Abu Tammam

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ḥabīb ibn Aws al-Ṭā’ī
Native name
حبيب بن أوس الطائي
Bornca. 796/807 AD
Jasim
Died845 AD
Mosul
Pen nameAbū Tammām
LanguageArabic
PeriodIslamic Golden Age
(Abbasid era)

Ḥabīb ibn Aws

Muslim reverted born to Christian parents.[1] He is best known in literature by his 9th-century compilation of early poems known as the Hamasah, considered one of the greatest anthologies of Arabic literature ever assembled.[2] Hamasah contained 10 books of poems, with 884 poems in total.[3]

Biography

Abu Tammam was born in Syria near

Twelver Shia Muslim as evident by some of his poems. He was also a contemporary of the Imams Ali al-Rida and his son Muhammad al-Jawad, whom he mentioned in some of his poems.[5]

He seems to have spent his youth in Homs, though, according to one story, he was employed during his boyhood selling water at a mosque in Cairo. His first appearance as a poet was in Egypt, but as he failed to make a living there he went to Damascus, and then to Mosul.[2] From there he sought patronage from the Syria-based caliph al-Ma'mun of the Abbasid Caliphate, but failed to impress him.

He then traveled towards the eastern part of the caliphate, eventually gaining admirers and patrons by praising various officials, such as the governor of

Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, where he met the poet al-Buhturi (c. 820–897). He died in Mosul in 845.[7]

Abu Tammam is best known in literature by his 9th-century compilation of early poems known as the

Arabic: حماسة, "exhortation") is one of the greatest anthologies of Arabic literature ever assembled. Abu Tammam gathered these works together when he was snowbound in Hamadan, where he had access to an excellent library belonging to Abu al-Wafa ibn Salama.[8] There are ten books of poems in the Hamasah, all classified by subject. Some of them are selections from long poems. This is one of the treasuries of early Arabic poetry, and the poems are of exceptional beauty. A later anthology by the same name was compiled by the poet al-Buhturi, and the term has been used in modern times to mean "heroic epic
."

The famous poet al-Buhturi, who was a student and contemporary of Abu Tammâm, was also a member of the Tay' tribe. In Arabic literature, these two poets have often been compared with each other. Generally, Abu Tammâm is accepted as the representative of the artificial (masnû') poetry style. On the other hand, his student al-Buhturî is generally regarded as the representative of the natural (matbû‘) poetry genre.

Two other collections of a similar nature are ascribed to Abu Tammam. His own poems have been somewhat neglected owing to the success of his compilations, but they enjoyed great repute in his lifetime. His poems reflect a stylistic break from prevailing oral-based concepts of Arab poetry,[9] often describing historical events and people. They were distinguished for the purity of their style, the merit of the verse, and the excellent manner of treating subjects,[2] and have been linked to the prevailing Mutazilite philosophy of the Abbasid period.[8] His poems were published in Cairo in 1875.

According to the poet

Adunis, Abu Tammam "started out from a vision of poetry as a sort of creation of the world through language, comparing the relationship between the poet and the word to the relationship between two lovers, and the act of composing poetry to the sexual act."[9]

References

  1. ^ Ibn Ab̄i Tahir Ṭāyfūr and Arabic writerly culture a ninth-century bookman in Baghdad, Routledge Curzon Studies in Arabic and Middle-Eastern Literatures: A Ninth-century Bookman in Baghdad, By Shawkat M. Toorawa, pg. 94
  2. ^ a b c d  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Abu Tammam". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 81.
  3. ^ "Hamasah of Abu Tammam". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk.
  4. ^ "Abū Tammām: Syrian poet". Britannica.
  5. ^ Najashi, Ahmad bin Ali. Rijal of al-Najashi. p. 141.
  6. doi:10.1163/157006471X00027
    .
  7. ^ Adonis. An Introduction to Arab Poetics, Saqi Books, 1990. pg. 43
  8. ^ a b Julie Meisami and Paul Starkey. Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. Routledge, 1998. pg. 48
  9. ^ a b Adonis. An Introduction to Arab Poetics, Saqi Books, 1990. pg. 50
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abu_Tammam&oldid=1195060729"