A time of quiet.—◌ is weakness, langour, intermission of strength, and thus signifies a time when the fury of war languishes, an interval of quiet, a truce. Its meaning as the interval between two prophets, as betwen Jesus and Moḥammed, is founded on Koran v. 22. The frequent political disturbances which impoverished Irak in Ḥarîri’s time have been referred to in the Introduction, and will be found more fully detailed in the Introduction to the second edition of De Sacy’s Ḥarîri.
The sons of Al Furât were a family highly distinguished in the
civil service of the Khalifate during the fourth century. They
followed the profession of inshâ’ or official writing, and rose
to the highest posts, even to the wazirate. There were four
brothers of them who attained to eminence during the reign of
Al Muḳtadir b ’illâh, namely Aḥmed abû ’l ‘Abbâs, and Abû ’l
Ḥasan ‘Ali and Abû ‘Abd allâh Ja‘far and Abû ‘Isa Ibrahîm.
They were the sons of Moḥammed ibn Mûsa ibn al Ḥasan ibn
al Furât, who was an agent to Aḥmed ibn al Haḍîb the wazîr of
the Khalif Al Muntaṣir son of Al Mutewekkil,
Al Ḳa‘ḳâ‘ ibn Showr, a man of the Arabs famous for his generosity, and reckoned with Ka‘b ibn Mâmeh and Ḥâtim. Of him it is said, “No ill-fate has he who sits with Al Ḳa‘ḳâ‘,” Arab. Prov. II, 540, since it was his custom to relieve all who visited him. Of Ka‘b ibn Mâmeh there are several proverbs. It is said, “More generous than Ka‘b ibn Mâmeh.” His act of generosity was the same as that of Sir Philip Sidney at Zutphen. He was in a caravan in the desert when the water ran short, so that they took to measuring it by the stone called ◌; that is, a stone was put into the cup, into which was then poured water until it covered the stone, so that every one might have an equal share. This stone was called ◌. When the turn came for Ka‘b to drink he saw a man of the tribe of An Namir ibn Ḳâsiṭ look wistfully on him, and he said to him who was distributing, “Give to drink to thy brother,” meaning the man of Namir, and himself went without. The next day he saw the man of Namir look on him a second time, and he gave up his portion again. But when the time came to mount he could not move, so they put garments over him to scare the beasts, and left him to die. His father indited some verses to his memory. Hence the proverbs, “More generous than Ka‘b ibn Mâmeh,” Arab. Prov. I. 325. “Give to drink to thy brother the Namirî,” 608. Another proverb attributed to Ka‘b, is extant, “This is my bleeding,” II. 867, which he uttered when in captivity among the tribe of ‘Anazeh, II. 390. He had been told by the mistress of the house to bleed the camel to make blood-puddings for the guests. Indignant at this stinginess he had killed it; and when rated by the housewife he uttered the above saying. But this story is also told of Ḥâtim, with the addition that the lady slapped his face. See the proverb, “If any other bracelet-wearer had slapped me,” II. 465. The bleeding of the live camel was only practised by the hospitable in time of need. Compare Ḥamâseh, p. 645, “The noble man shuns perfidy, even though his food in the evening be a portion from the blood of vein-cutting.” At Arab. Prov. II. 441, is the saying “He is not refused who has the blood let for him.” I cannot ascertain whether this Al Ḳa‘ḳâ‘ is to be identified with the bold Moslem warrior of the time of the Prophet and the early Khalifate, who took Ḥolwân under Sa‘d ibn Abî Waḳḳâṣ, and negotiated for ‘Ali with Talḥah and Az Zobayr.
Plenty after want.—Compare the use of this expression in the Thirty-fourth Assembly, near the beginning.
As the fingertop is above the finger: a proverbial expression.
Lofty-sailed boats.—The ordinary reading at Koran lv. 24, is ◌, with the fetḥ, though, according to Bayḍâwi, both Ḥamzeh and Abû Bekr read with kesr. The meaning, however, is the same, whether the phrase be “lifted up as to their sails,” or “lifting up their sails.” Sherîshi renders the word by ◌, which Bayḍâwi also gives as an interpretation. It hardly accords, however, with the context, “on the sea, like mountains,” or masses of rock that served as way-marks in the deserts.
Thou wouldst think it immovable.—These words are from Koran xxvii. 90, “Thou shalt see the mountains which thou wouldst think immovable, fleet as the fleeting of the clouds.”
On the deep.—Compare Mo‘allaḳah of Ṭarafeh, v. 5. It is there explained as the mass or bulk of the water.
Our cushion-saddle.—◌ is the cushion placed on the back of the camel, under the saddle, to ease the motion. But according to Sherîshi and the commentator quoted by De Sacy, there is an allusion to the word ◌, meaning a saint or favourite of God, since people say, “Such a man is a saint, he walks on the water:” it being the belief that the saints have such a power. For the definition of this word see Tâ‘rîfât.
Deemed his shadow to be heavy, etc.—i.e. considered his presence to be disagreeable. The ◌ is he who wearies you by his company, as in a prolonged visit. According to ‘Âyisheh it was on account of such persons that the revelation was made, (Koran xxxiii. 53), “When ye have eaten separate.” See note to Fourth Assembly, near the end. When Abû Hurayrah saw one of these he exclaimed “Allâhumma (O God), forgive him, and deliver us from him.” Also Jâlînûs (Galen) when asked why the weight of a bore’s company was more distressing than the weight of a burden made answer that the weight of the former was on the heart alone, while in bearing a material burden the heart was aided by the limbs. There is a disposition among Orientals to make Galen a sort of sage; compare one of the stories in the 4th chapter of the Gulistan. The above anecdotes are from Sherîshi.
He praised God after sneezing, but no one blessed him.— This usage was once common in Europe as well as in the East. According to two Traditions the Prophet said, “If when one of you sneezes or eructs he utters the words ‘Praise be to God,’ he averts seventy diseases, the least of which is the juthâm (elephantiasis, that species of leprosy which causes the members to fall off; a more terrible disease than baraṣ).” He also said, “If one of you sneeze let him utter ‘Praise be to God,’ and let those who salute him in return say, ‘God have mercy on thee,’ and let him then say, ◌, (make good your condition in religion and in the world by propitious aid and strengthening);” see Bayḍâwi on Koran xlvii. 2 and 6. It is related that when God created Adam of clay he ordered the human soul to enter his body. On this the dry clay changed at once into bones, flesh, nerves, and the other constituents of man’s body. Adam, awakening to life, sneezed, and immediately exclaimed, “Praise to God,” and Gabriel answered, “God have mercy on thee, Adam” (Ṭabari).
The help which comes to the wronged.—Koran xxii. 59. Those who only retaliate according to the injury received, will, if injured in return for the retaliation, be assisted by God.
The bye-paths of the serious and the gay.—◌ are the tracks in a wadi, or mountain valley, through which winter torrents flow. The first who used the expression, “The tale has bye-paths,” that is, “there is something more to be told of it,” was Ḍabbat ibn Udd ibn Ṭâbikhah, a descendant of Moḍar. The history is given by Maydâni, Arab. Prov. I. 350. Ḍabbah had two sons, Sa‘d and Su‘ayd, and when one of his camels strayed during the night he sent them in search of her. Sa‘d found her, and when he brought her back at night the father saw a figure in the dark, and exclaimed, “Is it Sa‘d or Su‘ayd?” a saying that became proverbial, and is used in the sense of ‘Is it the one or the other?” as when Al Ḥajjâj asked Kotaybet ibn Muslim, on the latter marrying a wife, “Is it Sa‘d or Su‘ayd?” meaning, “Is it a handsome wife or an ugly one?” Arab. Prov. I. 601. Su‘ayd wandered in search of the camel, and fell in with Al Ḥârith ibn Ka‘b. The youth had on two mantles, and Ḥârith demanded them; when Su‘ayd would not part with them, Ḥârith killed him and took them. Sometime after Ḍabbah made the pilgrimage (pagan) to Mecca, and came to the fair of‘Okâẓ, where he met the murderer wearing his son’s two mantles. He recognized them and said, “Wilt thou tell where thou gottest these two?” Ḥârith answered, “I met a youth who wore them and I asked him for them, and when he would not give them I killed him and took them.” Ḍabbah said, “Was it with this sword of thine?” He said “Yes.” Said Ḍabbah, “Give it me to look at, for I think it is a sharp one.” Ḥârith gave it, and Ḍabbah, brandishing the weapon, exclaimed, “The tale has bye-paths,” meaning “There is something more in it than thou knowest.” Then at once he slew Ḥârith with it. And when it was said to him, “What, Ḍabbah, hast thou killed him in the sacred month?” he answered, “The sword has outstripped remonstrance,” which also became proverbial: Arab. Prov. I. 599. Ḥarîri’s meaning is that the conversation of the company flowed as one subject suggested another.
The pen of correspondence, etc.—It is necessary here to render the original somewhat freely. ◌ may be either an orator, choice of speech, or a wooer who wins hearts by his elegant diction. ◌ is the gatherer of firewood, who puts into his rope all that he can find, without selection; and is thus applied to one who uses the first phrase that comes to hand without taste or judgment. Compare the phrase, “One who gathers wood by night,” in Ḥarîri’s Preface.
Johayneh for information—There is discrepancy both as to the form of this name and the meaning. It is read not only as above, but also Jofayneh and Ḥofayneh, the former being on the authority of Al Aṣma‘î. See Arab. Prov. II. 71: “With Johayneh is the certain information.” According to one legend he was a wine-seller, in whose tavern two men had quarreled. When a third party had endeavoured to separate them, one of the two had slain him. They were both arrested, and when the judge wished to learn which of the two was guilty, he said, “Bring Jofayneh, for he has the certain information.” According to Hishâm ibn al Kelbi, the story is as follows: Al Akhnas ibn al Ka‘b was a man of Johayneh, who for some act that he committed was obliged to flee from his people. He met with Ḥoṣayn ibn ‘Amr ibn Mo‘âwiat ibn Kilâb, or, as others say, another Ḥoṣayn of Ghaṭafân, who had also turned vagabond; and they agreed to rob together, even the men of their own tribes. The adventure which followed is too long to be narrated here: it will be found in Maydâni at the place cited. Suffice it to say that the man of Johayneh in the end slew his companion, and took all the booty. In returning home to his people, with the view of reconciling himself with them, he passed two sub-tribes of the sons of Ḳays, called Merâj and Anmâr, and a woman came forth who was seeking Ḥoṣayn. He asked who she was, and she answered, “I am Ṣakhrah, the wife of Ḥoṣayn.” He said, “I have killed him.” She said, “Thou liest; such an one as thou kills not such an one as he: if the tribe (or the men of it) were not away, thou durst not have spoken thus.” Then he went home and made up matters with his tribe, and came and stood where he might be heard, and declaimed the following verses:—
Of how many a lion, tawny, breaking the prey, the father of two cubs, whose dwelling is the thicket,
And of how many a rider, whom thou wouldest not despise if thine eyes were to light where he had fallen,
Have I cloven the topmost skull with my sword, that he has lain motionless on the plain;
And his wife has sorrowed for him, wailing in the night without rest;
Like Ṣakhrah, when she questioned Merâj and Anmâr, whose knowledge was only guessing.
She asked each band of travellers concerning Ḥoṣayn, but at Johayneh is the certain information.
Now if any ask concerning him, know that I can tell him all clearly.
Johayneh is my tribe, a race of kings; when they seek lofty deeds they are not abased.
Sherîshi quotes these verses differently, and makes Ṣakhrah the sister of Ḥoṣayn. On hearing her inquiries Al Akhnas utters the verses. The names of the tribes are also given as Merâḥ and Jarm.
Loḳmân of wisdom.—Loḳmân the Wise, the contemporary of David, is to be distinguished from Loḳmân of ‘Âd, though sometimes confounded with him even by Arabs. The two have been mentioned in a former note. Loḳmân the Wise is spoken of at Koran xxxi. 11. He was not a prophet, but he instructed his son An‘am, or Ashkam, or Mâthân in the worship of the one true God. The descriptions of him by the Arabs have a great resemblance to those of Æsop. He is represented as a black, very ugly in person, and a slave, and it is probable that the traditions concerning Æsop were, like the fables, attributed to this mythical sage, unless, indeed, we hold the legends concerning Æsop to be themselves late inventions, and borrowed from the East.
Foes are vanquished.—Literally, “the forelocks are mastered.” The Arabs, when they took prisoners, were accustomed to cut off the front hair and carry it in their quivers. Hence, at Koran xi. 59, “to take by the forelock” means, to have absolute authority. Nobles also are called the forelocks, or chiefs of the people.
Enriches the overseer—wearies the eye.—This use of ◌ in a double sense is to be found in the opening address of the Thirteenth.
Fraud would endure to the Day of Judgment.—This is an allusion to Koran lxiv. 9, where the Day of Judgment is called the “Day of Mutual Defrauding,” since then men will defraud or supplant one another, the just taking the place that the wicked have had, and conversely.
The pen of accounting interprets.—◌ like ◌ is the expounding of the real essential meaning of a thing, that to which it comes or may be reduced.
An Abû Barâḳish.—This is a bird of gaudy and changing plumage, and is therefore used as a similitude for a clever but unsteady writer. M. de Sacy, in his Chrestomathie Arabe, Vol. III. p. 499, sec. ed., says that it is probably a species of heron. He then gives the following description from Ḳazwîni: “The Abû Barâḳish is a bird with a pleasant voice; its neck and feet are long, its beak red, and it is about the size of a stork; its plumage changes every instant to the eye, showing red, yellow, green, and blue. So that a poet has said, ‘He is like the Abû Barâḳish, he can take all colours.’” In Lane’s Lexicon it is said to be a small wild bird, like a lark, which, when it is provoked, ruffles its feathers, and becomes variously changed in colour. The Abû Barâḳish is used figuratively, like the lizard Abû Ḳalamûn, to express a person of variable disposition: compare the Latin term stellionatus, a fraud or swindle, from stellio. A kind of shot silk also had these names from its changes of colour. Barâḳish is an ancient Arab name. In the proverb, “Barâḳish sins against her people” (Arab. Prov. II. 89), the name is variously explained as that of a bitch, which betrayed the place of a tribe’s retreat by her barking; as the wife of a king who allowed her damsels needlessly and in jest to kindle the signal-fire for the assembling of the troops; and, thirdly, as a wife of Loḳmân of ‘Âd who persuaded her husband to eat the flesh of the camel, so that by the voracity of himself and his people the camels of her own tribe were destroyed. This and numberless similar appellations of animals among the Arabs are of the nature of proper names, and may be compared with the Renard the Fox, Ysengrin the Wolf, Chantecler the Cock, of our medieval fables.
Save those that believe, etc.—Koran xxxviii. 23. ◌ is a word corresponding with ◌, and signifies the making one’s self secure and trustful in God. ◌ is augmentative to express indefiniteness or wonder.
After a time I recollected him.—Koran xii. 45. For the meanings of ◌, see Lane. The various readings and interpretations given by Bayḍâwi at the above passage of the Koran cannot apply to xi. 11, where the meaning is clearly a certain time.
After whose fashioning.—Arab. Prov. I. 314. Compare Koran, xix. 28.
Whose sprite.—The place named ◌ was a residence of the Jinn, so that whoever does a thing wonderfully or beautifully is said to be ‘Abḳarî, i.e., a sprite of ‘Abḳar. The Jinn were supposed to haunt desolate regions, particularly those which had been the home of wicked races of men destroyed by God. Such was the region called Yabrîn, and the region called Wabâr, which lay between it and Yemen, and was named after Wabâr, son of Irem son of Shem. ‘Abḳar is said to have been in the region of Yemâmeh. The ‘Abḳar spoken of by Imr al Ḳays (Dîwân, p. 26 Ar. Text), seems to have no connection with the home of the Jinn. The poet compares the sound of the pebbles scattered by the hoofs of his camel to the sound of coin examined on a table in ‘Abḳar. The Arabs used the word Jinn to express the spirit or energy of a man: compare Ḥamâseh, p. 182, where a poet says, “My Jinn have not fled, my file is not blunted, my birds have not drooped from fear.” In the commentary to this verse it is said that according to Abû ‘Ala the Arabs compare an energetic man to a Jinnî or a Shayṭân. This and the foregoing expression are taken from a Tradition of the Prophet which is given by Sherîshi as follows;—Said the Prophet, “I saw in a dream is if I stood by a well, and looked at the people; then came Abû Bekr, and drew a bucket or two, and grew weak with it, and God forgave him; then came ‘Omar, and the bucket (◌) turned into larger bucket (◌) in his hand, and I never saw such an ‘Abḳarî among men, working as he worked, until the people were watered and at rest. ◌ The original meaning of ◌ is a cut or stroke, as you say of a strong man who severs a bar of wood with his sword, “No one can strike his stroke.”
