310 – Mihyar ibn Marzawayh, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Daylamī al-Fārisī *
A brilliant littérateur, dazzling in style, master of both eloquences (Arabic and Persian), Abū al-Ḥasan al-Daylamī, the Persian.
He was originally a Zoroastrian, then embraced Islam (1). It is said that he entered Islam at the hands of al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, who became his mentor in poetic composition and in Shiʿite doctrine. Ibn Burhān said to him:
“By your conversion you have merely moved within the Fire from one corner to another; you were a Magian, and now in your poems you curse the Companions.” (2)
He left a collected dīwān, his verse robust and sweet; the dīwān fills about one hundred notebooks (3).
He died in 428 AH.
311 – Ibn Bukayr, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Baghdādī **
The imam, expert reciter and master of tajwīd, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Bukayr (4) ibn Wudd
(*) Tarikh Baghdad 13/276; Dumyat al-Qasr 1/303-309; al-Dhakhira fi Mahasin Ahl al-Jazira, part 4, vol. 2, pp. 549-560; al-Munazzam 8/94-95; al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh 9/456; Wafayat al-Ayan 5/359-363; al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bashar 2/160-161; al-Ibr 3/167; Tatimmat al-Mukhtasar 1/518-519; al-Wafi (MS) 26/121-125; Uyoun al-Tawarikh 12/166/2-171/1; al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya 12/41-42; al-Nujum al-Zahira 5/26-27; Shadharath al-Dhahab 3/242-243; Taj al-Arus 3/551, entry “mahr”.
See also Ismail Husayn, Mihyar al-Daylami: Research, Critique and Analysis.
(1) Ibn al-Athir dates the event to 394 AH.
(2) Compare al-Kamil 9/456; Wafayat al-Ayan 5/359; al-Munazzam 8/94; al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bashar 2/160; Tatimmat al-Mukhtasar 1/518; Shadharath al-Dhahab 3/242. For Ibn Burhan, see biographical notice no. 161 above.
(3) His Diwan was published by Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, Cairo, 1930, in four volumes.
(* *) Tarikh Baghdad 3/39; al-Ibr 3/177; Ghaya al-Nihaya by Ibn al-Jazari 2/216; Shadharath al-Dhahab 3/250.
(4) In Tarikh Baghdad the name is corruptly given as “Bakr”, and in Shadharath al-Dhahab as “Nakir”.