Abu Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Abu al-Fath (1058–1138/9), called Ibn Khafajah (إبن خفاجة), a native of

Alzira Alzira may refer to: * ''Alzira'' (opera), an opera by Giuseppe Verdi *Alzira, Valencia Alzira ( es, Alcira) is a city and municipality of 45.088 inhabitants (62,094 floating population) in Valencia, eastern Spain. It is the capital of the ''coma ...

, was one of the most famous poets 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 ...

during the reign of the

Almoravids The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that s ...

.Samuel G. Armistead, E. Michael Gerli (ed.), ''Medieval Iberia, an Encyclopedia'', 2003, entry "Ibn Khafaja" He was born in 1058 in

(Arabic: جزيرة شقر) near

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

where he spent most of his life. He was the maternal uncle of poet

Ibn al-Zaqqaq Ali ibn Attiya ibn al-Zaqqaq () (c. 1100 Valencia - 1133 or 1134) was one of the great poets of Al-Andalus during the reign of the Almoravids. He was a Muslim from Banu Lakhm. His mother was the sister of fellow Andalusian poet, Ibn Khafaja, and t ...

.María Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin, Michael Anthony Sells, ''The literature of Al-Andalus'', Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 224 He developed nature poetry to a great level of sophistication.

Salma Khadra Jayyusi Salma Khadra Jayyusi ( ar, سلمى الخضراء الجيوسي; born 1926 or 1927) is a Palestinian poet, writer, translator and anthologist. She is the founder and director of the Project of Translation from Arabic (PROTA), which aims to provi ...

, "Nature poetry and the rise of Ibn Khafaja," in: Salma Khadra Jayyusi (ed.), ''The legacy of Muslim Spain'', Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994, p. 381 His poetry includes a few

panegyrics A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of grc ...

qasidas, e.g. to

Yusuf ibn Tashfin Yusuf ibn Tashfin, also Tashafin, Teshufin, ( ar, يوسف بن تاشفين ناصر الدين بن تالاكاكين الصنهاجي , Yūsuf ibn Tāshfīn Naṣr al-Dīn ibn Tālākakīn al-Ṣanhājī ; reigned c. 1061 – 1106) was l ...

whom he praised out of thankfulness that he had saved

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 ...

from chaos by retaking the region of

from the Spaniards after the Conquest of Valencia in 1109.Arie Schippers "Ibn Khafaja (1058-1139) in Morocco. Analysis of a laudatory poem addressed to a member of the Almoravid clan," in: Otto Zwartjes e.a. (ed.) ''Poetry, Politics and Polemics: Cultural Transfer Between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa'', Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996, p. 14 During the occupation of the surroundings of

by the Spaniards (ca. 1100) Ibn Khafaja had fled the city to North Africa. He remained unmarried but had many friends and lived to be over eighty.There is a style based on him afterwards followed by many known as 'khafājī'. According to

, Khafaja demonstrates, in some of his poems a revolutionary attitude to language, using a vocabulary of great originality, which she describes as "warm and sensuous, obsessed with human intimacy, turbulent and conscious of the violence of life around him in a war-ridden country, awed by nature and eternally mystified both by its beauty and by its permanence vis-avis human mutability." His poetry often uses images to a dramatic function, such as contrasting light and darkness, or humanising the night environment. Composer

Mohammed Fairouz Mohammed Fairouz (born November 1, 1985) is an American composer. He is one of the most frequently performed composers of his generation and has been described by Daniel J. Wakin of ''The New York Times'' as an "important new artistic voice". Fa ...

set three poems of Ibn Khafajah to music in a cycle of vocal

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small nu ...

written for the Cygnus Ensemble.Moore, Thomas (September 12, 2010)
Mohammed Fairouz: An Interview
''Opera Today'', retrieved 2011-04-19

Notes

Bibliography

* Arthur Wormhoudt (ed.), ''The Diwan of Abu Ishaq Ibn Ibrahim Ibn Abu Al-Fath Ibn Khafaja'', Oskaloosa, Ia.: William Penn College, 1987, *Arie Schippers "Ibn Khafaja (1058-1139) in Morocco. Analysis of a laudatory poem addressed to a member of the Almoravid clan," in: Otto Zwartjes e.a. (ed.) ''Poetry, Politics and Polemics: Cultural Transfer Between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa'', Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996, (pp. 13–34) *Magda M. Al-Nowaihi, ''The Poetry of Ibn Khafajah A Literary Analysis'', (Rev. version of the author's thesis, Harvard, 1987), Leiden: Brill, 1993 *Burgel, J. C., "Man, Nature and Cosmos as Intertwining Elements in the Poetry of Ibn Khafāja," in: ''Journal of Arabic literature''; vol. 14, 1983 (p. 31) *Hamdane Hadjadji and André Miquel, ''Ibn Khafaja l’Andalou, L’amant de la nature'', Paris: El-Ouns, 2002 *Abd al-Rahman Janair, ''Ibn Khafaja l-Andalusi'', Beirut: Dar al-Afaq, 1980

External links

''The Mountain Poem''
English translation and Arabic recording of Ibn Khafaja's most famous poem at ''Poems Found in Translation''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn Khafaja 11th-century Al-Andalus writers 1058 births 1138 deaths Poets under the Almoravid dynasty Poets of Al-Andalus People from Alzira, Valencia Muslim panegyrists