SOURCE: Margoliouth, D. S., and Ch. Pellat. “Al-Harīrī.” In The Encyclopedia of Islam: New Edition, edited by B. Lewis, V. L. Ménage, Ch. Pellat, and J. Schacht, pp. 221-22. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1971.

In the following essay, Margoliouth and Pellat provide an overview of al-Harīrī's works and his importance.

al-Harīrī (sometimes Ibn al-Harīrī in Yākūt), Abu Muḥammad al-Kāsim B. ‘Alī B. Muḥammad B. ‘Uhtmān B. al-Harīrī al-Baṣrī, Arabic poet and philologist known principally for his Makāmāt. Born in 446/1054, probably to a landed family living at al-Masān, near Baṣra, where he spent his childhood, he commenced his studies at Baṣra; his biographers agree that he studied under al-Faḍl b. Muḥammad al-Kaṣabānī, but the latter is said to have died in 444/1052 (see Yākūt, Udab...