Made foray.—Here Ḥarîri uses the technical term of the rhetoricians.

O thou who courtest.—These verses are of the second ḍarb of the first ‘arûḍ of the kâmil, which is . The measure of the ḍarb is , since the last letter of the is dropped, and the letter before it quiesces, so that the foot becomes . The part of each verse which the son is accused of appropriating forms a verse in which the ‘arûḍ is , and the ḍarb , that is, of the normal , without any change from or .

Turned the back of the shield: became hostile after being friendly. This expression is found again in the Fortieth Assembly.

To draw at the same source.—The word is used tech­nically by the rhetoricians to signify the chance agreement of two poets in thought or words, when there has been no imitation of the first by the second. This and the following expression, “as the hoof oft falls on the hoof-print,” are attributed to Al Mutenebbi, who, being reproached for borrowing from his predecessors said, “Poetry is a hippodrome and poets are steeds, and there may be a coincidence of thought, as the hoof oft falls on the hoof-print.”

Verse-completing.— was in all times a favourite intel­lectual exercise of the Arabs, whose powers of improvisation were marvellous. It is when two poets contend by one reciting a verse which the other must follow with another of the same metre and rhyme, and with a continuous sense; the former then has to give a third, and so on, till it is shown which has the greater imagination and promptitude. Sometimes one uttered half a verse, which the other had to complete. Imr al Ḳays was accustomed to challenge those who claimed the reputation of poets to compete with him. Once he challenged Tow’am the Yeshkeri, and said to him, “If thou be a poet complete the verses which I shall utter,” and he began “Dost thou see the flash gleaming in the night?” Tow’am continued, “Like a Mage’s fire it blazes a blaze.” Imr al Ḳays: “I was wakeful to observe while slept Abû Shorayḥ.” Tow’am: “As oft as I said ‘It now ceases’ it flashed abroad.” Imr al Ḳays: “Its sound was as a murmur in a place unseen;” Tow’am, “Like the she-camels lowing wildly when they meet the herd.” The poem is given in the Dîwân of Imr al Ḳays, p. 41, Arab. Text. When the poet found that he had an equal he bound himself by an oath never again to contend in poetry. ‘Aḳîl ibn ‘Ul-lafeh, a poet of Ḳoraysh, and a man in high esteem, since the Khalif Yezîd ibn ‘Abd al Melik married one of his daughters, amused himself on a journey by thus improvising verses with his son and daughter. He recīted a verse, then his son followed it with another, and his daughter with a third, all being in the metre ṭawîl. Unfortunately one of his daughter’s verses was as fol­lows: “They were giddy, as though drowsiness had given them to drink of the wine Ṣarkhad, the dark red wine, that (when thou drinkest it) courses through back and feet.” The father exclaimed, “By Allah, thou couldst never have so described it unless thou hadst drunk of it,” and at once gave her a flogging. The son, indignant, shot at his father with an arrow, and left him wounded on the ground, taking away his sister. ‘Aḳîl, however, was not displeased with his children’s spirit, and uttered some verses in rejez, which contain a quotation from Abû Akhzam, a person who was treated in the same way by a son. See the proverb, “I know the disposition is from Akhzam.” Ar. Prov. I., 658, and Forty-fourth Assembly. For the above story of ‘Aḳîl see p. 646 of the Ḥamâseh, in which several of his verses are quoted. Al Faraz-daḳ, the poet, also practised this kind of poetical exercise.

Tejnîs: paronomasia or alliteration. or signi­fies, literally, the use in a sentence of two or more words com­pletely or partially conformable. It belongs to the third part of rhetoric, which is called the science of , the first two parts being the science of or significations, and the science of or exposition. It would be useless to attempt here an explanation of the various classes into which tejnîs is divided by the rhetoricians, who distinguish between the conformity of words which have a common root and the conformity of those which have not; between the conformity of words according as they do or do not belong to the same part of speech; between the conformity of two words and the conformity of one word with another and part of a third; between conformity of both sound and written character and conformity of sound alone; who, in short, have analysed the art and given names to its every variety. Those who desire to become acquainted with the subject will find it fully treated in the Mukhtaṣar, p. 621. The science of , the third part of rhetoric, is concerned with the embellishment of discourse, and is divided into two parts, and ; the first treating of antithesis, hyperbole, and the like; and the second having to do with words, and expounding not only all that may be included under the head of paronomasia, but all the artifices of rhyme and orthography of which examples may be found in Ḥarîri’s work. See , Mukh-taṣar, p. 631; , p. 637; , p. 642; , p. 644; , that is the construction of a poem in which a part of each verse may be taken away, as in the present Assembly, p. 645. In the treatise translated by M. Garcin de Tassy mention is made of compositions with pointed or unpointed, with joined or dis­joined letters. The Arabs have taken great pains to record all the instances of tejnîs which appear in the Koran. Most of these, however, are evidently spontaneous and unconscious, and are far from resembling the laboured artifices of subsequent generations. Among these may be cited xxvii. 22; xxx. 54, 55; c. 7, 8; civ. 1. The last is rather an instance of . The word is used by the Governor in the general sense of eloquence; but in the technical language of the rhetoricians it signifies the first two divisions of the art of rhetoric, which have for their object the avoiding of error in bringing our con­ceptions to the minds of others. The treatise of Naṣîf al Yazaji, called ‘Aḳd al Jumân, is a good compendium on this subject from its terseness and the clearness of its definitions.

Dark red of lip.—A dark red, verging on blackness, in the inner part of the lip was looked upon as beautiful by the Arabs.

The winning steed—the second in the course.—The horses in a race had epithets according to the order in which they arrived at the winning-post. In the Ḥamâseh, p. 46, Arab. Text, these names are given in two different ways. In one list the first horse is called sâbiḳ or mujellî, because he makes his owner illustrious or conspicuous; the second is called muṣallî, because his head is on the of the preceding horse; the third, musellî, because he consoles his owner. The fourth is called tâlî; the fifth, murtâḥ; the sixth, ‘âṭif; the seventh, mu’ammal; the eighth, ḥaẓî; the ninth, laṭîm, because he is driven away with buffets; and the tenth, sukayt. But, according to other authorities, seven out of the ten horses were entitled to a share of the prize, in analogy with the game of maysir; and, the names of the first three remaining as in the last list, the fourth was called ‘âṭif, the fifth murtâḥ, the sixth ḥaẓî, the seventh mu’ammal. The three horses which gained nothing were called laṭîm, waghd, and sukayt. Sherîshi ascribes to Al Aṣma‘î the derivation of muṣallî, which has been given, and he relates that a man versed in the traditions of the Arabs explained the meanings of all the terms to the Khalif Muttaḳi. He also quotes some verses of Ibn al Anbâri, which unite all these epithets. They are the same as in the first list of the Ḥamâseh, except that ḥaẓî is placed before mu’ammal. Naṣîf al Yazaji has also united them in some verses of his sixth Assembly; but he makes the eighth horse khaṭî, probably a misprint. The list in De Sacy’s commentary varies from these, and gives the name of fiskil to the last horse.