Listening to the tunes of song, in Arabic uẕunan li ’l-aghârîd, lit., being an ear to songs, a remarkable idiom, closely akin to the English, “I am all ear.”
And repented of my falling short in my duty towards Allah, allusion to Koran, xxxix. 57: “So that a soul say, ‘O misery! for my failures in duty towards God! for verily, I was of those who scoffed.’”
And returned from dissipation to collectedness, lit., whose spreading
out has returned to being folded up (wa fâ’a mansharu-hu ilá ’t̤-t̤aiyi).
A note in my MS. says: “Manshar is an infinitive, in the sense of
the patient or passive participle manshûr, that which is spread out,
i.e., the pages of the book in which his transgressions are recorded,
meaning that by his repentance this book has been folded up or
closed, and De Sacy adopts this explanation in his commentary.
But it seems simpler and more natural to take with Sherîshi man-
When foreign travel had cast me to Tanîs.—Tinnîs, or Tanis, from which latter form the name of the Tanitic mouth of the Nile is derived, was formerly an important town in the Delta, renowned for the fabrication of costly stuffs of various kinds. It is surrounded by an inlet of the Mediterranean, into which the Nile rises at the season of inundation, so that its water is salt during one half of the year and sweet during the other half.
Through his love for it he is slaughtered without a knife.—This may mean either simply without the use of a knife, or, as Sherîshi explains, otherwise than by a knife, for instance, by a stone or a club, in which case death would not follow instantaneously, but under prolonged suffering. Preston translates accordingly: “He perishes by a lingering death,” referring to the torment and misery to which the worldling is doomed by his wretched devotion to the world. It seems, however, to me that the preacher intends to say: He is not bodily killed by violence, but his moral life is destroyed by the very pleasures and sensual gratifications which the world offers to him.
I swear by Him who sent forth both the waters, sweet and salt, and lit up the twain, sun and moon, in Arabic man maraja ’l-baḥraini wa nauwara ’l-qamaraini, lit., “who set free the two seas and gave light to the two moons.” Preston renders the former by: “who mingled the water of the two seas,” and accompanies the word “mingled” by the note: “If we suppose ‘the two seas’ here spoken of to be the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, this rendering of maraja is best. But if ‘the two seas’ intended be the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, it is best to translate maraja ‘mix’; and that these are the two intended is rendered probable by the fact that one of the titles of the Turkish Sultan is ‘Lord of the two seas,’ i.e., the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.” This is ingenious enough, as far as it goes, but it seems strange that he, as well as De Sacy and the redactors of his second edition, has overlooked the allusion to Koran, xxv. 55: “And He it is who hath let loose the two seas, the one sweet, fresh; and the other salt, bitter”; and ibid., lv. 19: “He hath let loose the two seas which meet each other,” to which latter quotation comp. ibid., xxxv. 13: “Nor are the two seas alike: the one is fresh, sweet, pleasant for drink, and the other salt, bitter,” etc. When, moreover, the dictionaries tell us, that baḥr is a term both for the sea and for a large river like the Nile, the passage, as translated by me, appears particularly appropriate to the place where the scene of the Assembly is laid (see the note on Tanîs above). As for the expression al-qamarâni, the two moons, for sun and moon, ash-shamsu wa’l-qamaru, as the two seemingly greatest luminaries, Sherîshî remarks, that they are designated by the dual of qamar, moon, on account of its easier pronunciation and masculine gender, not by that of shams, sun (in Arabic feminine, reversedly with the English idiom), although the former is less brilliant and borrows its light from the latter. In similar manner, the two immediate successors of Mohammed in the Khalifate, Abû Bekr and ‘Omar, are called al-‘Umarân, in spite of the pre-eminence accorded to Abû Bekr over ‘Omar, because this name adapts itself more readily to the dual form.
And exalted the dignity of the two (holy) stones.—The two stones are meant, either for the two precious metals, gold and silver, or for the black stone of the Ka‘beh, and the holy rock in the Temple of Jerusalem, to which Mohammed tied his mount Borâk after his night-journey to heaven; or, the same black stone at Mecca, and the so-called station of Abraham, the sacred stone upon which Abraham stood when he built the Ka‘beh, and which is said to bear the impression of his footmarks. The character of the address renders it more than probable that either of the two last mentioned explanations applies here to the exclusion of the first, for which reason I insert in parenthesis the word “holy” in my translation.
Who plunges into the abode of fire, while he treasures gold and hoards up riches.—Allusion to Koran, ix. 34: “O Believers! of a truth, many of the teachers and monks devour man’s substance in vanity, and turn them from the Way of God. But to those who treasure up gold and silver, and expend it not for the cause of God, announce tidings of grievous punishment,” i.e., the torment of the blazing fire of hell. On the worthlessness and perishableness of worldly goods, the poets are eloquent. Abu ’l-‘Atâhîyah, for instance, says:
“O thou who exaltest thyself by the world and its pomp, such exalting is but that of clay by clay;
If thou desirest for the noblest of all men, then gaze at a king in the garb of a mendicant;
I see man content with the most trifling share of religion, but in life they are by no means satisfied with a trifle;
Let then Allah suffice thee instead of the world of kings, as the world suffices kings instead of religion.”
Or, to quote the words of another poet:
“Anybody addicted to this life is nobody in our eyes, and this abode of perishableness we reck not an abode:
For our riches are but loans, which he who lends will presently take back from him that borrows.”
Feather the free, etc.—Compare to this Assembly XI., vol. i., p. 167, l. 4, and the note to it, ibid., p. 368.
By the Faithful, the Guardian.—See Koran, lix. 23: “He is God, beside whom there is no god. He is the King, the Holy, the Peaceful, the Faithful, the Guardian, the Mighty, the Strong, the Most High! Far be the Glory of God from that which they associate with Him.”
Will ye enjoin on men what is right, and forget your own souls?— Quotation from Koran, ii. 41: “Will ye enjoin what is right upon others, and though ye read the Book, forget your own souls?” Mohammed is related to have said: “In my night-journey I passed by some men, whose lips and tongues were being cut off with scissors of fire. Then I asked, Who are these, O Gabriel? He said, These are the preachers from amongst thy people who enjoin on mankind that which is right, and forget their own souls.” Abu ’l-‘At̤âhîyah addresses Manṣûr ibn ‘Ammâr (for whom see Ibn Khallikân, ii. 545) in the following words:
“O preacher of men, thou hast become suspected, since thou blamest actions of theirs which thou thyself committest,
Like one who clothes in garments the naked, while his nakedness is apparent to men, without his trying to conceal it;
Yet the most grievous case known in any soul, after idolatry, is its blindness for its own sins,
Its knowledge of the faults of others which it clearly perceives, while it perceives not the fault within itself.”
That will do, a popular English idiom for the equally popular Arabic qad-ka, which is synonymous with ḥasbu-ka, “let this suffice thee.” The following “shame on thee” is in the original itta ’ib, imperative of the 8th form of wa’b, which is generally explained by istaḥî, be ashamed, in which sense the verb has occurred in Assembly XVIII., p. 212, l. 10. According to other authorities, it is equivalent to irja‘, return! be gone! leave off!
He turned his back and went without returning.—This is taken from Koran, xxvii. 10: “And when he (Moses) saw that it moved itself as though it were a serpent, he retreated backward and returned not.” Also xxviii. 31: “And ‘Throw down now thy rod.’ Then when he saw it stir itself as though it were a serpent, he retreated and fled and retraced not his steps.”