Abū al-Faraj ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn al-Iṣfahānī (284–ca. 362/897–ca. 973) was a famous man of letters and poet, a descendant of the Umayyad caliph Marwān b. al-Ḥakam through his grandson, Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Malik.
Character
The image of Abū al-Faraj which emerges from works like al-Aghānī and other books of that period bears no resemblance to the pious and serious, combative young man who wrote Ma…