A heated eye—a ship’s companionship.—The first of these expressions denotes anger, dislike, or contempt; the second is a modern phrase, meaning a short-lived acquaintance, such as is made during a voyage, and ceases at the end of it.
The sewer, the latrina.—For the various names of this place see what Sherîshi is pleased to call a pretty story, in De Sacy’s commentary to the Forty-seventh Assembly. The original meaning is a garden. The metre of these verses is kâmil.
Drooped his eyelid over his mote. Was silent in shame and repentance.
The Ḳaṭa would not find its way.—It is related of the bird Ḳaṭa that it will leave its chicks at dawn and go to drink at a place a night’s march off, and will return, bringing water to the chicks, in the forenoon; that again in the early afternoon it will fly to the place once more, returning to bring water a second time in the evening; in doing this it never loses its way to the nest.
The domain of the Khalifate.—The original meaning of ◌ is a place of pasture or of water taken by some chief or powerful person, and prohibited to others. Thus Kolayb Wâ’il, the powerful chief of the Nejd, had his ◌ in the district of Ḳaṣîm, and would allow no cattle to be pastured where the sound of his dog’s bark could be heard (see note to Sixteenth Assembly). According to the authors cited in Lane’s Lexicon, others did this: “It was a custom of the noble among the Arabs in the time of the Ignorance, when he alighted in a district that pleased him, to incite a dog to bark, and to prohibit for his own special friends or dependents the space throughout which the bark of the dog was heard, while he shared with the people in the other places of pasture around it. But the Prophet forbade this and said, ‘There shall be no ◌ except for God and his Apostle,’ meaning except for the horses employed in war against the unbelievers, and the camels taken for the poor rate.” In the present passage it signifies merely the Imperial domain or Court, that is, the city of Bagdad.
The Precinct.—◌ is an open space round a castle, in which horses are exercised and the public meet; or it may be a space round a city.
Sitting squarely. That is, he sat upon his buttocks with his legs equally crossed, which is a dignified position, as distinguished from ◌, he sat with his knees on the ground and his buttocks resting on his heels, or on the left foot bent sideways beneath, which is the position of those who argue together, as the plaintiff and defendant in a suit; and also as distingnished from ◌, he sat on his buttocks, leaning back, and having his feet on the ground and his knees raised.
Set his foot on high.—Set his ◌, or ankle, on high, so that the lowest part of him may be higher than the highest part of his companions. The word also has received the signification of honour by which a man is established and made firm, as on his ankle; thus it is said, “God exalt his ka‘b,” and “The ka‘b of the tribe is gone,” that is their fortune and reputation.
Made fruitful: fecundated by instruction, as the female palm tree is fecundated by the spadix of the male, which is bruised and sprinkled upon it, or “by the insertion of a stalk of a raceme of the male tree into the spathe of the female, after shaking off the pollen of the former upon the spadix of the female.” (Lane on ◌). But according to Sherîshi it means “he drank the milk of my ◌,” that is, “of my milch camel.”
Broken the staff.—It was said of one who became a heretic or introduced discord that he “broke the staff of the Moslems,” and shuḳḳ al ‘aṣa became a synonym for schism. When one quarrelled with his tribe, and left it, he was said “to break its staff.” Ḥarîri uses the phrase more literally here in the sense of injuring, since one is injured when his staff, which is his strength, is broken.
The white and yellow: silver and gold coin.
Did he flay, or transform, or copy.—Plagiarism, ◌, forms a division of the Arabic rhetoric, since the critics have sought to lay down rules strictly defining how far it is admissible. A sufficient exposition of the subject is given in the Mukhtaṣar al Ma‘âni (Calcutta, 1813), p. 651. M. Garcin de Tassy’s translation of the Persian treatise ḥadâ’iḳ al balâghah, Paris, 1844, may also be advantageously consulted. In this and the following notes I have referred to the Mukhtaṣar, or shorter commentary, instead of the Muṭawwal, or longer commentary, of which I have a printed edition, because the former is more accessible, and quite sufficient for the purposes of the student. Plagiarism is divided into apparent and hidden; the former being that which one will detect by having the two passages before him, the other that which conceals itself in an apparent variety of thought; or, as it is defined in the Mukhtaṣar, the apparent is that which borrows the whole meaning, whether it uses all the words of the original or not. When the entire passage is taken without a change, even in the disposition of the words, this is blameable, for it is pure stealing, and is called ◌ copying, or ◌, the arrogation to one’s self of another’s verse. ‘Abdallâh ibn Az Zobayr did this with two verses of Ma‘n ibn Ows, reciting them in the presence of Mu‘âwiyeh; but before he had left the Khalif’s presence, Ma‘n came in and recited a ḳaṣîdeh of his composition, in which these very verses occurred. The Khalif turned to ‘Abdallâh and said, “Didst thou not say that they were thine?” upon which ‘Abdallâh was forced to make a weak excuse. If the plagiary change some or all of the words of a verse into words of corresponding meaning and measure, this is also blameable, being still pure stealing. This act, according to De Sacy’s commentary, is called ◌ or flaying, and the same verse of Al Ḥaṭi’eh is quoted both in the commentary and in the Mukhtaṣar; but, as we shall see, the latter work gives the definition of “flaying” to the mere borrowing of the author’s meaning, without any imitation of words. If then, according to the Mukhtaṣar, the plagiary uses corresponding words, or if he takes all the original author’s words, merely changing their disposition, or if he takes some of his words, this is called ◌, making foray, or ◌ transformation , a word used of metamorphosis into a lower form, as of a man into a beast. In the two latter cases it is not essentially blameable, and may be atoned for if the new verse be better than the old one. In the Mukhtaṣar there follow examples from the poems of Abû Temmâm, Al Boḥtori, and Al Mutenebbi. Finally, if the plagiary takes the meaning alone, this is ◌ occupation, because he, as it were, comes and takes possession of the idea; or ◌ flaying, because he strips off the skin of diction which clothed the idea, and gives it a new one of his own. Similarly, this may be excusable or blameable, according as a better or worse verse is produced. The species of borrowing called ◌, which consists in introducing phrases of the Koran or the Traditions, which are well known, is not blameable; nor is ◌ or the insertion of verses or hemistiches from other poets, if it be done honestly, and without an intention to claim them as one’s own. I may here observe that ◌ and ◌ have a correspondence in meaning, which is shared by ◌ and ◌ According to Sherîshi, the first means to change from lower to higher, the second from higher to lower, as the metamorphosis of a man into a beast; the third signifies the changing of an animal into an inanimate object, while the fourth is absolute corruption or wasting away. Of the verses quoted in De Sacy’s commentary as an instance of ◌, Fâris ash Shidyâḳ, who criticises the work very severely, says that the word at the end of the first line should be ◌, and at the end of the second, ◌ from ◌, he ate voraciously. He is probably right, though in the Mukhtaṣar it is written ◌, as by De Sacy. See “La vie et les aventures de Fariak,” p. 16 of last chapter. According to Sherîshi, the divisions of plagiarism mentioned by Ḥarîri are according to the system of Abû Moḥammed al Ḥosayn ibn Wakî‘, who wrote on the plagiarisms of Al Mutenebbi, and divided them into twenty classes, ten of which are excusable. These classes Sherîshi gives, with instances of each, but the matter is too long to be treated in these notes.
Poetry the register of the Arabs.—This was a saying of Ibn ‘Abbâs, the cousin of the Prophet, and the greatest of the early expounders of the Koran. He was accustomed to quote passages of the ancient poets in support of his explanations, and to say, “When ye have a difficulty in the Koran, look for its solution to the poems, for these are the registers of the Arabs.” It was also attributed to Mohammed, perhaps by the relation of Ibn ‘Abbâs himself, who desired to maintain the study of poetry amid the early fanaticism of Islam. It is said, “God distinguished the Arabs by four things: they have turbans for crowns, and ◌, loops, (see 16th Assembly, ‘they loosed their loops to me’) for walls, that is as supports for their backs; and swords for scarves, and poetry for their registers.” This was said because they were in the habit of referring to poems when they differed about genealogies, wars, and the like.
Made foray.—Here Ḥarîri uses the technical term of the rhetoricians.
O thou who courtest.—These verses are of the second ḍarb of the first ‘arûḍ of the kâmil, which is ◌. The measure of the ḍarb is ◌, since the last letter of the ◌ is dropped, and the letter before it quiesces, so that the foot becomes ◌. The part of each verse which the son is accused of appropriating forms a verse in which the ‘arûḍ is ◌, and the ḍarb ◌, that is, of the normal ◌, without any change from ◌ or ◌.
Turned the back of the shield: became hostile after being friendly. This expression is found again in the Fortieth Assembly.
To draw at the same source.—The word ◌ is used technically by the rhetoricians to signify the chance agreement of two poets in thought or words, when there has been no imitation of the first by the second. This and the following expression, “as the hoof oft falls on the hoof-print,” are attributed to Al Mutenebbi, who, being reproached for borrowing from his predecessors said, “Poetry is a hippodrome and poets are steeds, and there may be a coincidence of thought, as the hoof oft falls on the hoof-print.”
Verse-completing.—◌ was in all times a favourite intellectual exercise of the Arabs, whose powers of improvisation were marvellous. It is when two poets contend by one reciting a verse which the other must follow with another of the same metre and rhyme, and with a continuous sense; the former then has to give a third, and so on, till it is shown which has the greater imagination and promptitude. Sometimes one uttered half a verse, which the other had to complete. Imr al Ḳays was accustomed to challenge those who claimed the reputation of poets to compete with him. Once he challenged Tow’am the Yeshkeri, and said to him, “If thou be a poet complete the verses which I shall utter,” and he began “Dost thou see the flash gleaming in the night?” Tow’am continued, “Like a Mage’s fire it blazes a blaze.” Imr al Ḳays: “I was wakeful to observe while slept Abû Shorayḥ.” Tow’am: “As oft as I said ‘It now ceases’ it flashed abroad.” Imr al Ḳays: “Its sound was as a murmur in a place unseen;” Tow’am, “Like the she-camels lowing wildly when they meet the herd.” The poem is given in the Dîwân of Imr al Ḳays, p. 41, Arab. Text. When the poet found that he had an equal he bound himself by an oath never again to contend in poetry. ‘Aḳîl ibn ‘Ul-lafeh, a poet of Ḳoraysh, and a man in high esteem, since the Khalif Yezîd ibn ‘Abd al Melik married one of his daughters, amused himself on a journey by thus improvising verses with his son and daughter. He recīted a verse, then his son followed it with another, and his daughter with a third, all being in the metre ṭawîl. Unfortunately one of his daughter’s verses was as follows: “They were giddy, as though drowsiness had given them to drink of the wine Ṣarkhad, the dark red wine, that (when thou drinkest it) courses through back and feet.” The father exclaimed, “By Allah, thou couldst never have so described it unless thou hadst drunk of it,” and at once gave her a flogging. The son, indignant, shot at his father with an arrow, and left him wounded on the ground, taking away his sister. ‘Aḳîl, however, was not displeased with his children’s spirit, and uttered some verses in rejez, which contain a quotation from Abû Akhzam, a person who was treated in the same way by a son. See the proverb, “I know the disposition is from Akhzam.” Ar. Prov. I., 658, and Forty-fourth Assembly. For the above story of ‘Aḳîl see p. 646 of the Ḥamâseh, in which several of his verses are quoted. Al Faraz-daḳ, the poet, also practised this kind of poetical exercise.
Tejnîs: paronomasia or alliteration. ◌ or ◌ signifies, literally, the use in a sentence of two or more words completely or partially conformable. It belongs to the third part of rhetoric, which is called the science of ◌, the first two parts being the science of ◌ or significations, and the science of ◌ or exposition. It would be useless to attempt here an explanation of the various classes into which tejnîs is divided by the rhetoricians, who distinguish between the conformity of words which have a common root and the conformity of those which have not; between the conformity of words according as they do or do not belong to the same part of speech; between the conformity of two words and the conformity of one word with another and part of a third; between conformity of both sound and written character and conformity of sound alone; who, in short, have analysed the art and given names to its every variety. Those who desire to become acquainted with the subject will find it fully treated in the Mukhtaṣar, p. 621. The science of ◌, the third part of rhetoric, is concerned with the embellishment of discourse, and is divided into two parts, ◌ and ◌; the first treating of antithesis, hyperbole, and the like; and the second having to do with words, and expounding not only all that may be included under the head of paronomasia, but all the artifices of rhyme and orthography of which examples may be found in Ḥarîri’s work. See ◌, Mukh-taṣar, p. 631; ◌, p. 637; ◌, p. 642; ◌, p. 644; ◌, that is the construction of a poem in which a part of each verse may be taken away, as in the present Assembly, p. 645. In the treatise translated by M. Garcin de Tassy mention is made of compositions with pointed or unpointed, with joined or disjoined letters. The Arabs have taken great pains to record all the instances of tejnîs which appear in the Koran. Most of these, however, are evidently spontaneous and unconscious, and are far from resembling the laboured artifices of subsequent generations. Among these may be cited xxvii. 22; xxx. 54, 55; c. 7, 8; civ. 1. The last is rather an instance of ◌. The word ◌ is used by the Governor in the general sense of eloquence; but in the technical language of the rhetoricians it signifies the first two divisions of the art of rhetoric, which have for their object the avoiding of error in bringing our conceptions to the minds of others. The treatise of Naṣîf al Yazaji, called ‘Aḳd al Jumân, is a good compendium on this subject from its terseness and the clearness of its definitions.
Dark red of lip.—A dark red, verging on blackness, in the inner part of the lip was looked upon as beautiful by the Arabs.
The winning steed—the second in the course.—The horses in a race had epithets according to the order in which they arrived at the winning-post. In the Ḥamâseh, p. 46, Arab. Text, these names are given in two different ways. In one list the first horse is called sâbiḳ or mujellî, because he makes his owner illustrious or conspicuous; the second is called muṣallî, because his head is on the ◌ of the preceding horse; the third, musellî, because he consoles his owner. The fourth is called tâlî; the fifth, murtâḥ; the sixth, ‘âṭif; the seventh, mu’ammal; the eighth, ḥaẓî; the ninth, laṭîm, because he is driven away with buffets; and the tenth, sukayt. But, according to other authorities, seven out of the ten horses were entitled to a share of the prize, in analogy with the game of maysir; and, the names of the first three remaining as in the last list, the fourth was called ‘âṭif, the fifth murtâḥ, the sixth ḥaẓî, the seventh mu’ammal. The three horses which gained nothing were called laṭîm, waghd, and sukayt. Sherîshi ascribes to Al Aṣma‘î the derivation of muṣallî, which has been given, and he relates that a man versed in the traditions of the Arabs explained the meanings of all the terms to the Khalif Muttaḳi. He also quotes some verses of Ibn al Anbâri, which unite all these epithets. They are the same as in the first list of the Ḥamâseh, except that ḥaẓî is placed before mu’ammal. Naṣîf al Yazaji has also united them in some verses of his sixth Assembly; but he makes the eighth horse khaṭî, probably a misprint. The list in De Sacy’s commentary varies from these, and gives the name of fiskil to the last horse.
