Echo of Ushtar in Jahili Poetry
Date
2001
Authors
Ihsan a-Deek
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Abstract
This paper tackles the Big Mother, Ushtar, and her embodiment in old thinking and Arab imagination in the form of a flower and al-Uiza. The paper has monitored her white face in Jahili poetry at a time when it was fertile land for sex and entertainment. At another time, her face was black and a godess of war, death and destruction. The researcher relied on ancient inscriptions and old texts and compared them with what classical Arabic has preserved of them. In so doing, Arabic has safeguarded noble heritage. Poetry texts were evidence of this. The researcher also offered an interpretation of poetic images, tribal Jahili rituals which nurtured their roots. He also deep rooted the most precious of Jahili values and ideals; woman, wine, Knighthood, and linked them with their religious origins associated with the Big Mother. The woman became a symbol for the flower as she was a symbol for the sun. This clearly shows the difference in between the religion of the South Arabs and that of the North Arabs and their overlapping later on, which was supported by historical studies.