Abstract
The theme of eulogy which cannot be used as the main theme at the beginning of the Age of Jahiliyyah was scrutinized much more within the poems written about other themes. From the middle of this period, al-Nābigha ad-Dhubyānī began to earn money by writing poems in the genre of eulogy. This situation attracted the other poets of the period and they started to write eulogies in the form of qasida. It is seen that the qasida with the theme of the eulogy was partly interrupted in the Golden Age of Islam because in this period, the Muslims were in constant wars and struggle owing to the spread of Islam in new places. In this period, some changes occurred in the motifs used in the eulogy. The expansion of Muslim lands and the political developments experienced during the Umayyad Period had a direct impact on the eulogy. The poems with the theme of eulogy in the abovementioned period focused on the elements such as boasting about race and tribe as in the Age of Ignorance. In this period, Umayyad, Shi’a, Hāricī and Zubeyrī factions appeared. The poets turned the poems with the theme of eulogy into a political propaganda tool by supporting the faction they feel close to these political movements. Due to the reputation of the poets by society, many statesmen praised by the poets took these poets with them and bestowed on the poets much. In the Abbasid period, the Islamic State made great progress in different such as scientific, social, cultural, and political aspects. This progress naturally allowed the eulogy to develop in different topics. Even in the Abbasid Period, eulogies continued to be used as a political weapon by the people in power to be accepted by society. Additionally, the eulogies of this period also appear as historical records in terms of describing the victories and internal turmoil. Eulogy poets of the Abbasid Period took the habit of making money with poetry inherited from the eulogy poets of the Umayyad Period a step further. Apart from the eulogies that were special to the upper class, respected as official poetry, and far from reflecting reality and social feelings in the abovementioned period, there were also eulogies reflecting the general feelings associated with the whole society among the people. The first eulogy poems written in Andalusia under Arab rule were penned in the general framework of Eastern Arabic poetry. Even if the eulogy poems written in Andalusia seem to be a replica and a sequel of Eastern Arabic poetry in terms of style and subject, after they conquered Andalusia, the Arabs encountered climatic conditions and natural beauties that they were not accustomed to before. These natural beauties of Andalusia further developed the competence of the Arabs in poetry and prompted them to use short and light couplets in their poems. The political conflicts experienced in the Islamic State of Andalusia, just as in the Eastern Islamic States, had a direct impact on the eulogy. Andalusian eulogy poets maintained to see the eulogy poems as a source of income for themselves like the Eastern poets who are their predecessors and contemporaries. The absence of a study covering all periods of the eulogy that has an important place in classical Arabic poetry paved the way for this article. This study aims to show the differences among the periods by analysing the birth of eulogy and its development in classic Arab literature. In this study, the data was obtained by the qualitative and interpretive research methods.