The fire of war.—This is an allusion to the bale-fire which the ancient Arabs lighted on a height to collect the tribe or its allies for a foray. There are various traditional fires cele­brated by the poets. The “fire of hospitality,” , was that which a man lighted to guide travellers to his tent, or to prepare food for them. The “fire of branding,” , was that with which the iron, , was heated for the branding of a great personage’s camels, that they might be known, and allowed to drink at the well before others. The “fire of treachery,” , was lighted by a man when he had been treacherously injured by his neighbour. The wronged man solemnly lighted a fire at Mina, during the pilgrimage, and exclaimed, “This be his enemy.” The “fire of safety,” , was a thanks­giving of a man’s friends for his safe return. On the other hand, the “fire of departure” was a solemn cursing of a man by his enemy when he set out on an expedition. The fire was lighted, and the ill-wisher exclaimed, “Away! begone!” Compare Eighteenth Assembly: “It would be said to Isaac, ‘Away! begone!’” This was called . The “fire of the lion” was that lighted to scare wild beasts. The “fire of the snake-bitten,” , was lighted for the recovery of one who had been so hurt; either as a charm, or because it helped him to keep awake, on which his recovery depended. The “fire of ransom,” , was lighted when women of rank, who had been made captive, were redeemed; for they were brought out of the hostile camp by night, apparently to lessen their humiliation. The “fire of praying rain” was a sacrifice in time of drought. The “fire of hunting” was lighted to blind or confuse the deer. The “fire of covenanting,” , was on the occasion of some solemn alliance or agreement being made. See the sixth Assembly of Naṣîf al Yazaji.

A lisper.—One who pronounces the sîn like thâ, and the râ like ghayn. The terrors of the day of judgment are dwelt upon continually in the Koran. Compare xxii. l. “The nurse shall abandon the child to whom she gives suck, and every pregnant woman shall bring forth (from fear), and ye shall see the men as drunken.” Also xxvii. 89; xxxix. 67, and in the later Suras passim. With regard to the word it is clearly formed by onomatopœia, the letters of which it is composed being those which the speaker substitutes in pronunciation for others. Wâṣil ibn ‘Aṭâ, the founder of the sect of the Mu‘tazilûn, had this defect, and showed great cleverness in avoiding the use of words which he could not pronounce. Thus he would say instead of for rain, instead of for blind, instead of for bed, and so on.

Viler than the toad-stool of the plain.—A proverbial expres­sion, Arab. Prov. I. 512, where a great number of proverbs beginning “Viler than” are collected. Thus it is said, “Viler than the ,” or “dwarf-sheep;” compare the Twentieth As­sembly: “Viler than the egg of the earth,” that is, the ostrich’s egg, which she lays and abandons in the desert (compare Job xxxix. 14), an expression which was afterwards used to signify a foundling or vagabond, one who had no known kin or home.

What he sipped and what he supped.—The iniquities which he permitted himself.

He shall bite his hand.—To bite the hand is significant of confusion and repentance: compare the verses at the end of the Tenth Assembly. Thus the much discussed expression at Koran vii. 148, means that the children of Israel fell upon their hands and bit them, in repentance at having worshipped the calf.

Belted with authority or adorned.—The was a broad belt or stomacher worn by women. Sherîshi renders the word by “girt.”

Neglects the life to come, etc.—Koran lxxv. 20.

And when he bears rule walks in the earth to do violence in it. —This is from Koran ii. 201. Ḥarîri takes in the sense of “to bear rule,” though in the original passage the context shows that it may be better rendered, “when he turns away and departs,” that is, “as soon as he has done talking piously, and calling God to witness, he goes forth and does evil.” Bay-ḍâwi adopts this interpretation, but gives the other also. Ḥarîri probably introduced the quotation because it had furnished a subject for controversy.

As thou rewardest thou shalt be rewarded.—A proverbial expression, Arab. Prov. II. 354; probably derived from Chris­tian sources, like that at p. 372. “As thou sowest thou shalt reap.” The proverb in the text is given as an instance of the figure by which the first of two verbs is expressed by the second, the word “rewarded” being used instead of “doest,” for the sake of accordance and congruity: as in the verse of the Koran, xvi. 127, “If ye avenge, avenge as ye have been avenged upon,” meaning, “as ye have been offended.” Compare Four­teenth Assembly, “Reward us as we have rewarded thee.”

Showed him a sharp glance.—This is a proverbial phrase usually applied to one who threatens or warns (Arab. Prov. II. 410); also if fortune or destiny looks intently, or sharply, or sternly on one. Thus comes to mean misfortune or calamity. Ḥarîri, however, uses the phrase literally, with the meaning “I looked intently at him.” Compare the use of the phrase at Arab. Prov. I. 527.

The better of two guides.—Abû Zayd means that he can show Ḥârith what he is looking for better than Ḥârith can find it him­self; that is, if he is seeking to learn who the preacher is Abû Zayd can satisfy him at once by revealing himself, which he straightway does.

I am he whom thou knowest.—Metre rejez.

