Raḥbah.—A town on the Euphrates, between ‘Ânah and Raḳḳah. It was restored and embellished by Mâlik ibn Ṭowḳ, who was governor of Al Jezîreh, and died under the Khalifate of Mo‘tamid, a.d. 873. (Caussin de Perceval. Essai, Vol. II. p. 383.) This Mâlik was a descendant of ‘Amr ibn Kulthûm, the author of one of the Mo‘allaḳât, and had been in youth an officer in the service of Harûn ar Reshîd.

Shaving my head.—Sherîshi speaks of this practice as peculiar to the people of the East when they took the bath. We may conclude that it was not observed in Spain.

Slain his son.—The word expresses exactly the meaning of our word assassinate. It is when one comes suddenly upon a man, or lies in wait for him, and kills him unawares.

To refer to the Governor.— is commonly used in the sense of referring to an arbitrator to decide priority in respect of nobility or pedigree.

Sulayk in his career.—Sulayk, a , or vagrant robber of the Arabs, was famous for his speed of foot. He was, like ‘Antarah and Khofâf ibn Nedbeh, one of the or mulat­toes, his mother being a black slave, named Sulekeh, and his father ‘Âmir ibn Sinân of the tribe of Temîm. His speed was so great that he could outrun horses, and when the tribe of Bekr ibn Wâ’il made an incursion on Temîm, and saw Sulayk, they said, “If Sulayk sees us he will warn his people:” they accordingly mounted two of their number on fleet horses, to take him. He fled, and they pursued him all day without success; but the next morning they saw by his traces that he had fallen and broken his bow. They thought then that probably he had been exhausted by the first day’s course; but as they followed they found that his footprints were still wide apart, and deep sunk in the sand, so that he could not be overcome with fatigue. When he reached his people and warned them, they did not believe him, for they judged it impossible that he could have run so great a distance. Arab. Prov. II. 152. He was captain of a band of from thirty to forty vagabonds, and made depredations on the Benû Rabî‘ah, and the tribes of Yemen, sparing the descendants of Moḍar. During the winter he is said to have filled ostriches’ eggs with water, and hidden them in the sand, so as to have a supply in time of heat. He was at last killed in one of his incursions by a certain Asad, son of Mudrik, shortly before the islâm of his tribe. Other Arabs have become pro­verbial for their speed of foot, and among them the poets Shanfara and Ta’abbaṭa Sherran, also ‘Amr son of Barrâḳ. These three were companions, and an exploit of theirs, at the expense of the tribe of Bajîleh, is given in the Commentary of Sherîshi, but is too long to relate here. It may be found in De Sacy’s Chrestomathie, Vol. II. p. 346. The most cele­brated of these vagabond poets was Shanfara, the author of the poem called Lâmîyet al ‘Arab. Shanfara belonged to the Benû Azd, and led a wandering life in the utmost misery and squalor, of which he boasts in the above-mentioned poem. The legend of his death is a strange one. It is said that he vowed to kill one hundred men of the Benû Salâmân. Whenever he met one of them he exclaimed, “To thine eye!” and he shot his arrow with such skill that he always pierced the eye of his foeman. Thus he slew ninety-nine; but at last Asîd ibn Jâbir, one of the hostile tribe, and himself a famous runner, together with his brother’s son, Khâzim the Noḳmî, lay in wait for him. The Benû Salâmân tortured and killed him; but some time after one of them, seeing the mouldering body, gave the head a kick, and a piece of the skull, breaking off, fixed in his foot, of which wound he died. Thus, after death, Shanfara slew his hundredth enemy. See in Ḥamâseh the commentary on verses spoken by Shanfara before death, p. 242.

Made the boy speak.— is always used by the author in the sense of eliciting a sound in order to judge of it. The meaning here is that he made the boy speak to judge of his voice. In the Twelfth Assembly it is said, “he elicited the utterances of the lutes.” The Governor did not want to hear the defence of the boy, but the sweetness of his tones.

