141 – Diʿbil ibn ʿAlī, Abū ʿAlī al-Khuzaʿī*
The foremost poet of his age, Abū ʿAlī al-Khuzaʿī.
He left behind a celebrated Dīwān (collection of poems) and the book The Classes of the Poets.
He belonged to the extremist wing of the Shīʿah, and his satire was cutting in the extreme.
He met Imām Mālik.
Among those who transmit from him are Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Barbarī and others.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir’s gifts to him reached three hundred thousand dirhams.
It is said that he was hunchbacked and deaf.
Another report relates that he lampooned al-Maʾmūn and other grandees; his tongue and disposition were so vicious that he even satirized his own tribe, Khuzaʿah.
It is also said that he ridiculed Mālik ibn Ṭawq, who then arranged for someone to stab him in the foot with a poisoned lance; he died the next day, in 246 AH.
A companion once reproached him for reviling the caliphs. He replied, “Spare me your meddling! By Allah, I have been courting crucifixion for seventy years, yet I have never found anyone generous enough to supply the wood.”

142 – Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿadhdhal ibn Ghaylān ibn Ḥakam al-ʿAbdī ** (1)
The shaykh of the Mālikīs, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-ʿAbdī, of Basra,