and the beauty of his style as well.
He compiled al-Ḥamāsah, a collection that attests to the breadth of his learning through the excellence of his choices, and he also wrote Fuhūl al-Shuʿarāʾ.
It was said that he had memorised fourteen thousand Arabic urjūzah-poems. Another report relates that Abū Dulaf rewarded him with fifty thousand dirhams and even apologised for giving so little.
For al-Muʿtaṣim—according to some, for the caliph’s son—he composed the famous lines:
The daring of ʿAmr, the generosity of Hātim,
the forbearance of Aḥnaf, the insight of Iyās. (1)
The vizier remarked, “You have likened the Commander of the Believers to the coarse Arabs!” Abu Tammam lowered his head, then added:
Do not reproach me for taking men beneath his station
as a far-ranging example of bounty and courage;
for God Himself has set what is lesser beside His light—
the niche and the lamp. (2)
The vizier said: “Give him whatever he wants, for he will not live more than forty days, because he has…"
(1) “Amr” is Amr ibn Ma‘di Yakrib. “Iyas” refers to Iyas ibn Mu‘awiya, a judge in Basra famed for his keen intelligence; his family were reputed to foresee events accurately, a talent that soon became legendary.
(2) The three lines are found in his Diwan, 2/249-250, within a 34-verse ode praising Ahmad ibn al-Mu‘tasim that opens with: “ma fi wuqufika sa‘atan min bas, taqdi dhimama al-arbaʿ al-adras.” In his gloss on the last line, al-Tibrizi explains: “Do not object to my saying that his daring equals that of Amr—indeed he is braver—and that his acumen equals that of Iyas—indeed he is sharper; God Himself compared His light to something lesser, for people know no light more vivid than that, saying: ‘The likeness of His light is as a mishkat,’ a niche, and the nibras is the lamp.” When Abu Tammam first recited the poem to Ahmad ibn al-Mu‘tasim, these two lines were absent. Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi, then in the emir’s service, remarked that the ruler surpassed every comparison the poet had made. Abu Tammam instantly composed the two verses and inserted them into the ode, to the astonishment of Ahmad and all present, who doubled his reward. The three lines are also quoted in Wafayat al-A‘yan 2/15 and al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya 10/300; Ibn al-Imad, in Shadharāt 2/74, cites the first line and paraphrases the last two.