Musings on mourning: Elegiac writings of Ibn Nubātah al-Miṣrī
“How can I bear to pair fair words in rhyme
when I have lost the one with whom I was a pair?”
– Elegy 1, “I have renounced”
Ibn Nubātah al-Miṣrī, born in Cairo, was a preeminent literary figure in 14th century Mamlūk society throughout Egypt and Syria. His writings, especially his elegies, sensitively bridge personal grief with the poetic tradition of the time.
Two elegies (rithāʾ in Arabic) have held recent scholarly interest, especially over the last two decades, and provide insight into the cultural and social role of poetry during the period in which Ibn Nubātah lived. It was long presumed that these elegies were written for two distinct women – a wife and a concubine. This impression was disproven when it was demonstrated that no less than five elegies exist for the same subject, a slave concubine.
Originally presented in a set, the elegies share particular stylistic and rhetorical commonalities. Further, the title of one elegy, featured in Ibn Nubātah’s bountiful Dīwān (compiled and published in Cairo), clarifies that this concubine died of tuberculosis around 1320 CE. In Arabic, a Dīwān (ديوان) refers to a collection or anthology of poetry by a specific poet. It serves as a compilation of their poetic works, often arranged chronologically or thematically. As is the case with many women in pre-modern society, history has left no record on her life or origin, beyond the anonymous elegies which Ibn Nubātah posthumously dedicated in her memory.
Ibn Nubātah’s two elegies, the focus of this article, will be referred to as Elegy 1 (“I have renounced”) and Elegy 2 (“Observe the rites of grief”). Mamlūk poetry marked a thematic shift by addressing more personal matters, such as love for a spouse, a subject rarely explored in earlier eras. Thomas Bauer writes that, “It is inconceivable that al-Buḥturī … could have composed a love poem about his own wife!”.
A key distinction between the two elegies lies in their focus, with Elegy 1 emphasising the concubine’s physical attributes (e.g., her graceful figure, eyes, face, and cheeks), as seen in lines such as, “I don’t know if it is for her sweet ways that I am crying, or for her sweet looks.”
Whereas previous figures seldom explored private relationships in their works, Mamlūk poets and the learned class demonstrated a heightened interest in personal lives, suggesting a broader cultural shift wherein one’s individual experiences were seen as relevant to the collective communal fabric.
Elegy 1, for example, opens with the paradoxical notion that the poet has relinquished verse. In doing this, Ibn Nubātah is attempting to highlight the challenge of expressing his profound loss.
The aforementioned elegies function as a discourse between the poet, burdened by grief, and a literary audience seeking solace through shared emotions. Readers or listeners found catharsis in having their feelings reinterpreted in his words.
His consistent Qur’anic references to Sūrat at-Taghābun (trans: The Mutual Disillusion) illustrate his use of intertextuality to deepen the impact of his poetry. The Sūrah conveys the idea of an ultimate reckoning, where individuals will fully comprehend the consequences of their choices, realising that worldly pursuits may have led to spiritual loss. In Ibn Nubātah’s elegy, referencing this intensifies the theme of irreversible regret, framing personal grief within a cosmic, moral perspective.
In general, elegies serve the bereaved, not the deceased. As such, Elegy 1 captures this intent powerfully in lines like, “I used to be afraid of leaving before you and now I’m inconsolable for a departed one,” and “My plaint is against Time the traitor… with my loved ones gone.” The verse, “I buried you, my dear, but if only you could see, you’d think it was you who buried me,” additionally exemplifies the universal nature of his reflections on loss.
Prominent modern critic Salma Jayyusi has argued that after the death of the celebrated and influential ʿAbbāsid poet al-Mutanabbī, later poetry became “…cut off from the warmth of human experience,” and she claimed that Ibn Nubātah dealt with emotion only on “a superficial plane.” However, this critique seems unfair, as many of Ibn Nubātah’s works, such as Elegy 2, reveal deep emotional intensity and richness. Indeed, Elegy 2 expresses more elegant, dynamically complex, and concentrated expressions of grief, including: “Begrudge me not your [blood-]tinted tears, that I may staunch my wounds when I lay her to rest.” Here, the poet shifts his beloved from being a visual object of admiration to a symbol of longing and philosophical reflection in his heart. Compared to Elegy 1, this elegy demonstrates more personal and intense mourning: “What are tears but the soul I’ve melted for your sake; a sleep I’ve washed away.”
Ibn Nubātah also skilfully incorporates traditional poetic themes, such as wuqūf ʿalā al-atlāl (lit: stopping upon the ruins). For example, he writes: “And the rugged desert to which she’s gone. Though, of course, it’s in rocky heights and barren stretches that gazelles make their home.” The desert here highlights the harshness of grief, while the gazelle is a popular idiom for vitality and grace. Together, they form a redolent contrast for the fleeting nature of life and impermanence.
To conclude, Ibn Nubātah al-Miṣrī’s elegiac poetry offers a unique window into the evolving landscapes of the Mamlūk period and pre-modern Arabic poetry in general, as a means of communal reflection and dialogue inhabited in raw, solitary introspection.
Despite modern critiques suggesting a shallowness in emotional engagement, the concubine’s nuanced portrayal captures the essence of mourning and longing through rich intertextuality and evocative imagery. Through his art, Ibn Nubātah ensured that the memory of his beloved, as well as his own legacy, would endure.
Bibliography:
al-Miṣrī, Ibn Nubātah, Dīwān (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-Tamaddun, 1905)
Bauer, Thomas, ‘Communication and Emotion: The Case of Ibn Nubatah’s Kindertotenlieder’, Mamlūk Studies Review, VII:1, 49-95
——, ‘Ibn Nubātah al-Miṣrī (686–768/1287–1366): Life and Works Part I: The Life of Ibn Nubātah’, Mamlūk Studies Review, XII:1, 1-35
Jayyusi, Salma Khadra, ‘Arabic poetry in the post-classical age’, in Arabic Literature in the Post-Classical Period, ed. by Roger Allen and D.S. Richards. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 23-59
Talib, Adam, ‘The Many Lives of Arabic Verse: Ibn Nubatah al-Misri Mourns More Than Once.’, Journal of Arabic Literature, 44:3 (2013), 257–292
van Gelder, G. J. H., Classical Arabic Literature: A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology, (New York: NYU Press, 2013)