Al-Hākim said: Abū Nuʿaym passed away in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the year 400 AH.
I say: Abū ʿAwāna died in 316 AH.
Abū Nuʿaym had been born in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the year 310 AH.
His father had travelled in search of knowledge, collecting the Sunan from Yūsuf al-Qāḍī, from Abū Khalīfah al-Jumaḥī, and from the leading authorities, and he himself transmitted what he had gathered. Al-Ḥasan died in 346 AH.
39 – al-Salāmī, Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad*
The erudite scholar and man of letters, Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Qurashī, al-Makhzūmī, from Baghdad—one of the foremost poets (1).
He travelled to Mosul, kept company with the two Khālidīs (2) and with al-Babbaghā (3), then journeyed to Ibn ʿAbbād and praised him (4). He also lauded ʿAḍud al-Dawlah in a qasīdah that opens with:
(*) Imta al-mu anasa, vol. 1, p. 134; Yatimat al-dahr, vol. 2, pp. 395-430; Tarikh Bagdad, vol. 2, p. 335; Al-Ansab, vol. 7, p. 209; Al-Muntazam, vol. 7, p. 225; Al-Kamil fi al-tarikh, vol. 9, p. 179; Wafayat al-ayan, vol. 4, pp. 403-409; Tarikh al-Islam, vol. 4, pp. 94/1-2; Al-Wafi bi-l-wafayat, vol. 3, pp. 317-319; Al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya, vol. 11, p. 333; Al-Nujum al-zahira, vol. 4, p. 209; Idah al-maknun, vol. 1, p. 215.
(1) Al-Tha alibi reports that he began composing verse at the age of ten; among the first lines he recited in the elementary school were:
“Marvels of beauty in him are scattered abroad, / yet every human eye agrees on them.
His glances are arrows already fitted to the string; / whoever seeks that look is struck.
Over his cheek beauty itself has inscribed: / ‘This is a graceful one—truly the work of the Creator.’”
(2) The two men are Abu Bakr Muhammad and Abu Uthman Sa id, sons of Hashim, known as the Khalidiyyin, the celebrated pair of poets; Abu Bakr is the elder. Their biography appeared in volume 16.
(3) This is Abu al-Faraj Abd al-Wahid ibn Nasr; his biography will be given later in this volume under no. (56).
(4) See Yatimat al-dahr, vol. 2, pp. 397-399.