Assemblies - The Assemblies of Hariri, Volume 2

According to most commentators, Sâsân, after whom this Assembly is named, was the eldest son of the king of part of Western Persia, who was disinherited by his father in favour of a daughter and her progeny, and fled in high dudgeon from his father’s court, to lead the life of a nomad shepherd amongst the Kurds. Thus he became the beau-idéal of beggars and vagrants, and the hero of popular tales, like the “king of the gipsies.” Others state that, under “the race of Sâsân,” the Persian kings of the last Dynasty are meant, many of whose descendants were, after the conquest of the country by the Arabs, reduced to the utmost poverty and excited popular commiseration by their tragic downfall. Alluding to this prince of beggars or beggared princes, Abû Zayd urges his son to practise mendicancy as a fine art, which he himself had found preferable to all other recognised means to gain an enjoyable livelihood.

Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm, related: The report reached me, that Abû Zayd, when he neared the (number of years indicated by the) clenched fist (ninety-three), and the fetter of old age robbed him of the power of rising, sent for his son, after having collected his thoughts, and said to him: “O my son, behold the time for departing from the threshold and for having my eyes anointed with the koḥl-pencil of demise has drawn nigh, and thou, praise be to Allah, art my heir apparent, and the leader of the flock of Sâsân after me, and for one like thee it needs no tapping with the staff, nor awakening him by the throw of pebbles, but he is called upon to exhort men’s minds, and made to be a furbisher of their thoughts. So I bequeath thee that which Seth bequeathed not to Nabat̤, nor Jacob to the tribes. Preserve then my bequest and eschew disobedience to me; pattern thyself after my likeness, and ponder well my saws, for if thou be guided by my counsel and take light from my morning, thy alighting-place will be rich in herbs and thy smoke (i.e., the smoke of thy fires of hospitality) will rise aloft, whereas, if thou be forgetful of my surah, and cast from thee my advice, the ashes of thy trivet will be few, and thy people and kin will make light of thee. O my son, I have tested the true states of things and experienced the vicissitudes of fortune, and have seen a man held worth his wealth, not his pedigree, and inquiry is made after his gain, not after his deserts. Now I have heard that the means of livelihood are ministry and commerce, and husbandry and handicraft. So I have plied these four to see which of them is the most fitting and profitable. But I have not proved living by them praiseworthy, nor found ease of life plentiful in them, for the opportunities of rulerships and the perquisites of administrations are like the entanglements of dreams and like the shadows vanishing with the darkness, and a sufficient anguish for thee is the bitterness of being weaned therefrom. And as for the goods of trade, they are subject to risks, and a butt to depredatory inroads, and how like they are to swift-winged birds. And as for the undertaking of farms and applying one’s self to tilling the ground, it is a source of demeanment and a drag impeding advancement, and rarely is its pursuer exempt from despisal or blest with tranquillity of mind. And lastly as for the crafts of artisans, they yield not more than the merest pittance, and sell not briskly at all times, and most of them are dependent on the prime of life. And I see naught easy to win, sweet to taste, and in its acquirement pure of nature, but the craft of which Sâsân has planted the roots and diversified the branches, whose light he has made to shine in the East and West, and whose beacon he has kindled to the sons of dust. So I engaged in its battles, sporting its badge, and chose its mark as my ornament, since it is the merchandise that never slacks, and the spring that never sinks, and the lamp to which all resort and by which the blind and the one-eyed obtain light. And those who exercise it are the most powerful of tribes, and the luckiest of folks, no touch of oppression overtakes them, no drawing of the sword harasses them, they fear not the sting of biting vermin, nor submit they to anyone either near or far, they are not in awe of him who lightens and thunders, nor care they for him who (in his fretful anger) rises and sits down again. Their assemblies are pleasant, their hearts at ease, their food is sped before them, and their times pass brightly. Wheresoever they alight, they pick up, and where they slip in, they strip off, they make no country their home and fear no king, and they differ not from the birds that are hungry in the morning and full at eventide.” Then his son said to him: “O my father, thou hast spoken true in what thou hast said, but thou hast stitched together, not ripped open. So explain to me how I may gather in a harvest, and from which end the shoulder is to be eaten.” Said he: “O my son, bestirring one’s self is the door to it, and alacrity its array, and sharpness of wit its lamp, and pertness its weapon; be thou more on the move than the Qut̤rub, and travel swifter than the locust, be brisker than the gazelle by moonlight, and more aggressive than the tiger-wolf, rub the fire-shaft of thy fortune by thy effort, and knock at the door of thy sustenance by thy activity, cross every mountain-pass and dive into every deep, forage over every pasture-ground and sink thy bucket into every fountain, weary not of begging, and be not loath of exertion, for it was written on the staff of our elder Sâsân: ‘He gets, who begs, he who roves, makes sure of his loaves.’ But beware of sloth, for it is a presage of calamities and the garb of the indigent, the key of poverty and the germ of affliction, the token of weakness and folly, and the habit of the helpless, the dependent. He gathers no honey who has chosen laziness, nor fills he his palm who deems ease a smooth bed. So step boldly forward, though it be against the lion, for daringness of the soul gives speech to the tongue and freedom of motion to the rein, and by it eminence is reached and affluence obtained, even as cowardice is the twin of sluggishness, and the cause of failure, and a hindrance to action, and a disappointment to hope. Therefore it is said in the proverb: ‘One who dares, fares well, he who fears, will fail.’ Sally then forth, my son, with the earliness of the raven, and the boldness of the lion, and the prudence of the chameleon, and the cunning of the wolf, and the greed of the pig, and the nimbleness of the gazelle, and the craftiness of the fox, and the patience of the camel, and the blandishments of the cat, and the diversity of colours of the humming-bird. Beguile by the gilding of thy tongue and deceive by the sorcery of thy eloquence; inquire after the state of a market before bringing thy goods to it, and coax the teat before milking; ask the travellers before visiting a pasture-ground, and make it smooth for thy side, before thou liest down; sharpen thy sight for taking omen from the flight of birds, and train thy perception for drawing inferences; for he who is right in reading characters will have the laugh for a long time, while the prey of him, who errs in his guess, will be tardy. Make, my son, thy burden light, and little thy dalliance, be averse to a repeated draught and content with a drizzle instead of a downpour, extol the value of the paltry and be thankful for a trifle, be not disheartened at a refusal, nor deem it far from possible that the rock should ooze, and despair not of the mercy of Allah, for none despaireth of Allah’s mercy but the faithless. And if thou have to choose between a mite ready at hand, and a pearl promised thee, incline to the ready, and prefer the day that is to the morrow that is to be; for delay leads to losses, and intentions are subject to change, and promises are prone to be postponed, and between them and their fulfilment lie mountains, ay, what mountains! Display then the patience of men of purpose, and the forbearance of the considerate, shun the harshness of one who exceeds bounds, and assume the habits of a cheerful disposition, keep tight the strings of thy purse, and blend lavishness with parsimony, hold not thy hand tied to thy neck, nor open it to its full extent. And when a country disagrees with thee, or a trouble has befallen thee therein, cut off thy hope from it and speed away from it thy camel, for the best of countries is that which betters thy state, and deem not departure burdensome nor hate removal, for the chiefs of our sect, and the elders of our tribe have agreed thereon, that motion is a blessing and the change of places like a promissory note, whereas they blame him who holds that peregrination is a bore and migration an infliction, and they say that it is an excuse of those who are contented with a paltry pittance and gratified with poor fruit and bad measure. But if thou have resolved on journeying abroad, and got ready for it thy staff and thy wallet, make choice of a helpful companion, ere thou settest out, for the neighbour before the house, and the fellow-traveller before wayfaring.

There is, my son, a bequest for thee, such as none afore was bequeathed yet,

One bright and fraught with the essence of choice rules and maxims that guide aright.

I selected them as a counseller sincere and earnest in his advice,

So act according to what I teach, as a wise and well-conducted wight,

That admiringly all people say: ‘This in truth is yonder lion’s whelp.’”

Said he: “O my son, I have given thee my last behest and made it right complete. Now, if thou follow it, well done! but if thou trespass against it, out upon thee! And may Allah be my substitute with thee, and I trust thou wilt not belie what I think of thee.” Then his son said to him: “O my father, may thy throne be never brought low, nor thy bier uplifted. Thou hast indeed spoken true, and taught aright, and bestowed on me that which never yet father has bestowed on son, and if I be spared after thee, but may I never taste thy loss, I will forsooth mould my manners after thy manners, the excellent, and follow thy traces, the illustrious, so that it may be said how like is this night to yesterday, and the morning cloud to the cloud of even.” Thereupon Abû Zayd rejoiced at his answer and smiled, and said: “He who resembles his father, wrongs not” (i.e., his mother’s fair fame).

Said Al Ḥarith, son of Hammâm: It has come to my knowledge that when the sons of Sâsân heard these beautiful mandates, they prized them above the mandates of Loḳman, and learnt them by heart, as the mother of the Koran is learnt, so that they reckon them to this time the best that they can teach their children, and more profitable to them than a gift of gold.

This last and crowning piece of Ḥarîri’s work is remarkable in two directions, which both bring it in close relation to the forty-eighth. In the latter the author extolled in eloquent strains the quarter of Basra, which was inhabited by him; here he out-soars the highest flights of his oratory in a magnificent encomium of his native town itself. But the present Assembly is still more admirable as a counter-part of that of the Benû Harâm with regard to the hero of the romance, who, having given there an account of an incident, which ominously inaugurated his questionable career, is now represented as redeeming, under the touch of divine grace, his life of venturesome expedients, frequently bordering on crime, by sincere repentance and transports of pure and unremitting devotion.

Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm, related: I was one day wrapped up in sadness, whose brunt was fierce, and whose impress was visible in me, and as I had heard that resorting to the assemblies of invocation removes all veils from man’s thought, I saw for the putting out of the live coal within me, naught but making for the cathedral mosque of Basra, whose chairs were at that time well filled, whose fountains were frequented, so that the flowers of speech might be culled in its meads, and the whir of pens was to be heard in its precincts. So I sped thither without delay and without swerving to the right or left, and when I had set foot on its gravel and got sight of its uttermost end, I espied a man in out-worn tatters upon an elevated stone, round whom throngs were crowded of uncounted number, and not engaged in child’s work. Therefore I hasted in his direction and sought access to him, hoping to find with him the cure of my disease, and I ceased not shifting places, heedless of knocks and blows, until I was seated opposite to him, where I was safe of mistaking him, when, lo, it was our Shaykh the Serûji, no doubt in him, nor any disguise to conceal him. Then at his sight my grief subsided, and the hosts of my cares were scattered. But when he perceived me and glanced at the place where I was sitting, he said: “O ye people of Basra! may Allah keep and guard you, and strengthen your piety; how far spread is the fragrance of your fame, and how surpassing are the virtues that distinguish you; your country is the most eminent of countries in purity, the richest of them in natural gifts, the widest in expanse, and the most fertile in pasture-grounds; she boasts over them the correctest kiblah, the broadest stream, the greatest number of rivers and date-palms, the most exquisite beauty in detail and aggregate, being the gateway to the sacred land and fronting the door (of the Ka‘beh) and the station (of Abraham), one of the two wings of the world, and a city founded on the fear of Allah, that never was defiled by flames of the fire, whose people never circumambulated idols, and prostrated themselves on her ground to none but the Merciful; possessed of shrines much visited and of mosques thronged with worshippers, of schools far celebrated, and of tombs resorted to by pilgrims, of monuments revered and enclosed precincts. In it meet the ships and the saddle-beasts, the fish and the lizards, the camel-driver and the sailor, the hunter and the tiller, the harpooner and the lancer, the herd and the swimmer, and to it belongs the spectacle of the tide that rises and the tide that ebbs. But as for you, ye are of those whose excellencies not two contest, no enemy gainsays. Your community are the most obedient lieges to their Lord, and the most grateful for benefits bestowed on them. Your ascetic is the most devout of mankind, and the brightest light on the road of truth; your scholar the most learned of all ages, and the supreme authority for all times, and from amongst you came forth he who created and laid down the lore of grammar, and he who devised the measures of poetry, and there is no boast of man, but to you belongs the foremost hand in it, and the winning arrow; there is no glory, but ye are the most worthy of it, and the most deserving. Withal ye have Muezzins far more than the people of any town, and in worship ye observe the nicest rules, and from you pattern is taken in performing the ceremonies of ‘Arafât, and became known the morning bounty in the sacred month for when the slumbers are still and the sleeper is soundly asleep, there is heard amongst you a recitation that rouses the somnolent, and rejoices the wakeful, and the smile of morning dawns not, nor breaks forth its light in season hot or cold, but the prayer-call summons you with a murmur, like the murmur of the wind on the sea-waves. Wherefore Tradition has disclosed concerning you, and the Prophet, be peace upon him, has declared aforehand that your murmur in the mornings would be like the murmur of the bees in the deserts; honour then to you for the prediction of the chosen one, and hail to your city, though it be effaced and nought remain of it but an outline.” Then he checked his tongue and put an end to his speech, so that their eyes glanced at him, and he was suspected of falling short, nay, taunted with inability to proceed, but he sighed the sigh of him who is dragged to execution, or whom a lion’s claws have clutched, when he said: “As for you, O people of Basra, there is none among you but he is worthy of renown alike for learning and liberality; but as for me, he who knows me—well, I am such, and the worst of acquaintances is he who injures thee; but to one who knows me not, I will now disclose truly my character. It is I, who have fared in Nejd and Tihâmeh, in Yemen and Syria, in the desert and the sea, in deepest night and early morning. In Serûj I was reared, and in the saddle I got my training. Forsooth, I have entered straits, and opened roads that were closed, and witnessed frays, and soothed tempers, and curbed the restive and pressed nostrils in the dust, and melted the frozen, and softened rocks. Ask of me the East and the West, the hoofs (of camels) and (their) humps, assemblies and hosts, tribes and squadrons, and gather clear tidings of me from the reporters of traditions and the story-tellers at night-talks, from the drivers of caravans, and the sharp-sighted diviners, that ye may know how many mountain-passes I have threaded and veils I have rent, how many perils I have braved and fights I have fought, how often I have beguiled the minds of men, and devised novelties and snatched opportunities, and made lions my prey, how many a high-flown I have left prone, how many a hidden one I have brought out by my spells, how many a flint I have ground until it split, and made spring its sweet water by my wiles. But there has passed what has passed, while the bough was fresh and the temple raven-haired, and the raiment of youth yet new; whereas now the skin has withered, the straight grown crooked, the dark night waxed light, and naught remains but repentance, if it avail, and to patch up the rent that has widened. Now, I had been apprised by reports well supported, and by traditions authenticated, that on every day a glance from Allah, be He exalted, falls upon you, and whereas all men’s weapons are of iron, your weapons consist in prayers, and the profession of one God. So I repaired to you, jading my saddle-beasts, and travelling from station to station, until I stood in this place before you, though thereby no obligation be laid upon you, since I sped not hither but for my own need, and toiled not but for my own tranquillity, and I crave not your gifts, but beg for your prayers, nor ask I for your wealth, but solicit your supplication. Pray then to Allah, may He be exalted, to accord me grace for repentance and readiness for my return to Him, for He is the Most High in dignity and answers prayers, and He it is who accepts penitence from His servants and forgives transgressions.

“Allah’s forgiveness I crave for sins that, woe me! I have wantonly committed.

How oft I have plunged in seas of error, and morn and eve walked in paths of folly,

How oft I have followed passion’s promptings, been arrogant, greedy and deceitful,

How oft I have spurned the curb in rushing headlong and unchecked to fell rebellion,

How oft I have reached the bounds of trespass, and never ceased from careering onwards.

Would that I had been afore forgotten, and never gathered what, alas, I gathered,

For better far death to him who sinneth, than to pursue such a course as I sped!

But, O my Lord, grant to me forgiveness: Thy Mercy is greater than my trespass.”

Said the narrator: Forthwith the congregation commenced to aid him with their prayer, while he turned his face heavenward, until his eyelids brimmed with tears and his agitation became conspicuous, when he cried out: “Allah is greatest! the sign of acceptance has appeared and the veil of doubt is removed. May ye then, O folks of dear Basra, be rewarded with the reward of Him who guides out of perplexity.” Then there remained none among the people who rejoiced not in his joy, doling out to him what he had ready at hand. He accepted the bestowal of their bounty, and began to expatiate in thanks to them, whereupon he descended from the stone and wended towards the river bank. But I followed in his wake, to where we found ourselves alone and were safe of being spied and intermeddled with. Then I said to him: “This time thou hast done marvels, but what is thy view as to repentance?” Said he: “I swear by Him who knows all hidden things and forgives transgressions, my case is indeed a miracle and the prayers of thy fellow-people have been answered.” I replied: “Enlighten me more, so may Allah grant thee more of welfare!” Said he: “Truly, I had stood before them in the stead of a doubter, a deceiver, and, lo, I have turned from them with the heart of the contrite, the devout. Weal then to him to whom they incline their hearts, and woe to him on whom they call down their imprecations.” Thereupon he bade me farewell, and went away, leaving me in unrest, so that I ceased not tormenting my thoughts on his account, and looking out for means of testing the truth of what he had stated. But every time I sniffed for tidings of him from wayfarers and roamers in foreign lands, I was like one who talks to dumb brutes, or hails a mute rock, until after a length of time and reaching the pitch of anguish, I met with some travellers returning from a journey, to whom I said: “Is there any rare news?” Quoth they: “Indeed, we have news rarer than the ‘Anḳâ and more marvellous than the sight of Zarḳâ.” So I asked them for explanation of what they had said, and that they would mete to me what had been meted to them. Then they told me that they had made a halt at Serûj, after the wild asses had left it, and had seen there its renowned Abû Zayd, who had donned the wool cloth, and was leading the rows of the praying and had become a famous devotee. Said I to them: “Mean ye him of the Assemblies?” Quoth they: “Yea, him now of all miraculous endowments.” Forthwith longing urged me towards him, for I saw in him an opportunity not to be lost. So I set out in all readiness and made for him full earnestly, until I alighted at his mosque and the place of his worship, when, lo, he had discarded the society of his associates, and stood upright in his prayer-niche, wearing a cloak stitched together with a tooth-pick, and a patched wrapper. So I was struck with awe of him, like one who has broken in upon lions, and found him amongst those whose token is the trace of prostration in their faces, and when he had told his rosary, he greeted me with his forefinger without uttering a word of talk, nor asking for tidings old or new. Then he proceeded with his recitation from the Koran, and left me wondering at his devotion, and envying those whom Allah leads aright amongst his servants, and he desisted not from adoration and humiliation, from prostrating himself and bowing down, from self-abasement and contrition, until he had completed the performance of the five prayers, and to-day had become yesterday, when he betook himself with me to his abode, and gave me a share in his loaf and olive-oil. Thereupon he rose to enter his Oratory, and remained alone in converse with his Lord, until, when the morn shone forth, and the wakeful worshipper was entitled to his reward, he followed up his vigil with prayers of praise. Then only he reclined in the posture of the seeker of repose, and began to chaunt with an impressive voice:

“Good-bye, my soul, to memories of vernal camps, and tryste therein,

And fond farewell to trav’ller fair, yea, bid good-bye to them for aye.

Bewail the time that passed away, when thou hast blackened pages bright,

And never ceased to steep thyself in deeds of shame and heinousness.

How oft the night was spent by thee in sins that none afore has dared,

From lust, indulged without restraint on wanton couch, in chamber still.

How often spedst thou on thy steps to unheard-of depravity,

And brokest repentance, slowly vowed, in swift forgetting sport and play;

How often madest thou bold, O slave, against the Lord of heavens high,

Not heeding Him and proving false, ay, false to thy pretended faith;

How often flungst thou, like a shoe outworn, aside His stern command,

Ungrateful for His benefits and reckless of His tardy wrath;

How often, running pleasure’s course, and glibly speaking lies prepense,

Wast thou neglecting carelessly the duties of His covenant.

So don the garb of penitence, and shower tears of blood, before

Thy foot commits a fatal slip, before thy fall has come to pass;

Humbly confess thy sins and fly for refuge where the guilty flies;

Resist thy lewd propensities and turn from them with purpose firm.

How long in thoughtlessness and sloth wilt thou let drift life’s better part,

To what brings loss as only gain, and never check’st thy mad career.

Perceivest thou not the mingled hue that streaks with hoary lines thy head,

Yet he whose ringlets blend with grey is warned of his approaching death.

Woe thee, my soul, redemption seek, obey, be true, be well advised,

Take warning from those gone before, in generations passed away,

And fear the stealing on of fate, be wary, lest thou be deceived.

Walk in the path of rectitude, for swift, remember, comes thy doom:

To-morrow will thy dwelling be the bottom of a lonely grave;

Alas, that house of sore dismay, that station, waste, disconsolate,

That goal of pilgrims of long syne, of countless pilgrims yet to come;

A house whose inmate will be seen encompassed, after ample space,

Within the bond of cubits three, to hold him in their narrow grip.

Who there alights, it matters not if he a wit be, or a fool,

If poor, or if possessed of all the riches of a Tobba‘ king.

And after it the roll-call comes, that musters timid wight, and bold,

And teacher and disciple, and the ruler and the ruled alike.

Then O the bliss of him that fears his Lord, and earns the thrall’s roward,

Safe from the dread account and from the terrors of that awful day.

But O the loss of those who have sinned and transgressed beyond all bounds,

And kindled discord’s blazing fire, for sake of worldly goods and joys.

O Thou, in whom my trust is placed, how grows my fear with every day,

For all the slips and falls that fill my ill-spent life with guilt and crime.

But, Lord, forgive Thy erring slave, yield mercy to his welling tears,

For the most Merciful art Thou, and Best to whom are prayers raised.”

Said Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm: Thus he ceased not repeating these words in a low voice and mingling them with sobs and sighs, until I wept by reason of the weeping of his eyne, as I had wept heretofore anent him. Then he sallied forth to his mosque, cleansed by his night-wake, and I went in his track, and prayed with those who prayed behind him, and when the people present dispersed and separated hither and thither, he took to muttering his lessons and casting his day in the mould of his yesterday, while he wailed with the wailing of a bereft mother, and wept as not Jacob wept, so that I saw clearly that he had joined the seven saints, and that his heart was imbued with the love of seclusion. So I formed within me the resolution to depart and to leave him all by himself in this state. Then it was as if he had read my purpose or had revealed to him that which I kept concealed, for he sighed like one grief-stricken, after which he quoted (from the Koran): “If thou make a resolution, put thy trust in Allah.” Thereupon I testified to the truthfulness of my informants, and knew for certain that in our dispensation inspired ones are found. So I went nigh to him, to put my hand in his, and said: “Give me thy bequest, O servant sincere of counsel,” when he said: “Keep death before thy eye, and this is the parting between me and thee.” With this he bade me farewell, while the tears streamed from the corners of my eyes, and my sighs rose from within my entrails, this being the last of our meetings.

