ibn Marwān, and his poetry ranks at the very summit. He adopted an ascetic life, minded his own affairs, and abandoned amorous verse. A detailed entry on him is found in Tārīkh Dimashq.

128 – Dhū al-Rumma, Ghaylān ibn ʿUqbah ibn Buhaysh *
One of the foremost poets. He is Ghaylān ibn ʿUqbah ibn Buhaysh (1), of Muḍar lineage; al-rumma means “the rope.” He composed love poetry for Mayyah bint Muqātil al-Minqarī and for al-Khirqāʾ, and he wrote panegyrics for the governor Bilāl ibn Abī Burdah.

Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ said, “The line of poets began with Imruʾ al-Qays and ended with Dhū al-Rumma.” It is also related that al-Farazdaq once stopped to listen to him recite and was struck by his poetry.

He lived in the desert outskirts of Iraq, visited the caliph al-Walīd, and praised him.

He transmitted ḥadith from Ibn ʿAbbās; narrating from him were Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ and ʿĪsā ibn ʿUmar the grammarian.

It is said that al-Walīd asked al-Farazdaq, “Do you know anyone more accomplished in poetry than yourself?” He replied, “A youth from Banū ʿAdī who rides on the camels’ rumps”—meaning Dhū al-Rumma.

I add: he is the author of the couplet:
“Two eyes to which God said, ‘Be!’ and they were—
They act upon minds the way wine does.”

Dhū al-Rumma died in Isfahān, in mid-life, in 117 AH.

129 – Ḥamzah ibn Bīḍ ** al-Ḥanafī, of Kūfah
One of the eloquent poets, his verse circulated widely, and he was much given to ribaldry; he was