Labid, the son of a celebrated philanthropist,
Rabi‘a, was born into a prominent family in the
‘Amir tribe in central Arabia. As a teenager, he
made his name at the court of the Lakhmid king, a
famous patron of poetry. He was said to have converted
to Islam while visiting Medina and after
hearing Muhammad recite verses from the KORAN.
His own poems display a deep religious feeling, but
there is speculation among scholars that he abandoned
poetry after his conversion.
Labid’s brother Arbad was killed by lightning,
inspiring a very famous elegy, “The Deserted
Camp,” in which Labid philosophically laments the
futility of human existence and the difficulties of
old age: “Man is but a little flame. A little while
after it has risen into the air, it turns to ashes.”
One of Labid’s longer poems was later included
in the Mu‘allaq¯at (The Seven Odes), an anthology
of major pre-Islamic poems collected in the late
eighth century.While Labid’s odes follow the traditional
format, he is noted for his vivid animal descriptions
and intense celebration of his tribe’s
noble qualities and traditional customs and laws.
He calls his tribesmen “generous, assisting liberality,
gentlemanly, winning and plundering precious
prize, sprung of a stock whose fathers laid down a
code for them.” Labid was among the prominent
pagan poets who converted to Islam, and his
poems celebrate the Bedouin values that served as
models for later Muslim poets.
See also HANGED POEMS; TARAFAH ‘AMR IBN AL-
‘ABD.
An English Version of a Work by Labid
Arberry, A. J. The Seven Odes: The First Chapter in
Arabic Literature. New York:Macmillan, 1957.
Works about Labid
Allen, Roger. An Introduction to Arabic Literature.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press,
2000.
Huart, Clement. A History of Arabic Literature. Beirut:
Khayats, 1966.