Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Asim bin Thabit al-Ansari (variant:ʿAbd Allāh bin Muḥammad bin ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿĀṣim bin Ṯẖābit Al-Anṣārī) () also known as "Al-Ahwas" Al-Ansari () or simply as Al-Ahwas () was a satirical Arab poet from

Madinah Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

living under the rule of the

Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member o ...

. Along with

Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah ʿUmar ibn Abī Rabīʿah al-Makhzūmī () (November 644, Mecca – 712/719, Mecca, full name: Abū ’l-Khaṭṭāb ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Rabīʿah Ibn al-Mughayra ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Makhzūm ibn Yakaza ibn Murra al-M ...

, he is one of the representatives of the literary form of ghazel which became popular in the urban centers of the Umayyad Caliphate, but his better known works were his satirical poems, which influenced later satirical poets like Abu Nawas and

Al-Jahiz Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Basri (; ), commonly known as al-Jahiz (), was an Arab polymath and author of works of literature (including theory and criticism), theology, zoology, philosophy, grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, philology, lin ...

. The nickname of "Al-Ahwas" ("The one that squints") was given to him due to the fact that he couldn't open one eye fully due to the tightness of the eyelid muscles, making it seem that he was constantly squinting.

Biography

Al-Ahwas was born in 35 AH (655 AD) in Madinah. He belonged to the Ansar from Madinah, more specifically to the

Banu Aws The Banū Aws ( , "Sons of Aws") or simply Aws (, also romanised as Aus) was one of the main Arab tribes of Medina. The other was Khazraj, and the two, constituted the Ansar ("Helpers of Muhammad”) after the Hijra.. The Aws tribe desc ...

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

, and during his life he rose to enough prominence in the tribe to become the mouth-piece of the Ansar. He was part of the rich and noble classes of Madinah and lived through the

Battle of al-Harra The Battle of al-Harra () was fought between the Umayyad army of the caliph Yazid I () led by Muslim ibn Uqba and the defenders of Medina from the Ansar and Muhajirun factions, who had rebelled against the caliph. The battle took place at the ...

, in which the Ansar and other member of Medinan society rebelled against the rule of the very unpopular caliph

Yazid I Yazid ibn Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (; 11 November 683), commonly known as Yazid I, was the second caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from April 680 until his death in November 683. His appointment by his father Mu'awiya I () was the first ...

, and were later quelled by Yazid I's forces. Al-Ahwas was an acquaintance of caliph

Al-Walid I Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (; – 23 February 715), commonly known as al-Walid I (), was the sixth Umayyad caliph, ruling from October 705 until his death in 715. He was the eldest son of his predecessor, Caliph Abd al-Malik (). As ...

and frequented the caliph's parties; however, after it came out that Al-Ahwas tried to seduce some of the boy servants of another guest to have intercouse with him, he lost the caliph's favor and even got whipped by the order of the then governor of Madinah and future caliph,

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan (; February 720) was the eighth Umayyad caliph, ruling from 717 until his death in 720. He is credited to have instituted significant reforms to the Umayyad central government, by making it much more efficient and ...

. When Al-Walid died and the new caliph

Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (, 24 September 717) was the seventh Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad caliph, ruling from 715 until his death. He was the son of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705) and Wallada bint al-Abbas. He began his ...

appointed the

qadi A qadi (; ) is the magistrate or judge of a Sharia court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and minors, and supervision and auditing of public works. History The term '' was in use from ...

Ibn Hazm Ibn Hazm (; November 994 – 15 August 1064) was an Andalusian Muslim polymath, historian, traditionist, jurist, philosopher, and theologian, born in the Córdoban Caliphate, present-day Spain. Described as one of the strictest hadith interpre ...

as governor of Madinah, Al-Ahwas wrote a satirical poem in which he slandered the new governor and attacked the caliph. These offensive attacks, along with his constant love affairs, accusations of homosexuality and his passive role in intercourse, his purported effeminateness (being publicly called a "

Mukhannath Mukhannath (; plural ''mukhannathun'' (); "effeminate ones", "ones who resemble women") was a term used in Classical Arabic and Islamic literature to describe effeminate men or people with ambiguous sexual characteristics, who appeared feminine ...

un" by caliph

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam (; July/August 644 or June/July 647 – 9 October 705) was the fifth Umayyad caliph, ruling from April 685 until his death in October 705. A member of the first generation of born Muslims, his early life in ...