Ḥarîri himself accompanies this Assembly with a short commentary on the idioms and Arabic proverbs occurring in it, and his explanations included amongst the following notes are marked with (H.).

In the prime of my life.—Arabic fî rayyiqi zamânî, also râ’iq, which means, in the beginning or early part of it. Another spelling of the word is raiq, without tashdid.—(H.)

The people of the hair-tents.—Wabar means originally “camel-hair,” or as the Arabic lexicographers put it, “that which in the camel corresponds to the wool of the sheep, and is opposed to madar, a clod of clay or mud. Hence ahlu ’l wabar designates the dwellers in tents made of a tissue of camel-hair pitched in the desert, and ahlu ’l-madar, the dwellers within mud-walls, the inhabitants of villages and towns.” By a still bolder metaphor, wabar and madar are used for those dwelling-places themselves, as in the phrase: “the like of this I have not seen in desert or town.”

So that I might take after the bent of their forbidding (lofty) souls, i.e., that I might follow their example. The verbal noun “taking” (here translated by bent) is in Arabic aḥẕ or iḥẕ.—(H.).

A string of the groaning.—Al-hajmah (exclusively applied to camels) is a drove of about a hundred (H.). According to other commentators it is from forty to a hundred, or between ninety and a hundred, while a number beyond this is called hunai‘dah.

A flock of the bleating.—As̤-s̤allah is a herd of sheep (H.). As to “the groaning” and “the bleating,” Ḥarîri quotes the saying: Mâ la-hu râghiyatun wa ta z̤āghiyatun, for “he has neither camel nor sheep.”

Stead-holders of kings, i.e., they took the places of kings in their absence (H.). Ridf, pl. ardâf, is one who rides behind another on the same beast, hence, metaphorically, one next in rank, a successor, or substitute, one who sits at the right hand of the king, a wazîr or minister, and ridâfah in pre-Mohammedan times corresponds to the wizârah, or office of wazîr in Islâm. The phrase means that each of them was worthy of and fit for such dignity.

“Sons of saws,” men who owed their fame to their choice sayings, eloquent speakers, to use the paraphrase of Ḥarîri, who adds: “It is said of a great orator, he is a son of speeches.”

No arrow struck my (smooth) rock, a proverbial expression for “no slander was suffered to injure my fair fame.”

Or throw the halter over her hump, i.e., allow her to wander and graze where she pleased.

So I sprang upon a swift-paced steed.—Tadas̤s̤ur is synonymous with wus̤ûb, to jump or leap upon the back of the horse, and miḥẓâr or maḥẓîr, fleet of course, is taken from ḥaẓr, running with a high step.—(H.)

Exploring every copse and treeless spot.—Iqtirâ = tatabbu‘, following up, travelling from one place to another; shajrâ’, a place grown over with trees, mardâ’, one deprived of vegetation. Hence, amrad, hairless in the face, beardless.—(H.)

When the crier calls to prayer and salvation, in Arabic ḥai‘ala, a verb formed from the initial words of the Muezzin’s call, ḥayya ‘alá ’l-ṣalâti, ḥayya ‘ala ’l-falâḥ. The infinitive is ḥai‘alah, and similar formations are hailalah, saying lâ ilâha illâ ’llâhu, there is no God but the God; ḥamdalah, saying al-ḥamdu li ’llâhi, praise is due to God; ḥauqalah, saying lâ ḥaula wa la quwwata ïllâ bi ’llâhi, there is no power and no strength save in God; see basmalah, saying bi’smi ’llâhi, in the name of God; ḥasbalah, saying ḥasbunâ ’llâhu, God is our sufficiency; sabḥalah, saying subḥâna ’llâhi, adoration be God’s; ja‘lafah saying ju iltu fidâka, may I be made thy ransom.

And its going to the watering-place found no return, i.e., did not obtain its object, as animals return from the water only after having quenched their thirst.

Until the heat waxed blinding, lit., until there came the time of the little blind one’s stroke or knock, a most idiomatical expression which sorely taxes the ingenuity of the interpreters. Grammatically ‘umaiy is the diminutive of a‘má, blind, and the Ḳâmûs says that it means by itself the noonday heat, in which case the effect would stand for the cause, the blind for the blinding. Other explanations are (1) that ‘Umay is the name of a famous depredator, who used to strike by his inroads upon people at mid-day, when they were too languid to offer much resistance. (2) That the word is applied to the young of the gazelle, which by the excess of the heat becomes frantic, and butts at or knocks against anything near it. In the Arabic Dictionary Muḥit̤, I find the statement that in poetry the form ṣakkatu ‘umyin (pl. of a‘má) is used, the stroke or knock of the blind, either with the same reference to the gazelle, or to people blinded by the heat and groping their way by knocking their sticks on the ground. I conclude this note, Arabic fashion, with “God knows best.”

Would have made Ghailân oblivious of Maiyah.—Ghailân was a renowned poet of the Bedouin Arabs, whose nickname ẕû ’l-rummah, “the one with the rope,” was given to him by Maiya or Maiyah, daughter of Kays, when he first saw her, carrying a rope on his shoulder, and asked her for a draught of water to drink, whereupon she said, “O thou with the rope,” which simple words, falling from lovely lips, forthwith enslaved him for life.

Longer than the shadow of a lance.—A long day is compared with the shadow of a lance, which by the Arabs is considered as the longest thrown by the setting sun, probably on account of its accompanying slenderness, as a short day is likened to the claw (lit., thumb) of the Ḳata bird. A poet, quoted in Ḥarîri’s commentary, says: “Many a day, like the shadow of the lance, has been shortened for us by the blood of the wine-bag and striking the strings of lutes.”

Hotter than the tears of the bereft mother.—It is said that the tear of grief is hot, and the tear of joy is cool, whence the prayer: “May Allah cool his eye”; and the imprecation: “May Allah heat his eye,” for: May He make him shed tears of joy or of sorrow respectively. —(H.)

Sha‘ûb would grip me.—Sha‘ûb, a diptote, not taking the article, is a name of death, meaning the “Separator.”

My boon-companion a booklet.—The Arabic juzâzah, a scrap, is used both for scrolls, in which beggars state their case, to enlist the sympathy of the charitable, and leaves of paper containing information. Adopting the latter meaning, I translate it by booklet, in accordance with the saying of an Arabic poet, that a book is the best companion for a man to while away the time, as the saddle of a fleet horse is the best resort for him to make him independent of space.

For some end Ḳoṣayr mutilated his nose.—Ḳoṣayr bin Sa‘d was a freedman of the King of Irak Jathîmet al Abrash, and after his master had been treacherously murdered by Queen Zebbâ, resolved to revenge his death on her. This he accomplished by having the tip of his nose cut off by his master’s nephew ‘Amr, pretending that the latter had done so because he suspected him of eomplicity in the betrayal of Jathîmet, and thereby gaining her confidence, which soon procured him an opportunity of putting his purpose into execution. Abû Zayd means that Ḥârith must have a good reason for his lonely journey in the desert during the noonday heat.

In the two months when the camels ail from thirst, lit., the two months of the thirst-stricken camel, meaning the hottest summer months, as we would say the dog-days, when the skin of camels and sheep dries up in consequence of their excessive thirst.

A night such as Nâbighah sings of, alluding to the following line of this poet: “I passed a night as though one of the spotted snakes had assailed me, the poison of whose fangs is piercing.”

Like Ash‘ab, a servant of the Khalif ‘Othmân, proverbial amongst the Arabs for his covetousness, which according to his own confession was surpassed only by that of his equally proverbial sheep. The latter had mounted on his roof, and on seeing a rainbow took it for a rope of the plant qatt (apparently a favourite dainty with sheep), jumped at it and broke its neck.

Donning the leopard’s skin, a proverbial expression for insolent and bold, the leopard (namir) being considered as the boldest of animals and the least patient of injury. Hence the verb tanammara is derived, he became like a leopard.—(H.)

Of the two good things, allusion to Koran, ix. 52.

One woe is lighter to bear than two, meaning that it is easier for Ḥârith to put up with the loss of his horse than to lose both horse and camel together.

After hap and mishap.—Thus I translate, in order to maintain the alliteration of the original, the words ba‘da ’llataiyâ wa ’llatî, which it is impossible to render literally. Allataiyâ is the diminutive of allatî, fem. of the relative pronoun allaẕî. Their idiomatical import in this place is, according to Ḥarîri’s own commentary, either to serve as synonyms of calamity (dâhiyah), or to signify misfortunes small and great.

In accordance with tradition, alluding to the saying of Mohammed that he who bathes before Friday prayers will have his sins remitted.

Seeking in the sap of my youth help against the glamours of the mirage, i.e., finding in the freshness and vigour of youth a safeguard against the allurements of sensual pleasure, which are deceptive as the sarâb, or resemblance of water in the desert. With regard to this latter word, that which I translate with “sap” is in the original mâ’, water, applied to the face in the sense of brightness and beauty, to youth in the sense of sprightliness and energy.

When I was entitled to speak of my home, lit., I was master of the expression ‘indî, which in Arabic is equivalent to, I have or possess. It differs from the synonyms ladaiya or ma‘î, “I have with me,” by meaning both “I have with me” and “at home,” which latter signification justifies the above rendering.

And offer the best of cattle, for “a fattened camel,” in allusion to a tradition handed down by Ibn Omar, according to which Mohammed said: He who has taken on a Friday the bath of purification is as though he had offered a fattened camel (badanah).

People ceased not to enter in troops into the faith of Allah, allusion to Koran, cx. 2, “And thou seest men entering the religion of Allah by troops.” The following expression, “singly and in pairs,” also occurs in the sacred book, xxxiv. 45, where, however, instead of azwâjan (in pairs), the expression mas̤ná, “two by two,” is used.

And the time had come when a person is equal to his shadow, indicating the time shortly after noon, when the prayer of z̤uhr is to be performed, in accordance with the tradition: “Say the prayer of z̤uhr, when thy shadow is like thyself.”

In the wake of his acolytes (khalfa ‘uṣbati-hi).—The word uṣbah, troop, is explained by Sherîshi “the company of the muaẕẕins.”

When he gave blessing by waving his right hand, instead of uttering the words salâmun ‘alaikum, a practice observed by preachers, following the doctrine of Ash-Shâfi‘î, to which Ḥarîri himself adhered.

A guide to the right road for the black hued and the red, i.e., for the Arabs and the nations unable to speak Arabic, and therefore called ‘Ajam, dumb, as the Persians, Greeks, Europeans in general. They are respectively named black and red, on account of their complexion, or the colour of their hair.

Of the angel and the frightfulness of his questioning, allusion to the angels Munkar and Nakîr, said to visit the dead in their graves and to interrogate them as to their belief in the Prophet and his religion.

How many roadmarks has it effaced, etc., lit., how often has it effaced a roadmark, but the renderings given seem more in accordance with the English idiom.

On destroying the songster and the listener to the song, in Arabic al-musmi‘ wa ’s-sâmi‘, the one who makes listen to and delights by his melodies (mut̤rib), and the listener delighted thereby (t̤arib).

