Diwan of Abd al-Samad ibn al-Mu'adhal

Author's name: Abdul Samad bin Al-Mu'adhdhal

Abd al-Samad ibn Ghailan was born in Basra, though his date of birth is unknown. His father's origins go back to the Banu Asad tribe of Rabi'ah, while accounts mention nothing about his mother, whose name was "al-Zarqa'." Abd al-Samad grew up in Basra, in a family known for its many poets. All three of his brothers were poets, but his father was also a poet. Abd al-Samad lived in Basra and owned an orchard there. He was at enmity with his brother, Ahmad, who was also a poet, a man of letters, and one of the prominent Mu'tazilite figures in his city. Abd al-Samad was arrogant, a harsh satirist, and extremely proud of himself, as accounts describe him. The exact date of Abd al-Samad al-Mu'adhal's death is unknown, but historians of Arabic literature estimate his death to be around the third decade of the thirteenth century. Abd al-Samad al-Mu'adhal was famous for his satirical poetry, described as being fine and solid. He was one of the great modern poets, and is compared to Abu Tammam in this respect. Abd al-Samad's poetry dealt with praise, elegy, satire, love poetry, and description. In the modern era, his collection of poems was collected and edited by Zuhair Ghazi Zahid in a master's thesis submitted to the University of Baghdad in 1968. Abd al-Samad's collection of poems was published with his editing in Najaf in 1970.