Al-Arji, the poet of love and imprisonment in the Umayyad era - a

Abstract

This research seeks to study the experience of the Umayyad poet Abdullah ibn Umar al-Arji in light of a methodology that combines semantic analysis and a psychological reading of the poetic text. It is based on the premise that his poetry represents two experiences that are outwardly contrasting yet inwardly complementary: the experience of love poetry, with its inherent desire, impulsiveness, adventure, and search for recognition; and the experience of imprisonment, with its oppression, isolation, sense of injustice, and threat to social standing. The research is divided into two sections. The first examines al-Arji's life, lineage, environment, position within Umayyad love poetry, the circumstances of his imprisonment, and the transformation of his poetic experience. The second section analyzes examples of love poetry and imprisonment, revealing the semantic fields and psychological images inherent within them, particularly the connotations of the eye, observation, movement, place, deprivation, lineage, heroism, and patience. The research concludes that the transition from love poetry to imprisonment did not negate the existing psychological structure in al-Arji's poetry, but rather redirected it. His need for the woman's recognition transformed into a need for the tribe and the caliph to acknowledge his merit; the quest for union became a quest for freedom and justice; and the lover's adventure transformed into the prisoner's resistance against the shattering of his self.