This Assembly, the first composed by Ḥarîri, is based on a fact, which has been reported to us by two independent witnesses. Al Fajandîhi relates, that Ibn Qit̤ri, who was Kadi of Al Mazâr, a town in the neighbourhood of Basra, had repented of his former indul­gence in wine, but relapsed into his sinful habit. One day he happened to be present in the mosque of the Benû Harâm in Basra, that is, of the quarter in which this Arab tribe had settled, when ‘Omar founded the City, and here he was mysteriously moved to sincere penitence, which prompted him to ask whether any member of the congregation could point out to him an atonement for his transgression. Then a stranger stepped forward, who claimed to be a fugitive citizen of Serûj, which had then fallen into the hands of the Greeks (here mistaken for the Franks of the first Crusade), and that his daughter had been made a captive by the enemy, from whom, in his destitute condition, he was unable to ransom her. He wound up by saying to Ibn Qit̤ri: “Thy sin will be atoned for if thou bestow alms upon me, sufficient to set her free,” and the Kadi, believing his statement to be true, presented him with twenty gold denars, part of which was forthwith spent by the rogue on wine in a tavern at a safe distance from the mosque. According to Abû ’l Ḳâsim ‘Abdallah, Ḥarîri’s son, the latter, who lived in this quarter and is therefore surnamed Al-Ḥarâmi, assisted at the scene and had previously to it, like the rest of the company, been much impressed by an eloquent address of the ragged stranger, who on their inquiry after his name, had called himself Abû Zayd the Serûji. Ḥarîri went home and wrote the present Assembly, in which Abû Zayd is supposed to dictate his tale to Al Ḥârith, a form of narration sub­sequently abandoned by Ḥarîri, apparently for obvious reasons of clearness and stylistic conveniency.

Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm, related in the words of Abû Zayd: I ceased not since I bestrode my stout camel and departed from my spouse and my sprigs, to crave for the sight of Basra with the craving of the oppressed for help, since the possessors of knowledge and the lords of tradition agreed upon the eminence of her schools and scholars, and the glories of her tombs and martyrs, and I begged of Allah to make me tread her soil, so that I might feast my eyes on her, and that he would let me alight in her, so as to wander about her wards and outskirts. Now when good luck had landed me there and my glances pastured in her freely, I saw in her all that fills the eye with delight and makes every stranger forgetful of his native place. So I set out one morning when the taint of darkness was vanishing, and Abû Munzir was calling out his admoni­tions to the sleepers, to stroll about in her precincts, and to satisfy the hankering I had to penetrate into the midst of her. Then my traversing her roads and my sauntering in her streets brought me into a quarter noted as sacred and named after the Benû Harâm; that was possessed of Mosques much visited and of tanks much frequented, of buildings of solid structure and mansions of pleasing aspect, of choice excellencies and numerous rarities.

Thy heart’s desire of holy things and worldly thou findest there, and neighbours of motley tendence,

One all wrapped up in scripture’s wondrous verses, the other thrilled by tunes of the trembling lute-string,

One skilled in solving deeply hidden meanings, the other bent on loosing the bonds of captives.

How many there, who wear their eyes by reading or wear their trays by feeding the needy stranger,

How many places of resort for learning, and seats of bounty, lavishing sweets of harvest,

And mansions where not cease from morn to evening the warblings of the peerless maiden minstrels.

So join, if thus inclined, this one in prayer, or, if thou wilt, that one in broaching wine-casks,

For there without restraint thou mayst indulge in the wise man’s converse or the toper’s tankard.

