I had travelled up to Ṣa‘dah.—Ṣa‘dah, without the article and im­perfectly declined, is the name of a large town in Upper Yemen, about sixty parasangs distant from Ṣan‘â, and was renowned for the manufacture of a superior kind of leather, and for the beauty of its women, of which Ibn Batûtah gives a glowing account. The latter particular has furnished the name daughters of Ṣa‘dah, which in the following line of the original is given to the Zebra or South African wild ass, as resembling the women of that place in beauty and graceful agility. If sa‘dah takes the article, it signifies the shaft of a lance, which needs no tas̤qîf or straightening, wherefore Al Ḥâris̤, in allusion to a verse of the Lâmîyet al ‘Arab, calls himself possessed of a straightness that resembles a lance (yaḥkî ’ṣ-ṣa‘data).

Whom it contained of noble lords, in Arabic man taḥwî-hu mina ’s-sarâti. Sarât stands here for sara’at, pl. of sarîyun, a lord or princely person, which, according to Jauharî, is the only singular in fa‘alah of a word of the measure fa‘îl. De Sacy reads surât, which is the plural of sârî, one who travels by night, and would here evidently be meaningless. This may be a slip of the pen, occasioned by the preceding ruwât, pl. of râwî, or simply a misprint, for in his com­mentary he quotes the above-mentioned remark of Janharî, and in vol. i., p. 56, of his second edition he reads correctly sarât. In Assembly XIII. Abû Zayd says: “I am of the Princes of the tribes” (vol. i., p. 177), annî min sarawâti ’l-qabâ’il, where sarawât is a further plural of the plural sarât.

Wide of range, namely, in the exercise of his liberality. Bâ‘, like the English fathom in its original meaning, is the width between the extremities of the arms when extended, and raḥîbu ’l-bâ‘ or t̤awîlu ‘l-bâ‘, wide or long of range, is said of a generous man, as on the contrary a miser is called qasîru ’l-bâ‘, short of range.

A Temîmî in descent and disposition, i.e., descended from Temîm bin Ad, whose progeny, the Benû Temîm, were celebrated for their generous disposition, inherited from him. Temîm was the maternal uncle of Naẓr bin Kanânah, father of Ḳoraysh, through Barrah, the daughter of his sister Morr, whence the poet Jerîr says:

“The mother who bore Ḳoraysh disgraced not men nor was she barren,

For no son is nobler than Ḳoraysh, and no uncle nobler than Temîm.”

And in a similar strain Farazdak sings in praise of the tribe Ḳoraysh:

“They are the sons of Barrah, daughter of Morr: how noble their kin on father and mother’s side:

For no chief purer of descent than Ḳoraysh, no uncle nobler than Temîm.”

Another poet, however, taxes the Benû Temîm with avarice and meanness, saying:

“Temîm is a surer guide on the road of vileness than the Ḳaṭa bird (comp. vol. i., p. 480),

But when they enter on the path of noble deeds, they go astray.”

At the same time endearing myself to him by being chary of visiting, in accordance with Mohammed’s saying, “Visit intermittingly that thou make thyself the more beloved.”

Until I became the echo of his voice and the Salmân of his house.—The former simile is taken from the proverb, “quicker than the return of the echo” (Ar. Prov., i. 674), in the sense in which it is said of one who obeys readily: “he is quick as if he were the son of the mountain (ibnu ’t̤.t̤ûd),” meaning the echo (Ar. Prov., i. 163 and 184, where the expression “daughter of the mountain,” ibnatu ’l-jabal, is used). Salmân, the Persian, was an early convert to Islam, and an intimate associate of Mohammed, who considered him as a member of his household. It was he who after the battle of Ohud, when Medina was threatened with an invasion of the hostile tribes, advised Mohammed to entrench the town (see Muir’s “Life of Mohamet,” new edition, p. 318). Ibn ‘Abbâs relates that the Prophet said of him: “The longing of Paradise for Salmân is not greater than Salmân’s longing for Paradise.” He died A.H. 36.

And inhaling the fragrance of his bay-tree, in Arabic rand, name of an odorous tree, the inhaling or sniffing of whose scent, like the preceding simile, stands for enjoying the Kadi’s liberality.

