Antarah ibn Shaddad

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2019

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, works, context and legacy of Antarah (525-608AD), the great poet and warrior. According to legend, he was born a slave; his mother was an Ethiopian slave, his father an elite Arab cavalryman. Antarah won his freedom in battle and loved a woman called Abla who refused him, and they were later celebrated in the saga of Antar and Abla. One of Antarah's poems was so esteemed in pre-Islamic Arabia that it is believed it was hung up on the wall of the Kaaba in Mecca.

With

James Montgomery Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge

Marlé Hammond Senior Lecturer in Arabic Popular Literature and Culture at SOAS, University of London

And

Harry Munt Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of York

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Transcript

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0:48.7	the programs. Hello almost 15 centuries ago Antara Ibn Shadad was fighting on the Arabian Peninsula
0:55.8	and composing poems he hoped would long outlast him and they have. He stands out
1:00.9	not only for his military excellence, but for his story.
1:04.7	He was born to an Ethiopian slave and a powerful knight, and was himself a slave until he won his
1:09.4	freedom in battle.
1:11.4	When Islam arrived later and the Arabic language spread he became famous as the great warrior
1:16.2	poet, a model for others and the inspiration for the mighty epic of Anton Abla which is still being
1:21.6	recited today. We meet to discuss the
1:24.2	poetry of Antare Ibn Shadad at James Montgomery, Sir Thomas Adams Professor of
1:28.9	Arabic at the University of Cambridge, Marley Hammond, senior lecturer in Arabic Popular Literature and Culture at
	...

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