Online Encyclopedia
Make a correction
Your email address will not appear on the site. Note, comments may take some time to be approved.
Back to article:
BEHA
Your email:
Article name:
Article content:
BEHA UD-DIN ZUHAIR (ABU-L FADL ZUHAIR IBN MAHOMMED AL-MUHALLABI) (1186-1258), Arabian poet, was born at or near Mecca, and became celebrated as the best writer of prose and verse and the best calligraphist of his time. He ehtered the service of Malik u-Salib Najm ud-Din in Mesopotamia, and was with him at Damascus until he was betrayed and imprisoned. Bella ud-Din then retired to Nablus (Shechem) where he remained until Najm ud-DIn escaped and obtained possession of Egypt, whither he accompanied him in 1240. There he remained as the sultan's confidential secretary until his death, due to an epidemic, in 1258. His poetry consists mostly of panegyric and brilliant occasional verse distinguished for its elegance. It has been published with English metrical translation by E. H. Palmer (2 vols., Cambridge, 1877). His life was written by his contemporary Ibn Khallikan (see M'G. de Slane's trans. of his Biographical Dictionary, vol. i. PP- 542-545)• (G. W. T.)