Abu Tammam: The Voice, the Echo, and the Presence A Reading in the Poetry of Salah Abdul Saboor

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to examine the presence of Abu Tammam, Habib Bin Aws Al-Ta’i (188-231 AH / 803-845 BC) in modern Arabic poetry based on the experience of poet Mohammad Salah Al-Din Abdul Saboor (Salah Abdul Saboor 1931-1981 BC).

Methods: The study analyzes the experience of the poet Salah Abdel-Sabour. There are two reasons behind Abdul Saboor’s mentioning Abu Tammam’s poetic experience, the first of which is to lighten up the the Arab spirit through recalling his poem; al-Baiya, that praises al-Mu’tasem and manifests the Arab reality which is loaded with downfalls.  The second reason is his battle of renewing Arabic poetry and the way traditional critics reacted to it.

Results: The study concludes that Abdul Sabour used the traditional summons represented in the poetry of Abu Tammam to pass from the general to the private. By doing so, he repeats Abu Tammam’s old battle with the critics and brings it to our modern age, which endows his renewal battle with a new spirit and adds more depth.

Conclusion: Based on this, Abdul Saboor was not entirely against tradition, but he was against living in it without adding to it and without rejuvenating it in accordance with the vocabulary, needs, and issues of the modern age. Furthermore, his interaction with tradition has created a bigger and more beautiful space in which he looked for its humanistic expressions, not only for its language, age, and speaker.