المكان في رسالتي التوابع والزوابع والغفران

Place represents a major value in any narrative work due to its direct influence on the narrator and the poet. Through it, the poet can express issues and concerns rooted in their psyche or society.

Place in a literary work should not be viewed as empty or neutral. Writers such as Ibn Shahid (399) AH) and Al-Ma'arri (449) AH) employed place in various creative ways, depending on the context. Both were disillusioned with the physical world and sought a space through which they could express the suffering of their surroundings .They linked place to reality and used it to define their artistic and intellectual goals, leaving a profound impact through their messages. They utilized the elements of earth, sky, and valleys, and connected freedom of expression and imagination with the methods that suited their literary purposes. This helped in revealing hidden meanings through symbolism, metaphor, and suggestion—going beyond the surface meaning.Ibn Shahid, for example, used the land of the jinn as his stage, filling it with events and characters. Al-Ma’arri, on the other hand, made his stage heaven, hell, and the land of the jinn—employing the accompanying scenes and horrors to critique several issues of his time, including envy, and social, political, ideological, literary, and linguistic phenomena.