A096 - Al-Mutanabbi

 Mutanabbi, al-

Mutanabbi, al- (Abu’l-Tayyib Ahmad al-Ju‘fi) (Ahmad ibn al-Husain al-Mutanabbi) (Abou-t-Tayyib Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Mutanabbi) (915–September 23, 965).  One of the greatest Arab poets.  Born in Kufa, in 928, he went to Syria and studied at Damascus.  His ambition was to be a professional poet, and since the necessary patrons proved slow in coming forward, he set himself up as a prophet and led an unsuccessful political-religious revolt.  Without adhering to Carmathian doctrines, he exploited its principles when in 933 he led a revolt in the Samawa, the region between the Kufa and Palmyrene. On this occasion, he received the surname al-Mutanabbi “he who professes to be a prophet.”  After having led a wandering life, he stayed nine years with the Hamdanid Sayf al-Dawla ‘Ali I in Aleppo, but fled to Damascus in 957.  In Egypt, he obtained the patronage of the Ikhshidid regent Kafur but, deprived of moral and material independence, he was forced to sing the praises of a patron for whom in his heart he felt only contempt.  In 962, he fled to Kufa and then settled in Baghdad.  In 965, he went via Ahvaz to Arrajan in Susiana and from there to Shiraz.  On his way back to Baghdad, he was killed by marauding Bedouins.  The enormous bibliography of al-Mutanabbi’s life and work is a striking proof of the eminent place which he occupies in Arabic literature from the tenth century until the present day.

The Arabs regard al-Mutanabbi as one of their greatest poets.  He is the principal figure of the “Modern” school which began to break away from the traditional themes and ways of expression of the Pre-Islamic poets, long regarded as the only ones suitable for poetry.  The “Moderns” made considerable use of Badi’ (Innovation) -- their new, and, to conservative poets and critics, shocking images, figures of speech and plays on words.  The old type of poetry, in which poets who had scarcely ever seen the desert wept over the deserted camping sites of their loved ones, and described in painstaking detail the points of their camels, continued to be written, side by side with the “Modern” type.  Al-Mutanabbi did not abandon the qasida (ode), but transformed it, and made it into an organic whole, with theme leading naturally to theme, instead of a series of almost unconnected lines.

Al-Mutanabbi was educated in Damascus, as well as choosing to live among bedouins in the desert, with the tribe Banu Qalb.  It was during his youth that he got his name, which means “the one who wants to become Prophet,” when he participated in revolutionary movements.

During imprisonment he started to compose his poetry.  From 948 to 957, al-Mutanabbi worked close to the Syrian prince Sayfu ad-Dawla in Aleppo, and wrote a number of panegyrics for him.  But as al-Mutanabbi was still politically active, he was eventually forced to flee to Egypt, but as he wrote satires taht presented the court in a negative way, he had to move again, now back to Iraq,.to Baghdad. 

Later on he worked as a court poet in Shiraz.  While being without a patron, al-Mutanabbi was in 965 slain by brigands during a trip, near Baghdad.

With a flowery style, use of the ode, and changing way from the traditional Arabic qasida, al-Mutanabbi stands out as the most important representative for the panegyrical poetic style.



Abu’l-Tayyib Ahmad al-Ju‘fi see Mutanabbi, al-
Ahmad ibn al-Husain al-Mutanabbi see Mutanabbi, al-
Mutanabbi, Ahmad ibn al-Husain al- see Mutanabbi, al-
Ju'fi, Abu'l-Tayyib Ahmad al- see Mutanabbi, al-
Abou-t-Tayyib Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Mutanabbi see Mutanabbi, al-