The killing of al-Mutanabbi (354 AH)

Al-Mutanabbi left Baghdad for Fars, praised Adud al-Dawla, and stayed with him for a time. Then he returned from Shiraz toward Baghdad, and was killed near al-Nu'maniyya in Ramadan, or it is said Sha'ban, 354 AH. ¹

Ibn al-Jawzi gives three accounts. The first is that the Arabs killed him for the great amount of money he had with him. The second is that Adud al-Dawla planted someone to kill him because of his remark about Adud's gift, that it was generous but affected, while Sayf al-Dawla gave out of nature. ¹

The writer Muzaffar ibn Ali reports that he witnessed his killing as a boy with his father, among sixty riders from the Banu Dabba, who lay in wait for him in a valley. When he saw them he called out: come, the notables of the Arabs. His son was killed and his servants taken, and he retreated a little. A slave reminded him of his famous line, and he said that he would not flee that day. He went back and struck their leader in the neck and killed him; then the spears turned on him and he was killed. ¹

The name of his killer is Fatik ibn Abi al-Jahl al-Asadi, and it took place on the bank of the Tigris at a place known as al-Safiya. ¹