From a captive of death, with no way to break his bonds,
who sheds tears of blood for a friend already lamented by another;
How often has death pounced upon one who felt secure,
and how many have slipped away from between its snares!
I think this is the last of the days allotted to my life—
before today is out there will be mourners weeping for me.
When he was led forward to be executed he recited (1):
Tell the gloaters over our misfortune: take it easy—
ahead of you lie calamities and grievous trials.
Such are the turns of time: inevitably
it will allot to you, as to us, your share of its blows.
News of his death became public on the night after the second of Rabīʿ al-Awwal of this year.
The judge Ibn Khallikān (2) lists many of his writings, among them:
• Tabaqāt al-shuʿarāʾ (Classes of Poets);
• Ashʿār al-mulūk (The Poems of Kings);
• al-Ādāb (Etiquette);
• al-Badīʿ (The Novel Figures of Speech);
• a treatise fī al-ghināʾ (On Music);
and other works besides.
He (4) also reports that a group of emirs deposed al-Muqtadir and gave Ibn al-Muʿtazz the pledge of allegiance for a single day and night; but his circle quickly scattered. He then hid in the house of Ibn al-Jaṣṣāṣ the jeweller, was discovered and killed, and Ibn al-Jaṣṣāṣ was fined two million dinars, of which seven hundred thousand were left to him.
Ibn al-Muʿtazz was dark-complexioned, round-faced, and used to dye his hair black. He lived fifty years. Ibn Khallikān (6) has preserved some of his sayings and poems. May Allah have mercy on him.
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥabīb (7), Abū Ḥuṣayn al-Wādiʿī the judge, compiler of the Musnad, was from Kufa. He travelled to Baghdad and there narrated from Aḥmad ibn Yūnus al-Yarbūʿī (8), Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, and Jandal ibn Wāq. Those who transmitted from him include Ibn Ṣāʿid, al-Najjād, and al-Maḥāmlī. Al-Dāraqutnī said: “He was reliable.” He died in Kufa this year.
Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd ibn al-Jarrah (9), Abū ʿAbd Allāh the secretary, uncle of the vizier ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā, was among the most learned of people.