Who Assassinated Al-Mutanabbi

Abstract

This article tackles the fragments of information as regards the act of assasination of AL-Mutanabbi; in the year 354 A.H. on his return from Shiraz, the capital of Adud al-Dawlah, the Buwayhid to al-Kufa, in a place called Dur al Aaqul nearby Baghdad. All Iraq was these days in the grip of mu’izz al-Dawlah the Buwayhid. A group of people of banu Assad killed him and his servants and his son Muhassad. They looted all the money and presents granted to him for Adud al-Dawlah. It becomes clear – to the researcher – after assessing all the literature concerned that Adud al- Dawlah is the one who plotted against the poet, utilizing the poem of satire against Dabbah bin yaziel al ‘Aayni to conceal his enemity and ill-intention towards the poet who stood firm against the non-Arab rulers in his verse. The extraordinary welcome which was bestowed upon the poet on his visit to ‘Adud al-Dawalah in the year 354 A.H. does not exceed the fact that it was a covering for the crime which was finding its way to execution