Ibn Khafaja

{{Short description|Andalusian Muslim poet}}

{{Infobox poet

| name = Ibn Khafaja

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| birth_name = Abu Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Abu al-Fath

| birth_date = 1058

| birth_place = Alzira, Al-Andalus (now Spain)

| death_date = 1138/1139

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| occupation = Poet

| language = Arabic

| nationality = Andalusian

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}}

Abu Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Abu al-Fath (1058–1138/9), called Ibn Khafajah (إبن خفاجة), a native of Alzira, was a poet of al-Andalus during the reign of the Almoravids.Samuel G. Armistead, E. Michael Gerli (ed.), Medieval Iberia, an Encyclopedia, 2003, entry "Ibn Khafaja" He was born in 1058 in Alzira (Arabic: جزيرة شقر) near Valencia where he spent most of his life. He was the maternal uncle of poet Ibn al-Zaqqaq.María Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin, Michael Anthony Sells, The literature of Al-Andalus, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 224

He wrote sophisticated nature poetry.Salma Khadra Jayyusi, "Nature poetry and the rise of Ibn Khafaja," in: Salma Khadra Jayyusi (ed.), The legacy of Muslim Spain, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994, p. 381 He remained unmarried but had many friends and lived to be over eighty.There is a style based on him afterwards followed by many known as 'khafājī'.

His poetry often uses images to a dramatic function, such as contrasting light and darkness, or humanising the night environment.

Composer Mohammed Fairouz set three poems of Ibn Khafajah to music in a cycle of vocal chamber music written for the Cygnus Ensemble.Moore, Thomas (September 12, 2010), [http://www.operatoday.com/content/2010/09/mohammed_fairou.php Mohammed Fairouz: An Interview], Opera Today, retrieved 2011-04-19