JARIR

born c. 650, , Uthayfiyah, Yamamah region, Arabia [now in Saudi Arabia] died c. 729, , Yamamah in full Jarir Ibn 'atiyah Ibn Al-khatafa one of the greatest Arab poets of the Umayyad period, whose career and poetry show the continued vitality of the pre-Islamic Bedouin tradition. Jarir's special skill lay in poems insulting personal rivals or the enemies of his patrons. After sharp verbal clashes in Arabia in defense of Kulayb, his tribe, Jarir moved to Iraq. There he won the favour of the governor, al-Hajjaj, and wrote a number of poems in his praise. He also met the poet al-Farazdaq, with whom he had already begun a battle of poems that is said to have lasted 40 years. The results were collected in the following century as naqa'id (slanging-matches on parallel themes). The governor's goodwill earned Jarir entry at the Umayyad court in Damascus. Jarir was not able, however, to dislodge the poet al-Akhtal from the esteem of the caliph 'Abd al-Malik, and another poetic battle ensued, also producing naqa'id. Of the caliphs who succeeded 'Abd al-Malik, only the pious 'Umar II seems to have favoured Jarir, and much of Jarir's life was spent away from court in his native Yamamah. Many of Jarir's satires and panegyrics are in the conventional qasida (ode) form, usually a travel account sandwiched between a love-poem as prologue and a panegyric as conclusion. Jarir also wrote elegies, wisdom poetry, and epigrams.