ANTARAH IBN SHADDAD, Arabian poet and warrior of the 6th century, was famous both for his poetry and his adven turous life. His chief poem is contained in the Mo`allakdt. His father, Shaddad, was a soldier, and his mother, Zabuba, a negro slave. He took part in the great war between the related tribes of Abs and Dhubyan, which began over a contest of horses and was named after them the war of Dahis and Ghabra. He died in a fight against the tribe of Tai.
His poems, which are chiefly concerned with fighting or with his love for Abla, were edited by Muhammad-al-'Inani (191I) ; they are also included in W. Ahlwardt's The Divans of the six ancient Arabic Poets (1870). As regards their genuineness, cf. W. Ahlwardt's Bemer kungen fiber die Aechtheit der alters arabischen Gedichte (Greifswald, 1872) so seq. The Romance of `Antar (Sirat 'Antar ibn Shaddad), a work which was long handed down by oral tradition only, has grown to immense proportions and has been published in 32 volumes at Cairo, 1307 A.R. (A.D. 1880, and in so volumes at Beirut, 1871. It was partly translated by Terrick Hamilton under the title a Bedoueen Romance (4 vol., 182o), and there is a French translation by L. Marcel Devic (2nd ed., 1878). • For an account of the poet and his works see H. Thorbeckes, Antarah ein vorislamischer Dichter (Leipzig, 1867), and cf. the Book of Songs (see ABULFARAJ), vol. vii., p. 148-153.