As part of the activities of the Abu Dhabi Poetry Festival 2023, being held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center, ADNEC, from October 12th to 15th, 2023, the festival’s organising committee review the stages of development of Arab poetry throughout different eras through its “Poetry Trail” platform, an iconic facet of the festival where visitors have been learning interactively about different stations in the history of Arabic poetry.
The platform, which was organised by several experts and historians in the history of Arabic poetry, both classical and Nabati, includes nine stations, starting from Souq Okaz and ending with Abu Dhabi’s role in poetry and literature and the efforts made by the Cultural Programs and Heritage Festivals Committee - Abu Dhabi in empowering poets through its many programmes, including Million's Poet, the Prince of Poets, and Al Mankous.
Saeed bin Karaz Al Muhairi, Advisor to the Cultural Programs and Heritage Festivals Committee, said that the “Poetry Trail” constitutes a creative platform for positive interaction with the festival’s audience in which several experts have joined forces to provide an exceptional experience within the Abu Dhabi Poetry Festival. He added: “Through the platform’s stations, the visitor can learn in a simplified manner the history of Arabic poetry and the most important developments that have occurred throughout different eras.
In addition to being a distinctive interactive experience, the platform also provides an educational experience suitable for all festival visitors.” The first station on the platform begins at Okaz Market, where the role of this market is highlighted as one of the most important stations of pre-Islamic poetry and its role as a cultural centre. After that, the platform passes to its second station, which concerns the seven female commentators and their poets, among the most prominent of them being Imru’ al-Qais, Amr ibn Kulthum, and al-Harith ibn Halza.
The platform then moves to its third station, which is the Su'luk poets, who were called the Vagabond poets or roughly translated as brigand-poets.While the fourth station highlights the poems and verses that appeared in the era of the Messenger, peace be upon him, and the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs until the end of the Umayyad caliphate. The platform takes the visitor to its fifth station to highlight the most prominent poets of the Umayyad and Abbasid eras, and the sixth station of the platform highlights the important characteristics of Andalusian poetry, which includes the art of stanzas and its most important poets.
The visitor then arrives at the seventh station on the “Poetry Trail” to learn about the history of Nabati poetry and its most prominent proponents, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, may God have mercy on him, and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, may God protect him, and many of the most important poets of Nabataean poetry, such as Abu Hamza Al-Amiri, Rashid Al-Khalawi, and Khalifa bin Shakhbut, among others.
Women have a prominent place on the platform, with visitors being taken on a special path that reviews the role of women poets in the annals of Arabic poetry, both classical and Nabati. Before the visitor’s journey ends, the platform of the eighth station displays the most prominent poets of the modern era and the characteristics of their poems, including Ahmed Shawqi, Hafez Ibrahim, Nizar Qabbani, Mahmoud Darwish, Gibran Khalil Gibran, and many others.
At the end of the journey, visitors arrive at the ninth station, which is Abu Dhabi and Literature, highlighting Abu Dhabi’s pioneering role in being one of the most prominent Arab capitals that embraces Arabic poetry through its pioneering role in preserving heritage and culture and empowering poets through programs such as Million's Poet, Prince of Poets, and Al Mankous.