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Lot Essay
Abu'l Tayyib Ahmad bin al-Husayn al-Mutanabbi (d. AH 354/965-66 AD) was born in the city of Kufa in Iraq in 915 AD. He studied in Damascus, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, and joined the Shi’a Qarmatians after they sacked Kufa in 924 AD. Al-Mutananbbi became a wandering poet and lived with the Bedouins before settling at the court of Sayf al-Dawla in Aleppo. After failing to become a Wali, he travelled to Egypt where he joined the court of Abu’l-Misk Kafur, but again he was not able to fulfil his political ambitions. He was killed in 965 as a result of some insulting and satirical poems he had composed. Al-Mutanabbi wrote 326 poems in his lifetime, and is considered one of the greatest Abbasid poets.
Another copy of this work is in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, see A. Arberry, A Handlist of the Arabic Manuscripts, volume II, Dublin, 1956, p.11, no.3278. A copy in two volumes, dated AH 1230/1814-15 AD, is in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, (A. Mingana, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, 1934, pp.744-45, no.449-50 [30 31]). Another five copies, the earliest of which is dated AH 708/1309 AD are in the British Library, London (P. Stocks and C. Baker, Subject – Guide to the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library, London, 2001, p.320, L.1).
Another copy of this work is in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, see A. Arberry, A Handlist of the Arabic Manuscripts, volume II, Dublin, 1956, p.11, no.3278. A copy in two volumes, dated AH 1230/1814-15 AD, is in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, (A. Mingana, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, 1934, pp.744-45, no.449-50 [30 31]). Another five copies, the earliest of which is dated AH 708/1309 AD are in the British Library, London (P. Stocks and C. Baker, Subject – Guide to the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library, London, 2001, p.320, L.1).