Poetic boasts served as battlefield morale weapons in early Arabia

Evidence

In its earliest and simplest form, as described by the Arab literary historians, the fakhr is a technique of battlefield propaganda, designed to strengthen the morale of one’s own fighters while undermining that of the enemy. A more peaceful form of propaganda was the mufa¯khara, a kind of friendly contest in which poets and orators from different tribes competed against each other, boasting of their own merits and achievements and belittling their rivals. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 464

Categorization

• XREF: Matches the duel-of-praise-poets motif found in Norse skaldic tradition and in West African griot competitions.