The poet’s phrase

(bi-Mashān)

means a district in Basra.
[It is reported that he once headed] (1) the bureau of Mashān. It is also said that he was ill-favoured in appearance. A man travelled to see him; when the visitor beheld him, he scorned him. Al-Ḥarīrī perceived this and composed the following:

[from the basīṭ metre]
You are not the first night-traveller the moon has beguiled, (2)
Nor the first scout enchanted by the green of refuse-plots.
So choose someone other than me, for I am a man (3)
Like the Muʿayyidī—hear of me, but do not look at me.

It is said that al-Muʿayyidī was the name of a fleet Arab horse that was nevertheless ungainly in form. (4) Allah knows best.

al-Baghawī (5)—the exegete Ḥusayn ibn Masʿūd ibn Muḥammad, [Abū Muḥammad] al-Baghawī—authored the Tafsīr, Sharḥ al-Sunnah, Tahdhīb in jurisprudence (6), The Combination of the Two Ṣaḥīḥs, al-Maṣābīḥ fī al-Ṣiḥāḥ wa-l-Ḥisān, and other works. He studied under al-Qāḍī Ḥusayn (7), mastered these sciences, and was the foremost scholar of his era. He was devout, scrupulous, ascetic, devoted to worship, and righteous. He died in Shawwāl [of this year] (8); others say in 510 AH—Allah knows best—and was buried beside his teacher al-Qāḍī Ḥusayn in Ṭālaqān. Allah knows best.

[Then came the year 517 AH.] On the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ (9) the caliph returned from al-Ḥillah [after routing the army] (10) of Dubays, tearing it apart and cutting its ties at the beginning of the month; he then (11) reached his capital, Baghdad, aided and victorious, [and went back to his family rejoicing]. (12)