After all, the theme of love had no bearing on the security of the tribe.

After all, the theme of love had no bearing on the security of the tribe. The very reason that its interest was human and universal, i.e. not peculiar to the tribe, was enough to render it inconsequential.

Leaving aside the hija’ , which has throughout maintained its independent form, the fakhr in its kindred form of madih (eulogy) came to assume the pivotal position in the structure of the qasidah , which was devised especially to rope in the nasib and many other minor forms of occasional verse to sub-serve it. This “loose-knitting” of the diverse kinds into a rigidly conventional structure seems to have come into vogue not long before our earliest acquaintance with Arabic poetry, i.e.

about 125 years before Islam.[^4] The order in the composition of the qasidah is invariably as follows. First comes the nasib by way of a prelude, second, the madih as the main part, and third, the khatimah (epilogue) which is most didactic. A certain proportion was observed particularly between the first two parts on the principle that the nasib should neither over-shadow the madih nor pass without…