the Citadel of Cairo to fight Quṭuz and the Muʿizziyya faction. They were quickly scattered; Bughday was wounded and taken prisoner, together with the Ashrafī officers who had supported him—Aybak al-Asmar, Arz al-Rūmī, and al-Sāʾiq al-Ṣayrafī. Their houses were plundered, the Muʿizziyya emirs gained the upper hand, and they finally enthroned Quṭuz.
218 – Ibn al-Ḥalāwī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Wafāʾ al-Rabʿī
The poet of his age, Sharaf al-Dīn Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Wafāʾ ibn Abī al-Khaṭṭāb ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Hazbar al-Rabʿī, a Mosuli by birth, a career soldier, better known as Ibn al-Ḥalāwī.
He was born in 603 AH.
Counted among the handsome men of Mosul, he served in the army and was noted for refinement, wit, pleasant company, and a lively spirit.
He died in 656 AH (1).
Dimyāṭī told me that he overheard him reciting to himself:
A supple branch and the sweetness of its sap portray his form and lips; wine (2) itself is nothing but the bloom of his cheeks and the nectar of his mouth.
A crescent indeed, yet the horizon of my heart is his abode; a gazelle indeed, yet the flood of my eyes runs crimson for his sake.