Color and Gray Hair in the Sermons of the Umayyad and Abbasid Eras

Abstract

This study explores the symbolic and rhetorical significance of color and gray hair in the sermons of the Umayyad and Abbasid periods. Gray hair is portrayed as a sign of aging, weakness, and the approach of death, often used rhetorically to evoke emotional responses and to express wisdom or vulnerability. Color, on the other hand, functions as an allusive tool in constructing metaphorical imagery and figurative expressions. The study highlights how preachers utilized these symbolic elements to convey religious and social meanings.