The Abbasid Poet Abu Dulama | Mufti Abu Layth

i want to introduce you to abu dhulama what a personality huh so this is a person from the early like the the kind of like the middle taber in era he's alive at that kind of time and so he's definitely around when tabain are around he's a poet um people disagree on his name and some people say his name is zandib nor joon and some people said that doesn't really make sense it should be zaidib no june or zebedee no june but

whatever usually they go with zen or zen or jun and some people whether he was a freed slave or he was they're not sure he is a poet right um an interesting colorful character that really gets a lot of royal audience and he's somebody who is he he stands out one

for his self-deprecating kind of behavior he was apparently he was ugly what a what an accolade huh so apparently he was ugly he was incredibly eloquent but he would own his ugliness like he would he would be kind of very both like he would kind of just self-deprecating poetry he'd curse himself and insult himself and and it really praised a lot of the abbasids and obviously they liked that naturally people like uh being praised which makes sense so

so those of you that recall we previously i think just briefly spoken about the takeover of [Music] damascus by the abbasids and when they took it over it was you had people like safa who was uh who was like this um i mean i believe just thousands of people were kind of slaughtered but he um so he's in control he takes it over and there he encounters this abu

dhulamah who is often just praising the ambassadors he's praising safar he's really so they kind of like these guys incredibly eloquent he's weird looking but compared to his his looks he's incredibly confident like he's so confident that he doesn't make any so witty and sharp uh thinks on the spot that they they kind of take him they find him amusing so i thought let's introduce him and some key characters that revolve around him so you've got a safa then you've got mansur abu jafar

al-mansoor who becomes the caliph after him you'll have his son al-mahdi you'll have al-mansour's wife al-qaeda who is this powerful character as well personality we can speak much more about her another time but she appears in this in this chapter as well with abu dhulama so these are some top names that are kind of appearing around around this character and we can see here he was somebody that just speaking about receiving he would not miss an

opportunity to receive like he would thrust himself upon the opportunity like he would he would force like he would just be there basically just any opportunity he would just be like to the caliphs uh could i please have some some reward or some so it said that he wants um he meets safa who is this you know this major abbasid kind of and he praises him and here's one uh praise that you can see in that poem right there he says

allah he says if there were a people that sat above the sun it would be said to them like like they would have to say as well that um oh the family of abbas meaning that if there were people above the sun above them would be alo abbas like this is the mccomb of the abbasids that he's he's saying that um so you've got

right i was trying to did it i was trying to nope all right let me just take that back a bit right so he says

that this even such a people who are above the sun if they existed they would have to say to allah abbas that you guys are above us and you are the most noble of all people like look at the level of kind of praise that he's uh hurling at the abbasids so he meets safa one day and and sometimes it was his audacity you know there's a saying that sometimes if you if if you're that if you have the audacity to ask sometimes you just get you know what i'm saying so

he meets safa and he says to safa safa looks at him and he says like what's up and he says he says yes you know my master your master he says he says i have an ask so the guy says obviously king he says yeah what he says kill basid or kill basay he says i just want a hunting dog

so safa says okay he says give him a hunting dog and he goes uh he says but he says but to be with the dog i'm gonna need a horse i've got obviously i've gotta chase after the dog on the horse

so safar says give him a horse he goes yeah yeah [Laughter] he says i've got a dog and a horse he says there should be a servant as well who's going to look after them i'm not really in a position to look after awesome i like look look at me so safa looks at him he says he says grant he says give him a servant he says

he says there's a servant there's a horse there's a dog this me he says there should be a maid that like that cooks food prepares stuff at home he says don't you think so it's a rational conclusion so so safa looks at him and says says give him as a slave girl

he says ya say thee you've given me all these people but don't people need a home he says i've got the people i've got the horse and this but don't they need a home all this worry is going to happen it's going to happen in a home of course of course your majesty would know that of course so safa looks at him and says he says can you get this guy a house and and then he says he says yes he says

