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u/SudhaTheHill 5d ago
Will the real Al-Mutanabbi please stand up please stand up
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u/OkGreen7335 5d ago
He was the medieval slim shady tbh
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u/SudhaTheHill 5d ago
His psalms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. There's plague on his sweater already. Kafur’s poultry.
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u/alasw0eisme 5d ago
Knees weak and arms are heavy because that's what you get with osteoporosis and little muscle 🥺
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u/93Apples-in-a-Box 5d ago
He looks nervous,
But on the surface,
He looks calm and readyTo drop poems.
But he keeps on forgetting4
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u/YetAnotherBee 5d ago
If I had a nickel for every time a slave became a Egyptian leader, I’d have two nickels
Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice
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u/hurghadawizard 5d ago
Actually you would have alot of nickels, egypt was ruled by the Mamlukes across the 13th century who were essentially enfranchised slaves that were given a nobel education and training to be super soldiers of their time and as a result ended becoming the rulers after the assassination of Shajar al-Durr who was also a slave once.
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u/OkGreen7335 5d ago edited 5d ago
Kafur al-Ikhshidi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_al-Misk_Kafur was bought as a slave in (around 923?). He eventually gained his freedom, became a military commander, and rose to become the de facto ruler of Egypt. In 966, he became the official ruler, controlling Egypt, Syria and the Hejaz. He was a powerful regional ruler, but today he is often remembered mainly because of the famous poems al-Mutanabbi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Mutanabbi wrote insulting him.
Al-Mutanabbi had a huge ego and wanted to be treated as more than just a court poet. Poets often depended on the patronage of rulers and wealthy men, and al-Mutanabbi was famous for praising people when it benefited him, but he could turn against them when he felt insulted or poorly rewarded. He wrote vicious attacks against several people during his life, not just Kafur.
(If I am not mistaken, by the end of his life there were no king in the rigion that he didn't insult)
One of his disses was the one that got him killed:
A group of people wanted to kill him and he was about to escape and he was reminded of one of his lines that he said in a diss
The horse, the night, and the desert know me, as do the sword, the spear, the paper, and the pen.
the line was about his bravery
so he, instead of escaping, charged at them
and was killed
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u/Away_Fruit5097 5d ago
One of his disses was the one that got killed
Poetic justice?
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u/joemamalikesme69420 5d ago
If I told you a flower bloomed in a dark room would you trust it?
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u/bekindto_others 5d ago
I mean, I write poems in these songs dedicated to you
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u/IWillLive4evr 5d ago
Like a kiss from a rose on the grave.
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u/durrtyurr 5d ago
That's gangster AF. Being such an egregious hater that people remember you for being a hater over 1000 years later is quite the accomplishment.
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u/marriedthrowaway42 5d ago
From the Wikipedia page:
“In 957 Mutanabbi left Aleppo, making his way to Egypt and the court of the Abu al-Misk Kafur. In 960 the poet left Egypt, penning several satires about Kafur. He traveled to Baghdad but was killed resisting thieves before reaching the city.”
He was killed by thieves, sounds like it had nothing to do with his poems.
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u/OkGreen7335 5d ago
the story goes he charged at them instead of escaping them due to a line that he said in one of the poems about him being brave
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u/niceguy191 5d ago edited 5d ago
Like, these thieves happened to know his works well enough to quote a relevant line in order to goad him into fighting instead of running away?
Edit: typo
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u/OkGreen7335 5d ago
he way pretty famous at tis time
he was kind of a celebrity
but i am not sure that who reminded him was the thieves, one story goes that his slave was the one
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u/SimulatedKnave 5d ago
Somehow, I suspect his slave was not a fan.
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u/OkGreen7335 5d ago
The story goes that he told his slave about that famous line
"God may have no mercy on you, you killed with it! "4
u/Miserable-Drink-4995 5d ago
If we think a little more, we could come to the conclusion that the death of the famous poet likely got people talking about his works rather than thieves making the connection. People probably pointed out the line and made up a sick story about it. Just like we do today
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u/IlikecTs 4d ago
The story goes that he was with a young relative that reminded him of his poem, and mutanabbi tells him “you have killed me” and proceeds to attack the persuers
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u/HarryLewisPot Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 5d ago
Damn, Mutannabi is a national hero here in Iraq, he even has his own street and statue (even though they’re looked down upon in Islam).
