Zuhayr bin Abī Sulmā ( ar, زهير بن أبي سلمى; ), also romanized as Zuhair or Zoheir, was a pre-Islamic

Arabian The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

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 ...

who lived in the 6th & 7th centuries AD. He is considered one of the greatest writers of

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

in pre-Islamic times. Zuhayr belonged to the

Banu Muzaina Banu Muzaina ( ar, بنو مزينة) was an Arab tribe during the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. They were involved in the Expedition of Zayd ibn Harithah (Al-Jumum), Expedition of Zayd ibn Harithah September, 627 CE, 6AH of the Islamic ca ...

. His father was a poet and his elder son

Ka'b bin Zuhayr Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr ( ar, كعب بن زهير) was an Arabian poet of the 7th century, and a contemporary of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Ka'b ibn Zuhayr was the writer of ''Bānat Suʿād (Su'ād Has Departed)'', a qasida in praise of Muhammad. ...

also became a poet, reading his works to the Prophet Muhammad. Zuhayr's poems can be found in

Hammad Ar-Rawiya Ḥammād al-Rāwiya ( ar, حماد الراوية, 'Ḥammād the transmitter') (Abu-l-Qasim Hammad ibn Abi Laila Sapur (or ibn Maisara)) (8th century), Iranian scholar born in Kufa. He was of Daylamite origin. The date of his birth is given by ...

's anthology, the ''

Mu'allaqat The Muʻallaqāt ( ar, المعلقات, ) is a group of seven long Arabic poems. The name means The Suspended Odes or The Hanging Poems, the traditional explanation being that these poems were hung in the Kaaba in Mecca, while scholars have also ...

'' ("the Suspended"), a collection of pre-Islamic poetry. He was one of the '' Seven Hanged Poets'' who were reputed to have been honoured by hanging copies of their work in the

Kaaba The Kaaba (, ), also spelled Ka'bah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah ( ar, ٱلْكَعْبَة ٱلْمُشَرَّفَة, lit=Honored Ka'bah, links=no, translit=al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah), is a building at the c ...

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...

. He was

Umar ibn Khattab ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate ...

's favourite poet. Zuhayr's poetry was written when two

tribes ended a longstanding hostility. His poems deal with raids and other subjects of

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

ic desert life. He also wrote

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

poems and poems about the glory of his tribe, but in his verses he was less satiric than most of his brother poets. He strove to express deep thoughts in simple words, to be clear and by his clear phrases to teach his people high and noble ideas. He was a man of rank and wealth, the foremost of a family noted for their poetic skill and religious earnestness.

Cultural reception

Zuhayr's poetry inspired Saudi land artist

Zahrah al Ghamdi Zahrah Al Ghamdi ( ar, زهرة الغامدي) is a Saudi Arabian visual and land artist, as well as an assistant professor at the College of Art and Design at the University of Jeddah. Career Al Ghamdi grew up in Al-Baha in the south-west of th ...

's 2018 installation ''After Illusion'' which was shown as part of the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

References

* Arberry, A. J., ''The Seven Odes'', (London, 1957).
The Poem of Zuhair
520 births 609 deaths 6th-century Arabic poets {{MEast-poet-stub