The evolution of the love story in classical Arabic literature
Al-Muraqqish al-Akbar and ʿUrwah ibn Ḥizām as models of pining lovers
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21726507 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jokha Alharthi (Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-20 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Middle Eastern Literatures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1475-262X • E-ISSN: 1475-2638 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1475262x.2025.2559586 |
| OpenAlex | W4416730087 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
Narratives of tragic love featuring classical Arab poets are found in many literary sources, such as al-Shiʿr wa-al-shuʿarāʾ, Kitāb al-Aghānī and Maṣāriʿ al-ʿushshāq. There are striking similarities between these narratives. The love story frequently takes the form of a tragedy in which the lover is separated from his beloved and then pines for her until he dies. The repetition of this pattern suggests that most of these stories imitate a single model. This paper argues that the literary tradition followed a model derived from one of the oldest love stories, attributed to the pre-Islamic poet al-Muraqqish al-Akbar. This paper examines two versions of al-Muraqqish al-Akbar’s romance and studies its impact on the story of the Islamic poet ʿUrwah ibn Ḥizām ibn Muhāṣir, who himself became a model for lover-poets who followed
Arabic · Arabic literature · Classical Arabic · Love story · Families in Therapy and Culture · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Islamic Studies and History
| Highly cited | No |
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