[Abū ‘Umar Aḥmad ibn Maḥommed ibn ‘Abd Rabbihi]. Arabian poet, born in Cordova and descended from a freed slave of Hishām, the second Spanish Omayyad caliph. He enjoyed a great reputation for learning and eloquence. No diwan of his is extant, but many selections from his poems are given in the Yatīmat ud-Dahr, i. 412–436 (Damascus, 1887). More widely known than his poetry is his great anthology, the ‘Iqd ul-Farīd (“The Precious Necklace”), a work divided into twenty-five sections, the thirteenth being named the middle jewel of the necklace, the chapters on either side of this being named after other jewels. It is an adab book resembling Ibn Qutaiba’s ‘Uyūn ul-Akhbār, from which it borrows largely. It has been printed several times in Cairo (1876, 1886, &c.).
