SOURCE: Hamori, A. “Al-Mutanabbi.” In 'Abbasid Belles-Lettres, edited by Julia Ashtiany, T. M. Johnstone, J. D. Latham, R. B. Serjeant, and G. Rex Smith, pp. 300-14. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

In the following essay, Hamori provides an overview of al-Mutanabbi's life and works.

Life

Abū ’l-Tayyib Aḥmad b. al-Husayn, known as al-Mutanabbī, was born in 303/915 into a poor Kufan family. He took up the career of professional panegyrist while still a boy, and early began his travels in search of patrons. For years he had to content himself with offering hyperboles to men of modest distinction. In 322/933 we find him in prison in Himṣ (Homs): according to most Arabic sources, he had attempted to lead a bedouin revolt in the Syrian desert. The religious tincture of his call (of which his collected verse may retain some samples) earned him, according to this tradition, the name al-Mutanabb...