Improvising “Abdallah the killed” with Hussein Nasser Eddine

“…and mentioned is that ʿantarah stood and spoke in long poems when he saw the war or when he saw the ruins of the house. Imru’u L-Qays also did so, and the poets of the age of ignorance and those of Islam all improvised and read it as it occurred. They improvised and then forgot – except for a few verses – and others who heard them would also remember a few verses and would recite them again, and this is all that remains from the poems. Centuries after, it would get transcribed with all the changes that occurred to it, from speaker to speaker, to be written in manuscripts and then found in poetry books.”[1]

“It is also mentioned that ‘Abdallah the killed’ (abdallāh al qateel) was the first poet to see the columns of the castle as palm trees, and that this was the last he saw, and that this killed him.”[2]

1. excerpt from “the death of poets” by al- munkadir ibn qays, no date, published in parts from the original manuscript by “dar el amaer”, 1986 – Iraq.

2. ibid

The performance will be in Arabic.