From Ruin to Resurrection: the response of the Quran to ancient Arabic poetry

• Applicant: Dr. Ghassan El Masri
• Subject Area: Islamic Studies, Arabian Studies, Semitic Studies
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 248678153

The aim of the project Ruin to Resurrection is to shed light on the nature of the literary relations that bind the Quran to ancient Arabic poetry first and explore how these relations are grounded in the culture of pre Islamic Arabia second. The research is designed to identify the commensurable elements between the two textual corpora and distinguish the nature of the shared literary constituents (motifs, tropes, metaphors, themes etc.). This will serve as a primary step for understanding the nature of the cultural situation reflected in this literature and the situatedness of these two corpora therein. For these purposes the proposed research will sift the three oldest extant collections of pre Islamic poetry (Muallaqat, Mufaddaliyyat, Asmaiyyat) for material relevant for understanding the quranic discourse and will integrate recent results from Arabian epigraphy and archaeology as well as literary and historical investigations pertaining to the cultural situation of Arabia around the time of the appearance of the Quran.As a heuristic device the researcher will advance and test the hypothesis that the cultural shift that occurred with the rise of Islam is partly visible in the reconfiguration of the stock literary terms, figures and tropes that were common in pre-Islamic poetry in a novel style of religious prose. Moreover, it will be proposed that the literary mechanism of this reconfiguration was a process of theologization of some salient elements of the pre Islamic qasida and that this process is most visible in the treatment of a number of poetic motifs in the Meccan suras. These motifs are centred on the Ubi sunt motif and the topos of the talal, (i.e. the deserted encampments, desolation, ruin or wasteland) which is accompanied by or associated with an existential question about the rationale of the human predicament of constantly having to face the ruinous and unrelenting will of time (dahr). This basic existential question that permeates a large number of prominent pre Islamic poems is addressed in the Quran through recourse to divine design and eschatology. God reveals His mercy and justice in the manifestations of His will through the unfolding of history and subsequently in the Hereafter. The talal, which is presented by the poet as the ostensible trace of the ruinous will of time is theologized and turned into a divine instrument of revival and merciful reward as well as an instrument of punishment and retribution.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Persons: Michael Marx; Professorin Dr. Angelika Neuwirth