Abstract How did Arab poets experience the rise of the Islamic empire? How can Umayyad poetry help us understand this formative moment in human history? In this article, I explore the potential of Umayyad poetry for writing the history of the period, focusing on poetry of the soldiers in the Umayyad armies—men distant from political power yet serving as its instruments and deeply affected by the empire’s expansion and consolidation. Their verses complicate the traditional celebratory narratives of the Islamic conquests by giving voice to loss, grievance, and dislocation, revealing the human costs behind imperial triumph. Through its shared tone of nostalgia, this poetry not only preserves perspectives rarely heard in the historical record but also contributes to the emerging history of emotions in the early Islamic world.
Pamela Klasova (Wed,) studied this question.