Imru' al-Qais
Imru' al-Qais
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Imru' al-Qais

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Imru' al-Qais

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Imru' al-Qais

Imruʾ al-Qais Junduh bin Hujr al-Kindi (Arabic: ٱمْرُؤ ٱلْقَيْس حُنْدُج ٱبْن حَجْر ٱلْكِنْدِيّ, romanizedImruʾ al-Qays Hunduj ibn Ḥujr al-Kindiyy) was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet from Najd in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, and the last King of Kinda. He is sometimes considered the father of Arabic poetry. His qaṣīda, or long poem, "Let us stop and weep" (قفا نبك qifā nabki) is one of the seven Mu'allaqat, poems prized as the best examples of pre-Islamic Arabian verse. His father was said to be Hujr bin al-Harith (حجر ابن الحارث Ḥujr ibn al-Ḥārith), the Kindan regent over the Arab tribes of Asad and Ghatafan, and it is believed that Imru' al-Qais was born in the territory of Asad. His mother was said to be Fatimah bint Rabi'ah al-Taghlibi (فاطمة بنت ربيعة التغلبي / Fāṭimah bint Rabī‘ah al-Taghlibī).

Legend has it that Imru' al-Qais was the youngest of his father's sons, and began composing poetry while he was still a child. His father strongly disapproved of this habit in his son, believing poetry to be an unseemly pastime for the son of a king. His father also disapproved of Imru' al-Qais' scandalous lifestyle of drinking and chasing women and eventually banished him from his kingdom, or so the legend goes. But later, when the Asad rebelled and assassinated his father, Imru' al-Qais was the only one of his brothers to take responsibility for avenging his death. Renouncing wine and women, he fought the tribe of Asad until he had exacted revenge in blood, and spent the remainder of his life trying to regain his father's kingdom.

Like many figures of early Arabia, which at that time lacked a formal writing system and relied on the oral transmission of stories, the details of the life of Imru' al-Qais are hard to determine with any certainty. Even so, historians have been able to compare the various stories written down by later biographers with clues from Imru' al-Qais' poems and information about major historical events in the Sasanian and Byzantine Empires to reconstruct a probable account of the life and ancestry of this most famous of the Jahili poets.

According to one account, his full name and ancestry was Imru' al-Qais, son of Hujr, son of al-Harith, son of 'Amr, son of Hujr the eater of bitter herbs, son of Mu'awiyya, son of Thawr (progenitor of the tribe of Kinda) son of Ufayr (Arabic: ابن عفير إمرؤ القيس ابن حجر ابن الحارث ابن عمرو ابن حجر اكل المرار ابن معاوية ابن ثور الكندي).

He was also referred to as "the Lost King" (الملك الضليل al-Malik aḍ-Ḍalīl) because he was never able to recover his father's throne.

The name Imru' al-Qais (in classical Arabic nominative Imru'u l-Qays(i) or Imra'a l-Qays(i), accusative Imra'a l-Qays(i), genitive Imri'i l-Qays(i)) means "man of Qais", (al-)Qais being the name of a pre-Islamic deity.

The tribe of Kinda had its origins in the South Arabia of and migrated north to Najd sometime in the 4th or 5th century AD. Sometime in the 5th century they asked the king of Yemen to select them a king, and Hujr Akil al-Murar ("eater of bitter herbs") became the first Kindite king. He was succeeded by his son 'Amr, who was succeeded by his son al-Harith, who was the greatest of all the Kindite kings. One of al-Harith's sons was Hujr, and he made him regent over the tribes of Asad and Ghatfan, and Hujr was the father of Imru' al-Qais."

Of al-Harith, it is told that when the Persian emperor Kavadh I adopted the teachings of the religious revolutionary Mazdak, al-Harith converted to Mazdakism with him. This caused Kavadh to make al-Harith king of the Hirah, a region in the south of modern-day Iraq, and expel his previous Arab vassal al-Mundhir. Kavadh's son Khosrau I rejected Mazdakism and rebuked al-Harith, restoring al-Mundhir to the throne of the Hirah. It is not known for sure how al-Harith died, but some reports indicate he was captured by al-Mundhir as he fled al-Hirah, and then killed along with two of his sons and more than forty of his kinsmen. Imru' al-Qais mourns this tragedy in one of the poems attributed to him:

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