''Ḥamāsah'' (from
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
حماسة ''valour'') is a well-known ten-book anthology of
Arabic poetry
Arabic poetry ( ar, الشعر العربي ''ash-shi‘ru al-‘Arabīyyu'') is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that.
Arabic poetry ...
, compiled in the 9th century by
Abu Tammam
Ḥabīb ibn Aws al-Ṭā’ī (; ca. 796/807 - 845), better known by his sobriquet Abū Tammām (), was an Arab poet and Muslim convert born to Christian parents. He is best known in literature by his 9th-century compilation of early poems kno ...
. Along with the ''
Asma'iyyat'', ''
Mufaddaliyat
The ''Mufaddaliyyat'' (Arabic: المفضليات / ALA-LC: ''al-Mufaḍḍaliyāt''), meaning "The Examination of al-Mufaḍḍal", is an anthology of ancient Arabic poems which derives its name from its author Mufaḍḍal al-Ḍabbī, '', ''
Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab'', and ''
Mu'allaqat
The Muʻallaqāt ( ar, المعلقات, ) is a group of seven long Arabic poems. The name means The Suspended Odes or The Hanging Poems, the traditional explanation being that these poems were hung in the Kaaba in Mecca, while scholars have also ...
'', ''Hamasah'' is considered one of the primary sources of early Arabic poetry. The work is especially important for having been the first Arabic anthology compiled by a poet and not a philologist and is the first in the
Hamasah
The Hamasah (; ) is a genre of Arabic poetry that "recounts chivalrous exploits in the context of military glories and victories".
The first work in this genre is Kitab al-Hamasah of Abu Tammam.
Hamasah works
List of popular Hamasah works:
* ''Ha ...
literary genre. The first and largest section of the work, ''al-ḥamāsah'' (valour), provides the name for several other anthologies of this type.
The anthology contains a total of 884 poems, most of which are short extracts of longer poems, grouped by subject matter.
[Kirsten Eksell, "Genre in Early Arabic Poetry." Taken fro]
Literary History: Towards a Global Perspective
vol. 2, pg. 158. Eds. Anders Pettersson, Gunilla Lindberg-Wada, Margareta Petersson and Stefan Helgesson. Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
: Walter de Gruyter
Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature.
History
The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...
, 2006. The selections date back to pre-Islamic, Islamic and early 'Abbasid times.
The ''Ḥamāsah'' was probably compiled around AD 835, while Abū Tammām was staying at
Hamadan
Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') (Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ham ...
in Iran, where he had access to a very good library. It quickly acquired the status of a classic work.
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt an ...
is said to have known it by heart.
Content
The ten headings are:
#Al-Ḥamāsah “Valour”
#Al-Marāthī, “Elegies”;
#Al-Adab, “Proper conduct”;
#An-Nasīb, “Love”;
#Al-Hijāʿ, “Invective”;
#Al-Adyāf wa al-madīḥ, “Hospitality and praise of the generous”;
#Aṣ-Ṣifāt, “Descriptive verses/pieces”;
#As-Sayr wa an-Nuʾas, “desert travel”;
#Al-Mulah, “Clever curiosities”;
#Madhammāt an-nisaʾ, “the censure of women”
See also
*''
Kitab al-Aghani''
*
Mu'allaqat
The Muʻallaqāt ( ar, المعلقات, ) is a group of seven long Arabic poems. The name means The Suspended Odes or The Hanging Poems, the traditional explanation being that these poems were hung in the Kaaba in Mecca, while scholars have also ...
*''
Mufaddaliyat
The ''Mufaddaliyyat'' (Arabic: المفضليات / ALA-LC: ''al-Mufaḍḍaliyāt''), meaning "The Examination of al-Mufaḍḍal", is an anthology of ancient Arabic poems which derives its name from its author Mufaḍḍal al-Ḍabbī, ''
Further reading
*"Abū Tammām and the Poetics of the ʿAbbāsid Age". - Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych (1991)
References
External links
Article in ''Britannica''
9th-century Arabic books
9th-century poems
Abbasid literature
Arabic anthologies
Medieval Arabic poems
{{Poetry-stub