The Life and Times of Abu Tammam. Abu Bakr al-Suli

a leading poet, the pioneer of a style subsequently followed by every excellent poet, even though they could not match it, to the point that it was labeled “the style of the Ṭayyite.” Every skilled poet traces his ancestry back to him and follows in his footsteps.

23.2

      Before Abū Tammām poets used to be innovative in one or two verses of a poem, and were held in the highest regard for doing so. Abū Tammām, however, pushed his talent to the limits and forced himself to be innovative in most of his poetry. I swear, he did so and did so well! And if he fell short in a few verses—which he did not!—then this piffle would drown in the oceans of his excellence. Is anyone so perfect as not to be allowed a mistake, except in the fancy of the unreasonable?

23.3

      Some disciplines are restricted and some unrestricted, some are closely guarded and some are widely available. The scholar who studies the unrestricted must not ignore the restricted. The one who begins with the widely available must not be unaware of the closely guarded. I say this so no one should have the audacity to sit in judgment on poets, evaluating their words and passing verdict on what is good or bad in their verse, unless he, more than anyone else, is a consummate expert in poetry and prose, and completely qualified in every aspect he turns to; and unless he has committed to memory more varieties of poetic indebtedness and influence than anyone else, and is an unrivaled expert in their topics and their intent.

      23.4

      How can someone who cannot even put together a single good verse or write an eloquent missive, someone who cannot remember ten motifs out of the ten thousand which have been composed, have the audacity to make such a claim? How does he get his listener to accept it? If only Abū Tammām had been put to the test by the criticism of a high-ranking expert in the discipline of poetry or at least someone who properly understood it. But he was put to the test by those who cannot tell good from bad, but can only pretend to do so.

      23.5

      Ziyād ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Ḥārithī composed a few verses on a similar subject:

      If only I had been put to the test by a Hashimite,

      whose maternal kin are the Banū ʿAbd al-Madān,

      I would have put up with what he said.

      But come, look who tested me!

      23.6

      Al-ʿUtbī recited:

      If only noble lions, hyenas, and jackals

      had toyed with my weak flesh,

      This would have lessened my pain and soothed my affliction.

      But it is dogs that have finished off my flesh.

      23.7

      The ignorance of this generation of critics, and the silliness of those who believe their unfounded claims to understanding, bring to mind this line of verse:

      How can he who does not know what he wants

      know what we want?

      The verse is preceded by the following:

      Why do I see you free?

      Where are your manacles and chains?

      Is iron too expensive in your land,

      or can no one clap you in chains?

      23.8

      I cite Abū Sulaymān al-Nābulusī:

      A man appeared before Ayyūb ibn Aḥmad in Barqaʿīd and recited poetry to him, but Ayyūb had begun to reprimand his female slave and was not listening. So the man went away and said:

      I swear, Barqaʿīd, what a bad education

      you provide!

      How can he who does not know what he wants

      know what we want?

      How can poetry pin down

      someone no one can clap in irons?³⁷

      Reason wears itself out there,

      foolishness is ever fresh and new.

      23.9

      Yaḥyā ibn ʿAlī recited the following verses to me about al-Zajjāj:

      Good God in heaven! How dull this dimwit is—

      unable to string two words together when asked to open his mouth!

      His repeated claims of knowledge

      are all the evidence we have.

24.1

      Were I not under an obligation to provide the proofs you charged me with, people like this would not even cross my mind. I would not consider them worth a mention, let alone worth attacking. Muslim ibn al-Walīd composed some excellent verses on such a motif:

      Tell me, little Mayyās, what kind of person are you?

      You are neither known nor unknown.

      Your honor is too small to be lampooned

      while praise, as you know, is much beyond you.

      Go then! You have been set free by your honor—

      an honor with which you made yourself great, humble as you are.³⁸

      24.2

      ʿAlī ibn Yaḥyā said:

      Go! You have been set free by an honor

      so vile it protected you.

      He who lampoons you

      wastes his poetry completely.

      I will turn my lampoon to others

      and keep it safe from you,

      Asking Him who created mankind

      to see you as I do.

      24.3

      These verses seem to be taken from the words of Abū Hishām to Bashshār:

      You became great through the humbleness of your parents,

      and because you are so vile you dare to talk back.

      24.4

      Muslim lampooned al-ʿAbbās ibn Aḥnaf:

      Pretenders get no satisfaction through the Banū Ḥanīfah,

      leave the Ḥanīfah alone and find yourself another ancestry.

      Go to Bedouins—claiming them gives satisfaction,

      I think you look like a Bedouin.

      We ran a fierce race, I put you to the test,

      by setting a goal you could neither pursue nor surpass.

      Go then! You have been set free by my forbearance,

      but I pledge a violent assault when I cannot control my anger.

      24.5

      Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Ṣūlī composed the following verses about Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Zayyāt:

      Be what you like, say what you want,

      explode on the right, thunder on the left!

      You were saved by your vileness, like a fly

      protected by shit from being caught.

      24.6

      These critics of Abū Tammām are as Abū Nuwās describes:

      I am at a loss as to how to lampoon you;

      my tongue just will not work.

      When I think about your honor

      I take pity on my poetry.

      24.7

      And also as ʿAlī ibn Yaḥyā describes: