(1) ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Harb al-Mahzumi al-ʿAbdi was a transmitter and a scholar of poetry and adab. Among his printed works is Akhbar Abi Nawas, in addition to other titles. He died in 257 AH/871 CE. See his biography in: Tarikh Baghdad, 9:370–371; Muʿjam al-udabaʾ, 12:54–55; Lisan al-mizan, 3:249–250. (2) The two verses are found in al-Wafi bi-l-wafayat, 6:107, and in the Iraqi journal al-Mawrid, vol. 9, no. 1, p. 187, where Hilal Naji collected his poetry. That edition reads “akhir” instead of “wahid” and “baynahum” instead of “minhum”; see the documentation there. (3) His life is treated in al-Wafi bi-l-wafayat, 8:38–40; al-Nujum al-zahirah, 3:43; and Badran’s Tahdhib, 2:62–65. A curious anecdote recorded in Tahdhib Badran states: al-Abiwardi said, “Whenever Ibn al-Mudabbir was praised by a poet whose poem displeased him, he would tell his servant Najh, ‘Take him to the congregational mosque; do not leave him until he has prayed one hundred rakʿahs, then release him.’ Thus poets avoided him, save the truly gifted. The poet al-Jammal once sought permission to recite. Ibn al-Mudabbir told him, ‘You know the condition.’ ‘I do,’ he replied. ‘Then recite,’ said Ibn al-Mudabbir. He declaimed: ‘We wished to praise Abu Hasan, for governors are approached with praise. We said: he is the most generous of the two weighty orders, entirely, and from his two hands flow the Tigris and the Euphrates. They said: he accepts eulogies, yet his gifts for them are only prayers. I said to them: of what use are my prayers to my family? What really counts is almsgiving. Order that the sad in salat be broken, so that for me the salat becomes the zakat.’