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Alqama Ibn Abada

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Generally known as 'Alqama Alfahl, 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 qasidas (elegies) and eleven fragments. Asma` i considered three of the poems genuine.

The poems were edited by A. Socin 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., 18zo); cf. W. Ahlwardt's Bemerkungen iiber die Aechtheit der alten arabischen Gedichte (Greifswald, 1872), pp. 65-71 and 146-168. (G. W. T.)