al-Mutanabbi
Arab Iraqi poet
915 CE to 965 CE
Abu at-Tayyib Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Mutanabbi (915 – 23 September 965) is an Arab Iraqi poet.
He is considered as one of the greatest poets in the Arabic language.
Much of his poetry revolves around praising the kings he visited during his lifetime.
Some consider his 326 poems to be a great representation of his life story.
He starts writing poetry when he was nine years old.
He is well known for his sharp intelligence and wittiness.
Al-Mutanabbi takes great pride in his poetry.
Among the topics he discusses are courage, the philosophy of life, and the description of battles.
Many of his poems are still widely read in today's Arab world and are considered to be proverbial.
His great talent brings him very close to many leaders and kings, whom he praises in return for money and gifts.
World
The Great Crossroads
View →Related Events
Showing 3 events out of 3 total
Al-Mutanabbi had joined the court of Abu al-Misk Kafur after parting ways with Saif al Dawla, but Kafur had dismissed Al-Mutanabbi's intentions, claiming them to be a threat to his position.
Realizing that his hopes of becoming a statesman will not materialize, Al-Mutanabbi keaves Egypt in about 960, afterward heavily criticizes Abu al-Misk Kafur with satirical odes.
Al-Mutanabbi, born in the town of Kufah in Iraq in 915, is the son of a water carrier who claims noble and ancient southern Arabian descent.
Owing to his poetic talent, and claiming predecession of the prophet Saleh, al-Mutanabbi had received an education in Damascus, Syria.
When Shi'ite Qarmatians sacked Al-Kufah in 924, he had joined them and lived among the Bedouin, learning their doctrines and dialect.
Claiming to be a prophet--hence the name al-Mutanabbi ("The Would-be Prophet") he had led a Qarmatian revolt in Syria in 932.
After its suppression and two years of imprisonment, he had recanted in 935 and become a wandering poet.
It is during this period that he began to write his first known poems.
Al-Mutanabbi lives at the time when the Abbasid Caliphate had started coming apart, many of the states in the Islamic world becoming politically and militarily independent from Abbasid authority.
Chief among those states is the Emirate of Aleppo.
Al-Mutanabbi began to write panegyrics in the tradition established by the poets Abu Tammam and al-Buhturi.
In 948, he had attached himself to Sayf al-Dawla, the Hamdanid poet-prince of northern Syria.
Sayf al-Daula is greatly concerned with fighting the Constantinople’s Empire in Asia Minor, where Al-Mutanabbi has fought alongside him.
During his nine years stay at Sayf al-Daula's court, Al-Mutanabbi has versified his greatest and most famous poems, writing in praise of his patron panegyrics that rank as masterpieces of Arabic poetry.
During his stay in Aleppo, great rivalry has occurred between Al-Mutanabbi and many scholars and poets in Sayf al-Daula's court, one of these being Abu Firas al-Hamdani, Sayf al-Daula's cousin.
In addition, Al-Mutanabbi has lost Sayf al-Daula's favor because of his political ambition to be Wāli.
The latter part of this period has been clouded with intrigues and jealousies that culminate in al-Mutanabbi's leaving of Syria for Egypt, now ruled in name by the Ikhshidids.
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.)