Most Arabic poetry from the fifth and sixth centuries
is attributed to anonymous authors.However,
literary scholars generally agree that the Hanged
Poems (also called the Mu‘allaq¯at, or “The hanging
ones”) were written by the following seven poets:
IMRU’ AL-QAYS, TARAFAH ‘AMR IBN AL-‘ABD, Zuhayr ibn
Abi Sulma, LABID, Antara ibn Shaddad, ‘AMR IBN
KULTHUM, and al-Harith. They were displayed in the
Ka‘aba, the chief religious shrine in Arabia.
Little is known about the lives of most of these
poets. They likely read their works aloud in a poetry
competition during an annual meeting of the
Arabic tribes. It is believed that the seven best of
the qasidas (long poems or odes) chosen through
these competitions were the ones hanged for display
in the Ka‘aba, hence their collective title as the
“hanged ones.” They address the topics of warfare,
love, and famous cities of the region.
The oldest of the Hanged Poems was written by
Imru’ al-Qays, otherwise known as “the vagabond
prince.” He was of royal descent from the ancient
kings of Yemen, and the stories about his life differ.
In one telling, Imru’ took vengeance on his father’s
murderer and then fled the region for fear of retaliation.
In another story, Imru’ became a wanderer
because his father banished him for writing
of love rather than spending more time warring. In
both stories, Imru’ eventually arrived in Constantinople
and became a celebrated poet in the palace
of the Roman emperor Justinian (530). He was
later poisoned as punishment for falling in love
with a Byzantine princess.
Imru’ al-Qays is said to be the greatest of the
Mu‘allaq¯at poets, the first to capture in a regular
rhythm the chanting of the earlier desert singers.
His poem speaks of the loss of love:
There my companions halted their beasts awhile
over me saying, “Don’t perish of sorrow; restrain
yourself decently!” Yet the true and only
cure of my grief is tears outpoured:what is there
left to lean on where the trace is obliterated?
Antarah, another of the poets, was a son of an
Arab and his slave woman; he was raised as a slave
in his father’s house. He desperately loved Abla, a
young woman of his tribe, but never had a relationship
with her because his tribe did not consider
Antarah, a slave, to be Abla’s equal.His poem
speaks of their unrequited love:
I was enamored of her unawares, at a time
when I was killing her people, desiring her in
marriage; but by your father’s life I swear, this
was not the time for desiring.
The poet Zuhayr is regarded as the philosopher
of the group of Mu‘allaq¯at poets, a man of rank
and wealth from a family noted for their poetic
skill and religious earnestness.He sought, through
his poetry, to instill noble ideas in the people
around him. In this poem, he encourages peace
among the tribes:
And war is not but what you have learnt it to
be, and what you have experienced, and what is
said concerning it, is not a story based on suppositions.
When you stir it up, you will stir it
up as an accursed thing, and it will become
greedy when you excite its greed and it will
rage fiercely.
Many of the Arabic tribal poets passed their
works along orally. It was solely the public selection
of these seven poems, which were said to have been
written in gold on the walls of the Ka‘aba, that allowed
for their preservation for future generations.
English Versions of the Hanged Poems
Horne, Charles F. Sacred Books and Early Literature
of the East: Ancient Arabia, The Hanged Poems, The
Koran. Vol. 5.Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing,
1997.
Jones, Alan. Early Arabic Poetry, Vol. 2, Select Odes.
Reading, N.Y.: Garnet Publishing, 1996.
Works about the Hanged Poems
O’Grady, Desmond. The Seven Arab Odes. London:
Agenda & Editions Charitable Trust, 1990.
Stetkevych, Suzanne Pinckney.Mute Immortals Speak:
Pre-Islamic Poetry and the Poetics of Ritual. Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993.