the greatest anthologies of Arabic literature ever assembled. Abu Tammam gathered these works together when he was snowbound in Hamadan, where he had access to an excellent library belonging to Abu al-Wafa ibn Salama. There are ten books of poems in the Hamasah, all classified by subject. Some of them are selections from long poems. This is one of the treasuries of early Arabic poetry, and the poems are of exceptional beauty. A later anthology by the same name was compiled by the poet al-Buhturi, and the term has been used in modern times to mean "heroic epic." The famous poet al-Buhturi, who was a student and contemporary of Abu Tammâm, was also a member of the Tay' tribe. In Arabic literature, these two poets have often been compared with each other. Generally, Abu Tammâm is accepted as the representative of the artificial (masnû') poetry style. On the other hand, his student al-Buhturî is generally regarded as the representative of the natural (matbû‘) poetry genre. Two other collections of a similar nature are ascribed to Abu Tammam. His own poems have been somewhat neglected owing to the success of his compilations, but they enjoyed great repute in his lifetime. His poems reflect a stylistic break from prevailing oral-based concepts of Arab poetry, often describing historical events and people. They were distinguished for the purity of their style, the merit of the verse, and the excellent manner of treating subjects, and have been linked to the prevailing Mutazilite philosophy of the Abbasid period. His poems were published in Cairo in 1875. According to the poet Adunis, Abu Tammam "started out from a vision of poetry as a sort of creation of the world through language, comparing the relationship between the poet and the word to the relationship between two lovers, and the act of composing poetry to the sexual act." References 850 deaths 9th-century Arabic poets Converts to Islam from Christianity Poets from the Abbasid Caliphate Shia Muslims People from Daraa Governorate 9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate