“The Eye’s Delight”

Baghdad in Arabic Poetry

Abstract

The article deals with the role that Baghdad has played in Arabic poetry since its foundation in 762 AD and throughout the history of Arabic literature. Founded at a time when Arabic poetry was at its peak, the glorious image of the city perched on both banks of the Tigris ignited the imagination of subsequent generations of poets to carve it in verse and enshrine it in the mantle of universal myth. There were also periods when Baghdad claimed attention because of its dramatic decline and disintegration as well as for being a theater for bloody wars, but even in such tragic times the image of an alternative, utopian Baghdad, as a metaphor, remained immune to the vicissitudes of time and the dreary reality of the earthly city. The sway of Baghdad, the fabled city of Hārūn al-Rashīd and the enchanted land of A Thousand and One Nights, continues to capture the imagination of successive generations of poets, writers, and artists the world over. Neither East nor West seems immune to its irresistible charm.