Adorned foreheads with forelocks.—Literally, with hair evenly disposed over the forehead. A girl would cut off the ends of the hair over her forehead and dispose the short locks along the forehead so as to leave a clear space above the eyebrows. According to ‘Âyisheh the Prophet said, “The Angels in heaven adore God by the locks of women and the beards of men; and say, ‘God be praised, who adorned men with beards and women with locks!’” He also said, “If one of you desire to marry a wife, let him have regard to her hair as much as he has regard to her face.” I cannot refrain from giving Rückert’s version of this passage, as it not only shows the extraordinary genius of the German poet, but also how entirely his work is an imitation and not a trans­lation of the original:

Da sprach der Alte dem Jungling: Sprich: Bei dem der die Stirne geschmückt mit dem Lockenkranz,—und die Augen mit dem dunklen Glanz,—die Augenbraunen mit der leisen Schei-dung,—und die Wimpern mit der Saumbekleidung,—die Augen-lieder mit der Schwere,—die Nasenwölbung mit der Hehre,— die Wangen mit dem Tagesanbruch,—und das Kinn mit dem Jugendanflug,—die Knospe des Mundes mit dem Aufsprung,— die Saüle des Halses mit dem Aufschwung,—die Haltung des Hauptes mit dem Sinken,—und das Lächeln mit dem Zahn-blinken!—ich habe deinem Sohn nichts gethan zu Leide,—noch seinen Busen gemacht zu meines Schwertes Scheide.—Wo nicht, so schlage Gott mein Auge mit Decken,—und meine Wange mit Flecken,—meine Schläfe mit der Kahlheit,—meine Rose mit der Fahlheit, — meine süsse Frucht mit der Schaalheit, — meine Stirne mit den Falten,—meine Zähne mit den Spalten,—meinen Odem mit dem Dampfe,—meine Lippen mit dem Krampfe,— mein Feuer mit dem Froste,—meinen Spiegel mit dem Roste,— meinen Mond mit dem Schwinden,—meine Sonne mit dem Erblinden,—das Silber meines Kinns mit der Schwärze,—und das Elfenbein meiner Hüfte mit dem Schmerze! With respect to the of the Arabs, it may not be out of place to refer to the description of Herodotus, Book III. 8, <Greek>, i.e., “They have their hair clipt round about.” This seems to have been forbidden to the Israelites, Levit. xix. 27. See Gesenius on . Compare also Jeremiah ix. 25; xxv. 23; xlix. 32.

Eyes with their black and white.—Various definitions are given of . One says that it means intense blackness of the black of the eye, with intense whiteness of the white thereof; another, that it is the blackness of all that appears of the eye, as is found in animals, such as gazelles, meaning, I presume, that when a woman has the black of her eye so large that little or no white appears she possesses this quality. It is also said that is a woman beautiful as to the , i.e. the parts below or around the eyes, which appear when the rest of the face is veiled; also one, the white of whose eye appears in contrast with the black of the koḥl. The first opinion is probably the soundest, and has been adopted in the translation. Sherîshi remarks that the poets have been lavish in their praises of black eyes, but that the praises of a or woman having blue or light-coloured eyes is rare; although it is related by ‘Âyisheh of the Prophet that he said, “Blue-eyed women are of good omen.” The Arabs appear to have associated softness and langour with the word , while expressed, not only a light-coloured, but a glitter­ing and fierce eye. Thus, when it was said to one, “Thou art ,” he answered, “The hawk is .” Imr al Kays says (Dîwân, p. 34, Ar. Text):

And there rushed on him (a stag) in the morning, at the rising of the sun, early, the dogs of Ibn Morr, or the dogs of Ibn Sinbis,

Hungry, fierce-eyed (), as if from ardour and hasting, their eyes had become (bright as) the flower of the ‘aḍras.

The expression , He is blue or light-eyed, is used in speaking of one who cherishes malice, and is to be dreaded. A common, but not a satisfactory explanation, is that the Greeks, with whom the Arabs were often at war, had light eyes, so that a “light-eyed man” came to be synonymous with a deadly enemy. Compare Thirteenth Assembly, “my light or fierce-eyed enemy.” For a censure on light eyes compare Ḥamâseh, Vol. I. p. 622; “Maidens not light-eyed, not blear-eyed.”