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Hamadhant

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in full ABU-L FApn [[Ahmad Ibn Ul- Iiusain Ul-Hamadhani]] (967-1007), Arabian writer, known as Badi` uz-Zaman (the wonder of the age), was born and educated at Hamadhan. In 990 he went to Jorjan, where he remained two years; then passing to Nishapur, where he rivalled and surpassed the learned Khwarizmi. After journeying through Khorasan and Sijistan, he finally settled in Herat under the protection of the vizir of Mahmud, the Ghaznevid sultan. There he died at theage of forty. He was renowned for a remarkable memory and for fluency of speech, as well as for the purity of his language.. He was one of the first to renew the use of rhymed prose both in letters and magamas (see Arabia: Literature, section "Belles Lettres").

His letters were published at Constantinople (1881), and with commentary at Beirut (1890); his maqamas at Constantinople (1881), and with commentary at Beirut (1889). A good idea of the latter may be obtained from S. de Sacy's edition of six of the maqamas with French translation and notes in his Chrestomathie arabe, vol. iii. (2nd ed., Paris, 1827). A specimen of the letters is translated into Ge~man in A. von Kremer's Culturgeschichte des Orients, ii. 470 sqq. (Vienna, 1877). (G. W. T.)