_) (Hartford, 1902).

(W. WR.)

B[=U][S.][=I]R[=I] [Ab[=u] 'Abdall[=a]h Muhammad ibn Sa'[=i]d
ul-B[=u][s.][=i]r[=i]] (1211-1294), Arabian poet, lived in Egypt, where he
wrote under the patronage of Ibn Hinna, the vizier. His poems seem to have
been wholly on religious subjects. The most famous of these is the
so-called "Poem of the Mantle." It is entirely in praise of Mahomet, who
cured the poet of paralysis by appearing to him in a dream and wrapping him
in a mantle. The poem has little literary value, being an imitation of Ka'b
ibn Zuhair's poem in praise of Mahomet, but its history has been unique
(cf. I. Goldziher in _Revue de l'histoire des religions_, vol. xxxi. pp.
304 ff.). Even in the poet's lifetime it was regarded as sacred. Up to the
present time its verses are used as amulets; it is employed in the
lamentations for the dead; it has been frequently edited and made the basis
for other poems, and new poems have been made by interpolating four or six
lines after each line of the original. It has been published with English
translation by Faizullabhai (Bombay, 1893), with French translation by R.
Basset (Paris, 1894), with German translation by C.A. Ralfs (Vienna, 1860),
and in other languages elsewhere.

For long list of commentaries, &c., cf. C. Brockelmann's _Gesch. der Arab.
Litteratur_ (Weimar, 1898), vol. i. pp. 264-267.

(G. W. T.)

BUSIRIS, in a Greek legend preserved in a fragment of Pherecydes, an
Egyptian king, son of Poseidon and Lyssianassa. After Egypt has been
afflicted for nine years with famine, Phrasius, a seer of Cyprus, arrived
in Egypt and announced that the cessation of the famine would not take
place until a foreigner was yearly sacrificed to Zeus or Jupiter. Busiris
commenced by sacrificing the prophet, and continued the custom by offering
a foreigner on the altar of the god. It is here that Busiris enters into
the circle of the myths and _parerga_ of Heracles, who had arrived in Egypt
from Libya, and was seized and bound ready to be killed and offered at the
altar of Zeus in Memphis. Heracles burst the bonds which bound him, and,
seizing his club, slew Busiris with his son Amphidamas and his herald
Chalbes. [v.04 p.0874] This exploit is often represented on vase paintings
from the 6th century B.C. and onwards, the Egyptian monarch and his
companions being represented as negroes, and the legend is referred to by
Herodotus and later writers. Although some of the Greek writers made
Bus