And when I roast meat he casts it into the cinders, taken from the proverb: “Thy brother has been roasting meat, until when it was done he dropped it into the ashes,” applied to one who spoils that which had been done well (Ar. Prov., i. 657). It is said to originate with the Khalif ‘Omar, who uttered the words when, on passing the house of a man renowned for his piety, he heard the sounds of musical instruments and the noises of revelry.

And those around him were amazed at it—wa at̤rafa bi-hi man ḥawâlai-hi, the translation of which turns on the meaning given to the word at̤rafa. It may be paraphrased with the Beyrout edition, atâ-hum bi ’l-ut̤rûfati, having the Kadi for subject, and rendered by Preston: “(He) represented it to those around as an extraordinary case.” Or it may have for its subject “those around him,” when it would signify “they became possessed of wonder (ṣârû ẓawî t̤urfatin) and said, ‘How strange this is’ (mâ at̤rafa-hu).” This is De Sacy’s interpretation, and I follow it, as more in keeping with the Arabic idiom. Preston’s remark: “The words which follow, viz., s̤umma qâla (thereupon he said), without a repetition of the word qâẓî, seem to show that the first explanation is the true one,” fails to be con­clusive for two reasons. In the first instance he overlooks and ignores in his rendering the suffixed pronoun in man ḥawâlai-hi, which precedes the verb qâla, and may well supply the subject for it. Secondly, this verb being in the singular, could not by any possibility of Arabic construction refer to the plurality of persons surrounding the Kadi, unless it opened the sentence: we can say qâla man ḥawâlai-hi, but if the verb follows, it must be man ḥawâlai-hi qâlû? The singular of the verb, therefore, necessitates for its subject a noun in the singular, which in this place can only be al-qâẓî.

Disobedience is one bereavement of the twain, lit., one of the two be­reavements, meaning that children, by their disobedience, are as much lost to their parents as by death, or in the words of a current proverb, al-‘uqûq s̤uklu man lam yas̤kal, disobedience experienced from children is the bereavement of him who is not bereft (Ar. Prov., ii. 92).

Oftentimes barrenness is more cooling to the eye, viz., than children, which endearingly are called qurratu ’l-‘ain, coolness of the eye, but frequently become an eyesore by their disobedience and ingratitude. Preston translates: “And perhaps it would be preferable to be entirely childless,” which he explains in the note: “And perhaps utter bereavement is cooler to the eye,” i.e., less painful [than that they should be disobedient]. This, however, seems somehow to miss the meaning of ‘uqm, which is sterility, not “utter bereavement.”

Like one who craves for the eggs of the cock hawk—in Arabic, ka-man yabghî baiẓa ’l-anûqi, a proverbial expression for that which is diffi­cult or impossible to obtain. In the explanation of the simile the commentators differ. Some say that anûq is a male hawk, other­wise called rakham, from whom it would be absurd to look for eggs. According to others, it is the female bird, and her eggs are said to be unobtainable, because she builds her nest on inaccessible mountain-peaks. The latter interpretation is evidently the correct one in the following line of the poet Akht̤al:

“To seek from the dark-eyed gazelles their intimacy

Is like seeking the eggs of the hawk ensconced in her nest,”

for the feminine adjective mustakinnah shows that the female bird is meant. (Gazelles, metaphorically for damsels, is the signification ascribed here to jâzi’ât, which originally means camels, or similar animals, that are satisfied with the moisture contained in green food instead of water, therefore leading to the idea of abstemious, chaste, coy. The word rendered by intimacy is sirr, literally secret, but here standing for sexual intercourse, connexion, marriage, as in ch. xi., v. 235, of the Koran: “And no blame shall attach to you in proposing to such women [within the first four months and ten days of their widowhood], or in keeping the intention of doing so to yourselves. God knoweth that ye will not forget them. But pledge not each other to marriage unless ye speak honourable words.” Rodwell translates: “But plight not faith to them in secret,” apparently mistaking the special meaning of the word in this case, for there is no need for the injunction of avoiding secrecy, provided the wooing is done in decent language). To return to the idiom in question, the female hawk seems also to be alluded to in a passage taken from an anonymous poet: