Abu Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Abu al-Fath (1058–1138/9), called Ibn Khafajah (إبن خفاجة), a native of Alzira, was a poet of al-Andalus during the reign of the Almoravids.[1] He was born in 1058 in Alzira (Arabic: جزيرة شقر) near Valencia where he spent most of his life.[1] He was the maternal uncle of poet Ibn al-Zaqqaq.[2]

He wrote sophisticated nature poetry.[3] He remained unmarried but had many friends[4] and lived to be over eighty.[1]There is a style based on him afterwards followed by many known as 'khafājī'.

His poetry often uses images to a dramatic function, such as contrasting light and darkness, or humanising the night environment.[2]

Composer Mohammed Fairouz set three poems of Ibn Khafajah to music in a cycle of vocal chamber music written for the Cygnus Ensemble.[5]

Notes

[4]

  1. ^ a b c Samuel G. Armistead, E. Michael Gerli (ed.), Medieval Iberia, an Encyclopedia, 2003, entry "Ibn Khafaja"
  2. ^ a b María Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin, Michael Anthony Sells, The literature of Al-Andalus, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 224
  3. ^ Salma Khadra Jayyusi, "Nature poetry and the rise of Ibn Khafaja," in: Salma Khadra Jayyusi (ed.), The legacy of Muslim Spain, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994, p. 381
  4. ^ a b Arie Schippers "Ibn Khafaja (1058-1139) in Morocco. Analysis of a laudatory poem addressed to a member of the Almoravid clan," in: Otto Zwartjes e.a. (ed.) Poetry, Politics and Polemics: Cultural Transfer Between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996, p. 14
  5. ^ Moore, Thomas (September 12, 2010), Mohammed Fairouz: An Interview, Opera Today, retrieved 2011-04-19

Bibliography

External links

Arabic literature
Authority control databases
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