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Al-Amir Muṣṭafa ad-Dawla Abī al-Fityān Muhammad, better known as Ibn Ḥayyûs () (December 1003–January/February 1081), was an Arab poet from Bilad al-Sham. He was well known for writing to the and nobility of Syria, particularly the Mirdasid dynasty of Aleppo.
In the course of his writing career, Ibn Hayyus became acquainted with several local rulers, Fatimid officials and other dignitaries. He dedicated to them panegyrics and in turn, was rewarded by them with riches. In the process, he gained the surname "Mustafa ad-Dawla" (the chosen of the state). He became particularly associated with the Mirdasid dynasty emirs of Aleppo, where he moved in 1072. One of the Mirdasid emirs, Mahmud ibn Nasr, once rewarded him with one thousand gold . Following Mahmud's death in 1075, Ibn Hayyus developed a close friendship with his son, Nasr ibn Mahmud. In one of his poems, Ibn Hayyus wrote "Mahmud gave me one thousand pieces of gold out of his treasury; I know for certainty his son Nasr will do the same." Nasr was honored by the elegy and exclaimed "if he Ibn had said Nasr would double the sum several times over, I should certainly have done it!"
The wealth Ibn Hayyus accrued from the Mirdasids of Aleppo enabled to build a residence for himself in the city. On a panel atop the house's doorway, he inscribed the following ode:
We built this abode and in it we resided, enjoying the bounty of the Mirdasids, a family which delivered us from adversity and the tyranny of fortune. Say to the sons of Earth: 'Let men act thus towards their fellow-men'.Ibn Khallikan, ed. De Slane 1869, p. 141.In 1079, the Uqaylid dynasty emir of Upper Mesopotamia, Muslim ibn Quraysh, granted Ibn Hayyus an iqta (fief) in Mosul in gratitude for an elegy Ibn Hayyus wrote for him.Ibn Khallikan, ed. De Slane 1868, pp. 143–144. Ibn Hayyus died in his home in 1081.
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