Ṣafwān ibn Idrīs

Ṣafwān was born in Murcia (whence the nisba al-Mursī) into a prominent local family, the Banū Idrīs.[1] He was born between 1164 and 1166,[2] probably after the battle of Faḥṣ al-Jullāb on 15 October 1165.[3] He began writing poetry while still a child.[4] Much of what we know of his family comes from his own Zād al-musāfir. He records that he studied under his own father, Abū Yaḥyā, and also under another relative, the qāḍī Abu ʾl-Qāsim ibn Idrīs. Abu ʾl-ʿAbbās ibn Maḍāʾ taught him the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj and Ibn Bashkuwāl gave him the ijāza (the right to transmit ḥadīth) when he was only seventeen years old. He also studied under the prominent Murcian Abu ʾl-Qāsim Ibn Ḥubaysh; under Abu ʾl-Walīd ibn Rushd, the grandfather of the famous philosopher Ibn Rushd; and under the vizier Abū Rijāl ibn Ghalbūn.[1][4]

In the Zād, Ṣafwān gives a list of his other teachers: Abū Bakr ibn Mughāwir, Abu ʾl-Ḥasan Ibn al-Qāsim, Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥumayd, Abū Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Ḥajarī, Abū Muḥammad ibn Ḥawṭ Allāh and Ibn ʿAyshūn. Besides poetry and ḥadīth, Ṣafwān was regarded as an expert in adab (etiquette).[1] His closest friend was Abū Muḥammad ibn Ḥāmid (died 1223/4), the vizier of the Caliph al-ʿĀdil.[4] His most famous student was Abu ʾl-Rabīʿ ibn Sālim al-Kalāʿī.[1]

According to his biographers, Ṣafwān travelled to Marrakesh in search of patronage. He wrote panegyrics of the Almohad caliph al-Manṣūr hoping to earn enough money for his daughter's dowry. When this failed, he turned to writing panegyrics of Muḥammad. Subsequently, Muḥammad appeared to al-Manṣūr in a dream and spoke on behalf of Ṣafwān, whose financial difficulties were promptly addressed by the caliph. Although he had a daughter of marriageable age, Ṣafwān was not yet 40 years old at his death.[1] He died in Murcia on 8[2] or 9 July 1202 and was buried next to the mosque of al-Jurf.[3] His father said the prayer at his funeral.[1]

Ṣafwān wrote at least thirteen works.[2] These include:

1. Kitāb al-Riḥla[1]
2. Badāhat al-mutaḥaffiz wa-ʿujālat al-mustawfiz, an anthology of his own works in both prose and verse[1]
3. Zād al-musāfir wa-ghurrat muḥayyā ʾl-adab al-sāfir, an anthology with biographical notices of 12th-century Andalusian and Maghribian poets supplementing the works of Ibn Khāqān and Ibn al-Imām al-Shilbī.[1][5] It was an influence on the Tuḥfat al-qādim of Ibn al-Abbār and a source for the Rāyāt al-mubarrizīn of Ibn Saʿīd al-Maghribī, who included a biography of Ṣafwān.[1]
4. Among his surviving rasāʾil (letters) are ones to the qāḍī Abu ʾl-Qāsim ibn Bakī and the emir ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ibn ʿAlī. He also maintained a correspondence with the poet Muḥammad ibn Idrīs ibn Marj al-Kuḥl.[1] Many of his letters are preserved in the collection of Aḥmad al-Balawī, al-ʿAṭāʾ al-jazīl.[6]
5. Selections of his poetry (dīwān) are quoted by his biographers. His marāthī (elegies) commemorating al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī and the descendants of Muḥammad are most famous.[1]

• Mohamad Ballan, The Commemoration of the Martyrdom of al-Husayn b. Ali (d. 680) in al-Andalus.
  • "MS fragment of the poetic lament for al-Husayn by the eminent Andalusi scholar Ṣafwān ibn Idrīs (d. 598/1202) mentioned in the above piece"