Al-Hariri of Basra

Al-Hariri الحریری البصری
Born	Abū Muhammad al-Qāsim ibn Alī ibn Muhammad ibn Uthmān al-Harīrī أبو محمد القاسم بن علي بن محمد بن عثمان الحريري 1054 Al-Mashan Village, near Basra, Abbasid Caliphate, now Basra Governorate, Iraq
Died	9 September 1122 (aged 68) Basra, Abbasid Caliphate, now Basra Governorate, Iraq
Occupation	Arab Poet, Writer, Scholar of Arabic language, Official of Seljuk Empire
Notable works	Maqamat al-Hariri مقامات الحريري

Abū Muhammad al-Qāsim ibn Alī ibn Muhammad ibn Uthmān al-Harīrī (Arabic: أبو محمد القاسم بن علي بن محمد بن عثمان الحريري‎‎), popularly known as al-Hariri of Basra (1054– 9 September 1122) was an Arab poet, scholar of the Arabic language and a high government official of the Seljuk Empire.

Born in Basra in modern-day Iraq, he is best known for writing Maqamat al-Hariri (مقامات الحريري, The Assemblies of al-Hariri), a virtuosic display of saj', consisting of 50 anecdotes written in stylized prose, which was once memorized by heart by scholars, and Mulhat al-i'rab fi al-nawh, an extensive poem on grammar. The most famous translation of his maqamat was a German version by the poet and Orientalist Friedrich Rückert as Die Verwandlungen von Abu Serug and sought to emulate the rhymes and wordplay of the original. The main English translation is the nineteenth-century one by Thomas Chenery and Francis Joseph Steingass.

Some of his other works include a book on errors of expression in Arabic, Durrat al-ghawwāṣ fī awhām al-khawaṣṣ. The Assemblies of al-Hariri recounts in the words of the narrator, al-Harith ibn Hammam and al-Hariri's several encounters with artist Abu Zayd al-Saruji.

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