Poetry : A safeguard to Arab Heritage and Past Memories

Abstract

Arab culture and history have found their best historical documentation through poetry for many centuries. The Arab poetic tradition existed before written records emerged because poets functioned as living historical records through their verse. The Arab poetic tradition has maintained historical records of tribal existence and religious transformation and political instability and communal heritage through its Muʿallaqāt collection and contemporary resistance poetry. The paper examines the historical development of poetry as a historical record starting from pre-Islamic oral traditions through Islamic and Abbasid periods until reaching contemporary literary activism. The research examines how poetry functions as both a historical recorder and builder of Arab collective memory through the analysis of major literary works and traditional forms such as Nabati poetry and Yemeni popular verse. The paper demonstrates through this practice that poetry functions as both a literary form and a method to preserve cultural memory and an independent system for Arab historical transmission from one generation to another.

The study investigates Arab poetry through its function as cultural memory and its role in recording history.