Al-Mutanabbi's ode 'I knew you, with the ranks drawn up'

By al-Mutanabbi

قصيدة المتنبي «عرفتك والصفوف معبآت»

An ode in the wafir metre on the rhyme jim by al-Mutanabbi; said when Sayf al-Dawla drew up the army at a halting-place called al-Sunbus, as the Dar Beirut edition introduces it {1}.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era

Literature

The long-form text for this entry has not been written yet. The facts and connections below come from the museum's data.

People and things also explored

Correspondence (al-mukatabat)· Diwan al-Insha' (the chancery)· The wise sayings attributed to Ali· The fires of the Arabs· Poetry attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib· The delegation of Banu Tamim and the boasting contest· al-Jahiz's works on the imamate win al-Ma'mun's praise· Ka'b ibn Zuhayr's pardon and recitation of Banat Su'ad

Sources

  1. Diwan al-Mutanabbi, Dar Beirut (1983) , p.309
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Al-Mutanabbi's ode 'I knew you, with the ranks drawn up'”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/mutanabbi-arafatuka-wal-sufuf-muabbaat/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-02.

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Related

Correspondence (al-mukatabat)

In the tradition's idiom, al-mukatabat is the exchange of letters and written messages between kings, sultans, caliphs, governors, envoys and correspondents — what is written, sent, read and answered. The museum opens this genre with the Qur'anic letter of Sulayman to Bilqis al-Naml 30، the Prophet's letters to the kings — Heraclius reading the Prophet's letter in Sahih al-Bukhari 7541 and the sealing and dispatch of letters to Chosroes، Caesar and the Negus in Sahih Muslim 5482 — and what the history and chancery books carry of the caliphs' correspondence; the [[/en/mukatabat/|Mukatabat Browser]] gathers it with every mention and letter in the Qur'an، the Sunnah، the seerah and every harvested book — and whatever is harvested later.