There is a ruddy-lipped one.—Metre ṭawîl. ◌ represents the same quality as ◌, the having a lip of a dark ruddiness, approaching to blackness. In some lines quoted at p. 425, De Sacy’s ed., Al Boḥtori couples ◌ and ◌, “dark-lipped,” and “having eyes of strongly contrasted black and white,” as marks of beauty. Ṭarafeh (Mo‘allaḳah, v. 6) says, “In the tribe is a dark-lipped one, like a fawn that browses on the fruit of the arâk, wearing two necklaces of the pearl and the topaz.” These lines, according to the Governor’s desire, are full of plays on words and alliterations. In connection with this kind of composition the student is referred to the poem of Aṭ Ṭanṭarâni and De Sacy’s notes thereon. Chrest. Arabe, Vol. II.
Gathers the dew of her mouth.—◌ is here a maṣdar, with the sense of sucking or draining. That the expression is not to be understood quite figuratively is shown by many passages of the Arab poets.
Like a pair of fire-staves in their case.—Ḥarîri uses this proverb merely to express resemblance between the two, but as commonly used it is not significant of praise, but of contempt. See Arab. Prov. I. 585, “A pair of fire-staves in a patched bag;” and II. 432, “There is nothing in his quiver but a pair of fire-staves;” used of weak and worthless persons. Another proverbial expression for complete equality or resemblance is, “Ye are as the two knees of the male camel,” a saying uttered by Harim ibn Ḳoṭbah, the Fezâri, when he was made judge in the munâfarah between ‘Âmir ibn Ṭofayl and ‘Alḳamat ibn ‘Olâtheh. See De Sacy’s commentary to Twenty-sixth Assembly; also Arab. Prov. II. 861. The subject has been mentioned in a former note to this volume. The calling the father and son “a pair of fire-staves,” may have reference to the often repeated metaphor of eliciting a spark, in the sense of producing an original idea.
Spends of what God has given him.—Koran lxv. 7.
Pardon thy brother.—Metre kâmil.
Threw me off.—◌ is literally to startle a bird, so that it flies away. The ◌ was one who took omens from the flight of birds, which he frightened by making a noise or throwing a stone.
The Day of Fear.—The day of death or resurrection.
Roha.—Ar Roha was the name given by the Arab conquerors to the city of Edessa, in northern Mesopotamia; a place which, under various names, has preserved its importance from the beginning of history to the present times. It is identified by some with Ur of the Chaldees; and tradition acribes its foundation to Nimrod. Natural advantages, and particularly the large supply of water, marked it at an early period as a fit spot for settlement, and it may contend with Damascus for the honour of being the most ancient city in Western Asia. Under the Seleucidæ it was called Callirhoe or Antiochea. Its monarch Abgarus is associated with a well-known Christian legend. The position which it holds in the history of the early Christian Church, and of the Syriac language, needs only to be alluded to. At one time it is said to have had 300 monasteries. It was conquered by the Arabs in the first days of the Khalifate, and is said by Sherîshi to have received the name of Ar Roha from Roha ibn al Belendi ibn Mâlik, who settled there. It was captured during the first Crusade, and became a Christian principality under Baldwin, brother of Godfrey, who ruled it from 1097 to 1100, before he became king of Jerusalem. It was thus in Frankish hands at the time the Assemblies were composed, and there is a propriety in making Abû Zayd speak of it as a place of refuge. It was afterwards, under the reign of Joscelin II., captured by the Sultan ‘Imâd ad Dîn, who committed frightful massacres. This calamity was the chief cause of the next Crusade. Yet in the time of Abû’l Faraj (Barhebræus) it still contained fifteen churches. It was taken and plundered by Tamerlane in his campaign against Bajazet. In the 17th century the Turks changed its name to Orfa, and it is now one of the most flourishing cities of the empire, having a population of 40,000 souls, and being the chief entrepôt for the trade between Kurdistan and the coast. Orfa contains a fine mosque, called the jâmi‘ of Abraham, and a little lake near the city is called the Pool of Abraham. The river Scirtus, on which Edessa was situated, is now called Daysan.
Sohayl and Soha meet.—Sohayl is the star Canopus. Soha is a star among the Benât an Na‘sh. I think it is the little star which is close to the second of the three which form the tail of the Greater Bear. As Sohayl is used to figure something great and brilliant, so Soha is the example of that which is difficult to be discerned. Compare the verse in the Thirty-second Assembly: “How many riddles, which were like Soha in obscurity, have become suns by my explaining.” Also in Thirty-sixth, “We discerned both Soha and the moon;” that is, the obscure and the evident. To perceive this star was looked upon by the Arabs as the test of a good eyesight. The proverb, “I show her Soha, and she shows me the moon,” Arab. Prov. I. 527, where it is no doubt wrongly quoted, was uttered by Ibn al Ghazz, the Ayâdi. There was in the time of the Ignorance a very tall and beautiful woman, who was of such great strength that she defied any man to ravish her, for she was a virgin. Ibn al Ghazz wagered with her a hundred camels that he would be able to accomplish this. When he assailed her she found him of irresistible strength, and by the time he had won the wager she was almost senseless. He said to her, “How is thy eye-sight; dost thou see Soha?” and she answered, in her confusion, “That is it,” pointing to the moon. He said laughing, “I show her Soha, and she shows me the moon,” which became proverbial. I have endeavoured, from the two legends related by Maydâni, to make a more reasonable explanation of the proverb.
Who lent him the suit (dast).—A poor play on words occurs in this sentence through the repetition of the word dast. Compare the verses at the end of the Eleventh Assembly.
Abû Kayd.—The Father of Deceit.
The Imâm.—The Khalif is thus called because he is the exemplar of the people or his subjects.
Equivocate, or gloze.—◌ is “the turning a verse of the Koran from its apparent meaning to a meaning which it bears or admits, when the latter is agreeable with the Scripture and the Sunneh” (Lane). Sherîshi defines it as the making a promise inwardly in another sense from what the words express to the hearer, that is, making a mental reservation.
As Samuel kept it.—The Jew Samuel ibn ‘Âdiyâ is an exemplar of good faith among the Arabs, so that it is said, “More faithful than Samuel,” Arab. Prov. II. 828. He was lord of a castle called Al Ablaḳ in Taymâ, a place on the south-western border of the sandy desert which lies between the Jowf and Jebel Shammar. The act which has made his name famous was as follows: The prince poet Imr al Ḳays was brought by his feud with the Benû Asad, on whom he desired to avenge the death of his father Ḥojr, into the condition of an outlaw, ◌. Pursued by the agents of Munthir king of Hira, he took refuge among the Benû Ṭay; but when discord broke out among these on his account he left them and betook himself to a man of the Fazârah named ‘Amr son of Jâbir. This ‘Amr told him that the dwellers in tents could not protect him, but that if Imr al Ḳays desired he would conduct him to one who would give him a better protection than Cæsar. Imr al Ḳays accepted the offer, and his host gave him in charge to another Fazâri, who brought him to Samuel’s castle of Al Ablaḳ. Here he was well received, and recited a poem which he had composed in honour of his protector. He dwelt with him some time, and Samuel gave him beasts with which to travel to Cæsar (the emperor Justinian), whose favour and aid against his enemies he had resolved to implore. Imr al Ḳays left in Samuel’s keeping his daughter and all his property, of which the most valuable objects were five cuirasses, or breast-mails, having respectively the names Al Faḍfâḍah, “the large;” Aṣ Ṣâfiyeh, “the bright;” Al Muḥṣineh, “the protectress;” Al Khirrîḳ, “the goodly or excellent;” and Umm ath thuyûl, “the skirted;” that is, probably, having skirts of mail descending over the hips. Imr al Ḳays repaired to Constantinople, where he was well received by the Emperor. There is reason to believe that he is the person spoken of by Procopius and Nonnosus (Caussin de Perceval, Essai, Vol. II. p. 316). The rest of his life is but a legend. It is related in the Kitâb al Aghâni (see the extract in M‘Guckin de Slane’s Dîwân of Imr al Ḳays) that a certain Arab of the Benû Asad, whose brother had been slain by Imr al Ḳays, came to Constantinople, and calumniated the fugitive, whom the Kaysar had placed at the head of an army. He said that Imr al Ḳays was a debauched man, who had not only seduced the Emperor’s daughter, but had composed verses on the subject dishonourable to the Imperial House. On this the Emperor sent him a poisoned shirt, which, as soon as he put it on, began to consume him, so that his flesh fell from him. Hence he is called Thû ’l Ḳorûḥ, “the man with the ulcers.” The intrigue with a Greek lady of high station is probable; and to it the poet is said to allude when he describes his entry into a married woman’s chamber in the first poem of the Dîwân, p. 20, Arab. Text. According to M. de Slane, the mistress of Imr al Ḳays was probably Arabia, the daughter of Justin II. It is certain, however, that Imr al Ḳays died at Ancyra; probably of some leprous disease, which gave rise to the legend. When his death was known, the Ghassâni prince Ḥârith resolved to possess himself of the cuirasses left in the charge of Samuel. He put himself at the head of his troops and summoned Samuel to give them up. The Jewish chief shut himself up in his castle and refused. But one day an infant son of Samuel, being with his nurse outside the castle, was seized by Ḥârith, who then summoned Samuel to a parley. Samuel appeared on the wall, and Ḥârith repeated his demand, with the threat that if it were not complied with he would put the child to death. Samuel asked time for consideration, and it was granted. He then called all his people to counsel, and they advised him to give up the property and save the child. But when he came again on the wall he said, “I cannot give up the cuirasses and break faith; do what thou wilt with the boy, for perfidy is a collar that never wears out; this boy will leave brothers behind him.” Then Ḥârith killed the child before the father’s eyes; but was forced after a time to give up the siege. When the season of the pilgrimage came Samuel took the cuirasses and delivered them to the heirs of Imr al Ḳays at the fair of ‘Okâẓ. This Samuel was, like so many of the noble Arabs of that age, a poet, and to him are attributed some fine verses contained in the Ḥamâseh, p. 49. For other persons who are exemplars of faith-keeping among the Arabs, see Arab. Prov. II. 830 and following pages. One of these owes his reputation, like Samuel, to good faith towards the gifted and unhappy Imr al Ḳays. This is Abû Ḥanbal aṭ Ṭâ’î, who, when his two wives solicited him, the one to give up, and the other to protect, the Prince, milked a two-year-old ewe, and, drinking the milk, exclaimed, “By God, I shall never break faith as long as this contents me.” So that it is said, “More faith-keeping than Abû Ḥanbal.”
The portion of Ar Rabî‘.—A large and populous quarter or
suburb of Bagdad was known by the name of the Portion of Ar
Rabî‘, because the ground had been given by Al Manṣûr to his
ḥâjib or chamberlain, Abû ’l Faḍl ar Rabî‘ ibn Yûnus. The life
of this personage, who enjoyed the greatest power during the
reigns of his patron and of Al Mahdi, is to be found in Ibn Khal-likân.
He was of low origin, though something was known of his
pedigree, since it was said that his ancestor, Abû Farwat al Ḥaffâr,
had been a slave of the Khalif ‘Othmân ibn ‘Affân, and, having
received his freedom, had become a grave-digger, whence his
surname. Ibn Khallikân relates that “Ar Rabî‘ died towards
the beginning of the year 170 (
The two boon-companions of Jathîmeh.—This was Jathîmet al Abrash, son of Mâlik the Azdi, the famous king of the Arabs of Irak, and celebrated for his pride and grandeur in the popular legends. It was the custom of the Arabs to associate by threes in their feastings, so that each man had two boon-companions. But such was the pride of Jathîmeh that he would drink with none of mortal race; but declared that the F̣arḳadân alone should be his boon-companions; and to these stars cups were filled whenever the king caroused, and the liquor was poured out as if they had indeed drunk. But it came to pass at last that the king’s nephew ‘Amr ibn ‘Adî was lost in the Semâweh, or Syrian desert. This ‘Amr was son of ‘Adî ibn Naṣr and Raḳâsh the king’s sister, whose adventure has been mentioned in the Introduction. It will be remembered that ‘Adî, a youth of princely blood, was one of the king’s pages, and that he and Raḳâsh having mutually fallen in love, she had persuaded him to ask the king’s consent after he had well drunken, and then to consummate the marriage at once. ‘Adî the next day found Jathîmeh so angry at what had passed, that he sought safety in flight. Raḳâsh gave birth to a son whom Jathîmeh adopted, since he was himself childless. The boy ‘Amr used to go out with the king’s servants to gather mushrooms, and it happened that whenever the servants found fine mushrooms they ate them, and brought back only the worse kind to the king. But ‘Amr brought back the best he could find, and one day in presenting them he uttered this verse:—
These are my gathering, and they are the best, though truly every gatherer has his hand to his mouth.
These last words became proverbial. At last ‘Amr, who was eight years old, was lost in the desert. Some say that he was carried off by Jinn, by whom he was enchanted a long time. At last two brothers, named Mâlik and ‘Oḳayl, the sons of Ḳârij, men of Balḳayn, who were journeying to the king with presents, met a young man with his hair and nails grown long. They said to him, “Who art thou?” He said, “A son of the Tanûkhîyeh.” (Jathîmeh reigned over the Tanûkhites of Ḳoḍâ‘ah, who had founded the city of Hira, under Mâlik ibn Zohayr). The adventure which followed is not worth relating; it will be found at Arab. Prov. II. 319, and in De Sacy’s commentary to the Thirty-ninth Assembly. In the end they brought him to the king, who offered them whatever reward they chose to ask. They asked that Jathîmeh should take them as his boon-companions as long as he lived. The king consented, and the three dwelt together for forty years, until death separated them. ‘Amr was called ‘Amr of the Collar, for when he was brought back his mother left on him the collar he had worn in infancy, on which Jathîmeh said, “‘Amr has outgrown the Collar,” which became proverbial in speaking of a thing that is no longer fitting. This phrase, “the guests of Jathîmeh,” is taken by Ḥarîri from some verses of Mutemmim, son of Nuwayrah, on his brother Mâlik, who, having espoused the cause of the prophetess Sajâḥ, at the head of the tribe of Yarbû‘, was cruelly put to death by order of Khâlid ibn Al Welîd. For this passage in early Moslem history, see the commentary to some verses of Mutemmim, p. 370 of Ḥamâseh. It is to this Mâlik that people allude when they say, “A man, but not like Mâlik:” Arab. Prov. II. 213.
Assumed its gilding and adorned itself.—These words are from Koran x. 25. ◌ is explained to be primitively ◌, by an idghâm of frequent occurrence in the Koran. But it is also read ◌ with the ◌ treated as a sound letter, and ◌ like ◌.
The headstrong ruddy wine.—◌ is an epithet of a horse, meaning “of a dark bay colour.” The word ◌, therefore, is fitly coupled with it. For the former word compare Mo‘alla-ḳah of Ṭarafeh, v. 59: “Of the things that I love one is to be beforehand with the women who would blame me, and to drink the dark-red wine, that foams when thou mix it with water.”
There intruded on us.—At the proverb, “More intrusive than Ṭofayl,” Arab. Prov. II. 838, Maydâni remarks that the Arabs of the desert called him who came unbidden to eat ◌, and him who came unbidden to drink ◌; but that the people of towns called the former also ◌. Ḥarîri, however, uses the word here in its legitimate meaning, since the party were engaged in drinking.
How long, Su‘âd.—The metre of these lines is ◌, which is a metre of the second circle, or ◌, so called because the feet of all the metres it contains are seven-lettered. The two metres of this circle which are in use are the wâfir and kâmil. which differ only by the respective positions of the two component parts of the foot, the wâfir having the radical foot ◌, made up of a ◌, followed by a ◌, while the kâmil has the derivative foot ◌, in which the order is reversed. The normal measure of the wâfir is ◌, three times in each hemistich, but this is seldom used. The measure of the present verses belongs to the first ◌, which is ◌, and which has one ◌ similar to itself. The ◌ called ◌ consists in the dropping the ◌ at the end of a foot, and quiescing the moved letter before the ◌, so that ◌ becomes ◌, which forms the last foot of each hemistich. Of the ◌ there enters most frequently into this metre ◌, which is the quiescing of the fifth moved letter of the foot, by which ◌ becomes ◌. Examples of this will be found in the verses. There also enters ◌, which is the dropping the fifth moved letter, so that ◌ becomes ◌. Another of these licenses, ◌, which is a ◌, made up of ◌ and ◌, is less common.
