Abu Nuwas

Abu Nuwas
Abu Nuwas drawn by Khalil Gibran in 1916.
Born	756
Died	814 (aged 57–58)
Occupation	Poet

Abū Nuwās al-Ḥasan ibn Hānī al-Ḥakamī (756–814),^a known as Abū Nuwās (Arabic: أبو نواس‎‎; Persian: ابو نواس‎‎, Abū Novās), was a noted classical Arabic poet. Born in the city of Ahvaz in modern-day Iran, to an Arab father and a Persian mother, he became a master of all the contemporary genres of Arabic poetry. Abu Nuwas has also entered the folkloric tradition, and he appears several times in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.

Abu Nuwas's father, Hānī, whom the poet never knew, was an Arab, a descendant of the Jizani tribe Banu Hakam, and a soldier in the army of Marwan II. His Persian mother, named Golban, worked as a weaver. Biographies differ on the date of Abu Nuwas' birth, ranging from 747 to 762. Some say he was born at Basra others in Damascus, Busra, or at Ahwaz. His given name was al-Hasan ibn Hani al-Hakami, 'Abu Nuwas' being a nickname: 'Father of the Lock of Hair' referred to the two long sidelocks which hung down to his shoulders.

When Abu Nuwas was still a boy, his mother sold him to a grocer from Basra, Sa’ad al-Yashira. Abu Nuwas migrated to Baghdad, possibly in the company of Walibah ibn al-Hubab, and soon became renowned for his witty and humorous poetry, which dealt not with the traditional desert themes, but with urban life and the joys of wine and drinking (khamriyyat), and ribald humor (mujuniyyat). His commissioned work includes poems on hunting, the sexual desire for women, the love of boys (pederasty), and panegyrics to his patrons. He was infamous for his mockery and satire, two of his favorite themes being the sexual passivity of men and the sexual intemperance of women. Despite his celebration of love of boys, he did not take lesbianism seriously, and often mocked what he perceived as its inanity. He liked to shock society by openly writing about things which Islam forbade. He may have been the first Arab poet to write about masturbation.