Said he: Now while I was scouting her thorough­fares and gazing at her fairness, I perceived towards sundown and the approach of eventide, a mosque, renowned for its beauties, and deriving splendour from its frequenters, where the people assembled in it had started the discussion of interchangeable letters and were running a race in the course of debate. So I turned towards them, in order to ask for rain from their cloud, not to borrow light from their grammar-lore. Then it was not but as the snatching of a fire-brand of one in haste, that the voices rose for the prayer-call, followed by the sallying forth of the Imâm, when the blades of speech were sheathed, and the loops loosed for standing up, so that devotions diverted us from asking for food, and worship from seeking bounty. But when the due of obligatory prayer was discharged, and the people nigh dispersing, there emerged from the congre­gation an elderly man of sweet eloquence, who possessed of graceful gifts an easy flow of speech, and the fecundity of a Hasan. Said he: “O my neighbours, whom I have chosen before the branches of my own tree, and whose precincts I have made the house of my refuge, whom I have taken for my kith and kin, and made my stay for the time of my presence and absence, know ye that the vestment of truth is brighter than costly raiments, and that ignominy in this world is lighter to bear than ignominy in the world to come, that religion is the imparting of sincere advice, and guidance the indication of sound faith, that the consulted has a claim to confidence, and that the seeker of right direction is entitled to be counselled, that he proves to be thy brother, who reproves thee, not he who finds for thee excuses, and that thy friend in truth is he who tells thee truth, not he who says ‘true’ to all thou sayest!” Quoth those present: “O thou, our loving friend and cherished intimate, what is the secret of thy riddling speech, and what the explanation of thy concise address, and what desirest thou to be accomplished by us? For by Him, who has bestowed upon us thy affection, and made us the sincerest of thy friends, we shall not withhold from thee our advice, nor be sparing in our gift.” Then he replied: “May ye be rewarded with good and preserved from harm, for ye are of those of whom a companion need not complain, and from whom dissimulation proceedeth not, in whom no expectation is disappointed, and from whom no secret should be concealed. So I will disclose to you what rankles in my breast and consult you on the matter that exhausts my patience. Know ye then, that while my fire-shaft yielded no spark and luck kept aloof from me, I was sincere in my purpose of covenant with Allah, and pledged my vow to Him, that I would never buy wine nor associate with boon-companions, nor quaff strong drink, nor don the garb of inebriety. But my misleading lust and my abasing and deluding sensuality prompted me to keep company with mighty topers, and to pass round the cups, to put away gravity and suckle myself with grape-wine, to bestride the back of the ruddy one, and be forgetful of repentance, as we are forgetful of the dead. Nor was I contented with this once, of which I have told you, in my obedience to Abû Murrah, but I was addicted to the old vintage even on the fifth day and allowed myself to be thrown prostrate by the bright wine during the sacred night. Therefore behold me contrite for my abandoning the way of return to God, and exceedingly penitent for my indulgence in constant drink, greatly in fear from the breach of my covenant and openly confessing my excess in quaffing the fermenting must.

Is there then an atonement, ye know of, O friends of mine, To bring far from my sin me, and near to my Lord again?”

Now when he had loosened the knot of his utterance and satisfied his need of complaint anent his distress, my soul whispered to me, This, O Abû Zayd, is an opportunity for catching game, so tuck up the sleeves from thy arm and sinew. Whereupon I rose from my roosting-place, as rises the alert, and sallied forth from my position in the row of worshippers with the swift­ness of an arrow, saying:

Thou, distinguished by noble rank, great in glory and princeliness,

who desirest a guiding hand to the path of eternal bliss,

I am able to cure the ill, that deprives thee of peaceful sleep:

listen then to a wondrous case, fraught for me with perplexity.

Once I had in Serûj my home, seat of faith and of righteousness,

where obedience was paid to me for my wealth and my lordly state.

Througs of guests were resorting to my abode and received my boon,

for with presents I purchased praise, kept my honour by bounty bright,

Caring naught that my treasures went in profuse liberality,

and I kindled the fire aloft, which the miser is fain to quench,

That the strayer might find with me hoped-for shelter and resting-place;

none athirst watched my lightning’s flash and remained still a prey to thirst,

None, nor came one to borrow fire from my shaft, and it failed to flame;

while the times were in league with me spread I round me prosperity,

Till the Lord wrought a change in what through His favour had been my wont,

for He settled the Greeks in our country after a feud that rose,

And they seized on the households of all believers in one true God

and deprived me of all my goods either hidden or free to view.

Thus became I an outcast in distant lands and a fugitive,

who beseecheth men’s bounty while ere it had been besought of me,

And such misery is my lot, that it makes me to wish for death:

for the height of calamity, which has robbed me of all my cheer,

Is my daughter’s captivity, who was captured for ransom’s sake.

cast a glance then upon my woe, and to help me stretch out thy hand,

Ay, protect me from fortune fell, that has wronged me and been my foe,

aiding me to redeem my child from the hostile’s degrading bond.

By such acts are the sins wiped out of a servant who has rebelled,

is repentance accepted from one renouncing all worldliness,

And they are an atonement for him who, guided, has swerved astray.

though I spoke this in strains of verse yet my speech leads aright and true;

So accept the advice I give, and my guidance with thankful heart,

and bestow what may be at hand, winning praise from my gratitude.

Now when I had finished my long and rapid im­provisation, and he whose help I implored, was satisfied of the truth of my words, his eagerness instigated him to display generosity in my assistance and zeal incited him to take trouble in relieving my distress. So he dealt out to me a ready dole forthwith and was profuse in ample promise, so that I returned to my nest gleeful at the success of my stratagem, for by fashioning my artifice I had obtained the sipping of my sop, and the weaving of my poem had gotten me the enjoyment of my pudding-pie. Quoth Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm, “Then I said to him: ‘Praise to Him who has created thee, how mighty is thy trickery and how vile are thy inventions.’ But he burst out laughing exceedingly and indited without hesitation:

‘Live by deceit, for we live in times whose sons resemble the forest lions.

Set aflow the rills of wile so that the mill of life may briskly turn round.

And hunt for eagles, if the chase should fail content thyself with a tuft of feathers;

Try to cull the fruit, if the fruit escape thee, be satisfied with the leaves remaining;

And ease thy heart from distracting thoughts at the frowns of fickle and adverse fortune,

For the ceaseless change of vicissitudes proclaims the doom of our life’s unstableness.’”