THE FORTY-EIGHTH ASSEMBLY.

That He would let me alight in her, in Arabic yumt̤iyanî qarâ-hâ, lit., would make me bestride her back.

Abû munẕir had called out his admonition to the sleepers.—Abû munzir, the father of the admonisher, is a nickname of the cock, because he exhorts the sleepers to rise for prayer, which idea I preserve in adding the supplementary words “his admonition” to the translation of the verb hatafa, “he had called out.” De Sacy quotes here a tradition, reported by Abû Hurayrah, according to which Mohammed used to say: “When ye hear the cocks crow they have seen an angel: so ask Allah for His bounty; but when you hear the braying of asses, they have seen a Satan: so take refuge with Allah from Satan, the stoned.”

One all wrapped up in signs of the twice-read chapter, the other charmed by tunes of the strings twice twisted.—The couplet, and those which follow in connection with the preceding expression, “holy things and worldly,” in Arabic dîn wa dunyâ, lit., religion and world, offer an instance of the rhetorical figure tasfîr, which is closely related to that called laff wa nashr, and for the benefit of the student, both may here be illustrated together. The latter one means verbally “rolling up and unfolding,” and an example of it has occurred in Assembly XXX., p. 30, above, in the line:

“And her sons and their abodes are lustrous stars and astral mansions.”

It consists in the juxtaposition of two nouns, here “sons” and “abodes,” which are followed by two joined attributes or predicates, here “stars” and “astral mansions,” leaving it to the discernment of the hearer to refer either of them to the proper subject. Similarly we read in the Koran, xxviii. 73: “Of His mercy He hath made for you the night and the day that ye may take your rest in it, and that ye may seek what ye need out of His bounteous supplies,” where Rodwell himself has made the adjustment which the text reserves to the reader in translating: “the night that ye may take your rest in it, and the day that ye may seek,” etc. Tafsîr, on the other hand, which in a more general sense means commentary, in particular of the Koran, in the present special signification, consists in enouncing a word or several words, and then, on the supposition that they want an explanation, supplementing such explanation in the sequel of one’s speech. Thus, Koran, xi. 107–110 says: “When that day shall come no one shall speak a word but by His leave, and some shall be miserable and others blessed. And as for those who shall be consigned to misery—their place therefore the Fire! their lot therein sighing and moaning!—Therein they abide while the Heavens and the Earth endure, unless thy Lord shall will it otherwise; verily thy Lord is the mighty worker of His will. And as for the blessed ones—their place therefore the Garden! therein they abide as the Heavens and the Earth endure, unless thy Lord shall will otherwise an uninterrupted boon.” A more complicated instance is contained in the following verses of Ibn Ar Rûmî:

“Your views, your faces, your swords, when calamities gloom, are stars:

Therein they are road-signs for guidance, and lamps that light up the darkness, and lastly showering missiles,”

meaning that their counsels lead their people to success, as the stars guide the wanderer in the desert, that their faces resemble the stars in cheering brightness, and that their swords bring destruction on the enemy, as the stars are hurled against the listening Satans. In the passage of our text “signs” (âyât) is the well known term for Koranic verses. “The twice-read chapter” and “the strings twice twisted” are in Arabic mas̤ânî, for which, in the former sense, see vol. i., p. 301, and in the latter signification compare Assembly XXI., ibid., p. 228: “I charm as charm not the triple-twisted strings.”

How many there who wear their eyes by reading, or wear their trays by feeding the needy stranger.—In the original this runs: wa kam min qâri’in fî-hâ wa qârin aẓarrâ bi ’l-jufûni wa bi ’l-jifâni, lit., how many a reader is therein, and how many an entertainer, who spoil their eye­lids (pars pro toto for the eyes), and their platters; another instance of the figure laff wa nashr, described in the preceding note: these two nouns “reader” and “entertainer” are qualified by the statement that by excessive indulgence in their favourite pursuit they damage their sight and their substance respectively. My translation follows here, for the sake of greater clearness, the example set by Rodwell in rendering the above-quoted passage of the Koran.

At sundown, in Arabic, ‘inda dulûki barâḥi.—Dulûk, for the setting of the sun, occurs in the Koran, xvii. 81: “Observe prayer at sunset, till the first darkening of the night” (li-dulûki ’sh-shamsi), and barâḥi is a nickname of the sun, undeclinable in kasrah (i) like Ḥaẕâmi, laqab of Zarḳâ’ Al Yemâmeh, on account of the sharpness of her eyesight, from the verb ḥaẕm, to cut.

