Ibn Jarīr (1) said: “In that same year Abū al-Ḥasan al-Madāʾinī died in the house of Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī, and Ḥabīb ibn Aws al-Ṭāʾī, the poet Abū Tammām, also passed away.”
The author adds: As for Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Madāʾinī, one of the foremost authorities in this discipline and the leading historian of his time, his death has already been noted prior to this year (2)—Allah knows best.
As for the poet Abū Tammām al-Ṭāʾī (3), compiler of the anthology al-Ḥamāsah, which he assembled one winter in Hamadhān while staying in the residence of its vizier: he is Ḥabīb ibn Aws ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Qays ibn al-Ashajj ibn Yaḥyā ibn Marīna ibn Sahm ibn Khuljān ibn Marwān ibn Dufāfa ibn Marr ibn Saʿd ibn Kāhil ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAdī ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Ṭayy—who is Julhuma ibn Add ibn Zayd ibn Yashjub ibn ʿArīb ibn Zayd ibn Kahlān ibn Sabaʾ ibn Yashjub ibn Yaʿrub ibn Qaḥṭān (4). He is the celebrated poet and man of letters Abū Tammām al-Ṭāʾī.
Al-Khaṭīb (5) transmits from Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Ṣūlī that some people claimed Abū Tammām was actually Ḥabīb ibn Tadūs, a Christian, and that Abū Tammām replaced the name Tadūs with Aws (6).
Ibn Khallikān (7) states that his origins lie in the village of Jāsim, in the district of al-Jaydūr near Tiberias. In Damascus he worked for a weaver, and later, while still young (8), he moved to Egypt.
Ibn Khallikān drew this from the History of the ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir (9), who composed a fine biography of Abū Tammām.
Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (10) adds: He was of Syrian stock. In his youth he was in Egypt, drawing water for worshippers in the congregational mosque; later he sat with the men of letters, studying under them and learning from them. Intelligent and quick-witted, he loved poetry and devoted himself to it until he mastered the craft. His reputation spread far and wide, and news of him reached the Caliph al-Muʿtaṣim, who summoned him to Sāmarrāʾ. Abū Tammām composed several odes in the Caliph’s honor; al-Muʿtaṣim rewarded him generously and set him above the poets of his age. He then proceeded to Baghdad and kept company with its men of letters,