Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Kanemi

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm al-Kānemī[1] (Arabic: أبو إسحاق إبراهيم الكانمي; died c. 1212) was an Arab poet and grammarian from Kanem. He was the first to write in Arabic in the central Sudan.[2]

Ibrāhīm was born in the oasis of Bilma, then a part of Kanem. In one poem, he refers to himself as belonging to the Dhakwān branch of the Banū Sulaym. The Dhakwān moved from Upper Egypt to North Africa in the 11th century. He is described as "jet-black in hue", indicating that his mother at least was a Black African. He was educated in the Sudan; in Ghana, according to Ibn Ḥamuwayh.[3]

Ibrāhīm visited Marrakesh around 1197–98, gaining there a reputation as a grammarian and poet. Only fragments of eight of his works survive, mainly quotations in the works of Ibn al-Abbār and Ibn al-Shaʿār. A poem in which he explains why he eschewed satire and wrote mostly qaṣīdas is quoted by both.[3] He was patronized by the Almohad Caliph Yaʿqūb al-Manṣūr (1184–1199). Two lines of a poem Ibrāhīm recited before his patron are quoted by the 19th-century historian Aḥmad al-Nāṣirī al-Salāwī.[4] Ibrāhīm wrote panegyrics on other leading Almohad figures and was a friend of fellow panegyrist ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Fāzāzī, who praised his verses. He also wrote in defence of his dark skin and exchanged stanzas on his race with al-Jirāwī. In Marrakesh, he married a white woman named Zahrāʾ and wrote her poetry dealing with his dark skin.[3]

Ibrāhīm eventually moved to al-Andalus (Spain).[3] He resided in Seville.[5] He died in Spain in AH 608 or 609 (between AD 1211 and 1213).[6]

Notes
  1. Hunwick 1997, p. 210, and Martin 1969, p. 20n, give his kunya as Abū Isḥāq. Hunwick 1995, p. 17, gives his full name as Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb al-Dhakwānī al-Kānemī (or al-Kānimī), where Ibrāhīm is his given name (ism), ibn Yaʿqūb his patronymic (nasab) and al-Dhakwānī and al-Kānemī two surnames (nasab) indicating his tribal and geographical origins. His name is not given consistently in the primary sources. Ibn al-Abbār gives it as Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Fāris ibn Shakla ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Sulamī al-Dhakwānī.
  2. Hunwick 1997, p. 210.
  3. Hunwick 1995, pp. 17–19.
  4. Martin 1969, p. 20n.
  5. Shaw 1905, p. 65: "the circumstance, though slight, is interesting, as serving show that at the end of the twelfth century Negroland contributed, not only its commercial wares, but also its quota of art to the stores of Europe."
  6. Hunwick 1995, p. 19, although Arié 1993 says that he died in Marrakesh.

Bibliography
  • Arié, Rachel (1993). "Review of Bencherifa 1991". Arabica. 40 (1): 131–132.
  • Bencherifa, Mohammed (1991). Ibrâhîm al-Kânimî (m. 609/1212–1213), figure illustre dans les relations culturelles entre le Maroc et Bilâd al-Sûdân. Université Mohammed V, Publications de l'Institut des Études Africaines.
  • Hunwick, John (1995). Arabic Literature of Africa, Volume 2: Writings of Central Sudanic Africa. E. J. Brill.
  • Hunwick, John (1997). "The Arabic Literary Tradition of Nigeria". Research in African Literatures. 28 (3): 210–223. JSTOR 3821003.
  • Martin, B. G. (1969). "Kanem, Bornu, and the Fazzan: Notes on the Political History of a Trade Route". The Journal of African History. 10 (1): 15–27. JSTOR 180293.
  • Shaw, Flora L. (1905). A Tropical Dependency: An Outline of the Ancient History of the Western Sudan with an Account of the Modern Settlement of Northern Nigeria. James Nisbet and Co.
  • Natty Mark Samuels (2015), Ibrahim al-Kanemi, Muslim Heritage (Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation, UK).
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