After his release, Abu Firas was restored to his position and was named governor of Homs, but the situation was rapidly changing: less than a year after his release, Sayf al-Dawla died, and the Hamdanid emirate of Aleppo began to crumble. Abu Firas quickly quarreled with Sayf al-Dawla's 15-year-old heir, Abu'l-Ma'ali, the son of Abu Firas' own sister, Sakhinah. Overestimating the support he enjoyed among the Arab tribes, Abu Firas revolted against his nephew, but was defeated and killed on 4 April 968 by Abu'l-Ma'ali's general Karghawayh. At the news of his death, Sakhinah was reportedly so overcome with grief, that she plucked out one of her own eyes. Abu Firas enjoys a prominent position among the greats of classical Arabic poetry. His near-contemporary, the eminent scholar and statesman Sahib ibn Abbad, summed up the esteem in which Abu Firas was held already in the 10th century in a phrase that was frequently quoted by later authorities: "Poetry began with a king (i.e. Imru al-Qays) and ended with a king (i.e. Abu Firas)". The corpus of his works was edited after his death by Ibn Khalawayh, who also attached a commentary, largely written by Abu Firas himself. Nevertheless, in later times several manuscript versions of his works with significant variations between them were extant, which indicates that Ibn Khalawayh's edition was not the only one. 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. According to H.A.R. Gibb, the "qaṣīda" poems "are remarkable for their sincerity, directness, and natural vigour", in contrast to the elaborate style of al-Mutanabbi, while the "ʿIrāqī" poems are merely "elegant trifles, formal and unoriginal".