so his companion bought it for him for a single dirham. Thereafter his fortunes changed and he rose to the vizierate. That same man later presented himself to him, whereupon he bestowed a robe of honour upon him and entrusted him with an office.

The vizier was a cultivated man of letters who wrote graceful epistolary prose—eloquent, poetic, and politically astute. Many anecdotes testify to his generosity and chivalry.

He first entered the vizierate under Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṣaymarī; when al-Ṣaymarī died, Muʿizz al-Dawla installed him in his place in 339 AH, and he later served as vizier to al-Muṭīʿ as well.

For this reason he was given the title “the man of the two vizierates.”

Ibn al-Najjār has recorded his life in full.

Hilāl ibn al-Muḥsin said: “Al-Muhallabī reached the utmost limits of magnanimity, lofty ambition, perfect chivalry, and attentiveness to men of letters.”

His verse is polished; his very presence filled the eye, his speech the ear, his awe the heart, and souls were drawn to both the details and the substance of what he said.

Among his poetry (1):

May Allah show me your face each dawn,
a happy omen and a cause for joy;
And let my eyes delight in its two bright cheeks,
that I might read pure beauty in those lines.

Al-Muhallabī lived a little over sixty years and died in Shaʿbān 352 AH in Baghdad.

138 – Al-Muhallabī, Abū Manṣūr Naṣr ibn Jaʿfar ibn ʿAlī,
Shaykh of the Ḥanafīs, the unparalleled scholar, and the mufti of Transoxiana, Abū Manṣūr.