A drawing of Abu Nuwas

Abu-Nuwas al-Hasan ben Hani al-Hakami (750?–815?) was a renowned Arabic poet. Born in the city of Ahvaz in Persia, he was of Arab and Persian descent. Image File history File links AbuNuwas. ... Events Last Umayyad caliph Marwan II (744-750) overthrown by first Abbasid caliph, Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah Bold textItalic textLink title GARY CANT SWIM GARY CANT SWIM GARY CANT SWIM GARY CANT SWIM GARY CANT SWIM GARY CANT SWIM GARY CANT SWIM... Events An iconoclastic synod is held. ... The Arabic language (Arabic: ‎ transliterated: ), or simply Arabic (Arabic: ‎ transliterated: ), is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Look up poetry in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Map of Iran and surrounding lands, showing location of Ahvaz Arial photo of Bustan park and Karun river. ... The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau. ... The Arabs (Arabic: عرب ) are a large and heterogeneous ethnic group found throughout the Middle East and North Africa. ... The Persians are an Iranian people who speak the Persian language and share a common culture and history. ...

He is generally regarded as one of the greatest of classical Arabic poets. He became a master of all the contemporary genres of Arabic poetry, but his reputation rests on his wine songs (khamriyyat), and his poems of boy love (mudhakkarat). Abu Nuwas has entered the folkloric tradition, and he appears several times in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. Arabic poetry is poetry composed and written down in the Arabic language either by Arab people or non-Arabs. ... Shah Abbas I and a page The dedication reads Tempera and gilt; Muhammad Qasim, 1627; Louvre, Paris For a generalized discussion of relations between men and boys see main article: Pederasty The practice of pederasty in the Islamic world began sometime during the 800s and ended, at least as an... Folklore is the ethnographic concept of the tales, legends, or superstitions current among a particular ethnic population, a part of the oral history of a particular culture. ... Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryar. ...

Early life and work

Abu Nuwas was born to an Arab father, a soldier whom he never knew, and a Persian mother named Golban, who worked as a weaver. Biographies differ on the date of Abu Nuwas' birth, ranging from 747 to 762. Events Abu Muslim unites the Abbasid Empire against the Umayyads. ... Events Abbasid caliph al-Mansur founds new capital at Baghdad, Iraq Births Deaths Emperor Xuanzong of Tang China Chinese poet Li Po, the Poet Immortal. ...

His given name was al-Hasan ibn Hani al-Hakami, 'Abu Nuwas' being a nick-name: 'Father of the Lock of Hair' referred to the two long locks of hair which hung down to his shoulders.

When Abu Nuwas was still a boy, his mother apparently sold him to a shopkeeper from Yemen, Sa’ad al-Yashira. The young Abu Nuwas apparently worked for al-Yashira in his shop at Basra, Iraq. In time, Abu Nuwas' youthful beauty and intelligence caught the attention of Walibah ibn al-Hubab, a poet noted for his blond hair. Al-Hubab bought Abu Nuwas's freedom and took him under his wing, mentoring him in studies of theology and grammar, as well as poetry. The two became lovers. Later, Abu Nuwas continued his studies under Khalaf al-Ahmar. Tradition declares that he also lived for a year among the Bedouins to purify his knowledge of unadulterated Arabic. Location of Basra Basra (also spelled BaÅŸrah or Basara; historically sometimes written Busra, Busrah, and the early form Bassorah; Arabic: , Al-Basrah) is the second largest city of Iraq with an estimated population of c. ... Bedouin resting at Mount Sinai Bedouin, derived from the Arabic , a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic pastoralist groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and...

Abu Nuwas migrated to Baghdad and soon became renowned for his witty and humorous poetry, which dealt not with the traditional desert themes, but with urban life and the joys of wine and drinking (khamriyyat), loving adolescent boys and young men (mudhakkarat), and ribald humor (mujuniyyat). "For young boys, the girls I’ve left behind, and for old wine set clear water out of mind," is a typical verse of his. "I delight in what the Book forbids, and flee what is allowed," was another, showing how unashamed Nuwas was about his indulgences. Location of Baghdad within Iraq Baghdad (Arabic: ‎ translit: , Kurdish: Bexda, from Persian Baagh-daad or Bag-Da-Du meaning “Garden of God” [1]) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ... The , (Arabic: recitation, also transliterated as Quran, Koran, and Alcoran, Turkish Kuran), is the central text of Islam. ...

He was infamous for his mockery and satire, two of his favorite themes being the sexual passivity of men and the sexual intemperance of women. Despite his celebration of male sexual freedom, he was less than sympathetic towards lesbianism, and often mocked what he perceived as its inanity. He liked to shock society by openly writing about things which Islam so vehemently forbade. He may have been the first Arab poet to write about masturbation, his judgment being that it was inferior to the love of boys but preferable to marriage. His commissioned work includes poems on the topic of hunting, the love of women, and panegyrics to his patrons. This article is about homosexual women, not inhabitants of the Greek island of Lesbos A lesbian (lowercase L) is a homosexual woman. ... For other uses, including people named Islam, see Islam (disambiguation). ... A Panegyric is a formal public speech delivered in high praise of a person or thing, a generally high studied and undiscriminating eulogy. ...

