The Mantle Odes: Arabic Praise Poems to the Prophet Muhammad

Three of the most renowned praise poems to the Prophet, the mantle odes span the arc of Islamic history from Muhammad's lifetime, to the medieval Mamluk period, to the modern colonial era. Over the centuries, they have informed the poetic and religious life of the Arab and Islamic worlds. Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych places her original translations of the poems within the odes' broader cultural context. By highlighting their transformative power as speech acts and their ritual function as gift exchanges, this book not only demonstrates the relevance of these poems to contemporary scholarship but also reveals their power and beauty to the modern reader.

Also author of The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy (2002) and The Mute Immortals Speak (1993), Stetkevych (Indiana Univ.) provides an original translation and careful analysis of three landmark poems in Arabic Islamic literature: Ka'b ibn Zuhayr's "Su'ad Has Departed" (presented to the prophet in his life), Al-Busiri's "Mantle Ode" (13th century), and Ahmad Shawqi's "The Way of the Mantle" (early 20th century). The author argues that these are essentially praise poems with similar structural elements. They are addressed to the prophet in exchange for a gift, and the nature of this gift varies according to the poem's cultural and historical circumstances. Each of the book's three chapters presents a comprehensive and compelling line-by-line analysis of its subject poem. The book also includes an appendix of Arabic texts. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers/faculty. -- ChoiceS. Gomaa, Salve Regina University, Jan. 2011 Indiana University Press

"A work of scholarship at the highest level, critically groundbreaking, textually grounded, elegantly argued, and of a depth and breadth that is rare in any field." --Michael Sells, author of Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes

"Stetkevych provides an original translation and careful analysis of three landmark poems in Arabic Islamic literature... Recommended." --Choice

"A great achievement in literary theory and Islamic thought and a significant contribution to Arabic literature." --Muhsin al-Musawi, author of Reading Iraq: Culture and Power in Conflict Indiana University Press Indiana University Press

"[T]he reader can learn much from Stetkevych's study...." --Speculum

Includes passages translated into English.

Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych is Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is author of The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy: Myth, Gender, and Ceremony in the Classical Arabic Ode (IUP, 2002).

Preface

Acknowledgments

Note on Translation and Transliteration

List of Abbreviations

1. Ka'b ibn Zuhayr and the Mantle of the Prophet

Introduction

The Pre-Islamic Prototype

1. 'Alqamah's A Heart Turbulent with Passion: The Poem as Ransom Payment

2. Al-Nabighah's O Abode of Mayyah: Transgression and Redemption

3. Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulmá's The Tribe Set Out: The Tacit Panegyric Pact

The Pre-Islamic as Proto-Islamic

Ka'b ibn Zuhayr's Su'ad Has Departed

The Conversion Narrative

The Conversion Ode

Part 1: Lyric-Elegiac Prelude (Nasib)

Part 2: Desert Journey (Rahil)

Part 3: Praise (Madih)

Mythogenesis: The Donation of the Mantle

Conclusion

Hassan ibn Thabit's At Taybah Lies a Trace

2. Al-Busiri and the Dream of the Mantle

Introduction

Poetic Genre

Poetic Style: Classical and Post-Classical Badi'

The Poet and His Times

The Miracle and the Poem

'Umar ibn al-Farid's Was That Laylá's Fire

The Mantle Ode

The Structure of al-Busiri's Burdah

The Beginning of the Supplicatory Pattern: Parts 1-3

Part 1: Prophetic Nasib

Part 2: Warning against the Desires of the Self

Part 3: Praise of the Noble Messenger

The Sirah-Derived Passages: Parts 4-8

Poeticization and Polemicization

Part 4: The Birth of the Prophet

Part 5: The Miracles of the Prophet

Part 6: The Noble Qur'an

Part 7: The Night Journey and Ascension

Part 8: The Messenger's Jihad and Campaigns

Completion of the Supplicatory Pattern: Parts 9-10

Part 9: Supplication and Plea for Intercession

Part 10: Fervent Prayer and Petition

Conclusion

3. Ahmad Shawqi and the Reweaving of the Mantle

Introduction

Ahmad Shawqi and the Nahdah

Poetic Precedents

Authorizing the Text: The Khedive, the Shaykh, and the Adib

The Colonial Double Bind

Shawqi's Nahj al-Burdah: The Thematic Structure

Nahj al-Burdah Movement I: In the Path of al-Busiri--Parts 1-6

Part 1: Nasib: Complaint of Unrequited Love

Part 2: Chiding the Unruly Soul--Warning against Worldly Temptations

Part 3: Repentance, Submission, and Supplication

Part 4: Prophetic Praise

Part 5: Sirah Themes: The Birth of the Prophet; The Night Journey and Ascension; The Miracle of the Cave

Part 6: Metapoetic Recapitulation of Prophetic Praise

Nahj al-Burdah Movement II: The Ihya' Project: Parts 7-12

Part 7: Polemic against Christianity

Part 8: Defense/Praise of Jihad and the Prophet's Military Campaigns

Part 9: The Shari'ah

Part 10: The Glory of Baghdad

Part 11: The Orthodox Caliphs

Part 12: Benediction and Supplication

Conclusion

Umm Kulthum, al-Qaradawi, and Nahj al-Burdah

Appendix of Arabic Texts

Notes

Works Cited

Index