Diwan of Abu Nuwas

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Abu Nuwas was the most famous and infamous poet who composed in Arabic of the Abbasid era. His style was extravagant and his compositions reflected the licentious manners of the upper classes of his day. It is said he lived the last part of his life as a Sufi and some of his poems reflect this. He is popular today, perhaps more so than he ever was, as a kind of comic anti-hero in many Muslim countries. His poems consist of qitʹas (of which he was the first master) ghazals and qasidas. His poems could be classified into: wine poems (over a 100 here translated), praises (of nobles and caliphs & famous people), mockeries, jokes, complaints, love of men and women, hunting, laments, asceticism. Includes tales about Abu Nuwas