Exile and Imprisonment

Abu Nuwas was forced to flee to Egypt for a time, after he wrote an elegiac poem praising the Barmakis, the powerful family which had been toppled and massacred by the caliph, Harun al-Rashid. He returned to Baghdad in 809 upon the death of Harun al-Rashid. The subsequent ascension of Muhammad al-Amin, Harun al-Rashid's twenty-two-year-old libertine son (and former student of Abu Nuwas) was a mighty stroke of luck for Abu Nuwas. In fact, most scholars believe that Abu Nuwas wrote most of his poems during the reign of Al-Amin, a caliph who shared Abu Nuwas' tastes for wine and boys. Nevertheless, Abu Nuwas was imprisoned when his drunken, libidinous exploits tested even al-Amin's patience. Amin was finally overthrown by his puritanical brother, Al-Ma'mun, who had no tolerance for such as Abu Nuwas. The Barmakids(Arabic: البرامكة al-barāmika, also called Barmecides) were a noble Persian family which attained great power under the Abbasid caliphs. ... Persian miniature depicting Hārūn ar-Rashīd. ... Events Saga succeeds Heizei as emperor of Japan. ... Muhammad ibn Harun al-Amin (787 - 813), Abbasid Caliph. ... Abu Jafar al-Mamun ibn Harun (786 - October 10, 833) (المأمون) was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 813 until his death in 833. ...

Some accounts claim that fear of prison made Abu Nuwas repent his old ways and become deeply religious, while others believe his later, penitent poems were simply written in hopes of winning the caliph's pardon. Depending on which biography is consulted, Abu Nuwas either died in prison or was poisoned.

Legacy

Abu Nuwas is considered one of the greats of classical Arabic literature. He influenced many later writers, to mention only Omar Khayyám, and Hafiz -- both of them Persian poets, drawing on the Arabic tradition. A hedonistic caricature of Abu Nuwas appears in several of the Thousand and One Arabian Nights tales. Among his best known poems are the ones ridiculing the "Olde Arabia" nostalgia for the life of the Bedouin, and enthusiastically praising the up-to-date life in Baghdad as a vivid contrast. Tomb of Omar Khayyám, Nishapur, Iran. ... Hafez, detail of an illumination in a Persian manuscript of the Divan of Hafez, 18th century. ... The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (كتاب ألف ليلة و ليلة in Arabic or هزار و یک شب in Persian), also known as The book of a Thousand Nights and a Night, 1001 Arabian Nights, or simply the Arabian Nights, is a piece of classic Arabic literature in...

His freedom of expression, and his celebration of pederastic love, continue to excite the animus of censors. While his works were freely in circulation until the early years of the twentieth century, in 1932 the first modern censored edition of his works appeared in Cairo, leaving out the entire body of pederastic poetry. 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ...

Translations

• O Tribe That Loves Boys. Hakim Bey (Entimos Press / Abu Nuwas Society, 1993). With a scholarly biographical essay on Abu Nuwas, largely taken from Ewald Wagner's biographical entry in The Encyclopedia of Islam.

• Carousing With Gazelles. Subtitle: Homoerotic Songs of Old Baghdad. Translated by Jaafar Abu Tarab. New York, 2005.

• Jim Colville. Poems of Wine and Revelry: The Khamriyyat of Abu Nuwas. (Kegan Paul, 2005).

Peter Lamborn Wilson is a political writer, poet, and self-described anarchist ontologist. He sometimes writes under the name Hakim Bey (which may mean Mr Judge in Turkish, and which may or may not have been a name-of-convenience used by other radical writers since the 1970s). ...

Further reading

• Philip F. Kennedy. The Wine Song in Classical Arabic Poetry: Abu Nuwas and the Literary Tradition.. (Open University Press, 1997).
• Philip Kennedy: Abu Nuwas: A Genius of Poetry, OneWorld Press, 2005.
• The care and feeding of gazelles - Medieval Arabic and Hebrew love poetry. IN: Lazar, M. and Lacy, N. Poetics of Love in the Middle Ages. (George Mason University Press, 1989).
• Fawn of My Delights - boy-love in Hebrew & Arabic Verse. IN: Sex in the Middle Ages. (Garland, 1991).
• Boy-love in Medieval Arabic Verse. Paidika, Vol 3, No.3, Winter 1994.
• Richard Nelson Frye. The Golden Age of Persia, p123, ISBN 0-06-492288-x)
• Schild, Maarten. Abu Nuwas: Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. Dynes, Wayne R. (ed.) New York and London, Garland Publishing, 1990. p. 7
• Encyclopedia Britannica entry for Abu Nuwas

The Open University (OU) is the UKs open learning university, established in 1969. ... Richard Nelson Frye is a well known scholar of Central Asian studies, and emeritus Aga Khan Professor of Iranian studies at Harvard University. ... 1913 advertisement for the 11th edition, with the slogan When in doubt - look it up in the Encyclopædia Britannica The Encyclopædia Britannica (properly spelt with æ, the ae-ligature) is the oldest English-language general encyclopedia. ...

External links

• Poetry of Abu Nuwas
• The Knitting Circle - Abu Nuwas
• Al-Funu.Org: Abu Nuwas
• Queer Theory: Abu Nuwas
• 1001 Arabian Nights: Harun al_Rashid and the Damsel and Abu Nowas
• Abu Nawwas, the Persian Arab By Tamim al-Barghouti, Tuesday, June 15, 2004