That same year an incident occurred in Baghdad: a man went down into the Tigris to swim, handing his clothes to his servant, but he drowned. When his turban was recovered, a slip of paper was found inside it bearing these verses:

O people, I once cherished a hope,
But the appointed term cut short my reaching it.
So let every man whom life still grants the power to act
Fear Allah, his Lord.
It is not I alone who have been conveyed to the place you see;
Everyone will one day be transferred to the same. (1)

Among the shaykhs and notables who died that year were:

Abu al-Hasan ʿAli ibn (al-Hasan ibn) (2) ʿAntar (3) ibn Thabit al-Hilli (4), known as Shumaym.

He was a shaykh, man of letters, linguist, and poet. From his verse he compiled a Ḥamāsah which he deemed superior to the Ḥamāsah of Abu Tammam. He also composed khamriyyāt (wine-odes) (5) that he claimed were more virile than those of Abu Nuwas.

Abu Shamah states in al-Dhayl (6): “He was weak in religion, foolish, coarse, and dissolute (7); he produced a Ḥamāsah and a collection of epistles.”

Ibn al-Saʿi says: “He came to Baghdad and studied grammar under Ibn al-Khashshab, acquiring from him a sound share of grammar, lexicography (8) and the poetry of the Arabs; he then settled in Mosul, where he died (9).”

Among his verse, in his Ḥamāsah, is this line in the kāmil metre:

Do not let your gaze roam in the doe-like eyes,
For the killing-grounds of death lie hidden in desires. (10)