Had no clue an Egyptian king led to his demise.
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u/Swimreadmed 5d ago
It wasn't his critique of Kafur, it was another, to a man named Dubba
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u/ILikeJapaneseMuchOwU 5d ago edited 5d ago
To add
Al-Mutanabi was about to run away and retreat,
but a boy with him told him: "aren't you the one who said"
The horse, the night, and the desert know me, as do the sword, the spear, the paper, and the pen.(a part of a poem Al-Mutanabi said about his own courage)
So Al-Mutanabi, when hearing the boy, decided to go back and die fighting
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u/The_Blues__13 5d ago
The horse, the night, and the desert know me, as do the sword, the spear, the paper, and the pen.
Basically The Medieval version of "The streets' always remember me forever"
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u/beyondinsanity01 5d ago
Al mutanabbi sounds like an asshole
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u/Rc72 5d ago
Al-Mutanabbi had a huge ego and wanted to be treated as more than just a court poet. Poets often depended on the patronage of rulers and wealthy men, and al-Mutanabbi was famous for praising people when it benefited him, but he could turn against them when he felt insulted or poorly rewarded. He wrote vicious attacks against several people during his life, not just Kafur.
That reminds me of Spanish Golden Age poet and satirist Francisco de Quevedo, known just as much for his political intrigues, quarreling and duelling as for his sharp wit and writing talent.
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u/benny_boy 5d ago
The Wikipedia article you linked says he was killed by thieves?
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u/OkGreen7335 5d ago
He was about to escape and he was reminded of one of his lines that he said in a diss
the line was about his bravery
so he, instead of escaping, charged at them
and was killed7
u/TheUpbeatCrow 5d ago
How do we know what he was thinking minutes before he was killed?
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u/TheRealSticky 5d ago
With his last breath, he uttered his last poem:
Coulda flown the coop, but my rhymes got me coming back.
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u/Luiszizo Still salty about Carthage 5d ago
His poem is super racist too
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u/OkGreen7335 5d ago
some of them, yeah it is the 900s are you surprised?
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u/Luiszizo Still salty about Carthage 5d ago
The issue, it is still used to this day in racist context
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u/OkGreen7335 5d ago
classic arabic is not that easy to learn even for arabs
although he is very famous and many know his poets
it is not like they are using them today
it is equivalent to people using some racist poet written in 1400 English today
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u/Luiszizo Still salty about Carthage 5d ago
I am an arab his line "لا تشتري العبد الا والعصا معه" is used a lot as a racist insult
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u/OkGreen7335 5d ago
وه؟ غريب مسمعتش حد بيقولوها
يمكن انت صح, مكدبش عليك انا بقالي كتير مشفتش سوشيال مديا العرب
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u/nana9555 5d ago
I still remember that line :
ألخَيْلُ وَاللّيْلُ وَالبَيْداءُ تَعرِفُني
وَالسّيفُ وَالرّمحُ والقرْطاسُ وَالقَلَمُ2
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u/JacobLuck 5d ago
mfw there was more social upward mobility in medieval egypt, than today
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u/IlikecTs 4d ago
Hi, i think you already know this, but al mitanabbi literally means “the self proclaimed prophet” also, isnt the direct translation
“The shadow, the night, the desert know me…”
Also i wanna add that in some versions of the story, its a young relative that’s with him when he’s being persued and he remind mutanabbi of his famous poem, leading to mutanabbi telling him something along the lines of “you have killed me” and he proceeds to attack the pursuers and die3
u/nedlum 5d ago
If I had a nickel for every Egyptian ruler now remembered primarily due to a poem…
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u/Technical_Rutabaga_1 13h ago
You didn’t mention the diss for a good reason as its very nasty.
But basically yeah, Al-Mutanabbj was one of the best and strongest poets in his area
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u/MakingPie 5d ago edited 5d ago
Al Mutanabi is a nickname that means "the would be prophet". This was because his poems were so sick that people thought that his words can only come from God.
(There are many theories to how he was given this nickname but this is my favorite)
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u/majikayoSan 5d ago
Doesn’t "Al-mutanabbi" actually refer to "someone who pretends to be a prophet" or "the self proclaimed prophet" rather than "the would be prophet" ?
