Identification and Identity in Classical Arab Poetry [Gibb literary studies, no. 2]

xviii, 366 pages ; 22 cm. Summary:"Throughout early Arabic poetry the poets, for the most part, speak in the first person, a point which sets their tradition apart from those of most other articulate civilisations. The present study investigates the characteristic poetic roles found in the works of 37 poets, dating from the pre-Islamic to the Abbasid period, to which are added specimens of Spanish Arabic lyric poetry and of the popular poetry of Baghdad."--BOOK JACKET.