Mehmet Hakkı Suçin
Abstract
This paper examines the Muʿallaqa of Imruʾ al-Qays, one of the foremost representatives of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, in terms of the relationship between space and aesthetics. It considers the poem’s place in world literature within a historical framework and, likening the structure of the Muʿallaqa to a classical symphony composed of different tempos, argues that the interwoven narrative planes of the ode lend the text a polyphonic character.
At the centre of the analysis is the concept of spatial aesthetics, developed from Gaston Bachelard’s poetics of space. In addition to Bachelard’s distinction between backward and forward spaces, the paper proposes two further categories: cinematographic space and metaphorical space. Backward spaces reflect the poet’s relation to the past, to memory and to the lost beloved, while forward space is examined through Ankyra/Ankara, with which Imruʾ al-Qays is associated in the final period of his life.
The cinematographic structure of the Muʿallaqa is analysed in terms of atmosphere, camera movement, scene transitions and visual imagery. The portrayal of the beloved, the description of the horse and the flood scene are read as cinematic sequences, while flashbacks, dialogic and constructed scenes, and the use of leitmotif are assessed as the elements that build the narrative and visual unity of the ode.
The paper argues that Imruʾ al-Qays’s poetry does not merely depict objects directly but constructs a multilayered poetic universe that multiplies meaning through simile, image and metaphor. In this respect the Muʿallaqa is presented as a powerful example that invites a reassessment of the common assumptions that meaning in pre-Islamic poetry is limited or that the unity between its lines is weak.
Keywords: Imruʾ al-Qays · Muʿallaqa · pre-Islamic Arabic poetry · spatial aesthetics · Gaston Bachelard · backward space · forward space · cinematographic space · metaphorical space · Ankara
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Cite this work
Chicago
Suçin, Mehmet Hakkı. “İmruu’l-Kays’ın Muallakasında Uzamsal Estetik” [Spatial Aesthetics in Imruʾ al-Qays’s Muʿallaqa]. In Büyük Arap Şairi İmruu’l-Kays ve Ankara [The Great Arab Poet Imruʾ al-Qays and Ankara], edited by Atik Aydın, Mehmet Ali Kılay Araz, Osman Aktaş, İsa Güceyüz, Levent Yakupoğlu and Halis Dişci, 145–156. Ankara: ASBÜ Yayınları, 2024.
APA
Suçin, M. H. (2024). İmruu’l-Kays’ın Muallakasında uzamsal estetik [Spatial aesthetics in Imruʾ al-Qays’s Muʿallaqa]. In A. Aydın, M. A. K. Araz, O. Aktaş, İ. Güceyüz, L. Yakupoğlu & H. Dişci (Eds.), Büyük Arap şairi İmruu’l-Kays ve Ankara [The great Arab poet Imruʾ al-Qays and Ankara] (pp. 145–156). ASBÜ Yayınları.
Publication details
Büyük Arap Şairi İmruu’l-Kays ve Ankara
[The Great Arab Poet Imruʾ al-Qays and Ankara]
Editors: Atik Aydın, Mehmet Ali Kılay Araz, Osman Aktaş, İsa Güceyüz, Levent Yakupoğlu, Halis Dişci
Publisher: ASBÜ Yayınları (Ankara Social Sciences University Press)
Place: Ankara
Year: 2024
Published: August 2024
Pages: 145–156
ISBN: 978-625-94492-8-9
Type: Full conference paper / book chapter
Language of the text: Turkish