Busiri

Training under Abul Abbas al-Mursi is recorded. Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati and Fatḥ al-Din Ibn Sayyid al-Nās are recorded as having studied under Busiri. The recorded working language is Arabic. The field of work recorded is poetry, fiqh and mathematics. Works named in the authority record are Qaṣīda al-Burda and al-Qasida al-Hamziyya.

• Name — Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Sa'id al-Busiri al-Sanhaji • Born — 1212 • Birthplace — Dalāṣ, Beni Suef, Egypt • Died — 1294 • Place of death — Alexandria, Egypt • Occupation — Poet, Sufi mystic • Language — Arabic • Movement — Shadhili • Notable Works — Al-Burda (Poem of the Mantle), Al-Hamziyya • Genres — Sufi poetry • Native Name — أبو عبد الله محمد بن سعيد بن حماد الصنهاجي البوصيري • Illustration — A verse from al-Busiri's poem al-Burda on the wall of his shrine in Alexandria

He was born in Dalāṣ, a small town in Beni Suef Governorate in Egypt (despite the similar name, this town is not to be confused with Dellys, in Algeria), and wrote under the patronage of Ibn Hinna, the vizier. His father was from Abusir, hence his nisba Al-Būṣīrī. Sometimes, he also used his nisbe Dalāṣīrī as his mother belonged to the town of Dalāṣ. In his al-Burda, he claims that Muhammad cured him of paralysis by appearing to him in a dream and wrapping him in a mantle. The poem has had a unique history (cf. Ignác Goldziher in Revue de l'histoire des religions, vol. xxxi. pp. 304 ff.). It has been frequently edited and made the basis for other poems, and new poems have been made by interpolating four or six lines after each line of the original. It has been published with English translation by Faizullabhai (Bombay, 1893), with French translation by René Basset (Paris, 1894), with German translation by C. A. Ralfs (Vienna, 1860), and in other languages elsewhere.