It bestows no riches but to show aversion and to reverse your hopes, in Arabic lâ mawwala illâ mâla wa âkasa ’al-âmâla, the verb mâla having with the preposition ilá the meaning “he inclined towards, was favourable,” with the preposition ‘alá, he was biassed against and proved obnoxious. This passage is full of assonances and alliterations, for the sake of which I would translate in the following sentences kalama ’l-auṣâla, to cut the limbs, somewhat freely by “to harm,” and la‘uma, to stint, by “to harass.”

And Ṣirât̤ your path.—The word Ṣirât̤, which in common parlance means road, is in the Koran generally accompanied by the adjective mustaqîm, the straight or right road, that is, the teaching of Mohammed or Islâm. In Sûra xxxvii. 23, however, the expression occurs: “guide them to the road of hell” (ilá ṣirât̤i ’l-jaḥîmi), and this has probably given rise to the signification in which the word is used in the traditions and theological writings as the bridge across the infernal fire, which is described as finer than a hair and sharper than a sword. The righteous will pass over it with the swiftness of the lightning, but the wicked will soon miss their footing and will fall into the fire of hell.

And the plain your goal, or resorting place, in Arabic wa’s-sâhiratu mauridukum, taken from Koran, lxxix. 14, where as-sâhirah is explained as the renewed expanse of the earth, on which the gathering of mankind on the day of judgment takes place, or as the surface of the earth, to which they are called by the blast of resurrection from their graves beneath it. This name, which means “the wakeful,” is given to the earth, because it watches over vegetation day and night, and it is also one of the names of hell, because its inhabitants never close their eyes in sleep.

Are not the terrors of doomsday lying in ambush for you?—At̤-t̤âmmah means originally an overwhelming calamity, from t̤amma-’lmâ’, the water has overflowed, and is, generally with the adjective al-kubrá, “the great,” applied to resurrection, as in verse 34 of the Sura just quoted. Another Koranic expression is al-ḥut̤amah, the crushing, applied to hell in Sura civ. 4, 5, where it is said that the backbiter shall be flung into it. In the text it is called “the firmly locked,” because no escape from it is possible.

By the fulfilment of fate or befalling of fatality, i.e., the inevitableness of death. De Sacy, in his commentary, quotes to this passage the following lines of Mutenebbi:

“There is no help for man of that couch where once placed he never tosses from side to side;

Thereon he forgets, what erewhile has enraptured him, and the bitterness that death has made him to taste.

We are the sons of the dead, why then loathe the draught, that needs must be drained?

We stint to Time our souls, though they be his due,

For these souls are air of his air, and these bodies are dust of his dust;

If the lover bethought himself of what the end will be of the beauty that entrances him, it would not entrance him.

Yet when we see the bursting forth of the rising sun, our minds doubt not of his setting.

The shepherd in his ignorance dies, as surely as Galen with his leechcraft.

Nay, at times he will out-live him, and surpass him in the safeness of his flock.”

A bride without a spot, implying that the address was composed of words devoid of dotted letters, as in the feminine termination ◌ the diacritical points are not considered to be inherent in the letter, but merely an accidental addition, introduced for the sake of euphony in the case of a vowel following.

And (the moment) for dispersing on the earth had come, allusion to Koran, lxii. 10: “And when the prayer is ended disperse yourselves abroad and go in quest of the bounties of God, and often remember God.”

In the rank of Al Fuẓail, a celebrated devotee and ascetic in the days of Harûn ar Reshîd, who according to some authorities was born at Samarcand, the scene of the present Assembly, and whose life is to be found in Ibn Khallikân, i. 580.

The country of Wâsit̤.—A town midway between Kufa and Baṣra, whence its name, or rather two towns, on either bank of the Tigris, and joined by a pontoon-bridge. The old town on the eastern bank was mostly inhabited by the chiefs of the surrounding villages. Wâsit̤ proper, on the western side of the Tigris, was founded by Al Hajjâj, who built there a cathedral mosque and a castle, which became after him the seat of the Governors of ‘Irâk. A proverb says, “Thou art heedless as if thou wert a Wâsit̤î,” the origin of which is told as follows: Al Hajjâj pressed the people into his service to build the new city, so that many fled and passed the night amongst the poor in the mosques of neighbouring towns. His attendants went in pursuit of them, and called out on entering such places, “Halloo! O man of Wâsit̤,” and whoever was taken by surprise and raised his head was seized and carried off.

Not paying overmuch for rent, in Arabic lam unâfis fî ujratin, which phrase, however, admits also of the translation, not stinting its rent. Another reading is, lam unâqish fî ujratin, not being close in my reckoning as to rent. The circumstances in which Ḥârith finds himself make the above rendering more probable.

Nor thy adversary keep on foot.—The word ẓidd, which is used both as singular and plural, occurs in the sense of enemy, Koran, xix. 85: “Those gods (taken beside God) will disavow their worship and will become their enemies.”

The one of full-moon face and of pearly hue, meaning the loaf or cake of white bread, whose further description in the following lines scarcely calls for explanation in all its details. Of pure root, for instance, refers to the wheat, from which it is made; who was imprisoned and set free, to the process of grinding the corn in the milk; who was suckled and weaned, to the water mixed with the flour to make it into dough, and kept from it while being kneaded.

And exchange for him the pregnant that impregnates, etc., meaning flint and steel, neither of which produces by itself the spark, but requires the co-operation of the other, so that both attributes apply to either of them. The following antithetical expressions and metaphors, as referring to the flint-stone and the spark, are equally self-evident as those employed in the description of the loaf. It must, of course, be remembered that Al Ḥârith was not possessed of the clue, and might therefore well be puzzled by the seeming contradictions.

Amongst the rows of market shops, in Arabic naẓâ’ida ’l-ḥawânît, where naẓâ’id is the pl. of naẓîd, a fa‘îl (agent), in the sense of fa‘ûl (patient), “what is placed in rows,” or “piled up.” I refer it to the market-shops themselves, but it may also apply to their piled-up goods.

On his homeward way.—This translation is taken from De Sacy’s commentary, which explains rawâḥ, as “returning after going,” while Sherîshi takes it, in my opinion less satisfactorily, in its usual sense of “evening.”

I knew that this was of Serûji growth, the feminine of the adjective of relation, indicating a thing appertaining to or proceeding from the Serûji; for, “I knew that it was a trick of Abû Zayd’s.”

And makes come forth the fruit from their sheaths, allusion to Koran, xli. 47: “No fruit cometh forth from its coverings, neither does any female conceive nor is she delivered, but with His knowledge.”

And which of the twain was thy state? lit., upon which of thy two descriptions didst thou fly from home, openly or secretly, well provided for or deprived of means, etc.?

How to procure a loan or gift, in Arabic qarẓ, that for which an equivalent or compensation is returned, and farẓ, that which requires no compensation or return.

How then am I to make union between the neck-ring (ghull, a ring of iron or leather round the neck of a captive, figuratively for a shrewish wife) and an empty purse (qull, scarcity, poverty)? Ẓull, son of Ẓull, in the next clause, is a proverbial expression, for an obscure son of an obscure father. Being related to the root ẓall, to err, go astray, both in a literal and metaphorical sense, it may be translated by Scamp, son of Scamp, as in the following couplet of Aṣm‘aî: “Your Ziyâd is a Scamp, son of Scamp, we have nothing to do with (or wash our hands of) your Ziyâd.”

Who shall . . . be proxy in and on thy behalf, in the original wakîlan laka wa ‘alaika, i.e., I shall be thy agent and substitute, securing and promoting thy interests, and standing security for the fulfilment of thy engagements.

If Ibrahîm, son of Adham, proposed to them, or Jebeleh, son of Ayham. —The former one of the Magnates of Khorasan, who renounced his wealth and lived in voluntary poverty, becoming proverbial for abstemiousness and disinterestedness; the latter the last king of Ghassân, equally proverbial for generosity and liberality. As only a small dowry would be expected from the first, and the second would offer a large one, the Arabic illâ, “but,” “unless,” means “neither less nor more” than the sum sanctioned by the practice of Mohammed himself. The following “on the understanding that no portion should be claimed from thee” (to be paid at once), “and thou shouldst not be forced to seek refuge in divorce” [in which case the dowry would have to be forthcoming], implies that the whole thing is a farcical plot, devised by Abû Zayd for his own benefit, and from which poor Ḥârith will have to extricate himself as best he can.

Who is sharp-witted in the interest of him he loves, a popular saying, for which see Ar. Prov., i. 717.

So the matter is all but settled, in Arabic ka’an qad, “as though already,” where the verb kâna, “it had come to pass,” is understood; an elliptical phrase, to which the editors of the second edition of De Sacy quote the corresponding French idiom, “c’est tout comme.”

Then he cast a glance at the stars, a Koranic quotation, taken from Sura xxxvii., verse 86, where it is said of Abraham: “So gazing he gazed towards the stars and said, ‘In sooth I am ill.’”

The spreader of earth’s couch, the fastener of the mountains, again expressions borrowed from the Koran, lxxviii. 6; lxxxviii. 20; and xvi. 15.

An abolisher of the ordinances (or rites) of Wadd and Suwâ‘, two idols of the people of Noah, the former in the shape of a man, and worshipped by the tribe Kalb, the other in female form, and worshipped by Hamaẓâu. De Sacy and the Beyrout edition read Wudd, but in all copies of the Koran, printed or in MS., which I have consulted, I find the name spelled Wadd, and this is also the reading of my own MS. of Ḥarîri (see Koran, lxxi. 22).

To wed your bride, the honoured, reading al-mukarramah, which, according to a note in my MS., is warranted by the handwriting of Ḥarîri himself. Another spelling is makzumah, which by Moṭarrezi is interpreted as an honorary gift offered by the bridegroom to the bride before nuptials, when mumlîk would have the meaning of mumallîk, “putting her in possession of,” i.e., “presenting her with.”

Void of punctuation, in Arabic al-‘âriyyata mina ‘l-i‘jâm, applies to Abû Zayd’s address, in the same sense as the sermon in the preceding Assembly was called a bride without spots, as composed of words the letters of which have no diacritical points. The two compositions are remarkable as instances of Ḥarîri’s marvellous acquaintance with and power over his language.

With concord (or ease) and sons, a congratulatory formula addressed to the bridegroom, and depending on an elliptical, “may thy union be blessed,” etc. (comp. Ar. Prov., i. 170).

That the people fell prone upon their faces (lit., chins) . . . like the roots of rotten palm-trees, allusion to Koran, xvii. 109, 110. The expression, “it was not in quicker time than the eyelids meet,” corresponds to our “in the twinkling of an eye,” and the construction in the Arabic idiom is, to use the term of their grammarians, reversed (‘alá ’l-qalb), for “the time which elapsed until the people fell on their faces, was not quicker than that in which the eyelids meet.”

Thou hast done a hateful thing, quotation from Koran, xviii. 73: “Then they went on until they met a youth, and he (Khiẓr) slew him. Said Moses, ‘Hast thou slain him who is free from guilt of blood? Assuredly now hast thou wrought a hateful thing.’”

By him whom Allah kept blessed wherever he might be, i.e., by ‘Îsá (Jesus), in allusion to Koran, xix. 31, 32: “It (the babe born by Mary) said, ‘Verily I am the servant of God; He . . . hath made me blessed wherever I may be, and has enjoined me prayer and almsgiving so long as I shall live.’”

