It is reported that a man from al-Kūfa once entered amosque in Baghdād, where he witnessed a curiousscene. People had gathered around an old man whorecited a poem lamenting the loss of his youth,while tears were streaming down his cheeks. The manfrom al-Kūfa was so impressed that he immediatelywrote down the verses. The anecdote is found in theKitāb al-aghānī andthe sermonizing poet was Ismāʿīl b. al-Qāsim, whobecame notorious under his nickname Abū l-ʿAtāhiya(130–210 or 211/748–825 or 826). He was one of themost prolific poets of his epoch; his survivingdīwān consists ofapproximately 5 500 verses, which until today havereceived little scholarly attention. Though apot-seller in his youth and deprived of a formalliterary and theological education, Ismāʿīl b.al-Qāsim, as a young man, associated with a circleof poets. Having gained reputation with hislaudatory and love poetry in Baghdād, he succeededin making himself a name at court. During the reignof Hārūn al-Rashīd (r. 170–193/786–809), he suddenlyshifted to a new genre of pious poetry, zuhdiyyāt, to which hedevoted himself for the rest of his life.

Drawing on different genres of poetry and prose, amongthem fig- uring prominently wisdom literature, thetraditional qaṣīda,elegy and sermon material, Abū l-ʿAtāhiya's zuhdiyyāt, which are devotedto the transitoriness of everything worldly,transcend the thematic and formal horizon of thetraditional literary canon. Within the limited scopeof this article, it is not possible tosystematically trace all the links through which thezuhdiyya isconnected to the literature of the epoch. This shortstudy will focus on the genre's relation to theearly Islamic sermon (waʿẓ).