Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (18/583)

Siyar Aʿlām al-NubalāʾShams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi

He and Ibn Zaydūn were like two racehorses neck-and-neck for the prize. Al-Mahrī rose to the loftiest ranks: al-Muʿtamid ibn ʿAbbād appointed him vizier and then made him his deputy in Murcia. There he rebelled and took the city for himself, so al-Muʿtamid resorted to subtle stratagems until Ibn ʿAmmār fell into his grasp. He executed him in cold blood for his insurrection after such lavish kindness—and because he had lampooned al-Muʿtamid and his forefathers, for he is the one who said (1):

Among the things that make the very mention of al-Andalus repugnant to me
is to hear of a “Muʿtamid” and a “Muʿtaḍid” ruling there.
Royal titles set where they do not belong—
like a house-cat puffing itself up to imitate a lion’s charge. (2)

At first Ibn ʿAmmār criss-crossed al-Andalus praising kings, grandees, and commoners alike; he even praised a farmer who had given him a sack of barley for his donkey. When fortune elevated him to high office, he filled that farmer’s sack with silver dirhams, saying, “Had he filled it with wheat, we would have filled it with gold.”

Al-Muʿtamid had him imprisoned for a time, and Ibn ʿAmmār sought his mercy with poems that could soften stone, but al-Muʿtamid still put him to death in the year 479 AH (3).

= 4/229–234; Nafh al-Tib 1/652–656; Shadharat al-Dhahab 3/356–357. Dr. Salah Khalis has written a study on him that gathers his poetry (Baghdad, 1957), and Mr. Tharwat Abaza has produced a booklet on him in the Iqraʾ series. (1) This is how the author cites the verse here, following Ibn Khallikan 4/428, yet the two lines are absent from the other biographical sources on Ibn Ammar. Earlier, in the entry on Idris b. Ali b. Hammud al-Hasani al-Idrisi (vol. 17, no. 85), the author had already quoted the same couplet and attributed it to Ibn Rashiq al-Qayrawani; al-Maqri does likewise in Nafh al-Tib 1/214, though he repeats it at 4/255 without attribution. The couplet is also found in the collected Diwan of Ibn Rashiq, ed. Dr. ʿAbd al-Rahman Yaghi, pp. 59–60, where the first line reads: ‘One reason that makes me disdain the land of al-Andalus is to hear there of a Muqtadir and a Muʿtadid.’ (2) In the Diwan of Ibn Rashiq: alqab (epithets). (3) For these poems, see al-Dhakhira 2/1/419 ff.; Ibn Khallikan states that he died…

كَانَ هُوَ وَابْنُ زيدُوْن كَفَرسَي رِهَان. بلغ المَهْرِيُّ أَسنَى الرُّتب، حَتَّى اسْتوزره المُعْتَمِدُ بنُ عَبَّادٍ، ثمَّ اسْتنَابه عَلَى مُرسيَة، فَعصَى بِهَا، وَتَملَّكهَا، فَلَمْ يَزَلِ المُعتمد يَتلطَّفُ فِي الحيلَة، إِلَى أَنْ وَقَعَ فِي يَدِهِ، فَذبحه صَبْراً لِلعصيَان بَعْد فَرْط الإِحسَان، وَلأَنَّهُ هجَا المُعْتَمِد وَآبَاءهُ فَهُوَ القَائِلُ (١) : ممَّا يُقَبِّحُ عِنْدِي ذِكْرَ أَنْدَلُسٍ ... سَمَاعَ مُعْتَمِدٍ فِيْهَا وَمُعْتَضِدِ أَسْمَاءُ (٢) مَمْلَكَةٍ فِي غَيْرِ مَوْضِعِهَا ... كَالهِرِّ يَحكِي انتِفَاخاً صَوْلَةَ الأَسَدِ وَقَدْ جَال ابْنُ عَمَّار فِي الأَنْدَلُس أَوَّلاً، وَمدح المُلُوْكَ وَالكِبَار وَالسُّوقَة، بِحَيْثُ أَنَّهُ مدح فَلاَّحاً أَعْطَاهُ مِخلاَة شعيرٍ لحمَارِهِ، ثُمَّ آل بِابْنِ عَمَّار الحَال إِلَى الإِمْرَةِ، فَملأَ لِلفلاَّح مِخْلاَتَه درَاهِمَ، وَقَالَ: لَوْ ملأَهَا بُرّاً لملأَنَاهَا تِبْراً. وَقَدْ سجنه المُعْتَمِد مُدَّة، وَتوسَّل إِلَيْهِ بقصَائِد تُلَيِّنَ الصَّخْرَ، فَقَتَلَهُ فِي سَنَةِ (٤٧٩) (٣) .

= ٤ / ٢٢٩ - ٢٣٤، نفح الطيب ١ / ٦٥٢ - ٦٥٦، شذرات الذهب ٣ / ٣٥٦ - ٣٥٧. وللدكتور صلاح خالص مؤلف عنه جمع فيه شعره (بغداد ١٩٥٧) وللاستاذ ثروت أباظة كتيب عنه في سلسلة اقرأ. (١) كذا قال المؤلف هنا موافقة لابن خلكان ٤ / ٤٢٨، ولم يردا في بقية المصادر التي ترجمت لابن عمار، وقد سبق للمؤلف في ترجمة إدريس بن علي بن حمود الحسني الادريسي التي مرت في الجزء السابع عشر برقم (٨٥) أن أورد هذين البيتين، ونسبهما إلى ابن رشيق القيرواني، وإليه نسبهما المقري في " نفح الطيب " ١ / ٢١٤، ثم أوردهما: ٤ / ٢٥٥ غير منسوبين. والبيتان في مجموع " ديوان " ابن رشيق للدكتور عبد الرحمن ياغي صفحة ٥٩ - ٦٠ ونص البيت الأول فيه: مما يزهدني في أرض أندلس * سماع مقتدر فيها ومعتضد (٢) في " ديوان " ابن رشيق: ألقاب. (٣) انظر هذه القصائد في " الذخيرة " ٢ / ١ / ٤١٩ وما بعدها، وقد ذكر ابن خلكان أنه توفي =