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Umayyad Poets and the Rise of the Islamic Empire

How did Arab poets experience the rise of the Islamic empire? How can Umayyad poetry (i.e., Arabic poetry from the Umayyad Caliphate, 661-750) help us in understanding this key moment in human history? In this talk, I will offer a glimpse into the riches of Umayyad poetry which, though largely untranslated and understudied, preserves the voices of people who witnessed from close the building of the Islamic empire under the Umayyad dynasty—not only the elites but also those who did the building. I will focus on poetry of men away from politics and power, who were nonetheless directly impacted by the spread and consolidation of the Islamic state and had something to say about it. This short excursus will also have two broader goals. The first is to make a case for the relevance of Umayyad poetry to history, and especially history from below, and the second to make a case for reframing the study of Umayyad poetry.

Pamela Klasova is Assistant Professor of the Classical Mediterranean and Middle East at Macalester College. She works at the intersection of classical Arabic literature, Islamic history, and Late Antiquity. Her first book The Eloquent Tyrant (currently under review with the University of California Press) deals with Arabic oratory in the context of early Islamic empire building through the case study of the famous Umayyad-era governor, al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf al-Thaqafī. She has published articles on early Arabic poetry, ḥadīth, and medieval Islamic historiography.