Bestriding the back of [a steed like] Ibnu ’n-na‘âmeh.—The Beyrout edition of the Assemblies says in a note that Ibnu ’n-na‘âmeh [son of the young ostrich] was the name of a celebrated horse belonging to Al Ḥaris̤ bin ‘Abbâd. According to other authorities, it means a generous horse in general, the road, the sole of the foot, the leg, and human sweat, and Ḥarîri may have left purposely to his readers the choice between these various interpretations. For the expression, “with the swiftness of the ostrich,” comp. Ar. Prov., ii. 151.

And garlanded [coronated] with begging-baskets, in Arabic mukallal, from iklîl, a crown, i.e., surrounded with a row of ornamental knobs, here formed by the begging-baskets, as the draperies of the vestibule consisted of tattered garments. The various terms for mendicants employed in the subsequent passage are muqaiyif, one who follows your track [qîfah] to importune you with his solicitations; mudarwiz, probably from the Persian darwâz [for dar-bâz], an open gate, one who goes from door to door asking for alms, or offering his services; mushaqshiq, one who recites verses of poetry alternately with another, both standing on opposite platforms, and etymologically related to shiqshiqah, the throatbag of a camel, which has been mentioned before, from the verb shaqshaq, to emit a sound, cry out, roar; mujalwiz, in the argot of beggars, the rehearser of the merits and virtues of Mohammed’s Companions before a popular audience in the mosques.

Reluctantly, in the Arabic idiom mutajarri‘an al-ghuṣaṣ, gulping the choking draughts.

Then lo! there were in it richly adorned state-chairs, etc.—This display of furniture indicated, according to Sherîshi, that a wedding was to be celebrated in the house, while the begging-baskets suspended in the vestibule and the tattered garments hung around it characterized the building as an inn [finduq] of the beggar tribe, not appertaining to any distinct owner.

As if he were the (a) son of Mâ’u ’s-samâ [water of heaven], the surname of a woman from the tribe Namir bin Ḳâsiṭ, so called on account of her beauty, whose son was Munẕir bin Imr al-Kais, king of Ḥîra. It is also a laqab of ‘Âmir bin Ḥarîs̤ah al-Azdî (father of ‘Amr, who emigrated from Yemen after the bursting of the dyke ‘Arim), and to whom this name was given on account of his generosity, which was as rain to his people in the times of drought. Hence his progeny, who reigned in Syria, were called Benû Mâ ’as-samâ [comp. Ar. Prov., iii., P. 1, p. 340].

The day and nights . . . morning and evening, the former in Arabic al-malawân, dual of malá, in the sense of time, the latter al fatayân, dual of fatá, youth.

When he had sat down on his carpet.—Zurbiyyah or Zirbiyyah, a word the plural of which, Zarâbiyyu, occurs in the Koran, lxxxviii. 16: “And carpets spread forth.”

And has sternly forbidden the refusal of supplicants . . . and commanded to feed him that begs and him that refuses to beg.—An allusion to Koran, xciii. 10, “And as to him that asketh of thee, chide him not away”; and to xxii. 37, “And feed him who asketh humbly, and him who scorneth to ask though poor.”

Those who know well that the supplicant and the destitute have a claim on their riches, lit., and in whose riches is a known claim, etc. Another allusion to the Koran, lxx. 24, 25.

I take refuge with Him from hearing a prayer void of intention, meaning the formula bûrika fîka, may a blessing be bestowed on thee, with which beggars are politely refused, and from which, in consequence of its frequent use, the noun bûrik, in the sense of refusal, is derived. To this the commentaries quote the lines: “Many a crone, cunning and crafty, and quick to refuse the poor, thinks that a be-blessed is enough for me, when I come forward, stretching out my right hand.” The expression, “void of intention,” originates in the anecdote that an Arab, who asked alms from some people, was answered with bûrika fîka, whereupon he retorted: “May Allah consign you to the tender mercies of a prayer, in which there is no intention.”

“And secure to the poor a share from the rich,” i.e., create the institution of zakât, or legal alms, by which the claim of the indigent for assistance from the rich is acknowledged and vouchsafed. The same idea is repeated lower down in the words: he made obligatory the claims on the possessions of the wealthy, and it runs, as Sherîshi remarks, in varied forms through the whole of the address, naturally enough, as the preacher speaks for the edification of the begging fraternity.

And lowered his wing to the lowly, or showed humility to the humble, allusion to Koran, xvii. 25.

As well as his elected of the people of the stone-bench, in Arabic ahl aṣ-ṣuffah, a name given to a number of aliens amongst the companions of Mohammed, the so-called “guests of Islâm,” poor strangers without friends or place of abode, who took shelter on a stone-bench, roofed with palm-branches, in the porch of the Temple of Medina.

For He said so that you may know: “O ye men,” etc., quotation from Koran, xlix. 13.

Abû ’d-Darrâj Wallâj, son of Kharrâj, fanciful names, truly appropriate for members of the craft, which may be translated, Father of the Tramp, In-slipper, son of Out-goer, the last two epithets probably meaning one who makes himself at home under all circumstances, and knows how to extricate himself from all difficulties. Equally graphic are the names given to the wooed bride: Kanbas, daughter of Abû ‘Anbas, somewhat like Spitfire, daughter of the Sire of the frowning Lion. There is much humour in this Assembly, which, I hope, will be duly appreciated by my readers.

And if you fear poverty or want, Allah will give you a sufficiency out of His abundance, quotation from Koran, ix. 28. In the Koranic passage the dreaded event is explained as to be brought about through the breaking off commercial relations, here, of course, it is apprehended from the increase of family.

By Him who created the heavens one above another, etc., allusion to Koran, lxvii. 3.

Whose engrossing cares distract the mind; or, Whose carking sorrow sore perplexes and distracts me.—A somewhat free translation of the Arabic khat̤bu-hâ khat̤bun marîjun, lit., whose calamity is a perplexing calamity (comp. Koran, l. 5, where the word marîj is joined with amr, “perplexed therefore is their state.”

Travel fills the provision-bags, i.e., increases a man’s wealth, in accordance with the saying, “motion produces and rest is barren.” Readers of the “Arabian Nights” will remember the numerous quotations of verses in praise of travel contained in it, to which may be added, from De Sacy’s commentary, the following lines of Gurrudurru (for whom see Ibn Khallikân, i. 500):

“Press on thy camels to the open plain, and leave fair damsels to abide in palaces.

For those who cling to their countries are like the dwellers in the graves.

If it were not for resorting to foreign parts the pearls of the seas would not adorn the necks of beauty.

Rise and bestir thyself briskly in the lands, for he who sticks at home is looked down upon,

As the Pawn is made little of until, when he moves on, he queens it right royally.”

The last simile, taken from chess, is a translation into our phraseology of the game of the Arabic, iẕâ sâra ṣâra farzânan, when he travels, he becomes a wazîr.

I made up my mind, etc., in Arabic istajashtu, I asked for an army (jaish) and help from it. The following “started” is in the original aṣ‘adtu, which generally has the meaning of “I ascended,” but must here evidently be taken in the sense of tawajjahtu, “I travelled in the direction of.”

To the mother of cities.—Ummu ’l-qurá, a name given by the Mohammedans to Mecca, because she is the first and therefore maternal city created by Allah, and because the people of all other towns resort to her (ya’ummûna-hâ).

So between night-faring and journeying by day, between trotting and ambling.—In Arabic baina idlâjin wa ta’wîbin wa îjâfin wa taqrîbin, infinitives of verbs, signifying various modes of travelling on camels, amongst which îfâf, the verbal noun of the fourth form of wajf, occurs in the Koran, lix. 6. I have translated it by “trotting,” but its literal meaning is “running in leaps” (sâra ’l-‘anaq).

That which rescues on the day of the mutual call, that is, of resurrection, in allusion to Koran, xl. 34: “And, O my people! I indeed fear for you the day of mutual outcry,” when, according to vii. 42, “The inmates of Paradise shall cry to the inmates of the fire, ‘now have we found what our Lord promised us to be true; have ye too found what your Lord promised you to be true?’ And they shall answer ‘Yes’; and a Herald shall proclaim between them, ‘The curse of God be upon the evil-doers.’” Other commentators, however, explain it as the day of assembly, the expression tanadá ’l-qaum being synonymous with ijtama‘û.

Flocking together from the mountain-paths, an-nâsilîna min al-fijâj, for which comp. Koran, xxi. 96.

That piety is the tucking up of sleeves.—In Arabic naẓwu ’l-ardân, which is usually called tashmîr, and done to show readiness for work, especially in travelling. The word naẓw may also be taken in the sense of putting off, in which case the sleeves would be pars pro toto, and the expression would indicate the stripping of the body from all other garments, in order to don the iḥrâm, or pilgrim-cloak. But as the latter act does not precede, but follow the separation from family and country, the former interpretation seems preferable.

In making for yonder building, meaning the Ka‘bah, to which the preacher had alluded when he said at the beginning of his address: “Do ye comprehend what ye are about to face?”

For by Him, who prescribed the rites for the devout.—Here in particular the ceremonies of the pilgrimage, for a description of which see the article Ḥajj in Hughes’ “Dictionary of Islâm,” pp. 155–159; Burkhardt’s “Travels in Arabia,” i. 363; and Burton’s “Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.”

The girding with the izâr profits [avails] not when one is burdened with iniquities.—In the original ma‘a ’l-iẓt̤ila‘i bi ’l-auzâr. The last word is the plural of wizr, “a heavy load,” and metaphorically “crime,” “iniquity,” which occurs in Koran, vi. 164: “No soul shall labour but for itself; and no burdened one (wâzirah) shall bear (yazir) another’s burden (wizr).”

None prospers by visiting mount ‘Arafât.—In Arabic bi-‘arafata, without article and imperfectly declined. In this form the word is the technical term for the ceremony of visiting the holy mountain, the name of which latter is ‘arafât, a plural without singular. Another term for the said ceremony is ta‘rîf, verbal noun of the second form, which is explained as wuqûfun bi‘arifât, the station on mount ‘Arafât, and which occurs lower down in connection with ifâẓah, the running down or dispersion from it, as in Koran, ii. 194: “And when ye disperse from ‘Arafât.”

For a losing bargain of dissemblers it suffices that they plant and reap not, lit., the sufficiency of dissemblers with regard to or for deception is that they plant and reap not, for they are sufficiently punished thereby. The accusative ghabnan is analogous to that in Koran, iv. 47: wa kafá bi ’llâhi naṣîran, and God is a sufficient helper, lit., suffices as to a helper.

For, lo, no hidden deed shall remain hidden from the Compassionate, allusion to Koran, lxix. 18.

And the threader of the pearl-strings that he had displayed, lit., recited (anshada-hâ). Naṣîf al-Yazaji objects to the change of vowel between anshada, the reading of De Sacy and most manuscripts, and the preceding anshudu, “I was searching for.” He proposes unshadu-hâ, aor. pass. of the fourth form, in the sense of “which had been recited to me.” In this case the verb would govern two accusatives, one of which has become nominative in the passive voice, the admissibility of which seems doubtful, and, moreover, the change of vowel is not avoided thereby. The editors of the second edition of De Sacy, while preserving his reading in the text, remark in a note, that if an alteration should appear desirable they would suggest unshida-hâ, when the meaning would be, “which I am reciting or quoting throughout my narrative.” Curiously enough this suggestion is confirmed by my own MS., and it has certainly much to recommend it.

Until he had climbed up (tawaqqala) one of the mountains, to which comp. Ar. Prov., ii. 840: auqalu min ghufrin, “a better climber than the young of a chamois or mountain-goat.”

