Abū Bakr Ḥaṣīrī, ʿAbd Allāh b. Yūsuf Sīstānī (d. 424/1033), was a boon companion (nadīm) and intimate associate of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Ghaznawī and his son, Masʿūd. The main source for Abū Bakr's life is the history by his contemporary Abū al-Faḍl Bayhaqī, who lived close to Abū Bakr, and was indebted to him and his son, Ibrāhīm Ḥaṣīrī (Bayhaqī, 201, 211). Bayhaqī's references mostly concern the last years of Abū Bakr's life and the beginning of Masʿūd Ghaznawī's rule. Farrukhī Sīstānī, a poet who was an acquaintan…