Abū Tammām and the Poetics of the ʻAbbāsid Age

Review '...a pioneering effort... This is a very important book and will be required reading for everyone interested in Abu Tammam and Abbasid poetry in general.'International Journal of Middle East Studies, 25.'...eine scharfsinnige und kenntnisreiche Studie, die unser Verständnis der Abbasidendichtung wesentlich fördert.'Renate Jacobi, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften, 1993.'...a mature work free from triviality and graced with a wealth of intelligent explanatory notes.'J. Derek Latham, Journal of Semitic Studies, 1992.'...stimulating and neatly produced monograph...original...'Geert Jan van Gelder, TLS, 1992.'Il s'agit d'un ouvrage qui contient plusieurs idées intèressantes, des points de vue originaux, des formulations heureuses d'idées...'Lidia Bettini, Bulletin Critique des Annales Islamologiques, 1994.'This book by Stetkevych is very stimulating and thought provoking.'A. Schippers, Bibliotheca Orientalis, 1995.'In sum, Suzanne Stetkevych's book is a landmark study and an outstanding scholarly achievement.'Peter Heath, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 1996. Product Description 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. About the Author Suzanne P. Stetkevych is currently Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature at the Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Indiana University - Bloomington. She received her Ph.D. in 1981 in Classical Arabic Literature from the University of Chicago. She has published in the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Journal of Semitic Studies and others.