MU'ALLAQAT, AL-

collection of seven pre-Islamic Arabic qasida (odes), each considered to be its author's best piece. Since the authors themselves are among the dozen or so most famous poets of the 6th century, the selection enjoys a unique position in Arabic literature, representing the finest of early Arabic poetry. Taken together, the poems of the Mu'allaqat provide an excellent picture of Bedouin life, manners, and modes of thought. The idea of grouping together these particular poems is most commonly attributed to Hammad ar-Rawiyah, who was an 8th-century collector of early poetry. An often-repeated legend that originated in the 10th century states that the poems were written down in golden letters on scrolls of linen that were then hung, or suspended (mu'allaq), on the walls of the Ka'bah in Mecca. It is by no means clear, however, that Hammad himself ever used the name Mu'allaqat in referring to his compilation. Instead, he appears to have referred to it as the seven renowned ones (as-sab' al-mashhurat), or simply as the renowned ones (al-mashhurat). Most probably, the name Mu'allaqat in this context is a derivative of the word 'ilq, a precious thing, so that its meaning would be the poems which are esteemed precious. All that can be said with certainty is that the name Mu'allaqat appeared about 900 to distinguish the seven poems as a subset in a larger compilation of poems. The precise poems included in the Mu'allaqat present another puzzle. The list usually accepted as standard was recorded by Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi and names poems by Imru' al-Qays, Tarafah, Zuhayr, Labid, 'Antarah, 'Amr ibn Kulthum, and al-Harith. Such authorities as Ibn Qutaybah, however, count 'Abid ibn al-Abras as one of the seven, while Abu 'Ubaydah replaces the last two poets of Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi's list with an-Nabighah and al-A'sha. Of the authors of the Mu'allaqat, the earliest is Imru' al-Qays, who lived in the early part of the 6th century. The others belong to the latter half of that century. Zuhayr and Labid are said to have survived into the time of Islam, but their poetic output belongs to the pre-Islamic period. The Mu'allaqat odes are all in the classical qasida pattern, which some Arab scholars believed to have been created by Imru' al-Qays. After a conventional prelude, the nasib, in which the poet calls to mind the memory of a former ladylove, most of the rest of the ode consists of an arbitrary succession of descriptions of the poet's horse or camel, scenes of desert events, and other aspects of Bedouin life and warfare. The main theme of the qasida (the madih, or panegyric, the poet's tribute to himself, his tribe, or his patron) is often disguised in these vivid descriptive passages, which are the chief glory of the Mu'allaqat. Their vivid imagery, exact observation, and deep feeling of intimacy with nature in the Arabian Desert contribute to the Mu'allaqat's standing as a masterpiece of world literature. The lively description of a desert storm at the end of Imru' al-Qays' qasida is a splendid example of such passages. The physiological exactitude of the odes' descriptions of horses and camels may seem tedious to some readers, but it must be remembered that the camel and the horse were the mainstays of the Bedouins' life, without which their existence in the desert would have been impossible. Little wonder, then, that the early Arabs felt a passionate, even romantic, interest in every detail connected with these animals. English translations of Al-Mu'allaqat include The Seven Golden Odes of Pagan Arabia (1903) by Lady Anne and Sir Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and The Seven Odes (1957) by A.J. Arberry.