Elegy (Marthiya) of the Poet For Himself in the Arabic Poetry: The Example of Mālik b. al-Rayb's al-Qasīda al-Yā͗iyya

The elegy is one of the oldest themes of Arabic poetry. Since the period of Jāhiliyya, poets wrote elegies to the beings they loved, felt close to, and valued in their own eyes. Mothers, fathers, spouses, children, Muslim soldiers and commanders, governors, caliphs, even cities, animals, and properties such as vineyards and gardens are of this type. While the poets were naming their elegies, they addressed these beings. Therefore, the mentioned assets constituted the subject of the elegy. However, when some poets realized that they were going to die, they sang the elegy addressed to themselves, and the being subject to the elegy was the poet himself. One of the eulogies that exemplify this genre, which is called the self-elegy, is Mālik b. al-Rayb’s (d. 57/676) al-Qasīda al-Yā͗iyya. In this article, the elegies that the poets sang addressed to them were analyzed within the framework of Mālik b. al-Rayb’s al-Qasīda al-Yā͗iyya. In this context, the background of this subject is shed light on the couplets that can be an example of self-eulogy in the periods of Jāhiliyyah and Sadr al-Islām. At the end of the study, it has been seen that al-Qasīda al-Yā͗iyya is different from the classical elegy plan in terms of its content. In addition, thanks to the poet's arts such as allusion, metaphor, compliment and medicine, concreteness for abstract concepts; It has been determined that by giving vitality to inanimate beings, it increases the clarity and reality dimension of the narrative.