he says for a house there needs to be some land it can't just be a house like obviously where is the horse gonna graze where is it gonna it says this one you understand man you man of understanding man so they say safa just laughs and he says he says give this guy some goddamn land get him out of here so this is the kind of character that abu dhaba is he's so uh he's so

daring and kind of outrageous and he has this audacity to uh to kind of say all these things in front of these caliphs and and so they keep him quite close they think like you know what any and he says good poetry so they kind of like that and they feel that yeah you know say poetry for us every now and then and he does and this is an example here one day he this is an incident he was after um

um after the caliph safa and had died he was saying one of these poems which which you've got right here under the picture that innis you see he says this in abu dhafra mansur's time now abu jafar al mansoor was known for being incredibly tight-fisted those of you that have watched my i've got a clip on youtube called uh about us

the poem that um where it's it's those of you that haven't watched it definitely advise you to watch it it's about where abu jafar al mansoul is trying to con these poets because he was so tight-fisted they used to call him abu dhabi and it's like so you have the dirham and then you have smaller change which is made up of more less valuable metals and these sometimes were known as filth and where you get the money with the term fullus in arabic or some in this time were called and they used to call him abu dhawanik because he clings on to them

so let alone the silver the gold he's not letting that go and so in his time of jaffa al mansour there were a lot of reef reforms that were taking place and one of the things he did was he would make um people dress in black and what he did is he would make them wear these kind of these uh these kind of hats with these sticks in there that would hold them up these black hats and they would wear their sword underneath behind their back like and he would make them write a that this is only for in his court you know for this is not for the general

public but this was for the royal elite that they would write this verse on the back of their comes which was that um this verse so this is how you would have them kind of dressed so you can see this is a it's a strange kind of practice but he had this going on at a little period of time jaffa abu jafal mansoor did and it's weird so whilst that's happening

abu dhabi is in that position as well because he's from the royal court so he's in the and he's got this long face and so uh abuja for sees him and he says to him so you can see here like and and he's told the people to wear these kind of wear black and these long hearts where with these kind of little sticks inside holding it up

and then when he sees he says to in distress he says to him he says what's up how are you doing he says it's i'm in the worst of conditions and he says it says why so he says because the hat is so big it's like you know it's like it's like i've just got like this is all of my face that i've got and look at the state of it and he says wassey fifi isti

and he says that my sword is up my up my is the rectum so it's up my behind because it made them wear their swords hang it uh behind and he says he says and i've dyed my clothes black which wasn't a good thing for people back then he says when the birth and this is obviously playing on the verse of the quran that those people who throw the book of allah behind their backs and he says and i've thrown the book of allah behind my back meaning that you made me write this on my back father that a lie sufficient for them

and and then it says obviously in the quran when it mentions people who take the book of allah behind their backs that's as a dis to them those people so abu mansoor when he hears that he just kind of bursts out laughing and and and he says himself before abu dhabi says we were hoping that our imam would gift us things and then he says this poem in

he says and when he came he just the gift he gave us was just wearing like these long hats he says as though they're these jewish bells that we're just wearing on our heads and mansur burst out laughing and then he said to him look he says to him in other words that you better keep a lid on it okay because he says make sure nobody else hears this from you so they they did have this kind of fear because he was quite um like he he had no filter he would just

say stuff which is so uh crazy and to give you an example of that this one time oh mansoor's wife passes away one of his wives back then obviously it wasn't restricted to one especially not royalty as you can imagine one may even be amazed that he realized one of his wives pasta i'm messing right so this wife was actually one of his related to him and as in not just as a wife i think she was like a second cousin or something or

third cousin or something so her name was hamada binta isa and she passes away so everybody's in a state of somberness and seriousness and they go out to the graveyard where they've about to bury her and hamada's body is being brought as well so abu mansoor is there in his in his mode so abu jafar al mansour in a moment of as some may call mistaken clarity

