Abū Isḥāq al-Ilbīrī: a Literary Revisitation

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of the poetry and poetics of Abū Isḥāq al-Ilbīrī (10th-11th c.). While modern critics have focussed mainly on al-Ilbīrī's invective against the Jews of Granada, I here offer a more composite picture of his oeuvre. I discuss selected ascetic poems, two invectives/praises and one elegy to a fallen city. I draw attention on the persona that the poet constructs in his ascetic poems, and the interactions between such a persona and the poet's own engagement in the local politics of Elvira and Granada.