The country of Wâsit̤.—A town midway between Kufa and Baṣra, whence its name, or rather two towns, on either bank of the Tigris, and joined by a pontoon-bridge. The old town on the eastern bank was mostly inhabited by the chiefs of the surrounding villages. Wâsit̤ proper, on the western side of the Tigris, was founded by Al Hajjâj, who built there a cathedral mosque and a castle, which became after him the seat of the Governors of ‘Irâk. A proverb says, “Thou art heedless as if thou wert a Wâsit̤î,” the origin of which is told as follows: Al Hajjâj pressed the people into his service to build the new city, so that many fled and passed the night amongst the poor in the mosques of neighbouring towns. His attendants went in pursuit of them, and called out on entering such places, “Halloo! O man of Wâsit̤,” and whoever was taken by surprise and raised his head was seized and carried off.
Not paying overmuch for rent, in Arabic lam unâfis fî ujratin, which phrase, however, admits also of the translation, not stinting its rent. Another reading is, lam unâqish fî ujratin, not being close in my reckoning as to rent. The circumstances in which Ḥârith finds himself make the above rendering more probable.
Nor thy adversary keep on foot.—The word ẓidd, which is used both as singular and plural, occurs in the sense of enemy, Koran, xix. 85: “Those gods (taken beside God) will disavow their worship and will become their enemies.”
The one of full-moon face and of pearly hue, meaning the loaf or cake of white bread, whose further description in the following lines scarcely calls for explanation in all its details. Of pure root, for instance, refers to the wheat, from which it is made; who was imprisoned and set free, to the process of grinding the corn in the milk; who was suckled and weaned, to the water mixed with the flour to make it into dough, and kept from it while being kneaded.
And exchange for him the pregnant that impregnates, etc., meaning flint and steel, neither of which produces by itself the spark, but requires the co-operation of the other, so that both attributes apply to either of them. The following antithetical expressions and metaphors, as referring to the flint-stone and the spark, are equally self-evident as those employed in the description of the loaf. It must, of course, be remembered that Al Ḥârith was not possessed of the clue, and might therefore well be puzzled by the seeming contradictions.
Amongst the rows of market shops, in Arabic naẓâ’ida ’l-ḥawânît, where naẓâ’id is the pl. of naẓîd, a fa‘îl (agent), in the sense of fa‘ûl (patient), “what is placed in rows,” or “piled up.” I refer it to the market-shops themselves, but it may also apply to their piled-up goods.
On his homeward way.—This translation is taken from De Sacy’s commentary, which explains rawâḥ, as “returning after going,” while Sherîshi takes it, in my opinion less satisfactorily, in its usual sense of “evening.”
I knew that this was of Serûji growth, the feminine of the adjective of relation, indicating a thing appertaining to or proceeding from the Serûji; for, “I knew that it was a trick of Abû Zayd’s.”
And makes come forth the fruit from their sheaths, allusion to Koran, xli. 47: “No fruit cometh forth from its coverings, neither does any female conceive nor is she delivered, but with His knowledge.”
And which of the twain was thy state? lit., upon which of thy two descriptions didst thou fly from home, openly or secretly, well provided for or deprived of means, etc.?
How to procure a loan or gift, in Arabic qarẓ, that for which an equivalent or compensation is returned, and farẓ, that which requires no compensation or return.
How then am I to make union between the neck-ring (ghull, a ring of iron or leather round the neck of a captive, figuratively for a shrewish wife) and an empty purse (qull, scarcity, poverty)? Ẓull, son of Ẓull, in the next clause, is a proverbial expression, for an obscure son of an obscure father. Being related to the root ẓall, to err, go astray, both in a literal and metaphorical sense, it may be translated by Scamp, son of Scamp, as in the following couplet of Aṣm‘aî: “Your Ziyâd is a Scamp, son of Scamp, we have nothing to do with (or wash our hands of) your Ziyâd.”
Who shall . . . be proxy in and on thy behalf, in the original wakîlan laka wa ‘alaika, i.e., I shall be thy agent and substitute, securing and promoting thy interests, and standing security for the fulfilment of thy engagements.
