Abu al-Atahiya

Arab poet of the Abbasid period

Abū al ʻAtāhiyya (أبو العتاهية; 748–828), full name Abu Ishaq Isma'il ibn al Qasim ibn Suwayd Al Anzi (أبو إسحاق إسماعيل بن القاسم بن سويد العنزي), was among the principal Arab poets of the early Islamic era, a prolific muwallad poet of ascetics who ranked with Bashshār and Abū Nuwās, whom he met. He renounced poetry for a time on religious grounds.

Abū l ʻAtāhiyya was born in Ayn al Tamr in the Iraqi desert, near al Anbar. There are two sayings in his lineage the first is that he is from the Anazzah tribe, and the other is that His family were mawali of the tribe of ʻAnaza. His youth was spent in Kufa, where he was engaged for some time in selling pottery. During the time when he took the occupation of selling pottery, he saw the assembly of poets in a competition and he participated in it. He composed eulogia to the governor of Tabaristan, emir Umar Ibn al Alā (783 4/ 167AH). and with a growing reputation, he was drawn to Baghdad, the seat of the Abbāsid court where he soon became famous for his verses, especially for those addressed to ‘Utbah, a concubine of the Abbasid Caliph al Mahdi. His love was unrequited, although al Mahdi, and after him Caliph ar Rashīd, interceded for him. Having offended the caliph, he was imprisoned for a short time. He died in 828 in the reign of Caliph al Ma'mūn, and Al Nadīm cites the qāḍī of al Kūfah Ibn Kāmil (d.961) that he died on the same day as the grammarian ‘Amr ibn Abī ‘Amr al Shaybānī and the court musician Ibrāhīm al Mawṣilī in 828 9 / 213 AH. His tomb was on the banks of the Īsā canal. opposite the Kantarat al Zaiyātīn ('Oilmen Bridge')