Muallaqat [key], Pre-Islamic Arabic anthology compiled by the scholar Hammad al Rawiya (d. c.775). comprised of poems that were written in gold letters and hung on the walls of the Kaaba in Mecca during annual fairs. It consists of seven (or, in some versions, nine or ten) odes, all by different poets of the 6th or early 7th cent. They are generally esteemed the finest of Arabic odes, and they present an unsurpassed picture of Bedouin life before Islam. The name also appears as Moallakat.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Asian Literature
