Abbasid Belles Lettres

Abu Firas al-Harith b. Sacid was a grandson of Abu l-Abbas Hamdan b. Hamdun al-Taghlibi, founder of the Hamdanid dynasty. The early poetry of Abu Firas and most of the Rumiyyat carry strong echoes of al-Mutanabbi. Unlike his teacher Ibn Khalawayh, Abu Firas seems to have developed during the period of his captivity a more genuine understanding of al-Mutanabbi and a more sympathetic admiration for his poetry. Abu Finis's mother died before his return from captivity, and he wrote an elegy for her in which he borrowed many ideas and themes from al- Mutanabbi. The fatherless Abu Finis's attachment to his mother is illustrated in a poem he wrote on hearing how she had implored Sayf al-Dawlah to raise his ransom and had fallen ill from disappointment at receiving an unfavourable answer. Abu Tammam's younger contemporary, al-Buhturi, whose panegyrics were greatly admired for their purity of diction was a lesser influence on Abu Firas.