What are the seven Mu'allaqat?

The Mu'allaqat are seven long odes from pre-Islamic Arabia, counted by later critics as the finest poems the Arabs composed. Their authors are Imru' al-Qays, Tarafa ibn al-Abd, Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma, Labid ibn Rabia, Amr ibn Kulthum, Antara ibn Shaddad and al-Harith ibn Hilliza. Some transmitters add odes by al-Asha and al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani, making nine or ten.

Why are they called the Mu'allaqat?

There are two explanations. The famous one is that the poems were hung on the drapery of the Kaaba in Mecca — mu'allaqa means "suspended" — but this account appears only in later sources and is doubted by scholars. The second derives the name from ilq, meaning something precious, so that the poems were "hung" as a necklace is hung. Most specialists prefer the second.

Were the Mu'allaqat really hung on the Kaaba?

There is no reliable evidence that they were. The story does not appear in Ibn Sallam al-Jumahi's Tabaqat or in the earliest surviving sources, and only became widespread later. Scholars doubt it because writing was rare in pre-Islamic Arabia and poetry was memorised and recited by professional transmitters rather than written down and displayed.

How many Mu'allaqat are there?

Seven by general agreement; anything beyond that is disputed. Some transmitters count nine by adding the odes of al-Asha and al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani, and some count ten by adding Ubayd ibn al-Abras. The disagreement shows that the selection was always a matter of taste rather than an official list.

What is the most famous opening line in the Mu'allaqat?

The opening of Imru' al-Qays: qifa nabki min dhikra habibin wa-manzili — "Halt, you two, and let us weep at the memory of a beloved and a dwelling place." It is among the best known lines in the Arabic language, and discussions of pre-Islamic poetry conventionally begin with it.

The Seven Mu'allaqat, and Why They Are Called That

The Mu’allaqat are seven long odes composed in Arabia in the century or so before Islam. Later critics counted them the finest poems the Arabs had made, and they have been transmitted complete for fourteen hundred years — first by memory, through professional reciters, and only later in writing.

Each is a qasida: a single-poet ode running to a hundred lines or more, held throughout to one meter and one rhyme letter. Every line in a qasida ends on the same consonant. Sustaining that across a hundred lines is the technical feat the form is built around.

The seven odes

Poet	Opening line	Meter	Rhyme
Imru’ al-Qays	قِفا نَبكِ مِن ذِكرى حَبيبٍ وَمَنزِلِ Halt, you two, and let us weep at the memory of a beloved and a dwelling	Tawil	lām
Tarafa ibn al-Abd	لِخَولَةَ أَطلالٌ بِبُرقَةِ ثَهمَدِ Khawla has traces of an encampment on the stony ground of Thahmad	Tawil	dāl
Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma	أَمِن أُمِّ أَوفى دِمنَةٌ لَم تَكَلَّمِ Is there of Umm Awfa a silent ruin that will not speak?	Tawil	mīm
Labid ibn Rabia	عَفَتِ الدِيارُ مَحَلُّها فَمُقامُها The abodes are effaced — their halting places and their dwellings	Kamil	mīm
Amr ibn Kulthum	أَلا هُبّي بِصَحنِكِ فَاصبَحينا Rise with your bowl and pour us our morning draught	Wafir	nūn
Antara ibn Shaddad	هَل غادَرَ الشُعَراءُ مِن مُتَرَدَّمِ Have the poets left anything unmended?	Kamil	mīm
al-Harith ibn Hilliza	آذَنَتنا بِبَينِها أَسماءُ Asma has announced to us her departure	Khafif	hamza

The English renderings above are literal glosses meant to show what each line says, not attempts at verse.

Two patterns are worth noticing. Six of the seven use Tawil, Kamil or Wafir — the longest and most capacious of the classical meters, and the ones that best carry an extended breath, which is exactly what a hundred-line poem demands. And three of the seven rhyme in mīm, one of the handful of rhyme letters common enough at the ends of Arabic words to give a poet room to work across that many lines.

Why “the hanging poems”?

Two explanations circulate, and the famous one is the weaker.

The first is that the poems were written in gold and hung on the drapery of the Kaaba in Mecca as a mark of honour — from which they are also called al-Mudhahhabat, “the gilded ones.” The story is common in later compilations. It does not, however, appear in Ibn Sallam al-Jumahi’s Tabaqat al-Shu’ara or in any of the earliest material that survives. Scholars generally doubt it: writing was rare in pre-Islamic Arabia, and poetry lived in the memories of ruwat, the professional transmitters who carried it, rather than on displayed manuscripts.

The second derives mu’allaqa from ilq, a thing of value. On this reading the poems were called “hung” the way a necklace is hung — prized, singled out, worn. This is the reading most specialists prefer.

They are also called al-Sumut, “the strung necklaces.” All three names point to esteem rather than to any act of hanging.

How many are there, really?

Seven by agreement; past that, it is disputed.

Some transmitters add the ode of al-Asha — waddi’ Hurayrata inna al-rakba murtahilu — and that of al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani — ya dara Mayyata bil-’alya’i fal-sanadi — bringing the count to nine. Others add Ubayd ibn al-Abras for ten.

The disagreement is itself informative. The Mu’allaqat were never an official canon. They were one transmitter’s selection, preferred over rival selections, which hardened into a list through centuries of repetition. What survives as “the seven” is a matter of taste that won.

How a Mu’allaqa is built

Nearly all of them follow the same sequence, which is the standard architecture of the long pre-Islamic qasida:

Standing at the ruins (atlal) — the poet halts at the abandoned campsite where his beloved’s people once pitched their tents, and weeps.
The amatory prelude (nasib) — he recalls the woman herself.
The departure (rahil) — he describes his camel or horse at length, often the most technically dazzling passage in the poem.
The purpose (gharad) — what the poem is finally for: boasting, praise, or a call to arms.

The effect is less a lyric than a journey. The poem opens in grief over something irrecoverable and closes in self-assertion, and the distance travelled between those two poles is the point.

A note on the poets

The ode is often better known than its author. The Mu’allaqat poets are in fact among the least prolific of the major Arabic poets in what has come down to us — al-Harith ibn Hilliza survives in seventeen poems, Tarafa in thirty-four. Fame in Arabic poetry has never tracked volume.

Two of the seven also sit awkwardly in the usual periodisation. Labid and al-Asha are classed with the Islamic era rather than the pre-Islamic one, because both were mukhadram — poets whose lives spanned the coming of Islam.

Each poet above links to their collected work on Qafiyah, where the poems can be read in full and browsed by meter, rhyme and era.