The Mu’allaqat (‘suspended’ or ‘hung’ odes) are the seven pre-eminent odes of the Jahiliyyah period, traditionally said to have been written in gold and hung on the Ka’ba. Their authors — Imru’ al-Qays, Tarafa ibn al-Abd, Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma, Labid, Antara ibn Shaddad, Amr ibn Kulthum, and Al-Harith ibn Hilliza — represent the highest achievement of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. These poems celebrate the values of Jahiliyyah Arabia: tribal honor (sharaf), generosity (karam), martial courage (shuja’a), and intense romantic love. The Mu’allaqat are theologically significant for understanding Islam because the Quran’s first audience was steeped in this poetic tradition — the Quraysh initially dismissed Muhammad’s revelations as poetry (shi’r) or sorcery (sihr), and the Quran itself challenges the greatest poets of Arabia: ‘Say: if all mankind and the jinn were to come together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not’ (17:88). The Arabic of the Quran was understood as transcending even the greatest pre-Islamic poetry.