Abu Bakr Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Sharaf al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ṭāhir ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Khaṭīb ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Nubāta, better known simply as Ibn Nubāta (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: ; April 1287 – October 14, 1366) was an Arab poet of the Mamluk period. Best known for his poetry, he also wrote prose. His works are largely not, or not critically, edited to this day, but in 2018 Thomas Bauer was reported to be completing an edition of his ''al-Qaṭr an-Nubātī'' ('Ibn Nubātah's Sweet Drops').Adam Talib, ''How Do You Say “Epigram” in Arabic? Literary History at the Limits of Comparison'', Brill Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures, 40 (Leiden: Brill, 2018); . Research on Ibn Nubata's work is still in its infancy. Ibn Nubata was the son of a

Hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

scholar and from early youth his interest in poetry emerged in short poems he wrote. Born in Fusṭāṭ, in 1316 he left Cairo for

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

and lived there until 1360, taking short stays in

Hama Hama ( ', ) is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 996,000 (2023 census), Hama is one o ...

and

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

. However, the Sultan An-Nasir Hasan ordered his return to Cairo. Ibn Nubata, alongside Ṣafīddīn al-Ḥillī, was one of the two most celebrated Arab poets of the 14th century. Ibn Nubata died on October 14, 1366 (8

Safar Safar (), also spelt as Safer in Turkish, is the second month of the lunar Islamic calendar. Most of the Islamic months were named according to ancient Sabean/Sabaic weather conditions; however, since the calendar is lunar, the months shift ...

768 AH), and is buried in the Qalawun cemetery of Al-Mansur Qalawun. Ibn Nubāta was a seminal writer in the development of the epigrammatic poetic form known as ''

maqṭūʿ ''Maqṭūʿ'' () or ''maqṭūʿah'' (plural ''maqāṭīʿ'') is a form of Arabic poetry. ''Maqāṭīʿ'' are epigrammatic: brief and generally witty. In the view of Adam Talib, the genre has been underrated by Western scholars, partly because of ...

'': ''al-Qaṭr an-Nubātī'' is thought to be the first sole-authored collection of poems in this genre.

References

* Thomas Bauer: '' Communication and Emotion. The case of Ibn Nubātah's "Kindertotenlieder". In: '' Mamlūk Studies Review ''. 7, 2003, pp. 49–95.
online
PDF, 34.69 MB) *Thomas Bauer, “Dignity at Stake: ''mujūn'' epigrams by Ibn Nubāta (686–768/1287–1366) and his contemporaries” in ''The Rude, the Bad and the Bawdy. Essays in Honour of Professor Geert Jan van Gelder'', ed. Adam Talib, Marlé Hammond, and Arie Schippers (Cambridge: Gibb Memorial Trust, 2014). * Thomas Bauer: '' Ibn Nubātah al-Misrī (686–768 / 1287–1366). Life and Works ''. Part I: '' The Life of Ibn Nubatah ''. In: '' Mamlūk Studies Review '' January 12, 2008, pp. 1–35.
online
PDF, 1.22 MB) * Thomas Bauer: '' Ibn Nubatah al-Misri (686–768 / 1287–1366). Life and Works ''. Part II: '' The Divan of Ibn Nubatah ''. In: '' Mamlūk Studies Review '' February 12, 2008. *

Carl Brockelmann Carl Brockelmann (17 September 1868 – 6 May 1956) German Semitic studies, Semiticist, was the foremost Orientalism, orientalist of his generation. He was a professor at the universities in University of Wrocław, Breslau, Berlin and, from 1903, ...

: '' History of Arabic Literature ''. Brill, Leiden 1996, , I, p. 11f, II, p. 4. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn Nubata 1287 births 1366 deaths 14th-century Arabic-language poets 14th-century people from the Mamluk Sultanate Islamic literature Writers from Cairo

References

Further reading