Al-Harith ibn Hilliza al-Yashkuri | |
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| Born | Al-Ḥārith ibn Ḥilliza al-Yashkurī 5th century Arabia |
| Occupation | Poet, Warrior |
| Language | Arabic |
| Nationality | Arab |
| Period | Pre-Islamic era |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Notable works | Mu'allaqat |
Al-Ḥārith ibn Ḥilliza al-Yashkurī (Arabic:الحارث بن حلزة اليشكري) was a pre-IslamicArabian poet of the tribe ofBakr, from the 5th century. He was the author of one of the seven famous pre-Islamic poems known as theMu'allaqat. Little is known of the details of his life.[1]
The story of themu'allaqa which al-Harith composed is as follows.[2][3] A dispute had arisen between the men of Taghlib and those of Bakr after a number of young Taghlib men had died in the desert. The men of Taghlib chose their prince,Amr ibn Kulthum, to plead their cause beforeAmr ibn Hind (d. 569), the king ofal-Hirah in southern Iraq. Ibn Kulthum pleaded the Taghlib's cause by reciting the sixth of themu'allaqāt. A quarrel then broke out between Ibn Kulthum and al-Nu'man, the Bakr spokesman, as a result of which the king dismissed them both and asked al-Harith to act as spokesman for the Bakr tribe instead of al-Nu'man. Whereupon, al-Harith recited the seventhmu'allaqa. It is said that al-Harith was an old man by this time, and afflicted with leprosy, so that he was required to recite his poem from behind a curtain. He is said to have been of noble birth and a warrior.
Although themu'allaqa is mostly a plea, interspersed with flattery of King Amr, it begins conventionally in the usual style of aqasida with a brief section of regret for a lost love and a description of a flight by camel. The metre iskhafīf.
Of al-Harith's other poems only a few fragments remain.[4]
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