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al-Harith ibn Hiliza

Died
51 BH
Born in
-

al-Harith ibn Hiliza (d. c. 51 BH / 570 CE) was a pre-Islamic Arab poet and nobleman of the Bakr ibn Wa'il tribe, best known for his celebrated Mu'allaqah (The Suspended Ode) delivered at the court of the Lakhmid king Amr ibn Hind.

Lineage and Background

His full genealogy is al-Harith ibn Hiliza ibn Makruh ibn Badid (also recorded as Yazid) ibn Abd Allah ibn Malik ibn Abd Sa'd ibn Jusham ibn Dhibyan ibn Kinana ibn Yashkur ibn Bakr ibn Wa'il, and he bore the kunya Abu Ubayda. His father's cognomen, Hiliza, was explained by philologists as meaning either a miser, a creeping creature, or a variety of plant according to Qutrub. Al-Harith belonged to the Yashkur branch of the Bakr tribe of Iraq and lived through the Basus War between Bakr and Taghlib. Little of his biographical record has survived beyond the judicial gathering at al-Hira, where he is reported to have recited his famous ode in his extreme old age, reportedly at the age of 135.

The Contest Before Amr ibn Hind

The occasion of his Mu'allaqah arose from a renewed dispute between Bakr and Taghlib. After King Amr ibn Hind mediated a peace between the two warring tribes, he took one hundred young hostages from each side to secure the truce; on a subsequent military expedition, a lethal hot desert wind (samum) struck the hostages, causing the Taghlib youth to perish while the Bakr youth survived. In another report, seventy men of Taghlib died of thirst after Bakr denied them access to water. When Taghlib demanded blood money from Bakr and the latter refused, both tribes took their case before Amr ibn Hind. Taghlib was led by their warrior-poet Amr ibn Kulthum, while Bakr was represented by al-Nu'man ibn Haram as orator and al-Harith ibn Hiliza as poet.

Al-Harith suffered from leprosy (or vitiligo), and because Amr ibn Hind avoided looking upon individuals with physical blemishes, seven curtains were placed between the king and the poet, with the king's servants customarily washing the poet's footsteps with water after his departure. Al-Harith recited his ode—beginning with Āthanatnā bi-baynihā Asmāʾ ("Asma' has announced her departure")—while leaning upon his bow or a staff; according to one account, he pressed it so forcefully into his palm or flesh out of passion that he wounded himself without realizing it. The king's mother, Hind, listened from behind her screens and voiced great admiration, prompting the king to remove the curtains one after another until al-Harith sat close to him. The king ruled in favor of Bakr, shared his bowl with al-Harith, and forbade washing his tracks with water.

Sources differ regarding the poem's composition: the popular tradition maintains that al-Harith improvised it extemporaneously on the spot, whereas other accounts state that he composed it beforehand and initially sought another member of his tribe to deliver it, but decided to recite it himself when none matched his delivery.

Standing and Legacy

Early authorities regarded al-Harith as one of the preeminent poets of the pre-Islamic era. Abu Ubayda named him alongside Amr ibn Kulthum and Tarafa ibn al-Abd as the three poets whose reputation was secured by a single magnificent long poem. The Andalusian writer Ibn Sharaf praised the eloquence of his description of marching armies and tribal mobilization, noting that al-Harith possessed the rare ability to convey complex narrative prose smoothly through verse. His extensive catalog of his tribe's triumphs and historical engagements led to the Arabic proverb, "More boastful than al-Harith ibn Hiliza" (afkhar min al-Hārith ibn Ḥilliza). Beyond his Mu'allaqah, only a small number of occasional verses and short fragments have survived in anthologies and his preserved Diwan.

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List of Works