The Detribalization of Arabic Poetry Author(s): Arieh Loya Source: International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Apr., 1974), pp. 202-215 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/162590 . Accessed: 04/02/2014 14:12 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to International Journal of Middle East Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Tue, 4 Feb 2014 14:12:21 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 202 Int. J. Middle East Stud. 5 (I974-z202-215 Printed in Great Britain Arieh Loya THE DETRIBALIZATION OF ARABIC POETRY The rise of the waltz was the result of that longing for truth, simplicity, closeness to nature... which the last two thirds of the eighteenth century fulfilled... (Curt Sachs, World History of the Dance) The forms, themes and patterns of classical Arabic poetry were laid down in the Arabian Peninsula before the advent of Islam. Indeed the oldest poem of which we have any record dates back to the period of Jdhiliyya, a derogatory term meaning 'ignorance' coined by the early Muslims to denote the state of religious and moral depravity of pre-Islamic Arabs.