Abu'l-Hasan Mihyar al-Daylami (died 1037) was an Arabic-language poet of

Daylamite The Daylamites or Dailamites (Middle Persian: ''Daylamīgān''; fa, دیلمیان ''Deylamiyān'') were an Iranian people inhabiting the Daylam—the mountainous regions of northern Iran on the southwest coast of the Caspian Sea, now comprisin ...

origin during the

Buyid The Buyid dynasty ( fa, آل بویه, Āl-e Būya), also spelled Buwayhid ( ar, البويهية, Al-Buwayhiyyah), was a Shia Islam, Shia Iranian peoples, Iranian dynasty of Daylamites, Daylamite origin, which mainly ruled over Iraq and central ...

period. Mihyar's poetry was dominated by

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

, and he wrote in various poetic genres including ghazal, riddles, as well as writing

elegies An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

Ali ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...

and Husayn ibn Ali. A former

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...

, Mihyar was converted to

Shia Islam Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, m ...

by his teacher who was also poet.Encyclopedia of Arabic literature, Volume 2 By Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey, pg.525The preaching of Islam: a history of the propagation of the Muslim faith By Sir

Thomas Walker Arnold Sir Thomas Walker Arnold (19 April 1864 – 9 June 1930) was a British orientalist and historian of Islamic art. He taught at Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, later Aligarh Muslim University, and Government College University, Lahore. ...

, pg. 180

Ibn Khallikan Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin Ibrāhīm bin Abū Bakr ibn Khallikān) ( ar, أحمد بن محمد بن إبراهيم بن أبي بكر ابن خلكان; 1211 – 1282), better known as Ibn Khallikān, was a 13th century Shafi'i Islamic scholar w ...

narrates that Mihyar was harshly rebuked by an acquaintance for reviling the

companions of Muhammad Companion may refer to: Relationships Currently * Any of several interpersonal relationships such as friend or acquaintance * A domestic partner, akin to a spouse * Sober companion, an addiction treatment coach * Companion (caregiving), a caregive ...

, who said Mihyar's works were so high in number that it fills four volumes, opined that Mihyar's writings "displayed great delicacy of thought and a remarkable loftiness of mind."Ibn Khallikan's Biographical dictionary, 3 By Ibn Khallikan, pg. 517-520
/ref> However, Mihyar's poetic style was criticized for being "artificial and derivative."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abul Hasan Mihyar Al-Daylami Year of birth unknown 1037 deaths Converts to Islam from Zoroastrianism 11th-century Arabic poets People from Gilan Province Daylamites 11th-century Iranian writers Buyid-period poets Shu'ubiyya

See also

References