- Hammad Ar-Rawiya
Hammad Ar-Rawiya (ArB|حماد الراوية) [Abu-l-Qasim Hammad ibn Abi Laila Sapur (or ibn Maisara)] (8th century),
Arab scholar, was ofDailamite descent, but was born inKufa . The date of hisbirth is given by some as 694AD , by others as 714.He was reputed to be the most learned man of his time in regard to the "days of the Arabs" (i.e. their chief battles), their stories, poems, genealogies and dialects. He is said to have boasted that he could recite a hundred long 'qasidas for each letter of the alphabet (i.e. rhyming in each letter) and these all from pre-Islamic times, apart from shorter pieces and later verses. Hence his name Hammad ar-Rawiya, " the reciter of verses from memory."
The
Umayyad caliph Walid is said to have tested him, the result being that he recited 2900 gasidas of pre-Islamic date and Walid gave him 100,000 dirhems. He was favoured byYazid II and his successorHisham ibn Abd al-Malik , who brought him up fromIraq toDamascus .Arabian critics, however, say that in spite of his learning he lacked a true insight into the genius of the
Arabic language , and that he made more than thirty—some say three hundred—mistakes of pronunciation in reciting theQur'an . To him is ascribed the collecting of theMu'allaqat . No "diwan" of his is extant, though he composed verse of his own and probably a good deal of what he ascribed to earlier poets.Biography in
William McGuckin de Slane 's trans. ofIbn Khallikan , vol. i. pp 470–474, and many stories are told of him in the Kitdb ul-Aghdni, vol. v. pp 164–175.----
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