Al-Mutanabbi

Al-Mutanabbi was born in the city of Kufa (in modern day Iraq) in 915. His father claimed descent from the South Arabian tribe of Banu Ju'fa.{{Cite journal|last=Hámori|first=András P.|title=al-Mutanabbī|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/al-mutanabbi-COM_40652|journal=Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE|language=en}} His last name, Al-Kindī, was attributed to the district he was born.{{Cite book|last=al-Mutanabī.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/225423623|title=Diwān al-Mutanabī.|date=2005|publisher=Dār al-Jīl|isbn=9953-78-127-3|location=Bayrūt|oclc=225423623}}

Owing to his poetic talent and claiming predecession of prophet Salih, al-Mutanabbi received an education in Damascus, Syria. When the Qarmatians sacked Kufah in 924, he joined them and lived among the Banu Kalb and other Bedouin tribes. Learning their doctrines and dialect, he had many followers and even claimed to be a nabi ({{lang|ar|نَـبِي}}, "prophet"—hence the laqab al-Mutanabbi "The Would-be Prophet".

He led a Qarmatian revolt in Syria in 932. After its suppression and two years of imprisonment by the Ikhshid governor of Homs,{{sfn|Khallikān (Ibn)|1843|loc=I|p=104}} he recanted in 935 and became a wandering poet. During this period, he began writing his first known poems. Political ambition to be a wali led al-Mutanabbi to the courts of Sayf al-Dawla and Abu al-Misk Kafur but in this ambition he failed.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

Al-Mutanabbi lived at the time when the Abbasid Caliphate started coming apart and many of the states in the Islamic world became politically and militarily independent. Chief among those states was the Emirate of Aleppo.

File:Khalili Collection Islamic Art MSS 0902-61b-62a.jpg]]

He began to write panegyrics in the tradition established by the poets Abu Tammam and al-Buhturi. In 948 he joined the court of Sayf al-Dawla, the Hamdanid poet-prince of northern Syria. Sayf al-Dawla was greatly concerned with fighting the Byzantine Empire in Asia minor, where Al-Mutanabbi fought alongside him. During his nine years stay at Sayf al-Dawla's court, Al-Mutanabbi wrote his greatest and most famous poems, panegyrics in praise of his patron that rank as masterpieces of Arabic poetry.

During his stay in Aleppo, Al-Mutanabbi found himself at odds with many scholars and poets in Sayf al-Dawla's court, including Abu Firas al-Hamdani, a poet and Sayf al-Dawla's cousin. In addition, Al-Mutanabbi lost Sayf al-Dawla's favor because of his political ambition to be Wāli. The latter part of this period was clouded with intrigues and jealousies that culminated in al-Mutanabbi's leaving Syria for Egypt, then ruled in name by the Ikhshidids.

Al-Mutanabbi joined the court of Abu al-Misk Kafur after parting ways with Sayf al-Dawla. Kafur mistrusted Al-Mutanabbi's intentions, claiming them to be a threat to his position. Al-Mutanabbi realized that his hopes of becoming a statesman were not going to bear fruit and he left Egypt in c. 960. After he left, he heavily criticized Abu al-Misk Kafur with satirical odes.

In 957 Mutanabbi left Aleppo, making his way to Egypt and the court of the Abu al-Misk Kafur. In 960 the poet left Egypt, penning several satires about Kafur. He traveled to Baghdad but was killed resisting thieves before reaching the city.{{cite book |last1=Arberry |first1=Arthur |title=Poems of Al-Mutanabbi: A Selection with Introduction, Translations and Notes |date=1967 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=London |isbn=978-0521108485 |pages=54–116 |edition=1st}}

File:في_شارع_المتنبي_تمثال_الشاعر_ابو_الطيب_المتنبي.jpg]]

Ibn Jinni the grammarian (c. 941/2—1001/2) wrote a commentary on al-Mutanabbi's poetry titled Al-Fasr ('The Explanation').{{refn|group=n|Only in the MS of Al-Fihrist in the Chester Beatty Library.}}{{sfn|Nadīm (al-)|1970|p=189}} The poet philosopher Abu Al Alaa al-Marri has also written a book of exegesis on Al-Mutanabbi's poetry.{{Cite web|url=https://www.alaraby.co.uk/%22%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%AC%D8%B2-%D8%A3%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF%22-%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%81-%D9%86%D8%B8%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%A5%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%A8%D9%8A|title="معجز أحمد": كيف نظر المعري إلى المتنبي|website=alaraby.co.uk}} Al Marri, himself an accomplished poet, would usually refer to al-Mutanabbi affectionately as "our poet". Encyclopædia Britannica states: "He gave to the traditional qaṣīdah, 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."{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Mutanabbi | title=Al-Mutanabbī | Muslim poet | Britannica }}

{{Main|Mutanabbi Street}}

File:Al-Mutanabbi Street Gate.png in Baghdad.]]

