Work · Philosophy in the Islamic World
On Pre-Islamic Poetry
Study that begins by adopting Descartes’ method – the scholar must set aside what he believes and doubt the transmitted sources – and concludes that most poetry ascribed to the pre-Islamic period was composed later for religious, political and tribal reasons; after a complaint the prosecutor declined to bring charges, and Taha Hussein revised the book as On Pre-Islamic Literature (1927).
Introduction
Taha Hussein published “On Pre-Islamic Poetry” (Fī l-shiʿr al-jāhilī) in Cairo in 1926, based on his lectures at the Egyptian University. The introduction announces a new method: the scholar must, like Descartes, forget his nationality and his religion and accept nothing he has not examined. Applied to the poetry attributed to the Arabs before Islam, this leads him to conclude that most of it was composed after the coming of Islam, for religious reasons – to support the Qur’an – and for political, tribal and literary ones, and that the language of the supposed poets does not match their tribes; he added that the presence of Abraham and Ishmael in the Torah and the Qur’an does not by itself prove their historical existence. Scholars of al-Azhar and members of parliament protested, and a complaint was filed; the public prosecutor investigated and in 1927 declined to bring charges. Taha Hussein reissued the book in revised form as On Pre-Islamic Literature (1927).
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Connections
Builds on
- Discourse on the Method1637 · René Descartes
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