Pre-Islamic varieties: ka-ḫaṭṭi zabūrin fī maḥāṣifa ruhbāni (Imru’ al-Qays, Dīwān, 88/1-2)

Abstract

In this article I attempt to analyse a simile that occurs in a poetic fragment by Imru’ al-Qays. My purpose is to provide a series of considerations starting from the concepts used in the second part of the comparison (Maṣāḥif, Ḫaṭṭ and Zabūr), leading us to put forward some hypo-theses on the basis of the linguistic, cultural, religious and chronolo-gical pre-Islamic context.