Su‘âd is a name applied by the Arabs to a cruel and capricious beauty: see a note to the Introduction. As the metre shows, it is imperfectly declined, the reason being that it unites the qualities of a proper name and of feminineness, and consists of more than three letters: see Alfîyeh of Ibn Mâlik, v. 664 and commentary.
As she drinks to me.—Compare the address of Abû Odayneh to Al Aṣwad ibn Al Munthir, inciting him to slay the prisoners taken from Ghassân, v. 3. Schultens, Mon. Vetust. Arabiœ, p. 58.
Why he naṣbed the first ◌.—Ḥarîri has, perhaps, taken the idea of this Assembly from an anecdote related of Abû ‘Othmân al Mâzini, the grammarian. One day a slave girl happened to sing in the presence of the Khalif Al Wâthiḳ a verse, in which it was doubtful whether a certain word should be made marfû‘ or manṣûb. A discussion arose among the guests; but the girl declared that she had the authority of Abû ‘Othmân for the accusative case. The Khalif then sent for Abû ‘Othmân, and asked, somewhat contemptuously, of what family he was. The grammarian replied, “Of the Benû Mâzin.” “Of which Mâzin?” said the Khalif; “Is it of Rabî‘ah, or Temîm, or Ḳays?” “Of Rabî‘ah” was the reply. Then the Khalif, knowing that a peculiarity of this tribe was to substitute B for M, and M for B in pronunciation, asked Abû ‘Othmân jocularly, “◌,” “What is thy name?” Now Abû ‘Othmân’s name was Bekr, and if he had answered according to the pronunciation with which the Khalif credited him, he would have uttered the offensive word “Mekr,” which means deceit, and have furthermore declared that it was his name, so he replied in a marked manner “Bekr.” The Khalif, perceiving his readiness, was much pleased, and repeating to him the verse asked him his opinion. He answered that the word must be manṣûb, and supported his decision by satisfactory arguments. In the end the Khalif dismissed him with a present of one thousand denars. Ibn Khallikân; life of Abû ‘Othmân. This anecdote is also related by Ḥarîri in the Durrah.
Sîbawayh.—Ibn Khaldûn observes in the Muḳaddimeh fî ’t târîkh, that most of the Moslems learned in the law and in science were of foreign origin, and not of Arab race; though the Koran, the foundation of all, was an Arab book. Sîbawayh was one of the most eminent of these strangers, who, prizing the knowledge of the Arab language, law, and religion, above all that their own countries had produced, devoted themselves to the learning that had its origin in the schools of Basra and Kufa. He was a Persian by birth, and his full name was ‘Amr ibn ‘Othmân ibn Ḳanbar; the name Sîbawayh being a laḳab, or surname, which he received. For the meaning of this appellation, see Ibn Khallikân, who gives his life; and for its form, Anthol. Gram. Arabe, p. 151. He was a mowla to the Benû ’l Ḥârith ibn Ka‘b. According to the tradition concerning him adopted by Sherîshi, he was born at Bayḍâ, near Shiraz. He early came to Basra to study, and joined the class of Ḥammâd ibn Selemeh, who had also instructed Al Aṣma‘î (see the latter’s life in Ibn Khallikân). Sîbawayh employed himself in copying out Traditions; and it would appear that at this early period of his life he plunged into the controversy respecting raf‘ and naṣb; for it is related that while writing from dictation some words of the Prophet, “There is not one of my companions ◌,” Sîbawayh said that it should be ◌, since ◌ was the ◌ of ◌. “No,” said Ḥammâd, “you are wrong, for this is only the ◌ of exception.” He then left Ḥammâd to obtain more perfect instruction, and attached himself to Al Khalîl ibn Aḥmed. He also studied under ‘Îsa ibn ‘Omar, and in the life of the latter, by Ibn Khallikân, it is said that Sîbawayh’s celebrated work, called preeminently the Kitâb, was founded upon ‘Îsa’s work called ◌. Sîbawayh, according to this account, interpolated observations of Al Khalîl into ‘Îsa’s book, and, adding his own remarks, produced the celebrated compilation which was after-words looked upon as the standard work on Arabic Grammar. See also Anthol. Gram. Arabe., p. 381, note 1. Among his masters were also Yûnus ibn Ḥabîb and Abû ’l Khaṭṭâb, known under the name of Al Akhfash the Elder. The discussion concerning the raf‘ and naṣb, which took place before Ar Reshîd, and the treachery of the Kufian grammarian, Al Kisâ’î, and his pupil Al Amîn, son of Hârûn, have been already noticed in the Introduction. The anecdote is given by numerous writers. It is related by Sherîshi that when Sîbawayh left the Khalif’s presence in despair he met his friend Al Akhfash the Younger, to whom he was in the habit of submitting his writings before publication, and told him what had occurred. Al Akhfash, indignant, at once sought out Al Kisâ’î, and put to him a hundred grammatical questions, accusing him of a mistake in every answer. On this Al Kisâ’î asked him if he were Al Akhfash, and, on his answering in the affirmative, requested him to undertake the education of his children, to which Al Akhfash consented. He made the Kufian acquainted with Sîbawayh’s book, and in the end Al Kisâ’î repented deeply of the artifice which had caused Sîbawayh’s death. When near his end he exclaimed to Ar Reshîd, “Commander of the Faithful, impose on me the diyeh (the fine for involuntary homicide), for I fear I have had a share in killing Sîbawayh.” The year and place of the death of Sîbawayh are both disputed. According to a legend given by Sherîshi, he would not return to Basra discredited after quitting Bagdad, but repaired to Ahwâz, and there made inquiry if there were any prince with a fondness for grammar. He was recommended to Ṭalḥat ibn Ṭâhir of Khorasan, and set out for his court, but was taken ill at Sâweh and died. Some valuable extracts from the Kitâb have been published by De Sacy in his Anthologie. The work appears to have been early used as a text book. In the life of Abû ‘Othmân al Mâzini, who has been spoken of above, it is related that he refused to teach the Book of Sîbawayh to a thimmî or non-Moslem, although offered a hundred denars; also that another person having gone through the Book, exclaimed, “God reward thee, I have not understood a word of it.”
I will announce to you its interpretation.—The words of the butler to Pharaoh before he departs to question Joseph concerning the king’s dream. Koran xii. 45.
Call to me “Come down.”—◌ belongs to the class called ◌. Words of the form ◌, with the sense of the imperative, may be formed from triliteral verbs, and are indeclinable on the kesr. Alfîyeh, vv. 595 and 627. The word “Nizâl” was a challenge to alight and fight on foot.
What is the word?—The grammatical notes suggested by this Assembly will be found appended to the author’s Explanation.
If ye return I return.—These words are from the Koran: “If ye (the unbelievers) return to the fight we (God) will return,” viii. 19. In the Koran the muḍâri‘ mejzûm is used, but after ◌ as a conditional particle the mâḍi has the same future signification. Extract from Zamakhshari, Anth. Gramm. Arabe, p. 113, Arab. Text.
We changed from weariness.—The varying of the preposition, as in this sentence, is a favourite artifice of the author. It has been imitated in the translation.
Unless every hand endow me: ◌ signifies “he caused him to possess ◌ gifts;” it is used with a double mef‘ûl. Koran vi. 94, and xxxix. 11.
The light of proof.—At Koran iv. 174, it is said, “O people, a proof has come to you from your Lord, and we have sent down to you a clear light.”
We were astonished, etc.—These words give an instance of the tejnîs called ◌, which is when one of the two words between which the tejnîs subsists is shorter than the other, and you make the correspondence complete by adding to the shorter a part or the whole of the word next to it. See De Sacy’s commentary to the Twenty-third Assembly, at word tejnîs, and Mukhtaṣar, p. 624.
Need is not courtesy.—◌ is the showing honour to one by appearing glad at meeting him, and enquiring concerning his condition. This saying is to be found at Arab. Prov. II. 690. It is used when one shows kindness for a purpose or necessity of his own, and not out of disinterested courtesy.
Lights up my morning.— According to Sherîshi there is a double meaning in the word ◌, which also signifies “redness of the hair,” used by the author like “blackness” to typify youth. The colour ◌, according to the Ḳâmûs (cited by Freytag), is akin to ◌, that is the colour of white mixed with red, which was the colour attributed by the Arabs to the hair of their Christian enemies. If this be so the verse in the text may be also rendered “whitens my fair hair.”
I swear that.—◌ after a formula of swearing is often followed by the mâḍi in a future sense: compare the Fifth Assembly, “I will not taste of your meal.”
Deck itself.— Compare the Forty-sixth Assembly (the first set of verses), “Who has not decked or clothed his palms with the cup of wine.”
Mixed drink.—Compare Mo‘allaḳah of ‘Amr ibn Kulthûm, v.2.
Cooled of the north wind.—I have translated thus on the authority of the commentary to v. 32 of the Mo‘allaḳah of Lebîd. Compare the Burdeh of Ka‘b ibn Zohayr, v. 4.
Gray hair is a guest to whom honour is due.—The meaning is that if he did not behave with sobriety in his old age he would not be treating his own gray hair with respect, and that, consequently, those who prided themselves on receiving their guests with courtesy would blame and contemn him.
The first and best . . . . If his work be good, then his reward is good; and if his work be evil, then his reward is evil.—In this case the first ◌ is manṣûb through being the ◌ of ◌. It is almost needless to remind the student that ◌ and its related verbs (◌) such as ◌ preceded by ◌, and others, make the ◌ marfû‘ as their ◌, and the ◌ manṣûb; thus differing from the substantive verbs in Latin and in the languages influenced by Latin grammar. The idiom is as if it should be said in Latin, “Caius est bonum virum.” Alfîyeh, v. 143. The converse is the case with ◌ and its sisters, where the idiom is, “Sanè Caium, vir bonus.” In the first part of the sentence ◌ is the ◌ of ◌, and ◌ is the ◌; the former is marfû‘, the latter manṣûb, in accordance with this principle. As to the second ◌ it is said that it is marfû‘ as the ◌ of an elided inchoative, ◌, the full proposition being ◌. This last is called a ◌, or nominal proposition, of which the property is that the ◌ shall agree in ◌ with the ◌, or in other words, be put in the same case with it. It is then said by the author that ◌ and its noun are elided because the conditional particle ◌ points to their virtual presence or influence. For this see Alfîyeh, v. 155, where it is said that ◌ and its ism are elided after ◌ and ◌, while the khabar remains; as in the verse uttered by No ‘mân ibn al Munthir to Rabî‘ ibn Ziyâd, when the latter, who was his boon-companion, was accused before him in satirical verse by the poet Lebîd of being leprous, in revenge for the ill-will which Rabî‘ had instilled into the king towards the Benû Ja‘far.
◌
It is also said that the inchoative is elided because the ◌, which is the answer to the condition, points to it; since an inchoative generally follows ◌. Grammarians explain the many abrupt forms of Arabic speech, and the anomalies of the i‘râb by the supposed elision, ◌, of the mubtada or khabar, or both together, and display wonderful ingenuity and power of analysis in thus accounting for idioms which arose among a simple unlettered race, which sought only to express its thoughts as vigorously and emphatically as possible. On this subject consult Alfîyeh, 136th and following verses; Naṣîf’s Grammar, chapter on ◌, p. 71. Whenever anything is elided, there should be, if the speech is to be intelligible, a ◌, that is, something which shows or points to the nature and meaning of what is elided; in this case the elision is called ◌, abbreviation; but otherwise it is called ◌. Thus, in the text the author speaks of the ◌ of ◌ and of ◌. To find the ◌ the grammarians sometimes resort to fanciful artifices. With respect to ◌, which is called ◌, it is naturally followed by a mubtada; since it is a disjoining particle, and must commence a new proposition, either fully or elliptically expressed. Such a proposition has what the grammarians call a place in the i‘râb, ◌, which is the place of jezm, since in such a phrase as ◌ the verb is mejzûm. See extract from Ibn Hishâm; Anthol. Gramm. Arabe, p. 74, Arab. Text, and De Sacy’s Grammar, Vol. II. paragraph 1179. The mubtada is commonly elided after ◌, as in Koran xli. 46, ◌, that is, ◌
The second mode is that you should naṣb both.—In this case the naṣb of the first ◌ requires no further explanation than has been given in the former case. The ◌ or ◌, that is, the object of the verb’s action, is, according to the Arab grammarians, not only the objective complement of the active verb, as ‘Amr in the sentence “Zayd beat ‘Amr,” but also that of the passive verb, either absolutely, ◌, as the word “beating” in the sentence “Zayd was beaten a beating,” or otherwise, as “denar” in the sentence, “Zayd was given a denar.” It would also be, I think, allowable to describe the second ◌ in this case as manṣûb by ◌ or specification; since it contains the signification of ◌ and explains what goes before, as ◌. See Alfîyeh, v. 356.
The third mode is that you should raf‘ both.—In this case the first ◌ is the ism, and ◌ the khabar of ◌, the latter being virtually manṣûb. The second ◌ is marfû‘, as in the first case, as the khabar of the elided mubtada. On this agreement in the i‘râb between the mubtada and the khabar in a proposition, there are various explanations among the grammarians. Ibn Mâlik’s verse on the subject is, “Make the mubtada to be marfû‘ by its ibtidâ (or because it commences the sentence), and make the khabar to be marfû‘ by the mub-tada. Ibn ‘Aḳîl then says that the teaching of Sîbawayh and the generality of the Basrians was thus; and that they declared the regent, ◌, on the mubtada to be logical, ◌, in that the noun was without any verbal regent except in a certain exceptional case, which it is needless to dwell on here. On the other hand, the regent on the khabar is verbal and consists of the mubtada. But the teaching of others is that the regent on both the mubtada and the khabar is the ibtidâ, and with respect to both it is logical. Another opinion is that the mubtada is marfû‘ by the ibtidâ, and the khabar is marfû‘ both by the ibtidâ and the mubtada. It is also said that there is reciprocity between them, and that each makes the other marfû‘. The correct opinion is held to be that of Sîbawayh.
And it may be that the first ◌ is raf‘ed through being the agent of ◌; and that the ◌ which receives a virtual power here is the complete attributive verb.—The class of verbs known as “◌ and its sisters,” are called ◌, “incomplete verbs,” because they do not, like other verbs, contain an attribute. But ◌ and ◌ may be used as attributive verbs with the signification “to exist,” and then they do not require a khabar. This will be easily understood from the text. Thus in English we may say, “God is,” in the sense of “God exists;” and in that case “is” requires no word after it to give a complete sense.
The fourth and weakest mode.—This requires no explanation.
As for the noun that alternates.—This and the following riddle bring us to one of the most important and difficult questions connected with Arabic grammar; a question not suggested by the ingenuity of scholars, but one which every beginner must attempt to understand, and which yet remains insoluble by the greatest masters of the language. It is the double form of declension of Arabic nouns, which, according to our terminology, are divided into triptots and diptots; the latter having an incomplete i‘râb without tanwîn, and being mejrûr with the fetḥah instead of the kesreh. It is possible that this strange diversity, for which all the theories of grammarians give no satisfactory explanation, may have arisen from the fusion or mutual action of two great dialects, one diptotic, the other triptotic in its declensions. Even at the present day the incomplete declension prevails over a great part of Arabia (Palgrave, I., p. 464). But accepting, as a commentator of Ḥarîri is bound to do, the principles of the grammarians, I must dismiss such scientific considerations, and treat the subject in the traditional manner. It is well worthy of attention, since it is frequently discussed by native authors, and yet has received insufficient notice, or no notice at all, from the European compilers of grammars.
