Yaḥyā Ibn-Ziyād Farrāʾ

Al-Farrāʼ (الفراء), he was Abū Zakarīyāʼ Yaḥyā ibn Ziyād ibn ʽAbd Allāh ibn Manṣūr al-Daylamī al-Farrāʼ, was a Daylamite scholar and the principal pupil of al-Kisā’ī (الكساءى). He is the most brilliant of the Kūfan scholars. Muḥammad ibn Al-Jahm quotes Ibn al-Quṭrub that it was al-Farrā’s melodic eloquence and knowledge of the pure spoken Arabic of the Bedouins and their expressions that won him special favour at the court of Hārūn al-Rashīd. He died on the way to Mecca, aged about sixty, or sixty-seven, in 822.