Abu Firas was born in 932 or 933, probably in Iraq and specifically in Baghdad, as his father Abi'l-Ala Sa'id—a son of the Hamdanid family's founder, Hamdan ibn Hamdun—occupied a distinguished position in the court of the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir (reigned 908–932).

Abu Firas's mother was a Byzantine Greek slave concubine (an umm walad, freed after giving birth to her master's child).

Aside from being a renowned warrior, Sayf al-Dawla was famous for his patronage of scholars and poets, and the young Abu Firas grew up in a culturally vibrant atmosphere.

[4] Abu Firas soon gave proof of both his martial as well as his literary ability, and in 947/8, when he was only 16, Sayf al-Dawla appointed him governor of Manbij, close to the border with the Byzantine Empire, to which the governorship of Harran was later added.

[1][5] Despite his youth, Abu Firas distinguished himself in the conflicts with the Nizari tribes of the Diyar Mudar and the Syrian Desert, as well as in his cousin's frequent raiding campaigns into Byzantine territory.

[6] According to Ibn Khallikan, he was first captured by the Byzantines in 959, but escaped captivity at the fortress of Kharshana by jumping into the Euphrates; this tale is however dismissed by some modern commentators.

[1] It is the al-Rūmiyyāt, however, and their "combination [...] of pathos, dignity, and pride" (El Tayib) that have secured Abu Firas's place among the greats of Arabic poetry.

[1][10] In addition, according to H. A. R. Gibb, his personal traits helped spread his reputation: from his noble descent and fair appearance, his bravery and generosity, to his tendency to egotism and over-reaching ambition, "he lived up to the Arab ideal of chivalry which he expressed in his poetry".