AL-ṢŪLĪ’S EPISTLE TO ABŪ L-LAYTH MUZĀḤIM IBN FĀTIK
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ABŪ TAMMĀM
Abū Tammām and Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʾād
Abū Tammām and Khālid ibn Yazīd al-Shaybānī
Abū Tammām and al-Ḥasan ibn Rajāʾ
Abū Tammām, al-Ḥasan ibn Wahb, and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Zayyāt
Abū Tammām and the House of Ṭāhir ibn al-Ḥusayn
Abū Tammām and Abū Saʿīd Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Thaghrī l-Ṭāʾī l-Ḥumaydī
Abū Tammām and Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿtaṣim
Abū Tammām and Mukhallad ibn Bakkār al-Mawṣilī
Abū Tammām Described; Stories Told of His Family
Diverse Information about Abū Tammām
The Death of Abū Tammām and His Age at the Time
Laments Composed for Abū Tammām
About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
The Library of Arabic Literature
ABBREVIATIONS
| D | Abū Tammām, Dīwān, edited by M. ʿAzzām, 4 vols., Cairo 1951–65 |
| GAS | Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums |
| EI2 | The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new [second] edition |
| EI3 | The Encyclopaedia of Islam, third edition |
| EAL | Meisami and Starkey, Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature |
| v., vv. | verse(s) |
| var. | variant |
| WKAS | Ullmann, Wörterbuch der klassischen arabischen Sprache, 2 vols., Wiesbaden, 1970–2000 |
| ا | al-Ṣūlī, Akhbār Abī Tammām, Istanbul Fatih 3900 |
| ع | al-Ṣūlī, Akhbār Abī Tammām, edited by K. ʿAsākir, M. ʿAzzām and N. al-Hindī, Cairo, 1937 |
| ه | emendations in ع made by N. al-Hindī |
| عس | emendations in ع made by K. ʿAsākir |
FOREWORD
TERENCE CAVE
“Rhymes and great deeds last forever
like a string when fitted with a center pearl.” (§60)
In 223/838, the armies of the Abbasid caliphate, led by the Caliph al-Muʿtaṣim himself, carried out a devastating retaliatory attack on the Byzantine Empire, laying siege to the key city of Amorium, sacking it, and slaughtering large numbers of its inhabitants. The victory, which marked a significant realignment in the balance of power between the Muslim and the Christian worlds in the East, was celebrated by Abū Tammām at the peak of his career in his most famous ode (for an abridged version, see §§61.2–3; also §§20.2–5). It was written down, copied, memorized, and widely read among the cultural elite, and brought Abū Tammām immediate financial rewards from the caliph as well as fame. Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī’s compilation, The Life and Times of Abū Tammām, provides us with abundant insights into this and other similar episodes.
At the other end of the Mediterranean, just sixty years earlier, another memorable battle was waged between Christians and Muslims. In 161/778, the rearguard of Charlemagne’s expeditionary force was ambushed and destroyed at Roncesvaux in the Pyrenees as they were returning northwards. What is now known as the Song of Roland, written down some 300 years later, represents this disaster as an episode in a long-term struggle between the Christian forces of Charlemagne and his Muslim adversaries. In fact, it seems that Charlemagne had done a deal with the Abbasid