), his conflicts with members of Medinan aristocracy, his perceived immorality, his

pederasty Pederasty or paederasty () is a sexual relationship between an adult man and an adolescent boy. It was a socially acknowledged practice in Ancient Greece and Rome and elsewhere in the world, such as Pre-Meiji Japan. In most countries today, ...

, his overall negative reputation, and the fact that he was a prominent member of the Ansar, which headed the rebellion against the Umayyad caliphate some years prior; were the cause for his exile to the

Dahlak Kebir Dahlak Kebir (, ) is the largest island of the Dahlak Archipelago. Situated in the Red Sea off of the coast of Eritrea, it was formerly called ''Dahlak Deset''. Overview Dahlak Kebir has a population of around 2,500 people speaking the Dahalik ...

island in the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

, as mandated by the caliph Sulayman, around 96-7 AH (715 AD); although the most commonly given reason for his banishment was that he constantly mentioned aristocratic women by name in his love poems, against Medinan society's mores. He remained in exile during the remainder of Sulayman's reign and the entirety of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz's (Umar II) time as caliph. After Umar's death the Ansar pleaded for Al-Ahwas' return to the new caliph,

Yazid II Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (; — 26 January 724), commonly known as Yazid II, was the ninth Umayyad caliph, ruling from 720 until his death in 724. Although he lacked administrative or military experience, he derived prestige from his ...

, who finally freed and befriended him. Because the caliph became very fond and close to Al-Ahwas, he moved to the Umayyad court in

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 started writing satiric poems against the

Muhallabids The Muhallabids () or the Muhallabid dynasty were an Arab family who became prominent in the middle Umayyad Caliphate and reached its greatest eminence during the early Abbasids, when members of the family ruled Basra and Ifriqiya. The founders of ...

, Yazid's political enemies. He remained in Damascus until his dead, due to illness, in 110 AH (728-29 AD).

Work and style

He was recognized as an excellent poet during his lifetime, an opinion which has been maintained to this day in the Arab-speaking world, and his work influenced other important authors, like the satirical poet Abu Nawas, whom in turn influenced the Andalucian poet

Ibn Quzman Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Isa Abd al-Malik ibn Isa ibn Quzman al-Zuhri (; 1087–1160) was the single most famous poet in the history of Al-Andalus and he is also considered to be one of its most original. One of the characteristics of his poetry was ...

. As with many other arabic poets, Al-Ahwas' poems were published as a " Diwan" (Compilation of Poems), known as "Diwan Al-Ahwas Al-Ansari" (), which is sporadically republished to this day. However, no full translation of this text into English has been made, except for some poems as part of a collection of Arabic Poetry translated into English by Charles Greville Tuetey. His poetry has been compared in style and quality to that of Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah, and is described as highly rhythmical an aesthetically pleasing due to his use of parallelism of terms between verses, of repetition and of epanalepsis, which is the repetition of the first word of a verse at its end. His main literary compositions where ghazel (love poems), fakhr (boasting poems), hija (lampooning poems) and madih (panegyric poems); although his most know works are his satirical poems.

Notes

References

Sources

External links

To consult some poems form the "Diwan Al-Ahwas Al-Ansari" in Arabic:
الأحوص الأنصاري

Diwan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahwas, Al 650s births 7th-century Arabic-language poets 8th-century Arabic-language poets People from Medina Arabic-language poets Poets from the Umayyad Caliphate Prisoners and detainees of the Umayyad Caliphate 720s deaths Gay Muslims Gay poets Arab LGBTQ people Medieval LGBTQ people Pederasty