Critique of the criticisms leveled against the poetry of Jarir ibn Atiyyah

Abstract

Jarir possessed a prolific poetic talent, enabling him to produce poems without affectation or pretense. The aim of studying the criticisms leveled against his poetry is to distinguish those that conform to critical standards from those that stem from emotional impressions devoid of critical principles. While most of his poems are good, he fell into the traps that drew criticism from both critics and poets. Some of his verses were criticized for their awkwardness in expressing certain meanings, and he also made dictionary errors. He was further criticized for failing to respect the status of the person being praised in certain instances. Linguistically, he did not excel in rhetorical and morphological construction in some of his verses. Criticism extended to the musicality of his poetry, due to metrical flaws in some verses. These flaws, however, did not diminish his poetic expression in those particular verses. Regarding his respect for the status of the person being praised, the Caliphs, most notably Bishr ibn Marwan, condemned his failure to consider the latter's position in his praise. Others also criticized him for plagiarism and errors in his poetic purpose. However, we concluded that some of the criticism was subjective, stemming from malice, resentment, and prejudice. This study was launched from the following question: What kind of criticism was Jarir subjected to regarding his poetry? And what methods were used to address that criticism?