Al-Sarī al-Raffāʽ explained

Al-Sarī al-Raffā (Arabic: السري الرفاء) or Abul-Hasan al-Sari ibn Ahmed ibn al-Sari al-Kindi al-Raffa al-Mausili (Arabic: أبو الحسن السري بن أحمد بن السري الكندي الرفاء الموصلي) (died 362 AH/973 CE) was a poet in the court of Sayf al-Dawla, noted for his riddles^[1] and ekphrastic poetry. He compiled the anthology al-Muḥibb wa-l-maḥbūb wa-l-mashmūm wa-l-mashrūb, an extensive collection of 'verses about love, fragrant plants, and wine'.^[2]

Sample poem

One of al-Sarī's riddles runs as follows:^[3]

A‘dadtu li-’l-layli idha ’l-laylu ghasaq, / wa-qayyada ’l-alḥāẓa min dūni ’l-ṭuruq,
Quḍbāna tibrin ‘ariyat ‘ani ’l-waraq / shifā’uhā in maruḍat ḍarbu ’l-‘unuq.

I prepared for the night (when it darkened and fettered the eyes, obscuring the roads)
Leaveless twigs of gold which, should they wilt, may be reanimated by cutting their necks.

The answer is 'candles'.

Editions

• al-Sari al-Raffāʾ, Diwān al-Sari al-Raffāʾ, ed. by Ḥabīb Ḥusayn al-Ḥasani, 2 vols. (Baghdad: Manshūrāt Wizārat al-Thaqāfah wal A‘lām, 1981).
• al-Sari b. Aḥmad al-Raffāʾ, al-Muḥibb wa-l-maḥbūb wa-l-mashmūm wa-l-mashrūb, ed. Miṣbāḥ Ghalawinjī (vols 1-3) and Majīd Ḥasan al-Dhahabī (vol. 4), 4 vols (Damascus: Maṭbū‘āt Majma‘ al-Lughah al-‘Arabiyyah bi-Dimashq 1986–7).

Further reading

• Jocelyn Sharlet, 'Inside and outside the Pleasure Scene in Poetry about Locations by al-Sarī al-Raffā˒ al-Mawṣilī', Journal of Arabic Literature, 40 (2009), 133-69
• Jocelyn Sharlet, 'The Thought That Counts: Gift Exchange Poetry by Kushājim, al-Ṣanawbarī and al-Sarī al-Raffā’', Middle Eastern Literatures, 14 (2011), 235-70,

Notes and References

1. Nefeli Papoutsakis, 'Abū l-Maʿālī al-Ḥaẓīrī (d. 568/1172) and his Inimitable Book on Quizzes and Riddles', Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 109 (2019), 251–69.
2. András P. Hámori, “Anthologies, Arabic literature (pre-Mongol period)”, in Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, ed. by Kate Fleet and others (Leiden: Brill, 2012-), .
3. Pieter Smoor, 'The Weeping Wax Candle and Ma‘arrī's Wisdom-tooth: Night Thoughts and Riddles from the Gāmi‘ al-awzān', Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 138 (1988), 283-312 (p. 299), https://www.jstor.org/stable/43377840.