Abstract
Several Arabic poets composed verses on poetry in general, and on their own poetry in particular. Some of these metapoetic reflections already have been of interest to the Arabists, and became the subject of literary studies (e.g. Lyons, Schoeler, Fakhreddine, McKinney). If I again took up the topic with the focus on Ibn al-Ḥaǧǧāǧ (d. 1001), so it is because he referred to his own poetry much more often than other poets did. He had reason for this: Ibn al-Ḥaǧǧāǧ became famous – or one could also say infamous – because the new theme of suḫf (scatological obscenety) played an important role in his poetry. So he had to give arguments in support of his way of composing. The article presents a selection from his self-references which show that he not only defends his suḫf, but also boasts of this addition to Arabic poetry, which made his poems spread all over the countries.
Wagner, Ewald