Ibn Duraid

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Ibn Duraid (Abu Bakr Mahommed ibn al-Hasan ibn Duraid al-Azdi) (837-934), Arab poet and philologist, was born at Basra of south Arabian stock. Here he was trained under various teachers, but fled in 871 to Oman at the time Basra was attacked by the Zanj, under Muhallabi.

After living twelve years in Oman he went to Persia, and, under the protection of the governor, `Abdallah ibn Mahommed ibn Mikal, and his son, Ismail, wrote his chief works. In 920 he went to Baghdad, where he received a pension from the caliph Moqtadir.

The Maqsurah, a poem praising Ibn Mikal and his son, has been edited by A. Haitsma (1773), E. Scheidius (1786), and N. Boyesen (1828). Various commentaries on the poem exist in manuscript (cf. C. Brockelmann, Gesch. der arab. lit., i. 211 ff., Weimar, 1898). The Jamhara fi 'l-lugha is a large dictionary written in Persian (published in Hyderabad, India, 4 vol. 1926-30). Another work is the Kitab ul-Ishtiqaq ("Etymology"), edited by F. Wüstenfeld (Gottingen, 1854); it was written in opposition to the anti-Arabian party to show the etymological connection of the Arabian tribal names.