namely: Abū l-Ḥusayn (1) Aḥmad ibn Munīr al-Jawnī (2) in Aleppo, and Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Naṣr ibn Ṣughayr ibn al-Qaysarānī al-Ḥalabī (3) in Damascus—may Allah have mercy on them both.
Among those who also died that year were: Aḥmad (4) ibn Munīr ibn Aḥmad ibn Mufliḥ, Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Ṭarābulusī, the tailor-poet (5). Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir (6) said: “His father used to wander the markets of Tripoli reciting the verses of al-ʿAwnī (7) and singing. This Abū l-Ḥusayn grew up, memorised the Quran, studied Arabic and literature, and then adopted the doctrine of the Imāmiyya; he thus became a repugnant Rāfiḍī, given to invective and obscenity. Būrī ibn Ṭughtakin imprisoned him in Damascus for his depravity (8) and intended to cut out his tongue, but the chamberlain Yūsuf ibn Fīrūz interceded on his behalf, so he spared him and banished him instead.”
Ibn ʿAsākir (9) quoted a selection of his poetry; among it are the following (10):
[from the kāmil metre]
When a nobleman finds obscurity lodging with him
in his abode, prudence bids him pack up and depart.
Like the full moon, when its light begins to wane,
it seeks perfection and attains it by moving on (11).
He braved the scorching noon, forsaking a people who,
whenever you rained honey on them, repaid you with colocynth.
By Allah, from what I know of the age and its people:
the only crime excellence commits in their eyes is to be complete.
(1) In the Ṭ edition it reads “Abu al-Hasan,” which is a scribal error.
(2) As in Ṭ; in Ā it reads al-Hūbi; in B, al-Hūfi.
(3) This entry does not occur in any source other than edition Ā.
(4) His biography appears in: Ibn al-Qalanisi, Tārīkh Dimashq, p. 498; al-Khurayda (Damascus section), vol. 1, p. 96; Mu‘jam al-Udabāʾ, vol. 19, p. 64; Mirʾāt al-Zamān, vol. 8, p. 213; al-Rawḍatayn, vol. 1, p. 19; Wafayāt al-Aʿyān, vol. 4, pp. 458–461; al-ʿIbar, vol. 4, p. 133; Mirʾāt al-Jinān, vol. 3, p. 287.
(5) His entry is also found in: Ibn al-Qalanisi, Tārīkh Dimashq, p. 498; Ibn Manzūr, Mukhtaṣar Tārīkh Dimashq, vol. 3, pp. 306–307; Tahdīb Badrān, vol. 2, p. 97; al-Khurayda (Damascus section), vol. 1, p. 76; al-Rawḍatayn, vol. 1, pp. 91–94; Wafayāt al-Aʿyān, vol. 1, pp. 156–160; Mirʾāt al-Jinān, vol. 3, p. 287.
(6) Tārīkh Dimashq, vol. 6, p. 33.
(7) Originally his biography is by Ibn al-ʿArabī, but here it derives from Ibn ʿAsākir. Al-ʿUwani, the poet, was a Rafidi who reviled the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) in his verse. It is reported that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz had him flogged in Medina, where he died on account of his poetry (see Ansab, vol. 402 B; Lubab, vol. 2, p. 365).
(8) In edition Ā, this entry appears before the final anecdote.
(9) Ibn Manzūr, Mukhtaṣar Tārīkh Dimashq, vol. 3, p. 307.
(10) In Mukhtaṣar Tārīkh Dimashq the verses number twelve; in Ibn Khallikan they are fifteen.
(11) In the two preceding sources it is prefaced by the couplet: “Do not be content with your world—how lowly it is; be like a fleeting vision, fair then vanished.”