Abū al-Ḥasan Alī ibn al-Abbās ibn Jūrayj ( ar, أبو الحسن علي بن العباس بن جريج), also known as Ibn al-Rūmī (born

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

in 836; died 896), was the grandson of George the Greek (Jūraij or Jūrjis i.e. Georgius) and a popular Arab poet of Baghdād in the Abbāsid-era. By the age of twenty he earned a living from his poetry. His many political patrons included the

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Tahir Abu Ahmad Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Tahir ( ar, أبو أحمد عبيد الله بن عبد الله بن طاهر, c. 838 – May 913) was a ninth century Tahirid official and military officer. He was the last major Tahirid to hold high off ...

, Abbasid caliph

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 ...

's minister the Persian Isma'il ibn Bulbul, and the politically influential

Nestorian Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian ...

family Banū Wahb. In the tenth century his Dīwān (collected poetry), which had been transmitted orally by al-Mutanabbī, was arranged and edited by Abū Bakr ibn Yaḥyā al-Ṣūlī, and included in the section of his book ''Kitāb Al-Awrāq'' () on ''muḥadathūn'' (modern poets).

Early life

Ibn al-Rumi was born in Baghdad, then the capital of the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

, in 836. Originally named Ali bin Al-Abbas bin George, he was given the epithet "Ibn al-Rumi" (lit. "Son of the Roman), referring to his father's Greek ancestry. He was raised a Muslim.

Death

Ibn al-Rumi died in Baghdad in the year 896, at the age of 59. His early biographer Ibn Khallikān relates an account that he was given poisoned biscuits in the presence of the caliph Al-Mu'tadid on the orders of his vizier, Al-Qasim ibn Ubayd Allah, whom Ibn al-Rumī had satirised viciously. In another account his death is attributed to suicide.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * El-Huni, Ali A.,
The poetry of Ibn al-Rùmī
(unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Glasgow, 1996) * bn al-Rumi 'Diwan al-Rumi'' 3 vols (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 2009), , https://archive.org/details/waq74354 * Ibn al-Rūmī,
Selections from the Diwan of Ibn Al Rumi
' (William Penn College, 1977) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn Al-Rumi 836 births 896 deaths Poets from the Abbasid Caliphate 9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate 9th-century Arabic poets Arab people of Greek descent People from Baghdad