الضوء والظلمة في لوحات الصراع الحربي في أشعار أصحاب المعلّقات العشر

Abstract

This study examines the underlying meanings and symbolic connotations of light and darkness as they appear in depictions of martial conflict, with the aim of revealing the poets’ profound emotional depth in ten pre-Islamic odes. It explores how these poets contemplated the dynamics of combat and how conflict—shaped by environmental and social conditions—permeated their lives through fighting, confrontation, and raiding. Such circumstances compelled them to deploy poetry as a keen-edged weapon within the theatre of war. Consequently, poetry assumed aesthetic functions laden with stances that resonate with images of violence, virtues of courage and audacity that incite martial fervor, as well as, in other poetic contexts, opposition to war and its inevitable outcomes of devastation and bloodshed. The poems also articulate defiance, steadfastness in battle, deterrence of enemies, and self-glorification. To express their visions and positions regarding armed conflict, the poets employed a range of artistic devices, most notably the motifs of light and darkness. Through these motifs, they articulated their perspectives and deepened their reflections on conflict and war, crafting vivid scenes of combat and assigning light and darkness an active functional role in unveiling human ideas and the poets’ diverse attitudes toward warfare.