—in Ramadan of 354 AH. He was nevertheless regarded as tight-fisted. I have discussed his life in detail in History of Islam. He is the one who said (1):
“Were it not for hardship, all people would attain mastery; generosity brings poverty, and daring is fatal.”
He has a number of other outstanding lines of the same calibre that have become proverbial. He was infatuated with himself, much given to boasting and arrogance, and was therefore resented.
140 – The author of The Book of Songs, Abū al-Faraj ʿAlī al-Iṣfahānī
The erudite scholar and historiographer, Abū al-Faraj ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Qurashī, the Umayyad, al-Iṣfahānī, the scribe and compiler of Kitāb al-Aghānī (The Book of Songs). It is claimed that he was descended from the caliph Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik—so reported Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm—whereas the correct view is that he came from the line of Marwān al-Ḥimār.
= Written without the dotting; Ibn Khallikan records it so in his Wafayat al-Aʿyan, 1/125.
(1) The verse is found in his Diwan, 3/406, within the famous ode praising Abu Shujaʿ Fatak al-Rumi; its opening hemistich reads: “la khayla ʿindaka tuhdiha wa la malu / fa-liyusʿid al-nutqu in lam tusʿid al-halu” (“You have no horses to present nor wealth; then let eloquence help when circumstance does not”).
(*) Yatimat al-Dahr, 3/109-113; Dhikr Akhbar Isfahan, 2/22; al-Fihrist, 166-167; Fihrist al-Tusi, 192; Tarikh Baghdad, 11/398-400; al-Muntazam, 7/40-41; Muʿjam al-Udabaʾ, 13/94-136; Inbah al-Ruwat, 2/251-253; al-Kamil (Ibn al-Athir), 8/581; Wafayat al-Aʿyan, 3/307-309; al-ʿIbar, 2/305; Duwal al-Islam, 1/221; Mizan al-Iʿtidal, 3/123-124; Talkhis Ibn Maktum, 135; ʿUyun al-Tawarikh (ms.), year 356; Mirʾat al-Janan, 2/359-360; al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 11/263; Lisan al-Mizan, 4/221-222; al-Nujum al-Zahira, 4/15-16; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 3/19-20; Rawdat al-Jannat, 487; Hadiyyat al-ʿArifin, 1/681.