Bashshar ibn Burd

Abū Muʿādh Bashshār ibn Burd^[1][2][3] (Arabic: أبو معاذ بشّار بن برد; 714–783), nicknamed al-Muraʿʿath^[4] (Arabic: المرعّث, 'the wattled'), was a Persian^[5] poet of the late Umayyad and early Abbasid periods who wrote in Arabic. Bashshar was of Persian ethnicity; his grandfather was taken as a captive to Iraq, but his father was a freedman (mawla) of the Uqayl tribe. Some Arab scholars considered Bashshar the first "modern" poet,^[6] and one of the pioneers of badi' in Arabic literature. It is believed that the poet exerted a great influence on the subsequent generation of poets.

Bashshar ibn Burd
Native name	بشّار بن برد
Died	783
Language	Arabic
Genre	Maqama
Literary movement	Badi'

Life

Bashshar was born into a family of Persian stock.^[7] He was blind from birth and said to have been ugly, in part a result of smallpox scarring on his face.^[8] He grew up in the rich cultural environment of Basra and showed his poetic talents at an early age. Bashshar fell foul of some religious figures, such as Malik ibn Dinar and al-Hasan al-Basri, who condemned his poetry for its licentiousness. He exchanged Hija with several poets. Being anti-Mu'tazili, he criticized Wasil ibn Ata, who by some accounts is considered the founder of the Mutazilite school of Islamic thought.

After the Abbasids built Baghdad, Bashshar moved there from Basra in 762. Bashshar became associated with the caliph al-Mahdi. Due to his libertinism, al-Mahdi ordered him not to write further love poetry. Bashshar quickly violated the ban.^[6]

Death

Multiple stories of Bashshar's end exist. Ammiel Alcalay in 1993 argued that Bashshar was condemned as a heretic and executed by al-Mahdi in 783.^[9] Hugh Kennedy, on the other hand, relates al-Tabari's account that Ya'qub ibn Dawud had Bashshar murdered in the marshes between Basra and Baghdad.^[10]

Style

Most of his Hija' (satires) are in traditional style, while his fakhr expresses his Shu'ubi sentiments, vaunting the achievements of his Persian ancestors and denigrating the "uncivilized Arabs". The following couplet from Bashshar demonstrates his admiration for Zoroastrianism (the religion of his Persian ancestors) over Islam by preferring prostration (sajdah) towards fire (Shaitan like other jinn was created from smokeless fire) in lieu of soil (Adam's origin).

الارض مظلمة و النار مشرقة
والنار معبودة مذكانت النار

See also

• Poetry portal

• Arabic literature
• Ibn Gharsiya – Shu'ubi poet

References

1. Bas̲h̲s̲h̲ār b. Burd at the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.
2. Bashshār ibn Burd at the Encyclopedia Britannica
3. Abbasid Belles Lettres. p. 275.
4. Abbasid Belles Lettres. p. 275.
5. • Lewis, Lambton & Holt 1986, p. 664. "Bashshar, (d. 167/783) a Persian, heralded the advent of 'Abbasid poetry, just as it was another Persian, Ibn al-Muqaffa', who opened the history of 'Abbasid prose."
   • Mallette 2021, p. 21. "Bashshār ibn Burd, ethnic Persian and Arabic poet, presents the secular, literary face of the language."
6. Meisami, Julie Scott; Starkey, Paul, eds. (1998). Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415185714.
7. Mallette 2021, p. 79. "In his book he relates that the Persian-born Bashshār b. Burd (d. 783–784), himself a feared satirist, paid grudgingly his yearly 200 dirhams of poll tax to a Muslim colleague to keep the latter's satire of him under wraps."
8. Kennedy, Hugh (2005). When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. p. 118. ISBN 0306814358.
9. Alcalay, Ammiel (1993). After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 94. ISBN 0-8166-2155-1.
10. Kennedy, Hugh (2005). When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. p. 120. ISBN 0306814358.

Sources cited

• Mallette, Karla (2021). Lives of the Great Languages: Arabic and Latin in the Medieval Mediterranean. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226796062.
• Lewis, Bernarded; Lambton, Ann K. S.; Holt, Peter Malcolm (1986). Islamic society and civilization, Volume 2B (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-21949-5.