Abu'l-Fath Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hussain ibn Yusuf ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Busti (, ), more commonly known as Abu'l-Fath al-Busti (Arabic: , Persian: ) was a Persian secretary and poet of Arab descent who wrote in Arabic and Persian. Born in the ancient city Bost (today Lashkargah, Afghanistan) in Sistan, he served in the chancery of the Ghaznavid Amirs Sebuktigin and his son and successor Mahmud.
Abu al-Fath was, amongst others, a student of the well known Islamic scholar Ibn Hibban who derives from the same city and from whom he learned the Islamic sciences of Hadith and Fiqh.
Abu'l-Fath al-Busti was born in Bost, from which his nisba "al-Busti" is derived. He is of Arab origin, with his lineage tracing back to Abd Shams of the Quraysh tribe.
According to the contemporary biographer al-Tha'alibi, al-Busti began his professional life working as a teacher for youth in Bost. He subsequently transitioned to administration, serving as a scribe in the diwan (chancery) of Baytuz, the local emir of Bost. When the Ghaznavid ruler Sebuktigin took control of the region, he appointed al-Busti as the governor of the Rukhkhaj district. Sebuktigin later recalled al-Busti to his court, keeping him in his inner circle to document his military campaigns and conquests. Following Sebuktigin's death, al-Busti continued his secretarial duties for his successor, Mahmud of Ghazni.
Later in his life, al-Busti experienced political alienation. He was exiled to Turkic lands and died in isolation in Bukhara between the years 400 and 403 AH (approx. 1010 CE).
Al-Busti was highly regarded by his contemporaries and later literary historians. In Yatimat al-Dahr, the contemporary biographer al-Tha'alibi praised al-Busti's elegant mastery of tajnis (paronomasia or wordplay) and his foundational stylistic elegance. Modern scholars, such as Ahmad Amin, have similarly recognized him as a prominent litterateur who excelled in both poetry and prose.
His prose was heavily characterized by the use of tajnis and saj' (rhymed prose). In his poetry, al-Busti predominantly composed short fragments, often limited to just one or two lines, generally avoiding the lengthy traditional qasida (ode) format. His verses frequently focused on versifying proverbs and maxims, and he occasionally incorporated riddles (ahaji) and elements of mathematical or jurisprudential logic into his poems.
A notable exception to his preference for short verses is his widely recognized ode titled Unwan al-Hikam (The Title of Wisdom).
The poem is also known under the title of "Unwan al-Hikam" ("The Title for Wisdoms") and "Ziyadat ul-MarâÂÂi fi-Dunyahi Nuqsan" ("To Rise in One's World Is to Decline"). It is a Qasida which relates to moral aphorisms and akhlaq (good character).