He made hand fall upon hand, i.e., he clapped his hands, as to mark time. The word banân, which literally means the finger-tips, is here used for hand, as in the Koran, viii. 12, it is used, according to some commentators, for hands and feet, or the extremities in general.

Curing (lit., tanning) it with sore repentance before the hide all through is rotten, a popular saying, for which comp. Ar. Prov., ii. 346.

As the verbal explanations of the legal ambiguities contained in this Assembly have been, for the convenience of the reader, given in parenthesis along with the translation, I can restrict myself in these notes chiefly to some additional illustrations, and the references to the Koran and the Arabic Proverbs.

When I had completed the rites of the Hajj, and absolved the duties of [the shout] Labbaika, and the out-pour of the blood of the sacrifice.—In Arabic waz̤â’ifa ’l-‘ajjī wa ’s̤-s̤ajj, the former being synonymous with talbiyah the intonation of the prayer beginning with labbaika [I am ready for thy service, etc.], which is chanted with a loud voice during the pilgrimage, especially on the last stage before Mecca; the latter meaning the shedding of a victim’s blood on the day of sacrifice, both of which are by a tradition declared to be the most meritorious parts of the pilgrimage.

With a travelling company of the Benû Shaibah, a tribe descending from Shaibah, who, according to Sherîshi, is identical with ‘Abd al-Mut̤t̤alib, Mohammed’s grandfather. Other authorities say that he was a son of ‘Us̤mân, son of T̤alḥah, son of ‘Abd ad-Dâr, son of Kusaiy, in the custody of whose descendants the keys of the Ka‘bah are kept until the present day.

And to disengage myself from the tribe of those who perform the Hajj and neglect him [Mohammed].—Allusion to a reported saying of Mohammed’s: “He who performs the pilgrimage, and visits me not, wrongs me.”

So I was bewildered between fear that made me lag, in Arabic yus̤ab-bitunî , an expression borrowed from Koran, ix. 46: “But God was averse to their marching forth and made them laggards; and it was said, ‘Sit ye at home with those who sit.’”

Running as if they were flocking to some idol, quotation from Koran, lxx. 43, where, however, the interpreters differ as to whether the word nus̤ub is to be taken for “standard” or “idol.”

The father of lies and tricks, in Arabic ẕâ ’sh-shuqari wa’l-buqari, where shuqar is explained as “downright lie,” and buqar as an ittibâ‘, or complementary apposition based on similarity of sound (comp. Ar. Prov., i. 162 and 309). The word translated by mischief in the next line is fawâqir, pl. of fâqirah, which occurs in the Proverb ‘amala bi-hi ’l-fâqirata, meaning according to Maydâni, he has done him an injury that breaks his vertebræ. Similarly we read in the Koran, lxxv. 28: “As if they thought that some calamity would be inflicted on them” (an yuf‘ala bihâ fâqiratun).

And gathered his garment in the approved style, lit., he wrapped himself up in the deaf fashion (aṣ-ṣammâ’u), said to be thus called because it left no opening, as the ear is deaf when it is stopped up. The learned in the law of Islâm describe it minutely in various ways, and according to Abû Obayd, quoted in the Ṣiḥâḥ, their reason for discussing it is that Mohammed commended this manner of dress, hence my translation of the phrase. The same observation applies to al-qafdâ’, manner of wearing the turban, which precedes in the text, and the following al-qurfuṣâ‘, manner of sitting, has been described in vol. i., p. 412, which description justifies my rendering “he was sitting with his hand knitted in front of his knees.”

For by Him who has created the heavens, etc.—Allusion to Koran vi. 79, and ii. 29.

Who are averse to the daughters of some one else, in Arabic ‘an banâti ghairin, meaning lies, falsehood, any deviation from truth. A poet says: “When thou comest some one else’s daughters are on the spot, and when thou turnest thy back they hasten their departure.” Another form of the expression occurs in the proverb: jâ’a bi ’sh-shuqari wa’l-buqari wa banâti ghiyar, where ghiyar is plural of ghairah, probably in the sense of jealousy, the underlying idea apparently being that lie is jealous of truth.

The cold has thrown him down.—The meaning “sleep” given in the reply of the legist to the word bard, which in common parlance signifies “cold,” is borne out by Koran, lxxviii. 24: “No sleep shall they taste therein nor any drink, save boiling water and running sores,” and by the proverb a’l-bardu yamna‘u ’l-barda, cold prevents sleep. In de Sacy’s Commentary the proverb is quoted man‘u ’l-bardi ’l-bardu, when the sense would seem to be, “the preventive of (feeling) cold is sleep,” perhaps a grim travesty of the fact that people overtaken by the cold sleep themselves to death.

What sayest thou with regard to one who has used sand for his ablution? in Arabic ta-yammamu, for which practice, allowed by Koran, v. 9, if water is not available, see Dict. of Islâm, p. 631.

And let him avoid the dirty one, an injunction which is based on a tradition according to which the Prophet exhorted the believers to keep their court-yards clean.

And thou art free of blame, words addressed by Kosayr, the freedman of Jathîmet al-Abrash, to the latter’s nephew, ‘Amr bin ‘Adî, whom he had urged to expel him with his nose cut off, and who refused to do it, saying, “I am not the man to treat thee thus, nor art thou the man to deserve such treatment.” “Do it,” replied Kosayr, “and thou art free of blame,” which answer passed into proverb (see Ar. Prov., ii. 219, and comp. the Note to Assembly XXVII., p. 190, above.

A traveller, etc.—As to the exemption from the fast of Ramadân for travellers, etc., the Koran, ii. 181, says: “But he who is sick, or upon a journey, shall fast a like number of other days.”

By Him who has made the chase lawful, i.e., by Allah, in allusion to Koran, v. 3: “And when all (connected with the pilgrimage) is over, then take to the chase.”

And also she was menstruous.—This interpretation of the word ẓaḥikat refers to Koran, xi. 74: “And his wife was standing by, and became menstruous; and We announced Isaac to her; and after Isaac Jacob.” It must, however, be remarked, that Baydâwi and most of the other Commentators explain the word in its usual meaning and in accordance with our Bible.

Is the buying of (meaning on the part of) a caller from a herdsman allowed? etc.—With regard to this question, a marginal note in my MS. remarks: “It is said that ad-dâ‘î, the caller, means the cock; others say it is used for ‘abd,’ slave, as râ‘î (herdsman) stands for saiyid, lord or master, and that the meaning is, may the judge sell the slave against, i.e., in spite of the unwillingness of a bankrupt master, who is debarred from the disposal of his property (majḥûr), a proceeding which is in perfect accordance with the law.” Bai‘u ’d-dâ‘î may, however, also mean buying on the part of the caller, in whatever meaning the word may be taken (in Assembly xxvii. it is applied to the Muezzin, which would explain the following dâ‘î, collector of the legal alms), and in this case the preposition ‘alá stands for min, “from,” as in Koran, lxxxiii. 2, after the word iktâlû: “Who when they take by measure from (‘alá) others, exact the full.” As for the answer, there is no difference of opinion amongst the commentators; the selling or buying of the dâ‘î in the sense of “remainder of milk left in the udder,” is forbidden, like that of the fœtus in an animal’s womb, because it is majhûl, an object unknown as to its quality or quantity, a subtlety in the Mohammedan Law, which here is obviously more of a theoretical than practical nature.

Ṣaqar, a hawk, and also date-juice, which it is as unlawful to barter for the fruit, as meat for the living animal (see p. 47, l. 7 from the bottom).

Yea, and it may be inherited from him when he has died, or people may inherit from him after his death, indicating that by his act he ceases not to be a righteous Moslem.

What sayest thou with regard to the dead body of an infidel (as article of food)?—This can be taken literally, when the abomination would be self-evident to excess. But a less repulsive interpretation may be an animal slaughtered by an infidel, which would be as unlawful as the carcase of an animal after its natural death, because he had not invoked the name of Allah on killing it.

May a pitcher be bought from the Benû Aṣfar? etc.—Benû Aṣfar, usually applied to the Greeks, stands here for the enemies of Islam in general, from whom it would be for a Moslem, if not forbidden, at least highly objectionable, to buy offensive or even defensive weapons, as sword or helmet, which may purposely be of bad make, or have been employed against his co-religionists. This translation takes the preposition ‘alá in the sense of min (see the note above), but as bai‘ is bartering, i.e., giving or taking in exchange, it seems evident that the same preposition, which in case of buying means “from,” has in the case of a sale the meaning “to,” and the objection may be against selling weapons to infidels, or against both transactions, buying from and selling to them.

He replied: “Nay, nor to the co-partner in a yellow she-camel.”—The point of this is that the right of pre-emption (shu‘fah) applies to immovables, and the expected answer, if the word ṣaḥrâ’ is taken in its current meaning, “field,” would be yes, while Abû Zayd’s negative reply presupposes for it the more recondite meaning, in which it can be as little an object of pre-emption as a camel or gold.

This is worthier of acceptance, because not being pregnant.

According to the words of the Koran: “Behold to Thee we have returned,” in Arabic innâ hudnâ ilaika, Sura vii., verse 158. By a singular mistake, Rodwell translates: “Verily to Thee we are guided,” probably misled by Flügel, who gives it in his Concordance, p. 203, under hadá, the passive of which, however, would be hudînâ, instead of under hûd, of which hudnâ is the preterite active.

A camel tied to the tomb of her master, etc.—If the Arabic balîyah is taken in this sense, then the word ṣabr signifies the act of binding, and the custom itself, as a superstition of the pre-Islamitic times, is strongly condemned; while ṣabru ‘l-balîyah in the sense of patience under calamity is highly meritorious.

And also he helped, strengthened, honoured, in which meaning the word ta‘zîr occurs (Koran, xlviii. 9): “That ye may believe on God and on His Apostle; and may assist Him, and honour Him, and praise Him, morning and evening.”

Afqar, he impoverished and also he lent a camel to ride upon her back, the connecting link between which two significations is the word fiqâr, vertebræ, inasmuch as poverty breaks a man’s back, while the camel carries him on hers.

A kind of embroidered stuff, meaning that one who abstains from wearing such, i.e., from habits of luxury in general, shows wisdom and discretion, and is therefore eminently fit to be appointed judge.

One who denies a debt.—The interpretation of the word ‘âbid, by “one who denies or repudiates,” is given by some commentators in explaining Koran, xliii. 81: “Say ‘if the God of Mercy had a son, the first then would I be to deny him,’” where Rodwell translates “to worship him.”

As if he had committed an open robbery, in Arabic ghaṣaba, he has taken with violence, the punishment for which is not amputation, but imprisonment, etc.

At a time when I had come to Tiflis, in Arabic Taflîsu and Tiflîsu, the well-known city in the Caucasus.

Together with a number of paupers.—In some MSS. ma‘a zumratin (in others ma‘a ‘uṣbatin) mafâlîsa, where the latter word is not dependent on, but in apposition to the former respectively, while De Sacy and my own MS. read simply ma‘a mafâlîsa (an imperfectly declined plural).

Then the people fastened [bound] their loops to him, i.e., they sat down to listen to him, an idiom for which compare vol. i., p. 412.

Does not eye-witnessing dispense with hearsay? and the smoke reveal the fire?—I have translated amâ as interrogative, but it may equally well be taken as the particle of tantîh, and rendered by “assuredly,” meaning: “You see with your own eyes, without my telling you, what my condition is, and my appearance sufficiently indicates the state of my affairs.”