he decides to to speak kind of about what about kind of uh in a preaching manner he asks abu dhalam and he says ya ba dulama and so people are listening remember everybody's quiet the body is being brought forward and he says yeah but he says what have you prepared for this pit are you the grave what have you prepared for it so abu dhaba just looks up

and he goes i've prepared hamada your wife i prepared her for everybody bursts out laughing even monsoor totally wasn't expecting that reply he can't help but start laughing then he holds him says to him behave behave yourself like what's wrong with you like i'm having a moment of somberness and seriousness here so this is the kind of person he was and um on one incident it was uh abu dhulama he was known to love his

drink as well he would uh love a bit of alcohol now and then and so at that time the abbasids you see in abu dhabi time the abbasids weren't openly uh like they they condemned alcohol and things openly like they weren't later on like by amin and later on with the kill and all these people alcohols like kind of rampant and but by this time it's not publicly acceptable that the caliphs condone alcohol and they didn't themselves they didn't at that stage like abu dhafram mansoor generally wouldn't would have condemned

alcohol and stuff so at this time um somebody tells him hey do you know that uh abu dhulama was drunk he was wandering around the guy is drunk over this is that true so he's busy he's doing something

and he says look i won't have it that any of my my court like the people of my of my royal chambers that they are drunk i won't have this so he says look i haven't got time to see to it now he says just apprehend him and throw him in a cell so they managed to catch abu dhalamma he's going

up this is one of meev's epic lines he says something he says that he's he describes his own temperament that i'm such a sensitive person that um and he says that you know move the glass from my lips that i'm in a state of intoxication so they catch up with the lama anyway they apprehend him and he's he's tipsy i think they throw him in this cell but the place they lock him that's just close to

him is this kind of like a barnyard so they lock him in there and he's there and he wakes up and he's in this place with chickens and there's like chickens moving around and he's locked in this kind of barnyard and and he says to and so what happens is mansoor kind of forgets about him and so he's locked in this place and he then eventually like a day passes and he asks one of the guards he says look please he says do me a favor bring me something to write on he said just one faith he says you won't regret it i'll sort you out he pleads

with the god eventually the god brings him this kind of kirtas to write on and on there he writes this poem to to to baja or mansur you know may my soul be sacrificed for you hi hi he says he says that for what did you imprison me and kind of ruin like look at me i mean like kind of shreds i've been thrown here like you

know they roughed me up a bit and he says over what he says he says over a drink that is so pure in its temperament that as though its flames are being emitted from a lamp like he's obviously praising the alcohol but then he says

he says i'm being dragged to a cell as though i'm a rebel who's refusing to pay taxes meaning that you get some of these chiefs and tribal chiefs and these people who refuse to pay these kind of heavy taxes well sorry refuse to pay their taxes and they get dragged to prison this is how i'm being treated follow ma'am he says that he says that it says

if i was imprisoned with them with these tycoons and businessmen because i had all this land like an asylum then it's cool but i'm imprisoned with these bloody chickens and they say that uh mansoor when he heard that he burst out laughing and he said he said bring him out bring him here and he asks him he says so he says so what did you do all night he says i just made chicken sounds with the chickens so they used to find him quite entertaining as you can see and they used to keep him around

and and he would offer any opportunity he had he would just like ask ask ask ask he would not you know this like the receiving hand he was just like double always just any opportunity he'd have they say to one of the caliphs he um he came back from some battle said to him he said masha allah you're back from the battle he said you know i took an oath i took an oath said i took an oath if i see you you're going to he says i see you safe

and sound of course i see you you're going to pray upon the prophet said indeed he said what a what what a nice thing to do he said and you're going to give me a thousand golden gold pieces [Laughter] i took an oath so the the calif said look as to the first praying upon the prophet of course the second what's that got to do with me he goes he goes yeah i took an oath of them together combined you can't tear them

