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Description in Classical Arabic Poetry
Waá¹£f, Ekphrasis, and Interarts Theory
Series: - Brill Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures, Volume: 25
Author:
This volume deals with waá¹£f or description which is one of the salient characteristics of the qaṣīdah (classical Arabic poetry) tradition. The Introduction offers the theoretical background of waá¹£f and ekphrasis ("verbal representation of non-verbal texts" in its modern sense) that can be considered a Western counterpart of waá¹£f. The main part of the book examines descriptive passages in a selected group of Arabic qaṣīdah from different ages (JÄhilÄ«, Abbasid, Andalusian) with the motifs of horses, bees and honey-gathering, visual artifacts, performance of song, and architecture. Approaching the Arabic ode in light of modern Western critical theory, including the theories of ekphrasis and of interarts studies, this work is original and innovative, so it leads to a new understanding of a major form of traditional Arabic poetry.
Motoyoshi Sumi, Ph.D. (2001) in Arabic Literature, Indiana University, is Assistant Professor at Kyoto Notre Dame University, Japan. She has published a number of articles on classical Arabic poetry including "Poetry and Portraiture: A Double Portrait in an Arabic Panegyric by Ibn Zamrak"(JAL 30, no. 3, 1999).