Kitabina: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra Arab
Vol 6 No 1 (2025): KITABINA Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra Arab

Power and Poetics: A Literary and Cultural Study of Al-Mutannabi’s Self-Glorifying Odes in The Abbasid Era

Laela, Laela Tusa’adah (Unknown)
Sakinah, R. Myrna Nur Sakinah (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
21 Dec 2025

Abstract

This study analyzes ten selected poems by Al-Mutanabbi, a prominent poet of the Abbasid period, through literary and cultural lenses. Known for his grandiose self-representation, Al-Mutanabbi utilized the Arabic qasida form not merely for praise, but as a medium to construct a heroic poetic persona. This paper aims to investigate how Al-Mutanabbi’s verse functions as a discursive space where power, identity, and poetics converge. Using a formalist literary approach (Wellek & Warren) and supported by cultural poetics (Greenblatt) and Islamic literary theory (Stetkevych), the study explores Al-Mutanabbi’s rhetorical devices—such as metaphor, hyperbole, and parallelism—and the ideological messages embedded in his language. The research finds that Al-Mutanabbi’s poetry is not only a reflection of Abbasid court culture, but also a tool of cultural self-fashioning, where the poet elevates himself above patrons and rulers. Ultimately, the study reveals that Al-Mutanabbi transformed classical Arabic poetry into a platform of intellectual resistance and symbolic power, redefining the role of the poet within Islamic cultural history. His work serves as both a literary monument and a declaration of sovereignty over meaning, highlighting the capacity of language to shape identity and authority in early Islamic civilization.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

KitabinaBSA

Publisher

Subject

Religion Arts Humanities Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Other

Description

Kitabina:Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra Arab (ISSN online 2775-1309 ) is an open access and a double blind peer-reviewed journal on Arabic Language and Literature in the world. This journal is published by the Arabic Language and Literature Departement, Faculty of Adab and Humanities, Raden Fatah State ...