الليل في الشعر الجاهلي
Date
2006-06-14
Authors
ابراهيم راغب ناجي ملحم
Ibrahim Ragheb Najy Milihim
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AL-Quds University
جامعة القدس
جامعة القدس
Abstract
This study deals with the account of "night" in the pre-Islamic poetry.
The study will attempt to reflect how the pre-Islamic poets dealt with the
night and the legends and myths they weaved about it
The study of "night" in the pre-Islamic poetry as an independent and
comprehensive unit is unprecedented. There were only scattered readings
in magazines and papers which don't fulfill the requirements of an MA or
PHD theses
The study consists of four chapters. Chapter one is a philology of the
meanings and indications of night. Chapter two talks about the night
according to the grievers, mourners, the paupers, the lovers, the vision
and the rain. Chapter three is an artistic study of the poetry of the night
and the impact of the night in the pre-Islamic poets' emotions. The last
chapter dealt with the religious, legendary, psychological and social
dimensions of the night given that poetry is a reflection of the dominant
life conditions
Research methodology:
In this study the comprehensive method was adopted including
descriptive, legendary, psychological and social methods since one single
method can't cover the whole subject
Significance of the study:
The importance of this study lies in that it describes the night
phenomenon in the pre-Islamic poetry. In the darkness of the night a great
deal of the pre-Islamic Arab life took place such as wars, raids, worship
of stars and planets which lighted the darkness of the night
Limitations of the study:
The most important element that hindered the study was the rarity of
literature for review about the subject in addition to the lack of references
in the available libraries. Another barrier was the difficulty of
transportation from one governorate to another as a result of the dire
security conditions
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Objectives of the study:
Since poetry is the chronicle of the Arab life, the study aimed at opening
that chronicle to read it in an artistic, psychological, social and legendary
perspective
This way enables the depiction of the Arabs' life during the pre-Islamic
days. The study concentrates on poetry rather than prose since the former
is more descriptive of the pre-Islamic life than the latter
The study came out with the following results:
First: According to the Arabic dictionaries, night is the opposite of day.
It begins withstarts in the Ssun set and ends in the dawn break
throughwith the breaking of the dawn. Night is the darkness of the night,
while day is the light of the day. In addition, there are synonyms for the
night, such as: darkness, gloominess, murkiness, duskiness and dimness.
Second: The scene of the night and the murky heavens with the stars was
the most influential scene in the old human sense. The darkness was
portrayed as the initial womb which gave birth to the universe.
Third: The pre-Islamic people had contrastive attitudes towards the night
in terms of love and hatred; some of them depicted it as being sometimes
long sometimes and sometimes short, according to their psychological
state.
Fourth: The pre-Islamic ideology was n'ot separated from the ancient
Semitic ideology, in which night had several a great implications,
developing which developed into idiomatic, psychological and religious
indications.
Fifth: Pre-Islamic poets depended upon technical instruments in order to
extract the mental meaning and the psychological state of the scene of the
night.
The poetry of "Imru- ul Qays", " An-Nabighah" and "Al-Asha" represent
the first class pre-Islamic poetry in terms of eloquence, a purity and
renewal in the poem.
The night's unit in the poetry of "Imru-ul-Qays" lured many critics and
researchers in theto Arab literature, mainly the pre-Islamic.
Sixth: Night in poetry was only imaginary; "night like the sea waves" in
which worries, afflictions and despairs are culminated. It is a night that
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dominates the psychological and the private world of the poet since its
stars and planets stand still.
Seventh: The "Paupers" had their special taste of the night in addition to
their special rituals. It is horrifying, lonely, friendly, and veiling, in
addition to being a space for bread-winning and showing manhood and
honor.
Eighth: Night had been regarded as the time for contradictions and
unfamiliarity. It had been also the time of sentimentalities and stressed
emotions, since it brings about the adorned objects such as the moon and
the stars, which were have been worshipped as Gods since the break
dawn of history.
Ninth: To the pre-Islamic poet, night had represented the time during
which the evil spirits were released in order to take revenge. It also
represented times of hunger, grievances, stars, mediation and complaint.
Night was the most prominent mark of the ancient Arab culture, contrary
to the Arab-Islamic eras, during which night was an opportunity for
entertainment.
Tenth: The prePre-Islamic poetry marked the first source for knowledge
about spiritual and material aspects of the life of oldancient Arabians,
whose language was selected by his almighty God to be the language of
the last heavenly message, " the Qur'an," and the last prophet to be one of
them.
Eleventh: Most of the Semitic cultures considered night to offer residence
for the bad, evil-thirsty and aimless spirits. However the old ancient Arab
culture portrayed night as time for the emergence of love and , refuge of
legends and the practice of religious beliefs to pray for rain to fall.
Description
Keywords
اللغة العربية وآدابها , Arabic Language & literature