Tribalism and political change as reflected in the poetry of the early Umayyad period

First part: In the first few pages of the first chapter&#13;\nan attempt is made to summarise the succession to the&#13;\ncaliphate from the death of the Prophet until the reign of&#13;\nMucäwiya, with a brief discussion of the procedure which was,&#13;\nadopted in, each case to ensure the succession of-the caliphs.&#13;\n&#13;\nThe remainder of this chapter is devoted to, a study of. the&#13;\nsituation in the Islamic state after the death of Yaold and&#13;\nthe reaction of the people to this. Particular attention&#13;\nis paid to the connection between the way in which Mucäwiya&#13;\nforced his son upon the people and the problems which&#13;\nafflicted the country as a consequence of this act.&#13;\n&#13;\nThe second chapter deals with the genealogy of&#13;\nthe tribes, since the blood bond was considered by the&#13;\nArabs to be the soundest relationship, on which to base their&#13;\nsocial organisations. In this chapter all tribes which&#13;\nplayed a significant role in this period are described and&#13;\ntheir supposed relationship to one another is indicated.&#13;\n&#13;\nThe third chapter is an attempt to define the&#13;\nearly Arab settlement in Syria and al-Jazira and classify&#13;\nthe Arab inhabitants of each town and province in order to&#13;\nexplain the backgrounds of the tribal conflicts over&#13;\nterritory.&#13;\n&#13;\nThe last chapter of this part is a discussion&#13;\nof the tribal conflicts, particularly in Syria where the&#13;\nmain confrontation between the contenders for power took&#13;\nplace&#13;\n&#13;\nThe second part is divided into four chapters.&#13;\nThe first deals with the role of political poetry. In&#13;\nthis chapter an attempt is made to define when real political&#13;\npoetry started. A distinction is also drawn between&#13;\npolitical and tribal martial poetry. The role which the&#13;\npoets played in their society is examined both in the pre-&#13;\nIslamic period and that of Islam, in the light of the&#13;\ncircumstances of both periods. Attention is paid to the&#13;\ngradual development of society and its influence on the&#13;\npolitical poetry, particularly in the Umayyad period.&#13;\n&#13;\nThe second chapter is concerned with the&#13;\ncontribution of poets to social and political problems which&#13;\ndeveloped in the Umayyad period. The views of each rival&#13;\ncontender for power are examined insofar as they are revealed&#13;\nin verse, as are the various opinions and the backgrounds of&#13;\neach group.&#13;\n&#13;\nThe third chapter is devoted to the tribal&#13;\ncompetition for power in the early Umayyad period. The&#13;\ndifferent approaches which each tribe adopted to achieve their&#13;\ngoal are pointed out, as are the ways in which they reacted&#13;\nafter they had been forced to accept the Umayyads. Yemen,&#13;\n&#13;\nTaghlib and Qays in Syria were involved in this competition&#13;\nand an extensive selection of verses are quoted to support&#13;\nour argument.&#13;\n&#13;\nThe final chapter deals with the policies of the&#13;\nUmayyads after cAbd&#13;\nal-Malik had established himself and was&#13;\nrecognised as the universal Caliph. First we have examined&#13;\nthe reaction of his former supporters, Yemen, as it appears&#13;\nin their poetry. After this we have tried to assess the&#13;\npoets' role as defenders of their community against&#13;\ngovernmental policy, on the one hand, or on the other as&#13;\nsupporters of the Umayyads and upholders of their policies.&#13;\nIn this chapter we study the ways in which poets criticised&#13;\ncorrupt leaders, governors, and caliphs, drew attention to&#13;\ntheir misbehaviour and neglect of their responsibilities,&#13;\nand accused them of exploiting their position in order&#13;\nto achieve purely personal interests.

Topic: Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences