this issue
previous article in this issuenext article in this issue

Document Details :

Title: The Inscription of 'En 'Abdat
Subtitle: An Evolutionary Stage of Ancient Arabic Poetry
Author(s): SNIR, Reuven
Journal: Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Volume: 31    Date: 1993   
Pages: 110-125
DOI: 10.2143/ANES.31.0.525736

Abstract :
The earliest known Arabic verses are from a period in which Arabic poetry was already fully developed in form, meter, rhyme and theme. Hence, it is assumed that this poetry must have gone through a long period of development before the composition of the earliest extant poems. 'Their elaborate form and technical perfection', as Nicholson indicates, 'forbid the hypothesis that in them we have 'the first sprightly runnings' of Arabian song' and like the Iliad and Odyssey ''they are works of highly finished art, which could not possibly have been produced until the poetical art had been practised for a long time''. An inscription found in 1979 engraved on a rock above the gorge of 'En 'Abdat in the Negev provides an extraordinary glance into an early stage of this art.

Download article