Your care relieve itself: or get rid of its cause, as the egg gets rid of the chick. For a similar expression see Arab. Prov. II. 220.

The Semâweh.—The Syrian desert, said to be called so be­cause of the ruins and traces of the dwellings of Thamûd found in it; the word meaning the same as shakhṣ. European travel­lers have fully confirmed the existence of these remarkable ruins.

For carrying him; literally for balancing with him on the same camel; one riding on the right side of the saddle, and the other on the left.

The Mother of the Koran is the first chapter, and is said to be so called because it contains the doctrines or principles of the whole book; namely, due praise to God, exhortations to duty by bidding and forbidding, promises and threats. At Koran ci. 6, it is said of him whose works shall be light in the balance, that his is the Pit of Fire.

The Lights of his kindred, the Keys of his victory.—Under these symbols the Muhâjirûn and the Anṣâr are supposed to be designated.

Place me by thy mercy among thy servants who do aright.— This is part of the prayer of Solomon, which he uttered when he heard the ant bid its swarm return to the nest for fear of being trodden by his armies. Koran xxvii. 19.

From thyself helping power.—Koran xvii. 82.

The heaven with its constellations.—These are the first words of the 85th Sura, called the Towers or Constellations. , <Greek>, is the name given to the principal constellations which surround the heavens, as a city is surrounded by its towers. The name is applied to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and also, it would seem, to the twenty-eight mansions of the moon. Com­pare Koran xv., 16; and xxv. 62. Bayḍâwi, on the 85th Sura, derives the word from , to be conspicuous, though it is evident that the verb is formed from the noun; and he attributes the name to the sun and moon seeming to rest in the chief constellations, and go forth from them as from towers or citadels. Naṣîf al Yazaji has united the names of the signs of the zodiac in some verses: Maḳâmât, p. 215.

The earth with its plains.— is a broad valley between hills, or a path leading up to or between them. Compare Koran lxxi. 19 and xxii. 28, where it is rendered by Bayḍâwi, .

The pouring flood and the blazing sun.—Koran lxxviii. 13.

The house-tops of ‘Ânah.— is a common word signifying anything that appears standing in the distance, particularly a building or its ruins. The older poets often began their song with a lamentation on beholding the of the camp or habita­tion which had been deserted by the tribe of their mistress. Here it is applied to the summits of the buildings of the city appearing at a distance over the desert plain. ‘Ânah on the Euphrates was at an early period celebrated for its wine, which was carried into the heart of Arabia, and inspired the wild and dissolute poets of the Ignorance with their impassioned declam­ation. In one of his poems, Imr al Ḳays says of a place from which one or more of his beloved ones had departed,—

“I lingered, amid the traces of the camp, like one drunken, who has been drinking of wine at early morn,

“Of wine the first of the cask, red as the blood of gazelles; old wine of ‘Ânah, or of the vines of Shebâm.” Dîwân, p. 36, Arabic text.

The exposed and the kidden; the corded and the sealed, i.e. the various kinds of goods they brought with them, both what was open to view and what was corded in bales or sealed up in boxes.

The light, the adorning, i.e. he chose only the most portable, such as gold and silver, and such as served for ornament, as jewels.

The lutes.—From is derived our word lute.

I cling to journeying.—The metre of these verses, which are musammaṭât, like those in the last Assembly, is muteḳârib, which has been already described.

