the poets ʿUmārah ibn ʿAqīl (§30, §§50.1–3) and Ibn al-Muʿtazz (§§52.1–3), the secretary al-Ḥasan ibn Wahb (§§61.1–4),19 and a Nuʿmānī scribe (§95.2). In his commentaries, al-Ṣūlī argues against criticism of specific metaphors, such as fever for generosity (§§21.1–6) and water for blame (§§22.1–10), and against criticism of motifs, such as the figs and grapes mentioned in the Amorium ode (§§20.1–6), a sword falling from the sky on one’s head as an image of bravery (§§71.1–9), or the fallen moon as an image of the irreplaceable loss of General Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd al-Ṭūsī (§69.5 and §§69.10–28). This last verse, part of Abū Tammām’s lament for the general, is elsewhere condemned as a plagiarism (§§94.1–2). Thus al-Ṣūlī argues that criticism of the same verse as both a bad motif and a good theft shows that the criticism is gratuitous.
MEANING
The principal concepts that were to dominate the discipline of poetics were not yet defined. A good example is maʿnā: this term carries many meanings and nuances that are at times hard to distinguish. In The Life and Times of Abū Tammām, maʿnā stands, first, for the general meaning of a passage; second, for a smaller theme within a poem, such as exile from home; and third, for the particular way in which a poet formulated this. Al-Ṣūlī notes how, for example, Abū Tammām transformed a familiar theme of exile as a painful experience into an individual’s decision to enhance his appreciation through absence (§30).
NOVELTY
The most salient features of Abū Tammām’s skill as a poet, those that were emphasized time and again, were his novelty, inventiveness, and self-reliance (§11.2, §23.2, §26.1, §52.8, §103); his development of motifs (§51.1);20 and his skill at improvisation (§§110.1–2).
IMITATION
Poetic experimentation and toying with older, existing motifs led to a debate about originality versus imitation and about authorship. Different terms, to wit, “taking,” “stealing,” “reliance” (§44.1), “emulating” (§69.13), “copying, transposing,” “imitating,” and “being inspired” (§55.1, §72.1)21 reveal as much about attitudes to the influence of one poet on another as they do about specific opinions on individual cases of borrowing. It had already been established that it was not the act of poetic theft itself that mattered for the evaluation, since such a thing was literally unavoidable in a continuous poetic tradition, but rather the manner in which it was carried out, considered in terms of eloquence and invention. Al-Ṣūlī refers in this context to a “rule” (§26.1, §52.8) or “condition” (§81.5) posited by experts,22 namely precedence in the authorship of a motif in terms of chronology, and among contemporaries, precedence in terms of quality (e.g., §13.4). A poet could thus “earn” the ownership of an existing motif if he outdid its creator. In this way the poet became “more worthy of it” (§34.1, §81.5). In other words, poetic excellence creates entitlement (§26.1, §34.2).23
THE PRESENCE OF AL-BUḤTURĪ
A long section deals in particular with al-Buḥturī’s borrowings from Abū Tammām (§44 and §§46–48).24 Al-Buḥturī was a younger poet whom Abū Tammām took under his wing, but al-Buḥturī’s fame among contemporaries would soon match Abū Tammām’s. Al-Buḥturī poured the ideas that he borrowed from Abū Tammām, as al-Ṣūlī shows, into a more natural language than that of his mentor. Audiences and critics would compare the two, and each poet had his particular supporters, but al-Ṣūlī makes the point that in terms of creativity, al-Buḥturī was clearly second to Abū Tammām.
POETIC THEMES
Most classical Arabic poems belong to a fixed set of larger genres, such as panegyric or lament, each of which included a catalog of common themes. Al-Ṣūlī also lists some themes that the Moderns rendered more successfully than the Ancients did (§§11.2–18). He assembles several series of motifs that show the versatility of poets when they return to the same themes over time, such as metaphors involving water (§§22.1–10), sounds that, though inarticulate, move their listeners (§§100.1–6), responsibility for endeavor but not success (§§25.1–6), and people who do not even merit a lampoon (§§24.1–30). One series lists poems describing robes (§§92.1–5).
ABRIDGMENTS
Finally, the work features selections and abridgments of Abū Tammām’s most famous poems in all genres (panegyric, apology, lament, boast, satire, love lyric), placed in the context of their first recitation and subsequent discussion in literary circles. It presents a lively picture of how hotly these were debated and how highly remunerated.
FACTIONS
Al-Ṣūlī throws light on the two factions that attacked Abū Tammām. Language-centered philologists and transmitters made up one faction (§§9.1–2, §§69.6–9, §87.1), as confirmed by Ibn Abī Ṭāhir (§53). Self-promoting amateurs made up the other (§§19.1–4). Al-Ṣūlī dismisses their arguments as gibberish (§§70.1–3).
CONCLUSION
The Life and Times of Abū Tammām also affords a window on the academic world of Baghdad in the first half of the fourth/tenth century. In the course of his argument, al-Ṣūlī pronounces on professional ethics and his own scholarly etiquette. He lauds al-Mubarrad and Thaʿlab for not overstepping the limit of their competence by remaining faithful to their discipline (§§4.1–8, esp. §4.6), and he condemns religious and other biases against, or slander of, poets (§§86.1–7). He boasts of his own scholarly propriety, making a show of not criticizing colleagues openly (he toys with not naming them), but then does so, claiming a sense of scholarly duty. For example, after declaring that God would not ask him to explain scholars’ and poets’ unwarranted criticism of Abū Tammām (§69.9), he proceeds to do so a paragraph later, with “I will mention this” (see §9.1, §23.3,
