Ibn Unayn

Abu'l-Hasan Muhammad ibn Nasr ibn al-Husayn ibn 'Unayn al-Ansari, surnamed Sharaf al-Din, Kufan-born, Damascene; the poet of his age — in his last days none was measured against him; of vast adab material, to the point it was said he could recall Ibn Durayd's Jamhara by heart; devoted to lampoon until he named one ode Muqrad al-A'rad ('Shears of Reputations') — and Sultan Salah al-Din exiled him from Damascus; he wandered Syria, Iraq, the Jazira, Azerbaijan, Khurasan, Ghazna and Yemen. ¹

When Salah al-Din died he asked al-Malik al-'Adil's leave to return with his ra'iyya 'What blame upon the beloveds' phantom if it wandered'; he held the vizierate at Damascus in al-Malik al-Mu'azzam's last days and under al-Malik al-Nasir, then withdrew, stayed at home until he died, and was buried in the mosque he had built at al-Mizza. ¹