It is due probably to the fact that this style of composition was chiefly sought by Abū Tammām in compiling his collection that he has chosen hardly anything from the works of the most famous poets of antiquity.
The compilation is thus essentially an anthology of minor poets, and exhibits (so far at least as the more ancient poems are concerned) the general average of poetic utterance at a time when to speak in verse was the daily habit of every warrior of the desert.
In the classical age of Arab poetry it was the established rule that all qasidas, whatever their purpose, must begin with the mention of women and their charms, in order, as earlier critics said, that the hearts of the hearers might be softened and inclined to regard kindly the theme which the poet proposed to unfold.
The fragments included in this part of the work are therefore generally taken from the opening verses of qasidas; where this is not the case, they are chiefly compositions of the early Islamic period, when the school of exclusively erotic poetry (of which the greatest representative was Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah) arose.
About 220 AH (835 CE) he went to Khorasan, then ruled by Abdallah ibn Tahir, whom he praised and by whom he was rewarded; on his journey home he passed through Hamadan, and was there detained for many months a guest of Abu-l-Wafā, son of Salama, the road onward being blocked by heavy falls of snow.
This collection remained as a precious heirloom in the family of Abu-l-Wafā until their fortunes decayed, when it fell into the hands of a man of Dinavar named Abu-l-ʽAwādhil, who carried it to Isfahan and made it known to the learned of that city.
[5] The worth of the Hamasah as a storehouse of ancient legend, of faithful detail regarding the usages of the pagan time and early simplicity of the Arabs, can hardly be exaggerated.
The high level of excellence which is found in its selections, both as to form and matter, is remarkable, and caused it to be said that Abu Tammam displayed higher qualities as a poet in his choice of extracts from the ancients than in his own compositions.
What strikes us chiefly in the class of poetry of which the Hamasah is a specimen, is its exceeding truth and reality, its freedom from artificiality and hearsay, the evident first-hand experience which the singers possessed of all of which they sang.