Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych

Abu Tammam and the Poetics of the 'Abbasid Age Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych

This study deals with the most radical of the badi' ("novel") poets of the 'Abbasid period, Abu Tammam. After a critique of classical badi' theory it proposes a redefinition of the new poetry as an exegetical metapoesis and on that basis provides analyses, accompanied by original translations, of five of Abu Tammam's most celebrated political odes and of extensive selections from his renowned anthology, the Hamasah.