Literary Intertextuality in the Poetry of Muzaffar al-Nawab

Muzaffar al-Nawab, an Iraqi and Shiite poet, is one of the major contemporary poets who played a prominent in modernization of poetry besides exposing the fanatic behaviors of authoritarian Arab states. This modernization is particularly seen in his use of new literary techniques including the intertextuality with literary intertextuality as one of its instances. Using the descriptive analysis method, this study attempts to investigate literary intertextuality in the poetry of Muzaffar al-Nawab. The results show that among poets who Nawab has invoked in his poetry include: Abu Sakhir al-Hudhali a famous lyric poetry composer, a eulogist of the Umayyad and satirist of the Family of Zubair; Ali bin al-Jahm an Abbasid poet who was familiar with rhetoric and philosophy and had dialogs with Zanadiqa (i.e. heretics) and the Mu'tazilah (i.e. those who withdrew); and Qais bin Zuhair, a Rashedi and Umayyad periods poet who composed lyric poetry in the style of Jahili poets. By invoking the poems of some poets through allusion, Nawab has used literary intertextuality. For instance, al-Akhtal, one of the three poets of al-Naqa'id (i.e. Controversials) in the Umayyad period; al-Mutanabbi, a celebrated Abbasid period poet whom Nawab invoked through literary intertextuality by positioning him in the opposing stance ث 5ب ت 3 ازث 3 زض اقؼبض ظفط ا اه 537 in relation to Arab rulers and using his nomadic lifestyle as a disguise; and Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, a major contemporary Iraqi poet with left-wing tendencies whom Nawam portray as an inducer of uprising and revolution among the Arab youth.