Abu Nuwas
| Abu Nouws | |
 | |
Abu Nouws | |
| Birth name | |
|---|---|
| Activity (s) | Poet |
| Birth | between 747 and 762 Ahvaz , Persia , Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad |
| Deaths | to 815 Baghdad , Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad |
| Writing language | Arabic |
Abu Nouws (or Abu Nuwas Biography
Abu Nuwas was born an Arab father, Hani was a soldier in the army of Marwan II , and his mother a Persian named Golban who worked as a weaver. From a middle Persian but Arabized , he spent his life in Baghdad. His contacts with sponsors , such as viziers Barmecides and scandalous aura earned him the wrath of the caliph Harun ar-Rashid.
Abu Nuwas is still a young boy when his mother sells to a grocer in Basra , Al-Sa'ad Yasha. Abu Nuwas emigrated to Baghdad, perhaps in the company of ibn al-Walibah Hubab, and quickly became famous for his poetry full of wit and humor, which does not treat traditional themes of the desert, but speaks of urban life and sings the joys of wine and beverages (khamriyyat) and love of young boys (mujuniyyat) with a ribald humor. Her work includes poems on hunting, the love of women, and other panegyrics of his bosses. He became known for his love of mockery and satire, two of his favorite themes is the male sexual passivity and sexual promiscuity of women. If he likes to talk about the sexual freedom of men, however it has no sympathy for lesbians. He loves to scandalize society by writing openly about things forbidden by Islam. It is probably the first Arab poet to write about the topic of masturbation.
Ismail bin Abu Nuwas Nubakht said: "I've never seen a man with a broader knowledge that the Abu Nuwas, nor one who, with a memory so richly furnished, possessed so few books. After his death we searched his house, and we found only one book in which they discovered a notebook, this book contains a collection of rare expressions and grammatical observations. "
His favorite themes in a pay trend hedonistic hints at mystic : love of wine , the boys and the hunting , libertinism , but also fear of death and aging. His criticism turns against particular religious institutions.
Regarded in his day as the greatest poet in classical Arabic, it is now very popular in countries of the Arabic language.
Exile and imprisonment
For writing a poem in the elegiac Barmecides , the powerful family overthrown and massacred by the caliph Harun ar-Rashid , Abu Nuwas was forced to flee to Egypt for a time. He returned to Baghdad in 809 after the death of Harun ar-Rashid. Taking the khilafa by Muhammad al-Amin , son of Harun ar-Rashid , a libertine and an alumnus of Abu Nuwas, is a huge relief for the poet. The poet wrote poems of praise to new caliph and composes a Kasida (poem in Arabic, ) in his honor.
According to critics of his time, he was the greatest poet of Islam (FF Arbuthnot). His contemporary, Abu Hatim al Mekki often said that Abu Nawas was digging deep into himself, thus finding the most original minds and the most difficult of access.
Nevertheless, his drunkenness and his libertinage eventually wear out the patience of al-Amin and Abu Nuwas is imprisoned. Al-Amin is finally overthrown by his brother Puritan, Al-Mamun , who has no patience for Abu Nuwas. Abu Nawas will die in prison without ever being out of it. Some biographers believe he was poisoned by an individual named Ismail bin Abu Sehl who was appointed by the vizier Zonbor.
Some authors argue later that the prison has led to repentance and Abu Nawas he became deeply religious, while others believe it was a maneuver to win the heart of the new caliph (with the help of some poems flattering particular). The vizier of al-Mamun, Zombor , hated Abu Nawas, it is said to aggravate his case he would have ordered a satirical poem against the son of Muhammad and his cousin Ali ; Zonbor would then read aloud in public, thus ensuring his continued detention.
Some texts
- Girl is better than boy
- Kill me there?
- Witch loves
They said it
- The historian Al-Massoudi , "His talent is so great that it would virtually shut the doors of poetry bacchanal."
- The sociologist Ibn Khaldun : "One of the major Arab poets"
- The polygraph Al-Jahiz : "I've never seen anyone who knew Arabic better vocabulary and express himself with greater purity and sweetness about avoiding unpleasant."
Abu Nouws music
An album title mutatis mutandis to the singer Juliette called Drunkenness of Abhu Nawas. In a previous album Que tal? , another song is titled "The song-Abhu newes" (sic).
The musician Dhafer Youssef has devoted an album in 2010: Abu Nawas Rhapsody (Jazzland / Universal 2010), with pianist Tigran Hamasyan , drummer Mark Guiliana and bassist Chris Jennings.
Bibliography
- Abu-Nuwas (Pref. and trans. Vincent Mansour Monteil), wine, wind, life, Sinbad, et al. "The small library of Sinbad", Arles, 1998 (ed. previous 1979, 1990), 190 p. ( ISBN 2-7427-1820-6 ). Collection of 74 poems translated with an introduction and a detailed biography.
- (In) Hakim Bey (Pref., trans.), O Tribe That Loves Boys: The Poetry of Abu Nuwas (with a biographical essay), Entimos Press, Amsterdam, 1993, 50 p.
- Abu Nuwas (Pref. and trans. Merzoug Omar, calligraphy Lassad Metoui), Bacchus in Sodom: poems, Mediterranean Paris, Paris, The Crossroads, Casablanca, 2004, 153 p. ( ISBN 2-84272-213-2 and 9981 -09-109-X ). Arabic-French bilingual collection of thirty poems, illustrated with reproductions of old miniatures.
- "The Bacchic poetry of Abu Nuwas. Significance initiatory and symbolic," Mary Bonnaud, Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, Pessac, 2008, 518. ( ISBN 2-978-2-86781 -497-6)
See also
Related articles
External Links
- Personal website on "Abu Nawas" with biography and poems online
- The big swinger of Islam , TelQuel ( weekly Moroccan )
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