Textual Standards in the Mu‘allaqa of ʿUbayd ibn al-Abras: A Textual Study

Abstract

This study examines the Mu‘allaqa of ʿUbayd ibn al-Abras in light of the seven standards of textuality proposed by Beaugrande and Dressler, with the aim of identifying the extent to which textuality is achieved in pre-Islamic poetry and highlighting the features of cohesion and coherence in its structure. The text is regarded as an integrated entity whose elements are interconnected through grammatical, semantic, and logical relations. The research adopts an applied textual-analytical approach, by tracing the tools of grammatical and lexical cohesion, as well as textual and situational references, in addition to analyzing semantic coherence relations such as condition–consequence, general–particular, summary–detail, and contrast. The study also considers the functional standards related to the producer of the text, including intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and intertextuality, in order to uncover the interaction between the text, its audience, and the cultural context in which it emerged. The research is divided into an introduction, a prelude, three main chapters, and a conclusion which demonstrates that pre-Islamic poetry constitutes a complete text that meets the requirements of modern textuality. It was not merely a traditional artistic discourse, but rather a text with a coherent and consistent linguistic and semantic structure.