ABU AL-'ATAHIYAH

original name Abu Ishaq Isma'il Ibn Al-qasim Ibn Suwayd Ibn Kaysan born 748, Al-Kufah or 'Ayn at-Tamr, Iraq died 825/826, Baghdad first Arab poet of note to break with the conventions established by the pre-Islamic poets of the desert and to adopt a simpler and freer language of the village. Abu al-'Atahiyah ("Father of Craziness") came from a family of mawlas, poor non-Arabs who were clients of the 'Anaza Arab tribe. The family's poverty prevented Abu al-'Atahiyah from receiving a formal education, which may account for his subsequently original and untraditional poetic style. He began to write ghazals (lyrics) in his early years in al-Kufah; they later gained him notoriety as well as the favour of the 'Abbasid caliph Harun ar-Rashid. Abu al-'Atahiyah's fame, however, rested on the ascetic poems of his later years, the Zuhdiyat (Ger. trans. by O. Rescher, 1928), collected in 1071 by the Spanish scholar Ibn 'Abd al-Barr. The Zuhdiyat gave vent to his feelings of social resentment in verses depicting the leveling of the rich and powerful by the horrors of death. These found an enthusiastic following among the masses. Despite suggestions of heresy in his verse, probably attributable to his lack of religious training and unfettered style, Abu al-'Atahiyah's poetry enjoyed immense popularity and was frequently set to music.