Tarafa ( /

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ''Ṭarafah ibn al-‘Abd ibn Sufyān ibn Sa‘d Abū ‘Amr al-Bakrī al-Wā’ilī''; 543–569), was an

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

n poet of the tribe of the Bakr. He is one of the seven poets of the most celebrated anthology of

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ''ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy'') is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existe ...

, known as the ''

Muʿallaqāt The Muʻallaqāt (, ) is a compilation of seven long Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, pre-Islamic Arabic poems. The name means The Suspended Odes or The Hanging Poems, they were named so because these poems were hung in the Kaaba in Mecca. Some schol ...

'', however just one of his poems is included. His fellow poets preserved in this work are

Al-Nabigha Al-Nābighah (), al-Nābighah al-Dhubiyānī, or Nābighah al-Dhubyānī; real name Ziyad ibn Muawiyah (); was one of the last pre-Islamic Arabian poets. "Al-Nabigha" means genius or intelligent in Arabic. Biography His tribe, the Banu Dh ...

Antarah ibn Shaddad Antarah ibn Shaddad al-Absi (; 525–608 AD), also known as ʿAntar (), was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet and knight, famous for both his poetry and his adventurous life. His chief poem forms part of the '' Mu'allaqāt'', the collection of seven "h ...

Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma Zuhayr bin Abī Sulmā (; ), also romanized as Zuhair or Zoheir, was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet who lived in the 6th & 7th centuries AD. He is considered one of the greatest writers of Arabic poetry in pre-Islamic times. Zuhayr belonged to ...

'Alqama ibn 'Abada 'Alqama ibn 'Ubada, (), generally known as 'Alqama al-Fahl (), was an Arabian poet of the tribe Tamim, who flourished in the second half of the 6th century. The name al-Fahl literally means "the stallion" which he became known by when won a p ...

and

Imru' al-Qais Imruʾ al-Qais Junduh bin Hujr al-Kindi () was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet from Najd in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, and the last King of Kinda. He is sometimes considered the father of Arabic poetry. His qaṣīda, or long poe ...

Life

Ṭarafah was the half-brother or nephew of the elegist

Al-Khirniq bint Badr Al-Khirniq bint Badr ibn Hiffān (or Haffān; ; died ) was an early Arabic elegiac poet. She was half-sister or aunt to the poet Tarafa ibn al'Abd.G. J. H. Van Gelder, 'al-Khirniq (d. perhaps c. 600)', in ''Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature'', ...

. He traveled with his uncle

Al-Mutalammis Al-Mutalammis (Arabic: المتلمس), real name Jarīr ibn ʻAbd al-Masīḥ, was a 6th-century Arab Christian poet. He was the maternal uncle of fellow poet Tarafa. Al-Mutalammis was from the Banu Bakr tribe. Biography His real name was Jari ...

to the court of the king of Al-Hirah, ʿAmr ibn Hind, and there became companion to the king's brother. According to one legend, having ridiculed the king in some verses he was sent with a letter to the ruler of Bahrayn, and, in accordance with the instructions contained in the letter, was buried alive.

Modern Translations

*''The Divans of the Six Ancient Arabic Poets, Ennabiga, 'Antara, Tharafa, Zuhair, 'Alqama and Imruulqais''
Trübner & co., London, 1870 (in English)
anthology of '' diwan'' (collected poems) edited by

Wilhelm Ahlwardt Wilhelm Ahlwardt (4 July 1828, Greifswald – 2 November 1909, Greifswald) was a German orientalist who specialized in research of Arabic literature. He was the son of philologist Christian Wilhelm Ahlwardt (1760–1830). Biography He ...

.OCLC Classify
published works While some of his poems have been translated into

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

with notes by B. Vandenhoff (

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, 1895), both Tharafa and the poet Imru al-Qais were not included by

Theodor Nöldeke Theodor Nöldeke (; born 2 March 1836 – 25 December 1930) was a German orientalist and scholar, originally a student of Heinrich Ewald. He is one of the founders of the field of Quranic studies, especially through his foundational work titled ...

in his ''Fünf Moallaqat, übersetzt und erklärt'' (Vienna, 1899-1901). *''The seven golden odes of pagan Arabia : known also as the Moallakat''; An English translation by Anne Blunt, Lady;

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (17 August 1840 – 10 September 1922), sometimes spelt Wilfred, was an English poet and writer. He and his wife Lady Anne Blunt travelled in the Middle East and were instrumental in preserving the Arabian horse bloodlines ...

(London, Chiswick Press, 1903).

References and external links

University at Albany: The Mu'Allaqa of Ibn Tarafa
* *Mohammadi Malayeri, M.: ''Tarikh va Farhang-e Iran'' Vol. I, Yazdan Publishers, Tehran 1372 Hsh. pp. 242، 267، 291، 292، 374. *

Notes

External links

* * {{Authority control 540s births 569 deaths Bahraini poets 6th-century Arabic-language poets