One of the men of letters said: “He is an even finer poet than Mihyār.” (1)
It was also said that he wronged the people of Shahrabān (2) and informed against them, and that his religious views were confused.
His horse (3) bolted with him, and he died in Rabīʿ al-Awwal (4) of the year 465 AH. On another account, the horse fell with him into a pit (5) dug for a lion, and both of them perished together.
Still another report states that it was in fact his father who was nicknamed Ṣurbaʿr, because of his miserliness. (6)
144 – Ibn al-Simnānī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ḥanafī *
The judge and erudite scholar, Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd ibn Aʿyan al-Ḥanafī, son of the eminent judge and leading Ashʿarī authority Abū Jaʿfar al-Simnānī. We mentioned his father in the preceding tier. (7) He himself was born in Simnān in the year 384 AH.
He is the famous poet Abu al-Hasan Mihyar b. Marzuwaih al-Daylami (d. 428/1037); his biography has already been given in vol. 17, no. 310.
(2) A large important village with date-palms and orchards, located in the district of al-Khalis, east of Baghdad (Yaqut).
(3) The manuscript reads “taqanṭar”; I follow al-Qamus, which has “taqaṭṭara,” meaning: “he threw [his horse] onto its side.”
(4) Al-Muntazam gives the month as Safar.
(5) al-Zubya is a pit dug as a trap for a lion; it was so called because it was excavated on elevated ground. See Wafayat al-A‘yan 3:386.
(6) Ibn Khallikan adds: when the poet’s son became prominent and excelled in ten-line stanzas, he was called “Ṣurradar.” Wafayat al-A‘yan 3:386. His collected poems were published in Cairo, Egyptian National Library Press, 1934.
(*) Main sources: Tarikh Baghdad 4:382; al-Muntazam 8:287; al-Kamil 10:93; Tarikh al-Islam 1:91/2–92/1; al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya 12:109; al-Jawahir al-Mudiyya 1:254; Tarikh al-Khamees 2:359; al-Tabaqat al-Saniyya, no. 300.
As-Samanani: with kasra on the s and a silent m, as in the manuscript, Yaqut, and Ibn al-Athir; al-Samani vocalises the m with fatha. The nisba refers to Samanan, a village in Iraq, though several other places bear the same name; see Muʿjam al-Buldan 3:251.
(7) His biography has already appeared in vol. 17, no. 441.