He kept company with Thaʿlab and al-Mubarrad and became highly proficient in Arabic, yet I do not think he authored anything (1). This, then, is al-Akhfash al-Ṣaghīr, “the younger.”

Among those who transmitted from him were al-Muʿafā al-Jarīrī, al-Marzubānī, and others.

He was regarded as trustworthy.

There was an estrangement between him and Ibn al-Rūmī, so Ibn al-Rūmī lampooned him in several places in his Dīwān (2). Al-Akhfash, for his part, would tease Ibn al-Rūmī: he would pass by his door and utter remarks that filled Ibn al-Rūmī with foreboding, whereupon the poet would refuse to leave his house for the rest of the day.

Al-Akhfash travelled to Egypt in 287 AH, remained there until 306 AH, and also visited Aleppo; others, however, surpassed him in the field of adab (belles-lettres).

Thābit ibn Sinān relates: “He used to spend long periods with Ibn Muqla before the latter became vizier. Ibn Muqla interceded for him with the vizier Ibn ʿĪsā to secure him a stipend, but the vizier rebuffed him harshly, which pained Ibn Muqla. Matters then came to such a pass that al-Akhfash was reduced to eating raw turnips (3).”

He died suddenly in Shaʿbān of 315 AH; another report states 316.

In Damascus—before 300 AH—there was also an al-Akhfash, the Qur’an reciter (4), a companion of Ibn Dhakwān.