Poeticalness of Arabic Qaṣīdas According to Orientalists: The Case of Renate Jacobi
Authors: SHAIKHOMAR Ramadan A. M. 
Published: June 2022

Jāhiliyya poetry in Arabic literature has always been a major focus of interest for researchers in this field. Historically considered, this period also includes the first century of Islam. Modern-day interest in Arabic literature, particularly in Jāhiliyya poetry, seems to have arisen from religious reasons on the one hand, and from the consciousness of national history on the other. During the Jāhiliyya Period, the Arabs attached so much importance to poetry that it functioned as their council, history, culture and worldview. Arabic poetry reached the peak of its maturity during the Jāhiliyya Period and formed an indisputable model for all subsequent times.

Arab literary critics have substantially contributed to the art of criticism and have produced seminal works. Particularly studies on poetry criticism have deservedly earned a special position in literary appraisal. In this field, orientalists have also carried out many studies on old Arabic poetry. However, they have failed to act prudently in these studies and made methodological mistakes, such as comparing Arabic poetry with European literature. Despite these biased and non-objective studies, there are also some approaches in which there is no prejudice against and disregard for Arabic poetry. One of these conscientious works belongs to the German orientalist Renate Jacobi. Jacobi and Ukrainian orientalist Susan Stetkevich carried out similar studies in this area; both researchers addressed the ancient Arabic poetry in integrity. Using this method, they went beyond the traditional approaches of orientalism and examined Arabic literature from technical and literary perspectives beyond the social and geographical properties and cultures of the Arabs.

Globally considered, we can say that German orientalists studying pre-Islamic poetry are more prudent and impartial than their European counterparts. Jacobi developed a unique critical horizon and a methodological path by examining texts without looking at the external contexts accompanying them. Jacobi introduced a new method in her work titled 'the Formal Principles of Arabic Poetry', by classifying the structural properties of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry into sections. She also suggested that this poetry is regular and interconnected and that it hardly exists in a disconnected structure depending solely on couplets. Therefore, this work of Jacobi has changed the prejudiced view of Arabic poetry. She reformed the traditional orientalist view, which considered the ancient Greek literary taste as a benchmark and studied Arabic poetry accordingly, and evaluated the Arab culture according to its own resources and cultural norms. Therefore, with this work, she approached Arabic literature from a different perspective than other orientalists.

The most important thing Jacobi did in her work on the structure of pre-Islamic poetry was to try to answer a conjectural question that sought to uncover the structure and form of the text. The basic question she explored was: How was the structure of pre-Islamic poetry? To answer this question, Jacobi examined pre-Islamic poems in terms of their styles. She also analyzed the text and evaluated its structure, language, style and internal relations. After examining the elaborate structures of Arabic poetry, Jacobi showed that Arabic poetry is based on description, and it moves from ghazal to encomium. These claims made by Jacobi were previously voiced by such critics as Ibn Sallām and Ibn Kutayba. However, Jacobi’s changing the orientalist view, along with her serious and objective presentation, reveals the importance of her work.