The etymology of this common word goes back to pre-Islamic period in hejaz (Saudi old Arabia). After the appearance of Islam, it under went some semantic transformations before entering Persian language.
Poet is a subject noun for a person saying poems. poem(she'er) has a physical mate called shaer meaning hair. Initially shaer or poet means a person who has the ability to distinguish delicate semantics as delicate as man's hair and expresses them into rhythmic words. This is the literal meaning of poet in a linguistic definition. At a deeper level, poet was a person who had a secret relation with the unconscious spirit of his own people and expressed the hidden anxiety and obsessions of his people in a literal language.
The base for the poet's word's
Our ancestors belive that this world was devided into two quite territories. One is a material world which could be experienced with five senses. An approachable, comprehensible world which could be practice with our conscious mind, equal to gity "or the universe". Apart from this tangible world they believed in another invisible and inaccessible world called rthe absent world or ac specified in quran akherat or the resurrection or after world.
The equivalence for it in Persian language is minoo or the sky. The above expressions don’t merely mean the world after death. But this practical word was standing on a hidden base and all the events from that absent world,
One might say that the relation between gity(tangible world) and minoo (hidden world) is like the relation between body and spirit
Meanwhile it was believed that all events were preplanned in minoo or the invisible world. Before coming through in our natural world.
By events is not necessarily meant natural events but all events giving rise to people's lives, relations, wars or peaces , winning or losing of tribes in wars and this respect people try to somehow communicate the hidden world to foresee such events. To make such relations possible they needed special senses different from their five senses and not anybody could access this relation. The presence of a poet asked for such necessity.
The invisible territory for poet
The influence of poet into the invisible world was stimulated by the obsession he felt for people around him in tribal system he also sympathized and felt for his relatives. In such atmosphere, the invisible world was defined as the public spirit of the tribe to the poet. In other words in a tribal system the existence of individuals is a summarized in their tribe.
Individual identity is affected by the tribe (public) identity. People are individuals born within the center of a tribe, grown under the supportive lover of their tribe and just like their fathers; they grow their own bearings in the name of the tribe, and for its survival.
Great features like noble champions who have scarified their lives to promote the values of their tribe. Join the public spirit of the tribe and unite with the highest level of their tribe. This high level is inter-tied with the lord of tribe. Therefore the tribe public spirit is not summarized into the spirit of the existing crowd but all those born shaping of the tribe lived and died all are interrelated elements of the tribe public spirit and its unconscious self as a unit. So tribe was like a great individual with its own identity and a complex spirit of its own. Tribe was considered the whole world in which man could live. This was how individuals felt a need for the poet to be able to communicate with the invisible public spirit of the tribe.
Although the poets mainly describe the nature around in his poems, in form of praise, lamentation, or even satire, it wasn’t his job to present pleasant images of changes of the nature. The poet was the tribe's unconscious voice like a monk or a wizard. He could relate to the tribes spirit which was independent from individuals and for the sake of this relation he could sometimes foretell future events which at times threatened the existence of the tribe and let them know of some out coming dangers. Even in some researchers' opinion, poet had the role of a prophet and the leader for peace or war.at the time of decision making for resident movement, he was consulted and it was him who determined when to raise tents.
People of the tribe believed that news from the invisible world were conveyed from ultra-conscious territory into the poet's mind.
Both believed that an unnatural being is mediating between the poet and his people.
The poet and the invisible world. This being was called muse (Jennie).in Arab language referring to an invisible creature. Each poet had his own muse. There were other names used to call such being later on.
As a poet relied on his own try and fought for its glory as if he had a mission, the range of benefit of conveyances and messages by the so called muses didn’t exceed the range of the benefits of the poet's tribe.
It is claimed in ancient Arab news that the poet would usually put on special garment like a priest, shaved his hair leaving two long locks, rubbed oil on one side of his head, put on leg of shoe, etc.
Such conventions like wearing a garment, shaving, applying holy oil on anointing and all the rest their practice to attract the muse from whom the poet was supposed to receive the content of his speech.