apart and then they would they would just say to him use bloody scoundrel and then they would they would give it to him as well often so in that case he gave it to him as well the caliph did he said you know what give him his bloody gold pieces and tell him to get lost and so this is how he would be on every opportunity and he would just seize any and every opportunity to to ask for something so like that we we have this incident where

this is uh an incr another one incredible um over this before we get to that one about something to show his quick wit after abu dhabi al-mansoor passes away his son mahdi he actually you know uh abu jafar was really tight-fisted but mahdi was actually quite giving and open so abu dhulama from a younger age of mahdi he kind of like he gets in his good books always you know saying a nice poem for him doing this

charming him and so he he has a soft spot for him as well and what happens is one day in mahdi's gathering um abu dhabi comes in he's like boxing in comes along and al-mahdi the caliph is sitting there and he's got a bunch of people a dozen but they're all incredibly prominent people like tribal chiefs and and what happens is mahdi looks at abu dhaba and you know he's i don't know he's in that provocative mood

he says he says you have to pick one person in this gathering and you have to insult him because his poetry was really good and he was really good at these what the arabs called hija which is like insulting poetry it's like a dis so he says you have to insult him says he says sorry what and he says that he says you better he says this is not a this is not an option mandatory this one so the chiefs get on edge as well that damn because

think about it this is a poet and it's an insult isn't it you're sitting in the royal chambers and some poets can uh kind of make a mockery out of you and everybody obviously is so they all look you know all these big people sitting there thinking you better not you know you you pick me and next time you're passing through this territory you then have words you know wordsworth so he looks around and he says to first of all to matthew

he says you know oh master ya surely you know like he's hesitating and ahmadi says you better pick somebody that is that you feel is worthy of what you're about to say and you better say so he immediately responds he says indeed labay quesadilla he says indeed master he says i've he says indeed he says i've looked and you know what he says the most deserving in this room to be insulted he says

it's me he says bandana cheese and he says a poem immediately he says he says he says that tell abu dhulama falastaminal kirami says you're not from the the kind of the noble people well karama

you look like a monkey says and if you take it off you look like a pig he says he says you combined between ugliness and dishonor and like being wretched he says he says that is what wretchedness does it's followed by ugliness foreign

he says don't be so happy about it because kayama is close by they say maddie proper he couldn't hold back and he smirked and he thought you you you is sharp incredibly sharp-witted and he would often do that he would insult himself in front of people and say you know like i'm such a wretched and ugly person they would find it amusing but then the confidence with which he would do he would own it that they kind of couldn't help but liking him and so yeah so what happens to to top that up as an incident and a colorful

incident from his life is one day during the time of uh i believe [Music] okay now she is an incredibly important character and personality in islam islamic history and we can actually dedicate a session about her in the future but just remember and research on her she was an incredibly

powerful woman and she was like the de facto ruler and she ruled actually one would say co-ruled with mansoor quite powerfully and then during her son's time almadi she has this iron fist and she she's kind of irremovable and she's refusing to concede on her power and this is power struggle between her and her son mahdi which goes on for a while eventually resulting in both of them attempting to kill each other which is a whole tragedy saga in and of itself and does result result eventually in the death of her

son the mother who kills her son eventually and we'll pick up on that saga another day but she's incredibly um a powerful lustrous kind of like important character in abbasid history she is one day coming out of um i think she's gone to she's going to hajj or something or she's she's gone out of town and she bumps into abu dhulam abu lama sees her um and she's this is it she's coming back

from hajj and he sees he comes across and he rushes to her he knows who it is obviously he's part of the royal chambers and he says he starts praising her and um and she says she says yes yes yes of course speak speak he says you know big ask you know if i may you know please please please please she says what is it he says uh

he says you know i've i remember i told you he really def you know he insults himself he'll insult people around he says i'm really living a wretched life and she says really why what happened he says i've got this wretched old invalid at home of a wife that is useless [Laughter] he says and it's draining whatever is left of life out of me he says please

