Ḥabīb ibn Aws
al-Ṭā’ī (; ca. 796/807 - 845), better known by his
sobriquet
A sobriquet ( ), or soubriquet, is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another, that is descriptive. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym, as it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name, without the need of expla ...
Abū Tammām (), was an Arab
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 wri ...
and
Muslim convert born to
Christian parents. He is best known in literature by his 9th-century compilation of early poems known as the ''
Hamasah
The Hamasah (; ) is a genre of Arabic poetry that "recounts chivalrous exploits in the context of military glories and victories".
The first work in this genre is Kitab al-Hamasah of Abu Tammam.
Hamasah works
List of popular Hamasah works:
* ''Ha ...
'', considered one of the greatest anthologies of Arabic literature ever assembled.
Hamasah contained 10 books of poems, with 884 poems in total.
Biography
Abu Tammam was born in Syria near
Damascus in a small town called
Jasim
Jasim ( ar, جاسم, also spelled Jasem) is a small city in the Izra' District of the Daraa Governorate in southern Syria. It is located 41 kilometers north of Daraa and is near the towns of Nawa to the south, Kafr Shams to the north, Inkhil to ...
(in modern-day
Syria), north-east of the
Sea of Tiberias
The Sea of Galilee ( he, יָם כִּנֶּרֶת, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ar, بحيرة طبريا), also called Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest f ...
and close to
Daraa
Daraa ( ar, دَرْعَا, Darʿā, Levantine Arabic: , also Darʿā, Dara’a, Deraa, Dera'a, Dera, Derʿā and Edrei; means "''fortress''", compare Dura-Europos) is a city in southwestern Syria, located about north of the border with Jord ...
. He was the son of a Christian named Thādhūs (Taddeo or Theodosius) who sold wine in Damascus. His early life is not well known. It is believed that Abu Tammam himself converted to Islam, changing his father's name to Aws and forged a genealogy linking him to the Arab tribe of
T̩ayy. According to
al-Najashi, Abu Tammam was a
Twelver
Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...
Shia Muslim
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...
as evident by some of his poems. He was also a contemporary of the Imams
Ali al-Rida
Ali ibn Musa al-Rida ( ar, عَلِيّ ٱبْن مُوسَىٰ ٱلرِّضَا, Alī ibn Mūsā al-Riḍā, 1 January 766 – 6 June 818), also known as Abū al-Ḥasan al-Thānī, was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the e ...
and his son
Muhammad al-Jawad
Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jawad ( ar, محمد بن علي الجواد, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Jawād, – 29 November 835) was a descendant of the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad and the ninth of the Twelve Imams, su ...
, whom he mentioned in some of his poems.
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
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
. 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
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...
.
From there he sought patronage from the Syria-based caliph
al-Ma'mun of the
Abbasid Caliphate
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 ...
, 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
Arminiya
Arminiya, also known as the Ostikanate of Arminiya ( hy, Արմինիա ոստիկանություն, ''Arminia vostikanut'yun'') or the Emirate of Armenia ( ar, إمارة أرمينيا, ''imārat Arminiya''), was a political and geographic de ...
Khalid ibn Yazid al-Shaybani who reportedly gave him 10,000
dirhams on each occasion and financed his travels. Following the death of al-Ma'mun, the newly famous Abu Tamman sought an audience with the new caliph
al-Mu'tasim
Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd ( ar, أبو إسحاق محمد بن هارون الرشيد; October 796 – 5 January 842), better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtaṣim biʾllāh (, ), was the eighth Abbasid caliph, ruling ...
who immediately took him under his wing. After 833 he lived mostly in
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
, at the court of the caliph. From Baghdad he visited
Khorasan, where he enjoyed the favour of
Abdullah ibn Tahir. In approximately 845 he was in
Ma'arrat al-Nu'man
Maarat al-Numan ( ar, مَعَرَّةُ النُّعْمَانِ, Maʿarrat an-Nuʿmān), also known as al-Ma'arra, is a city in northwestern Syria, south of Idlib and north of Hama, with a population of about 58,008 before the Civil War (2004 ...
, where he met the poet al-
Buhturi (c. 820–897). He died in Mosul in 845.
[Adonis. An Introduction to Arab Poetics, Saqi Books, 1990. pg. 43]
Abu Tammam is best known in literature by his 9th-century compilation of early poems known as the ''
Hamasah
The Hamasah (; ) is a genre of Arabic poetry that "recounts chivalrous exploits in the context of military glories and victories".
The first work in this genre is Kitab al-Hamasah of Abu Tammam.
Hamasah works
List of popular Hamasah works:
* ''Ha ...
''.
The ''Hamasah'' ( ar, 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
Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') (Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ham ...
, where he had access to an excellent library belonging to Abu al-Wafa ibn Salama.
[Julie Meisami and Paul Starkey. Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. Routledge, 1998. pg. 48] 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
Al-Walīd ibn Ubaidillah Al-Buḥturī ( ar, أبو الوليد بن عبيدالله البحتري التنوخي, al-Walīd ibn `Ubayd Allāh al-Buhturī) (821–97 AD; 206–84 AH) was an Arab poet born at Manbij in Islamic Syria, between Al ...
, 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,
[Adonis. An Introduction to Arab Poetics, Saqi Books, 1990. pg. 50] 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,
and have been linked to the prevailing Mutazilite philosophy of the Abbasid period.
His poems were published in Cairo in 1875.
According to the poet
Adunis
Ali Ahmad Said Esber (, North Levantine: ; born 1 January 1930), also known by the pen name Adonis or Adunis ( ar, أدونيس ), is a Syrian poet, essayist and translator. He led a modernist revolution in the second half of the 20th century, ...
, 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."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abu Tammam
850 deaths
9th-century Arabic poets
Converts to Islam from Christianity
Medieval LGBT people
Poets from the Abbasid Caliphate
Shia Muslims
People from Daraa Governorate
9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate