Poetry and poets

The book of poetry and poets is one of the most important books translated about poets. It is considered an original source and a significant reference in its field. It is very similar to the book of the classes of the giants of poets by Ibn Salam al-Jumahi. Ibn Qutaybah did not focus in this book solely on listing poets and tracing their biographies, but he limited himself to the famous ones. He said in the introduction of the book: "My main aim was for the famous poets whom most of the scholars know and whose poetry can be used as evidence in grammar, language, and the Book of Allah, the Almighty, and the sayings of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him." Likewise, Ibn Qutaybah did not classify poets into categories as others did, but his concern was translation, collecting news about poets, and selecting some of their poems to illustrate or for their occasions. He also paid attention to chronological order in discussing the poets, and most of his biographical entries are of ancient poets, although he did not exclude some modern poets such as Abu al-Atahiya, Muslim ibn al-Walid, al-‘Abbas ibn al-Ahnaf, and others in the same category.