Ka’b ibn Zuhair (d. c. c. 640 CE) was an early Arab poet whose qasīda “Bānat Sūcād” (often rendered as Bānat Susād) became one of the earliest pan‑Islamic poems praising the Prophet Muhammad. Though his life was centered in the Arabian Peninsula, his poem entered the Acehnese literary corpus as part of the broader transmission of Arabic devotional poetry.
The Bānat Sūcād was incorporated into Acehnese kasida repertoires and occasionally performed during the Mawlid (dikië jadjandji) alongside the later Al‑Burda. Its inclusion illustrates the early exposure of Acehnese scholars to pre‑Islamic and early‑Islamic Arabic poetic forms.
Acehnese relevance
- Manuscript evidence – Early Acehnese copies of the Bānat Sūcād are recorded in the catalogues of the Leiden University Library.
- Performance tradition – The poem’s opening verses are sometimes quoted by Acehnese bakāsidah as an introductory nasīb before proceeding to locally composed verses.
See Also
- Al‑Burda (poem)
- Kasida (Acehnese poetic form)
- Mawlid in Aceh
- dikië jadjandji (dhikr Barzandji)
- Nasib (poetic prelude)
- Madih (praise)
Source
20260707_232246_DLP-54-Een_16de_eeuwse_Maleise_vertaling_van_de_Burda_van_al_Bu_s_i_ri_OCR.txt, pp. 24–28.