Yet erewhile I was one of those who possess and bestow.—The word mâla is explained by the commentators by tamawwala, he was wealthy, in which sense it would be synonymous with the preceding malaka, he possessed riches. But it has also the meaning, “he gave part of his property to others,” and this interpretation seems to me preferable, as it conforms in idea with the phrase, rajulun mâlun nâlun, a man who is rich and bountiful, in which mâlun corresponds to malaka, and nâlun to mâla.

But calamities ceased not to subvert.—The word translated by subvert (tasḥat) occurs in the Koran, xx. 64: “For then will He destroy you by a punishment.” One of its derivatives is suḥt or suḥut, anything unlawful, as leading to perdition, especially applied to usury in Koran, v. 46, 67, 68.

Who trailed his sleeves along in luxury.—The usual phrase is, he trailed his skirt, but the length of the sleeves of a costly robe pictures still more forcibly the extravagance of Oriental habits and habiliments.

Or to whom the tidings of daughters have been brought.—Allusion to Koran, xvi. 60, 61: “For when the birth of a daughter is announced to any one of them, dark shadows settle on his face, and he is sad: He hideth himself from the people because of the bad news: shall he keep it with disgrace, or bury it in the ground?” For the practice of the Arabs of the Ignorance to bury infant daughters alive, compare the exhaustive note in vol. i., p. 434, to the passage: “Give life to one buried alive.” I repeat from it here the final line of the poem quoted from the Ḥamâseh in explanation of the reasons which may have induced a father to put an end to his daughter’s days: “She desires my life, but I long for her death, through compassion on her; for to women death is the most generous quest.”

Beguiled by the beauty of his delivery, along with his disease.—The Arabic ma‘a dâ’ihi, together with his ailment, implies that his listeners, while delighted with his utterance, were at the same time moved to compassion for him by his well-simulated palsy.

That which was hidden in their belts and concealed in their bosoms. —The words translated by “belts” and “bosoms” respectively are khuban, pl. of khubnah, and s̤uban, pl. of s̤ubnah, which the native dictionaries explain in almost identical terms as those parts of a garment which serve as receptacles for money and other objects.

So take this trifle, in Arabic ṣubâbah, rest of water at the bottom of a well, and metaphorically used for anything of small value.

And reckon it neither a miss, nor a hit, i.e., as a thing neither to be disdained nor to be made much of, and given more to show our goodwill towards thee, than to lay thee under the obligation of thanks.

Made off stumbling on his road, lit., snatching his ways with stumbling.

And is indulgent with thee.—In the original man yanfuqu ‘alai-ka, which is explained by “one who buries thy faults in a hole” (nafaq), i.e., veils and conceals them. Others take the verb in the sense of having currency, and therefore being acceptable, so that the meaning would be, who by the pleasantness of his manners makes himself agreeable to thee.

And hast met with a prize, so cling to it.—A proverb applied to one who has obtained his wish, and for which see Ar. Prov., ii. 326.

Then he laughed long, and stood before me a sound or perfect man.— The Arabic for “long” is here maliyyan, which occurs in Koran, xix. 47: “Begone from me for a length of time.” The final part of the clause is an allusion to the same Sura, verse 17: “And we sent our spirit to her, and he appeared before her like a perfect man.”

With no ailment in his body.—Ailment is in the text qalabah, which stands originally for an illness which makes a man toss on his couch, but is used, as here, in a more general sense in the proverb, mâ bi-hi qalabah, there is no ailment or blemish in him (Ar. Prov., ii. 610).

And at his feigned palsy, lit., at the falsehood or lie of his palsy (‘alá kaẕibi laqwati-hi). Similar, though with the state of construction reversed, the Koran says, xii. 18: “And they (Joseph’s brethren) brought his shirt with the blood of lie (i.e., with false blood) upon it.”

When I crossed the deserts towards Zabîd.—This is a prosperous town in Yemen, the largest and most important after Ṣanâ, the scene of the first Assembly, from which it is about forty parasangs distant. It is abundantly irrigated, and therefore rich in gardens and orchards, which grow fruit of various kinds, especially bananas.

Whom I had reared until he reached the full vigour of life, reckoned by the Arabs from fifteen to forty years of age. The word used for it in the original is ashudda-hu, which is variously explained as plural of shadd, like aflus from fals, or of shudd, like awudd from wudd, or of shiddah, like an ‘um from ni‘mah, or lastly as a singular without plural, like ânuk (tin).

And trained until his straightness had waxed perfect, a simile taken from the straightening of a lance, here to be taken in a moral sense

Therefore needs his good services had won him my heart, literally had attached themselves or clung to my heart, a proverbial expression, for which see Ar. Prov., ii. 510 and iii., P. 2, 493.

When the sole of his foot was turned up and his voice had been silenced.— This translation takes the word na‘âmah in the sense bât̤inu ’l-qadam, mentioned above, p. 198. According to Sherîshi it has also the meaning of “bier,” and of “gallows-tree,” the being raised of either of which is a popular idiom for death and destruction. Others explain “when his ostrich had fled,” i.e., when he had departed life, in analogy with the saying shâlat na‘âmatu ’l-gaum, the people’s ostrich has taken himself off, when they leave a place or disperse. As for “his voice had been silenced,” sakanat na’matu-hu, it is taken from the imprecation “may God silence his voice,” askata ’llâhu na’mata-hu, whence some commentators propose to read in the present passage sakatat, “was silent,” instead of sakanat, the original meaning of which is “was at rest,” and tallies better with the secondary signification of na’meh, movement or motion [ḥarakah].

Who might be a stopgap for my needs.—Sadâd, here rendered by stopgap, is, according to Maydâni’s remark on this proverbial expression, a small quantity of milk which has dried up in the udder and obstructs the flow of the milk (Ar. Prov., i. 616).

Who gives satisfaction when he is tried.—The final part of the clause is in Arabic iẕâ qulliba, literally when he is turned about, which is paraphrased by, when he is stripped, to examine the soundness of his limbs.

That not every one who undertakes a work carries it through, and that nothing will scratch my skin as well as my own nail.—The first clause of this proposition alludes to the following couplet, taken from a poem of Zohayr in praise of Hârim bin Sinân:

“Thou carriest through what thou hast undertaken, while some undertake but fail to carry through.”

The second is an adaptation of the proverb “Naught scratches my back as well as my own hand” (Ar. Prov., ii. 602), to which Sherîshi quotes some lines of the celebrated Imâm Ash-Shâfi’i, in which also the word “nail” is substituted for the word “hand” of the proverb, and which exhort, like the latter itself, to self-exertion in preference to reliance on others.

With the yellow and the white, meaning gold denars and silver dirhems.

Who if thou stumble says to thee, “Rise to thy feet.”—La‘an or la‘ for la‘an laka is an exclamation in the sense of a prayer that he may rise sound and safe, addressed to one who has tripped or fallen, and is opposed to the imprecatory formula ta‘san, fall or perdition on thee, which occurs Koran xlvii. 9: “But as for the infidels, let them perish!” In a disputed passage of the Ḥamâseh fa’t-ta‘su adná la-hâ min an yuqâla la‘an is explained by Ḥarîri himself in his Durrat al-Ghawwâs by “she is worthier to be prayed for than to be prayed against,” while Tabrîzî in his Commentary reads the initial word fa’n-na‘shu, and interprets: “she has sooner risen than one could say to her Rise!” The origin of la‘an la-ka is said to be the elliptical idiom la‘alla-ka “haply thou mayst,” here mentally supplemented with “rise in safety.”

And were it not, by God, for life’s straitening stress (ẓanku ‘aishin).— Compare Koran xx. 123: “But whoso turneth away from My warning, his truly shall be a straitened life,” i.e., a life of misery (ma‘îshatan ẓankan).

I would not sell him for the realms that Kisrá rules.—To this the commentators quote the following line of a poet to the same effect: “Necessity, O Mother of Mâlik, at times compels a man to part with belongings which otherwise he would guard with a niggard’s care.”

I fancied him one of the youths of the garden of delight, and said, “This is not a man but an honoured angel.”—Allusion to Koran lvi. 11, 12, and 17: “These are they who shall be brought nigh to God in gardens of delight . . . immortal youths go round about to them with goblets and ewers and a cup from a fountain.” The second clause is a quotation of the words with which, in Sûra xii. 31, the Egyptian ladies praise the beauty of Joseph, a quotation which, as the sequel will show, proves ominous on the present occasion.

Whether his elocution matched his comeliness, and how his utterance tallied with the fairness of his countenance.—Literally where his eloquence was from his brightness of face, and how his tongue or language from his fairness, the preposition min, from, here meaning “considered apart from” or “in contrast with.”

So I turned aside from him.—In Arabic ẓarabtu ‘an-hu ṣafḥan, another Koranic idiom, taken from ch. xliii. 4: “Shall We then turn aside this warning from you as if with repulsion, because ye are a people who transgress?” The accusative ṣafḥan is in this passage, according to the most plausible explanations, an infinitive of a verb synonymous with ẓarab, and corroborative of the idea contained in the latter verb, which we might here translate “I struck out and away from him.”

Then listen: Joseph I am, ay, Joseph I am.—Allusion to Koran, xii. 90: “They said, ‘Canst thou indeed be Joseph?’ He said, ‘I am Joseph, and this is my brother.’”

But he did not soar whither I had soared.—Hallaqa, lit., he described circles (ḥalqah), is applied to a bird, which rises into the air, and the phrase means here, “he demanded not such a high price for the boy as I had expected him to do, and was ready to pay,” and in similar manner the following, nor held he on to that to which I held on, signifies, “he showed less eagerness to keep the youth than I was anxious to take possession of him.”

That every thing sold cheap proves dear, a piece of worldly wisdom which I dare say most of my readers have bought sometime or other with their own experience.

Both eyes of the lad flowed over with tears, more abundant than the tear-flow of the clouds, literally, they brimmed over, and not with the brimming of the tears of the clouds, an idiom for which compare (vol. i., p. 304) Chenery’s note on the phrase, “With an earliness beyond the earliness of the crow.”

The hungry bellies, in Arabic a’l-karishu ’l-jiyâ‘u, an idiom remarkable in more than one respect. Karish is, literally, the stomach of a ruminant, and denotes metaphorically a man’s children, family, or household. In this sense we shall meet with it in Assembly XLVIII., attakhiztu-hum karishî wa ‘aibatî, which may approximately be translated: “I took them for my kith and kin,” and is used by Harîri in allusion to a tradition according to which Mohammed applied the expression to the Anṣâr, or Helpers, i.e., the Meccans who joined him after his flight to Medina, and the inhabitants of the latter town who embraced his cause. The word ‘aibah means originally a chest or wardrobe to keep clothes in, and has become a popular metaphor for intimate friends as depositories of a man’s secrets (comp. Ar. Prov., i. 59). In the present passage of our text it is further to be noticed that the singular karish is followed by the plural jiyâ, for which the native grammarians adduce two reasons. The most natural explanation is that the noun karish, though grammatically a singular, is here logically a plural, and may therefore fitly be accompanied by an adjective in that number. The other view of the case is that the plural of the adjective intensifies its meaning, and is joined to the substantive singular, in order to qualify the one subject, as it were, with the aggregate hunger of several subjects, a rather far-fetched explanation, here only given as an instance of the subtlety of grammatical discussion in which the Arabs delight. As another etymological curiosity, I may mention that the word al-‘aibah figures in the parlance of the common people as a corruption of ‘al-lu‘aibah, diminutive of lu‘bah, a toy for children, a doll, from the totally different verb la‘b, playing, sporting.