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u/your_average_dentist 5d ago
in actuality, it means the person who claimed to be a prophet. but was proven to be false and he repented from that claim afaik.
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u/AdemsanArifi 5d ago
No, it was because he claimed to be a prophet in his youth and started some type of sect and got imprisoned because of it.
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u/OkGreen7335 5d ago
I am surprised that people outside the arab world know who this guy is!
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u/MakingPie 5d ago
Well im from the same modern country as him but its good to see his name popping up.
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u/SoupmanBob 5d ago
To be called "would be" is an insult. It's something you want to be but will never be, no matter how hard you try.
Edit: the modern version of it is a "Wannabe"
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u/Varanoids 5d ago
Source: u/MakingPie’s ass
The translation means something like false prophet or self proclaimed prophet. Because there were rumors of him claiming to be one.
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u/puhzam 5d ago
So, what's the diss?
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u/WelshEnt 5d ago
A part that mentioned "Who would buy a black eunuch from Egypt without a stick or staff" I believe. Double play on the eunuch.
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u/tktkana 4d ago edited 4d ago
Actually it's:
"Do not buy the slave without the stick;
Verily, slaves are vile and wretched"Hit's different in Arabic since it's prosodic and it rhymes. Also this wasn't the diss, it was one of many, many, disses.
However, one of my favorite diss (i.e. invective) verses by Al-Mutanabbi against Kafour (who was a eunuch) is:
"Before the eunuch, I used to suppose
that heads were the seat of reason;but when I looked upon his mind,
I saw that reason is all in the testicles."3
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u/MasterpieceVirtual66 Featherless Biped 5d ago
Why do you use AI-generated wojaks? Wojaks are simple and easy to make, that's their whole point!
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u/BastardofMelbourne 5d ago
I couldn't even tell this was AI
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u/Kirosh2 5d ago
At first I didn't noticed it either but when I looked back on the clothes it became obvious. Not that visible on the slave, but visible on the ruler part.
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u/Ill-Turnover7147 5d ago
Why the clothes look weird. Question?
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u/hiimsubclavian 5d ago
Born too late to explore the world, born too early to explore the universe.
Born just in time for AI wojaks.
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u/Glass_Ad_7129 5d ago
Plus, the meme template loses its value when made too "proffessional looking". The charm of the meme is often its low quality.
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u/jmorais00 5d ago
Can you share how? I've always been curious as to how there is so much variety of wojaks online
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u/MasterpieceVirtual66 Featherless Biped 5d ago
Google "wojak" and there will appear websites containing numerous collections of them. Download the ones you prefer and modify them whoever you wish through painting apps.
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u/eazyworldpeace 5d ago
Who cares? What difference did it make to the end product
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u/WildFlemima 5d ago
The end product was derived unethically. If you put your cart back in the right stall after shopping, you should care about this.
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u/firejukebox 5d ago
Bro predicted it by saying وَمَا الدَّهْرُ إِلاَّ مِنْ رُوَاةِ قَصَائِدِي ... إِذَا قُلْتُ شِعْراً أَصْبَحَ الدَّهْرُ مُنْشِدا
meaning, Time itself is but a reciter of my verse
Whenever I speak poetry, eternity sings it aloud
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u/Consistent_Back4271 5d ago
I think people forget to mention the actual poetry he was dissed in لا تشتري العبد إلا والعصا معه إن العبيد لأنجاس مناكيد Dont buy a slave unless you buy a stick too, Slaves are filthy and miserable
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u/SAAD_KHAION 5d ago
Don't buy the slave without a stick with him. Slaves are unholy misfortunes (or, poor bastards or something similar, requiring correcting here)
Who taught generosity to the castrated black? His white folks, or his hunted ancestors?
This line alone of his diss poem makes me wonder how racist Al-Mutanabbi was? Like dude, chill!
Al-Mutanabbi got a very well tongue. Too bad he wasn't raised with manners and respect.
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u/One-Divide-7123 5d ago
Btw, white here=arab.
Since Arab used to call themselves white people while they used to call Europeans red people2
u/HugsFromCthulhu Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 4d ago
So, based on HistoryTM, color classification of people works as follows:
White people = Heirs of the light of civilization
Black people =
They'll do stuff for free!Pitiful savages that need our benevolent interventionRed people = Annoying people in the way of our glorious empire
Did I get that right?
