Umar ibn Abi Rabiah and the Emergence of Arabic Love-Poetry Tradition

Abstract

ʿUmar ibn Abī Rabīʿah occupies a distinctive position in the history of classical Arabic poetry, particularly in the development of ghazal, or love poetry, during the Umayyad period. While pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetry had incorporated love as an important thematic component, ʿUmar transformed it into a more independent, urban, personal, and dramatically pstructured poetic mode. His poetry reflects the social and cultural environment of the Hijaz, especially Mecca and Medina, where pilgrimage, commerce, urban prosperity, and interaction among diverse social groups created a distinctive cultural milieu. Unlike the ʿudhrī poets, whose poetry generally emphasizes idealized, faithful, and often unattainable love, ʿUmar's poetry presents a worldly and socially situated conception of love. His poems frequently depict encounters, conversations, journeys, meetings, misunderstandings, jealousy, attraction, separation, and reconciliation. The importance of ʿUmar ibn Abī Rabīʿah lies not merely in the quantity of his love poetry but in his transformation of the conventions of the Arabic ghazal. He reduced the dependence of love poetry upon the traditional qaṣīdah, gave prominence to the individual personality of the poet, introduced dramatic and narrative techniques, represented women as speaking and socially active characters, and brought the everyday life of the urban Hijaz into poetry. His language is generally accessible, conversational, vivid, and psychologically suggestive. His poetry therefore represents an important transition from the conventional nasīb of the classical qaṣīdah to a more autonomous form of Arabic love lyric. This article examines his contribution through the historical context of Umayyad poetry, the characteristics of his ghazal, his treatment of love and women, his narrative and dramatic techniques, his linguistic and stylistic innovations, and his influence on the subsequent Arabic poetic tradition.