Whose beast has fallen.—Literally, “Who has been broken down with;” for the word camel or beast is not expressed. is said when the ridden camel stops in her pace from fatigue or lameness, as if doing a new or unaccustomed thing, and is the ordinary phrase to express the losing a beast from fatigue and the having to go on foot during a journey. Sherîshi says that a man came to the Prophet and said, “Give me a mount; for .” The construction is of course impersonal; or in the language of Arabic grammarians the jârr and mejrûr are set in the place of the agent. Com­pare used by the Prophet in describing his mira­culous journey.

My sighing, etc.—A kind of double meaning is probably intended here. It may be taken literally that he sighs as he mounts each hill and weeps as he enters each dale; but there is also an allusion to the ascending of sighs, and the flowing down of tears.

Your grist; your bounty.—The literal meaning is the corn with which the mill is fed.

Dwells in sanctuary, etc.—While you befriend and protect your neighbour, so that he lives secure, you allow him, through your generosity, to spoil and make use of your wealth. The allusion is to the sacred places and seasons of the old Arabs, and to the forays which they made on each other when not restrained by these obligations.

O ye Lords.—Metre mujteth.—It is useless to enlarge on the precise nature of the viands mentioned in these verses. is said to be flour made consistent by boiling; has been already explained in the notes to the Thirteenth Assembly; and in the notes to the Sixth Assembly; is a sauce for dates, made by boiling to a thick consistency the seeds of the colocynth. The laborious Naṣîf al Yazaji has introduced the names of many dishes of the ancient Arabs into his thirteenth Assembly. In asking for food at Mecca the boy may have relied on the prayer of Abraham for the dwellers or visitors at the Holy Place, which is a command to all the faithful, “Dispose towards them the hearts of men, and nourish them with earth’s fruits; so may they give thanks.” Koran xiv. 40.

Through me may reward be gotten.—It is a Tradition of ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr ibn al ‘Âṣi, that the Prophet said, “Whoever gives his brother enough food to fill him and enough water to quench his thirst, God shall put seven moats between him and hell.” This ‘Abd Allah was of Ḳoraysh, and was brought by his father who was a Muhâjir to Medina in early childhood. He handed down seven hundred Traditions. He was one of the four transmitters of Traditions of the same name in the first century, who were called the four ‘Abâdileh (Abdallahs); the others were ‘Abd Allah ibn Mas‘ûd, ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abbâs, and ‘Abd Allah ibn az Zobayr.

The waist-folds of the skirt.—The is the part of the (or waist wrapper) where it is tied round the waist, which part is folded or doubled. The ancient dress of the Arabs consisted of a or , which were wrappers for the whole body, and an , which was a wrapper fastened round the waist and hanging down to the ankles. The two together composed a or dress. The izâr being only fastened above the hips might be pulled off or drop; thus it is related of Jebelet ibn al Ayham, the last king of Ghassân, who submitted to the Khalif ‘Omar and entered Islam in the 16th year of the Hijra, that he made the pilgrimage to Mecca clothed according to the command of the Prophet, with an izâr, and without serâwîl or drawers. A man of the Fezârah put his foot on the skirt of the king’s izâr and pulled it off, so that his nakedness was exposed. The quarrel that ensued ended in the flight of Jebeleh to Constantinople, and his return to the Christian religion. The is described as a kind of izâr worn by women, girt round the waist in such a manner that the upper part hangs down over the lower; the upper part descending to the knee, and the lower to the feet; it has and is fastened by a or band, which runs through the doubled upper part. The place or part of the izâr where it is fastened round the waist is also called . On this subject see De Sacy’s Chrestomathie Arabe, vol. II., p. 303, second edition. The phrase in the text is proverbial, and means “when they were girding themselves or preparing for departure.”

The promise of ‘Orḳûb.—‘Orḳûb was a man proverbial among the Arabs for breaking his promises. He is said by some to have been a Jew of Khaybar, by others to have been an inhabit­ant of Yathrib (either Medina or another Yathrib or Yatrib, near Hojr, in Yemâmeh), or lastly a man of Amalek. It is said pro­verbially, More promise-breaking than ‘Orḳûb: Arab. Prov. I. 454. It is related that a brother of his came to ask him for something. Said ‘Orḳûb, “When this palm-tree shoots the shoot is thine.” When the shoot was out the brother came again, and ‘Orḳûb bade him wait until the fruit was in the state called ; that is, until the dates had formed, but were green and small. When this took place the brother came again; but ‘Orḳûb bade him wait until they were in the state called , that is till the dates began to redden; then to wait until they were , or freshly ripe; and then until they were or fully ripe and turning to dryness, and therefore fit to cut. When they were in this state ‘Orḳûb went by night and cut them, and gave his brother nothing. For the names of dates in their various stages of growth, see Lane, under and ; and also the Ḳâmûs cited in Freytag’s Lexicon, under . That ‘Orḳûb was held in early times to be a man of Yathrib (Medina) and of the Ows, appears from the tradition that the mention of him as a promise-breaker by Ka‘b ibn Zohayr in his Burdeh, v. 11, gave offence as a slight to the Anṣâr. See note to Freytag’s edition of the poem.

A need in the mind of Jacob.—This is an allusion to the history of Joseph. When the sons of Jacob went a second time into Egypt, taking with them Benjamin, their father commanded them not to enter at one gate, but at several. This is explained to mean that he feared on account of their beauty, and comeliness, and their celebrity in Egypt as enjoying the favour of the Governor, and thought that if they entered together they might be struck with the evil eye. They entered the city as their father commanded them, and though this could not have pro­tected them against the will of God, it satisfied a need or want that was in the mind of Jacob. Koran xii. 67, 68.

Serûj is my dwelling.—These verses are also of the metre mujteth.