Abu al-Fadl Abbas Ibn al-Ahnaf () (750 in

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...

-809), was an

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

from the tribe of

Banu Hanifa Banu Hanifa ( ar, بنو حنيفة) is an ancient Arab tribe inhabiting the area of al-Yamama in the central region of modern-day Saudi Arabia. The tribe belongs to the great Rabi'ah branch of North Arabian tribes, which also included Abdu ...

. His work consists solely of love poems (

ghazal The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a ...

). It is "primarily concerned with the hopelessness of love, and the personae in his compositions seems resigned to a relationship of deprivation". The vocabulary he chose was simple and his style is fluent and easy. He grew up in Baghdad, where he became a friend of the Abbasid caliph

Harun al-Rashid Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar , أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...

. who employed him for the purpose of amusing him in time of leisure. His work was an acknowledged influence on

Abdullah ibn al-Mu'tazz Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz ( ar, عبد الله بن المعتز, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muʿtazz; 861 – 17 December 908) was the son of the caliph al-Mu'tazz and a political figure, but is better known as a leading Arabic poet and the author o ...

and

Abu al-Atahiya Abū al-ʻAtāhiyya ( ar, أبو العتاهية; 748–828), full name Abu Ishaq Isma'il ibn al-Qasim ibn Suwayd Al-Anzi (), was among the principal Arab poets of the early Islamic era, a prolific ''muwallad'' poet of ascetics who ranked with ...

.''Bird Through A Ceiling of Alabaster; Three Abbasid Poets'', translated by Abdullah Al-Udhari and George Wightman (Penguin, 1975)

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Article
750 births 809 deaths Poets from the Abbasid Caliphate 8th-century Arabic writers 8th-century Arabs {{MEast-poet-stub