Mutanabbi

Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn al-Mutanabbī was born in the Iraqi city of Kufah in 915. He was the son of a water carrier who claimed noble and ancient descent from the Kindah (a Yemeni tribe that also gave to the world poet-prince Imru’ al-Qays). Al-Mutanabbi began writing poetry when he was nine years old and became regarded by many as one of the greatest, most prominent and most influential poets of the Arabic language. Mutanabbi crafted verses with personal feeling and a sense of individuality at a time when conventional taste least encouraged such intimacy. In doing so, he inspired admiration in later generations. He was also known for paying careful attention to the musical quality of his verses.

Owing to his poetic talent, Mutanabbi received a formal education in Damascus, Syria. In accordance with custom, he also went to live with the Arabian Bedouin of the Samawa in the Syrian desert. Poets and philologists of the period viewed the Bedouin as the true repository of pure Arabic speech and eloquence. This sojourn left its mark on both his psyche and his poetry. He began his career in Baghdad and Syria as the panegyrist of a number of rich bourgeois and Bedouin tribal chiefs, where his masterful engaging of the Arab poetic tradition inspired charges of plagiarism that would plague him throughout his career.

Arrogant by nature Mutanabbi turned to violence as a means to attain the power and wealth that he saw as his due. Perhaps influenced by the Qarmatians (a branch of Ismaili Shia Islam), he led a rebellion in Syria for which he was imprisoned for two years. During this time he became known as al-Mutanabbi – the would-be prophet. He later stated that he had never claimed to be a prophet and that this sobriquet was initiated by others and stemmed from a verse in which he likened himself to the pre-Islamic Arabian prophet Salih.

In 948 Mutanabbi attached himself to Sayf al-Dawla, the Hamdanid poet-prince of northern Syria who was famous for his patronage of scholars and for his military struggles against the Greeks. During his nine years stay at Sayf al-Dawla's court, during which time Al-Mutanabbi fought alongside the ruler, he versified his greatest and most famous poems. Basking in the luxury of an opulent and intellectually vibrant court and indulged by a dynamic patron, Mutanabbi produced some of his most celebrated poetry. His panegyrics to Sayf al-Dawla bespeak the poet’s pleasure at singing the praises of one he deemed a true Arab leader and a champion of Islam against the Byzantines. Great rivalry transpired between Al-Mutanabbi and many scholars and poets in Sayf al-Dawla's court, one of those poets being Sayf al-Dawla's cousin Abu Firas al-Hamdani. Eventually, Mutanabbi lost Sayf al-Dawla's favour because of his political ambition and after a period clouded with intrigues and jealousies Mutanabbi left Syria for Egypt. There he joined the court of Abu al-Misk Kafur but left once the ruler became suspicious of Al-Mutanabbi's intentions and political ambition. The opulence and intellectual fertility of his new environs where not enough to extinguish the poet’s shame at having to eulogise a former slave whom he considered inherently inferior. Abu al-Misk Kafur found himself the subject of heavy criticism through Mutanabbi’s satirical odes. Mutanabbi’s search for a political position took him on to Kufah where he defended the city from attack by the Qarmatians. He eventually found protection in Shiraz, Iran under the emir 'Adud al-Dawlah.

Al-Mutanabbī’s pride and arrogance set the tone for much of his verse, which is ornately rhetorical yet crafted with consummate skill and artistry. He gave to the traditional qasidah, or ode, a freer and more personal development, writing in what can be called a neoclassical style that combined some elements of Iraqi and Syrian stylistics with classical features. His proud nature landed him in trouble several times over the course of his life and may even have been the cause of his death. One of his poems contained a great insult to Qarmatian rebel called Ḍabbah al-Asadī. As the story goes Dabbah, along with his uncle Bedouin chief Fāṫik al-Asadī managed to intercept al-Mutanabbi, his son Muḥassad and his servant near Baghdad as they made their return to Sayf al-Dawla’s court. When al-Mutanabbi wished to flee, his servant reminded the poet of his bold verses. Al-Mutanabbi resolved to live up to them, fought, and died along with his companions in 965.