'alqama Ibn 'abada
'ALQAMA IBN 'ABADA, generally known as 'ALQAMA AL-FAHL, an Arabian poet of the tribe Tamim, who flourished in the second half of the 6th century. Of his life we know practically nothing except that his chief poem concerns an incident in the wars between the Lakhmids and the Ghassanids (see ARABIA, History). Even the date of this is doubtful, but it is generally referred to the period after the middle of the 6th century. His poetic description of ostriches is said to have been famous among the Arabs. His diwan consists of three qusidas (elegies) and eleven fragments. Asma' i considered three of the poems genuine.
The poems were edited by A. Swain with Latin translation as Die Gedichte des Alkama Alfahl (Leipzig, 1867), and are contained in W. Ahlwardt's The Diwans of the six ancient Arabic Poets (Lond., 1870); cf. W. Ahlwardt's Bemerkungen uber die Aechtheit der alten arabischen Gledichte (Greifswald, 1872), pp. 65-71 and 146-168. (G. W. T.)
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