Two kinds of declension are, according to the Arabic grammarians, to be found in the language; the one that proper to the noun, the other that proper to the verb. The noun is declined with the tanwîn, the ḍamm, the fetḥ, and the kesr; the verb with the ḍamm, the fetḥ, and the jezm. Thus the tanwîn and the kesr are proper to the noun, and the jezm is proper to the verb. If then a noun be declined without the tanwîn and the kesr, but with the ḍamm and fetḥ only, its declension is assimilated to that of the verb. Such is the case with the class of nouns which we are considering. If the noun be fully declinable, that is with the tanwîn and kesr, it is called ◌, because it possesses its full nominality, ◌, in form as well as meaning. If it be not fully declinable it is called ◌, because it does not possess all the characteristics of a noun in form, but is assimilated to the character of a verb. Now, according to all grammarians, the noun is fundamental, or primitive, and the verb is derivative, or secondary. This ◌ of the verb is two-fold; firstly, logical, ◌, inasmuch as the noun gives a perfect sense in itself, while the verb requires a noun to be joined to it; secondly, ◌, formal or etymological. The schools of Basra and Kufa agree as to the former cause of the verb’s secondariness, but differ as to the latter. The Basrians say that the verb is derived from the noun, that is from the maṣdar, supporting their opinion partly on logical grounds, since they say that the notion of running or eating must precede the notion he ran, or he ate, and partly on actual linguistic experience, since there are numbers of verbs which have evidently been formed from nouns expressing even material objects, as in English we say “to steam,” “to sail,” “to post a letter.” This they give as the cause of the verb’s formal secondariness. The Kufians, on the other hand, deny the derivation of the verb from the noun, and make the third person of the preterite the root. But they equally admit the formal secondariness of the verb, which they say consists in teṛkîb or composition, since any part of the verb expresses a notion compounded of the idea of the verb and a subject, while the noun expresses only a simple notion, and as the compounded is secondary to the simple, therefore the verb is formally secondary to the noun. It is somewhat difficult to distinguish this formal secondariness from the logical secondariness. But the distinction will be perceived if we consider the logical secondariness to consist in the dependence of the abstract verb on a noun (or pronoun), for a complete meaning, and the formal secondariness to consist in the actual presence, real or implied, of a ◌, or pronoun, in every part of the verb. It must be remembered that in each tense and person the ◌ is supposed to exist, either ◌, apparent, or ◌, hidden. Thus, in ◌, and ◌ the ḍamîr is hidden; so, also, it is hidden in ◌ and ◌, the tâ in both cases being the mark of the feminine: in some other cases it is expressed. Hence the Kufians might argue that a verb actually uttered in language inevitably contained a compounded signification. By the consent of all, then, the verb has two kinds of secondariness, the one logical, the other formal or in regard of utterance.
Now the principle of the grammarians is that the nouns which have the imperfect declension have it because they correspond to the verb in these two respects; that is, they combine the two defects of logical and formal secondariness. Thus a noun to be imperfectly declined must have two defects, one of the logical and one of the formal kind; for if both be logical, or both be formal, it is not imperfectly declined. These defects are nine in number: ◌, the quality of description or of being an adjective; ◌, determination as a proper name; ◌, deviation of form in a word, while its meaning remains the same, as when ◌ is turned into ◌, composition; ◌, the quality of being a foreign word; ◌, the plural number; ◌, the being feminine; ◌, the form of the verb; and ◌, that is, the addition of ◌ to the root, as in ◌, drunken. Some writers add five more, making up the number to fourteen; but these last are useless refinements. These nine qualities give the noun a character of secondariness, since the adjective is secondary to the substantive, the determinate noun to the indeterminate, the deviate to the original form, the compounded to the simple, the foreign to the Arab, the plural to the singular, the feminine to the masculine, the form of the verb to the form of the noun, the augmented word to the unaugmented. Now, it has been said that the noun, to be imperfectly declined, must have two of these defects, and, moreover, one of them must be logical and the other formal. The logical defects are the first two—the quality of an adjective, and the quality of a proper name; the other defects are formal, that is, affect the form or utterance of the words themselves. Hence one of the first two defects must be united with one of the last seven to make the noun imperfectly declined. This, according to the grammarians, is consistent with reason, inasmuch as the first, namely, the quality of description, represents the adjective, and the second, the proper name, represents the substantive; and so, between them, all nouns are represented. These two are, therefore, the “pillars” to which the others are united. Each one of the two may be combined with the deviation, or the form of the verb, or the augmentation. But the proper name alone can be combined with the foreign word, or the compounded, or the tâ of the feminine, so as to produce imperfect declinability. In this brief space only principles can be enunciated; the full meaning of these distinctions can only be understood from the explanations and examples of Arabic writers.
There are two cases, however, in which one defect is counted as two. The first concerns the defect of femininity, in the case of a word ending with the elif of the feminine. The class of words which are thus made imperfectly declinable will be found by a reference to any grammar. The reason for the double power of femininity in this case is that the elif of the feminine adheres continually to such words as if it were part of the root, which is not the case with the tâ of the feminine, which only attaches inseparably to proper names, except in some rare cases. Thus, in the case of these nouns it is held that the elif of the feminine gives them the formal defect of femininity, while the feminine essentiality which they derive from the presence of this elif, as a radical, gives them a logical femininity. They have, therefore, both formal and logical secondariness, and are, consequently, imperfectly declined.
The second concerns the defect of the quality of the plural, and affects those plurals which belong to what are called the last forms of the broken plurals, which are diverse from the form of any singular. These are plurals of the form ◌, or ◌, or ◌, where the first letter is meftûḥ, and the third letter is elif, followed by a letter with teshdîd, or by two moved letters, either juxtaposed or divided by a quiescent letter. There are no singulars of these forms in the Arabic language, and the double secondariness consists in conveying the notion of plurality, which is a logical defect, and in diverging from the form of the singular, which is a formal defect. The two defects, one logical and the other formal, being combined, such plurals are imperfectly declined.
Ḥarîri does not mention in his tefsîr that the first letter of such a plural should be meftûḥ, and the same condition is omitted by other grammarians, since it always co-exists with the others mentioned; but it is logically necessary to state it, since there is a form of the singular with the first letter maḍmûm, as the word ◌. Al Ashmûni; Bulak edition, Part II. p. 461.
Certain grammarians hold that plurals of these forms are imperfectly declined because they are really or by supposition plurals of plurals; for the repeated plurals have these forms. Thus, ◌ makes ◌ and ◌, and ◌ makes ◌ and ◌; and plurals of the form ◌ and ◌ are held to correspond to these. According to this theory the logical secondariness would consist in the quality of plurality, and the formal secondariness would consist in the assumption of the form of the mukarrar or repeated plural; real in the first instance, and by supposition in the second. Other explanations are given of less plausibility. The opinion that one of the causes of imperfect declinability is the divergence from the forms of the singular is the teaching of Abû ‘Ali, and has been generally adopted. The answers to the objections to it are given by Al Ashmûni, Part II. p. 463. On this subject see also Alfîyeh, and the grammar of Naṣîf; as well as Anthol. Gram. Arabe, p. 95 Ar. text. The sense in which the words ◌, and ◌, as applied to this declension, are to be taken will be sufficiently understood from the above.
Some say that this is a singular form.—In the Seventh Assembly Ḥarîri uses the singular form ◌; the contrary opinion appears to rest on a Tradition of the Prophet, who said to his followers, ◌ (p. 78 De sacy’s edition). Ibn Mâlik treats ◌ as a singular having the form of a plural, and therefore imperfectly declinable. Others think that either declension is lawful. Alfîyeh, v. 660. Similar words are ◌, a name for the hyena, and ◌, a man’s name.
As for the ◌ which when it attaches itself.—This requires little explanation. As the formal secondariness which is necessary to the imperfect declension arises from divergence from a singular form, the addition of the ◌, which gives the plural a singular form, takes away this condition, and makes the declension perfect. Alfîyeh, v. 658.
As for the ◌ which deposes the regent.—The particle ◌ is of two kinds. Firstly, ◌, that is, “forming a proposition equivalent to the masḍar;” in this case it combines with the muḍâri‘, which it causes to be manṣûb; thus: ◌, I desire that thou stand, is equivalent to ◌, I desire thy standing. So in Koran ii. 180, ◌, And that ye fast is better for you, is equivalent to “your fasting.” In this case ◌ is an ◌, regent, and naṣbs the verb. But ◌ may also be considered a contraction of ◌, in which case it is called ◌, because the original form is lightened by taking away the teshdîd. ◌ is one of the sisters of ◌, and not distinguished from it by Sîbawayh, who is of opinion that the former is originally ◌. The property of ◌ and its sisters is that they annul (◌) the mubtada, their action being the reverse of ◌ and its sisters; for whereas the latter make their ism marfû‘ and their khabar manṣûb, the former make their ism manṣûb and their khabar marfû‘, as ◌. These particles are considered to partake of the nature of the verb, and are therefore called particles assimilated to verbs ◌ This resemblance consists, firstly, in their adhering to the noun, since it is their peculiar property to be prefixed to the mubtada; secondly, in a logical analogy, since they have the signification of verbs in expressing emphasis, like ◌, or comparison, like ◌; thirdly, in a formal analogy, since they are composed of three or more letters, the last of which is meftûḥ. If this resemblance to the verb be clearly perceived, the peculiar action of these particles on the mubtada and the khabar will be readily understood.
Now when it is said that ◌ is the lightened from the heavy, that is, a contraction of ◌, it is meant that ◌ is used in the signification of ◌; but this can only happen under certain conditions. When ◌ is thus lightened it preserves its regency, i.e. its grammatical effect, but its ism can only be the ◌ elided (the ḍamîr as sha’n is the affixed pronoun ◌ in ◌, for which see the grammars), and the khabar can only be a proposition, ◌. Thus in the phrase ◌, the ◌ is the lightened from the heavy, and its ism is an elided ◌; the virtual expression being ◌. This ḍamîr as sha’n is manṣûb as the ism of ◌, while the khabar of ◌ is the proposition ◌, which is in the position of raf‘. In this case the proposition is nominal, ◌, and ◌ does not require a dividing particle between itself and its khabar, except in the case of a negative. But if the proposition be verbal, ◌, distinctions are made. In the case of undeclined verbs, as ◌ or ◌, there is no fâṣil or dividing particle; so also where the verb expresses prayer or imprecation. But in other cases a dividing particle is lawful, and to be preferred. In the case in the text the dividing particle is what is called ◌, that is ◌ or ◌. These particles are described as of ◌ or ◌, because they extend the time from the present to the future. We are now able to perceive the meaning of Ḥarîri’s riddle. If ◌ be prefixed to the verbal proposition then ◌ is the lightened from the heavy; and the sentence ◌, ◌, He (God) knows that some of you will be sick, Koran lxxiii. 20, is equivalent to ◌; the elided ḍamîr as sha’n is the ism of ◌ and is manṣûb, while ◌, etc. is the khabar of ◌ and in the state of raf‘. But if there were no ◌ the ◌ must be considered maṣdarî, and a nâṣib of the verb. It is hardly correct to say that ◌ here has no regency, since it naṣbs its elided ism the ḍamîr as sha’n, and places the proposition ◌ in the state of raf‘. But though ◌ exercises a regency on the proposition it does not exercise it on the verb itself, which within that proposition is grammatically unaffected, and is therefore marfû‘. Or it may be that Ḥarîri takes the view that the ◌ entirely destroys the regency of that which precedes it on that which follows it; if so we must consider that ◌ governs an elided khabar as well as an elided ism; in that case the taḳdîr would be ◌. Compare Bayḍâwi on Koran v. 75.
That which is naṣbed as a term of circumstance.— On this question it will be sufficient to quote Ḥarîri himself, who says in the Durrah that when one pronounces ◌, he commits a fault, because ◌ is mejrûr after ◌ only. Such is the constant use in the Koran; see ii. 73, 83, 95, etc. The reason, according to Ḥarîri, that ◌ has this peculiarity is that it is the mother (the origin or principle) of the particles which make the noun mejrûr; for in each class of words that which is the original is distinguished by properties which the others do not possess. Thus ◌, with the kesr, is distinguished from its sisters by the prefixion of ◌ to its khabar; thus ◌ alone admits a verb in the preterite as its khabar; thus, in swearing, the particle ◌ alone can be used when the verb, “I swear” is expressed, and alone can be joined to the pronoun, as ◌. Whatever may be thought of this reasoning, the usage in the Arabic language is certainly as the author states.
As to the annexed noun.—The meaning of the author is that ◌, though its property is to be followed by a noun mejrûr, yet in one case is followed by a manṣûb, and therefore cannot be looked upon as in annexion to the noun following; it may, consequently, be said to have lost one of its handles or links of annexion. The word ◌ or ◌ belongs to the class of nouns which are constantly annexed. These are divided into two classes; firstly, such as require annexion both logically and formally, and are never used separately; among them are ◌, and ◌. Secondly, such as require annexion logically though not formally, like ◌, and ◌, and ◌. Alfîyeh, v. 396: Al Ashmûni, Part II. p. 152. ◌ is made indeclinable by the generality of the Arabs, because it has only one use, and that an adverbial one; and it only quits its quality of ẓarf, when it is mejrûr by ◌. Indeed it never appears in the Koran except after ◌, as at xi. 1; xviii. 2, 64. The tribe of Ḳays decline it; so that at xviii. 2, it is also read ◌. The noun which follows it is mejrûr, except in the case of ◌, which is manṣûb by ◌, or specification; it is also said that in this case the noun is the khabar of an elided ◌, the virtual sense being ◌. Yet the jerr is lawful, and is according to rule, the naṣb being the more rare. The Kufians teach that ◌ may be marfû‘ after ◌, through ◌ elided, the taḳdîr being ◌: Alfîyeh, v. 409. To understand the construction of these sentences it must be noticed that ◌ is one of the nouns of annexion which may be annexed to the proposition, being, with the exception of ◌, the only ẓarf of place which has this property. Al Ashmûni, Part II. p. 153. Another way of accounting for the naṣb of ◌ is that it is assimilated to a mef‘ûl by reason of ◌ being assimilated to the ism al fâ‘il, and the latter is so assimilated, since it sometimes has the final ◌, and sometimes not; the ◌ so far having the nature of tanwîn. You would then say ◌, as you say ◌. There are other explanations, but the above are the most satisfactory.
The regent whose last joins his first.—On the particles of calling, sufficient information will be found in the Alfîyeh, v. 573, et seqq. A distinction must be observed between hamzeh, which is used in calling one who is near, and ◌ with medd, which is used in calling one who is either distant, or in the predicament of being distant, as when he is inattentive or asleep.
The regent whose deputy is more spacious than he in abode.— Ḥarîri, in the passage of the Durrah, quoted above, explains, as he does here, why ◌ is to be considered the original of the particles which enter into formulas of swearing, namely, that it is used when the verb “I swear” is expressed, and also that the affixed pronoun may be joined to it. Among the ḥurûf al jerr ◌ is used only before the name of God, or his epithets, as ◌ and ◌: Alfîyeh, v. 366; Naṣîf’s grammar, p. 191. The usage of ◌ is explained by Ibn Hishâm, Anthol. Gram. Arabe, p. 88. It is a ḥarf al jerr in two cases, namely where it stands for ◌ as ◌, many a region; and where it is the ◌ of the oath, as ◌ (I swear) by the fig tree and the olive tree: Koran xcv. l. Zamakhshari says (Anthol. Gram. Arabe, p. 100) that the primitive signification of ◌ is adhesion, so that when you say “I swear ◌,” you mean “My oath adheres to the word God.” He says, further on, that the ◌ is a substitute for ◌, and the ◌ is a substitute for ◌; thus confirming the judgment of Ḥarîri that the ◌ is the original. When Ḥarîri says that ◌ has the sense of union, he adopts the opinion of the school of Basra, who hold that the conjunction “and” conveys only the idea of accompaniment, and that when you say “Zayd and ‘Amr came,” it may be that Zayd came before ‘Amr, or after him, or that they both came together. On the other hand the Kufians teach that the idea of order is also inherent in the word “and,” so that what is mentioned before it must be considered as prior to what is mentioned after it. This, however, is refuted by Koran xxiii. 39: “There is nought but the life below; we die and we live, and we shall not be raised again.” Here what is later in time is put before what is earlier, for it is evident that when the infidels say “we live,” they refer to the present life, since they are denying the resurrection. It must be admitted, however, that according to Bayḍâwi, “we die and we live,” is interpreted to mean “one generation dies and another lives,” which would remove the objection to the Kufian theory which is derived from the Koran.
