The Legend of Antar ibn Shaddad

Record summary

Antar ibn Shaddad was a pre-Islamic Arab poet and warrior whose historical memory expanded into the long popular epic Sirat Antar. The cycle combines romance, tribal conflict, heroic combat, slavery and emancipation, with later accretions that make it much larger than any recoverable biography. Its importance lies in comparing historical figures transformed into legendary heroes and in examining oral performance, manuscript expansion and regional variation. The existence of Antar as a historical poet is better supported than the extraordinary events and composite characters of the epic tradition.