Abū al-ʻAtāhiyya (
Arabic: أبو العتاهية; 748–828), full name Abu Ishaq Isma'il ibn al-Qasim ibn Suwayd Al-Anzi (أبو إسحاق إسماعيل بن القاسم بن سويد العنزي),[1][2][3] was among the principal
Arab poets of the early Islamic era, a prolific muwallad[n 1]poet of ascetics who ranked with
Bashshār and
Abū Nuwās, whom he met. He renounced poetry for a time on religious grounds.[4]
Life
Abū l-ʻAtāhiyya was born in
Ayn al-Tamr in the
Iraqi desert, near
al-Anbar.[n 2] There are two sayings in his lineage the first is that he is from the
Anazzah tribe,[5][6] and the other is that His family were mawali of the tribe of
ʻAnaza.[7] His youth was spent in
Kufa, where he was engaged for some time in selling pottery. During the time when he took the occupation of selling pottery, he saw the assembly of poets in a competition and he participated in it. He composed eulogia to the governor of
Tabaristan, emir Umar Ibn al-Alā (783-4/ 167AH).[8] and with a growing reputation, he was drawn to
Baghdad, the seat of the Abbāsid court where he soon became famous for his verses, especially for those addressed to ‘Utbah[9][10][11][n 3], a
concubine of the
AbbasidCaliphal-Mahdi. His love was unrequited, although
al-Mahdi, and after him Caliph
ar-Rashīd, interceded for him. Having offended the
caliph, he was imprisoned for a short time. He died in 828 in the reign of
Caliph al-Ma'mūn,[12] and
Al-Nadīm cites the
qāḍī of al-Kūfah Ibn Kāmil (d.961) that he died on the same day as the grammarian ‘Amr ibn Abī ‘Amr al-Shaybānī and the court musician
Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī in 828-9 / 213 AH.[13] His tomb was on the banks of the Īsā canal.[n 4] opposite the Kantarat al-Zaiyātīn ('Oilmen Bridge')[14]
Legacy
The poetry of Abū l-ʻAtāhiyya is notable for its avoidance of the artificiality almost universal in his days. The older poetry of the desert had been constantly imitated up to this time, although it was not natural to town life. Abū l-ʻAtāhiyya was one of the first to drop the old qasīda (
elegy) form. He was very fluent and used many
metres. He is also regarded as one of the earliest philosophical poets of the Arabs. Much of his poetry is concerned with the observation of common life and morality, and at times is pessimistic. Thus he was strongly suspected of
heresy.[12]Ibn Abī Ṭāhir Ṭayfūr (819/20 —893/94) published an anthology of Abū al-‘Atāhiyah’s poetry.[15] He was also included in Hārūn ibn ‘Alī al-Munajjim’s unfinished anthology “Traditions of the Poets,” along with contemporary poets
Abū Nuwās and
Bashshār et al.[16] The
vizier Ibn ‘Ammār al-Thaqafī (d. 931/ 319 AH) wrote Traditions about Abū al-‘Atāhiyah.[17]
Abū al-‘Atāhiyah produced poets among his children and grandchildren who each wrote fifty leaves of poetry:
Muḥammad ibn Abī al-‘Atāhiyah, surnamed Abū ‘Abd Allāh, was a hermit nicknamed al-‘Atāhiyah (the Foolish One).
‘Abd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-‘Atāhiyah.
Abū Suwayd ‘Abd al-Qāwī ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-‘Atāhiyah.
Of the many anecdotes told of al-‘Atāhiyah,
al-Nadīm relates one attributed to the Abbāsid court musician,
Isḥāq al-Mawṣilī, that whenever he, al-Mawṣilī, saw three men, three others appeared: “Wherever al-Haytham ibn ‘Adī was seen, Hishām al-Kalbī was there; if ‘Allawīyah was there then Mukhāriq turned up; Abū Nuwās was on hand if Abū al-‘Atāhiyah appeared."[n 5].[19][14]
^Ibn Khallikān says that some said ‘Abu al-Atāhiyah was born at Ain al-Tamr, in
Hejāz near
Medina, others said it was along the
Euphrates near Anbār.
^Khallikān describes ‘Utbah as the slave girl of the caliph al-Mahdī, while Iṣbahānī calls her slave girl of al-Khayzurān, mother of Hārūn al-Rashīd. Isḥāq al-Nadīm lists Abū al-‘Atāhiyah and ‘Utbah among the ‘passionate lovers’ whose stories became romanticised in book form.
^The Īsā river, or canal, ran from the
Euphrates into the
Tigris. See Ibn Khallikān Wafayāt, (1843) I, p.209, n.14
^AI-Haytham and al-Kalbī were scholars of traditions; ‘Allawīyah and Mukhāriq were singers; Abū Nuwās and Abū al-‘Atāhiyah were poets; all lived about the time of
Hārūn al-Rashīd or thereafter.
Stefan Sperl, Mannerism in Arabic Poetry: A Structural Analysis of Selected Texts (3rd Century AH/9th Century AD–5th Century AH/11th Century AD) (2005, Cambridge University Press)
ISBN0-521-52292-7
Tzvetan Theophanov, "Abu-l-'Atahiya and the Philosophy". In: T. Theophanov. Philosophy and Arts in the Islamic World: Proceedings of the 18th Congress of the Union Europeenne des Arabisants et Islamisants (1998), p. 41-55.
ISBN978-90-6831-977-4