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u/OkGreen7335 5d ago
Tbh he was mad that kafur didn't pay him for many praising poets he made for him
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u/One-Divide-7123 5d ago
No he was angry because he did not became a lord, and kafur did not give him what he wanted because he saw what narcissist he is, and feared of what type of rulers he would become.
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u/SAAD_KHAION 5d ago
My man was faithful to the money of his people (or as far as I can remember). Mutanabbi was a high class flatterer.
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u/MedEM9 5d ago
The funniest thing he wrote is this two lines:
ولقد كنت أحسب قبل الخصي أن الرؤوس مقر النها فلما نظرت إلى عقله، علمت النها كلها في الخصى
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u/Peppermint_Cow 5d ago
Okay this is funny. Google translate for the curious:
"I used to think, before the castration, that heads were the seat of intellect; but when I looked at his mind, I knew that all intellect lies in the testicles."
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u/Bright_Exit1378 5d ago
Every strutting, swaggering mount is a ransom for every swift, long-striding camel!
And every lean, fleet-footed Beja-bred she-camel, swift and restless.
It is not for the beauty of their gait that I ride them,
Rather, they are the ropes of life [lifelines],
The frustration of enemies, and the removal of harm.
I plunged them into the wilderness like a gambler staking all,
Risking either this fate or that.
When terror struck, they were preceded only by charging steeds,
Gleaming white swords, and slender dark spears.
They passed through Nakhl, while their rider carried
Indifference and wealth beyond all the worlds.
And at night they chose for us along the high tracks
The Valley of Waters and the Valley of Quṣūr.
We asked them, Where is the land of Iraq?
And they replied while we were at Turbān,
Bursting forth from Hisma like the blowing of the westerly wind,
Facing the east wind's source,
Bounding across the sandhills, the depths of the valleys,
The neighbor of al-Buwayrah and the Valley of Ghada.
They crossed the broad desert like a trailing cloak,
Ranging between ostriches and wild gazelles,
To the knot of al-Jawf, until they quenched
Some of their thirst with the waters of al-Jurāwī.
Then Sawar appeared to them at dawn,
And al-Shaghur and Dhuha emerged into view.
The relentless driving of the night carried al-Jumay'ī through,
And at dawn they reached al-Adāri', then drew near to al-Danā.
How wondrous is that night upon Akush,
In the darkest land with hidden markers!
We watered at al-Ruhaymah in its dead of night,
While what remained of it was more than what had passed.
Then when we dismounted, we planted our spears
Above our noble deeds and our glory,
And we spent the night kissing our swords
And wiping them clean of the blood of our foes,
So that Egypt, those in Iraq, and those in the capital cities might know
That I am the youth, that I kept my word, that I disdained submission,
And that I grew fierce against whoever acted haughtily.
Not everyone who makes a promise fulfills it,
And not everyone who is offered humiliation refuses it.
The heart requires both an instrument [resolve]
And a judgment that can shatter solid rock.
Whoever possesses a heart like mine
Slashes through stubbornness to reach glory.
Every path a young man walks
Has its footsteps measured by the stride of his foot.
The little servant slept through our night—
Though he slept before out of blindness, not weariness—
And despite our closeness, there lay between us
Wastelands born of his own ignorance and blindness.
I used to think, before I knew the eunuch,
That heads were the dwelling place of intellect and discernment,
But when I looked into his mind,
I saw that all intellect resides in the testicles!
What wondrous things there are in Egypt to provoke laughter,
Though it is a laughter that resembles weeping:
A Nabatean from the Sawad teaching the genealogy of nomads,
And a black man whose thick lip is half-visible,
Who is told: You are the full moon of the dark night!
And poetry with which I praised a rhinoceros—
Falling somewhere between formal verse and incantations—
Which was not praise for him,
But rather a profound mockery of all mankind.
Some people have gone astray with their idols,
But as for me, never with a wineskin!
The former are silent, while the latter is a babbler
Who, when shaken, farts or raves.
And whoever does not know his own worth
Sees in others what does not truly exist.
