al-Ablah, the poet

Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad b. Bakhtiyar b. 'Abdallah al-Mawlud, known as al-Ablah of Baghdad — the famous poet, one of the excellent later writers; he joined artifice with tenderness in his verse, and his diwan is abundant in people's hands. ¹

Al-'Imad al-Katib al-Isfahani says in the Kharida: "a witty youth dressing in soldiers' garb — delicate, rare of verse, sweet of craft, exquisite of invention, honeyed of wording — finer than the dawn breeze and fairer than a trimmed garden; the singers sing the choicest of his lines to the ancients' melodies, so they scramble for his song-bearing verse." He and Ibn al-Ta'awidhi had a rivalry in satire. ¹