Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Sa'id ul- Busiri Biography | Poet

BŪṢĪRĪ [Abū 'Abdallāh Muhammad ibn Sa'īd ul-Būṣīrī] (1211-1294), Arabian poet, lived in Egypt, where he wrote under the patronage of Ibn Hinna, the vizier. His poems seem to have been wholly on religious subjects. The most famous of these is the so-called "Poem of the Mantle." It is entirely in praise of Mahomet, who cured the poet of paralysis by appearing to him in a dream and wrapping him in a mantle. The poem has little literary value, being an imitation of Ka'b ibn Zuhair's poem in praise of Mahomet, but its history has been unique (cf. I. Goldziher in Revue de l'histoire des religions, vol. xxxi. pp. 304 ff.). Even in the poet's lifetime it was regarded as sacred. Up to the present time its verses are used as amulets; it is employed in the lamentations for the dead; it has been frequently edited and made the basis for other poems, and new poems have been made by interpolating four or six lines after each line of the original. It has been published with English translation by Faizullabhai (Bombay, 1893), with French translation by R. Basset (Paris, 1894), with German translation by C.A. Ralfs (Vienna, 1860), and in other languages elsewhere.

For long list of commentaries, &c., cf. C. Brockelmann's Gesch. der Arab. Litteratur (Weimar, 1898), vol. i. pp. 264-267.