SOAS Research Online

Abstract

CHAPTER I This chapter contains an account of Dhu'r-Rumma' s life based on a study of the anecdotal material and its conflicting versions in relation to some passages in his diwan, together with the historical background with special reference to:- (a) His nickname of Dhu'r-Rumma. (b) The question of his acquaintance with the art of writing and the philologists' attempt to create the impression of his being illiterate, thus confirming that his language was pure and chaste and fit for citational needs. (c) A more or less chronological order of his contacts with his patrons. (d) A discussion of his love for Mayya and other women, establishing that Kharqa was not Mayya. (e) A review of the different anecdotes concerning his death and the story of his burial. CHAPTER II A discussion of his social and cultural background - his Bedouin character and simple behaviour, illustrated in his ready participation in the goy of the community and his attitude towards some philosophical and religious issues. CHAPTER III. An attempt is made here to draw a conspectus of the Bedouin school of poetry as a product of Bedouin life, based upon the flow of associated thoughts and images and projected on a desert background. This is followed by a discussion of Dhu'r-Rumma as a representative of his school belonging to it both by environment and culture, his place amongst its poets and his achievement together with a comparison of some of his themes with those of his predecessors and ending with descriptions of his desert environment. CHAPTER IV A discussion of his ghazal poetry as reflecting the influence of the 'Udhris as well as his own personal experiences, with some emphasis on his Bedouin ghazal in portraying Mayya as the embodiment of the Bedouin ideal of beauty and epitomising the mostoeautiful aspects of the desert as well. CHAPTER V His social relationships as illustrated in his panegyrics and satire, revealing that he was first and foremost an artist obsessed with singing of his feelings and emotions about his desert and about his beloved though responding in praise and satire to necessity and the pressure of tribal revelry respectively. CHAPTER VI A review of his artistic attitudes, and his poetical obsession; then his poetry as evaluated by his contemporaries and by literary critics subsequently. The study ends with a conclusion based on the main points of the previous chapters.