Pride.— is literally the contention before an umpire on the titles of a man or tribe to nobility or honour over others; as was the custom with the Arabs of the Ignorance. It was called so because each one said, after recounting his claims to honour, . The most celebrated munâfarah of the Ignorance was that between ‘Âmir ibn aṭ Ṭofayl ibn Mâlik ibn Ja‘far and Alḳamat ibn ‘Olâthah, a descendant of the same Ja‘far, for the leadership of the Benû ‘Âmir ibn Ṣa‘ṣa‘ah. The two chiefs staked a hundred camels, and applied to two men of the Ḳoraysh, afterwards very celebrated in the history of Islam, Abû Sofyân ibn Ḥarb and Abû Jahl, to judge between them. These declined, as did also some others; but at last the task was undertaken by Haram ibn Koṭbah, who reconciled the two rivals by declaring that they were equal in merit. See commentary to De Sacy’s Ḥarîri, p. 316, and Caussin de Perceval, Essai, vol. II., p. 564. Haram on this occasion made use of a phrase which has become proverbial, “Ye are as equal as the two knees of the full-grown tawny () camel stallion which come to the ground together;” that is, as the knees of a good and well-trained camel. This is often said of two things that are equal. Compare Prov. Arab. II. 361. In the munâfarah between ‘Abbâd ibn Anf and Ma‘bad ibn Naḍlah, the judge, Ḍamrah son of Ḍamrah, took a bribe of a hundred camels from the former and decided for him: the judge became infamous, as the first before Islam who had taken a bribe. On learning what had been done, Ma‘bad exclaimed, “There is no leap left in the wild ass;” a phrase which became proverbial with reference to any who had had honourable qualities and had lost them. Prov. Arab. II. 603. Compare Ḥamâseh, vol. I., p. 115, where are given certain verses addressed to Ḍamrah by a man whom he had upbraided. A singular munâfarah was that between the Benû Fezârah and the Benû Hilâl ibn ‘Âmir, as to which had been the more disgraced by an act of one of their people. Among the Benû Hilâl was a man named Mokhâriḳ, who had received the nick­name of Mâdir, the Befouler, because, being of a morose and envious disposition, he had watered his own camels at a cistern, and then befouled with dung the little that remained of the water in order that no others might drink. On the other hand, a man of the Fezârah being in company with some who were hunting, objectum est eum asini sylvestris veretrum edisse. The stake was a hundred camels, and it was decided against the Benû Hilâl, the deed of Mâdir being looked upon as the more shameful. Compare the proverb, “More sordid than Mâdir;” Arab. Prov. I. 190. An idea of the vauntings that were poured forth on these occasions may be formed from the Mo‘allaḳah of Amr ibn Kulthûm, who celebrates the exploits and virtues of his branch of the race of Taghlib. In the mouth of Abû Zayd, it simply means family pride, and what we should call keeping up a character.

A well-filled house: a house filled with the hum of visitors. The word is originally applied to a wooded place, in which the wind whispers through the trees, or to a place full of grass in which grasshoppers and flies make a noise. is defined to be the making a sound in the nose, i.e. humming.

And rebel against the adviser.—Imr al Ḳays says, “See, I have oft repelled the obstinate censurer concerning thee; him that is sincere in his blaming, not remiss.” Mo‘allaḳah, v. 43.

Comes by thee.— is applied to an animal which turns its right side to the spectator, passing by him from his left to his right hand. The contrary is . The former was esteemed lucky, probably because the animal passing in that manner was more easy to shoot. But some Arabs considered the lucky, and there was a difference of belief in this matter between Ḥijâz and Nejd. See Lane, Book I., p. 182.

From what thicket is thy root: what is thy origin and tribe? There may possibly be an allusion in the word to the five A‘yâṣ of Ḳoraysh; these were five sons of ‘Abd Shems, who had all similar names, so that the question might be understood, “From which of the A‘yâṣ is thy origin?”

Arabs and foreigners.—The word is applied to foreign nations generally, but more particularly, it would seem, to the Persians. The idea connected with it is that of not speaking Arabic correctly. The phrase ‘Ajam and ‘Arab occurs in the verses which Abû Adîneh (or Odayneh) addressed to his cousin Al Aswad son of Munthir, king of Hira, urging him to put to death the captives he had made from Ghassân. They are given by Schultens, Monumenta Vetustiora Arabiæ, ed. 1740, p. 57. These verses were very celebrated, and were probably in the mind of Ḥarîri.