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Sunaih bin Rabah: Poem (8th)
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Taken from: Africanism; Blacks in the Medieval Arab Imaginary by Nader Kadhem 2023.
Jarir (5) did not stop satirizing blacks. Jarir enraged another black poet, Sunaih bin Rabah,
when he criticized the people of al-Akhtal Bani Taghlib (1):
Don’t seek Khu’ula (6) in Taghlib
For al-Zanj’s Khu’ula is nobler than them.
Sunaih (16) responded angrily:
What is the matter with Kulaib’s dog (7) to insult us?
He [Jarir] is not equal to Hijab and Iqal. (8)
If someone makes Maragha (9) and her son [Jarir],
Equal to al-Farazdaq (8), he is unjust, and wrong.
And al-Zanj, when in the battlefield,
You see them as noble heroes
Ask Ibn Amr (4), when he faced their spears, (2)
Did he not see the Zanj’s spears to be long?
They killed Ziyad’s son (4), then
They dismounted their horses to fight.
Their horses are tied up in their courtyards,
While sheep and lambs are tied around you.
Bin Nudbah (10), among your warriors, was of our sons,
So was al-Khufaf (10), the burden bearer.
And the sons of Zabiba: Antarah and Harasa, (11)
Their examples have none among you (your people).
Ask Ibn Jayfar (15), when he invaded our homeland,
How vicious were they [Zanj] in defending their land?
And Sulayk (13), the ferocious lion, when he attacks
And Abbas (14), the master, they all outshine you.
And Ibn Khazim ibn Ajla (12), are among them [al-Zanj];
He surpassed all tribes in courage and honesty.
They were all sons of noble women,
Like lions raising their lion cubs.
If our Khu’ula is nobler than Kulaib,
Then you are viler than them,
And the sons of al-Hubab are lancers and nourishers
In winter, when the wind of the North blows. (3)
Note: another version of this poem is also found on my webpage of Al-Jahiz (776-869): Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh (the prides of blacks over the whites).
(1) The tribe of al-Akhgal.
(2) Literally, “when he desired their lances.”
(3) A reference to the common statement that, in the life of the Bedouin, generosity is most appreciated when the weather is cold.
(4) By Ibn ‘Amr, the poet means Ziyad b. ‘Amr; Hafs bin Ziyad bin Amr al-Ataki (in charge of al-Hajjaj police) and decimated his army, (al-Hajjaj= governor of the eastern provinces of the Islamic empire).
See also my webpage Ibn al Athir 1231. (it was Ziyad who finally won the war against Sir az Zangi = The Lion of the Zanj).
(5) Jarir: Garir b. Al-Hatafa (or Atiya) (d728): Arabian poet, contemporary and opponent of Al 'Akhtal.
(6) Maternal uncle relationship.
(7) Kulaib is an Arab tribe, but also a diminutive form of the word “Kalb” (a dog). Kulayb tribe: to which belonged the poet Jarir ibn Atiyya. The Kulayb tribe was also part of the Tamim tribe to which Farazdaq belonged.
(8) Al-Farazdaq’s noble forefathers. Farazdaq: Arab poet; (641-730). See also on him my webpages: Al-Jahiz 869; Ibn Abd Rabbih 940; Abd al-Karim ibn M. al Samani 1172; Ibn al Jawzi 1200.
Farazdaq made a Zanj women pregnant, and she bore him a daughter Vsmaha Makiya, he was nicknamed after her, and he said: I am Abu Makiya. …………. Farazdaq said of the Zanj women: Lord; the movement of the daughters of Zinj glares very enlightened.
(9) Name of Jarir’s mother.
(10) Khufaf bin Nudbah (= Black Poet) from Bani Sulaym =Arab tribe.
(11) Banu Zabiba: the offspring of Zabiba who is the Black mother of Antar and Harasa. See my webpage: Asmaee: Sirat Antar ibn Shaddad; (The Romance of Antar) (around 800).
(12) Ibn Ajla he means ‘Abd Allah b. Khazim as-Sulam, a black champion whose mother was black.
(13) al-Sulayk bin Salaka poet from among the “Aghrabat al-Arab” (Arab crows).
(14) Abbas bin Merdas: Black Poet.
(15) Al-Jahiz (776-869) in his Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh (see my webpage) has the following to say about him: As for Ibn Gaifar, it is an-Nu' man b. Gaifar b. 'Ubad b. Gaifar b. Al Julanda (or Gulanda); they had made an incursion in Zang territory: The Zang killed them and plundered the camp.
(16) Sanih b. Ribah: also called Subaih b. Riyah az-Zangi or Sir az Zangi (Lion of the Zangi). This poem can be situated in the context of the Zanj rebellion around Basra in 694/5 which was led by Riyah. Ibn al Athir 1231 gives the circumstances of the rebellion. Al-Jahiz (776-869): Al-Fakhar al-Sudan mentions him also, and Ahmed bin Yahya bin Jabir also known as (Al-Baladhuri) (AD 893) and Abd al-Karim ibn M. al Samani (1172)