Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah
Arab poet from Mecca (d. 719)
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ʿUmar ibn Abī Rabīʿah al-Makhzūmī (Arabic: عمر بن أبي ربيعة المخزومي) (November 644, Mecca – 712/719, Mecca, full name: Abū ’l-Khaṭṭāb ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Rabīʿah Ibn al-Mughayra ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Makhzūm ibn Yakaza ibn Murra al-Makhzūmī[1]) was an Arab poet. He was born into a wealthy family of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, his father being ʿAbd Allāh and his mother Asmā bint Mukharriba.[citation needed] He was characterised by the biographer Ibn Khallikan as 'the best poet ever produced by the tribe of Quraysh'.[2]
Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 644 |
| Died | 712/719 Mecca |
| Father | Abd Allah Ibn Abi Rabia |
He is known for his love poetry and for being one of the originators of the literary form ghazel in Islamic literature.[3] He was "impassioned by everything beautiful that he saw in the street or during pilgrimage.".[4] According to Ibn Khallikan, the most prominent object of his affections was al-Thurayya bint Ali Ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Umayya al-Ashghar ibn ʿAbd Shams ibn ʿAbd Manāf, granddaughter of the famous poet Qutayla bint al-Nadr, who married Suhayl ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn Auf al-Zuhrī, on which occasion Umar recited the following famous verses, which pun on the fact that the married couple’s names are both names of heavenly bodies (Suhayl being Canopus and al-Thurayyā being the Pleiades):
O thou who joinest in marriage al-Thurayyā and Suhayl, tell me, I pray thee, how can they ever meet? The former rises in the north-east, and the latter in the south-east![5]
