He was born in Irbil in 602 AH, then took up residence in Damascus, where he taught at the Qaymaziyyah (1) and stayed until he died there on the night of Friday, the twelfth of Rabiʿ al-Akhir. He was laid to rest in the Ṣūfī cemetery. Gifted in grammar and lexicography, he was also remarkably (2) adept at versification; he left a celebrated dīwān and polished poetry. Among his verses are the following (3):
Every living being must in the end return to death,
and the span of his life slips swiftly away.
Then, from his grave, he shall be raised alone,
standing by himself to receive the full reckoning. (4)
With him will be a driver and a witness,
while—alas!—his greed still clings to him. (5)
He pulls down a dwelling made for abiding,
and builds another whose ruin is close at hand. (6)
How strange! Though sunk in earth and dust,
the world’s fragrance and finery yet amuse him. (7)
Day by day his losses mount, even though
his limbs be swathed and his joints reinforced. (8)
Mankind, through the stages (9) of time, is but a caravan
ever on the march, with no hope of return.
So make provision—for taqwā (God-consciousness) is the best provision—
and the intelligent man’s share is the very essence of it. (10)
The man of reason is he who, in all truth,
spends both his grey years and his youth in righteousness. (11)
Whereas the ignorant man delights in the whim of the self;
his very affliction tastes to him like honey. (12)
(1) Manuscripts A and B: al-Qaymaziyya. The name appears in both spellings. It was erected by Sarim al-Din Qaymaz al-Najmi (d. 596 AH), who administered Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn’s estates. Situated east of the citadel, it was surveyed but its traces have since vanished. Its history is recorded in al-Dāris (vol. 1, p. 572), Mukhtaṣar Tanbīh al-Ṭālib (p. 104), and Munādamat al-Aṭlāl (p. 168).
(2) In manuscript B: wa-kānat lahu al-yadu al-ṭūlā (“and he held the upper hand”).
(3) The verses appear in the Dhayl al-Mirʾah (vol. 30, pp. 388–394) as part of a qaṣīda comprising 114 bayts.
(4) This bayt occurs only in MS A and is not found in the Dhayl al-Mirʾah.
(5) This is the second bayt of the Dhayl’s qaṣīda but is absent from MS Ṭ.
(6) MS A reads thumma yubnā ʿammā qalīl; MS B: wa-hiya yubnā ʿammā qalīl; MS Ṭ: thumma yubnī mā ʿammā qarīb; while the Dhayl has wa-huwa yuthnī mā ʿammā qalīl kharābahu. The text is corrupt and requires emendation.
(7) In MS B: ṭayyibah wa-salābah; in MS Ṭ: ṭayyibah wa-ʿalābih; in MS A: ṭayyibah wa-ṭalābih. The Dhayl version reads:
“He is a kind of perfume like al-khulūq … how his ṭayyibah wa-malābih distracts him.”
The meter is irregular. The gloss has been confused, since al-malāb—like sahab—denotes a perfume (see al-Qāmūs, s.v. malb).
(8) In the Dhayl al-Mirʾah: khallat awṣālah awṣābah.
(9) MS A reads wal-urā bi-rājil, which fails to satisfy the meter.
(10) In the Dhayl al-Mirʾah: wayuṣību al-labīb fī labābih.
(11) MS A: ʿumruhu fī mashībih wa-shabābih; MS Ṭ: shaybatih fī ṣalāhih wa-shabābih. The metre is defective.
(12) MS A reads fayaghdu sahlًا ʿalayhi maṣābuhu; the Dhayl reads fayaghdu shahdan ladayhi iṣābahu. This is a corruption: the editor proposed in a marginal note that the correct reading is ṣābahu, but did not observe the metrical irregularity.