Al-Sarī al-Raffāʾ (; died 362 AH / 973 CE), by his full Arabic name Abū l-Ḥasan al-Sarī ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Sarī al-Kindī al-Raffāʾ al-Mawṣilī (), was an Iraqi poet in the court of emir Sayf al-Dawla, noted for his riddlesNefeli Papoutsakis, 'Abū l-Maʿālī al-Ḥaẓīrī (d. 568/1172) and his Inimitable Book on Quizzes and Riddles', Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 109 (2019), 251–69. and ekphrastic poetry. He compiled the anthology al-Muḥibb wa-l-maḥbūb wa-l-mashmūm wa-l-mashrūb, an extensive collection of 'verses about love, fragrant plants, and wine'.András P. Hámori, “Anthologies, Arabic literature (pre-Mongol period)”, in Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, ed. by Kate Fleet and others (Leiden: Brill, 2012-), .
Sample poem
One of al-Sarī's riddles runs as follows:
Aʿdadtu li-l-layli idhā l-laylu ghasaq, / wa-qayyada l-alḥāẓa min dūni l-ṭuruq, Quḍbāna tibrin ʿariyat ʿani l-waraq / shifāʾuhā in maruḍat ḍarbu l-ʿunuq.
I prepared for the night (when it darkened and fettered the eyes, obscuring the roads) Leaveless twigs of gold which, should they wilt, may be reanimated by cutting their necks.
The answer is 'candles'.
Editions Al-Sarī al-Raffāʾ, Dīwān al-Sarī al-Raffāʾ, ed. by Ḥabīb Ḥusayn al-Ḥasani, 2 vols. (Baghdad: Manshūrāt Wizārat al-Thaqāfah wa-l-Aʿlām, 1981). Al-Sarī b. Aḥmad al-Raffāʾ, al-Muḥibb wa-l-maḥbūb wa-l-mashmūm wa-l-mashrūb, ed. Miṣbāḥ Ghalawinjī (vols 1-3) and Majīd Ḥasan al-Dhahabī (vol. 4), 4 vols (Damascus: Maṭbūʿāt Majmaʿ al-Lughah al-ʿArabiyyah bi-Dimashq 1986–87).
Further reading Jocelyn Sharlet, 'Inside and outside the Pleasure Scene in Poetry about Locations by al-Sarī al-Raffāʾ al-Mawṣilī', Journal of Arabic Literature, 40 (2009), 133-69 Jocelyn Sharlet, 'The Thought That Counts: Gift Exchange Poetry by Kushājim, al-Ṣanawbarī and al-Sarī al-Raffāʾ', Middle Eastern Literatures, 14 (2011), 235-70,
References