Imru' al-Qais

A prince of the Kindite tribe, exiled by his father, Imru' al-Qais wandered the Arabian peninsula seeking allies to avenge his father's murder, eventually died — by tradition — of poisoned robes given him by the Byzantine emperor on the way home from Constantinople. His mu‘allaqa, hung (according to legend) in gold lettering on the walls of the Ka'ba in pre-Islamic Mecca, opens with the line every Arabic schoolchild knows by heart: "qifa nabki min dhikra habibin wa-manzili" — "Halt, you two, let us weep at the memory of a beloved and an abode."

The mu‘allaqa established the inherited shape of the Arabic ode for the next thirteen hundred years: the nasib lament at the abandoned campsite, the rahil journey across the desert, and the fakhr or panegyric finish. Every Arabic poet since has written under his shadow.