HAMADHANI  , in full

ABU-L FApL AIIMAD IBN UL-IJUSAIN UL-HAMADHANI (967–1007), Arabian writer, known as Badi' uz-Zaman (the wonder of the age), was born and educated at Hamadhan . In 990 he went to Jorjan, where he remained two years; then passing to Nishapur, where he rivalled and surpassed the learned Khwarizmi . After journeying through Khorasan and Sijistan, he finally settled in Herat under the protection of the vizir of Mahmfld, the Ghaznevid sultan . There he died at the age of forty . He was renowned for a remarkable memory and for fluency of speech, as well as for the purity of his language . He was one of the first to renew the use of rhymed prose both in letters and maqdmas (see ARABIA: Literature, section " Belles Lettres ") . His letters were published at Constantinople (1881), and with commentary at Beirut (1890) ; his magamas at Constantinople (1881), and with commentary at Beirut (1889) . A good idea of the latter may be obtained from S. de Sacy's edition of six of the magamas with French translation and notes in his Chrestomathie arabe, vol. iii . (2nd ed., Paris, 1827) . A specimen of the letters is translated into German in A. von Kremer's Culturgeschichte des Orients, ii . 47o sqq . (Vienna, 1877) .

(G . W .