The “Spotted.”—The Arabic rhetoricians have given various fanciful names to the artificial compositions of the later writers. The epithet is applied to a composition of which every alternate letter is pointed, the rest being unpointed. Its literal signification is “spotted,” like the leopard which is called , or a hen which is white but has black spots on her feathers. The composition called , of which the Sixth Assembly gives an ex­ample is one in which the letters of each alternate word are pointed, while the letters of the other words are without points. This name is given to it from a fancied resemblance to a horse which which has one eye black and the other blue; such a horse is called . Verses made up of words which are entirely without pointed letters are called ; on the other hand, those which consist of words of which all the letters are pointed are called or “brides.” The word is applied to a woman who is unadorned with a necklace, the emblem of female dignity; while the bride, on the contrary, is supposed to fully adorned, the rhetoricians conceiving that the words are adorned by the points attached to them. The expla­nation of Sherîshi (Assembly 46) that among the pagan Arabs brides were adorned by their faces being spotted with saffron, is not necessary for the understanding of this epithet. Examples of these and of other kinds of artificial composition are to be found in the Forty-sixth Assembly.

Ahwâz was a city, or rather a district of towns, on the Karûn river, probably the Pasitigris, about fifty miles south-east of Sûs. In a note to Naṣîf al Yazaji’s Assemblies, p. 8, it is said to have consisted of nine towns. It was noted for its unhealthiness, new comers being liable to attacks of fever. There is an allusion to the sugar of Ahwâz in some verses of Al Mutenebbi, quoted in De Sacy’s Commentary. The explanation of the expression “the two markets” is that one part of the inhabitants carried on their business from morning till noon, and the others during the remainder of the day. Ahwâz disputes with Basra the honour of having given birth to the poet Abû Nuwâs.

Passing sombre days: literally, urging or driving. De Sacy compares it with the French “pousser le temps avec l’épaule.” Chrest. Arabe, III. 268. The word is used of gentle urging forward, as a man drives on his camel, or a cow her calf.

Mouldering camp-ruin.—The abandonment by a tribe of its abode, leaving behind the ashes and other relics of the encamp­ment, was, as has been noticed, a common subject of lamentation among the Arab poets; for the poet’s mistress was supposed to have passed away with her family, leaving him disconsolate. For the words in the text see Dîwân of Imr al Ḳays, p. 20 Arab. Text, first line of poem.

Girded up of skirt; that is, actively; gathering up my skirt for speed.

Its streamlet . . . . the abundant waters; that is, “I left Ahwâz where I had no hope of making gain, and sought some richer place.”

The shadow of the tent.—Ḥarîri says in the Durrah (Anthol. Gramm. Arabe, p. 27, Arab. Text) that is applied to the shadow only during the forenoon, and during the afternoon.

Wilt thou not?—Naṣîf al Yazaji, in his letter to De Sacy, says that the here is not interrogative. It may be like a particle of calling attention, , see Anthol. Gramm. Arabe, p. 109, Arab Text. In the 37th it is said, using the hamzeh alone, “How! at one time a Temîmî, and at another a Ḳaysî?” There it is apparently . Compare also 28th, p. 347, and 29th, p. 360. But I have made it interrogative as most consistent with the sense.

Took my seat.— is used of deliberately taking a seat, as on a cushion or sofa, for the purpose of conversation, and thus differs from , which is the mere act of sitting down. The literal meaning of the former verb is “he placed his posteriors on ,” that is, on rugged or elevated ground; and it expresses a change of place from low to high, while ex­presses a change of place from high to low. Thus if one who has been lying down sits up, it is said that ; while if one who has been standing sits down, the word is used.

Those yellow teeth; literally, his tooth-yellowness.” is the yellow or green filth which hardens on and between the aged camel’s teeth, and which the Arabs periodically clean away. Thus it is said of any one who is instructed or reformed late in life, “The aged camel is tooth-cleaned.” Arab. Prov. II. 84. The word is here applied to the yellow teeth of an old man.

Thy returning.—For this anomalous maṣdar see Lane’s Lexicon.

