His full name is Ibn Abī Laylā Maysara (some have used the name Sabur instead of Maysara) b. Mubārak b. ʿUbayd ad-Daylamī al-Kūfī. He was the freedman of Bukayr b. Zayd al-Khayl from the Tay tribe.
He was the most knowledgeable among people regarding the wars, histories, poetry, and language of the Arabs. He is the one who compiled the poems known as the "Seven Suspended Odes (Muʿallaqāt as-Sabʿa)" that were hung on the walls of the Kaʿba. Because he narrated a great deal of poetry from the Arabs, he was given the nickname "ar-Rāwiya" (the transmitter). The caliph al-Walīd b. Yazīd b. ʿAbd al-Malik tested him in this matter, asking him to recite twenty-nine qaṣīdas written with dotted letters, each consisting of one hundred verses, and he recited qaṣīdas that met these conditions.
He claimed that poets whose poems were not memorized and recited by others could not be considered Arab poets. Upon this, the caliph al-Walīd gave him a reward of 100,000 dirhams.
According to what Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥarīrī stated in his book "Durrat al-Ghawwāṣ," Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Malik sent an order to the governor of Iraq, Yūsuf b. ʿUmar, requesting that Hammad ar-Rāwiya be sent to him. When Hammad arrived in the presence of Hishām, he saw that he was in a pavilion made of porphyry marble, crystal, and gold, and that two truly beautiful slave girls were sitting beside him. Hishām asked him to recite poetry, and he did so. Then Hishām said to him:
- State your need; whatever you wish, I will grant it to you.
- O Commander of the Faithful, could my need be anything at all? That is, will you give me whatever I ask?
- Speak, and I will grant it; tell me your need.
- Give me one of these two slave girls.
- Both of these slave girls, along with their ornaments, are yours. After saying this, he left him alone with the slave girls in one of the rooms of the pavilion. Then he gave him a reward of 100,000 dirhams.
However, the truth is that this caliph was al-Walīd b. Yazīd, because Hammad stated that he drank wine with the caliph who hosted and rewarded him. Yet, Caliph Hishām did not drink wine. Nor was his governor in Iraq Yūsuf b. ʿUmar. His governor in Iraq was Khālid b. ʿAbdullāh al-Qasrī, and his successor was Yūsuf b. ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Hammad died in this year at the age of sixty.
According to a narration transmitted by Ibn Khallikān, he lived until the year 158 of the Hijra, at the beginning of the caliphate of al-Mahdī. Allah knows best the truth of the matter.
In this year, Hammad Aʿjard was killed due to his zandaqa (heresy). His real name is Hammad b. ʿUmar b. Yūsuf b. Kulayb al-Kūfī. It is also said that he was from Wāsiṭ. He was a slave of the Banū Sawād tribe. He was a poet who used unpleasant words, a zindīq (heretic), but also refined. He was accused of not being a Muslim. He lived during both the Abbasid and Umayyad periods, but became famous only in the Abbasid era. Many satirical exchanges occurred between him and Bashshār b. Burd. Bashshār was also killed for his zandaqa, and was buried in the same grave as this Hammad whom we have mentioned.
According to another narration, Hammad Aʿjard died in the year 158 of the Hijra. There is also a narration that he died in the year 161 of the Hijra. Allah knows best the truth of the matter.