Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (16/221)

Siyar Aʿlām al-NubalāʾShams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi

ʿAlī al-ʿIrāqī al-Awānī, a man famed for his liberality. The turns of fortune ran him through every colour, for his father had been a mere farmer; yet Abū Ṭāhir’s career ended with the vizierate of ʿIzz al-Dawlah Bakhtiyār ibn Muʿizz al-Dawlah sometime after 360 AH, and the caliph al-Muṭīʿ had likewise appointed him vizier, bestowing upon him the honorific al-Nāṣiḥ (the Sincere Adviser).

He knew little grammar, but good fortune covered this deficiency.

Anecdotes abound concerning his generosity, lavish gifts, and love of luxury. Late in 366 AH ʿIzz al-Dawlah arrested him in Wāsiṭ and had his eyes gouged out. When ʿAḍud al-Dawlah seized power he executed him—because Abū Ṭāhir had once urged his former master to oppose him—casting him beneath the feet of an elephant. His body was then crucified beside the ʿAḍudī bimaristan (hospital) in Shawwāl of 367 AH.

It is said that in only twenty days of his vizierate he distributed twenty thousand robes of honour.

He lived a little over fifty years.

A poet mourned him with a few verses and then went into hiding, saying:

Exalted in life and in death—
Indeed, you are surely one of the marvels.

It is a brilliant (1) fragment in both wording and sense. ʿAḍud al-Dawlah later captured the poet, pardoned him, presented him with a horse and ten thousand dirhams, and then had him killed.

We have treated his story in the (Major Chronicle).

Al-Bashar, vol. 2, p. 119; al-Ibar, vol. 2, p. 346; al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat, vol. 1, pp. 100–104; Nukat al-Himyan, pp. 271–273; al-Nujum al-Zahira, vol. 4, pp. 130–131; Shadharat al-Dhahab, vol. 3, pp. 63–65. (1) Ibn Khallikan lists it in Wafayat, vol. 5, pp. 120–122, and attributes it to Abu l-Hasan Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Yaqub al-Anbari. See also al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, vol. 11, p. 290; al-Nujum al-Zahira, vol. 4, p. 130; and Shadharat al-Dhahab, vol. 3, p. 63.

عليٍّ العِرَاقِيُّ الأَوَانِيُّ، أَحدُ الأَجْوَادِ، تَقَلَّبَ بِهِ الدَّهْرُ أَلوَاناً، فَإِنَّ أَبَاهُ كَانَ فلاَّحاً، وَآلَ أَمرُ أَبِي الطَّاهِرِ إِلَى وِزَارَةِ عزِّ الدَّوْلَةِ بُخْتِيَارَ بنِ معزِّ الدَّوْلَةِ بَعْدَ السِّتِّيْنَ وَثَلاَثِ مائَةٍ، وَقَدِ اسْتَوْزَرَهُ المُطِيعُ أَيْضاً، فَلقَّبَهُ النَّاصحُ. وَكَانَ قَلِيْلَ النَّحْوِ، فَغَطَّى ذَلِكَ السَّعْدُ. وَلَهُ أَخبارٌ فِي الإِفْضَالِ وَالبذلِ وَالتَّنَعُّمِ، ثُمَّ قبضَ عَلَيْهِ عِزُّ الدَّوْلَةِ بِوَاسِطَ فِي آخِرِ سَنَةِ سِتٍّ وَسِتِّيْنَ، وَسُمِلَتْ عينَاهُ، فَلَمَّا تملَّكَ عَضُدُ الدَّوْلَةِ أَهلكَهُ لِكَوْنِهِ كَانَ يُحَرِّضُ مخْدُومَهُ عَلَيْهِ، أَلقَاهُ تَحْتَ قَوَائِمِ الفِيلِ، وَصُلِبَ عِنْدَ البيمَارِسْتَانِ العَضُدِيِّ فِي شَوَّالٍ مِنْ سَنَةِ سبعٍ. يُقَالُ: إِنَّهُ خَلَعَ فِي وَزَارَتِهِ فِي عِشْرِيْنَ يَوْماً عِشْرِيْنَ أَلْفَ خِلْعَةٍ. وَعَاشَ نَيِّفاً وَخَمْسِيْنَ سَنَةً. وَرَثَاهُ شَاعِرٌ بِأَبيَاتٍ وَاخْتَفَى، فَقَالَ: عُلوٌّ فِي الحَيَاةِ وَفِي المَمَاتِ ... لحقٌ أَنْتَ إِحْدَى المُعْجِزَاتِ وَهِيَ قطعَةٌ (١) بارعَةٌ فِي معنَاهَا، ثُمَّ ظَفرَ بِهِ عَضُدُ الدَّوْلَةِ وَعَفَا عَنْهُ، وَأَعطَاهُ فَرَساً وَعشرَةَ آلاَفِ دِرْهَمٍ، ثُمَّ أَهلَكَهُ. ذَكَرْنَاهُ فِي (الكَبِيْرِ) .

= البشر: ٢ / ١١٩، العبر: ٢ / ٣٤٦، الوافي بالوفيات: ١ / ١٠٠ - ١٠٤، نكت الهميان: ٢٧١ - ٢٧٣، النجوم الزاهرة: ٤ / ١٣٠ - ١٣١، شذرات الذهب: ٣ / ٦٣ - ٦٥. (١) ذكرها ابن خلكان في " الوفيات ": ٥ / ١٢٠ - ١٢٢ وقال: هي لأبي الحسن محمد بن عمر بن يعقوب الأنباري. وانظر أيضا البداية والنهاية: ١١ / ٢٩٠، والنجوم الزاهرة: ٤ / ١٣٠، وشذرات الذهب: ٣ / ٦٣.