ES: "El monumento a los enamorados ubicado en el Campo Santo de los Mártires se inauguró en 1971 en recuerdo del amor entre el poeta Ibn Zaydun y la poetisa y princesa Wallada, que era hija de un califa omeya y una esclava cristiana. El monumento es un templete formado por cuatro columnas sin basa, tejadillo y un pedestal con dos manos que se rozan. Las manos fueron esculpidas por Pablo Yusti Conejo y el templete por el arquitecto Victor Escribano Ucelay.
Ibn Zaydun, que murió en Sevilla exiliado a causa de sus pasiones y enamorado de Wallada, llevó su amor apasionado a sus poemas. Cuando Wallada lo abandonó eligiendo en su lugar a otro, Zaydun, desesperado, le escribió una carta al preferido como si se la escribiera a la princesa. Wallada, indignada, insultó al poeta, lo llamó degenerado, adúltero, ladrón… Ibn Zaydun no tuvo más remedio que irse de Córdoba."
EN: "The monument to the lovers, situated in Campo Santo de los Mártires, was unveiled in 1971 to commemorate the romance between the poet Ibn Zaydun and the poetess/princess Wallada, daughter of an Umayyad caliph and a Christian slave. The monument represents a temple formed by four columns without bases, a domed roof and a pedestal with two hands touching each other. The hands were sculpted by Pablo Yusti Conejo and the shrine by the architect Victor Escribano Ucelay.
Ibn Zaydun, who died in exile in Seville from a broken heart while still in love with Wallada, channelled his passionate love through his poems. When Wallada left him for another suitor, Zaydun, in desperation, wrote a letter to the princess’s new favourite as if he were writing it to the princess herself. This so infuriated Wallada that she flew into a rage and insulted the poet, calling him a scoundrel, an adulterer and a thief and Ibn Zaydun had no choice but to leave Cordoba."
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"Abu al-Walid Amad Ibn Zaydouni al-Makhzumi (1003–1071) or simply known as Ibn Zaydoun or Abenzaidun was an Arab Andalusian poet of Cordoba and Seville. He was considered the greatest neoclassical poet of al-Andalus.
He reinvigorated the impassioned lyrics in Arabic by infusing it with more personal and sensual tones of experience. This supposed him to be considered the best of the loving poets of the Muslim Hispania and to become a model for all subsequent Western Arab poetry. His love affair with the princess and poet Wallada bint al-Mustakfi and his exile inspired many of his poems.
Life and Work
Ibn Zayduni was born in 1003 in Cordoba to an aristocratic Andalusian Arab family descended from the Banu Makhzum. He grew up during the decline of the Caliphate of Córdoba and was involved in the political life of his age. He joined the court of the Jahwarid Abu al-Hazm of Cordoba and was imprisoned by him after he was accused of conspiring against him and his patrons.
His relationship with the Umayyad princess Wallada was quickly terminated by Wallada herself. Some attributed this change of heart to Ibn Zayduni's early anti-Umayyad activities, while others mention his rivalry with the rich minister Ibn Abdus, a former friend of Ibn Zayduni, who supposedly gains Wallada's favor and supported her. It is suggested that Ibn Abdus himself was the one who instigated Abu al-Hazm ibn Jahwar against Ibn Zaydun.
He sought refuge with Abbad II of Seville and his son al-Mu'tamid. He was able to return home for a period after the ruler of Seville conquered Cordoba. Much of his life was spent in exile and the themes of lost youth and nostalgia for his city are present in many of his poems. In a poem about Cordoba he remembers his city and his youth:
God has sent showers upon abandoned dwelling places of those we loved. He has woven upon them a striped many-coloured garment of flowers, and raised among them a flower like a star. How many girls like images trailed their garmets among such flowers, when life was fresh and time was at our service...How happy were, those days that have passed, days of pleasure, when we lived with those who had back flowing hair and white shoulders
His romantic and literary life was dominated by his relations with the poet Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, the daughter of the Umayyad Caliph Muhammad III of Cordoba. According to Jayyusi in her book The Legacy of Muslim Spain, "Ibn Zayduni brought into Andalusi poetry something of balance, the rhetorical command, the passionate power and grandeur of style that marked contemporary poetry in the east...he rescued Andalusi poetry from the self-indulgence of the poets of externalized description.""
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"Wallada bint al-Mustakfi born in Córdoba in 994 or 1001 – 26 March 1091) was an Andalusian poet and the daughter of the Umayyad Caliph Muhammad III of Córdoba.
Early life
Wallada was the daughter of Muhammad III of Córdoba, one of the last Umayyad Cordoban rulers, who came to power in 1024 after assassinating the previous ruler Abderraman V, and who himself was assassinated two years later in Uclés. Her mother was an Iberian Christian slave. Her early childhood was during the high period of the Caliphate of Córdoba, under the rule of Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir. Her adolescent years came during the tumultuous period following the eventual succession of Aamir's son, Sanchuelo, who in his attempts to seize power from Hisham II brought the caliphate into civil war. As Muhammad III had no male heir, Wallada inherited his properties, and used them to open a palace and literary hall in Córdoba. There she offered instruction in poetry and the arts of love to women of all classes, from those of noble birth to slaves purchased by Wallada herself. Some of the great poets and intellectuals of the time also attended.
Legacy
Among Wallada's most outstanding students was Muhja bint al-Tayyani, the young daughter of a fig salesman, whom Wallada welcomed into her house. After Wallada's death, Muhja would go on to write a number of kind satires about her."
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