Al-Farazdaq and the Poetics of the Umayyad Court: Madh, Hijā’, and Naqā’iḍ as Historical Evidence

Abstract

This study examines the poetry of Al-Farazdaq, a prominent poet of the Umayyad Dynasty (661–750 CE), through a thematic-synthesis library research approach. Rather than treating early Islamic poetry as a uniform body of aesthetic production, this research analyzes a purposively selected set of poems and poetic exchanges documented in primary editions of Dīwān al-Farazdaq and in secondary scholarly literature, organized across four recurring thematic domains: panegyric (madh), satire (hijā'), tribal rivalry and self-glorification (naqā'iḍ and fakhr), and poetry as an instrument of political legitimation. Employing a qualitative descriptive method grounded in historical-biographical criticism, the sociology of literature, and a heuristic-hermeneutic reading model, this study finds that Al-Farazdaq's poetic corpus functioned as a multidimensional cultural artifact rather than a single-purpose literary practice. His panegyric poetry, exemplified by the ode delivered in praise of Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn before Caliph Hishām, operated as a vehicle for contesting religious and political legitimacy rather than mere court flattery. His satirical verse combined personal and moral critique, holding both rivals and authority figures accountable to communal standards of conduct. His naqā'iḍ exchanges with Jarīr reveal tribal identity as a continuously renegotiated discursive contest, one that classical critics themselves recognized as being in tension with the egalitarian spirit of Islam. Finally, his broader role as a court-associated poet demonstrates how poetic reputation and political risk were closely intertwined within the Umayyad state. Read together, these four domains indicate that Al-Farazdaq's poetry registers a deeper historical friction between inherited tribal convention and emergent Islamic ethical norms, a friction the poet continually re-enacted rather than resolved. This study contributes to early Islamic literary scholarship by offering an integrated, cross-genre reading of a single poet's corpus as historical evidence, an approach that has been largely absent from prior studies focusing on isolated poems or single rivalries.