SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The thesis consists of two parts. The first part is a detailed study of all animal life (except the horse and camel) as mentioned in poetry. Each article deals with one animal under the following heads: 1) The type-situation to which it is mentioned. 2) The animal as seen by the poet and the account of its habits. 3) Its "personality". 4) Arab feeling towards it and the reasons for this. 5) Where possible identification of the species with relevant quotations from modern travellers. This is the first comprehensive study of this field of Arabic literature it is based on a thorough reading of the poets and consists of facts discovered and exhibited for the first time. The second part is a historical and critical study of the facts as literature. It contains: 1) Recapitulation, a conspectus of the facts set out in part one tabulated according to motives. 2) Precise definition of the part played by animal lore in ancient poetry and its literary value. 3) Accuracy of the pasts as students of natural history. 4) Study of the historical development of this branch of poetry, its origin, its gradual progress through pre. Islamic, early Islamic and Umaiyad periods, the literary characteristics of schools and the individual tendencies of poets and how far these influenced the development, particularly the changes effected by the new state of affairs brought about by Islam in all spheres of life. 5) Finally, a sketch of this field in later poetry. The second part is an attempt to discover the forces which caused the development of this, branch of literature and also to assess its value. Further other features of the literature never studied before are necessarily involved.