Tarafa

Tarafa, or Tarafah ibn al 'Abd ben Sufyan ben Malik al Bakri ( _ar. طرفة بن العبد بن سفيان بن سعد أبو عمرو البكري الوائلي), was a 6th century Arabian poet of the tribe of the Bakr.

After a wild and dissipated youth spent in Bahrain, left his native land after peace had been established between the tribes of Bakr and Taghlib and went with his uncle Al-Mutalammis (also a poet) to the court of the king of Hira, 'Amr ibn-Hind (died 568-9), and there became companion to the king's brother. Hira was as the time a vassal of the Persian Sasanian Empire. Having ridiculed the king in some verses he was sent with a letter to Dadafruz Gushnasban, the Persian Governor of Southern shores of the Persian Gulf, but Tarafa and his uncle managed to escape underway.

One of his poems is contained in the "Mo'allakat".

His "Diwan" has been published in Wilhelm Ahlwardt's "The Diwans of the Six Ancient Arabic Poets" (London, 1870). Some of his poems have been translated into Latin with notes by B. Vandenhoff (Berlin, 1895).

References and external links

* [http://www.albany.edu/~joris/Tarafa.html University at Albany: The Mu'Allaqa of Ibn Tarafa]
*1911
*Mohammadi Malayeri, M.: "Tarikh va Farhang-e Iran" Vol. I, Yazdan Publishers, Tehran 1372 Hsh. pp. 242، 267، 291، 292، 374.