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Abū Al-Maʿālī Saʿd Ibn ʿAlī Al-Ḥaẓīrī
Abū al-Maʿālī Saʿd ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥaẓīrī, often known as Dallāl al-kutub ('the Book Merchant') (fl. twelfth century CE), was a book-merchant, scribe and littérateur from Iraq. He is noted for composing the first known Arabic text entirely devoted to riddles, the ''Kitāb al-iʿjāz fī l-aḥājī wa-l-alghāz'' (Inimitable Book on Quizzes and Riddles). Life Al-Ḥaẓīrī's epithet records his birthplace, the village of al-Ḥaẓīra, to the north of Baghdad. He moved to Baghdad early in his life.Nefeli Papoutsakis, 'Abū l-Maʿālī al-Ḥaẓīrī (d. 568/1172) and his ''Inimitable Book on Quizzes and Riddles''', ''Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes'', 109 (2019), 251–69. There he came to establish a bookshop at Bāb Badr in Baghdad's book market, which became such a nodal point in the intellectual life of the city that it became the setting for ''al-Maqāma al-Baġdādiyya'' by al-Wahrānī (d. 575/1179); this work speaks of 'the shop of the she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abdallah Ibn Al-Mu'tazz
Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz ( ar, عبد الله بن المعتز, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muʿtazz; 861 – 17 December 908) was the son of the caliph al-Mu'tazz and a political figure, but is better known as a leading Arabic poet and the author of the ''Kitab al-Badi'', an early study of Arabic forms of poetry. This work is considered one of the earliest works in Arabic literary theory and literary criticism. Persuaded to assume the role of caliph of the Abbasid dynasty following the premature death of al-Muktafi, he succeeded in ruling for a single day and a single night, before he was forced into hiding, found and then strangled in a palace intrigue that brought al-Muqtadir, then thirteen years old, to the throne. Life Born in Samarra as a prince of the imperial house and the great-great-grandson of Harun al-Rashid, Ibn al-Mu'tazz had a tragic childhood in the Byzantine intrigues of the Abbasid caliphate. His grandfather, the caliph al-Mutawakkil, was assassinated when Ibn a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Ma'arri
Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī ( ar, أبو العلاء المعري, full name , also known under his Latin name Abulola Moarrensis; December 973 – May 1057) was an Arab philosopher, poet, and writer. Despite holding a controversially irreligious worldview, he is regarded as one of the greatest classical Arabic poets. Born in the city of al-Ma'arra (present-day Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, Syria) during the later Abbasid era, he became blind at a young age from smallpox but nonetheless studied in nearby Aleppo, then in Tripoli and Antioch. Producing popular poems in Baghdad, he refused to sell his texts. In 1010, he returned to Syria after his mother began declining in health, and continued writing which gained him local respect. Described as a "pessimistic freethinker", al-Ma'arri was a controversial rationalist of his time, citing reason as the chief source of truth and divine revelation.Lloyd Ridgeon (2003), ''Major World Religions: From Their Origins To The Present'', Routledg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abū Al-ʿAbbās Aḍ-Ḍabbī
Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Ḍabbī ( ar, أَبو العبَّاس الضَّبِّي, fl. c. 1000) was a protege of Ṣāḥib ibn ʿAbbād (a Persian scholar and statesman, grand vizier to the Buyid rulers of Ray 976–95 CE). Al-Ḍabbī is noted today for his poetry. ''Inter alia'', he composed the book ''Kitāb al-Armāz fī l-alġāz''. Although it is now lost, it may have been the first book of riddles in Arabic; nine poems survive from it in the ''Kitāb al-iʿjāz fī l-aḥājī wa-l-alghāz bi-rasm al-amīr Qaymāz'' (Inimitable Book on Quizzes and Riddles, Composed for the Emir Qaymāz) composed during the reign of Caliph al-Muqtafī (1136–60CE) by Abū al-Maʿālī Saʿd ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥaẓīrī. Al-Ḥaẓīrī himself did not think highly of al-Ḍabbī's riddles, however, finding them too obscure.Nefeli Papoutsakis, 'Abū l-Maʿālī al-Ḥaẓīrī (d. 568/1172) and his ''Inimitable Book on Quizzes and Riddles''', ''Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mihyar Al-Daylami
