 Abu Firas' early work comprises poems in the classical "qaṣīda" form in praise of the Hamdanids and their deeds—the 225-line "Ḥamdāniyyah" is perhaps the most notable—and shorter poems in the "ʿIrāqī" form on courtly themes of love, wine, hunting and friendship.He also produced several pro-Shia poems attacking the Abbasids.Although his early works and the "al-Rūmiyyāt" inevitably show al-Mutanabbi's influence, Abu Firas was the great poet's rival, encouraged by his tutor Ibn Khalawayh, a bitter opponent of al-Mutanabbi.