(ca. 560-661) poet
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’allaqat (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.
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.
