Its train.— with kesr is a bevy or flock of women, or of birds, like the Ḳaṭa, or of deer; and with fetḥ is a herd of grazing camels.

Revenge!—A cry of those who call on their fellows to take blood revenge for murder. A verse of Ḥassân ibn Thâbit is as follows: “Speedily shalt thou hear in their dwellings ‘God is great! Oh the revenges for ‘Othmân;’” or, Oh, ye avengers of ‘Othmân; that is, the cry of those who shall take revenge for ‘Othmân. Another reading of this verse is , said to be a transposition from . See Lane, Book I. p. 322. The meaning of the author is that the guests prepared to set upon the sweetmeats as men rush to their revenge.

As the lizard from the fish.—The lizard was supposed not to drink; but, when thirsty, to open his mouth to the wind. So the Arabs said, “I will not do so and so until the lizard goes to water;” and the phrase “Quenching thirst more easily than the lizard,” became proverbial. Arab. Prov. I. p. 573. In the Thirty-eighth Assembly, it is said, “Praise and parsimony can so ill be united, that this may be thought a lizard and that a fish.” In the Fiftieth Assembly the author describes Basra from its maritime position as a place where ships and camels meet, where the lizards and fish come together. Both and signify large fish.

As Ḳodâr among Thamûd.—Thamûd is many times mentioned in the Koran as one of the ancient peoples who were destroyed for their wickedness. At ix. 71, it is said, “Have they not heard of those who went before them, the people of Noah and ‘Âd and Thamûd, and the people of Abraham and the inhabitants of Midian, and of the subverted cities?” (the Cities of the Plain). Again, at l. 12, “Before them the people of Noah and the men of Rass (See Bayḍâwi on xxv. 40), and Thamûd, and ‘Âd, and Pharaoh, and the brethren of Lot, and the people of or (Midian), and the people of Tobba‘ (Bayḍâwi on xliv. 36) treated prophets as impostors.” Thamûd are said to have been inhabitants of Al Ḥijr, in the country between Ḥijâz and Syria, where to this day dwellings hewn in the stone are to be found, which, according to the Koran and to Moslem tradition, be­longed to Thamûd. Koran xv. 80. The passages of the Koran on which the tradition of the destruction of Thamûd is based, are, firstly, vii. 71–77, where it is said that God sent to Thamûd their brother Ṣâliḥ, who gave them the sign of a she-camel, which they killed, and were themselves destroyed by an earthquake. Bayḍâwi, in the commentary on this passage, makes Thamûd to be the son of ‘Âbar, son of Aram, son of Shem, son of Noah; but he also cites an opinion that the tribe received its name from the scarcity of water, being a scanty pond of water. The pedigree of Ṣâliḥ he gives as son of ‘Obayd, son of Asaf, son of Mâsiḥ, son of ‘Obayd, son of Ḥâthir, son of Thamûd. Secondly, Koran xi. 64–71, then xxvii. 46–53, not to mention other frequent references to the story. An account of the destruction of Thamûd, based on these pas­sages and on tradition, is given by Bayḍâwi at vii. 76; but the complete legend will be found in Ṭabari, whose narratives in this as in so many other cases subsequent authors only repeat with variations. Thamûd lived in the country which had for­merly been inhabited by ‘Âd, and hollowed the rocks for their dwellings. They were idolaters, and God sent to them their brother Ṣâliḥ to convert them. They challenged him to go forth with them on a feast day, and to call upon his God, while they called on their idols; and promised that if he should be answered while they were unsuccessful, they would worship his God. They fruitlessly called on their idols, and then angrily bade him give them a sign. “Thou art but one of the wizards; thou art but a man like ourselves; bring a sign if thou be of the truthtellers.” Koran xxvi. 153. Ṣâliḥ asked what sign they desired, and they said, “Bring out of that rock a she-camel and her foal, of a red colour, which shall walk and graze.” The rock opened and the camel came forth. Ṣâliḥ said to them, “Do her no harm, lest the punishment of the great day take hold on you,” (xxvi. 156). Now Thamûd having but one well were forced to be careful of their water, and whenever the she-camel went to drink, which was every other day, she drank the well dry. Then it was agreed that the water should be one day for the camel, and the other for the tribe. But it was revealed to Ṣâliḥ that the camel should be killed by one who was not yet born, and that he would be a child with red hair and blue eyes. The people therefore killed nine new-born children who answered this description; till at last the prophet became hated, and the nine fathers of the murdered children, who are supposed to be alluded to at Koran xxvii. 49, saved the tenth child, who was Ḳodâr, son of a woman named Ḳodayrah: his father’s name was Sâlif. Then they lay in wait to kill Ṣâliḥ, but God caused a rock to fall upon them. When Ḳodâr grew up he became an opponent of the prophet, and undertook to kill the she-camel, which he did by houghing her, whence he is called . The foal then disappeared, and God destroyed the people of Thamûd by a cry from heaven. Ḳodâr became proverbial as one who brought evil on his race; so that it is said, “More unlucky than the hougher of the she-camel;” “More unlucky than the Red Man of ‘Âd;” ‘Âd being either confused with Thamûd by mistake, or used because Thamûd was related to ‘Âd; for some of the genealo­gists say that Thamûd was the cousin of ‘Âd. Bayḍâwi says that their chief was Jondo‘, son of ‘Âmir, and that he believed: and that those who opposed Ṣâliḥ were Thawwâb, son of ‘Amr, and Al Ḥobâb, the keeper of their idols, and Ribâb, son of Ṣaghr, their diviner. See his commentary on Koran vii. 76, for these and other details.

