Al-Shanfarā (Arabic: الشنفرى; died c. 525 CE) was a semi-legendary pre-Islamic poet tentatively associated with Ṭāif, and the supposed author of the celebrated poem Lāmiyyāt ‘al-Arab.
[1] He enjoys a status as a figure of an archetypal outlaw antihero (su'luk), critiquing the hypocrisies of his society from his position as an outsider.
[5] Others argue against his inclusion in this group,[6] which according to scholar Bernard Lewis is due to a confusion between the sa'alik and the aghribat al-Arab in some early sources.
[7] Al-Shanfarā attracted a number of pseudo-historical akhbar (reports) in texts like the Kitab al-Aghani by Abu al-Faraj Al-Isfahani or the commentary on the Mufaddaliyat by Muhammad bin al-Qasim al-Anbari [ar].
When the tribe asked him where he wanted to be buried, he is reported to have replied with the following lines: Do not bury me, for my burial is forbidden to you, but rejoice, oh Hyena!When they carry off my head – and in my head is most of me – and the rest of me lies abandoned on the battlefield,Then I will have no desire for a life to cheer me through stagnating nights, anathematized by my crimes.
Later, one of the Al-Azd passed by his bones and kicked his skull, but sustained a splinter which eventually mortified and killed him, thus completing Shanfara's vow.
[a] Although its attribution has been disputed ever since medieval times,[14] the memorable first-person figure of the misanthropic brigand celebrating his position on the edge of society that the poem draws has strongly influenced views of al-Shanfarā.
[15] We can if nothing else say that if the Lāmiyyāt is a later composition, it positions al-Shanfarā as the archetypal outlaw of a pre-Islamic heroic age, viewed nostalgically from a later era.
As the description progresses it becomes increasingly clear in the text that umm 'iyal is a man: "a companion of sa'alik, there is no veil before her" gives to way "she rushes upon the battle-ready foe, baring her leg to the knee" and then "when they panic she lets fly a white cutting; she shoots her store of arrows, then draws her blade" (lines 22–25).
[19]According to Al-Anbari's commentary, this line depicts al-Shanfara killing Haram ibn Jabir, the murderer of his father.