Diwan of Al-Buhturi

Author's name: Al-Buhturi

Al-Buhturi, the author of this collection of poems, is Abu Ubadah al-Walid ibn Ubayd (205-284 AH/820-892 AD), an Arab Tai. He earned his nickname Al-Buhturi after one of his ancestors, Buhturi. He was born in Manbij, near Homs, and grew up there in a purely Arab manner. However, he was not mentioned until after his contact with Abu Tammam and his graduation. He went to Baghdad seeking a livelihood, and there he connected with the caliphs, praising six of them who succeeded him, the first of whom was Al-Wathiq, then those who succeeded him, especially Al-Mutawakkil ibn Al-Mu'tasim and his son Al-Mu'tazz. He also praised many of the ministers, especially Al-Fath ibn Khanaqan. However, his connection with Al-Mutawakkil was closer than with others, as he was his personal court poet. Al-Buhturi's poetry is based on words rather than meanings. Having grown up in the desert of Manbij, he borrowed from it its pure imagination, eloquent language, and the eloquence of its people. It was a beautiful, printed gesture, without affectation or dissonance in its words. His images were images without complexity or ambiguity. Al-Buhturi also had a strong imagination. When he depicted things, he presented them with artistically delicate, colorful images, in which one sensed movement and life, in poetry of sweet melody and wonderful brocade, as if it were, as was said of it, “chains of gold.” Its brocade was used as an example, so it was called the brocade of Buhturi. It is no surprise, as he had a precise sense of the word. It means choosing musical words that express the meaning in themselves and depict it clearly. If the word falls short of this descriptive task, the poet, with his beautiful art, composes between the word and the meaning, forming a sentence, and weaving it harmoniously, in agreement with each other. This fine composition made Ibn Rashiq al-Qayrawani call him “the Sheikh of the Poetic Art.” He made the ancients take his poetry as a supreme example of the Levantine method. As for its signature and melody, which is a method based on the music of words, their fine formulation, and care in choosing expression and imagery, it is no surprise when it is said of him: “Al-Buhturi wanted to feel, so he sang, because his poetry is music and singing.” However, in his poetry, Al-Buhturi was satisfied with the melody and image. Despite his graduation from Abu Tammam, his interaction with Ibn al-Rumi, and his vision of his new poetic school, he remained a stranger to the intellectual, civil, and Persian renaissance and its culture that permeated Arabic literary structures. He only followed the ways of the ancients and only followed their traditional styles. This is what made Al-Amidi say: “Al-Buhturi is a Bedouin poet, naturally, and according to the school of the ancients, he did not depart from the well-known column of poetry.” However, if the idea was unlucky with him, then what he had of a delicate imagination, taste in production, and ability in formulation, enabled him to improve those old styles, beautify them, and polish them. Al-Buhturi’s entry into the city benefited him, in addition to his Bedouin images, with urban images. What he saw of civilization, with its nature, palaces, and buildings, expanded his imagination and colored it with the colors of diverse civilizations. If he described, for example, the pool of Al-Mutawakkil, or the palace of Al-Mu’tazz, or the palace of Khosrau, or the spring, he did not come up with a new idea or an innovative image, but he highlighted the known thought and image in his own colorful musical form, so the ears enjoyed it and the hearts jumped for it. This is while most of Al-Buhturi’s poetry is in praise, and less in commendation, reproach, satire, and love poetry. It is common for it to begin with love poetry, but it is a traditional, rigid love poetry in which the poet’s psychology and emotion are not felt, unless it is in some of the stanzas he said In the upper reaches of Aleppo, the love poetry was followed by praise, or a description of urban or natural features, that beautiful description which was not for the sake of description itself, but rather a means used by the poet to praise. The collection is in the hands of the reader, so that he may savor that wonderful poetry and form an opinion, whether in agreement or disagreement with what is stated in this verse.