Hatim al-Tai

Al-Tai lived in Ha'il in the present-day Saudi Arabia and was mentioned in some Hadiths attributed to Muhammad.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R_ErZq5bw-gC&dq=%E2%80%9CMy+father+used+to+uphold+the+ties+of+kinship%2C+and+do+such+and+such%E2%80%A6+Will+he+have+any+%28reward%29+for+that%3F%E2%80%9D+He+said%2C+%E2%80%9CYour+father+seeking+something+and&pg=PA81|title=Islam: Questions And Answers - The Heart Softeners (Part 1)|last=Abdul-Rahman|first=Muhammad Saed|date=2003-12-21|publisher=MSA Publication Limited|isbn=9781861793287|pages=81–82|language=en}} He died in 578 AD,Kitab al-Aghani by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani and was buried in Tuwarin, Ha'il. His tomb is described in the Arabian Nights.{{cite book|last=van Arendonk|first=Cornelis|title=E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xd5VonTOppMC&pg=PA290|year=1987|publisher=E. J. Brill|isbn=9789004082656|page=290}} His name Hatim means 'black crow' in Arabic.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aWaKYEDfjXwC&dq=hatim+means+crow&pg=PA789 | title=The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights | date=26 August 2009 | isbn=9780307417015 | access-date=21 September 2022 | archive-date=23 January 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123063952/https://books.google.com/books?id=aWaKYEDfjXwC&dq=hatim+means+crow&pg=PA789 | url-status=live }}

File:Castle_Of_Hatim_At-tai_2011.jpg]]

He lived in the sixth century CE and also figures in the Arabian Nights stories. The celebrated Persian poet Saadi, in his work Gulistan (1259) wrote: "Hatim Taï no longer exists but his exalted name will remain famous for virtue to eternity. Distribute the tithe of your wealth in alms; for when the husbandman lops off the exuberant branches from the vine, it produces an increase of grapes".Clouston, A. W. (1881). [https://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/arp/arp159.htm "Hatim Tai, the Generous Arab Chief"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230222074417/https://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/arp/arp159.htm |date=2023-02-22 }}. Arabian Poetry. p. 409. He is also mentioned in Saadi's Bostan (1257).Edwards, A. Heart, tr. (1911). [http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/bus/bus06.htm The Bustan of Sadi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020134618/https://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/bus/bus06.htm |date=2019-10-20 }}. pp. 53–57. According to legends in various books and stories, he was a famous personality in the region of Ta'i (present day Ha'il) and is also a well-known figure in the rest of the Middle East as well as the Indian subcontinent, featuring in many books, films and TV series in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Turkish, Hindi, Kashmiri and various other languages.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}

He is associated with the Lakhmid court in Hira, especially under its most famous king Al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=ḤĀTEM ṬĀʾI |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hatem-tai |issn=2330-4804 |access-date=2023-05-15 |archive-date=2023-05-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514120434/https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hatem-tai |url-status=live }}

It is said that he used to give away everything he possessed except for his mount and weapons.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=ḤĀTEM ṬĀʾI |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hatem-tai |issn=2330-4804 |access-date=2023-05-15 |archive-date=2023-05-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514120434/https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hatem-tai |url-status=live }}

Rozat-ul-Sufa mentions that "In the eighth year after the birth of his eminence the Prophet (Muhammad), died Noushirwan the Just, and Hatemtai the generous, both famous for their virtues",{{Cite web |url=http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=08501030&ct=0 |title=Archived copy |access-date=2008-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151102080822/http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=08501030&ct=0 |archive-date=2015-11-02 |url-status=dead }} around 579 CE. According to the 17th-century orientalist D'Herbelot, his tomb was located at a small village called Anwarz, in Arabia.{{cite book|last=Arbuthnot|first=F. F.|title=Persian Portraits: A Sketch of Persian History, Literature and Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s_4KV4Ixq4IC&pg=PA132|access-date=13 December 2013|year=1887|publisher=B. Quaritch|page=132}}

One of his works is a poem which has been translated into English as "On Avarice".Clouston, A. W. (1881). [https://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/arp/arp028.htm#page_99 "On Avarice by Hatem Tai"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230222074417/https://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/arp/arp028.htm#page_99 |date=2023-02-22 }}. [https://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/arp/arp028.htm#page_99 Arabian Poetry] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230222074417/https://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/arp/arp028.htm#page_99 |date=2023-02-22 }}. pp. 99–100

Outside Arabia, the tales of Hatim are also popular in Persia, India, and Pakistan.[http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00litlinks/marv_qissa/03HATIM.pdf "Chapter Three: Qissah-e Hatim"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415213054/http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00litlinks/marv_qissa/03HATIM.pdf |date=2023-04-15 }}. University of Columbia. Retrieved 30 April 2023.

