TARAFAH

flourished 6th century in full Tarafah 'amr Ibn Al-'abd Ibn Sufyan Ibn Malik Ibn Dubay'ah Al-bakri Ibn Wa'il Arab poet, author of the longest of the seven odes in the celebrated collection of pre-Islamic poetry al-Mu'allaqat (see Mu'allaqat, al-). Some critics judge him to be the greatest of the pre-Islamic poets, if not the greatest Arab poet. Little is known with any certainty of Tarafah's life. He is traditionally acknowledged to have been an extraordinarily precocious poet, writing verses as a boy. After a wild youth spent in Bahrain, and after fighting in the war between his tribe of Bakr and the Taghlib, he went with his uncle Mutalammis, who was also a poet, to the court of 'Amr ibn Hind, the Lakhmid king of al-Hirah, and there became companion to the king's brother; Tarafah's association with the court of al-Hirah (554568) is the only certainly known fact of his life. Having ridiculed the king in some verses, tradition relates, he was sent with a letter to the ruler of Bahrain and, in accordance with the instructions contained in the letter, was buried alive. Tarafah is one of the few pre-Islamic poets whose workscollected poems and the Mu'allaqat odeare still extant. His poetry is passionate and eloquent, defending sensual pleasure and the pursuit of glory as the only proper goals of life.