meaning al-Mufaddal's examination or anthology. The Mu'allaqat also aimed to be the definitive source of the era's output with only a single example of the work of each of the so-called "seven renowned ones," although different versions differ in which "renowned ones" they chose. The Mufaddaliyat on the other hand contains rather a random collection. There are several characteristics that distinguish pre-Islamic poetry from the poetry of later times. One of these characteristics is that in pre-Islamic poetry more attention was given to the eloquence and the wording of the verse than to the poem as whole. This resulted in poems characterized by strong vocabulary and short ideas but with loosely connected verses. A second characteristic is the romantic or nostalgic prelude with which pre-Islamic poems would often start. In these preludes, a thematic unit called "nasib," the poet would remember his beloved and her deserted home and its ruins. This concept in Arabic poetry is referred to as "al-woqouf `ala al-atlal" (الوقوف على الأطلال / standing by the ruins) because the poet would often start his poem by saying that he stood at the ruins of his beloved; it is a kind of ubi sunt.Some famous pre-Islamic poets''': Abu Layla al-Muhalhel Antarah ibn Shaddad Imru' al-Qais Al-Khansa Al-A'sha Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma Amr ibn Kulthum Harith ibn Hilliza Al-Yashkuri Labīd Tarafa Al-Nabigha Islamic poetry It was the early poems' importance to Islamic scholarship which led to their preservation. Not only did the poems illuminate life in the early years of Islam and its antecedents but they would also prove the basis for the study of linguistics of which the Qur'an was regarded as the pinnacle. Many of the pre-Islamic forms of verse were retained and improved upon. Naqa'id or flytings, where two poets exchange creative insults, were popular with al-Farazdaq and Jarir swapping a great deal of invective. The tradition continued in a slightly modified form as zajal, in which two groups 'joust' in verse, and remains a common style in Lebanon. Court poets Ghaylan ibn 'Uqbah (c. 696 – c. 735), nicknamed Dhu al-Rummah, is usually regarded as the last of the Pre-islamic poets. His works had continued the themes and style of the pre-Islamic poets particularly eulogising the harsh but simple desert life, traditionally recited round a campfire. Although such themes continued and were returned to by many modern, urban poets, this poetic life was giving way