The Mantle Odes

Arabic Praise Poems to the Prophet Muhammad

Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych

Publication Year: 2010

<P>Three of the most renowned praise poems to the Prophet, the mantle odes span the arc of Islamic history from Muhammad's lifetime, to the medieval Mamluk period, to the modern colonial era. Over the centuries, they have informed the poetic and religious life of the Arab and Islamic worlds. Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych places her original translations of the poems within the odes' broader cultural context. By highlighting their transformative power as speech acts and their ritual function as gift exchanges, this book not only demonstrates the relevance of these poems to contemporary scholarship but also reveals their power and beauty to the modern reader.</P>

Published by: Indiana University Press

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The Mantle Odes: Arabic Praise Poems to the Prophet Muḥammad offers original translations and contextualized interpretations of the three most renowned praise poems to the Prophet (madāiḥ nabawiyyah) in the Arab- Islamic tradition. The three odes span the arc of Islamic history: the first...

Acknowledgments

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pp. xv-xvi

Note on Translation and Transliteration

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pp. xvii-xviii

Abbreviations

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pp. xix-

One: Kẚb ibn Zuhayr and the Mantle of the Prophet

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pp. 1-69

The first poem to bear the sobriquet of Mantle Ode (Qaṣīdat al-Burdah) is Ka͗͗b ibn Zuhayr’s Su͗͗ād Has Departed (Bānat Su͗ād) that, tradition tells us, the pagan poet presented to the Prophet Muḥammad on the occasion of his conversion to Islam...

Two: Al-Būṣīrī and the Dream of the Mantle

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pp. 70-150

Indisputably the most renowned poem of praise to the Prophet Muḥammad (madīḥ nabawī) and arguably the most famous poem in the Arabic language is that known as the Mantle Ode (Qaṣīdat al-Burdah) by the thirteenth- century poet...

Three: Aḥmad Shawqī and the Reweaving of the Mantle

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pp. 151-233

The third of our Mantle Odes is Nahj al-Burdah (The Way of the Mantle),¹ which, as its title indicates, is a contrafaction (mu͗āraḍah), that is, a formal imitation in rhyme and meter, of al-Būṣīrī’s Burdah composed by Aḥmad Shawqī...

Appendix of Arabic Texts

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pp. 235-260

Notes

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pp. 261-285

Works Cited

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pp. 287-295

Index

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pp. 297-306

About the Author

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pp. 307-

E-ISBN-13: 9780253004512
E-ISBN-10: 0253004519
Print-ISBN-13: 9780253354877

Page Count: 336
Publication Year: 2010