Some of the Jarūdiyya ignoramuses went so far as to claim that he had not died—and will not die—until he fills the earth with equity and justice (1). This was reported by Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm.
- al-ʿAkawwak ʿAlī ibn Jabala ibn Muslim al-Khurasānī
The “stallion of poets,” Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Jabala ibn Muslim al-Khurasānī.
Al-Jāḥiẓ said, “He was the finest reciter God ever created; I have never seen his like, Bedouin or townsman alike” (2).
He was one of the mawālī, born blind, dark-skinned, and suffering from leukoderma, yet his poetry circulated far and wide. He is the one who said of the emir Abū Dulaf:
He drove the onrush of error from his breast;
thus frivolity recoiled from its craving (3)
Among his panegyrics:
Indeed, the whole world is Abū Dulaf—
from the moment he marches out to the hour he halts (4)
When Abū Dulaf departs, the world departs behind him;
all the Arabs on earth, from desert tent to city home, follow in his train.
(1) See al-Masudi, Muruj al-Dhahab, vol. 7, p. 117; al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh al-Kabir, vol. 6, p. 265; Ibn Qutayba, Shiʿr wa-l-Shuʿaraʾ, pp. 550–553; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, vol. 5, p. 177; Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, al-Aghani, vol. 20, pp. 14–43; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, vol. 11, p. 359; Simt al-Laʾali, p. 330; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-Aʿyan, vol. 3, pp. 350–354; Nukat al-Himyan, p. 209; ʿUyun al-Tawarikh, vol. 7, fol. 289; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, vol. 10, p. 267; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, vol. 2, p. 30. The word al-ʿUkuk—pronounced with fatḥa on the ʿayn and the first kaf, a doubled waw, followed by a second kaf—describes a short, stout man of sturdy build.
(2) Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-Aʿyan, vol. 3, p. 350.
(3) See Ibn Sallam, Tabaqat al-Shuʿaraʾ, p. 173; al-Aghani, vol. 20, p. 15; Shiʿr wa-l-Shuʿaraʾ, p. 550; Abu Hilal al-ʿAskari, Diwan al-Maʿani, vol. 1, p. 28; Wafayat al-Aʿyan, vol. 3, p. 351.
(4) The reading is “bayna maʿrahu” in Tabaqat al-Shuʿaraʾ, whereas al-Aghani has “bayna mabdaʾhu.”