The Semiotic Icon and its Artistic Impact in the Jahiliyya Ma'alaqaqat

Abstract

Pre-Islamic poetry occupies a significant place within our poetic heritage and cultural legacy—not only because it represents the earliest form of Arabic poetry, but also because it serves as a cornerstone that has captivated poets, critics, and rhetoricians throughout history, inspiring extensive production, theorization, and scholarly investigation. Its richness in historical, cultural, social, and ethical meanings renders it a documentary and artistic embodiment of Arab civilization. Among its most distinguished manifestations are the Muʿallaqāt, the renowned pre-Islamic odes, which have received considerable critical and analytical attention due to their exceptional eloquence, innovative artistic structures, and striking rhetorical expression.

Despite the extensive body of scholarship, revisiting the Muʿallaqāt remains essential—particularly through new methodologies and contemporary theoretical frameworks—to uncover previously unexplored dimensions. This study seeks to examine the Muʿallaqāt from a semiotic perspective, with a specific focus on the concept of the iconic sign, as it constitutes a fundamental element in the visual and cultural construction of these odes.

Numerous books, articles, and studies have addressed the field of semiotics—a field undoubtedly worthy of academic inquiry. Semiotics has emerged as an independent methodological approach, distinct from other linguistic and literary theories, as it focuses on the study of meaning through the relationships between signs and structures within the text and their connection to external reality. Thinkers and scholars have offered diverse interpretations of semiotic theory. In this study, I rely on Charles Sanders Peirce’s triadic classification of signs—icon, index, and symbol—recognizing the interrelation and overlap among these categories, as Peirce himself acknowledged (ʿAzzām, 1996, p. 93). Nevertheless, this research will emphasize the semiotic icon through analysis and interpretation, using available epistemological tools