Also the ◌ is larger in dwelling.—The various uses of ◌ are given by Ibn Hishâm in the passage cited above. That it is prefixed to the noun, the verb, and the particle, while ◌ is prefixed only to the noun needs no explanation. Its use as a substitute for ◌, or with ◌ understood, has been already noticed. The rest of the text applies to such phrases as ◌ where the second ◌ is manṣûb, with the meaning “Do ye think that ye shall enter into Paradise except God know which of you have warred well, so that he may know those who are constant?” Koran iii. 136. Or to such as ◌, “Do not forbid a thing to men, and (in order to) commit it yourself.”
The place where males put on the veils of women.—This riddle relates to the grammatical singularity which appears not only in Arabic but also in Hebrew and Syriac; namely, that the feminine numeral from three to ten is used with the masculine noun, and the masculine numeral with the feminine noun. The most reasonable explanation of this phenomenon is that these numerals are substantives of multitude, the feminine representing in the Semitic languages the idea of collectiveness. It is as though you should say in Latin “trias filiorum.” The Arab grammarians say that as the feminine fundamentally belongs to the abstract numeral it is put with the masculine, which is the fundamental gender; and as the masculine is secondary in the numeral it is put with the feminine, which is the secondary gender. Naṣîf’s grammar; al Ashmûni, Part III. p. 99; Ewald, Ausführliches Lehrbuch der Hebräischen Sprache, 7th edition, p. 650.
The other questions require no explanation. The sixth riddle in the Thirty-sixth Assembly applies to the word ◌.
Kerej.—The city of Kerej, between Ispahan and Hamadân, situated in the hill country of Persian Irak, was the seat of the family of Al ‘Ijli, a powerful Arab house descended from Bekr ibn Wâ’il. Kerej, according to Sherîshi, was sixty parasangs from Ispahan. It was rebuilt and greatly enlarged by Al Ḳâsim ibn ‘Îsa the ‘Ijli, commonly known as Abû Dulaf, a celebrated general, and a great patron of letters in the time of the Khalifs Al Ma’mûn and Al Mo‘taṣim. A life of him, or rather some fragmentary anecdotes respecting him, may be found in Ibn Khallikân. When Ar Reshîd inquired of Abû Dulaf respecting the state of his country, and received for answer that it was wasted and desolate, spoiled by Arabs and Kurds, a certain person present declared that Abû Dulaf had had a chief share in this devastation. Abû Dulaf then promised that with the help of the Khalif he would restore the country to prosperity, which he did by rebuilding the city of Kerej.
Scorching cold.—◌ signifies the scorching or blasting by a cold wind, as ◌ by a hot one. At Koran xxi. 47, it is said “If but a blast of the chastisement of thy Lord reach them.”
Sorest torment.—The phrase ◌ is derived from a Tradition of the Prophet, and is defined as such extreme suffering as makes a man desire death. Abû Horayrah relates that Moḥammed taught him the following rhythmical prayer: ◌ Another Tradition makes the Prophet say that to be refused in one’s need is jahd al belâ’. It is conventionally applied to great worldly distress, as hopeless indebtedness, or small means with a large family. The word ◌ signifies energy or effort, and is used several times in the Koran in a phrase signifying “the most energetic or forcible of your oaths.” See v. 58; vi. 109; xvi. 40, and other places.
Attendance at the congregation.—Sherîshi says that the cold in the province of Granada had a still greater effect on his countryman Ibn Ṣârah, for it prevented him from going even to prayer. The poet thus addresses the people of the place:
Sure we may fail at the prayer in your land, and even drink the strong wine, though a thing forbidden;
Since we would gladly go to the eternal flame as more gentle and merciful than the cold of Shalîr;
If my Lord were to cast me into hell on such a day as this I should say “How comfortable is hell.”
The author of these irreverent verses was Abû Moḥammed
ibn Ṣârat ash Shantarîni (of Santarem), a poverty-stricken poet
of Spain, who lived by bookbinding. He died at Almeria in the
year 517 (
And heeded nought.—For this word see Lane’s Lexicon, ◌.
O people.—The metre of these verses is the fifth ◌ of the ◌, the last foot being ◌. I have divided the translation into lines as if the measure were mashṭûr, in accordance with the exceptional principle of the rejez, but it may be that in this particular ‘arûḍ the verse is made up of two hemistiches.
Destroyed: caused them to pass away and perish. Thus, “I think not that this garden will ever perish,” Koran xviii. 33.
My humped camels mourned the morning I made the feast.— However poorly the Arabs might fare when alone they thought it due to their reputation for hospitality to feast the stranger to the utmost extent of their means; and this was generally done by killing a camel for him, the joints of which were either roasted at the fire or boiled in large cauldrons: all who chose to come shared in the feast, and what remained was distributed among the poor. The eating of camel’s flesh seems not to have been universal in the early times among the Arabs. There is no mention of its having been used for food by the Hebrew patriarchs, and it is forbidden by the Mosaic law: Leviticus xi. 4; Deuteronomy xiv. 7. At the proverb “Barâḳish has sinned against her people,” Arab. Prov. II. 89, it is related that Barâḳish was a wife of Loḳmân ibn ‘Âd. Her husband’s tribe did not feed upon camel, but a son of hers by a former marriage, going to visit his mother’s family, brought back a joint of camel, which Loḳmân, tasting, pronounced to be good food. Barâḳish, hearing this and desiring to feed upon camel, said to her husband, “Camel us and camel thyself,” meaning, “Give us camel to eat and eat it thyself,” which words became proverbial, Arab. Prov. I. 295. The eating of camel which had been confined to Hijâz and Nejd then became general among the descendants of ‘Âd; so that Loḳmân, who was a powerful prince and exacted tribute, destroyed the camels of his wife’s people for food. Hence the origin of the proverb. Loḳmân is described as a person of enormous strength; he could dig with his nails a well for his camels to drink at: see the proverb “Stronger than Loḳmân,” Arab. Prov. I. 701. This legend may be connected with the tradition which places his home in the Aḥḳâf, tracts of sand in the region of Ash Shiḥr, where such a feat may not be impossible. He was also said to be of boundless voracity, inasmuch as he ate one camel’s carcass in the morning and another in the evening; “More voracious than Loḳmân,” Arab. Prov. I. 134. This may be explained by supposing him to have been profusely hospitable. His courtiers were as liberal as himself. At the proverb “More gambling than Loḳmân,” Arab. Prov. II. 938, it is said that Loḳmân used to play at the game of maysir with arrows, for portions of camel, as described in a former note; and that his companions were eight persons renowned for their generosity; so that it came to be said proverbially of liberal persons, “They are like Loḳmân’s gamblers.” These various legends point to the adoption of the camel as food by the Arabs of the south, under the influence of a powerful prince.
A spindle in nakedness.—The spindle is made an example of nakedness, since the woman spins the wool from it and leaves t bare. Arab. Prov. II. 160.
Warmth.—There is a tradition connected with the word ◌, which may be worth relating, as it exhibits a remarkable peculiarity in the speech of Ḳoraysh. Though this tribe is reputed to have spoken the purest Arabic, and the Koran is n conformity with their tongue, they are said to have frequently omitted the hamzeh in words which, according to the pure speech of the Arabs, contained it. One of these was the verb ◌, “he was warm,” which they pronounced like ◌, “he despatched the wounded man,” ◌. On one occasion a man of Johayneh brought the Prophet a prisoner, who trembled with cold, on which the Prophet said ◌, “Despatch him,” meaning to say ◌, “Warm him.” They took out their prisoner and killed him. According to Ṭabari and others, the death of Mâlik ibn Nowayrah and his companions of the tribe of Yarbû‘ was due to a mistake of the same kind, since the Ḳorayshi crier of Khâlid ibn Al Welîd, intending to proclaim in the camp “Warm your prisoners,” it being a cold night, said “Despatch your prisoners,” and the soldiers fell upon the Benû Yarbû‘ and slaughtered them. An instance of this omission of the hamzeh is mentioned by Bayḍâwi at Koran xvii. 103, where it is said that Ḳoraysh use ◌ for ◌. The clear pronunciation of the hamzeh was called ◌.
Sinn and Ṣinnabar.—There were seven days in the early apring which were thought to bring with them a return of the winter’s cold, before the warmer weather set in. According to Sherîshi they are the four last days of February and the first three of March. The two days mentioned in the text were the first two of them. The names are united in some verses by Ibn Aḥmar, quoted in De Sacy’s commentary; they are also united by Naṣîf, in his Ṣixth Assembly.
An ample robe.—One liberal and beneficent.
Let him expend.—Koran lxv. 7.
Of his day: of his yesterday.—The meaning of these phrases is that a man must depend for approbation and reward on what he himself does in his own age, and not on what his ancestors have done in times past.
Bidden us to ask of thee.—The allusion here is to Koran iv. 36 and xl. 62.
Prefers even from his straitness.—Compare Koran lix. 9.
‘Iṣâm, the son of Shahbar, is the exemplar among the Arabs of a man who is great by his own merits, and not by the nobility of his ancestors. He was chamberlain to No‘mân ibn al Munthir, king of Hira, known as No‘mân Abû Ḳâbûs, and in this capacity befriended two of the most eminent poets of the time, An Nâbighat ath Thobyâni and Ḥassân ibn Thâbit. The phrase in the text is taken from some verses of An Nâbi-ghah, who says “the soul of ‘Iṣâm has ennobled ‘Iṣâm:” Arab. Prov. II. 745. Sherîshi, no doubt erroneously, attributes them to ‘Iṣâm himself, who was asked how he who was low of origin had attained to such high rank. Nâbighah, who like most of the poets of the Ignorance was licentious in style, had composed some verses celebrating in impassioned language the beauties of Mutejarradeh, the wife of No‘mân, and indicating that she requited his admiration. This Mutejarradeh had been the wife of the king’s father, after whose death the king had married her, a practice permitted among the ancient Arabs, though apparently not generally approved, since it was called ◌, the marriage of hate. It was abrogated by Moḥam-med; see Koran iv. 26. Some say that Nâbighah had entered the apartment of Mutejarradeh; others that he composed the ḳaṣîdeh at the instance of Al Munakhkhal, her lover. The verses were repeated to the king, who was greatly incensed, and would have slain Nâbighah, had not ‘Isâm warned him, so that he was able to escape by flight. He repaired to the court of Ghassân, but being after a time desirous of returning to Hira he sought a reconciliation with the king. No‘mân was sick, and Nâbighah addressed the following verses to the chamberlain:
I conjure thee tell me whether the hero be still borne on the litter;
I do not blame thee that I enter not; but, tell me, what is behind thee, ‘Isâm?
These last words became proverbial, being used when you ask information of any one concerning something that he has seen; Arab. Prov. II. 589, where it is made a woman’s name, ◌. Nâbighah was afterwards received into favour by the king, and remained thenceforward on good terms with him. ‘Iṣâm procured for Ḥassân ibn Thâbit the favour of the king by warning him that when No‘mân spoke against the king of Ghassân, and asked his opinion, he should not join in disparaging him; for No‘mân, though he hated his royal brother and railed at him himself, would not like a king to be ill-spoken of by a subject. These adventures, taken from the Kitâb al Aghâni, will be found at length in the second volume of M. Caussin de Perceval’s Essai. It became a saying ◌ in the sense of “Be like ‘Iṣâm whose honour was derived from his own worth, and not like one who relies for honour merely on the bones of his ancestors.” An anecdote of Al Ḥajjâj connected with this phrase is given by Maydâni at the first cited proverb, and from Sherîshi in De Sacy’s commentary. Whether the proverb, “‘Iṣâm was sleeping at the hour of departure,” Arab. Prov. II. 770, refers to the same person I am not able to determine. More on this subject will be found in the notes to the ḳaṣîdeh of An Nâbighah in De Sacy’s Chrestomathie.
Al Asma‘î has been already spoken of. He was celebrated not only for his great learning, but for his cheerful humour and ready wit; of which examples are recorded too numerous to be repeated here. Sherîshi remarks that Al Aṣma‘î is to be considered an ‘Iṣâmî, that is, one who was great on account of his own merits, since he descended from Bâhileh, which is the most bastard and the meanest of the tribes of the Arabs. It is but justice, however, to the great scholar to say that, according to Ibn Khallikân, no such name as Bâhileh appears in his pedigree, which the biographer sets forth up to ‘Adnân himself. He bore the name of Bâhilî, according to this authority, because the wife of Mâlik, one of his ancestors, was named Bâhileh. Whatever may have been the disgrace of belonging to this tribe, Al Aṣma‘î shared it with one of the most illustrious men of Islam, Kutaybet ibn Muslim, who conquered Tartary in the reign of Al Welîd ibn ‘Abd al Melik. Ibn Khallikân, in his life of Kutay-beh, gives several anecdotes illustrative of the contempt in which Bâhileh was held. The Arabs of the desert, he says, hated to bear the name; so that a poet said, “It profits not a man to be descended from Hâshim if he have a Bâhilî soul.” Again, “If it were said to a dog, ‘Thou Bâhilî,’ the dog would turn howling from the reproach of such a pedigree.” The Prophet being asked by Al Ash‘ath ibn Ḳays al Kindi whether all were equally subject to the law of retaliation, namely, that the offender should suffer the precise injury that he had inflicted (Koran ii. 173; v. 49) said, “Yes, even if thou slewest a Bâhilî, I should slay thee to avenge him.” An Arab being told that a certain man had sprung not merely from Bâhileh, but from the slaves of Bâhileh, immediately fell down and kissed his hands and his feet. Being asked why he did so, he replied, “God would never have inflicted on thee such a misfortune in this life unless he had intended to reward thee with Paradise in the next.” This evil renown of Bâhileh caused Abû ‘Obaydeh to doubt whether Al Aṣma‘î could ever have called himself by such a name; since those who belonged to the tribe concealed their pedigree.
Cloak me.—Abû Zayd intends Ḥârith to understand the word in a figurative sense, that of concealing who he was; while the others believe that he merely asks for clothing.
Imbued with the dew of benevolence.—The word ◌ in the sense of being imbued or penetrated with anything is taken from Koran ii. 87, “They (the Israelites) were imbued in their hearts with the calf;” or they “were made to drink in their hearts” of it; which is interpreted to mean that they were imbued with the love of it, and the desire to worship it, as the cloth is imbued with the dye: Zamakhshari and Bayḍâwi. It may be, however, that the original phrase indicates a vague acquaintance on the part of Moḥammed with the account given at Exodus xxxii. 20: “And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.”
Well done he.—The measure of these verses belongs to the third ḍarb of the first ‘arûd of the sarî‘. The ‘arûḍ which is originally ◌ loses the ◌ by ◌, which is the dropping of the last letter of a watad mefrûḳ at the end of a foot; it then suffers ◌, which is the dropping of the quiescent fourth letter. It thus becomes ◌. The ḍarb being also originally ◌ suffers ◌, which is the dropping of a watad mefrûḳ at the end of a foot, and becomes ◌.
Jinn.—◌ is another form of ◌. The expression, “Men and Jinn,” is taken from the last Sura of the Koran, which is one of the two prayers for protection.
The silk of Paradise.—The people of Paradise will be clothed in green silk ◌, and in ◌, which is thick woven embroidered brocade. Koran xviii. 30; xliv. 53; lxxvi. 21. God provides these two materials, one fine and the other of a stout texture, that the believers may be gratified according to their fancy. The silk will be green because that is the most beautiful of colours.
A sharp cold was that which froze thee!—This is admirative or ironical.
Prosecute not that.—Koran xvii. 38. For the interpretation of this command see Bayḍâwi. The meaning of ◌ or ◌ in this passage is taken to be “a following up of a man or thing for the purpose of accusation or calumny;” so that in ordinary phrase ◌ signifies that such an one inveighed against or slandered such an one; it is also used of lying and bearing false witness. In a Tradition of the Prophet it is said, using the word ◌, “Whosoever shall prosecute or accuse a Moslem untruly, God shall imprison him amid the sweat of the damned.”
