Mu'allaqat (The Golden Odes)

The Mu'allaqat are a collection of the poetry of Pre-Islamic Arabia made shortly after Muhammad's death. An entry in the Wikipedia online encyclopedia can be found here. The odes are the survivors of the oral tradition among the nomadic Bedouin tribes (ca. 6th century C.E.). Four of the seven odes were included in my study: The Wandering King, Whom the Gods Loved, The Centenarian, The Black Knight.


The Wandering King

This is the ode of Imr al-Qais, a warrior poet who bemoans the leaving of his mistress as he travels towards war. The language is incredibly sensual--and while this is expected when the narrator speaks of women, it's surprising when his horse is given such regard:

"Fiery he is, for all his leanness, and when his ardour
boils in him, how he roars--a bubbling cauldron isn't in it!
...
His back, as he stands beside the tent, seems the pounding-slab
of a bride's perfume, or the smooth stone the colocynth's broken on."

There is an emphasis and a celebration in physical consciousness. Sight, taste, touch--stimulation of the senses is the goal of the narrator. Beauty is found everywhere, from the stars, "glittering like the folds of a woman's bejewelled scarf," to a lover's hair, "a dark embellishment clustering down her back like bunches of a laden date tree." This attention to sensory detail reveals the mindset of a people not afraid to pause and appreciate. It also reveals the heavy emphasis placed on sensual gratification. Imr al-Qais, though he is charged to avenge his father's death, seems to be entirely consumed by his love for women and his horse. In the beginning of the ode, he is unable to stand, weeping disconsolately in the road at leaving his lover behind. And this, he claims, is his regular response to such separation. He is forced by circumstance to leave, however, and shortly forgets about his affairs, conversationally talking about the weather and admiring the grace of his steed. The language is beautiful, passionate and evocative.


Whom the Gods Loved

Tarafa's ode is similar to al-Qais'. It begins in the same manner--weeping over lost love--but seems to pick up speed as the narrator races away from the source of his grief. If al-Qais spoke in a reverent tone of the beauty of his horse, Tarafa speaks of his she-camel with an even more intimate understanding than he speaks of the she-humans. In fact, it is almost impossible to distinguish in most places which species he is speaking of. He uses the image of the she-camel often to mirror the vision of the woman he loves.

A pervasive idea in the second half of the ode is that life should be enjoyed, for death comes swiftly. "Unceasingly I tippled the wine and took my joy," the narrator says, realizing that there will be no avoiding his death, pointedly asking those who disapprove of his waste and self-gratification if they can prolong life with their prude asceticism.


The Centenarian

The Centenarian, by Labid, has a more detached, sweeping tone than the previous odes, describing the rain that falls on the deserted ruins of Mina, recounting the thoughts and concerns of the nomadic warriors as they fly over the desert hills on their camels.

The story is that of a young man who's love was not reciprocated and takes a journey in order to cool, and forget, his passions. He returns indifferent to the woman he adored. Many of the images in this ode imply the passage of time, and the change it causes. Entire villages are destroyed by water, we see the sun in its interminable path across the sky glaring in "the shimmering forenoon haze" or "[flinging] its hand into dusk's coverlet." The narrator notices the aging of his companions, and questions the purpose of the continual growth and destruction.


The Black Knight

This ode is a testament to the narrator's strength, vigor, and nobility. He shares examples of his favorite traits as he recounts the journeys he has taken to his paramours, his fights with other knights, and his drinking habits. The author is 'Antara, the son of an Arab prince and a slave--his illegitimacy and mixed blood kept his father from claiming him as a son, and he was considered a slave by his own family until the moment his father freed him to fight in battle. Perhaps this is the reason he must tout his manliness, to mask his connection with an inferior race. His is the most violent voice encountered in the odes; he nearly revels in the blood and sweat of battle. Here he speaks of his the pain his "black steed" endures:

"Continuously I charged them with his white-blazoned face
and his breast, until his body was caparisoned in blood,
and he twisted round to the spears' impact upon his breast
and complained to me, sobbing and whimpering."

And here he passionately describes killing his enemy:

"So I thrust him with my lance, then I came on top of him
with a trenchant Indian blade of shining steel,
and when the sun was high in the heavens I descried him
his fingers and his head as it were dyed with indigo."