226 – al-Farazdaq Abū Firās Hammām b. Ghālib al-Tamīmī *
The foremost poet of his age; his full name is Abū Firās Hammām b. Ghālib b. Ṣaʿṣaʿa b. Nājiya al-Tamīmī, a native of Basra.
He transmitted a mursal report from ʿAlī, and he narrates from Abū Hurayra, al-Ḥusayn, Ibn ʿUmar, Abū Saʿīd, and a number of others. Those who reported from him include al-Kumayt, Marwān al-Aṣfar, Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ, Ashʿath al-Ḥumrānī, al-Ṣaʿiq b. Thābit, his son Labaṭa (1), and his grandson Aʿyan b. Labaṭa.
He visited the courts of al-Walīd and Sulaymān and composed panegyrics for both. His verse sits at the pinnacle of poetic mastery.
His face was said to resemble a farazdaq, a large ṭulmah (2); hence the nickname. It is reported that he heard hadith from ʿAlī. Together with Jarīr and al-Akhtal the Christian, he was regarded as one of the three greatest poets of his day.
Among the other notables who died the same year as he—in 110 AH—alongside al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, were: Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Sīrīn; Abū Ṭufayl ʿĀmir b. Wāthila, according to one report; Jarīr b. al-Khaṭafā al-Tamīmī the poet; Nuʿaym b. Abī Hind al-Ashjaʿī al-Kūfī; and Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad b. Ṭalḥa b. ʿUbayd Allāh al-Tamīmī.
227 – Jarīr Abū Ḥazra b. ʿAṭiyya b. al-Khaṭafā al-Tamīmī **
The leading poet of his era; his full name is Abū Ḥazra Jarīr b. ʿAṭiyya b. al-Khaṭafā al-Tamīmī, from Basra.