Sources of pre Islamic Arab Poetry
Introduction:-
Pre Islamic Arab poetry has reached up to us in two forms i.e. written and unwritten. Written part is that of the Muallaqat and the unwritten portion was pen down in 7th and 8th century. Pre Islamic poetry has reached us in three ways.
Three Ways:
1- De’waan
2- Muntehibat
3- Kutb-i-Adb-i-Nasr

1- De’waan:-
The following poets had their de’waan:
Amra-ul-Qais
Zuhair bin Abi Salma
Hassan Bin Sabat
Aasha
Turfa
Antra
Nabigah Al Daibani
Some other famous De’waans are:
De’waan Al Mehjhan
De’waan Al Khansaa
De’waan Al Hatyia
De’waan Uos Bin Hajar
De’waan Hatim Tai
De’waan Labid
2- Muntehibaat:
Muntehibat are actually a collection of books made for the purpose of reading pre Islamic poetry. We can classify it in the following five categories.
(i) Al-Mualliqat:-
These are also called Al-Mashuraat. These were collected by the legend Hammad Al Rawya, who though corrupted in some extent, yet his effort to collect the data was not less than an achievement. The numbers of Mualliqat are 7 to 10.
(ii) Hamasa:-
Hamasa is basically the collection of best poetic work by the well on scholar Abu Tamam Habib bin Aus who died in 850 A.D. he selected the master pieces of poetry from pre Islamic era and complied them in one book. The book has 10 chapters. Some of the chapters are as under:
Hamasa,
Marasi,
Adab,
Naseeb,
Hija,
Muzamt un Nisa,
Al Sanaat,
(iii) Al-Mufazilliat:-
This is also a collection of poetic works done in the 8th century, by Al Mufzil Al Ghabi. Basically Al Mufzil Al Ghabi was directed by the Caliph Mansoor to collect the poetic works from the pre Islamic era for his son. Originally there were 30 qasaids in that book but Asmai added 90 new qasaids so that total number of qasaids are 120 now.
(iv) Hamasa Al Bahtari:-
Many people were impressed by success of Hamasa, so they tried to follow the pattern of Hamasa. Al Bahtari was one of those scholars who jumped into this race. Though he died in 897 A.D. yet he completed his book which due some reason could not meet success.
(v) Jumhrah Ashaar Al Arab:-
Abu Zaid Qureshi was the author of this book. The book has 49 qasaids and 7 chapters. So the ratio was 7 qasaids per chapter

3- Kutb-i-Adb-i-Nasr:-
These were the books which are not basically the book of poetry, but in these books frequent reference to the poetic works have been made. So these books are important source for pre Islamic poetry.
i- Kitab Al Biyan Wal Bateen by Al Jahiz
ii- Kitab Al Sher Wal Shuraa by Ibn Qutaiba
iii- Al Kamal By Mubard
iv- Khazana Al Adab by Abdul Qadir Baghdadi

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