Al-Farazdaq's verses on al-Aqra' ibn Habis and the captives of Banu al-Anbar

Ibn Hisham, not Ibn Ishaq, gives the line "al-Farazdaq said about that", and quotes three verses "in one of his qasidas" after the account of the captivity of Banu al-Anbar and the intercession of the delegation of Tamim on their behalf. ¹ Their sense is that Ibn Habis stood before the Messenger of God with the manner of a man who is quick to pursue honour and firm in judgement, so the prisoners who had been held with their necks in chains were released to him. This spared the mothers of those who had been left behind the high price of ransom, or the lots of those who divided the captives. ¹ The museum gives the sense here; the text is read in the edition.

• In Abu Dharr's version, "al-Khalifin" means those who stayed behind with their families; in three copies it reads "al-Khaifin" (those who feared). ¹
• Al-Farazdaq was an Umayyad poet who came many generations after the event, from the line of Ghalib of Tamim. His verses are therefore a later tribal testimony to the event and not a transmission of it; see al-Farazdaq.