Ṭaybeh.—This was the name which the city of Yathrib received from Moḥammed: for God ◌ “made it sweet and goodly,” as the home of the Prophet during life, and his resting-place after death. The laḳab or appellation of Medinet an Nebî, the City of the Prophet, however, prevailed, and is now used as the proper name of the city.
My nature is to pass from prey to prey.—The word ◌, which is used several times by Ḥarîri, is made popular by the proverb attributed to a certain Abû Akhzam, for which see Arab. Prov. I. 658, and Ḥarîri’s explanation to the Forty-fourth Assembly.
From ‘Amr to Zayd.—That is, from one person to another. These two names, being very common among the Arabs, are used in stating grammatical or legal propositions; as we should say, “John struck William;” “John leased land to William.” They are used in the verses of Abû Odayneh; Schultens, Mon. Vetust. Arabiæ.
More coated than an onion.—This homely but expressive proverb is to be found in Maydâni. Arab. Prov. II. 385. A verb is formed from the noun, so that you say ◌ “I peeled or stripped (literally, I onioned) the man of his clothes,” that is, “I peeled them off like the coats of an onion.”
Glory to God who rusted thy mind.—This is an expression of wonder.
Rent the bottle of thy storing is equivalent to “made thee incapable of remembering anything.” I have rendered ◌ on the authority of Sherîshi, who says that it signifies to cover with rust and dirt, as a sword is covered. The word is used in the Koran as at iv. 154; xvi. 110, to signify an action of God on the hearts of the wicked, by which He keeps them from knowledge of the truth, and abandons them to evil deeds. Originally, no doubt, the meaning was simply to “mould” or “stamp” the heart or understanding; but from these passages it acquired an evil signification, so that it is said, “We take refuge with God from ◌ (sinful desire) which is akin to ◌ (vice or that state of the mind which is reprobate of God).” The derivative signification of foulness, or uncleanness, is easily understood. ◌ is manṣûb as a maṣdar; but see also Bayḍâwi, Koran xvii. 1. It is the word used whenever some indignity to God is to be repudiated; as that he has a Son, or a female companion, or partners in the Godhead.
Deskereh was a place between Ḥolwân and Bagdad, sixteen parasangs from the latter.
Ibn Sukkereh.—Abû ’l Ḥasan Moḥammed the Hâshimi, surnamed
Ibn Sukkereh, was an elegant poet of the fourth century
of the Hijra. He was descended from ‘Ali, son of the Khalif
Al Mahdi, and was consequently of the blood of Hâshim. He
excelled in light and humorous writing, as may be supposed
from the verses in the text. His collected works amount to
about fifty thousand verses. He was the rival of Ibn al Ḥajjâj,
a contemporary poet of the same style; and the two were compared
to Jerîr and Al Farazdaḳ in a former ag/e. Ibn Sukkerehe. Ibn Sukkereh
died in 385 (
Winter comes.—These are the pair of verses of which Ḥarîri speaks in his Preface as having been taken from an extraneous source. The metre is basîṭ. For the two plurals of ◌, which occur in the first line, see Lane’s Lexicon, and Ḥarîri in the Durrah (Anthol. Gramm. Arabe, p. 42, Arab. Text.) It may be necessary to remind the reader that the seven things here described as necessary for winter all begin with the letter kâf. A wit remarking on these verses has said that if a man has one kâf, namely ◌, a purse, he can easily supply himself with the other six.
The “Spotted.”—The Arabic rhetoricians have given various fanciful names to the artificial compositions of the later writers. The epithet ◌ is applied to a composition of which every alternate letter is pointed, the rest being unpointed. Its literal signification is “spotted,” like the leopard which is called ◌, or a hen which is white but has black spots on her feathers. The composition called ◌, of which the Sixth Assembly gives an example is one in which the letters of each alternate word are pointed, while the letters of the other words are without points. This name is given to it from a fancied resemblance to a horse which which has one eye black and the other blue; such a horse is called ◌. Verses made up of words which are entirely without pointed letters are called ◌; on the other hand, those which consist of words of which all the letters are pointed are called ◌ or “brides.” The word ◌ is applied to a woman who is unadorned with a necklace, the emblem of female dignity; while the bride, on the contrary, is supposed to fully adorned, the rhetoricians conceiving that the words are adorned by the points attached to them. The explanation of Sherîshi (Assembly 46) that among the pagan Arabs brides were adorned by their faces being spotted with saffron, is not necessary for the understanding of this epithet. Examples of these and of other kinds of artificial composition are to be found in the Forty-sixth Assembly.
Ahwâz was a city, or rather a district of towns, on the Karûn river, probably the Pasitigris, about fifty miles south-east of Sûs. In a note to Naṣîf al Yazaji’s Assemblies, p. 8, it is said to have consisted of nine towns. It was noted for its unhealthiness, new comers being liable to attacks of fever. There is an allusion to the sugar of Ahwâz in some verses of Al Mutenebbi, quoted in De Sacy’s Commentary. The explanation of the expression “the two markets” is that one part of the inhabitants carried on their business from morning till noon, and the others during the remainder of the day. Ahwâz disputes with Basra the honour of having given birth to the poet Abû Nuwâs.
Passing sombre days: literally, urging or driving. De Sacy compares it with the French “pousser le temps avec l’épaule.” Chrest. Arabe, III. 268. The word is used of gentle urging forward, as a man drives on his camel, or a cow her calf.
Mouldering camp-ruin.—The abandonment by a tribe of its abode, leaving behind the ashes and other relics of the encampment, was, as has been noticed, a common subject of lamentation among the Arab poets; for the poet’s mistress was supposed to have passed away with her family, leaving him disconsolate. For the words in the text see Dîwân of Imr al Ḳays, p. 20 Arab. Text, first line of poem.
Girded up of skirt; that is, actively; gathering up my skirt for speed.
Its streamlet . . . . the abundant waters; that is, “I left Ahwâz where I had no hope of making gain, and sought some richer place.”
The shadow of the tent.—Ḥarîri says in the Durrah (Anthol. Gramm. Arabe, p. 27, Arab. Text) that ◌ is applied to the shadow only during the forenoon, and ◌ during the afternoon.
Wilt thou not?—Naṣîf al Yazaji, in his letter to De Sacy, says that the ◌ here is not interrogative. It may be like ◌ a particle of calling attention, ◌, see Anthol. Gramm. Arabe, p. 109, Arab Text. In the 37th it is said, using the hamzeh alone, “How! at one time a Temîmî, and at another a Ḳaysî?” There it is apparently ◌. Compare also 28th, p. 347, and 29th, p. 360. But I have made it interrogative as most consistent with the sense.
Took my seat.—◌ is used of deliberately taking a seat, as on a cushion or sofa, for the purpose of conversation, and thus differs from ◌, which is the mere act of sitting down. The literal meaning of the former verb is “he placed his posteriors on ◌,” that is, on rugged or elevated ground; and it expresses a change of place from low to high, while ◌ expresses a change of place from high to low. Thus if one who has been lying down sits up, it is said that ◌; while if one who has been standing sits down, the word ◌ is used.
Those yellow teeth; literally, his tooth-yellowness.” ◌ is the yellow or green filth which hardens on and between the aged camel’s teeth, and which the Arabs periodically clean away. Thus it is said of any one who is instructed or reformed late in life, “The aged camel is tooth-cleaned.” Arab. Prov. II. 84. The word is here applied to the yellow teeth of an old man.
Thy returning.—For this anomalous maṣdar see Lane’s Lexicon.
Ṭûs.—Ibn Khallikân, in his life of Abû ’l Futûḥ al Ghazzalî,
who was born at Ṭûs, says that it consisted “of two towns called
Taberân and Nowḳân, to which belong more than a thousand
villages.” It was one of the most important districts in
Khorasan, and distinguished as the birthplace of the poet Fir-dousi,
as well as of the Wazîr Niẓâm al Mulk, who wielded
almost absolute power for thirty years as the minister of Alp
Arslan and Melek Shah, and of whose services to education I
have spoken in the Introduction. He was assassinated by a
Ṣûfî fanatic near Nehavend, in the year 485 (
I improvised.—The word ◌ has also the technical meaning of beginning the ḳaṣîdeh without the nesîb, or mention of the poet’s mistress. Abû Nuwâs is said to have been the first to make this innovation, which was afterwards adopted by Al Mutenebbi. This was also called ◌ and ◌.
The war of Al Basûs.—The death of Kolayb Wâ’il and the war of Al Basûs form one of the most celebrated chapters in the early Arab history. Kolayb Wâ’il, the powerful chief of the stock of Rabî‘ah, who at the head of Bekr and Taghlib defeated the army of Ḥimyar on the day of Khozâz or Khozâza, has been already spoken of. After he had delivered the descendants of Ma‘add from the domination of Yemen he was elected by all the race of Rabî‘ah as their Prince, and became virtual sovereign of Arabia. But his pride equalled his greatness. It has been mentioned in the note to “the guarded domain of Kolayb,” in the Nineteenth Assembly, that he forbade the pasturing of any camels but his own upon certain lands. It is said that he asserted this right of domain all through the ◌, that is, the country between the Nejd and the Tihâmeh, and at the back of Mecca. The legend of his death is as follows. Once a lark flew up from her eggs on his approach, as he was walking in his domain, and he improvised in rejez, as has been already related. At Arab. Prov. I. 432, the verses, with a slight variation, are attributed to the poet Ṭarafeh: the word ◌ signifies here the wide part of a valley. It is related that Kolayb found one day the lark’s eggs broken by the feet of a camel whose footprints he did not recognise, and which he consequently knew to belong to a stranger. Now Kolayb was married to Jelîleh and Mâwîyeh, daughters of Morrat ibn Thohl ibn Shaybân ibn Tha‘labeh. Their mother, Al Hâleh, had a sister or an aunt named Al Basûs, both of them being of the tribe of Temîm. Morrah had also ten sons, one of whom was named Jessâs. For greater security the descendants of Bekr by Shaybân, of whom were Morrah and his family, lived in common with the tribe of Taghlib, of which Kolayb was the immediate head. It consequently came to pass that Kolayb gave his brother-in-law Jessâs the right of pasturing his camels upon the princely domain. Al Basûs, the aunt, or the great-aunt, of Jessâs, and of his sisters the wives of Kolayb, also lived in the same settlement. (The name Basûs is explained by Ḥarîri in the tefsîr to the Forty-fourth Assembly. The milker of a camel used to say to her ◌, in order to keep her quiet and make her give milk freely. The action of saying this, and getting milk by it, is ◌, and the camel which gives milk when this is said to her is called ◌. See also Arab. Prov. I. 94.) Al Basûs had a neighbour named Sa‘d, the son of Shems, of the tribe of Jarm, and it was his she-camel Sarâb which had brokent he lark’s eggs; Jessâs having allowed it to graze with his own. Kolayb, when he knew that a strange camel had entered his pasture, said, “By the altars of Wâ’il! no camel of Wâ’il would have dared to outrage my clientship.” What followed is told in various ways, and is too lengthy to repeat here. It is sufficient to say that Kolayb watched for the strange camel to come again, and when he saw Sarâb, he shot at her with an arrow, and pierced her udder. The she-camel galloped homeward, her udder spurting milk and blood, until she came to her master’s door. Then Sa‘d cried out with shame and humiliation at the sight, and Al Basûs came forth, and when she saw the camel she also cried out “Oh scorn! oh scorn!” and beat her hand upon her head, and improvised thus:
By thy life, if I dwelt in the house of Monḳith (her father) Sa‘d would not have been injured, he the neighbour of my dwelling;
But I am in the house of exile, which, when the wolf assails, it is my sheep that he seizes.
O Sa‘d, be not careless but depart, for thou art among a people who are as dead men in the defence of a neighbour.
Take my camels, for I am about to set forth, in fear lest they wrong my daughters.
She raised her voice while she thus declaimed, in order that Jesṣâs might hear her. He said to her, “Be tranquil, to-morrow there shall be slain a male camel, whose houghing shall be a greater deed than this wounding of thy neighbour’s she-camel.” By this he meant that he would slay Kolayb, but the Prince suspected nothing, and when he heard the threat of Jessâs he said to himself, “He intends to slay my camel stallion Gho-layyân, but less than Gholayyân is the stripping of the ḳatâd:” Arab. Prov. I. 484; that is, to kill Gholayyân would be a more difficult thing than for a man to strip the thorny tragacanth with his naked hand. This phrase became proverbial, and is used when one attempts a task above his powers. Kolayb also uttered verses declaring that what he had done would be a warning to the family of Morrah. Jessâs also improvised verses, in which he swore by the altars of Wâ’il (or of his people, for the word is doubtful) that he would maintain the rights of hospitality.
The slaying of Kolayb was on this wise. Jessâs watched his opportunity, and one day when Kolayb went out into the field unarmed, he followed him, accompanied by ‘Amr ibn Abî Rabî‘at al Muzdalif ibn Thohl, or, as others say, ‘Amr ibn Al Ḥârith ibn Shaybân. Jessâs ran at him with his spear, and broke his spine, and went and stood over him. Kolayb, tormented, said to him, “Give me a drink of water.” “Thou hast passed by Shobayth and Al Aḥaṣṣ,” said Jessâs, alluding to two water-sources which Kolayb had prohibited to the Benû Shaybân: Arab. Prov. I. 249. These words became proverbial, and are used when one seeks a thing where it is not to be found. He then left him, and ‘Amr coming up, Kolayb asked him also for water, but ‘Amr got off his horse and despatched him, so that “To ask help of ‘Amr in need,” is a proverb meaning to supplicate a merciless person. The war or feud then began between the tribe of Taghlib, of which Kolayb’s brother, Mohalhil, was now the chief, and the tribe of Bekr, of which the Benû Shaybân were a branch. Mohalhil could not believe that one of the family of Morrah had dared to slay his brother, and when Hammâm ibn Morrah told him what Jessâs had done, he exclaimed, “He is not a big enough man for it,” literally, “Podex ejus angustior est quam illud,” Arab. Prov. I. 607. But when he knew the truth he determined to avenge him. The real name of Mohalhil was ‘Adî, and he received the former appellation on account of the beauty of his poetry, since Mohalhil signifies, “one who weaves finely.” The elegy which Mohalhil composed on his brother’s death is generally held to have been the first regular poem (ḳaṣîdeh) composed among the Arabs. Some fragments of it are preserved in the Ḥamâseh, p. 420, and the invaluable commentary appended to these contains a full narrative of the death of Kolayb. These events took place, probably, in the last ten years of the fifth century after Christ. The war of Basûs lasted forty years between Taghlib and Bekr, so that it is said proverbially “More unlucky than Basûs,” Arab. Prov. I. 683, and “More unlucky than Sarâb.” In this war the tribe of Taghlib was in the end defeated; Mohalhil was taken prisoner and put to death, or, according to another account, forced to take refuge in Yemen, and the descendants of Rabî‘ah were so exhausted by mutual carnage as to be obliged to accept a viceroy of the Himyarite monarch.
There was, it is said, another Basûs, to whom the proverb “More unlucky than Basûs” refers. According to Sheref ad Dîn, and the author of the Ḳâmûs, she and her husband were of the children of Israel, and God had promised the husband to fulfil for him three wishes. Basûs persuaded her husband to ask that she should be made the most beautiful woman in Israel, and God granted the request. She then, being greatly admired, ceased to care for her husband, on which he prayed God that she might be turned into a bitch, which also came to pass. Her children then, being in much affliction, implored their father to ask that she should be restored to her original form, before she was beautiful. The husband did this, and Basûs became as she was at the beginning. Thus the man’s three wishes were exhausted without gaining any good.
The Kitâb al Aghâni contains a narrative of the war of Basûs; a short summary of the events will be found in the second volume of M. Caussin de Perceval’s Essai. See also the verses of Jaḥdar ibn Ḍobay‘ah, in the Ḥamâseh, p. 252.
