He went blind toward the end of his life (1), composed elegies for his eyes and for the days of his youth, and his verse is outstanding. He lived sixty-five years and died in Shawwal of the year 584 AH.

88 – Ibn al-Dahhān, ʿAbd Allah ibn Asʿad ibn ʿAlī al-Mawṣilī *

The erudite scholar Muhaḏḏib al-Dīn, Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd Allah ibn Asʿad ibn ʿAlī al-Mawṣilī, a Shāfiʿī poet and lecturer in Homs. He left a small dīwān (2), and his poetry is exquisite.

He traveled to Egypt and praised Ibn Ruzzik in a qaṣīda, from which (3):
“Shall I seek distinction by praising the Turks,
when poetry has ever counted for nothing in their eyes?”

He also praised Sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn in a resounding ode, from which (4):
“Tell the one who withholds a greeting out of excessive scruple:
How could you so freely spill my blood and feel no scruple?” (5)