Ways of the Intellect: Forms of Discourseand Rationalization Processes in the Arabic-Islamic Context*

Abstract

Prior to Qur'anic revelation the Arabic language played an important role, which must not be reduced to its communicative function, but, rather, has a basic cultural, social, and even political value. The central significance of pre-Islamic poetry and the social fame enjoyed by the old poets are witness to this fact and reinforce the assumption that Arab culture during this era was a culture of the word. Here, the word was not yet consolidated or committed by writing since the oral tradition was strongly present. The art of poetry served as a form of discourse here and rhetoric was a necessary development. The imagery and figurative representation in the language were characteristic in order to express conditions of life, relationships, and even f eelings and ideas. Also characteristic of this discourse were the expressive, descriptive and preaching functions and genres that were more dominant than the analytic function and structure. The themes of Arabic poetry in the pre-Islamic era can illuminate the attributes of the discourse and reveal the world-view of the people. In this context, it must be noted that the authenticity of collections of pre-Islamic poetry is controversial among some particularly modern, critical Arab historians of literature. The Egyptian literature scientist, Taha Hussein (1889–1973), approached this theme in his “fi-aŠ-Šir al-ğāhili” (‘On Pre-Islamic Poetry’) in 1927 1 in a critical and analytic manner and thus sparked a polarizing polemic. His critique of the alleged authenticity of pre-Islamic poetry and the assumption that it might be of a later date was interpreted as indirect doubt about the authenticity of the Qur'anic corpus, which could relativize religious dogma with regard to the Qur'an.