What are they?
Reference works describe the Muʿallaqāt as a collection of seven pre-Islamic qaṣīdahs by some of the most famous poets of the 6th century. The grouping is usually credited to the 8th-century collector Ḥammād al-Rāwiyah.
Were they really “hung” on the Kaaba?
A legend dating from the 10th century says the poems were written in gold and suspended on the Kaaba. Britannica notes this is far from certain: Ḥammād seems to have called them “the seven renowned ones”, and the name may derive from ʿilq, “a precious thing”. The title Muʿallaqāt is attested around 900.
The poets
The standard list (recorded by Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih): Imruʾ al-Qays, Ṭarafah, Zuhayr, Labīd, ʿAntarah, ʿAmr ibn Kulthūm and al-Ḥārith ibn Ḥilliza. Other early authorities substitute ʿAbid ibn al-Abras, al-Nābighah or al-Aʿshā.
Shape of the ode
A nasīb (remembering a lost love at an abandoned campsite) leads into journeys, descriptions of camel or horse, desert scenes and warfare, and finally praise or boast. The storm that closes Imruʾ al-Qays’s ode is a celebrated example.