The long perplexing mimiyya of umayd b.Thawr al-hilali: Which version is more convincing

This article analyses the structure of four different versions of the long love poem by umayd b. Thawr al-Hilali. The shortest of the four runs to 119 verses, and the longest is 185, each line ending with m as a rhyming letter. This structural analysis addresses two main questions: First, what is the story told in each version Second, in light of this, which version is the most convincing Answering these questions enabled a restructuring of the poem, which appears in Arabic below, followed by a full English translation, with footnotes to clarify lexicon and content. The study's main conclusion is that the most convincing version of the poem comprises the verses of al-Bayar (editor of its longest and most recent variant), structured to fit the narrative of al-Maymani's edition.