Take omen of the raven of separation.—The crow and raven were looked upon as birds of ill omen, because in the ceaseless migrations of the Arabs they alighted on each deserted encampment to scratch and search for what they could find, and were consequently taken as emblems of departure and desolation. This image recurs continually in the poets. Various kinds of crow were distinguished, one said to be properly the “crow of separation,” being of mixed black and white, or with a white breast, or, as others say, a crow with red beak and feet, while the black crow was called ḥâtim, because it decided or announced separation to be inevitable. On this subject see Lane’s Lexicon, at word ◌. The crow is associated with death in the history of Cain and Abel at Koran v. 34. The word ◌ signifies literally to start a bird by making a noise or throwing a stone at it, and has the meaning of taking an omen, because he who wished to take an omen from the flight of birds did this. If the bird flew towards his right it was a good omen, if towards his left it was a bad one. A distinction is made between ◌ and ◌, the former being to take omens from the names, or the voices, or the settlings of birds; while the latter appears to have been restricted to omens from their flight. The practice of taking omens by birds is alluded to at Koran xxxvi. 17, where the inhabitants of Antioch say to Simon and John, and another apostle, who had been sent to them by Jesus, “We look upon you as an ill omen, and if ye abstain not (from preaching) we will stone you.” (They were all destroyed by a shout of Gabriel, with the exception of Ḥabîb, the carpenter; see Bayḍâwi.) The word ◌ is used of a bad omen; ◌ of a good one. The meaning of ◌ is illustrated as follows in the commentary to the Thirty-eighth Assembly: “If a man be sick and he hear somebody say ◌, or if he be seeking something, and he hear one say ◌, or ◌, it is a good omen.” There is a Tradition of the Prophet that he said ◌, literally, “No infection, no bird-omening; but good omening pleases me,” that is, as I understand it, “Do not worry yourselves to escape infection of ◌ or ◌ (the two forms of leprosy), nor to take omens of birds, but if you hear a word of good omen, rejoice and be thankful for it.” The ◌ was afterwards used to signify a practice resembling the “sortes Virgilianæ” of Europe. The Koran was opened and a certain line, as the seventh on the right hand side, was read. Then seven leaves would be turned, and the seventh line on the left hand side would be read. Whatever the inquirer could gather from a certain number of passages obtained in this manner was supposed to indicate the future.
The Arabs had, from early times, many forms of soothsaying and augury. Not only was the flight of birds or the track of beasts ominous, but certain animals were supposed to indicate misfortune. Thus, when Imr al Ḳays received the poisoned shirt from Cæsar he went forth and saw a wild ass lying in his path. He knew then that he was to die, and when his companions congratulated him on the gift, he merely replied, “Why lay down the wild ass?” which became proverbial. Arab. Prov. II. 204. See also “More unlucky than the crow of separation;” than “the bird ◌,” that is, the green wood-pecker, picus viridis; than ◌. Arab. Prov. I. 694–5. When a man going from home desired to be assured whether his wife would remain faithful to him he secretly bound the twigs of a tree together. If, on his return, he found them as he left them he knew that she was virtuous; if they had loosened themselves he concluded that she was faithless. This knot was called ◌; or ◌ was the name of the plant, the broom, which was usually tied. It is described as useless at Arab. Prov. II. 716. The discovery of a thief by the twisting of a pitcher was also known among them. Arab. Prov. II. 115. Often the omen or divination depended on tejnîs or paronomasia, ◌ itself having the same root of ◌. Thus ◌, the ben-tree, was ominous of separation from its relation to ◌. Compare the names ◌, and ◌, and ◌. Arab. Prov. I. 697.
The shoes of Ḥonayn.—This saying was explained at Assembly Ten.
The story.—For ◌ see Zamakhshari on Koran xii. 3, in Anthol. Gramm. Arabe, p. 124, Arab. Text.
The Tales of Pleasure after Pain.—This was a celebrated collection of anecdotes.
How various are thy wiles.—I have read ◌, as corresponding more closely with the first ḳarîneh.
A spotted Address.—It has been mentioned that the letters of this composition are alternately pointed and unpointed. There are several peculiarities to be noticed. The teshdîd and the conjoined lam-elif are naturally made single letters. Naṣîf al Yazaji, in his epistle to De Sacy, falls into a mistake through an excess of critical acumen. De Sacy, in noticing the latter-named peculiarity, had said that Ḥarîri made “the word ◌” a single letter, on which Naṣîf observes that ◌ is not a word, but merely one of the letters of the alphabet, which is not ◌ because it has no meaning. But De Sacy is strictly accurate, since he means that not only is ◌ made one letter when it forms part of a word, as in ◌, at the beginning of the composition, but that the word ◌, not, is made a single letter, as in the fourth line of the second piece of verse. Naṣîf then goes on to say that ◌ is rightly called a single letter, because it is the soft elif, as in ◌, a letter that cannot be uttered by itself, and requires ◌ to be joined to it in order to make it pronounceable. In this he refers to the opinion of some, that the soft or quiescent elif, which is merely a letter of prolongation, and to be distinguished from hamzeh, as I shall notice presently, is really named ◌, and that this is the ◌ which is reckoned between ◌ and ◌, the lam being prefixed to the elif, because the latter cannot begin a word, and therefore cannot begin its own name. If this be true, and if the early grammarians did thus place the three weak letters at the end of the alphabet together, while they kept hamzeh at the beginning, it must be acknowledged that the true meaning of this accurate and scientific distinction was eventually lost, and that lexicographers, as well as the vulgar, looked upon the lam as an essential part of the double letter, since, in indices of shawâhid, or the like, verses beginning, for instance, with ◌, not, are to be found under this heading. They treated lam-elif as a single letter merely because it formed a single character in writing.
A more important peculiarity in this composition is that the
author treats the letter which bears the sign of hamzeh, in such
words as ◌ and ◌, as a ◌, and makes it a pointed letter.
The true nature of this letter has been the subject of many
discussions among the grammarians, which must have been well
known to Ḥarîri, who has criticised with such minuteness the
faults in orthography committed by his contemporaries. The
existence of such a letter as hamzeh, or the Hebrew aleph, is due
to the strong and energetic pronunciation of the Semitic nations.
In Arabic it may be said that there is no letter precisely equivalent
to the corresponding letter in the softly uttered speech of
England or France. For instance ◌, though formed by the
same action of the mouth as our B, is uttered with a stronger
compression and a more rapid separation of the lips, and so
of all the other letters. For this reason the pronunciation
of Arabic by Europeans, even when they have a fair notion
of the language, is almost unintelligible to natives, since the
former utter an incomplete sound, particularly at the ends of
syllables. For instance, in pronouncing ◌, without the
tanwîn, they seem only half to sound the ◌, and almost to drop
the ◌ altogether; the true Arabic pronunciation might be
represented by bbedelll. From this habit of forcible utterance it
comes to pass that when a word begins with a sound corresponding
to our vowels, the Arabs necessarily utter it with the prefixion
of a slight guttural, or rather faucial, sound. We can
understand this by uttering energetically, and, as it were,
jerking from the mouth, some English word beginning with
a vowel, as and, ill, out. The more energetically we do this the
more we are conscious of the prefixion of a very decided faucial
to the initial vowel. This faucial is the Arabic hamzeh. It has
been stated by European scholars of the highest authority, to
differ from whom seems like presumption, that the hamzeh
corresponds to the spiritus lenis in Greek words, and may be
represented by the H in such French words as habit, homme.
But such a description is, I must think, far from accurate.
The spiritus lenis I conceive to have been a purely negative
sign, denoting only the absence of aspiration, and to say that the
hamzeh may be represented by the H in habit and homme, gives
the idea that it has no value at all, since l’ habit and l’ homme
are pronounced precisely as if they were written l’ abit, l’ omme.
If the spiritus lenis in
From this prefixion of hamzeh to vowel sounds it came to pass that when the tanwîn was affixed to a word ending with elif lengthened, the hamzeh appeared in the tanwîn, thus ◌. Similarly where, in the changes produced by declension, a syllable is deprived of its consonant and remains only a ḥarakeh or motion of the voice (as we should say a vowel), hamzeh prefixes itself to it. Thus in ◌, where the second syllable is really consonantless through the euphonious dropping of the radical ◌, and has become a mere kesr, the hamzeh steps in and consonants the syllable to make it pronounceable. Similarly, in ◌ the plural of ◌, the augmentative ◌ being elided, its place is supplied by hamzeh. In ◌, the plural of ◌, the principle is slightly different. There the elif in the singular, which is augmentative, is the quiescent elif (◌ or ◌), which is a mere sound of prolongation after a fetḥah; and this is the letter which becomes hamzeh in the plural, since the elif which appears in the plural is the elif of the plural, as in ◌. Hence, strictly speaking, in all these cases the syllable in question has for its consonant hamzeh; and the yâ, written properly without points, is equivalent to the sign of kesreh, and indicates only the motion or vowel of the hamzeh.
The distinct utterance of hamzeh in the middle of words was, however, not strictly observed. The lightening, ◌, of a word by the conversion of hamzeh into elif, or waw, or yâ, according to the ḥarakeh which attached to it was not inconsistent with pureness of speech. To observe the hamzeh carefully was called ◌ or ◌. The ordinary writing of the hamzeh in such words as those instanced above was in accordance with the principle of tekhfîf, as if hamzeh in these cases had something of the sound of yâ, as indeed becomes sensible when the word is quickly uttered. But the learned in penmanship wrote the yâ without points in order to show that the letter was not a real yâ; the common people only writing it with points. In one case the hamzeh became a real yâ through this tekhfîf; this was when it had fetḥah, while the letter before it had kesreh. Thus ◌ enmity, ◌ a band, where it will be perceived that in the pronunciation the hamzeh is almost necessarily overwhelmed by the sound of yâ, which is projected on to it from the kesr of the preceding syllable. We may now perceive why Ḥarîri in this composition took the liberty of treating as a pointed letter the yâ, over which the hamzeh is written. In using the word ◌, which is more accurately ◌, he avails himself of the rule above stated, that hamzeh with fetḥah after a letter with kesreh becomes pure yâ. In the other cases he permits himself a greater license; but it is justified by the written character used, and the modification in the nature of hamzeh which that character, in the opinion of some, represented. It will be observed that in ◌ he treats the radical hamzeh as if it were yâ.
Replacing, consuming.—This is said of a powerful and generous person, with the meaning that he replaces by forays on his enemies the wealth which he lavishes in largesses to his friends. A poet says “Replace and consume; wealth is but a loan.” The Arabs say to him who has put on a new garment, “Wear out, and replace, and praise the Clother,” meaning God (Lane’s Lexicon, at ◌). The metre of the verses is khafîf. See Tenth Assembly.
The chaplets of his honour are self-strung; that is, his achievements inspire the poet’s verses, and, as it were, string them into a composition without labour on the poet’s part.
Makes gain by beguiling him; that is, gains so much that he may be said to cheat his patron. In the next set of verses ◌ is used in a good sense.
And therefore is he loved.—Metre kâmil.
The hero of the time.—For an explanation of the word ◌ see commentary on a verse of Ta’abbaṭa Sherran, in Ḥamâseh, p. 33. It may be rendered temporis admissarius, having a signification like ◌. Compare ◌ at beginning of 49th.
Contends in honour.—The munâfarah or trial of superiority in birth or rank has been described in a former note.
Prepares fatigue for him who shall rule after him.—His merits are such that his successor must exert himself greatly to escape disparagement in comparison with him. In the Thirty-seventh Assembly the author says, “His clemency brings contempt on those who have gone before, and his justice fatigues those who come after.” The editors of the second edition of De Sacy’s Ḥarîri have printed this line in the commentary to the 26th with great inaccuracy; thus ◌, which is not Arabic. Such carelessness is the more inexcusable as the line is given correctly by De Sacy in the text of the 37th. They commit a similar error at Vol. I. pp. 279 and 348, and in other places.
May he never become void.—The verses are of the second ‘arûḍ of the rejez, each hemistich containing ◌ twice.
Ḳoss.—The orator whose name is generally opposed to Bâḳil is Saḥbân; it is noticed by Sherîshi that the rule of the present composition forbids the mention of him, since it requires that the alternate letters should be pointed. Ḳoss, bishop of Najrân in Yemen, is one of the examples of eloquence among the Arabs. Christianity was professed in that city by the Benû ’l Ḥârith ibn Ka‘b, and Ḳoss ibn Sâ‘idet al Îyâdî flourished as a preacher in the early days of Moḥammed. Various innovations are attributed to him, as that he was the first who preached from an eminence, as a pulpit; and the first who in preaching leaned on a sword or staff; he was also the first who used the phrase ◌; the first who inscribed letters with the formula, “From Such-a-one to Such-a-one;” the first who asserted the Resurrection, though without having a certain knowledge of it (inasmuch as Islam had not been preached); and the first who established the legal principle that it is incumbent on the plaintiff who demands a debt to produce proofs, and on the defendant to deny by oath. From these traditions it would seem that he was a man of ability and education, and exercised much influence on his contemporaries. The Prophet, before he received his mission, met Ḳoss at the fair of ‘Okâẓ, and heard him preach. In the year before Moḥammed’s death deputies of the Benû Îyâd came to Medina, and the Prophet asked them concerning Ḳoss. They replied that he was dead. Moḥammed then said that he had heard him preach at ‘Okâẓ, and one of the deputies repeated a khoṭbah of the bishop in rhymed prose and verse. It is said proverbially, “More eloquent than Ḳoss” (Arab. Prov. I. 189).
Come off with the reward.—Perhaps it would be better to read ◌ “rise,” as in the 12th, “He rose up with that by which to mend his poverty,” since ◌ is always used in the Koran in a bad sense, as “They returned with anger from God,” ii. 58; “I would rather that thou return laden with my guilt (or the guilt of killing me) and thy guilt,” Abel to Cain, v. 32.
A few years.—This expression is used at Koran xii. 42, “He (Joseph) remained in the prison some (or a few) years.” The word ◌ is generally interpreted to mean a number more than two and less than ten. Compare Bayḍâwi on ◌ and ◌ at Koran xxvii. 49; also Ḥarîri in the Durrah, Anthol. Gramm. Arabe, p. 41, Arab. Text.
Praise to God.—The naṣb of ◌ as a maṣdar after an elided verb is the fundamental phrase. For the reason of the raf‘ see Bayḍâwi, Koran i. 1.
Cool of eye; a common expression for content and tranquillity. According to Al Aṣma‘î the expression “God cool thine eye” signifies “God make thy tears cool;” since, as he asserts, the tears of joy are cool, while those of grief are hot. Abû ‘Amr ash Shaybâni says that its meaning is “God give thee sleep that thou may not heat thine eye in watching;” commentary to Mo‘allaḳah of ‘Amr ibn Kulthûm, v. 11. In the Twenty-seventh Assembly it is said of a scorching noon that it was “hotter than a childless mother’s tear.”
The Pearl of the Diver.—This, the title of Al Ḥarîri’s grammatical work, may perhaps better be given simply as “The Pearl,” ◌ being a phrase applied to the sea-pearl, which is brought up from the depths by the diver. Compare line 11 of the Ḳaṣîdeh of Omayyet ibn Abî ‘Â’ith in the Dîwân of the Huthalîyûn, p. 177, Kosegarten’s edition.
Rustem and Isfendiar and the Chosroes.—There are other indications that the ancient historical legends of the Persians were known to the Arabs at an early time. The Chosroes especially referred to would be the heroic monarch Kai-Khosru, who holds in the romance of Iran the position of Arthur or Charlemagne in that of Europe. His war with Afrasiab, king of Turan, and the adventures of the Pahlawans Rustem, Tûs, Guderz, Guiw, and others, form the grandest and most poetical section of the work of Firdousi. For the story of An Naḍr, see Sîrat ar Resûl, p. 191.
John Tzetzes.—The learned Byzantine refers in his Chiliads to the work of Lycophron, his own labours on it, and the misbehaviour of a rival scholar. In his City Verse he relates:
Chiliades, viii. 483. From the sequel of the narrative it appears that the impostor did not go unpunished.