The lamentation of cities is not limited to one era, every time the writer left his city, or saw it change by war or revolution, and wrote about it poetry or prose, it is a lament for himself and his old memory of the city.The literature of urban lamentation in Iraq dates back thousands of years, as successive conflicts throughout history have destroyed many cities, inspiring writers and poets to see their ruins and heirs from the Sumerian era through the fall of Baghdad by the Mongols to the present day.The art of lamenting cities was evident in the art of poetry in Mesopotamia, after the disaster in Sumer more than 4,000 years ago and the disappearance of their civilization.
Ritual rituals
In her interview with Al Jazeera Net, al-Dulaimi describes the lamentation of cities as the main pillar of the ritual in Mesopotamia, dating back about 2,000 years, and began in the form of a literary art called "Balak" performed by the priest of Kalo and with a choir of chanters to the tune of the "Balak" machine. The fox is one of the most important symbols that influenced the poetic texts in Mesopotamian literature at that time, which poets employed to denote the destruction and destruction of cities, and this animal was a symbol of destruction through his absence, foxes are not familiar with destroyed cities. On the other hand, the presence of the snake was a symbol of the destruction of cities, because snakes settle in ruined cities.
Abbasid era
Dr. Asma Saud al-Khattab, professor of rhetoric and Arabic-Islamic literature, said there is no doubt that the crying of homes and antiquities represents the first roots of man's attachment to the homeland, as the city is one of the pillars and components of the country.
The speech showed that the poetry of the lamentation of the cities was filled with feelings of sadness but also characterized by enthusiasm and strength, and it ignites the enthusiasm of the young Muslims at the time to defend their religion and Arabism to death, in defence based on valor, valor and elongation.
In her view, there is no great difference in the lamentation of cities from the poetry of the characters, as it stems from a sad feeling and experience and a passion full of pain, tears, crying and compassion, and the call to return to God, unity and reunification.
Modern ERA
On the development of urban lamentation literature in the present era, researcher in modern Arabic literature Faten Ghanem Fathi explained that the poetry of the lamentation of cities emerged in the Abbasid era following the political unrest and strife between the secretary and the believers and the subsequent destruction of Abbasid cities, and this art was active after invasion of Zinj to Basra, after which the poems followed the inherited cities dropped by the Mongols, the most important of which is Baghdad as a symbol of the Abbasid caliphate, and one of the most famous poetry systems in the lamentation of the cities at the time poet Ibn al-Rumi, and Shams al-Din al-Kufi.