Abu al-Ayna

Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad b. al-Qasim b. Khallad b. Yasir the Hashimi by clientage, the blind, mawla of Abu Ja'far al-Mansur, known as Abu'l-'Ayna' — master of anecdotes, poetry and adab; from Ahwaz by origin, he settled at Basra, sought hadith, wrote adab, and heard Abu 'Ubayda, al-Asma'i, Yazid al-Ansari, al-'Utbi and others. ¹

Among the best memorisers and most eloquent of tongue, he had of wit, quickness of answer and cleverness what none of his peers had; fine tales and poems of his are scattered through the adab books. Al-Mutawakkil asked him when he entered the Ja'fari palace in 246: "what do you say of this house of ours?" He answered: "people built houses in the world — you built the world in your house." ¹