امرؤ القيس بن حجر

Imru' al-Qays ibn Hujr al-Kindi, known by the kunya "Dhu al-Qurooh" (the one with the sores), one of the most famous poets of the pre-Islamic period and author of one of the Mu'allaqat. He is the son of Hujr ibn al-Harith al-Kindi and of Kinda. ¹

Ibn al-Athir says that his father drove him away because of his poetry, so he moved among the tribes of the Arabs, drinking wine and hunting. ¹

When news of his father's death reached him, he was drinking and playing dice at Dumun in the land of Yemen, and he said a saying that became a proverb. Its sense is: "He left me small and burdened me, grown, with his blood. Today I shall be sober, and tomorrow I shall be drunk: today is wine, and tomorrow a matter." ¹

He forbade himself wine and women until he had killed a hundred men of the Banu Asad and divorced a hundred women. He sought help from Bakr and Taghlib, and they answered him. Then he sought the aid of Himyar and of Azd Shanua. ¹

When al-Mundhir, lord of al-Hira, pursued him, his companions dispersed from him. He alighted with al-Samaw'al ibn Adiya, the Jew, in the fortress of al-Ablaq. He granted him protection and entrusted to him his family and his armour. He wrote for him to al-Harith ibn Abi Shamir al-Ghassani, so that he could pass him to Caesar to seek help for the vengeance for his father. ¹