al-Buhturi Biography | Poet

BUHTURĪ [al-Walīd ibn 'Ubaid Allāh] (820-897), Arabian poet, was born at Manbij (Hierapolis) in Syria, between Aleppo and the Euphrates. Like Abū Tammām, he was of the tribe of Tāi. While still young, he went to visit Abū Tammām at Horns, and by him was commended to the authorities at Ma'arrat un-Nu'mān, who gave him a pension of 4000 dirhems (about £90) yearly. Later he went to Bagdad, where he wrote verses in praise of the caliph Motawakkil and of the members of his court. Although long resident in Bagdad he devoted much of his poetry to the praise of Aleppo, and much of his love-poetry is dedicated to Alwa, a maiden of that city. He died at Manbij Hierapolis in 897. His poetry was collected and edited twice in the 10th century, arranged in one edition alphabetically (i.e. according to the last consonant in each line); in the other according to subjects. It was published in Constantinople (A.D. 1883). Like Abū Tammām he made a collection of early poems, known as the Hamāsa (index of the poems contained in it, in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, vol. 47, pp. 418 ff., cf. vol. 45, pp. 470 ff.).