ibn al-Nuʿmān—nicknamed al-Sāṭiʿ (“the Radiant”) for his beauty—ibn ʿAdiyy ibn ʿAbd Ghaṭafān (1) ibn ʿAmr (2) ibn Burayḥ (3) ibn Jadhīmah (4) ibn Taym Allāh (5) – the forefather who brought together the Tanūkh confederation (6) – ibn Asad ibn Wabra ibn Taghlib (7) ibn Hulwān ibn ʿImrān ibn al-Ḥāf (8) ibn Quḍāʿah ibn Mālik ibn ʿAmr ibn Murrah ibn Zayd ibn Mālik ibn Ḥimyar ibn Sabaʾ ibn Yashjub ibn Yaʿrub ibn Qaḥṭān ibn ʿĀmir, that is, the Prophet Hūd, peace be upon him. Thus he is al-Qaḥṭānī, then al-Tanūkhī, then al-Maʿarrī, the blind linguist and poet, author of celebrated works, yet one whose creed was viewed with suspicion.
He was born in the year 363 (9) AH.
Smallpox struck him when he was four years and one month old; one eye ruptured and the right one turned opaque, so that afterward he could recognize no color but red, remembering only the crimson garment they had dressed him in (10).
(1) In Inba al-Ruwat the reading is “bin Ghatfan,” without the word “Abd.”
(2) The manuscript mistakenly repeats the word ibn.
(3) The manuscript has Surayj, which is wrong; Mu jam al-Udaba gives Yarbah, and Tatimmat al-Mukhtasar gives Shurayh—both likewise incorrect.
(4) Mu jam al-Udaba, al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, and al-Nujum al-Zahira all read Khuzayma, which is erroneous; consult al-Sihah and Taj al-Arus, 8/223, entry “jadhm.”
(5) The passage in brackets has been supplied from other sources.
(6) Al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat corrupts the phrase to “yajtamiʿ binuh.”
(7) The manuscript—followed by Tarikh Baghdad and al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat—reads Thaʿlab; this is wrong. The correct form is taken from Jumhurat Ansab al-Arab, p. 453.
(8) Abu Dharr al-Khushani notes in his Sharh al-Sira of Ibn Hisham 1/5: al-Haf—some pronounce the initial hamza with a kasra and treat it as a separate word, as though derived from the verbal noun al-ahf (to press earnestly in asking); others view the definite article as part of a participle from hufiya yahfa. On this latter analysis the final ya is dropped, relying on the kasra, just as al-asi stands for al-aasi. See Amali Ibn al-Shajari 2/73.
(9) Omitted in the manuscript and restored from the biographical sources.
(10) An addition required by the context.