LessonsʿAmr ibn Kulthūm: Tribal Pride, Independence and Closing Hyperbole (verses 92–103)Quiz

إِذَا بَلَغَ الْفِطَامَ لَنَا صَبِيٌّ تَخِرُّ لَهُ الْجَبَابِرُ سَاجِدِينَا
When even one of our boys reaches weaning age, mighty tyrants are pictured as falling prostrate before him.

Al-fiṭām means weaning; al-jabābir denotes powerful oppressors; takhirru depicts collapsing or bowing down. Sājidīnā indicates their posture as they fall.

The image of great rulers prostrating themselves before a newly weaned child is deliberately extreme. It closes the poem at the height of tribal pride, not with a report of an actual historical event.

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Verse 103 — The final extreme hyperbole

ʿAmr ibn Kulthūm: Tribal Pride, Independence and Closing Hyperbole (verses 92–103)

إِذَا بَلَغَ الْفِطَامَ لَنَا صَبِيٌّ تَخِرُّ لَهُ الْجَبَابِرُ سَاجِدِينَا
When even one of our boys reaches weaning age, mighty tyrants are pictured as falling prostrate before him.

Al-fiṭām means weaning; al-jabābir denotes powerful oppressors; takhirru depicts collapsing or bowing down. Sājidīnā indicates their posture as they fall.

The image of great rulers prostrating themselves before a newly weaned child is deliberately extreme. It closes the poem at the height of tribal pride, not with a report of an actual historical event.