The Conflict between the Sword and the Pen and its Repercussions on Abbassid Poetry: A Cultural Analysis

Abstract

Abundantly the words ‘sword’ (as a symbol of power) and ‘pen’ (as a symbol of wisdom) are mentioned adjoined together in literature and poetry; each one serves the other in the structure of poetry and its meaning. Yet there is a hidden tension and conflict between the two, which requires an investigation to reveal its mysteries. The conflict between the (sword and pen) is a part of a larger conflict between (power and wisdom) some of its manifestations appears in literature at many levels; starting from its formation and creation and up to its reception and influence.     

For so long, the court poet (as a representative of wisdom) has surrounded to the ‘power’ and written for its benefits, even though he kept (resisting) and trying to assert his position using different disguised methods, such as symbolism which has made sword as an equivalent of pen (power/sword; wisdom/pen). 

This research, aims to analyze the bilateral of the (sword and pen), discovering its semantics, examining its systems/structures, revealing its hidden conflict and showing the poets’ real view of the status of both the pen and the sword, which they may conceal in their symbols, allusions and equivocation, but the structure/system always discern them.

The research also aims not only to reveal the conflict between the implicit and explicit in the structure/system, but to clarify the consequence of this conflict, by exploring the subconscious of the poets themselves to assess whether their pens has won or lost?!