Abu ’l-ʿAbbās (or Abū Dj̲aʿfar) Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hurayra al-ʿUtbī (or al-Kaysī) () (died 1126), nicknamed al-Aʿmā al-Tuṭīlī or the Blind Poet of Tudela, was an Andalusian

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, ...

poet who composed in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a 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. E.Watson; Walter ...

. Although born in

Tudela Tudela may refer to: *Tudela, Navarre, a town and municipality in northern Spain ** Benjamin of Tudela Medieval Jewish traveller ** William of Tudela, Medieval troubadour who wrote the first part of the ''Song of the Albigensian Crusade'' ** Ba ...

, he was raised in

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 Penins ...

, where he gained talent in poetry. He later lived in

Murcia Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...

. He died young. He was one of the best-known strophic poets and songwriters ('' muwas̲h̲s̲h̲aḥ'' and ''

zajal Zajal () is a traditional form of oral strophic poetry declaimed in a colloquial dialect. While there is little evidence of the exact origins of the zajal, the earliest recorded zajal poet was the poet Ibn Quzman of al-Andalus who lived from 1078 ...

'') of the

Almoravid 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 tha ...

period in

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 ...

(1091–1145) and competed with

Ibn Bajjah Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyà ibn aṣ-Ṣā’igh at-Tūjībī ibn Bājja ( ar, أبو بكر محمد بن يحيى بن الصائغ التجيبي بن باجة), best known by his Latinised name Avempace (; – 1138), was an A ...

in witty compositions at the court of Ibn Tifilwit, the

governor in

Saragossa Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributar ...

. He wrote

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 ...

to both the Almoravids in al-Andalus and the Banu Kasim in Alpuente (Al-Sahla)Emilio Garcia Gómez, ''In praise of boys: Moorish poems from al-Andalus'', 1975, p.25 and was famous for his love poems. Especially well known is the elegy he wrote on the death of his wife, whom he invokes by the name of Amina.

Notes

Bibliography

*Al-A'ma at-Tutili, Diwan, ed. Ihsan Abbas (Beirut, 1963) *E. Garzia Gomez, las jarchas romances de la serie árabe en su marco (Madrid 1965) *Nykl p. 254-6 *al-Acma al-Tutili, l ciego de Tudela Las moaxajas. Traducción y prólogo: M. Nuin Monreal, W. S. Alkhalifa, 2001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tutili 12th-century Al-Andalus writers Poets of Al-Andalus Poets under the Almoravid dynasty 1126 deaths 12th-century Arabic poets Year of birth unknown Muslim panegyrists