Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Sa'id

Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik Ibn Saʿīd (died 1163) is best known as a poet, and lover of Ḥafṣa bint al-Ḥājj ar-Rakūniyya (c. 1135-1191).

Biography

Abū Jaʿfar is said to have been taught by, amongst others, the twelfth-century poet Ibn Khafāja. He served as a prominent court secretary for the Almohad governor of Granada, Abū Saʿid ʿUthmān. "Unfortunately for Abū Jaʿfar, his powerful boss also fell in love with Ḥafṣa, and our poet's position in the ensuing love triangle seems to have forced him to flee Granada." Joining Ibn Mardanīsh's rebellion against al-Muwaḥḥid rule in al-Andalus, Abū Jaʿfar was captured and in 1163 executed.^[1]

Work

An example of Abū Jaʿfar's poetry, as translated by A. J. Arberry, is 'Wine, my Love':^[2]

Ho, bring her hither, happy boy,

For in her presence is my joy,

But (and does love need further proof?)

I grieve when she remains aloof.

I speak upon the wine: when she

Departs, the bowl weeps bitterly,

But when the glass beholds her near

It broadly smiles for the good cheer.

References

^ Ross Brann, 'He Said, She Said: Reinscribing the Andalusi Arabic Love Lyric', in Studies in Arabic and Hebrew Letters: In Honor of Raymond P. Scheindlin, ed. by Jonathan P. Decter and Michael Chaim Rand (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press LLC, 2007), pp. 7-16 (at p. 8).
^ Moorish Poetry: A Translation of ’The Pennants’, an Anthology Compiled in 1243 by the Andalusian Ibn Saʿid, trans. by A. J. Arberry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), p. 100. For the original see El libro de las banderas de los campeones, de Ibn Saʿid al-Magribī, ed. by Emilio García Gómez (Madrid: Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, 1942).

Arabic literature

Old
Namara inscription Pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions

Pre-Islamic
Abu Layla al-Muhalhel Adi ibn Zayd Afira bint 'Abbad Al-Fāriʿah bint Shaddād Al-Hujayjah Al-Ḥurqah Al-Khirniq bint Badr Al-Shanfara Al-Nu'man ibn Humaydah 'Alqama ibn 'Abada 'Amir ibn al-Tufayl Amr ibn Kulthum Antarah ibn Shaddad Al-A'sha Harith ibn Hilliza Al-Yashkuri Hatim al-Tai Labīd Laila bint Lukaiz Mahd al-Aadiyya Mu'aqqir Al-Nabigha Imru' al-Qais Samaw'al ibn 'Adiya Tarafa Uthman ibn al-Huwayrith Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma Zuhayr ibn Janab Aktham ibn Saifi Al-Munakhal

Pre-Islamic

Classical

Early Islamic	Al-Akhtal al-Taghlibi Al-Farazdaq Abd al-Hamid al-Katib Fadl Ashsha'ira Hassan ibn Thabit Ibn Abi Hasina Maysun bint Bahdal Jamil ibn Ma'mar Suraqa bin Malik Jarir ibn Atiyah Ka'b bin Zuhayr Al-Khansa Kuthayyir Layla al-Akhyaliyya Suraqah al-Bariqi Qutayla ukht al-Nadr Waddah al-Yaman Yunus al-Katib al-Mughanni Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi Dhu Jadan al-Himyari Dorayd bin Al Soma Qatari ibn al-Fuja'a al-Mufaddal
Abbasid era	Bint al-Mahdī Ibn al-Ahnaf Ibn al-Mu'tazz Abu Firas al-Hamdani Abu Tammam Al-Mudabbir Abu'l-Qasimbal-Maghribi Arib al-Ma'muniyya Al-Asma'i Ahmad al-Tifashi Abu al-Atahiya ibn al-'Amid Al-Hamadani Baha' al-din Zuhair Bashshar ibn Burd Buhturi Al-Busiri Al-Isfahani Al-Fath ibn Khaqan Al-Hariri of Basra Ibn al-Farid Ibn al-Rumi Ibn Duraid al-Zajjaj Abu Mansur al-Azhari ibn al-Mahdi ibn al-Mudabbir Al-Ma'arri Marwan ibn Abi Hafsa Al-Mutanabbi Abu Nuwas Al-Jahiz Shāriyah Al-Armanazi Aban al-Lahiqi Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani Rabia of Basra Yunus ibn Habib Abu Nasr al-Jawhari Al-Farahidi Al-Shafi'i Ibn al-Muqaffa' Al-Mubarrad Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur Safiyya al-Baghdadiyya Al-Zahiri Abu Muhammad al-Anbari Ibn al-Anbari Ibn Qutaybah Dik al-Jinn ‘Inān Abu Ahmad Monajjem Ibn Bakkar Al-Sarī al-Raffā’ Al-Suli Niftawayh Al-Tughrai Laylā bint Ṭarīf Al-Tha'alibi Al-Daylami al-Tawhīdī Al-Sharif al-Radi Ibn Hayyus Al-Raghib al-Isfahani Sharif al-Murtaza Al Uyuni Yaqut al-Hamawi Al Suhrawardi Al-Hallaj Usama ibn Munqidh Ibn al-Qatta' al-Siqilli Ibn al-Shajari Ibn al-Nafis Ibn 'Adlan
Al-Andalus and Maghreb	Abu Ja'far Al-Rumaikiyya Maria Alphaizuli Ibn Ammar Buthaina Al-Rukuniyya Hamda bint Ziyad al-Muaddib Ibn Hamdis Ibn Abd Rabbih Ibn al-Abbar Ibn al-Zaqqaq Ibn Amira Ibn Baqi Ibn Bassam Ibn Juzayy Ibn Khafaja Ibn al-Khatib Ibn Quzman Ibn Sahl Ibn Zamrak Ibn Zaydún Lubna of Córdoba Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad ibn Hani al-Azdi Muhya Nazhun Qasmuna Al-Tutili Umm Al-Kiram Yusuf III Yusuf III Ibn Hazm Ibn Arabi al-Shushtari Abu Madyan al-Rundi Ibn al-Arif Ibn Wahbun Ibn Abdun Avempace al-Baji al-Fazazi Ibn al-Yayyab Ibn Jubayr Ibn al-Kattani Ibn Tufayl Ibn Abi al-Khisal
Mamluk era	Ahmad ibn Arabshah Ibn Al Ouardy Al-Busiri Ibn Manzur Ibn Battuta 'A'isha al-Ba'uniyya Ibn al-Wardi Hamdallah Mustawfi Ibn Nubata al-Nafzawi Ibn Khaldun Al-Qalqashandi
Ottoman era	Al-Nabulsi Fuzûlî Abdul Qadir al-Baghdadi Hanna Diyab Ibn al-Wannan Ahmed Ben Triki

Modern

Nahda

Contemporary

National literatures of Arab states
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