Al-Mutanabbi through the Lens of Historical Accounts

Abstract

Al-Mutanabbi fascinated people and filled the world with his fame and genius. More importantly, his Diwan sparked a revolution in the world of intellectual and literary production, leaving behind a vast body of critical works, commentaries, accusations of plagiarism, comparisons, and literary disputes that have spanned across the ages. Hardly an era has passed without producing works dedicated to the poetry and personality of Al-Mutanabbi. This research seeks to answer several questions raised by scholars and readers alike: When did the antagonism toward Al-Mutanabbi begin? What is the Orientalist perspective on him? How is his Diwan read through a Western lens in an Eastern mind, and through an Eastern lens in a Western mind? Is it true that Al-Mutanabbi and his poetry lack emotion? Does his Diwan really lack romantic themes? Can we truly classify Al-Mutanabbi, as some historians and writers suggest, as merely a court poet or a ruler’s companion? Or is his Diwan simply a personal autobiography? This study is filled with conflicting views surrounding Al-Mutanabbi’s complex personality and his controversial yet celebrated poetry. The central question remains: Will the inquiries about Al-Mutanabbi and his work cease in our time, or will the debates and discourse surrounding him continue into future generations and centuries? We conclude that Al-Mutanabbi’s Diwan is not merely a collection of poems to be analyzed from linguistic, rhetorical, or literary perspectives. Rather, it is a historical record, bearing witness to events, places, and figures omitted by official chronicles; a geographical document tracing his journeys and travels; an economic account describing the conditions of both the elite and the common people; and a sociological text that reflects the realities of society across classes. It is a comprehensive book of life that speaks to every era, and even after more than a thousand years, it continues to reflect the spirit of the age in which it is read and studied. Al-Mutanabbi has thus become—both in image and in verse—a literary mask worn by writers, thinkers, and intellectuals in every era.