Abū al-Walīd Aḥmad Ibn Zaydūni al-Makhzūmī () (1003–1071) or simply known as Ibn Zaydun () or Abenzaidun 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, ...
Andalusian poet of
Cordoba and
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
. He was considered the greatest neoclassical poet of
al-Andalus
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
.
He reinvigorated the impassioned lyrics in Arabic by infusing it with more personal and sensual tones of experience. This supposed him to be considered the best of the loving poets of the Muslim Hispania and to become a model for all subsequent Western Arab poetry. His love affair with the princess and poet
Wallada and his exile inspired many of his poems.
Life and Work
Ibn Zayduni was born in 1003 in Cordoba to an aristocratic Andalusian Arab family that claimed descent from the
Banu Makhzum
The Banu Makhzum () was one of the wealthy clans of the Quraysh. They are regarded as being among the three most powerful and influential clans in Mecca before the advent of Islam, the other two being the Banu Hashim (the tribe of the Islamic proph ...
.
He grew up during the decline of the
Caliphate of Córdoba
The Caliphate of Córdoba ( ar, خلافة قرطبة; transliterated ''Khilāfat Qurṭuba''), also known as the Cordoban Caliphate was an Islamic state ruled by the Umayyad dynasty from 929 to 1031. Its territory comprised Iberia and parts o ...
and was involved in the political life of his age. He joined the court of the
Jahwarid Abu al-Hazm of Cordoba and was imprisoned by him after he was accused of conspiring against him and his patrons.
His relationship with the ''Umayyad princess''
Wallada was quickly terminated by Wallada herself. Some attributed this change of heart to Ibn Zayduni's early anti-Umayyad activities, while others mention his rivalry with the rich minister
Ibn Abdus, a former friend of Ibn Zayduni, who supposedly gains Wallada's favor and supported her. It is suggested that Ibn Abdus himself was the one who instigated Abu al-Hazm ibn Jahwar against Ibn Zaydun.
He sought refuge with
Abbad II of Seville and his son
al-Mu'tamid
Abu’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar ( ar, أبو العباس أحمد بن جعفر; – 14 October 892), better known by his regnal name Al-Muʿtamid ʿalā ’llāh (, "Dependent on God"), was the Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate from 870 t ...
. He was able to return home for a period after the ruler of Seville conquered Cordoba. Much of his life was spent in exile and the themes of lost youth and nostalgia for his city are present in many of his poems. In a poem about Cordoba he remembers his city and his youth:
''God has sent showers upon abandoned dwelling places of those we loved. He has woven upon them a striped many-coloured garment of flowers, and raised among them a flower like a star. How many girls like images trailed their garmets among such flowers, when life was fresh and time was at our service...How happy were, those days that have passed, days of pleasure, when we lived with those who had back flowing hair and white shoulders''
His romantic and literary life was dominated by his relations with the poet
Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, the daughter of the Umayyad Caliph
Muhammad III of Cordoba
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mono ...
. According to Jayyusi in her book The Legacy of Muslim Spain, "Ibn Zayduni brought into Andalusi poetry something of balance, the rhetorical command, the passionate power and grandeur of style that marked contemporary poetry in the east...he rescued Andalusi poetry from the self-indulgence of the poets of externalized description."
[S. Jayyusi et al. (1992). ''The Legacy of Muslim Spain''. pp. 343–347. BRILL. ]
Notes
Bibliography
*Ahmad ibn Abd Allāh Ibn Zaydūn, Mahmūd Subh. (1979). ''Poesias'', Instituto Hispano-Árabe de Cultura, ed. University of Virginia.
*Concha Lagos. (1984). ''Con el arco a punto'' Instituto Hispano-Arabe de Cultura. University of California. .
*Sieglinde Lug. (1982). ''Poetic Techniques and Conceptual Elements in Ibn Zaydūn's Love Poetry'', University Press of America (based on the author's thesis).
* Devin J. Stewart, 'Ibn Zaydūn', in ''The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: The Literature of Al-Andalus'', ed. by Maria Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin and Michael Sells (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 306–17.
*S. Jayyusi. (1992). ''The Legacy of Muslim Spain''. pp. 343–351.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn Zaydun
1003 births
1071 deaths
11th-century Al-Andalus people
11th-century Arabs
Poets of Al-Andalus
People from Córdoba, Spain
Banu Makhzum
Love in Arabic literature