just one ask that give me a just a pretty slave kill just one i don't want me just one so the way he kind of says about his wife she starts laughing like people around here start laughing and they say to him you know you've got no shame and he says come on please just one just one you'll you won't even notice one gun in your court so she over there it just says okay okay okay and she leaves now he says i have to receive [Laughter]

payment is due man payment is due so he follows up to uh baghdad he goes to baghdad now he can't get entrance into that he can't get interest into that court with uh his but remember the royal people like the royal guards and stuff know who he is because he's often he's been with safar then he's been with mansoor then he's been with even like he's with them and in the royal chambers so often that they people know who he is that he eventually gets one of the the

ladies that is in charge of the palace affairs for resurrende the first lady or the khalifa mother in this instance and she says to her look i need to can you please tell hey zoran that look she promised me something so they they mention it and hazeln just ignores it she's got bigger and better more important things to deal with so then he writes on a little he writes a little poem on a letter and says please give this to his

so they give it and on it he writes that ability is the woman he's giving it to you to give it to he says please and this is the poem that tell my master this rightly guided already have to begin with the with the praise you know the praising so he says

he says she promised me before she was leaving setting out on her way to hajj for a girl she promised me a girl says that he says i waited and waited and i sent her 20 poems in her praise every time i would follow it with another poem praising her meaning i've done all of this it says look lesafi baiti litam hidi he says you know in my house to

make my to make my bed comfortable to give me comfort i haven't got a decent woman except one that is all kind of scrawny a jews so old that sakoha mr adida her calf is like like rancid meat meat is out of the heat that's what a cough looks like

her face is uglier than a grilled fish my life with such a woman can never have any room for for for pleasure or harmony or any enjoyment so when heisuran read this she burst out laughing all the people in the courtyard burst out laughing they were like this guy has got no shame and then you know what it's one of those things that they can't help but kind of like him as well because he's it's so outrageous and

so she says you know what says give him a slave girl so they give her this really pretty beautiful mesmerizingly stunning slave girl so what happens is he's left because he sends this and they tell him first of all girl so he goes back to where he's from the town and then says you know what i did promise him so send him so she sends this stunning beautiful kind of girl her right hand possesses

so what happens you know kismet kismet so what happens the royal guards turn up to his his humble of old with this slave girl stunning you know absolute epitomizing beauty wow radiating a glow so they turn up and this vechada's not at home he's not there who's there his wife you know the one who said his face is like a grilled dead fish that has been grilled she's at home she says how can i help you and they say

well you know the royal palace has sent a gift for abu dhaba she as soon as the wife sees what is basically like miss world or this kind of this beauty pageant right there they can see that whoa she thinks my life is over she thinks this is like my life is ruined now because there's no way once he sees me i mean sorry once he sees her that there's any room for me left in his life like i'm just i mean it was bad as it was but now he's got this

you know he's just gone from i don't know he just had the late he's got this this is just this is game over for me so she's kind of really upset so the slave girl is there so the slave girl they they put the slave girl in the way the houses were kind of made they had these other quarters so she's in this other quarter she doesn't know what's going on they've just told her you've basically you're going with this place and that was their kind of life so she's whatever okay or whatever with it so what happens is here abu dhulama's wife called they have a son

who's of age is he's like a grandson like a young man his name's dulama that's why they call him abu dhulam she calls dulam and she says the hour of your test has arrived allah sulama is thinking i wonder what what musiba has landed what is the test mother what is the test she says today you have to prove your loyalty to me as a son he

thinks yeah what this one man what this what this son what what is his loyalty man he says i am your son he's thinking damn i don't know what i have to do. she says look your dad has perceived a new a luxury item shall we say this it means it's game over for your mother but you can save the day you go into that chambers where she is and you tell her

that you are the rightful owner for her that basically she's been designated to this she doesn't know exactly who it is she's never met your dad so you say it's her it's you and then you do the deed man my son you do the deed you know the have the intimate moments with her see because once you're intimate with a according to the general thing is that's then exclusive so why like any sun under such pressure of loyalty having to face such an urges difficult

