Tarafa

Tarafa
Tarafa (1967 sketch)
Born	Tarafa ibn al-‘Abd ibn Sufyān ibn Sa‘d Abū ‘Amr al-Bakrī al-Wā’ilī c. 543 Bahrain, Arabia
Died	c. 569 Bahrain, Arabia
Occupation	Poet
Language	Arabic
Nationality	Arabian
Period	Pre-Islamic
Genre	Panegyrics, Satire
Notable works	Mu'allaqat

Tarafa (Arabic: طرفة بن العبد بن سفيان بن سعد أبو عمرو البكري الوائلي / ALA-LC: Ṭarafah ibn al-‘Abd ibn Sufyān ibn Sa‘d Abū ‘Amr al-Bakrī al-Wā’ilī; 543–569), was a 6th century Arabian poet of the tribe of the Bakr. He is one of the seven poets of the most celebrated anthology of ancient Arabic poetry, known as the Muʿallaqāt, however just one of his poems is included. His fellow poets preserved in this work are Al-Nabigha, Antarah ibn Shaddad, Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma, 'Alqama ibn 'Abada and Imru' al-Qais.

Ṭarafah was the half-brother or nephew of the elegist Al-Khirniq bint Badr.^[1] He traveled with his uncle Al-Mutalammis to the court of the king of Al-Hirah, ʿAmr ibn Hind, and there became companion to the king's brother. According to one legend, having ridiculed the king in some verses he was sent with a letter to the ruler of Bahrayn, and, in accordance with the instructions contained in the letter, was buried alive.^[2]

Tarafa's bitter tongue was destined to cost him dear.

Fatigued and disgusted by the rigid ceremony of the court, he improvised a satire in which he said:-

"Would that we had instead of 'Amr

A milch-ewe bleating round our tent"

Shortly afterwards he happened to be seated at table opposite the king's sister. Struck with her beauty, he exclaimed:-

"Behold, she has come back to me,

My fair gazelle whose ear-rings shine;

Had not the king been sitting here,

I would have pressed her lips to mine !"

'Amr b. Hind was a man of violent and implacable temper. Tarafa's satire had already been reported to him, and this new impertinence added fuel to his wrath. Sending for Tarafa and Mutalammis, he granted them leave to visit their homes, and gave to each of them a sealed letter addressed to the governor of Bahrayn. When they had passed outside the city the suspicions of Mutalammis were aroused. As neither he nor his companion could read, he handed his own letter to a boy of Hira and learned that it contained orders to bury him alive. Thereupon he flung the treacherous missive into the stream and implored Tarafa to do likewise. Tarafa refused to break the royal seal. He continued his journey to Bahrayn, where he was thrown into prison and executed.^[3]

— Nicholson, A literary history of the Arabs

• The Divans of the Six Ancient Arabic Poets, Ennabiga, 'Antara, Tharafa, Zuhair, 'Alqama and Imruulqais, Trübner & co., London, 1870 (in English); anthology of diwan (collected poems) edited by Wilhelm Ahlwardt.^[4]

While some of his poems have been translated into Latin with notes by B. Vandenhoff (Berlin, 1895),^[5] both Tharafa and the poet Imru al-Qais were not included by Theodor Nöldeke in his Fünf Moallaqat, übersetzt und erklärt (Vienna, 1899-1901).

• The seven golden odes of pagan Arabia : known also as the Moallakat; An English translation by Anne Blunt, Lady; Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (London, Chiswick Press, 1903).

• University at Albany: The Mu'Allaqa of Ibn Tarafa
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Tarafa". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 415.
• Mohammadi Malayeri, M.: Tarikh va Farhang-e Iran Vol. I, Yazdan Publishers, Tehran 1372 Hsh. pp. 242، 267، 291، 292، 374.
• Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne (1907). A literary History of the Arabs. London: T.F. Unwin. pp. 44, 101, 107–9, 128, 138, 308.

• Media related to Tarafa at Wikimedia Commons
• Quotations related to Tarafa at Wikiquote