Sharjah 24: A symposium on "Imagination in Pre-Islamic Poetry", held by the Cultural and Media Office of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah, discussed the concept of imagination and poetic transformation between two generations, the impact of the environment on poetic imagination, and the need for poets to know pre-Islamic poetry.

The online symposium, which was moderated by  Salha Ghabish, Cultural Adviser at the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA) in Sharjah, hosted Dr. Abbas Mahjoub Mukhtar, Professor of Arabic Language and Literature.  Several specialists of the poetic movement, and a number of poets, critics and media professionals were present at the symposium.

Regarding the title of the symposium, Ghabish said: Pre-Islamic poetry is a title that inspires us with consistent spaces of the Arabic language and its ancient dialects, and the image of the Arab man for whom the desert constituted life, city, environment and livelihood; and also formed his human values, morals, language, customs and traditions.

Dr. Abbas Mahjoub Mukhtar emphasised that the pre-Islamic poetry was abundant in imagination, and the pre-Islamic poet had the ability to express himself, the environment around him, and everything that was available to him, pointing out that the imagination is a talk about the human soul that the poet speaks, and poetry in the pre-Islamic era was an Arab medium, as it was a way by which the status of a tribe was either raised or degraded.

At the end of the symposium, Ghabish emphasised that there is no poetry without imagination, be it in the pre-Islamic or modern era, because it is what gives the poem its identity, and the difference lies in the dominance of the fictional image over the real one.