Representations and Trends of Heroism in Pre-Islamic Poetry

Abstract

This study examines the concept of heroism, its presence in the social and literary consciousness of pre-Islamic Arab society, its various trends, and the forms through which it manifested itself within that social and literary context. It seeks to determine how heroism was constituted in pre-Islamic social and literary life, the representations through which it was expressed, and the directions it assumed. To this end, the study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach to identify the phenomena and characteristics associated with this concept.

Heroism has occupied a prominent place in the collective consciousness of human societies. Pre-Islamic Arab society likewise developed its own distinctive conception of heroism, which poets expressed through martial, moral, and psychological representations. The study concludes that heroism, in both its collective and individual forms, constituted a social necessity imposed by the geographical conditions of Arabia during the pre-Islamic period.