Disputation Poems in the Near East and Beyond. Ancient and Modern

Disputation poems are texts that feature discussion between two usually inarticulate litigants, such as trees, animals, seasons, or concepts. Poems of this type appear in a great many different cultures, the majority of which lived around the area of modern Iraq. The genre spans third millennium BCE Sumerian to contemporary Arabic poetry, through Jewish Aramaic, Parthian, Syriac, Classical Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literature. The topics often reflect the concerns of the time in which the poems were composed. Thus, 21^st century BCE Sumer produced “Hoe and Plow,” whereas “Donkey and Bicycle” was composed in 20^th century Egypt. 

The panoramic impression one gains is that of a millenary relay race, in which one culture bequeaths an ever-changing baton to the next. The diversity of languages and literary traditions in which disputations are attested makes it impossible for a single scholar to study the evolution of the genre, or to decide whether the genre was transmitted through all these cultures and periods, or whether it instead originated independently in different places as different times. Because of the genre's linguistic and chronological scope, disputation poetry is a highly suitable topic for a multidisciplinary conference.

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