Al-Mutanabbi, the son of a water carrier…
965 CE
Al-Mutanabbi, the son of a water carrier who claimed noble and ancient southern Arabian descent, had, owing to his poetic talent, received an education.
When Shi'ite Qarmatians sacked Al-Kufah in 924, he had joined them and lived among the Bedouin, learning their doctrines and Arabic.
Claiming to be a prophet—hence the name al-Mutanabbi (“The Would-be Prophet”)—he led a Qarmatian revolt in Syria in 932.
After its suppression and two years' imprisonment, he recanted in 935 and became a wandering poet.
Beginning to write panegyrics in the tradition established by the ninth-century poets Abu Tammam and al-Buhturi, he had attached himself to Sayf ad-Dawla, the Hamdanid poet-prince of northern Syria, writing in praise of his patron panegyrics that rank as masterpieces of Arabic poetry.
Sayf ad-Dawla had bestowed fame and fortune on him during their association but the latter part of the period had been clouded with intrigues and jealousies that culminated in al-Mutanabbi's leaving Syria for Egypt, now ruled in name by the Ikhshidids.
Attaching himself to the regent, the black eunuch Abu al-Misk Kafur, who had been born into slavery, al-Mutanabbi offended Kafur with scurrilous satirical poems and fled Egypt in 960.
He had lived in Shiraz, Iran, under the protection of the emir 'Adud ad-Dawla of the Buyid dynasty until 965, when he returns to Iraq and is killed by bandits near Dayr al-'Aqulin, a suburb of Baghdad, in 965.
Al-Mutanabbi's pride and arrogance had set the tone for much of his verse, which is ornately rhetorical, yet crafted with consummate skill and artistry.
He has given to the traditional qasida, or ode, a freer and more personal development, writing in what can be called a neoclassical style.
Regarded by many as one of the greatest poets in the Arabic language, his work will influence Arabic poetry until the nineteenth century and will be widely quoted.)
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