“Go away from me, for you have hurt me.” He said: so al-Rashīd turned away from him, and the whole world seemed paltry in his sight (1).
Among the notable persons who died in that year were:
• Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī (2) – Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Khārijah – the leading scholar of the people of Syria in the traditions of the Prophet’s campaigns (maghāzī) and other fields. He studied under Sufyān al-Thawrī, al-Awzāʿī, and others. He died in this very year, though some held that his death occurred earlier (3).
• Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī (4) the nadīm (court singer), whose full name is Ibrāhīm ibn Māhān ibn Bahman, Abū Isḥāq. A poet, vocalist, and boon companion of al-Rashīd and others, he was of Persian stock, born in Kūfa. There he mixed with the city’s youths and learned the art of singing from them until he excelled. He then travelled to Mosul and later returned to Kūfa, whereupon people began calling him “al-Mawṣilī.” He attached himself to the caliphs, beginning with al-Mahdī, and enjoyed especial favor with al-Rashīd. He was counted among the caliph’s envoys, intimates, and musicians, and he amassed a vast fortune—
it was said that he left twenty-four million dirhams. He was known for his witty remarks and curious anecdotes. Born in 115 AH in Kūfa, he was reared under the guardianship of Banū Tamīm, from whom he learned and to whom he became affiliated. He was a refined man and a consummate master of song. He married the sister of the celebrated lute-player al-Manṣūr, surnamed Zalzal (5); whenever Ibrāhīm sang and Zalzal struck the strings, the whole gathering would sway in delight.
He died in this year, according to the soundest report. Ibn Khallikān relates in his Wafayāt (6) that he, Abū al-ʿAtāhiyah, and Abū ʿAmr al-Shaybānī all died in Baghdad on the same day in 213 AH, yet he endorses the earlier date as correct.
Among the verses he composed on his death-bed are:
My physician—by Allah—has grown weary
of contending with what afflicts me;
Soon shall I be mourned
by both foe and friend.
In this same year Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd also died.