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MOTANABBI

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 905 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MOTANABBI , strictly AL MUTANABBII (See also:

ABU-T-TAYYIB AI MAD See also:IBN AL-IIUSAIN OF See also:KUFA) (915/6—965), the most famous represen- 1 I.e. " he who plays the See also:prophet." tative of the last See also:period of Arabic See also:poetry, was the son of a See also:water-See also:carrier, and is said to have picked up much of the See also:literary knowledge for which he was afterwards famous by haunting the See also:book-stalls of his native See also:city. He spent too, some years of his youth among the nomads of the Syro-Arabian See also:desert, learning their purer See also:dialect, and becoming imbued with their self-reliant spirit. Thus he See also:grew up a brave proud See also:man, a gallant See also:warrior as well as a poet, not easily satisfied either with See also:wealth or honours, indifferent to the See also:Koran and to the fasts and prayers of See also:Islam, but untainted by the looseness of morals See also:common to the poets of those days. At first he essayed a perilous road to distinction, appearing in the See also:character of a prophet in the desert between the See also:Euphrates and See also:Syria, where he formed a consider-able party, but was arrested by the See also:governor of Emesa (Horns). A See also:prison cooled his See also:enthusiasm. The name of al-Mutanabbi clung to him, however, and is that by which he is still commonly known. Regaining his See also:liberty, he had to struggle for a See also:time with poverty and neglect. But his poetical talents at length found him patrons, and in 948 he became attached to the See also:court of the famous warrior and See also:patron of letters, Saif ad-daula, See also:prince of See also:Aleppo, to whom many of the best fruits of his muse were dedicated, and by whose See also:side he approved his valour in the See also:field. But he had rivals who knew how to inspire See also:jealousy between him and the prince, and an angry See also:scene with the grammarian Khalawaih, in which the latter closed a philological dispute by striking Motanabbi, in the very presence of the prince and without rebuke from him, led the poet to leave the court and seek a new career in the See also:realm of the Ikshids (957). He now took as his patron and the See also:object of his eulogies Kafur, the See also:regent of See also:Egypt—a See also:black See also:eunuch who knew how to open the poet's lips by See also:great gifts and honours. Motanabbi, however, sought a higher See also:reward, the See also:government of See also:Sidon, and at length See also:broke with Kafur, wrote satires against him, and had to See also:fly for his See also:life to Kufa (961).

His next great patron was `Adod ad-daula of See also:

Shiraz, and on a See also:journey from Shiraz to Kufa he was waylaid and slain by a chieftain of the Asad, whose kinsfolk he had satirized (See also:September 965). The poetry of Motanabbi is to See also:European See also:taste much less attractive than the verses of the See also:ancient Arab poets, being essentially artificial and generally unreal, though it has great technical merits and displays lively See also:fancy and considerable inventive See also:power. See also:Oriental taste places him on a very high See also:pedestal, as may be judged from the fact that more than See also:forty commentaries were written on his Diwdn (H. Khal., iii. 306). Dieterici's edition of the poet (See also:Berlin, 1858-1861), gives the commentary of Midi (d. 1075) ; the See also:Egyptian edition of 187o has the commentary of 'Ukbari (d. I219). A convenient edition is that published with a commentary of Nasif ul-Yaziji at See also:Beirut (1882). See R. A. See also:Nicholson, A Literary See also:History of the See also:Arabs (See also:London, 1907), pp.

304-313.

End of Article: MOTANABBI

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