Competing Networks and Courts of Patronage

This course tackles the Abbasids era poetry. To take this course you must have a little background about this era and you must have passion in poetry, because you’ll mainly take poems written by Abbasid poets from both Abbasid eras (era1 and era 2). At the first week of this course, the professor will talk about the eras prior to the Abbasid one, like Al-ghahileya’s era (pre-Islamic era), Islamic era, and all the way to the Umayyad era and how they reached the Abbasids era (those poets who started their life during the Umayyad era) and what do you think about their ability to change the way of their poems. So in this era their was a poetic renaissance catalyzed by cultural exchange. You’ll mainly study about Bashar (who began to modernize poetry and its topics), Abou-Nawas, Abou-Tamam, and Al-Bohtore, you’ll be taught about their poems and you must memorize some and take notes to use them in writing your papers, also you must be an innovative in writing and expressing your thoughts. You’ll also study briefly in the class about other poets, but you won’t really need to focus on them. By the way in the class you’ll have some debates about them and their poems. Indeed it’s an amazing course that you would really love it and advise others to take it.