The sword tells truer news than books; its edge divides…

In this poem, events disprove the astrologers’ predictions. The contrast celebrates a concrete military victory. Reading it as a rejection of all books or learning would miss its particular context.

Abu Tammam opens his poem on the capture of Amorium with this line. The books refer here to astrologers’ writings predicting the campaign’s failure.

Nearby verses play on the white of blades and the black of written pages. Their contrast answers the astrologers’ claims with a visible victory. This network of images explains the opening line’s force, often quoted separately about the relationship between words and deeds.

قصيدة «السيف أصدق إنباء من الكتب» (فتح عمورية), مطلع القصيدة, 838

The text appears in the indicated source. A traditional attribution remains distinct from proof of authorship: see the context.

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