H&dotbelow;assan ibn Thabit, a true Mukhad&dotbelow;ram: A study of the Ghassanid odes of H&dotbelow;assan ibn Thabit

The seventh-century Madinan poet H˙assan ibn Thabit is best known for his role as poet laureate of the Prophet Muh&dotbelow;ammad. His poetry composed in defense of Muh&dotbelow;ammad and the nascent religion of Islam has been widely studied, and it is in this context that H˙assan appears in Arabic literary history. This dissertation argues that in addition to his role as an exemplar of poetry in the service of Islam, H˙assan can be viewed as a true mukhad&dotbelow;ramun. The mukhad&dotbelow;ramun (singular: mukhad&dotbelow;ramun ) were a class of poets whose lives spanned both the pre-Islamic and the Islamic periods. To appreciate H˙assan's identity as a transitional figure, the poet's pre-Islamic compositions must be examined in greater depth. Prior to the rise of Islam, H˙assan served as the primary court poet to the Ghassanids, a sedentary, Christian kingdom located in modern-day Syria and Jordan. This study analyzes H˙assan's twenty-six Ghassanid poems and fragments. Although many of the selected poems date from the pre-Islamic period, several were composed near the end of H˙assan's life when he nostalgically recalled his youth in the company of the Ghassanids. The method of analysis utilized in this dissertation relies on close reading and in-depth textual analysis of selected verses and poems.;This study reveals H˙assan to be a pioneer in the urbanization of Arabic poetry and a precursor to the poets of the later 'Abbasid caliphate who replaced the desert imagery and motifs prevalent in pre-Islamic poetry with themes more appropriate to their urban iv environments. H˙assan's compositions demonstrate not only a familiarity with the urban landscape of the Ghassanids but also a clear disdain for the pastoral lifestyle of the Arab nomads. H˙assan's urbanism is one illustration of his status as a mukhad&dotbelow;ramun. This study also examines the wine lyric in H˙assan's Ghassanid poetry. The poet's verses in praise of wine date from both the pre-Islamic and the Islamic periods and are further evidence of H˙assan's embodiment of the mukhad&dotbelow;ramun predicament.