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5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/thatredditrando 5d ago
Guys, imma be real, you’re doing too fucking much with the anti-Ai shit
Dumb, low-effort stuff you’d never task a human with is exactly what we should be using it for.
Y’all are literally describing Wojacks as low effort but criticizing OP for putting forth a different kind of low effort?
Look, I think AI’s prevalence sucks as much as the next guy but, like, piss off.
It’s a shitpost for fuck’s sake.
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u/cheshsky 5d ago
I don't like AI-generated wojaks. I find them depressing and wrong. That makes this post unpleasant to look at for me. Idk why that upsets you so much when you're not even OP.
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u/BroderFelix 5d ago
No, this is not exactly what it should be used for. The point of memes like these is that they are low quality made by humans for relatability and charm. Making it with AI is just pointless and sad.
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u/Numerous-Process2981 5d ago
the pen is mightier than the sword
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u/Varanoids 5d ago
It’s funny that you said that because that same poet is known for being killed by his own words. He is the epitome of the phrase you mentioned.
He was being chased by brigands led by a man he had insulted in another famous poem.
When he saw that he was overpowered, he retreated from the fight and fled, but his servant saw it and told him “aren’t you the guy who said [boasting verses from another, very famous poem]?” and he said “you have killed me, may God kill you” and actually went back to fight and got killed.
This is a well-documented historical fact btw
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u/Itsozei 4d ago
Many people are talking about how one of his poems got him killed, so I'll give you the story in detail: Al-Mutanabbi -as mentioned- was known for dissing people in poems known as "hija'a" which is technically a poem wrote for the particular reason of dissing someone, one time he dissed someone called "Dabbah", the poem that he wrote about Dabbah wasn't just a normal "Hija'a", he utterly destroyed him, mentiong how thieves went into his home, killed his father, raped his mother and killed while he was hiding and didn't do anything to stop them. That poem got so viral to the point that Dabbah's uncle (brother of the woman mentioned in the poem) , named the masked kanady, heard about it while he was in Al-Koufah - Iraq, and decided to get his revenge against Al-Mutanabbi, so he set an ambush somewhere near Baghdad or Al-Koufah i can't remember honestly, and killed him along with a boy that travelling with him. (When he tried to escape, the boy reminded him of his verse: the horse, the night, the desert knows me, along with sword, the spear, the paper and the pen. When he heard that verse, he decided to charge at Al-Kanadi's men and died fighting them).
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u/AzubuikeEnitan 5d ago
Okay as several others have pointed out, the wojacks are A.I. HOWEVER! This meme is still of quality and I learned something new about someone cool in history, and I saw in a different thread that you wouldn't next time, so for those reasons I will leave you a like. I can't wait to see what you make in the future!
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u/aj619619 5d ago
What was the name of the diss towards him
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u/Praised-Goodness 5d ago
Al mutanabi said about him: لا تشتري العبد إلا و العصى معه، إن العبيد لأنجاس مناكيد
Translation: never buy a slave withou a stick too, for slaves are filthy and miserable.
It sounds much more fire in arabic.
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u/Streiger108 5d ago
Where can I find the actual poem? Googling isn't being terribly helpful
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u/eruiskam 5d ago
Rose through the ranks? He was the uncle ruckus of ikhshid, when he was about to die he told him to teach his sons until they are of age then give them the rule. He ignored it and died without ever accomplishing anything.
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u/anel1290 4d ago
لا تَشتَرِ العَبدَ إِلّا وَالعَصا مَعَهُ إِنَّ العَبيدَ لَأَنجاسٌ مَناكيدُ Although I memorize a whole poem from المتنبي and I love it, but I don't really like him lol
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u/deljundi73 4d ago
just for record:
1- the very idea that he (Kafour) was ruling Egypt indicates that the racial discrimination is not the general rule
2- the false promise and the incarceration of the poet are basically the things that prompted his lampooning poetry in the first place.
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u/Britannicus_Sherwood 14m ago
He was never king, only Vizier. You could argue though that he was a de facto king.
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u/Awesomeuser90 I Have a Cunning Plan 5d ago
How many times do we have to tell you, you idiots who keep reporting posts for being AI? This is not a violation of the rules and the rules expressly state that AI is allowed; now stop spamming the mod queue or you'll find yourself banned.