heard extensively, and used to shuttle as an envoy between the caliph and King al-Ashraf, son of al-ʿĀdil. He was intelligent, devout, trustworthy, and completely reliable.

Al-Sharīf Abū Jaʿfar (1) Yahya ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī [ibn Abī Zayd] al-ʿAlawī al-Ḥusaynī
After his father he served as naqīb of the Ṭālibid line in Basra. He was an accomplished shaykh, man of letters, and scholar versed in many disciplines—above all, genealogy, the Days of the Arabs, and their poetry, large portions of which he knew by heart. He was also one of Caliph al-Nāṣir’s companions. Among his graceful verses are the following lines, in the Ṭawīl metre:

Let congratulations be for an ear that no reproach can sway,
and for a wounded heart that never tires, never lets go.
It is as though love has become a prescribed duty for me:
my heart has no occupation but it, and never shall.
I even delight in estrangement when its root is coquetry;
without the distance, reunion would lose its sweetness.
But if coldness comes from mere boredom,
the least my beloved has contemplated is killing me.

Abū ʿAlī Mazīd ibn ʿAlī ibn Mazīd, known as Ibn al-Khashkarī (3), the celebrated poet from al-Nuʿmāniyya,
compiled a dīwān for himself. Ibn al-Saʿī quotes a selection of his poetry, including:

[in the Mutaqārib metre]
I begged you, the day we parted, for a single glance;
you did not relent—O fawn, be at peace!
How strange that you can say “no,”
when in your very face the word “yes” is inscribed:
The nūn is an eyebrow, the ʿayn an eye,
and the mīm—why, that is your mouth.

Abū al-Faḍl Rashwān ibn Manṣūr ibn Rashwān al-Kurdi, known as al-Naqf, was born in Irbil. He served as a soldier and was a cultured poet. He accompanied King al-ʿĀdil. Among his poetry are these lines, in the Wāfir metre:

Turn aside from me the sabres and the spears,
and steeds that outstrip the furious winds.