Ahmad ibn-al-Husayn al-Mutanabbi
Abou-t-Tayyib Ahmad
ibn al-Husayn al-Mutanabbi (Arabic: أبو الطيب احمد
بن الحسين المتنبّي) (915 – 23 September 965) was
an Arab (Iraqi-born) poet. He is regarded as one of
the greatest poets in the Arabic language. Most 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 started versifying when he was nine years
old. He is well known for his sharp intelligence and
witness. Al-Mutanabbi had a great pride in himself
through his poetry. Among the topics he discussed
were courage, the philosophy of life, and the
description of battles. Many of his poems were and
still are widely spread in today's Arab world and
are considered to be proverbial.
His great talent
brought him very close to many leaders of that time.
He praised those leaders and kings in return for
money and gifts. His powerful and honest poetic
style earned great popularity in his time.
Al-Mutanabbi was
born in the town of Kufah in Iraq, he was a son of
water carrier. In his youth, Al-Mutanabbi was
educated in Syria Damascus. His nickname Al-Mutanabbi
means "The one who wants to become a Prophet", the
reason for this controversial nickname is not
entirely known, some say that he climed to be the
predecessor of prophet Saleh. Others claim it is his
political activities that won the young poet the
unusual nickname when he lead a revolutionary
movement in his home town in 932. The revolt was
suppressed and the young man was imprisoned. It is
during this period that he began to write his first
known poems. Al-Mutanabbi had great political
ambitions to be Wali, to fulfill his ambitions he
joined the courts of Sayf al-Daula and Abu al-Misk
Kafur but his ambitions failed.
Al-Mutanabbi lived at the time when the Abbasid
Caliphate started coming apart, many of the states
in the islamic world became politically and
militarily independent from the weak Abbasid
Caliphate. Chief among those states was the Emirate
of Aleppo. Ruling this greatly independent state at
the time of Al-Mutanabbi was Sayf al-Daula.
Al-Mutanabbi joined
the court of Sayf al-Daula in 948. Sayf al-Daula was
greatly concerned with fighting the Byzantine Empire
in Asia minor where Al-Mutanabbi fought along side
him. During his nine years stay at Sayf al-Daula's
court, Al-Mutanabbi versified his greatest and most
famous poems.
During his stay in
Aleppo, great rivalry occur between Al-Mutanabbi and
many scholars and poets in Sayf al-Daula's court,
one of those poets was Abu Firas al-Hamdani, Sayf
al-Daula's cousin. In addition, Al-Mutanabbi lost
Sayf al-Daula's favor because of his political
ambition to be Wali. Al-Mutanabbi had no other
choice but to leave Aleppo heading toward Egypt.
Al-Mutanabbi joined the court of Abu al-Misk Kafur,
but the latter did not bestow the visiting poet as
he expected. At that time Al-Mutanabbi realized that
his hopes of becoming Wali were not going to be
materialized so he left Egypt in 960. After leaving
Egypt he heavily criticized Abu al-Misk Kafur with
very satirical poems. As a result of those poems Abu
al-Misk Kafur will always be associated with those
satirical poems throughout history.
Al-Mutanabbi was killed because one of his poems
that contained great insult to a man called Dhaba
al-Alasdi (Arabic: ضبة الأسدي). Dhaba along with his
Uncle Fatik al-Alasdi (Arabic: فاتك الأسدي)
determined to kill Al-Mutanabbi because of that poem
with contained a great insult for his nephew, they
managed to intercept Al-Mutanabbi, his son Muhassad
Arabic: محسد), and his servant near Bagdad and
killed them all in 965.