“For though other roads towards obtaining the means of supporting himself at Baghdad have been open to him, that which he refused to follow (the profession of an encomiast, i. e. a sycophant, a toady) was the most certain.”
[7] Biography of Abu’l-Ala by Adh-Dhahabi. [↑]
[8] “The Letters, which abound in quotations, enable us to gauge the power of his memory better than these wonder-loving narrators.”—D. S. Margoliouth. [↑]
[9] In one of his poems he speaks of three prisons, his body being the third. Here is Professor Nicholson’s translation:
Methink I am thrice-imprisoned—ask not me
Of news that need no telling—
By loss of sight, confinement in my house,
And this vile body for my spirit’s dwelling.