Mamayh ar-Rumi ad-DimaSqi was one of the most significant Damascan poets in the 10th 16th
century whose verses were sung from Damascus to Yemen. Based on the current results of the
ongoing edition of Mamayh's diwan (Rawdat al-muStaq wa-bahgat al-'uSSaq Garden of the ardent
yearner and the joy of the lovers) this study discusses a selection of poems in which the poet
converses with the literary past by not only using mimetic and emulative techniques (like
tadmin iqtibas and tahmis poems) but also through the use of more modern styles forms and
topics (like 'atil verses coffee poems and vernacular poems). While the mimetic poems refer
directly to the admired or canonized models of the past perpetuating the tradition into the
poet's present the focus of the contemporary topics in the diwan is on how the poet's present
is connected to the poetic and aesthetic practices of the past. With the analysis of Mamayh's
poetry the study offers evidence of the impressive literary and intellectual background of an
initially Ottomanized and then 'Syrianized' (former soldier-) poet as well as his tremendous
poetic creativity in melding together the 'old' and the 'new' in his verse.
