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Rabī' Ibn Abi al-Huqayq

RABĪ' IBN ABI AL-HUQAYQ (end of the 6th century). Jewish poet from the Jewish tribe of Banī *Naḍīr in Yathrib, Arabia. A short poem of his is included in the anthology of Arabic poetry by al-Jumaḥī, in the chapter on the Jews of *Medina (pp. 70–74). Except for al-*Samaw'al ibn 'Ādiyah, he is the only poet in pre-Islamic Arabia mentioned by Moses Ibn Ezra in his book on Hebrew medieval poetry, probably based on Arab sources. Ibn Ezra raises the possibility that both Samaw'al and Rabī' were Arabs converted to Judaism. Rabī' took part in intertribal wars and in poetic contests with other famous Arab poets, such as al-Nābighah.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Al-Jumaḥī, Ṭabaqāt al-Shu'arā', ed. J. Hell (1913), 71; Moses Ibn Ezra, Kitāb al-Muḥāḍārah, wa-al-Mudhākarah ed. A.Sh. Halkin (1975), 31; H.Z. Hirschberg, Israel ba-Arav (1946), 129, 172, 250–251.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.