The Literary Analysis of al-Mutanabbī's Baqā’ī Shāʼa Ode for Badr b. ʿAmmār from the Perspective of Rhetorical Devices

The literary journey of the Arab poet al-Mutanabbī is often divided into distinct phases, with the nine years he spent as the court poet of the Hamdānī Emir Sayf al-Dawla widely regarded as the pinnacle of his career. Preceding this celebrated period, however, are the three years he spent under the patronage of Badr b. ʿAmmār, the governor of Tabriz. This earlier phase represents a crucial stage of maturity in the poet’s development, serving as a significant prelude to his later peak. While most scholarly attention has been devoted to al-Mutanabbī's Hamdānī period, the Badr b. ʿAmmār phase has received comparatively less critical examination. Nevertheless, it holds considerable importance in the poet’s literary trajectory, marked by the composition of numerous high-quality poems. This study focuses on one of al-Mutanabbī's panegyric odes from the Badr b. ʿAmmār period, offering an in-depth analysis of its rhetorical devices. The findings suggest that the poet largely adhered to the conventional structure of the panegyric tradition established during the Abbasid era, without introducing substantial innovations. The poem maintains the expected sections of the genre and does not exhibit significant formal departures. However, several stylistic features that later became hallmarks of al-Mutanabbī's poetry—such as hyperbolic expressions, intricate similes and metaphors, and the integration of aphoristic wisdom—are already evident in this ode. The analysis also identifies certain weaknesses in the rhetorical elements of the poem, which are discussed comprehensively and summarized in the conclusion. These observations contribute to a nuanced understanding of this transitional yet formative phase in al-Mutanabbī’s literary career. These have been elaborated in detail in the study and presented as findings in the conclusion section.