‘Amr ibn Kulthum was among the classic Arabic
poets who flourished in the century before
MUHAMMAD. Though not considered a great innovator,
his inclusion in the Mu‘allaq¯at (The Seven
Odes), the standard collection of pre-Islamic poetry,
has given him a place in literary history.
Like many of the pre-Islamic poets, ‘Amr was of
high birth and a chief of the Taghlib tribe that lived
in the mid-Euphrates River area of Iraq. He was
the grandson of al-Muhalhil, himself a celebrated
Taghlib chief and poet. Little is known of ‘Amr’s
life, but some of the feats alluded to in his poems
were later accepted as facts. For example, one legend
has ‘Amr beheading the powerful Lakhmid
king ‘Amr ibn Hind (ca. 568) for allowing the
poet’s mother to be insulted.Within a century of
his death, reputedly by drinking too much unmixed
wine, he had become a legendary hero in
Arabic tales.
There are not many surviving examples of
‘Amr’s poetry, but one of his longer poems (untitled)
was included in the Mu‘allaq¯at when it was
assembled in the late eighth century. In his qasidah
(ode), ‘Amr fiercely extols the strength,
courage, and cruelty of his tribe, and hurls threats
against its foes:
Ours the right of the wells, of the springs
untroubled;
theirs the dregs of the plain, the rain-pools
trampled.
This type of writing is a classic example of the
fakhr (boasting) often found in Arabic poetry of
the time. ‘Amr’s poem became so popular among
his Taghlib tribesmen that they expanded it in the
retelling from 100 to 1,000 lines, and the ode has
since influenced subsequent generations of Arabic
poets.
See also HANGED POEMS, THE.
An English Version of a Work by
‘Amr ibn Kulthum
Untitled Ode in The Seven Odes: The First Chapter in
Arabic Literature. Translated by A. J. Arberry. New
York:Macmillan, 1957.
A Work about ‘Amr ibn Kulthum
Nicholson, R. A. A Literary History of the Arabs. Cambridge,
U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1966,
109–113.