In 1932, Mutanabbi Street, a bookselling street market of Baghdad, was named after al-Mutanabbi to honor him who, at the time, was very well known in the region. The narrow car-free street is full of booksellers and book stores and it's one kilometer long. At the entrance of the street is an arch adorned with the poet's quotes and on the end of it is a statue of al-Mutanabbi that overlooks the Tigris River. Over time, al-Mutanabbi Street evolved into a symbol of intellectual freedom, attracting writers, artists, and diverse dissenting voices from across the country.

{{Cite web |last=Travers |first=Alannah |title=Mutanabbi Street: An intellectual haven overcomes Iraq's pain |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/3/17/mutannabi-street-slowly-re-emerges-20-years-on-from-iraq-war |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=www.aljazeera.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Baghdad rediscovers Al-Mutanabbi Street after renovation {{!}} |url=https://thearabweekly.com/baghdad-rediscovers-al-mutanabbi-street-after-renovation |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=AW |language=en}}

{{Reflist|group=n}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite news |title=Then and Now: A New Chapter for Baghdad Book Market |url=http://baghdadbureau.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/then-and-now-a-new-chapter-for-baghdad-book-market/?hp |work=The New York Times |first=Eric |last=Owles |date=18 December 2008 |access-date=19 May 2010}}
• Al-Khalil, S. and Makiya, K., The Monument: Art, Vulgarity, and Responsibility in Iraq, University of California Press, 1991, p. 74.
• Al-Mutanabbî, Le Livre des Sabres, choix de poèmes, présentation et traduction de Hoa Hoï Vuong & Patrick Mégarbané, Actes Sud, Sindbad, novembre 2012.
• Arberry, A. J. (trans.), Poems of al-Mutanabbi: A Selection with Introduction, Translations and Notes (London: Cambridge University Press, 1967).
• {{cite book|last=Khallikān (Ibn)|author-link=Ibn Khallikan|first=Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad |title=Wafayāt al-A'yān wa-Anbā' Abnā' al-Zamān (The Obituaries of Eminent Men) |translator-last=McGuckin de Slane|translator-first=William |place= Paris|publisher=Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland |year=1843|pages=102–110|volume=I|url= https://archive.org/stream/WafayatAlAyantheObituariesOfEminentMenByIbnKhallikan/Vol1Of4WafayatAl-ayantheObituariesOfEminentMenByIbnKhallikan#page/n142/mode/2up }}
• {{cite book|last=Nadīm (al-)|author-link=Ibn al-Nadim|first= Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq Abū Ya'qūb al-Warrāq| title=The Fihrist of al-Nadim; a tenth-century survey of Muslim culture|editor-last=Dodge |editor-first=Bayard |place=New York & London|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1970|pages=189, 373, 1066}}
• {{cite book|last=Nadīm (al-)|author-link=Ibn al-Nadim|first=Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq| title=Kitāb al-Fihrist|editor-last=Flügel|editor-first= Gustav|place=Leipzig|publisher=F.C.W. Vogel|year=1872|page=552 (169)|language=ar|url= https://archive.org/details/KitabAlFihrist/page/n551/mode/2up/search/Mutanabb%C4%AB}}
• {{cite book|last=Thaʻālibī|author-link=ʻAbd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad Thaʻālibī|first= ʻAbd al-Mālik b. Muḥ.|title= Mutanabbi und Seifuddaula aus der Edelperle [Yatîmat al-dahr] des Tsaâlibi|editor-last=Dieterici|editor-first= Friedrich|editor1-link=Friedrich Dieterici|place=Leipzig |publisher=Fr. Chr. Wilh. Vogel|year=1847|language=de, ar|url= https://archive.org/details/mutanabbiundsei00thagoog/page/n4/mode/2up}}
• Warren, James (trans.), The Complete Poems of Al-Mutanabbi, (Cultural Books, 2022) ISBN 9798218064082
• Wormhoudt, Arthur (trans.), The Diwan of Abu Tayyib Ahmad Ibn Al-Husayn Al-Mutanabbi (Kazi 2002) {{ISBN|9781930637382}}

• Safa Khulusi

{{wikisourcelang|ar|مؤلف:المتنبي|Al-Mutanabbi}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• [http://www.alshindagah.com/sepoct2003/almutanabbi.html Al-Mutanabbi The Greatest Arabic Poet]
• [http://www.princeton.edu/~arabic/poetry/al_mu_to_sayf.html Mutanabbi's poetry recited by Samar Traboulsi]
• [http://www.almotanabbi.com Almotanabbi.com - the complete collection of Mutanabbi's poems along with explanation]
• {{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Motanabbi |volume=18 |pages=904–905 |short=1}}
• {{Librivox author |id=2929}}

{{Arabic literature}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mutanabbi}}

Category:910s births

Category:965 deaths

Category:Year of birth uncertain

Category:10th-century Arabic-language poets

Category:Poets from the Abbasid Caliphate

Category:People from Kufa

Category:People from the Hamdanid emirate of Aleppo

Category:Qarmatians

Category:Sayf al-Dawla

Category:Muslim poets