BAHA' AD-DIN ZUHAYR

born Feb. 28, 1186, Mecca, Arabia [now in Saudi Arabia] died Nov. 2, 1258, Cairo, Egypt in full Abu al-Fadl Zuhayr ibn Muhammad al-Muhallabi Arab poet attached to the Ayyubid dynasty of Cairo. Baha' ad-Din Zuhayr studied at Qus, a centre of trade and scholarship in Upper Egypt, and eventually moved to Cairo. There he entered the service of the Ayyubid prince as-Salih Ayyub, serving as the prince's secretary on a campaign in Syria in 1232. During an Ayyubid family dispute in 1239, as-Salih Ayyub was imprisoned at Nabulus, Palestine, and Baha' ad-Din Zuhayr remained nearby. He became vizier the following year, when as-Salih Ayyub was brought to power in Egypt, but the poet fell from favour in the last year of the sultan's life. Rebuffed also by the Ayyubid ruler of Damascus and Aleppo, he lived in Cairo in obscurity during his last years. Baha' ad-Din's Zuhayr's divan (collection of poems) was published in an Arabic edition with an English translation by E.H. Palmer, The Poetical Works of Beha-ed-Din Zoheir, 2 vol. (187677). Among his poems are qasidas (odes) of praise to a member of the Ayyubid dynasty or an official; other poems include those devoted to love found and lost and to friendship.