Ṭûs.—Ibn Khallikân, in his life of Abû ’l Futûḥ al Ghazzalî, who was born at Ṭûs, says that it consisted “of two towns called Taberân and Nowḳân, to which belong more than a thousand villages.” It was one of the most important districts in Khorasan, and distinguished as the birthplace of the poet Fir-dousi, as well as of the Wazîr Niẓâm al Mulk, who wielded almost absolute power for thirty years as the minister of Alp Arslan and Melek Shah, and of whose services to education I have spoken in the Introduction. He was assassinated by a Ṣûfî fanatic near Nehavend, in the year 485 (a.d. 1092).

I improvised.—The word has also the technical mean­ing of beginning the ḳaṣîdeh without the nesîb, or mention of the poet’s mistress. Abû Nuwâs is said to have been the first to make this innovation, which was afterwards adopted by Al Mutenebbi. This was also called and .

The war of Al Basûs.—The death of Kolayb Wâ’il and the war of Al Basûs form one of the most celebrated chapters in the early Arab history. Kolayb Wâ’il, the powerful chief of the stock of Rabî‘ah, who at the head of Bekr and Taghlib defeated the army of Ḥimyar on the day of Khozâz or Khozâza, has been already spoken of. After he had delivered the descendants of Ma‘add from the domination of Yemen he was elected by all the race of Rabî‘ah as their Prince, and became virtual sovereign of Arabia. But his pride equalled his greatness. It has been mentioned in the note to “the guarded domain of Kolayb,” in the Nineteenth Assembly, that he forbade the pasturing of any camels but his own upon certain lands. It is said that he asserted this right of domain all through the , that is, the country between the Nejd and the Tihâmeh, and at the back of Mecca. The legend of his death is as follows. Once a lark flew up from her eggs on his approach, as he was walking in his domain, and he improvised in rejez, as has been already related. At Arab. Prov. I. 432, the verses, with a slight variation, are attributed to the poet Ṭarafeh: the word signifies here the wide part of a valley. It is related that Kolayb found one day the lark’s eggs broken by the feet of a camel whose footprints he did not recognise, and which he consequently knew to belong to a stranger. Now Kolayb was married to Jelîleh and Mâwîyeh, daughters of Morrat ibn Thohl ibn Shaybân ibn Tha‘labeh. Their mother, Al Hâleh, had a sister or an aunt named Al Basûs, both of them being of the tribe of Temîm. Morrah had also ten sons, one of whom was named Jessâs. For greater security the descendants of Bekr by Shaybân, of whom were Morrah and his family, lived in common with the tribe of Taghlib, of which Kolayb was the immediate head. It con­sequently came to pass that Kolayb gave his brother-in-law Jessâs the right of pasturing his camels upon the princely domain. Al Basûs, the aunt, or the great-aunt, of Jessâs, and of his sisters the wives of Kolayb, also lived in the same settle­ment. (The name Basûs is explained by Ḥarîri in the tefsîr to the Forty-fourth Assembly. The milker of a camel used to say to her , in order to keep her quiet and make her give milk freely. The action of saying this, and getting milk by it, is , and the camel which gives milk when this is said to her is called . See also Arab. Prov. I. 94.) Al Basûs had a neighbour named Sa‘d, the son of Shems, of the tribe of Jarm, and it was his she-camel Sarâb which had brokent he lark’s eggs; Jessâs having allowed it to graze with his own. Kolayb, when he knew that a strange camel had entered his pasture, said, “By the altars of Wâ’il! no camel of Wâ’il would have dared to outrage my clientship.” What followed is told in various ways, and is too lengthy to repeat here. It is sufficient to say that Kolayb watched for the strange camel to come again, and when he saw Sarâb, he shot at her with an arrow, and pierced her udder. The she-camel galloped homeward, her udder spurting milk and blood, until she came to her master’s door. Then Sa‘d cried out with shame and humiliation at the sight, and Al Basûs came forth, and when she saw the camel she also cried out “Oh scorn! oh scorn!” and beat her hand upon her head, and improvised thus: