1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/'Alqama Ibn 'Abada

by Griffithes Wheeler Thatcher

‘ALQAMA IBN ‘ABADA, generally known as ‘Alqama al-Fahl, an Arabian poet of the tribe Tamīm, who flourished in the second half of the 6th century. Of his life we know practically nothing except that his chief poem concerns an incident in the wars between the Lakḥmids and the Ghassānids (see Arabia, History). Even the date of this is doubtful, but it is generally referred to the period after the middle of the 6th century. His poetic description of ostriches is said to have been famous among the Arabs. His diwān consists of three qasīdas (elegies) and eleven fragments. Asmaʽ ī considered three of the poems genuine.

The poems were edited by A. Socin with Latin translation as Die Gedichte des ‛Alkama Alfahl (Leipzig, 1867), and are contained in W. Ahlwardt’s The Diwans of the six ancient Arabic Poets (Lond., 1870); cf. W. Ahlwardt's Bemerkungen über die Aechtheit der alten arabischen Gedichte (Greifswald, 1872), pp. 65-71 and 146-168. (G. W. T.)