task one must express themselves intimately with this epitome of beauty so he takes up that task so he says okay la because so he goes to the chamber and there's this beautiful girl and he says to her it is i and he's this young man strong you know he's got his charm good reasonably good looking so she and they connect and they chill and then they have their intimate connections and uh

yeah and they're kind of loving it and so what happens is now the sun it's like you know what all of a sudden a person you know when a person's in a happy stage moment in life then they remember other happy things yeah i haven't been on a walk in a long time it's good for the health you know so so the sun goes out he's walking he goes for a walk ah yeah oh

life the world is it's a beautiful world during this time abu dhulama comes home he comes home and somebody says to him oh by the way you had the royal guards coming here they they left someone they left a a slave girl usain bolt mode rushing home rushes into the guest chambers sees this beautiful girl he thinks

the sweetness of iman he feels it he thinks this is amazing my duas have come true the lord gives and gives he's about to jump onto her and hug her and she says whoa whoa whoa old man what man who are you who are you who are you man who are you he said sorry he says i'm abu dhulama she says so she says no i'm your you were sent here for me she goes sent here for you

are you drunk she says i was sent here for this guy and it's amazing young brave man he's starts describing him says he's like tall he's got this build he's got this hair like this and she says yeah i really like him that's my you know my master my master that's my master and yeah we've got an epic bond we he says what are you talking about where have you met you what do you mean where have i met him i've been with him all day we've been together he's just gone out somewhere right now abu dhabi clocks it what's happened

he realizes this is a plot this is a conspiracy man the illuminati man the plot against him and this one not fair so abu dhalam goes finds his son dulama drags him to the caliph is mahdi he starts roughing up his son slapping his son trying to drags him to the caliph

he says to the caliph the caliph says no child has ever done with his father walla yordini he says i'm not going to leave the royal chambers today until you don't execute this bashed this is what he says he says

he says until you know the only thing that's going to calm this situation is telling the caliph mahdi that you kill him you have to execute him so caleb's like whoa whoa whoa calm down dude what's happened this is your son and he tells him he says this is what he's done he says i popped out for the afternoon and he said this is what he did he plotted with his good-for-nothing mother just to deprive me of this so mahdi bursts out laughing and falls back they say he falls on the floor laughing that's how much he laughs

says to him what you're finding my tragedy funny is there he says he says you're laughing but you find it funny and then he says you know what mati is obviously calming remember this is an old he's been there since his grandfather's time he's been there since the first time since mansoor's time now his time this is like an old person in the court he says to him look okay okay okay we're gonna please him he says a safer one that's the execution sword and the execution they used to lay out this leather they'd

kind of put the person down and then to kind of drench the blood he says bring the the execution gear obviously just saying to kind of control him a bit he's like calm down calm down okay okay executioner execute is this way so he says so then he looks at the sun then obviously looking at him he says

he says okay you've heard him now hear me so mahdi says you know what he says to abu dhabi he's got a point i've heard you it's only fear you know this is an execution it's only fair that i hear don't you agree i hear his hajjah his argument as well so he says sure so he says go on and say he says he says this old man he says he's the most wretched and most deserving of like a slap himself this way he says

he says he's been doing this to my mom for the last 40 years he's been he's been intimate sexually with my mom for 40 years i don't get angry over it he says and i just did this once to his servant girl and look how he he flies into a rage [Laughter] mahdi burst out laughing they say that he could not control his laughter he just burst out laughing and then he he

they say anybody that was in that chamber couldn't hold back their laughter and he says to abu dhabi look he says you know what i'll call a truce rather than executing your son he says how about i'll provide you as a gift he says don't worry and he kind of placates him but this is the story of this character that is so colorful abu dhulama i had to share it so if you do get time you can research it fun and humor and somebody who is prominent during the live the lives of

several of the abbasid caliph uh the caliphs people with that let's wrap that up um you