Their sepulchres: literally, their tomb mounds; the heaps of stones piled up over a grave. In a Tradition signifies, “Do not heap up stones over my grave, but leave it level.”

And was free from guilt.—Having sworn that he would not sit near the vase, he could not return without sin until it was taken away. The respect for vows of this kind may be noticed in several places in the author’s work. When Abû Zayd’s host in Assembly Fifteen swears that he will not let him lodge in the house, Abû Zayd at once goes out into the rain, since it would be a sin to induce a man to break such a vow. Also when Abû Zayd vows that he will depart, Ḥârith does not seek any further to detain him.

Glass is a betrayer.—At the proverb “More divulging than glass,” Arab. Prov. II. 780, is a composition which Ḥarîri may have had in mind. It is an address by a poet, Sahl ibn Hârûn, in praise of glass, in opposition to another poet who had indited one in praise of gold.

The witchcraft of Babylon.—Compare Koran ii. 96. For Hârût and Mârût, and their seduction by Zoharah, see Bayḍâwi on the passage.

Give life to one buried alive.—These words have reference to the practice of burying female children alive, which prevailed among the ancient Arabs. In the sublime Sura of the Koran called (lxxxi), it is said, “When the girl buried alive shall be asked for what sin she was slain:” and the passage refers to the practice which still in Moḥammed’s time lingered among the tribe of Temîm, and was only completely eradicated by the influence of Islam. It is probable that in remote times it was connected with the superstitious rite of sacrificing children which was common to all the Semites, and was practised by the Jews up to the age of the Captivity, as we learn from the denunciations of Jeremiah, vii. 31; xix. 5. But in later times it was ascribed to the poverty of many of the tribes, which made them desire to have among them only those who could bear hardship in time of need, and to their fear of dishonour, since women were often carried off by their enemies in forays, and made slaves and concubines to strangers. So that at a wedding the wish to the newly-married pair was , “With concord and sons,” see Assembly Twenty-ninth, p. 364, De Sacy’s edition: or “With concord and permanence, with sons and no daughters.” So strong was this feeling, even in the time of the Prophet, that at Koran xvi. 59, it is used as an argument against those Arabs who, like the tribes of Khozâ‘ah and Kinâneh, said that the angels were the daughters of God. “They attribute daughters to God, Glory be to him ( is used in the Koran when any blasphemous supposition is to be repelled); yet they wish them not for themselves. When a female child is announced to one of them, his face grows dark, and he is as though he would choke.” Compare Koran xvii. 42, and xxxvii. 153. The older proverbs show the prevalence of this inhumation of female children, and the belief of the Arabs that it was praiseworthy. It was said “To send women before (to the other world) is a benefit. Ar. Prov. I. 228. Also , “The burying of girls is a generous deed,” and , “The best son-in­law (or marriage relative) is the grave.” The little regard for relationship through females among the tribes is expressed in some verses attributed to Ghassân ibn Wa‘leh, at p. 259 of the Ḥamâseh. In the commentary is quoted the proverb, “Our sons’ sons are our sons, but our daughters’ sons are the sons of strangers.” From some verses of Isḥâḳ ibn Khalaf, page 140 of the Ḥamâseh, we perceive the reasons which may have induced a father to put an end to his daughter’s days. The poet says:—