A driving forth to his devil.—This is an allusion to the words of God to Iblîs, Koran vii., after the threat of the latter to tempt and destroy man.

He made an irrevocable divorce with joy.— is said when a man makes the divorce with his wife to be absolutely separating, so as to cut her off from return. He cannot then marry her again until another has married her, and consum­mated the marriage, and divorced her. The reader may re­member the story of ‘Ala ad dîn Abû’sh Shâmât in the Thousand and One Nights.

As the infidels despair of the tenants of the tombs.—At Koran lx. 13, it is said, “Associate not with those against whom God is wroth; who despair of the next world as infidels despair of the tenants of the tombs.

Man is made up of impatience.—According to the Tradition in Ṭabari, the angel Gabriel quoted these words to Adam when the first man sought to rise and eat before the clay of his body was entirely vivified. They are to be found at Koran xxi. 38. The angel is also said to have quoted the words, “Man is impatient,” which occur at xvii. 12. When these quotations from the Koran at so early a period in history are recorded, it should be remem­bered that the Koran has eternally existed, though it was only revealed to mankind through Moḥammed.

There was a companion.—The following lines are of the metre khafîf. They have little merit, except as exhibiting the author’s power of playing upon words.

A churl.—For the meaning of , see Lane.

His verse.— is used only of a poem that is of some other metre than rejez.

His encomium and his satire.—The former being the description of the maiden, the latter of the treacherous friend. For the pe­culiar meaning of see De Sacy’s Commentary: ḳarẓ is ex­plained at Assembly Twenty-seven, under the phrase, “The two ḳarẓ gatherers.”

The people of the Fire, etc.—The inhabitants of Hell. This is a quotation from Koran lix. 20. The speaker means that if a glass vase had the evil qualities which offended Abû Zayd, the silver vases now produced were free from them.

Nor count Hûd with ‘Âd.—The destruction of the people of ‘Âd is one of the most frequently recurring topics of the Koran, where they are commonly associated with Thamûd, as an im­pious race, rebellious against God. The legend is too long to be given in the already too extensive notes to this Assembly. But the following references will be useful. At Koran xlvi. 20, it is said, “Call to mind the brother of ‘Âd (Hûd), when he preached to his people in the Aḥḳâf.” Ḥiḳf is a thin curving or winding strip of sand, and according to Bayḍâwi this was the name of a region on the sea coast of Ash Shiḥr, in Yemen, that is the country between Aden and ‘Omân, otherwise called Ḥaḍramowt. In Mr. Palgrave’s map of Arabia, prefixed to his travels, the name is given to a sandy region near the Persian Gulf. At Koran lxxxix. 5, they are spoken of in connection with Irem of the Columns, the City of Sheddâd, which remains invisible to mortal eye in the deserts of Yemen. The reader may also refer to vii. 63; xi. 52 (the Sura called Hûd); to xxvi. 123: and liv. 18. At Koran vii. 63, the pedigree of Hûd is given by Bayḍâwi as son of ‘Abd Allah, son of Ribâḥ, son of Al Kholûd, son of ‘Âd, who was son of ‘Owṣ() son of Aram, son of Shem, son of Noah. Or, according to another opinion, he was Hûd, son of Shâlaḥ, son of Arphaxad, son of Shem, and was the son of the paternal uncle of ‘Âd’s father. The people of ‘Âd were of great stature; Koran vii. 67. The ordinary form of the legend among the Moslems, founded on the scattered passages in the Koran, is to be found in Ṭabari, in the “History of the Prophet Hûd.” The people of ‘Âd would not believe the preaching of Hûd, and were destroyed by a hurricane which is described at Koran lxix. 6, as , for the meaning of which words see Bayḍâwi. Two of them, according to the received Tradition, escaped, having believed on the true God. One of these was Loḳmân of the Vultures, who afterwards reigned over the country of Saba: compare note to Assembly Seventeen. Count not Hûd with ‘Âd means “Count not the innocent with the guilty.”

Recite the Chapter of Victory; that is Koran xlviii., which begins “We have aided thee to a conspicuous victory.” This passage is held to have been revealed in promise of the entrance into Mecca, which is spoken of especially as , or else to refer to the capture of Khaybar, or to the Peace of Al Hodaybiyeh which gave the Prophet the opportunity of extending his power over the Arabs; or else it may refer to the victory of the people of Rûm over the Persians, which had been predicted by the Pro­phet in Sura xxx. The victories of Khosru Perwez had brought the Eastern Empire to the brink of ruin, when Heraclius, suddenly displaying consummate military talents, turned the tide of success in the year 625, and humiliated the Persian monarch by a series of victories. This struggle of the two Empires for regions which were soon to become the spoil of a third race was watched with intense interest by Mohammed, who is said to have sympathized with the Christians as the possessors of a revealed religion, and who was doubtless pleased at the fulfilment of his prediction. The general opinion, however, is that the opening of the Sura was revealed at Al Hodaybiyeh; and it is recorded that the Prophet, when he entered Mecca, recited the Sura of Victory. Abû Zayd means to say “Rejoice in what ye have gained,” or, as we should say, “Sing the Te Deum.”

It may be that ye mislike a thing.—Koran ii. 213.

Both and the boy.—On the naṣb after see Alfîyeh of Ibn Mâlik, v. 315, and commentary. If, however, the reading be with “Take,” or “I give,” understood, there is a simple conjunction. This is a phrase expressive of prodigal liberality in giving, derived from a speech of ‘Amr, son of Homrân, who, having before him some camel’s hump, cream and dates, was asked by a hungry man for some hump and cream, and replied, “Both, and the dates,” which became proverbial. Arab. Prov. II. 349 and 880.