Poetry and Prose: Verbal Battles: The Naqāʾiḍ of Jarīr and al-Farazdaq

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This presentation will focus on Cory Jorgensen’s forthcoming monograph, Throwing Down the Verbal Gauntlet: The Arabic Invective of Jarīr and al-Farazdaq. The book studies the flytings poetry (naqā’iḍ) of Umayyad-era poets Jarīr and al-Farazdaq. These poets catered their performances to an audience in verbal battles that are among the first instances of this genre of poetry being employed as performance for performance’s sake, rather than to settle a tribal dispute, which had been its historical role.

The book argues that these poets performed in order to elevate their prestige. This argument unfolds through close readings of the poetry itself, contemporaneous and subsequent secondary sources that mention aspects of these performances, and analogous modern genres. The result is a new interpretation of naqā’iḍ poetry that changes the way we see the intertwining roles of poet, opponent, and audience, and that informs the way we understand this performance art.

About Cory Jorgensen:

Cory Jorgensen is an Assistant Professor of Arabic in the Department of Classical & Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at The George Washington University. He received the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin, and that of Bachelor of Music from Utah State University.

Professor Jorgensen specializes in classical Arabic literature and Arabic pedagogy, and has published and presented papers on these topics. His current book, Throwing Down the Verbal Gauntlet: The Arabic Invective of Jarīr and al-Farazdaq, examines a pair of eighth-century Arab invective poets who catered their performances to their audience in order to elevate their own prestige, just as rappers do today. Professor Jorgensen has taught Latin, Greek and Arabic language courses, as well as Arabic literature courses. He has been teaching at The George Washington University since 2012.