| Honorific Prefix: | Buhturi |
| Al-Walīd ibn Ubaidillah Al-Buḥturī أبو الوليد بن عبيدالله البحتري التنوخي | |
| Pseudonym: | Al-Buhturi |
| Birth Date: | 821 |
| Birth Place: | Manbij, Bilad al-Sham, Abbasid Caliphate (now Syria) |
| Death Date: | 897 (aged 75-76) |
| Death Place: | Manbij, Abbasid Caliphate |
| Resting Place: | Manbij |
| Occupation: | Arabic Poet |
| Language: | Arabic |
| Nationality: | Caliphate |
| Period: | Islamic Golden Age (Abbasid era) |
Al-Walīd ibn Ubaidillah Al-Buḥturī[1] (Arabic: أبو الوليد بن عبيدالله البحتري التنوخي|al-Walīd ibn `Ubayd Allāh al-Buhturī) (821–97 AD; 206–84 AH) was an Arab poet born at Manbij in Islamic Syria, between Aleppo and the Euphrates. Like Abū Tammām (Arabic: ابو تمام), he was of the tribe of Tayy,[2] from the Buhturids.[3]
While still young, al-Buḥturī visited Abū Tammām at Homs, on whose recommendation the authorities at Ma'arrat an-Nu'man awarded al-Buḥturī an annual pension of 4000 dirhams. Later he went to Baghdād, where he wrote verses in praise of the caliph al-Mutawakkil and of the members of his court. Although long resident in Baghdād, he devoted much of his poetry to the praise of Aleppo, and his love-poetry dedicated to a girl, Aiwa, of that city. He died at Manbij in 897.[2]
He was often compared with the famous poet Abu Tammâm, who was his contemporary and mentor. The poems of al-Buhturî are examples of the classical style in Arabic poetry. He worked as a panegyrist to make a living and gained fame with his panegyrics.
His dīwan (collected poetry) was edited and published twice in the 10th century. First by Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī, in the section of whose book Kitāb Al-Awrāq (كتاب الاوراق) on Muḥadathūn (modern poets), al-Buḥturī is included among a group of fourteen poets whose dīwans al-Ṣūlī edited and arranged alphabetically according to the final consonant in each line.[4] The second editor arranged his dīwan according to subject (1883, Istanbul). Like Abu Tammam, he made a collection of early poems also known as the Hamasah. These collections of poems are also known as Diwans.