al-Akhtal

Ghiyath ibn Ghawth al-Taghlibi, a Christian, the poet of the Umayyad state. ¹

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan gave him generous gifts and preferred him over other poets. For about a quarter of a century he praised the Umayyad caliphs and promoted them. ¹

Al-Salabi counts him among the great poets of his age, together with al-Farazdaq and Jarir. ¹

Al-Akhtal ("the loquacious") was the sobriquet of the Arab poet Ghiyath b. Ghawth b. al-Salt, who probably died before 92/710. He belonged to the Taghlib of northern Syria, a tribe that remained entirely Christian and of the Monophysite persuasion; through his mother Layla he was connected to the Christian tribe of Iyad. He was born either at Hira or near Rusafa (Sergiopolis), probably around 20/640. He remained a Christian all his life and was unmoved by the efforts of prominent members of the Umayyad dynasty to convert him. Although a Monophysite, he kept good relations with the Melkite family of the Sarjun, and his poetry shows zeal for his faith and even some ostentation in asserting it. His moral conduct did not differ markedly from that of his society: he repudiated his wife and married a divorced woman, and he was a heavy drinker who spent his time in taverns with singing-girls. ²

All his life al-Akhtal followed the fortunes of the reigning dynasty. Under Mu'awiya he became involved in political affairs. He was the close companion of Yazid I, whom he praised in panegyrics, and of other men of rank such as Ziyad and al-Hajjaj. Under 'Abd al-Malik he became the official poet of the caliph, and he stayed in the service of the successors of 'Abd al-Malik, attacking all opponents of the dynasty in his poetry. Under al-Walid I he seems to have been less favoured, and he died probably shortly before the end of al-Walid's reign, leaving no offspring. ²

His whole career was dominated by a verbal war with his contemporary Jarir. In these diatribes he was supported by al-Farazdaq, who was a Tamimite like Jarir but was himself at odds with his fellow tribesman. The accounts of the three poets are almost impossible to separate. Al-Akhtal and Jarir perpetuated pre-Islamic tradition, and the old bedouin themes break through the religious veneer of their poetry. ²

The poems of al-Akhtal have reached us in a recension of al-Sukkari, compiled with material collected by Ibn al-A'rabi. The Diwan comprises panegyrics in the qasida form and many epigrammatic poems, and its forms, stock terminology and language resemble those of the other contemporary poets. Abu Tammam, in the 3rd/9th century, composed a Naqa'id Jarir wa l-Akhtal, presenting the verbal contests between the two rivals. Later the literary centres of Iraq drew comparisons between al-Akhtal, al-Farazdaq and Jarir, a taste that al-Hamadhani parodied in his Maqamat at the end of the 4th/10th century. Al-Akhtal did not keep his place in Arabic literature in the eyes of later generations, and in the West he has been the subject only of biographical studies. ²