ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books History of Shi'ism: From the Advent of Islam up to the End of Minor Occultation Lesson 27: The Shi‘ah Poets and the Station of Poetry During the past periods, poetry occupied a special station, and in addition to its literary and aesthetic dimensions, it had been considered the most important instrument of propaganda, playing the role of today’s mass media such as printed matters, radio and television.

During the pre-Islamic period of ignorance { yawm al-jahiliyyah }, this fact was conspicuously prevalent among the Arabs because they used to give ample importance to eloquence, fluency and beauty of speech. For this reason, one of the significant forms of the miracle of the Qur’an is its eloquence and fluency; hence, poetry occupied a special place among the Arabs. As Ya‘qubi says in this regard: The Arab people used to regard poetry as equal to knowledge and wisdom.

If in a certain tribe a sagacious and ingenious poet emerged, his presence at the annual trade fairs and the Hajj ceremony and its assemblies would be provided so as for him to recite his poetry and be heard by other tribes and clans, and thus, his tribe would be proud of his poetry. The Arab tribes used to refer to poetry in all their works.

They would also express enmity through poetry; give example through poetry; give honor to one another through poetry; find fault with one another through poetry; and extol and eulogize one another through it.[^1] After the event of Saqifah and the overt formation of Shi‘ism, Arabic poetry maintained its station and the Shi‘ah made use of it in propagating their viewpoint regarding Imamate and guardianship { wilayah }.

Poets who were upholding the wilayah on the rightfulness of the Shi‘ah school whose foundation was the rightfulness of the Commander of the Faithful ‘Ali ( ‘a ) over the caliphate recited poems and had pivotal role in the spread and propagation of Shi‘ism. Notwithstanding his anti-Shi‘ah tendency, Zubayr ibn Bakkar has mentioned some of these poems. Among these were the poems of ‘Utbah ibn Abi Lahab which run as follows: ما كنت احسب أن الأمر منصرف عن هاشم ثم منها عن أبي حسن!