Bashshar al-Nahrawani—later al-Baghdadi—the Blind, a boon companion of al-Muʿtaḍid.

He studied Qur’an recitation with Abu ʿUmar al-Duri.

He then became a teacher of the Qur’an himself; among those who read to him were Abu Bakr al-Shadhaʾi, Abu al-Faraj al-Shanabudhi, and a number of others.

In hadith he narrated from al-Duri, Nasr ibn ʿAli, Humayd ibn Masʿada, and Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil al-Hassani.

Reporting from him were Ibn Hayyuya, ʿUmar ibn Shahin, ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Nakhkhas, Abu al-Hasan al-Jarahi, and many others.

He lived to a great age and went blind.

He kept a cat that he loved and enjoyed. On more than one occasion the cat slipped into a pigeon loft and ate the squabs; the people caught it and slaughtered it, and he lamented it with a resounding ode.

Others say the poem was actually an elegy for Ibn al-Muʿtazz, with the “cat” serving as a covert allusion, for the latter had been very dear to him.

His son, Abu al-Hasan ibn al-ʿAllaf, related: “My father only used ‘the cat’ as a kenning for al-Muhassin ibn al-Furat, the vizier’s son.”

Another report states that a slave-girl belonging to the vizier ʿAli ibn ʿIsa fell in love with a page of Ibn al-ʿAllaf, the Blind. When the vizier found out, he killed them both, flayed their bodies, and stuffed them with straw. Ibn al-ʿAllaf—the page’s teacher—composed an elegy for him, veiling his identity with the image of the cat, and Allah knows best. He said:

“O cat, you left us and never returned, / and you were to me as dear as a son (1).”