If Ibrahîm, son of Adham, proposed to them, or Jebeleh, son of Ayham. —The former one of the Magnates of Khorasan, who renounced his wealth and lived in voluntary poverty, becoming proverbial for abstemiousness and disinterestedness; the latter the last king of Ghassân, equally proverbial for generosity and liberality. As only a small dowry would be expected from the first, and the second would offer a large one, the Arabic illâ, “but,” “unless,” means “neither less nor more” than the sum sanctioned by the practice of Mohammed himself. The following “on the understanding that no portion should be claimed from thee” (to be paid at once), “and thou shouldst not be forced to seek refuge in divorce” [in which case the dowry would have to be forthcoming], implies that the whole thing is a farcical plot, devised by Abû Zayd for his own benefit, and from which poor Ḥârith will have to extricate himself as best he can.
Who is sharp-witted in the interest of him he loves, a popular saying, for which see Ar. Prov., i. 717.
So the matter is all but settled, in Arabic ka’an qad, “as though already,” where the verb kâna, “it had come to pass,” is understood; an elliptical phrase, to which the editors of the second edition of De Sacy quote the corresponding French idiom, “c’est tout comme.”
Then he cast a glance at the stars, a Koranic quotation, taken from Sura xxxvii., verse 86, where it is said of Abraham: “So gazing he gazed towards the stars and said, ‘In sooth I am ill.’”
The spreader of earth’s couch, the fastener of the mountains, again expressions borrowed from the Koran, lxxviii. 6; lxxxviii. 20; and xvi. 15.
An abolisher of the ordinances (or rites) of Wadd and Suwâ‘, two idols of the people of Noah, the former in the shape of a man, and worshipped by the tribe Kalb, the other in female form, and worshipped by Hamaẓâu. De Sacy and the Beyrout edition read Wudd, but in all copies of the Koran, printed or in MS., which I have consulted, I find the name spelled Wadd, and this is also the reading of my own MS. of Ḥarîri (see Koran, lxxi. 22).
To wed your bride, the honoured, reading al-mukarramah, which, according to a note in my MS., is warranted by the handwriting of Ḥarîri himself. Another spelling is makzumah, which by Moṭarrezi is interpreted as an honorary gift offered by the bridegroom to the bride before nuptials, when mumlîk would have the meaning of mumallîk, “putting her in possession of,” i.e., “presenting her with.”
Void of punctuation, in Arabic al-‘âriyyata mina ‘l-i‘jâm, applies to Abû Zayd’s address, in the same sense as the sermon in the preceding Assembly was called a bride without spots, as composed of words the letters of which have no diacritical points. The two compositions are remarkable as instances of Ḥarîri’s marvellous acquaintance with and power over his language.
With concord (or ease) and sons, a congratulatory formula addressed to the bridegroom, and depending on an elliptical, “may thy union be blessed,” etc. (comp. Ar. Prov., i. 170).
That the people fell prone upon their faces (lit., chins) . . . like the roots of rotten palm-trees, allusion to Koran, xvii. 109, 110. The expression, “it was not in quicker time than the eyelids meet,” corresponds to our “in the twinkling of an eye,” and the construction in the Arabic idiom is, to use the term of their grammarians, reversed (‘alá ’l-qalb), for “the time which elapsed until the people fell on their faces, was not quicker than that in which the eyelids meet.”
Thou hast done a hateful thing, quotation from Koran, xviii. 73: “Then they went on until they met a youth, and he (Khiẓr) slew him. Said Moses, ‘Hast thou slain him who is free from guilt of blood? Assuredly now hast thou wrought a hateful thing.’”
By him whom Allah kept blessed wherever he might be, i.e., by ‘Îsá (Jesus), in allusion to Koran, xix. 31, 32: “It (the babe born by Mary) said, ‘Verily I am the servant of God; He . . . hath made me blessed wherever I may be, and has enjoined me prayer and almsgiving so long as I shall live.’”