L'Altra Arabia. ʿAdī Ibn Zayd alla corte di Ḥīra

“ʿAdī Ibn Zayd is like Canopus with respect to the other stars: it is on a different orbit and does not follow their course”. This image by the Basrian philologist ʿAbū ʿUbayd conveys well the isolated position of ʿAdī Ibn Zayd within the Pre-Islamic poetic production. After summarizing the biographical data about the poet, this article translates into Italian and analyzes his most famous ode, trying to single out the elements that drove medieval critics to class it as anomalous. Their judgement, more than on linguistic reasons, seems indeed to rest on the choice of subjects like the lessons of history and the architectural signs of the past. This anomaly, which is linked to ʿAdī’s sedentary culture, will decree his success in the Islamic period, both as a literary character (Kitāb al-Aġānī and Risālat al-Ġufrān) and as an initiator of genres. In particular, his “poetics of ruins” will inspire al-Buḥturī in his celebrated sīniyya on the Palace of Khosrow.