Al-ʿAbbās b. al-Aḥnaf, Abū al-Faḍl, renowned ʿAbbāsid poet, was from the Banū Ḥanīfa tribe of Yamāma. Some sources regard him or his family line as deriving from the Arabs settled in Khurāsān (Abū al-Faraj, 8/353, citing al-Akhfash); but they add that he was brought up in Baghdad (Abū al-Faraj, 8/353; see also Ibn al-Muʿtazz, 254; Ibn Qutayba, 707; Hell, 273).

The biography written by Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī (Ibn al-Nadīm, 215) is unfortunately no longer available, although a significant portion of it is copied in Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī's al-Aghānī. At present what is known of Ibn al-A…