The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy: Myth, Gender, and Ceremony in the

Stetkevych, JAROSLAV Pinckney

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9780253341198: The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy: Myth, Gender, and Ceremony in the

ISBN 10: 0253341191 ISBN 13: 9780253341198

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2002

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"... transcends the realm of literature and poetic criticism to include virtually every field of Arabic and Islamic studies." —Roger Allen

Throughout the classical Arabic literary tradition, from its roots in pre-Islamic Arabia until the end of the Golden Age in the 10th century, the courtly ode, or qasida, dominated other poetic forms. In The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy, Suzanne Stetkevych explores how this poetry relates to ceremony and political authority and how the classical Arabic ode encoded and promoted a myth and ideology of legitimate Arabo-Islamic rule. Beginning with praise poems to pre-Islamic Arab kings, Stetkevych takes up poetry in praise of the Prophet Mohammed and odes addressed to Arabo-Islamic rulers. She explores the rich tradition of Arabic praise poems in light of ancient Near Eastern rites and ceremonies, gender, and political culture. Stetkevych’s superb English translations capture the immediacy and vitality of classical Arabic poetry while opening up a multifaceted literary tradition for readers everywhere.

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About the Author

Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych is Professor of Arabic Literature and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is author of The Mute Immortals Speak: Pre-Islamic Poetry and the Poetics of Ritual (Cornell, 1993) and editor of Reorientations: Arabic and Persian Poetry (Indiana University Press, 1994). She serves as editor of the Journal of Arabic Literature.