The belletrist Muhammad al-Ghula mi (d. 1772/3), a close friend of Suwaydi , related the story and reproduced the petition in his poetic anthology Shamma mat al-ʿanbar. He added that the youth asked him for an independent opinion concerning the literary quality of Suwaydi ’s petition, and was told that it was indeed of a fine quality. 115
(3) The above-mentioned ʿAbdallah al-Suwaydi related that while he was in Damascus, a local friend of his, a perfumist by the name of Ahmad ibn al-Nuqṭah, asked him to write a tract (maqa mah) in rhymed prose extolling the beauty of his beloved, Muhammad ibn Shaykh al-H aram, and pronouncing him to be the “sultan of the handsome,” more beautiful than the other handsome youths of the city such as Hasan al-H arasti , Muhammad al-Bakri , Sha kir al-ʿUmari , ʿAbd al-Rah ma n al-Mani ni , Yu suf al-Jundi