyyah(My Poetic
Career/Collected Poems), in Al-A‘mml al-Kmmilah(Cairo: Al-Hay’ah al-cMmmah
lil-Kitmb, 1993), p. 158.
19 The disputed account relates how the poet was humiliated in Baghdad after
reciting a line from al-Mutanabblinsinuating disrespect to the host, the head
of the nobility or ashrmf, descendants of the prophet, in Baghdad. See Xalmh cAbd
al-Xabnr, “AqnlnLakum can al-Shucara’” (I Tell You About Poets), in Al-Acmml
al-Kmmilah(Complete Works) (Cairo: Al-Hay’ah al-cMmmah lil-Kitmb, 1995),
vol. 10, pp. 291–301.
20 Reference here to Arab classical theory of plagiarism and its classification of
methods and ways of borrowing or stealing.
21 Bloom, A Map of Misreading, p. 32.
22 Sperl, Mannerism in Arabic Poetry, p. 99.
23 See Xalm.cAbd al-Xabnr, Dlwmn(Beirut: Al-cAwdah, 4th printing, 1983),
pp. 141–43.
24 Suzanne P. Stetkevych, AbnTammmm and the Poetics of the cAbbmsid Age(Leiden:
E. J. Brill, 1991), pp. xiii–xiv.
25 Xalm.cAbd al-Xabnr, Al-Acmml al-kmmilah, 1993, pp. 327–28.
NOTES