Diwan Labid ibn Rabia al-Amiri
- Author died
- 41 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Ma‘rifah
Diwan Labid ibn Rabia al-Amiri is the collected poetic corpus of the pre-Islamic and early Islamic poet Labid ibn Rabi'a al-Amiri (d. ca. 41 AH / 661 CE), one of the authors of the famous Mu'allaqat .
Contents and Themes
The diwan comprises sixty-one poems and shorter pieces (qasida and muqatta'a), alongside miscellaneous verses attributed to the poet . The collection covers classical poetic genres including descriptions of Bedouin desert life and riding animals (wasf), tribal and personal boast (fakhr), martial valor (hamasa), elegy (ritha'), and moral wisdom (hikma), while containing comparatively little love poetry (ghazal) or satire (hija') , . The majority of Labid's poetry was composed prior to his conversion to Islam, after which his poetic production decreased significantly, often reflecting religious reflection and themes influenced by the Quran , .
The centerpiece of the diwan is Labid's Mu'allaqa, an eighty-eight-line ode composed in the kamil meter with a rhyming letter mim . The poem moves through conventional thematic movements: standing over deserted campsite traces (lines 1–11), depicting the departure of the caravan (lines 12–19), reflections of wisdom (lines 20–21), detailed descriptions of the she-camel (lines 22–52), transitional passages (line 53), reflections on youth and past diversions (lines 54–61), and extended self-praise and tribal boast celebrating the virtues of Banu Ja'far and Banu 'Amir (lines 62–88) .
Transmission and Early Commentaries
The poetry of Labid was gathered and transmitted by early philologists and transmitters of the Kufan and Basran traditions, including Abu Amr al-Shaybani, al-Asma'i, al-Sukkari, Ibn al-Sikkit, and Abu al-Hasan al-Tusi , .
Most early commentaries on the complete diwan were lost over time; of al-Tusi's commentary, only the second half survived in manuscript form, preserving twenty poems preceded by an introductory discussion of the poet and his work , .
Modern Editions
The surviving portion of al-Tusi's commentary was first edited and published in Vienna in 1880 by Yusuf Diya' al-Din al-Khalidi al-Maqdisi , . Another edition was prepared by the Orientalist Huber and published in Leiden in 1891 under the supervision of Carl Brockelmann, who provided supplementary material and a biography of the poet , . Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy also edited and published Labid's Mu'allaqa alongside commentaries and translated it into French .
A critical edition consolidating the surviving poems and recensions of the diwan was prepared by Ihsan Abbas and published in Kuwait in 1962 , .
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