Islamic Qasidah

The qaṣīda (also spelled qaṣīdah; plural qaṣā’id) is an ancient Arabic word and form of poetry, often translated as ode. The qasida originated in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and passed into non-Arabic cultures after the Arab Muslim expansion. The word qasida is originally an Arabic word (قصيدة, plural qaṣā’id, قصائد), and is still used throughout the Arabic-speaking world; it was borrowed into some other languages such as Persian: قصیده (alongside چكامه, chakameh), and Turkish: kaside. The classic form of qasida maintains both monometer, a single elaborate meter throughout the poem, and monorhyme, where every line rhymes on the same sound It typically runs from fifteen to eighty lines, and sometimes more than a hundred. Well-known examples of this genre include the poems of the Mu'allaqat (a collection of pre-Islamic poems, the most being the one of Imru' al-Qays), the Qasida Burda (Poem of the Mantle) by Imam al-Busiri, and Ibn Arabi's classic collection Tarjumān al-Ashwāq (The Interpreter of Desires).