The discussion on interchangeable letters, i.e., the letters which in certain dialects can take each other’s place, as a and w in aḥad, for waḥad, one; and s in nât for nâs, men; f and in jada for jadad, tomb; j and y in ‘ashijj for ‘ashiyy, evening; h and in ẓahl for ẓaḥl, a small quantity of water; and kh in ḥamṣ for khamṣ, the sub­siding of a wound.

As the snatching of a firebrand of one in haste, a proverbial expres­sion for time that passes quickly or for speed. A poet says:

“And many a visitor whose visit is no visit, as though he had come to borrow fire” (see Ar. Prov., ii. 344).

The loops were loosed for standing up, in Arabic, ḥullati ’l-ḥubá li ’l-qiyâmi.—To loose the loops is in itself a metaphor for rising, as has been shown vol. i., p. 412. Here the word qiyâm, rising, is added because it is used in the technical sense of standing up for prayer, in conformity with the injunction of the Koran, ii. 239: “Observe strictly the prayers, and the middle prayer, and stand up with devotion before God (qâmû li ’llâhi qâtinîna).” Qâtin, translated “with devotion,” is active participle of the verbal noun qunût, occurring in the next sentence, the original meaning of which is sukût, silence, according to the traditionist Zayd ibn Arkam, who relates: “We used to converse during prayer, until the words of Allah qâmu li ’llâhi qâtinîna, rise to Allah in silence, were re­vealed.”

The facundity of al-Ḥasan, for whom see the Notes to Assembly XL., p. 247, above.

Whom I have taken for my intimates and confidants (karishî wa ‘aibatî), lit., for my stomach and wardrobe, karish being the stomach of a ruminant, and ‘aibah, a travelling trunk or cloth-press. The mean­ing is therefore, whom I have made the recipients of my affections and the depositories of my secrets, and the pithy expression is said to originate with Mohammed, who applied it to his companions.

That religion consists in the sincerity of advice, allusion to the traditional saying of Mohammed: “Religion is the imparting of sound counsel.”

Of whom it is said “No ill-fate has he who sits with them,” referring to the proverb (Ar. Prov., ii. 540) mentioned vol. i., p. 471: “No ill-fate has he who sits with Al Ḳa‘ḳâ‘,” since it was his custom, as Chenery adds, to relieve all who visited him.

But my misleading soul . . . prompted me, in Arabic fa-sauwalat liya ’n-nafsu ’l-muẓillatu, an idiom borrowed from Koran, xii. 18: “And they brought his (Joseph’s) shirt with false blood upon it. He said: Nay, your own minds have contrived this affair” (lit., your own souls have prompted to you a thing, sauwalat la-kum anfusu-kum amran).

To be boon-companion to the mighty topers, and to pass round the tankards.—The translation “mighty topers,” for abt̤âl, literally, “a valiant man,” is founded on Sherishi’s explanation that it means here fursânu ’l-khalâ‘ah, knights of debauchery or profligates. The tankards, art̤âl, are, according to the same commentator, the four of which Abû Nuwâs speaks in the lines:

“I found the tempers of men to be four originally, therefore four to the four, to each temper a tankard.”

On the fifth day . . . and during its sacred night, in the text fî yaumi ’l-khamîsi . . . wa fî ’l-laitati ’l-gharrâ’i, on the fifth day, the day of jum‘ah, also called al-yaumu ’l-azhar, the resplendent day, and in the bright night, i.e., the night of Friday. Both expressions are taken from the Tradition: “increase your prayers on the resplendent day and in the bright night.”

When he had satisfied his need, in Arabic lammâ qaẓá ’l-wat̤ara, allud­ing to Koran, xxxiii. 37, where, however, the context requires the slightly altered translation: “And when Zayd had settled the necessary matter of her divorce,” etc.

Though I spoke this in strains of verse, yet my speech leads aright and true, a stricture on the poets, in the sense of Koran, xxvi. 224–226: “It is the poets whom the erring follow: Seest thou not how they rove distraught in every valley? And that they say that which they do not?”

On the spot, in the text ‘alá ’l-hâfirah, lit., on the ground which the hoofs of horses have dug, taken from the proverbial phrase, on bargaining for a horse: an-naqdu ‘inda ’l-ḥâfirah, the meaning of which is “ready money to begin with.” From the signification “beginning” the word passes to that of initial condition, as in Koran, lxxix. 10: “The infidels will say, Shall we indeed be restored to the former state?”