Nābigha al-Ja‘dī

al-Nābigha al-Ja‘dī (النابغة الجعدي, d. c. 60/680 or some years later)[1] was an early Islamic poet.

Biography

He first appears in the historical record as part of the deputation by the Banū Ja‘da to the Prophet, which probably took place in 9/630, and which led to his conversion to Islam. He and his tribe migrated to al-Baṣra during the period of conquests. At al-Nukhayla and Ṣiffin he fought on the side of ‘Alī.[2] Correspondingly, he composed poems in praise of ‘Alī and the allied Ibn al-Zubayr.[3] In consequence, Mu‘āwiya confiscated his property in Medina and he went to Iṣfahān. Sometime between 63/683 and 65/685, al-Nābigha reluctantly pledged allegiance to ‘Abdallāh b. al-Zubayr.[4]

His date and place of death are unknown, with various guesses being made by scholars, ranging across 63/683×79/698-99, in Iṣfahān or Kurāsān.[5]

Work

Nābigha is noted for a series of hijā’ (satirical verse contests) with Aws b. Maghrā’ and al-Akhṭal c. 40/660, probably in al-Baṣra; and with Sawwār b. Awfā and his wife Laylā al-Akhyaliyya, apparently between 40/660 and 63/683.[6] In the latter case, the flyting began between Sawwār and Nābigha, but Laylā took over her husband's part on account of her greater poetic skill; the context for the flyting was the parties diametrically opposite political affiliations—there are even reports, unlikely to be true, of Laylā planning to hunt Nābigha down and kill him.[7] 'By all accounts, Laylā is considered to have come out victorious and to have shamed al-Nābigha.'[8]

Nābigha's work includes a heartfelt lament for the death of his son Muḥārib and younger brother Waḥwaḥ,[9] and a meditation on the frailty of human life in the face of death.[10]

On the conquest of Khorasan, Nābigha made the following verse: 'O men, do you not see how Persia has been ruined and its inhabitants humiliated? They have become slaves who pasture your sheet, as if their kingdom was a dream'.[11]

Editions

Studies

References

  1. ↑ Abū l-‘lā’ al-Ma‘arrī, The Epistle of Forgiveness or A Pardon to Enter the Garden, ed. and trans. by Geert Jan van Gelder and Gregor Schoeler, 2 vols (New York: New York University Press, 2013-14), II 263 n. 651.
  2. ↑ Aram A. Shahin, 'Reflections of the Lives and Deaths of Two Umayyad Poets: Laylā al-Akhyaliyya and Tawba b. al-Ḥumayyir', in The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning: Studies Presented to Wadad Kadi, ed. by Maurice A. Pomerantz, Aram A. Shahin (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. 398-443 (p. 416 n. 48), DOI: 10.1163/9789004307469_018.
  3. ↑ Aram A. Shahin, 'Reflections of the Lives and Deaths of Two Umayyad Poets: Laylā al-Akhyaliyya and Tawba b. al-Ḥumayyir', in The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning: Studies Presented to Wadad Kadi, ed. by Maurice A. Pomerantz, Aram A. Shahin (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. 398-443 (p. 417 n. 51), DOI: 10.1163/9789004307469_018.
  4. ↑ Aram A. Shahin, 'Reflections of the Lives and Deaths of Two Umayyad Poets: Laylā al-Akhyaliyya and Tawba b. al-Ḥumayyir', in The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning: Studies Presented to Wadad Kadi, ed. by Maurice A. Pomerantz, Aram A. Shahin (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. 398-443 (p. 416 n. 48), DOI: 10.1163/9789004307469_018.
  5. ↑ Aram A. Shahin, 'Reflections of the Lives and Deaths of Two Umayyad Poets: Laylā al-Akhyaliyya and Tawba b. al-Ḥumayyir', in The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning: Studies Presented to Wadad Kadi, ed. by Maurice A. Pomerantz, Aram A. Shahin (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. 398-443 (p. 416 n. 48), DOI: 10.1163/9789004307469_018.
  6. ↑ Aram A. Shahin, 'Reflections of the Lives and Deaths of Two Umayyad Poets: Laylā al-Akhyaliyya and Tawba b. al-Ḥumayyir', in The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning: Studies Presented to Wadad Kadi, ed. by Maurice A. Pomerantz, Aram A. Shahin (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. 398-443 (p. 416 n. 48), DOI: 10.1163/9789004307469_018.
  7. ↑ Aram A. Shahin, 'Reflections of the Lives and Deaths of Two Umayyad Poets: Laylā al-Akhyaliyya and Tawba b. al-Ḥumayyir', in The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning: Studies Presented to Wadad Kadi, ed. by Maurice A. Pomerantz, Aram A. Shahin (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. 398-443 (p. 417 n. 51), DOI: 10.1163/9789004307469_018.
  8. ↑ Aram A. Shahin, 'Reflections of the Lives and Deaths of Two Umayyad Poets: Laylā al-Akhyaliyya and Tawba b. al-Ḥumayyir', in The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning: Studies Presented to Wadad Kadi, ed. by Maurice A. Pomerantz, Aram A. Shahin (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. 398-443 (p. 416 n. 48), DOI: 10.1163/9789004307469_018.
  9. ↑ "an-Nābiġah al-Ǧaʿdī e le sue poesie", su: Rivista degli Studi Orientali, XIV (1934), pp. 135-190, alle pp. 177-78 (Qaṣīda XII).
  10. ↑ Le poesie di an-Nābigha al-Ǧaʿdī, Qaṣīda III, trad. di M. Nallino, pp. 39-40.
  11. ↑ William F. McCants, Founding Gods, Inventing Nations: Conquest and Culture Myths from Antiquity to Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), p. 105.
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