I POETI ṢAʿĀLĪK DELLA PRIMA EPOCA UMAYYADE: MĀLIK IBN AL-RAYB E IL LUPO, AL-QATTĀL AL-KILĀBĪ E LA PANTERA

The ṣaʿālīk were poets with a solitary and wild soul, who animated the desert of the pre-Islamic era. These ḏuʾbān al-ʿArab were Bedouins with extraordinary poetic gifts. However, they were removed from their tribes because they were found guilty of serious crimes and were not inclined to life in society. With the advent of Islam and the early Umayyad era, the ‘wolves of the Arabs’ Mālik ibn al-Rayb and al-Qattāl al-Kilābī left behind poetic verses in which they tell about their lives in this changed social and religious context – in deep contact with the animals of the desert.