tion or culled from the sources he consulted in libraries
throughout the many countries he visited. Among works
attributed to him are travel accounts and a number of
geographical and historical treatises.
Further Reading
Arberry, A. J. Moorish Poetry: A Translation of the Pennants, an
Anthology Compiled in 1243 by the Andalusian Ibn Sa‘ ̄ıd.
Cambridge, 1953.
Arié, R. “Un lettré andalou en Ifriqiya et en Orient au XIIIe siècle:
Ibn Sa‘ ̄ı d.” In L’occident musulman au bas Moyen Age. Ed.
R. Arié. Paris, 1992.
Dustin Cowell
IBN ZAYDU N (1003-1071) ̄
Abu’ l-Walid Ahmad ibn ’Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn
Ghalib al-Makhzumi ibn Zayd ̄un was born in Córdoba
in 1003, and died in Seville in 1071. He became famous
as one of the best neoclassical poets in al-Andalus, and
more specifi cally for his love poetry to the Umayyad
princess Wall ̄ada. The fact that three editions of his
D ̄ıw a n ̄ , two of them also containing his letters, are avail-
able attests to his popularity among his contemporaries
as well as twentieth-century Arabs who edited them.
Ibn Zayd ̄un was born into an illustrious family of
Arab origin during a period of great cultural splendor
in Muslim Spain that was also the beginning of an era
of political instability. He was in a position to acquire
an extensive education in literary culture, specifi cally
classical Arabic literature, and he started writing his own
verse when he was very young. He was fi rst publicly
recognized at the age of nineteen for a long elegy upon
the death of one of his teachers, Ibn Dh ̄aqwan, whom
he admired very much.
After Caliph Al-Mustakfi was killed in 1025, his un-
conventional daughter Wall ̄a da, herself a poet, became
the center of Córdoba’s literary circles, in which Ibn
Zayd ̄un played an active part. Poems tracing the stages
of his love for Wall ̄ada dominate the greatest part of
Ibn Zayd ̄un’s ensuing literary work and also show its
most original poetic aspects, though he also drew on his
extensive literary training to produce erudite, beautifully
crafted poems in a more traditional style, such as one
qas. ̄ıda against his rival Ibn Abd ̄u s.
In his love poetry Ibn Zayd ̄un uses many stock themes
of courtly love poetry as well as the poetic code of clas-
sical Arabic poetry, but he excels in endowing them with
new suggestive power and poetic intensity. His fi rst
poems give expression to happy union, the elevation of
the beloved, and the submission of the lover to the point
where a glance is enough and he is even ready to die
for her. Their union is threatened only by “the envious”
and “slanderers.” Soon, however, his poems deal with
themes of separation because of her rejection and with
his imprisonment, which probably had to do with his
political aspirations. He fl ed from prison and then tried
to entice Wall ̄ada to join him.
Ibn Zayd ̄un’s most famous poems spring from this
era: the N ̄u n ̄ı ya and his memories in the garden of
Med ̄ınat al-Zahr ̄a. In the N ̄u n ̄ıya, he tries to induce his
beloved to go with him. With the repeated rhyme na,
meaning “us,” in addition to the frequent use of the sixth
verbal form, suggesting mutuality, he endows language
forms and the accepted poetic code (monorhyme) with
the suggestive power to express his hope. Numerous oth-
er acoustic and structural patterns that are derived from
the tradition of classical Arabic literature are creatively
employed to support the poetic message in subtle ways.
In his famous poem from Al-Zahr ̄a , he uses the acoustic
effects of the rhyme aqa, which together with frequent
other guttural sounds refl ects the melancholy, dark mood
of yearning in a way that could not be achieved through
rational verbalization alone.
Ibn Zayd ̄un’s use of concepts goes far beyond a beau-
tiful reworking of well-known images. Traditionally
parts of nature were often compared to the beloved’s
beauty. Ibn Zayd ̄un, however, humanizes and spiritual-
izes nature by describing it as capable of feelings and
their manifestations. For instance, the breeze becomes
a friendly spirit sympathizing with the lover’s sickness,
and the fl owers drooping under the morning dew are
weeping with him.
Ibn Zayd ̄un also incorporates many Neoplatonic
spiritual ideas into his love poetry, including love as the
upsurge of the soul, love having its seat in the soul, and
the purity of love, which—in its mixture with sensual-
ity—is quite different from central European courtly
love poetry.
After an extended exile Ibn Zayd ̄un was granted
permission to return to Córdoba, where he became court
poet at the age of thirty-eight. He left Córdoba again,
however, and spent his last years at the court of Seville,
as court adviser and poet of panegyrics. In the last year
of his life, he was able to return to Córdoba in triumph
because his patron, Al-Mut‘amid, took over the city.
Ibn Zayd ̄un enriched the tradition of classical Arabic
poetry with his conceptual innovativeness and his cre-
ative use of accepted acoustic and structural elements.
See also Wall ̄a dah Bint Al-MustafkiFurther Reading
Cour, A. Un Poète arabe d’Andalousie: Ibn Zaidoun. Constantine,
Algeria, 1920.
Lug, S. Poetic Techniques and Conceptual Elements in Ibn
Zayd ̄un’s Love Poetry. Washington, D.C., 1982.
Sieginde LugIBN ZAYDU N ̄