Marzuq al-Sindi

Abu 'Ata' Marzuq al-Sindi the poet — also called Abu'l-'Anas, some say he was al-Hasan — a mawla of Asad b. Khuzayma; his tongue carried an accent, turning jim to zay and shin to sin, and Hammad al-Rawiya, Hammad 'Ajrad, Hammad b. al-Zibriqan and Bakr b. Mus'ab al-Muzani told how they invited him one night and contrived to make him say "jarada, zajj, shaytan" to expose his lisp; he inclined to Shi'ism and traded satires with al-Buhturi. ¹

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) entry, which is unsigned in the printed text, gives Abu 'Ata, Aflah or Marzuq b. Yasar, as an Arabic poet born in Kufa. His surname al-Sindi comes from his father's origin in Sind, and he lived in Kufa as a client of the Banu Asad. He defended the declining Umayyads in verse and sword, but when the 'Abbasids took power he sought their favour with panegyrics; al-Saffah was unmoved, and under al-Mansur the poet had to keep out of sight until 158/774. He is remembered for an elegy on Ibn Hubayra, although he spoke Arabic poorly and stammered, and so had others recite his poems. ²