Abbas Ibn al-Ahnaf

Who was Abbas Ibn al-Ahnaf?

Abu al-Fadl Abbas Ibn al-Ahnaf, Arabic, عباس بن الأحنف, was an Arab Abbasid poet from the clan of Hanifa. His work consists solely of love poems. It is "primarily concerned with the hopelessness of love, and the perosna in his compositions seems resigned to a relationship of deprivation". The vocabulary he chose was simple and his style is fluent and easy.

He grew up in Baghdad, where he became a friend of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. who employed him for the purpose of amusing him in time of leisure. His work was an acknowledged influence on Abdullah ibn al-Mu'tazz and Abu al-Atahiya.