'[1] However, although at the beginning of the form's development nasīb meant 'love-song', it came to cover much wider kinds of content:[2] 'The nasīb usually is understood as the first part of the qaṣīdah where the poet remembers his beloved.
In later ages the nasīb stood alone, and in that sense the meaning came to be understood as erotic and love poetry.
'[3] Early and prominent examples of the nasīb appear in the Mu'allaqāt of the sixth-century poets Antarah ibn Shaddad and Imru' al-Qais.
let us weep, while memory tries to trace The long-lost fair one's sand-girt dwelling place; Though the rude winds have swept the sandy plain, Still some faint traces of that spot remain.
)[4] One prominent collection of self-standing nasībs (not included in a qaṣīdah) is Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿArabī's Tarjumān al-Ashwāq, a collection of sixty-one nasībs.