Al-Mutanabbi

Who is Al-Mutanabbi?

Abu al-Tayyib Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Mutanabbi was born in Kufa, in what is now Iraq, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets in the history of the Arabic language. He began composing verse in his youth and, after years of study and travel across the Levant and Iraq, rose to fame as court poet to the Hamdanid ruler Sayf al-Dawla in Aleppo, for whom he wrote celebrated panegyrics praising military victories against the Byzantines. He later served the Ikhshidid ruler Kafur in Egypt before a falling-out led him to leave in secret, satirizing his former patron in scathing verse. His poetry is prized for its powerful rhetoric, dense wordplay, philosophical reflections on ambition and fate, and unmatched command of classical Arabic meter, and countless lines from his diwan remain proverbial in everyday Arabic speech to this day. Al-Mutanabbi was killed in 965 near Deir al-Aqul, close to Baghdad, in an ambush by tribesmen while traveling back toward Kufa, reportedly after refusing to flee out of pride in his own famous verses about courage.

Sources: Al-Mutanabbi, Diwan al-Mutanabbi (10th century) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, "al-Mutanabbi" · Margaret Larkin, Al-Mutanabbi (Makers of Islamic Civilization series)