The scribes had long forefelt your loss (1),
and the passing days have confirmed the omen;
So the inkwells turned black with grief,
mourning for you, and the pens were split in sorrow.

Ibn Khallikān then discussed who first wrote in Arabic. Some said it was Ishmael—peace be upon him—while others held that the first man of Quraysh to master the script was Ḥarb ibn Umayyah ibn ʿAbd Shams. He had learned it in the land of al-Ḥīrah from a man called Aslam ibn Sidrah. When Ḥarb asked Aslam from whom he himself had taken it, he answered: “From its very originator, a man named Marāmir ibn Murrah, one of the people of al-Anbār.” Thus the root of Arabic writing goes back to the people of al-Anbār.

Al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī said: “The Himyarites possessed a script called al-musnad; its letters were joined, not separate, and they kept it from the common folk. All the world’s writings reduce to twelve families: Arabic, Himyaritic, Greek, Persian, Syriac, Hebrew, Roman, Coptic, Berber, Indian, Andalusian, and Chinese. Much of this heritage has vanished, and few now know any of it.”

ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā ibn Sulaymān ibn Muḥammad ibn Abbān (2), Abū al-Ḥasan (3) al-Fārisī, the poet known as al-Sukkarī, had memorized the Quran and was versed in the variant readings. He kept company with the judge Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī, and most of his poetry praised the Companions while censuring the Rāfiḍah (4). He passed away in Shaʿbān (5) of this year and was buried near the grave of Maʿrūf al-Karkhī. In his will he asked that the following verses of his own composition be inscribed on his tomb:

O soul, how long will you persist in obstinacy (6)
and come (7) to deeds (8) that shame you?
Watch Allah, and beware the scene of exposure;
fear the Day of the harsh Reckoning.
Do not let the ease of life beguile you,
for even the safe are hostage to calamities.
Every living thing is destined for Death, and no
stratagem of the shrewd (9) can repel the fatal cup.
Know that Death has an appointed hour
which will arrive swiftly, unafraid.