Ibn Hayyus

Al-Amir Muṣṭafa ad-Dawla Abī al-Fityān Muhammad,[1][note 1] better known as Ibn Ḥayyûs (December 1003–January/February 1081),[2] was an Arab poet from Syria. He was well-known for writing panegyrics to the emirs and nobility of Syria, particularly the Mirdasids of Aleppo.

Biography

Ibn Hayyus was born in Damascus in December 1003.[2][3] He received his name from his grandfather, Hayyus.[2] Ibn Hayyus was styled al-amir (prince/commander) because his father,[2] Sultan,[4] was a commander of the Bedouin.[4][2] The family descended from the Banu Ghani, a Qaysi clan founded by Ghani ibn 'Asur.[3] Ibn Hayyus's home was located in the Zuqaq-Attaf neighborhood of Damascus.[5] In 1016, the Fatimid officer, Anushtakin al-Dizbari, resided in the family's home for roughly a year; Ibn Hayyus later dedicated numerous panegyrics to Anushtakin,[5] who had become governor of Fatimid Syria in 1029.

In the course of his writing career, Ibn Hayyus became acquainted with several local rulers, Fatimid officials and other dignitaries.[2] He dedicated to them panegyrics and in turn, was rewarded by them with riches.[2] In the process, he gained the surname "Mustafa ad-Dawla" (the chosen of the state).[4] He became particularly associated with the Mirdasid emirs of Aleppo, where he moved in 1072.[2] One of the Mirdasid emirs, Mahmud ibn Nasr, once rewarded him with one thousand gold dinars.[2] Following Mahmud's death in 1075, Ibn Hayyus developed a close friendship with his son, Nasr ibn Mahmud.[2] In one of his poems, Ibn Hayyus wrote "Mahmud gave me one thousand pieces of gold out of his treasury; I know for certainty his son Nasr will do the same."[2] Nasr was honored by the elegy and exclaimed "if he [Ibn Hayyus] had said Nasr would double the sum several times over, I should certainly have done it!"[2]

The wealth Ibn Hayyus accrued from the Mirdasids of Aleppo enabled to build a residence for himself in the city.[2] On a panel atop the house's doorway, he inscribed the following ode:

We built this abode and in it we resided, enjoying the bounty of the Mirdasids, a family which delivered us from adversity and the tyranny of fortune. Say to the sons of Earth: 'Let men act thus towards their fellow-men'.[6]

In 1079, the Uqaylid emir of Upper Mesopotamia, Abu al-Mukarrim Muslim, granted Ibn Hayyus an iqtaʿ (fief) in Mosul in gratitude for an elegy Ibn Hayyus wrote for him.[7] Ibn Hayyus died in his home in 1081.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ Full name and genealogy: Al-Amir Muṣṭafa ad-Dawla Abī al-Fityān Mûḥammad ibn Sultân ibn Mûḥammad ibn Hayyûs ibn Mûḥammad ibn al-Murtada ibn Mûḥammad ibn al-Haytham ibn Uthmân al-Ghanawī

References

  1. ↑ Rabbat, Nasser O. (1995). The Citadel of Cairo: A New Interpretation of Royal Mameluk Architecture. Leiden: Brill. p. 312. ISBN 90-04-10124-1.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Huart, Clément (1903). Short Histories of the Literatures of the World, Volume 2. New York: D. Appleton and Company. pp. 120–121.
  3. 1 2 Ibn Khallikan, ed. De Slane 1868, p. 143.
  4. 1 2 3 Ibn Khallikan, ed. De Slane 1868, p. 138.
  5. 1 2 Zakkar, Suhayl (1971). The Emirate of Aleppo: 1004–1094. Aleppo: Dar al-Amanah. p. 130.
  6. ↑ Ibn Khallikan, ed. De Slane 1869, p. 141.
  7. ↑ Ibn Khallikan, ed. De Slane 1868, pp. 143–144.

Bibliography

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