Abu'l-Hasan Mihyar al-Daylami (died 1037) was an Arabic-language poet of Daylamite origin during the Buyid period. Mihyar's poetry was dominated by metaphor, and he wrote in various poetic genres including ghazal, riddles, as well as writing elegies on Ali and Husayn ibn Ali. A former Zoroastrian, Mihyar was converted to Shia Islam by his teacher who was also poet.Encyclopedia of Arabic literature, Volume 2 By Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey, pg.525The preaching of Islam: a history of the propagation of the Muslim faith By Sir Thomas Walker Arnold, pg. 180 Ibn Khallikan narrates that Mihyar was harshly rebuked by an acquaintance for reviling the companions of Muhammad. Ibn Khallikan, who said Mihyar's works were so high in number that it fills four volumes, opined that Mihyar's writings "displayed great delicacy of thought and a remarkable loftiness of mind." However, Mihyar's poetic style was criticized for being "artificial and derivative." See also *List of Persian poet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abū Hilāl Al-ʽAskarī
Abū Hilāl al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdallāh b. Sahl al-ʿAskarī (d. c. 400 AH/1010 CE), known also by the epithet al-adīb ('littérateur'), was an Arabic-language lexicographer and literatus of Persian origin, noted for composing a wide range of works enabling Persian-speakers like himself to develop refined and literary Arabic usage and so gain preferment under Arab rule. He is best known for his ''Kitāb al-ṣināatayn'', ''Dīwān al-maāni'', and the ''Jamharat al-amthāl''. However, he composed at least twenty-five works, many of which survive at least in part. Life Abū Hilāl's epithet ''al-ʿAskarī'' indicates that he came from ʿAskar Mukram in the Persian province of Khūzistān. He was taught by his father and the similarly named Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Saʿīd al-ʿAskarī (with whom later scholars sometimes confused him). He was a cloth merchant, and his journeying enabled him to develop a wide knowledge of Arabic-language culture. Among his poetry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Badi' Al-Zaman Al-Hamadani
Badi' al-Zamān al-Hamadāni or al-Hamadhāni ( ar, بديع الزمان الهمذاني التغلبي; 969–1007) was a medieval Arab man of letters born in Hamadan, Iran. He is best known for his work the ''Maqamat Badi' az-Zaman al-Hamadhani'', a collection of 52 episodic stories of a rogue, Abu al-Fath al-Iskandari, as recounted by a narrator, 'Isa b. Hisham. His Arabic name translates into "The Wonder of the Age". Life Very little is known about Al-Hamadani’s early life and primary sources are very limited. The main biographical account comes from the Persian scholar, ath-Thalibi, and most later biographies are derived from that. According to al-Hamadani’s own account, he was of Arabic descent and his family had some education, but scholars have disputed these bare facts. He was probably born and educated in Hamadan, Iran. More is known about Al-Hamadani’s adult life. In 380/990, al-Hamadhani, then aged 22, left his native city and began travelling to the vari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sahib Ibn Abbad
Abu’l-Qāsim Ismāʿīl ibn-i ʿAbbād ibn-i ʿAbbās ( fa, ابوالقاسم اسماعیل بن عباد بن عباس; born 938 - died 30 March 995), better known as Ṣāḥib ibn-i ʿAbbād (), also known as Ṣāḥib (), was a Persian scholar and statesman, who served as the grand vizier of the Buyid rulers of Ray from 976 to 995. A native of the suburbs of Isfahan, he was greatly interested in Islamic culture, and wrote on dogmatic theology, history, grammar, lexicography, scholarly criticism and wrote poetry and ''belles-lettres''. Biography Family and early life Sahib was born on 14 September 938 in Talaqancha, a village roughly 20 miles south of the major Buyid city of Isfahan. His father was Abu'l-Hasan Abbad ibn Abbas (d. 946), a renowned and well-educated administrator, who composed works on the Mu'tazili doctrine. Sahib spent his childhood at Talakan, a town in Daylam near Qazvin. He later settled in Isfahan, and served for some time as an official of the Buy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
