If I win your affection, wealth is a trifling matter—after all, everything that lies upon the dust is but dust. (1)
It has already been noted that he was born in Kufah in 306 AH and was killed in Ramadan 354 AH.
Ibn Khallikān said: He left Sayf al-Dawlah ibn Ḥamdān in 346 AH because of the incident with Ibn Khālawayh (2)—the latter struck him in the face with a key and drew blood. Al-Mutanabbī then travelled to Egypt, praised Kāfūr al-Ikhshīdī, and stayed with him for four years. Al-Mutanabbī would ride out accompanied by a group of his mamlūks, and this aroused Kāfūr’s suspicions; so he slighted him. Al-Mutanabbī, fearing him, fled, and Kāfūr sent men after him but they failed to catch him.
Someone asked Kāfūr, “What significance does this man have that you should fear him?” He replied, “This is a man who sought to be a prophet after Muḥammad ﷺ; would he not then aspire to be a king in the lands of Egypt?”
Al-Mutanabbī next made his way to ʿAḍud al-Dawlah, praised him, and received great gifts. On his return journey he was ambushed by Fātik ibn Abī al-Jahl al-Asadī, who killed him, together with his son Muḥsassad and his servant Mufliḥ, on a Wednesday when six days of Ramadan remained. Others say it was two nights before the end of Ramadan; some say it was a Monday when eight days remained; and others say five days remained—all this in the environs of Baghdad. The poets composed elegies for him, and scholars of poetry have produced almost sixty commentaries on his Dīwān, ranging from brief to extensive. (3)
Among the other notable figures who died in this same year was Abū Ḥātim al-Bustī (4) Ibn Ḥibbān, the author of the Ṣaḥīḥ.
He is Muḥammad ibn Ḥibbān ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥibbān ibn Muʿādh ibn Maʿbad, Abū Ḥātim al-Bustī, the author of al-Anwāʿ wa-l-Taqāsīm, and one of the great, industrious ḥuffāẓ.
He journeyed through many lands and heard extensively from the scholars; later he was appointed judge of his hometown, where he died in this year. Some have tried to censure him (5) on doctrinal grounds, alleging that he maintained that prophethood can be acquired—an idea of philosophical bent. Allah knows best how accurately this is ascribed to him. I have mentioned him in Tabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyyah.