Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Isa Abd al-Malik ibn Isa ibn Quzman al-Zuhri (; 1087–1160) was the single most famous poet in the history of Al-Andalus and he is also considered to be one of its most original.Josef W. Meri, Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, 2005, p.364 One of the characteristics of his poetry was "satire, verging on the licentious, aimed at religious experts." He deeply admired his "Eastern predecessor" Abu Nuwas.
Life He was born and died in Cordoba during the reign of the Almoravids, to a family of possibly Gothic origins, while according to certain scholars he was from an Arab family. After leading a lifestyle similar to that of troubadours, traveling to Seville, Granada and Jaén, he became a mosque imam towards the end of his life.
Diwan
Only 149 poems from the Diwan of Ibn Quzman appear in a manuscript in Saint Petersburg, which was the subject of a notice published in 1881. A facsimile edition of it titled Le Divan d'Ibn Guzman was published in 1896 in Berlin by Baron David von Günzburg.Collectif, Hispano-arabic poetry, ed. Slatkine, 1974, Ch. IV The Almoravid Period, Ibn Quzman, p. 266-308 (retrieved 26-09-2011) p.XII
Most of the extant poems are zajals, the genre by which he earned his fameJosef W. Meri, Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, 2005, p.365 which are characterized by their colloquial language, as well as a typical rhyming scheme: aaab cccb dddb, where b rhymes with a constantly recurring refrain of one or two lines.Gorton, T.J., "The Metre of IbnQuzman: a "Classical"Approach", Journal of Arabic Literature, 6 (1975), pp. 1-29 As noted by James T. Monroe,
His approach to life as expressed in these melodious poems, together with their mixed idiom (occasionally using words of the Romance languages), shows a resemblance to the later vernacular troubadour poetry of France.Robert Kehew, Ezra Pound, William De Witt Snodgrass, Lark in the morning: the verses of the troubadours, University of Chicago Press, 2005, p.10
Translations The Diwan has been translated in Spanish by Federico Corriente (under the title Cancionero hispanoárabe) and in English by Monroe.
References
Further reading Menocal, María Rosa (EDT) /Scheindlin, Raymond P., "The Literature of Al-Andalus" (The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature) ch. 14, (EDT) /Sells, Michael /Publisher: Cambridge Univ Press, 2000 Dr. Bonnie D. Irwin Dean, "Cooking With Ibn Quzman: Kitchen Imagery in Azjal nos. 90, 68, and 118." Philological Association of the Pacific Coast Conference. Portland, 13 November 1988. Artifara, n. 1, (luglio - dicembre 2002), sezione Addenda La beauté des feux d'artifices dans les séries Netflix | Parlons des feux d'artifices, les artifices et effets spéciaux utilisés pour vous faire rêver ! . A Middle East Studies Association conference was held in Anchorage, Alaska, 2003. M. Th Houtsma, First encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936 First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936 (retrieved 36-09-2011) "Cancionero de Abenguzmán" in Enciclopedia GER (in Spanish)
External links Le Divan d'Ibn Guzman