How Abu Tammam paved the way for modern symbolism

Some critics believe that Abu Tammam's poetry is characterised by thought and logic, leading them to conclude that "Abu Tammam and Al-Mutanabbi are wise, and Al-Buhturi is the poet."

However, I disagree.

Abu Tammam's intellectual and inferential depth is manifested through a complex formal aesthetic that employs imagery, structural chemistry, words, sentences, and rhythms to convey meaning and connotations. This innovative approach to poetry represents a genuine new school of poetry that many found confusing.

Critics accused Abu Tammam of relying too heavily on lexical improvements and structural complexity, failing to understand that this verbal (aesthetic) gratuitousness is an attempt to avoid prosaic rhetoric and directness.

In my view, Abu Tammam masterfully subverted eloquence with eloquence and tampered with traditional poetic structures to create a new poetic genre in the Arab world that was different from everything than came before it.

In fact, the great Arab Andalucian philospher Ibn al-Arabi once remarked after listening to Abu Tammam's poetry, that everything previously said by Arabs was in vain.

Read more: Ibn Arabi: The misunderstood mystic

Another critical point to consider is that Abu Tammam's poetry was no longer a recited serenade (an oral poem) but rather a written piece that required several readings to comprehend or savour its symbolism.

This aspect of his work represented a new dimension of traditional Arabic rhetoric, which is based on clarity of meaning rather than complexity or abstraction.

Moving into modernity

Abu Tammam's deviation from the traditional and clear rhetoric is an early manifestation of modern poetry that extends from Baudelaire to Mallerme to Valerie.

The use of symbolism in image or structure creates ambiguity, encouraging readers to think beyond the text's direct meanings. This modern movement goes beyond the French Romantic school of Victor Hugo and Lamartine and the English Romanticism of Keats and Byron.

Comparing Abu Tammam to Al-Buhturi — with the latter being the poet and the former being the philosopher — reveals that Abu Tammam transcended Al-Buhturi's romanticism to symbolism.

The romantic poet derives their poetry from the goddess of poetry and never betrays or changes it, while to Abu Tammam, a poem is more like a newborn emerging from its mother's womb — complete and whole, but with an added dimension of symbolism.

A pioneer of modern symbolism

Abu Tammam's handling of his poetry goes against the traditional approach. For him, rhetorical tools and meanings are raw materials that he must first test out and then build upon.

It is understandable why some people preferred Al-Buhturi's style over Abu Tammam's, as the former respected the traditional approach and did not deviate from it. By contrast, Abu Tammam tampered with clarity itself, presenting ambiguity in Arabic poetry for the first time.

He introduced the concept of the elite, where a broad audience is satisfied with a poem that adheres to existing methods and techniques, while the elite appreciate its less traditional aspects.

This is best explained by the following anecdote:  

When a critic from the old school asked Abu Tammam why he says something that is not understood, Abu Tammam flipped the question around asking the critic: "Why do you not understand what is being said?"

This response demonstrates the intentionality of Abu Tammam's approach. In fact, this approach was introduced to the Western world through French Symbolism — of which Abu Tammam, Mallarme and Paul Valery greatly influenced.

Abu Tammam was a pioneer of modern symbolism in Arab poetry with its intellectual, aesthetic, and suggestive stamps. Al-Mutanabbi, the great poet, was deeply influenced by Abu Tammam, whether by the coherent structure of his poem or by his wisdom.

The great French and European thinker, Paul Valery, symbolically presented his thoughts and problems like Abu Tammam.

While thoughts can sometimes entrap a poem into prosaism and directness, symbolism generates ambiguity which ultimately enriches the poem. As a result, it sometimes needs several readings to understand and discover its hidden meanings.

Whereas a one-dimensional poem can only be read once, Abu Tammam's words — layered with peculiar imagery and structure — need constant review. The metaphors of his written poems transcend the spontaneity of oral poems.

And with this humble review, we celebrate Abu Tammam's crucial contribution to the literary world.