Qissa-e-Hatem-tai ({{Nastaliq|قصۂ حاتم طائی}}), alternatively Dastan-e-Hatem-tai ({{Nastaliq|داستانِ حاتم طائی}}), meaning "The Tale of Hatemtai" is very popular in Persia and the Indian subcontinent. Sayad Haider Bakhsh Haidri, the author of the Qissa-e-Hatim Tai, writes in his introduction that he has taken the story from "someone’s" Persian text, but has amplified and extended it at suitable points "to please the listeners." Multiple films (see below) have been made about Hatim based on this story, which narrates seven of his fantastic adventures in seven chapters.

The books on the story usually consist of a short introduction describing his ancestry and character and tells the seven episodes based on seven riddles, asked by a beautiful and rich woman named Husn Banu ({{Nastaliq|حسن بانو}}), who will marry only the person who is able to obtain answers to all seven of them.Arbuthnot, F. F. (1887). [https://books.google.com/books?id=s_4KV4Ixq4IC&dq=Hatim+Tai&pg=PA132 Persian Portraits: A Sketch of Persian History, Literature and Politics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231007035332/https://books.google.com/books?id=s_4KV4Ixq4IC&dq=Hatim+Tai&pg=PA132 |date=2023-10-07 }}. London: Bernard Quaritch. p. 132. The riddles are:

1. 'What I saw once, I long for a second time.'
2. 'Do good, and cast it upon the waters.'
3. 'Do no evil; if you do, such shall you meet with.'
4. 'He who speaks the truth is always tranquil.'
5. 'Let him bring an account of the mountain of Nida.'
6. 'Let him produce a pearl of the size of a duck's egg.'
7. 'Let him bring an account of the bath of Badgard.'

A king, who falls in love with her but unable to find answers, tells the generous Hatemtai, whom he meets by chance, all about it. Hatim undertakes the quest to find the answers and help the king marry her.

• Hatim Tai (1956), directed by Homi Wadia
• Saat Sawal (1971), directed by Babubhai Mistry
• Hatim Tai (1990), directed by Babubhai Mistry

• Dastaan-e-Hatimtai - An Indian TV Series aired on DD National.{{cite web |last1=Khanzada |first1=Farida |title=PVR to release animation film Adventures of Sinbad |url=http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/pvr-to-release-animation-film-adventures-of-sinbad/1060773/ |website=Indian Express |date=18 January 2013 |access-date=10 April 2021 |archive-date=5 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305121128/http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/pvr-to-release-animation-film-adventures-of-sinbad/1060773/ |url-status=live }}
• Hatim - An Indian TV Series on Star Plus in 2003-2004
• The Adventures of Hatim - A 2013 Indian TV Series on Life OK

• Ka'b Ibn Mama

{{reflist}}

• The Story of Hatim in The Arabian Nights (AD 800–900 in modern form).
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20151102080822/http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=08501030&ct=0 The Adventures of Hatim Tai] (Qissa-e-Hatim Tai, from an 1824 Persian manuscript) by Duncan Forbes.
• Adventures of the second Darwesh in Bagh-o-Bahar or Qissa Chahar Darvesh, Mir Amman of Delhi, Urdu 1804, translated by Duncan Forbes [http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urdu/baghobahar/index.html#index]
• Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883) mentions Hatim Tai in his translations of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. See quatrain IX in Fitzgerald's first edition:

"But come with old Khayyam, and leave the Lot

Of Kaikobad and Kaikhosru forgot:

Let Rustum lay about him as he will,

Or Hatem Taiy cry Supper--heed them not."

• Many books written and translated in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi etc.
• Hatem Tai in Tamil by Prema Pirasuram

• {{wikisourcelang-inline|ar|مؤلف:حاتم الطائي|Hatem al-Tai}}

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Category:570s deaths

Category:One Thousand and One Nights characters

Category:Year of birth unknown

Category:Tayy

Category:6th-century Arabic-language poets

Category:Yemeni poets