أبو عبد الله الحسين بن أحمد بن الحجاج الشاعر

Al-Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn al-Hajjaj, Abu Abd Allah, the poet. He held the office of market inspection (hisba) in Baghdad in the days of ʿAdud al-Dawla, then occupied himself with poetry and became distinguished for frivolous verse. He died at al-Nil in the year 391 AH. ¹

He came from a family of officials and scribes, and the office of hisba in Baghdad was in his hands in the days of ʿAdud al-Dawla. He appointed six deputies to it, none of whom had any good in them. Then he occupied himself with poetry and specialised in the frivolity that reveals a base soul; by it he made money and became one whose tongue people feared. ²

From the ruler of Egypt, in return for a eulogy he had addressed to him, a thousand Maghribi dinars were sent to him. al-Sharif al-Radi selected from his poetry what was free of frivolity, and it is good poetry. ²

He died at al-Nil in Jumada al-Akhira of the year 391 AH. Al-Radi composed an elegy for him, whose opening line reads, "They said, Tomorrow is the feast, so rejoice in it with gladness," and in which he wrote: "By God, what the two announcers of death proclaimed, to a heart like that of a suckling infant." ³