isqineeha:Elegy of Malik Ibn Ar-Rayb (2010) - Iraqi Artist SADIK KWAISH ALFRAJI In these phot
isqineeha: Elegy of Malik Ibn Ar-Rayb (2010) - Iraqi Artist SADIK KWAISH ALFRAJI In these photographic prints صادق كويش الفراجي employs the same large scale dense black figures characteristic of his paintings in order to reintroduce the poem of Malik Ibn Ar-Rayb Al Timimi مالك بن الريب التميمي written in elegy of the poet himself. Malik Ibn Ar-Rayb was a Muslim and Arab poet, and briefly a bandit/thief according to some sources, from Najd who lived around the same period of the 3rd Caliph Uthman bin Affan. A very few number of his poems has been published, and this self-elegy he wrote at the time of his death is the only one that has been recognized on a large scare due to its unique theme of tackling his own death in poetry. It is not clear whether he died after writing this poem or if it was merely written at a close encounter with death. Nevertheless, some authors documented that he wrote this poem after being bitten by a poisonous snake while returning from a trip with Saeed Uthman ibn Affan, the 3rd caliph’s son. Read excerpts from the poem in Arabic here. For those interested, here is an article published in the Canadian Social Science Journal titled “Aesthetic Dying: The Arab’s Heroic Encounter with Death“ in which the author establishes a comparative study of self-elegies in poetry, with emphasis on Ar-Rayb’s poetry. -- source link