Diwan Suwayd ibn Abi Kahil al-Yashkuri
- Author died
- 61 AH
- Editions
- Ministry of Information assisted in its publication
Diwan Suwayd ibn Abi Kahil al-Yashkuri is the collected poetic corpus of the Mukhadram poet Suwayd ibn Abi Kahil al-Yashkuri (d. after 60 AH / c. 680 CE), compiled and edited from classical anthologies and literary sources .
Poet and Background
Suwayd ibn Abi Kahil (whose father's name is given as Shabib or Ghutayf) ibn Haritha ibn Hissil was an Arab poet belonging to Banu Yashkur who lived through both the pre-Islamic period (Jahiliyya) and the early Islamic era . He was primarily based in Iraq and its desert fringes . Ibn Sallam al-Jumahi ranked him in the same tier of pre-Islamic poets as 'Antarah, 'Amr ibn Kulthum, and al-Harith ibn Hilliza, while Ibn Qutayba suggested he may have been a contemporary of al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani and Tarafa .
He was known primarily for panegyric (madih) and satire (hija') . His invective against a fellow member of Yashkur resulted in his imprisonment in Kufa during the governorship of ‘Amir ibn Mas‘ud al-Jumahi under ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr (64–65 AH / 683–685 CE) . The tribes of Banu ‘Abs and Dhubyan successfully interceded on his behalf due to the praise he had previously dedicated to them, and he was released after taking an oath to renounce poetic satire .
Content and Major Poems
The surviving poetry encompasses various traditional genres, including love preludes (nasib), tribal pride (fakhr), panegyrics, and invectives . The centerpiece of Suwayd's poetic output is his celebrated ‘Ayniyyah (rhyming in the letter ‘ayn), which was regarded in the pre-Islamic period as one of the finest odes and earned the title al-Yatima ("The Unique" or "The Orphan") . Running to 108 lines, it was anthologized by al-Mufaddal al-Dabbi in al-Mufaddaliyyat (Ode 40) and opens with the line:
أَرَّقَ العَيْنَ خَيَالٌ لَمْ يَدَعْ ... مِنْ سُلَيْمَى فَفُؤَادِي مُنْتَزَعْ "A phantom vision of Sulayma kept the eye sleepless and departed not, leaving my heart torn away."
Modern Compilation and Editions
The extant fragments and odes of Suwayd's poetry were collected from disparate anthologies, lexical lexicons, and literary compendia by the modern scholar Shakir al-‘Ashur, who published the collection under the title Diwan Suwayd ibn Abi Kahil al-Yashkuri in Basra (Dar al-Tiba'a al-Haditha, 1972) .
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