ABU NUWAS [Abtl `

See also:

• ALI

Ali

See also:

• HAL

Hal-asan

See also:

• IBN

ibn Hani'al-Jiakami] (c. 756-810)  , known as Abu Nuwas, Arabian poet, was born in al-Ahwaz, probably about 756 . His mother was a Persian, his father a soldier, a native of Damascus . His studies were made in Ba4ra under Abu Zaid and : Abu 'Ubaida (q.v.), and in Kufa under Khalaf al-Ahmar . He is also said to have spent a year with the Arabs in the desert to gain purity of language . Settling in Bagdad he enjoyed the favour of Harun al-Rashid and al-Amin, and died there probably about 81o . The greater part of his life was characterized by great licentiousness and disregard of religion, but in his later days he became ascetic . Abu Nuwas is recognized as the greatest poet of his time . His mastery of language has led to extensive quotation of his verses by Arabian scholars . Genial, cynical, immoral, he drew on all the varied life of his time for the material of his poems . In his wine-songs especially the manners of the upper classes of Bagdad are revealed . He was one of the first to ridicule the set form of the gaslda (elegy) as unnatural, and has satirized this form in several poems . See I .

Goldziher, Abhandlungen zur Arabiscken Philologie (Leyden, 1896), i. pp . 145 if . His poems were collected by several Arabian editors . One such collection (the MS. of which is now in Vienna) contains nearly 5000 verses grouped under the ten headings: wine, hunting, praise, satire, love of youths, love of women, obscenities, blame, elegies, renunciation of the world . His collected poems (Diwdn) have been published in Cairo (1860) and in Beirut (1884) . The wine-songs were edited by W . Ahlwardt under the title Diwdn des Abu Nowas . 1 . Die Weinlieder (Greifswald, 1861) . (G . W .