Their Shem, their Ham, and their Japhet.—The three sons of Noah who entered with him into the ark; the one who refused (Koran xi. 44) being Canaan, or, as is otherwise said, Yâm. The world became the inheritance of Noah’s three sons, the posterity of the seventy-two persons who accompanied his family into the ark having become extinct, so that these three might be called the heirs of all mankind. Shem was the primate of the earth after his father, and, according to his father’s blessing, became the ancestor of the Prophets, all of whom, whether Arabs or foreigners, are of the posterity of Shem. He went as far as Yemen and founded Ṣan‘â, and settled the middle region of the earth from Yemen to Ash Shâm, possessing the Holy Place. From him were descended ‘Âd, and Thamûd, and Ṭasm, and Jedîs, and Al ‘Amâlîk (Amalek), and the subjects of Ya‘rob and Jorhom the Elder, who were called because they were created speaking Arabic; also the descendants of Ismâ‘îl, called because they acquired the Arabic tongue by settling among the former; also who are defined as especially the descendants of ‘Adnân; also the Jabâ-bireh of Ash Shâm (the gigantic nations of Hebrew tradition), and the Pharaohs of Egypt. It is also said that Shem was the father of the Arabs, and the Persians, and the people of Rûm, all of them races in whom are good qualities. Japhet was the father of the Saḳâlib (Slaves), and the people of Burjân (the Danubian Bulgars), and the Chinese, and the Khazars (a people near the Caspian, powerful in the seventh and eighth centuries), and Yâjûj and Mâjûj (Gog and Magog, the races of Northern Asia), and the Turks; and these have no good qualities. Of the posterity of Ham are Sind, and Hind, and all the races of the Blacks, like Kûsh and the Zenj, a people whose position is very un­intelligibly described as extending from Abyssinia to the island or country of Waḳwâḳ (the home of Ibn Ṭofayl’s Ḥayy ibn Yaḳẓân), but who may be taken to be the people of Eastern Africa; Ham also begat the Abyssinians and others. On this subject refer to Al Mas‘ûdi. A useful work is Géographie du Moyen Age étudiée par Joachim Lelewel; Bruxelles, 1852.

‘Amr ibn ‘Obayd was a celebrated ascetic () and preacher of the time of the Khalif Al Manṣûr. His life is narrated by Ibn Khallikân; and Sherîshi gives a lengthy notice of him in his Commentary. He was born a.h. 80 (a.d. 700), and died about 144. He was a freedman of the Benû ‘Oḳayl, and his father had been one of the prisoners taken at Cabul. This person, who was in the police of Basra, was either a man of indifferent character, or, from his office, unpopular with the people, for they used to say, when they saw his son ‘Amr with him, “There goes the Best of men, the son of the Worst of men.” “Truly,” returned the father, “he is Abraham and I am Âzar.” (Âzar was the idolatrous father of Abraham: Koran vi. 74). ‘Amr, though he prayed so constantly that his forehead was horny from prostration, was one of the leaders of the heterodox sect of the Mu‘tazilûn. He had been a pupil of Al Ḥasan al Baṣri, but left him for the new tenets. ‘Amr was one of the chief cultivators of scholastic theology and metaphysics, and wrote a work on the Ḳadari doctrine, which attributes free-will and optional actions to man, that is, which allows to man, in his own actions, Ḳadar, or determining power, such as God possesses over the universe, Koran xxxiii. 38, and which He uses in the creation and government of things, xv. 21; liv. 49. The contrary doctrine, called that of Jabr, Constraint, is unlimited predestination, the attribution of everything to God, and the assertion that all human actions are produced by Physical Premotion, and are of the nature of a spasm. It is doubtful whether the name Mu‘tazil was first given to ‘Amr or to Wâṣil ibn ‘Aṭâ al Ghazzâl. Accord­ing to one account Wâṣil disputed with Al Ḥasan on the question whether one who has committed deadly sin could be called a believer, and in consequence took a separate place in the mosque to expound his doctrine. Al Ḥasan then said to his pupils, “He secedes from us;” and thus the name took its origin. But, according to another tradition, this phrase was first used by Abû ’l Khaṭṭâb Ḳatâdeh, who, being blind, entered the mosque to hear Al Ḥasan, but fell upon ‘Amr and some of his followers, who had just left Al Ḥasan’s circle and formed one of their own. Finding from the tenets propounded that it was not Al Ḥasan’s circle, he exclaimed, “These are the seceders,” and at once left them. From that time they were called “Seceders,” Mu‘tazilûn; see Ibn Khallikân, life of Ḳatâdeh. For information on this powerful and intellectual sect, of which ‘Amr became one of the chief doctors, consult Schmölders, Ecoles philosophiques chez les Arabes, and Steiner, Die Mu‘taziliten oder die Freidenker im Islâm; also Pocock’s Specimen, and Shahrestâni. ‘Amr, by his contempt for the things of this world, obtained the admiration of his contemporaries, and was much esteemed by Al Manṣûr, with whom he lived on terms of intimacy before the latter’s accession to the sovereignty. Once, when the Khalif sent for him, he preached a sermon, reminding him that as his predecessors had given place to him, so he must yield the throne to others, bidding him prepare for the day which should never be followed by another night, and warning him that God might destroy his splendour as he had destroyed Irem thât al ‘Imâd (the city of Sheddâd, see Koran lxxxix. 6.) He would take no largess, and carried his bluntness to the extreme of rudeness. Al Manṣûr asked him if there was any­thing he required, and ‘Amr answered “That thou do not send for me again, but wait till I come to thee.” “In that case,” said the Khalif, “we shall never meet.” “That is what I desire,” returned the preacher, and withdrew. Al Manṣûr then uttered in verse:—