This is Sakâbi, not for loan or sale.—Sakâbi, an indeclinable noun terminating in kasrah, is the name of a famous horse belonging to a man of the tribe Temîm, who refused to sell it with the above words. It was thus called from its swiftness, compared to the rushing of water when poured out.

My value was lost to them, and what a value.—Literally, “they have lost me, and what a man have they lost,” meaning, according to the commentators, they have not understood or appreciated my worth, This is an instance of the rhetorical figure taẓmîn, which consists in the quotation of part of a well-known couplet or number of couplets to apply it to the circumstances of the quoter. The words are borrowed from a poem ascribed to Umaiyah bin Aṣ-Ṣalt, by others to ‘Abdallah bin ‘Amr bin Us̤mân, and the conclusion of the line is: “lost for the day of battle or stopping breaches.” The words may also signify “They have undone me,” and if taken in this double meaning, are more particularly addressed to Abû Zayd; if taken in the sense of “lost,” they contain at the same time another warning to Ḥarîth to be on his guard.

And distinguish him not from the lobes of my liver, in the Arabic idiom, “from the slices of my liver,” meaning from my children, in the sense in which one of the poets says: “Our children are amongst us but our hearts walking on the ground.”

I commend thee to the keeping of one who is an excellent master or patron.—Allusion to Koran, viii. 41: “But if they turn their back, know ye, that God is your patron: Excellent patron and excellent helper!”

For clear as daylight should it be what Joseph meant, namely, that my sale was as unlawful as that of freeborn Joseph.

And (had) read to him the Sura, i.e., told him our story, in playful allusion to the chapter of the Koran in which is related the story of Joseph. For the following, he who has given a warning is excused, comp. Ar. Prov., xi. 119.

For whose wound there is no retaliation.—In Arabic jurḥu-hu jubâran, i.e., whose blood might be shed with impunity, as it is said in tradition, that there is no retaliation or blood-money due for the blood of ‘Ajams, or non-Arabs. The expression jubâr for the more usual hadar occurs in the legal maxim founded on another tradition, al-ma‘danu jubârun, which means that for one who has been killed by the collapse of a mine no retaliation can be exacted from the owner or the employer of the man.

Then I gnashed my teeth.— Taḥarraqtu, the fifth conjugation of ḥaraqa, with fathah on the second radical, he kindled, etc., may mean, “I burned with rage.” But Sherîshi explains it, “I ground my teeth, so that they gave forth a sound, on account of the violence of my anger,” which is the signification of the form harîqa, with medial kasrah of the primitive verb.

Thy money is not lost, if it has taught thee a lesson, in the original: “Not has gone from thy substance that which has admonished thee;” i.e., the money which thou hast lost will not be thrown away if it teaches thee to be more careful of the remainder, and he who has roused thee to circumspection and cautiousness has not done thee an injury (comp. Ar. Prov., i. 435).

He puffed his cheek and cracked it at me in derision.—Aẓraṭa, he produced a sound in bad odour with good company, means here he produced an imitation of that sound, and has obtained the sanction of tradition, which reports that Mohammed, on visiting the public treasury, expressed in this manner his contempt for the gold and silver coin accumulated therein.

Heretofore the tribes sold Joseph, though they were what people know they were.—Under the tribes (asbât̤) the sons of Jacob are understood, and the laconical expression, wa-humu humu, literally, “and they (are) they,” signifies, “They are what they are known to be,” i.e., revered patriarchs. The words in the preceding line, “I am not the first (lit. an innovator) therein,” are taken from Koran, xlvi. 8: “Say, ‘I am not the first of Apostles (lit., new amongst them).’”

I am not of those who sting twice and make one tread upon two cinders. —The first part of this sentence is an allusion to, or rather perversion of, a reported saying of Mohammed’s: “The believer is not bitten twice from out of a snake’s hole.” In the second part, “upon two cinders” stands for “twice upon cinders or burning coals,” and the meaning is, “I am not one who injures the same person a second time.”

Flinging the remembrance of his deed behind me.—In Arabic, nabaẕtu fa‘lata-hu z̤ihriyyan, which last word occurs Koran xi. 94: “He said, ‘O my people! does my family stand higher in your esteem than I do? Cast ye Him behind your back,’” where Baydâwi explains z̤ihriyyan by manbûẕ warâ’a ’z̤-z̤ahr.

In my roamings I met at Shiraz.—Shiraz, in Arabic an imperfectly declined noun or diptote, one of the principal cities of Persia, of which Sherîshi gives a glowing account in his Commentary, and which is familiar to the friends of Oriental literature as the birthplace of the Persian poet Hafiz, and many other men of note.

See how their fruit would fulfil the promise of their blossom, literally, how their fruit would be from, i.e., in comparison with their blossom, an idiom for which see a preceding note, p. 213 above.

Who had well-nigh encompassed the two goals of life, in the original “the two lives,” i.e., that of increase of strength up to forty, and that of decrease up to eighty, according to others, up to sixty and hundred and twenty respectively. The critics blame Ḥarîri for connecting in this passage two verbs of identical meaning, kâda yunâhizu, as if we would say, “he was near approaching.” But I find that nâhaza, with the accusative aṣ-ṣaida, game, is explained by bâdara-hu, he overtook or reached it, and feel, therefore, justified in my translation, the terms of which seem perfectly legitimate.

A man exists by the two things smallest in him, meaning his tongue and his heart, or as a poet in the Ḥamâseh puts it:

“One half of man is his tongue, the other half his heart; what remains is but an image of flesh and blood.

“Many a man who pleases thee when silent waxes taller or smaller by his converse.” (Ar. Prov., ii. 635, 922.)

Counting its aloes as common wood, i.e., being gifted with surpassing eloquence themselves, they made little of its choicest points. For the word khit̤âb, address, many explanations are given, but there is little doubt that it applies here to that branch of philological science which treats of rhetoric or the rules of elevated diction and composition. The expression faṣlu ’l-khiṭâb, here translated with the “chapter or section of rhetoric,” has occurred in the second Assembly, vol. i., p. 114, towards the end, where I would render it “the discrimination of his address,” or “his discriminate eloquence,” while Chenery prefers “the sagacity of his judgment,” in accordance with Koran, xxxviii. 19: “And We established his (David’s) kingdom: and wisdom, and skill to pronounce clear decisions, did We bestow on him” (comp. the note on the passage, vol. i., p. 291).

But he uttered no word of explanation nor made he his meaning clear by any sign, literally, he explained not with a word, nor cleared he up by any sign, the Arabic preposition ‘an, “from,” in the terminology of the grammarians here being used li ’l-isti‘ânah, that is, standing for “by means of.”

But asked what are his endowments, literally, what is his portion (khalâq), in allusion to Koran, iii. 71: “Verily they who barter their engagement with God, and their oaths, for some paltry price— These! no portion for them in the world to come!”

Now when he had captivated all their senses, in Arabic fa-lammâ khalaba kulla khilbin, the literal rendering of which would be, “when he had beguiled every pericardium.”

Make known to us the shell of thy egg and its yolk, for “thy outward and inward state.” For the preceding phrase, thou hast shown us the mark of thy arrow, comp. Chenery’s note on the proverb: “Each man knows best the mark of his arrow,” vol. i., p. 323.

Now when I perceived the traces of the good and bad blended in Abû Zayd.—This is an approximate paraphrase of an idiom which defies all attempts at a more accurate translation. Shaubu abî zaidin wa raubu-hu is explained by the commentators as meaning the honey of Abû Zayd and his curdled milk, that is to say, his sweet and bitter, or his truth and falsehood. The proverb (Ar. Prov., ii. 647 and 878), mâ ‘inda-hu shaubun wa lâ raubun, applies to a man of indifferent character, somewhat like the English, “he is neither fish nor fowl.”

When, lo! it was he himself, in Arabic fa-iẕâ huwa iyyâ-hu, with the objective case of the repeated pronoun instead of the nominative, according to the grammarians of Basra a popular solecism for fa iẕâ huwa huwa, as would be the English, “behold! he was him.” Since Ḥarîri was a native of Basra, it is more than probable that he shared this view; nevertheless, he adopts the faulty phrase, partly because he aims at a vivid portraiture of life, partly for reasons discussed by Chenery in his “Introduction,” vol. i., p. 72, where similar instances of such disputed grammatical points are mentioned.

Has wooers for her comeliness and pleasingness.—The literal rendering would be: “Is wooed as with the wooing of one who by her beauty can dispense with adornments (ghâniyah), and by her pleasant ways so captivates her husband that he feels not tempted to look at others (mughniyah).

Then let him wash my grief with its proper soap.—This may be taken by Abû Zayd’s audience to mean a gift that would allay his anxiety for the future of his pretended daughter, but for the initiated it contains an allusion to a saying attributed to Chosroes, that wine is the soap for grief, and implies that the reprobate intends to spend the prospective dirhems on the forbidden beverage, which is the real theme of his improvisation.

Making me send after him more than one glance of loving affection. —Here again a lengthy paraphrase is needed, in order to render the Arabic idiom intelligible. Zawwada-nî naz̤ratan min zî ‘alaqin means literally: “provisioned me with the glance of one possessed of affection” (comp. Ar. Prov., ii. 747).

The explanation of the twenty conundrums contained in this Assembly has been given at the foot of the translation from Harîri’s own commentary, and it remains for me here only to add a few more remarks of general interest, partly from the same short commentary appended to it by the author, partly from other sources, which I was able to consult.

I made my camel of peregrination kneel down at Malat̤îyah.—De Sacy spells the name Malt̤îyah, and I followed him in my own edition of the text, misled by his statement that the ancient name of the town was Maldanî, and had by the Arabs been transformed into Maltîyah, with or without tashdîd on the yâ’. Since then, however, I have ascertained that the town, situated in Mesopotamia on the western side of the Euphrates, was formerly called Maladnî. Moreover Fîrûzâbâdî, the author of the Kâmûs, rejects the form with tashdîd as faulty, hence it appears that the form Malat̤yah given in De Sacy’s quotation from Mutenebbi is the only correct one, and that Harîri has altered it into Malat̤îyah by poetical licence, to make it rhyme with mat̤îyah, travelling-beast. The old city had been destroyed by the Greeks, and Kaliph Mansûr rebuilt it a.h. 139, surrounded it with a wall, and settled in it a number of Arab tribes.

When I had thrown down there my staff, a proverbial expression for I had given over travelling or made a halt. In a similar manner, it is said, “I lifted up my staff,” for “I set out on or resumed my journey” (Ar. Prov., ii. 644; ii. 493).

I saw a group of nine people who had purchased some wine.—The Arabic term for people is here raht̤, which means a company of men below ten in number, and who according to an observation of Ḥarîri in his Durrah, are sons of the same father from different mothers. If, however, the word is preceded by a numeral, as here by tis‘ah, nine, it is synonymous with nafs or shakhṣ, a person, and in using it in this signification, Ḥarîri alludes to Koran xxvii. 49: “And there were in the city nine persons, who committed excesses in the land, and did not that which is right.” A few lines lower down the sons of one father and various mothers are called abnâ’u ‘illât, ‘illah being a fellow-wife, from the root ‘all “drinking repeatedly,” according to the idea that a man on marrying first took a single draught (nahila), which he repeats on wedding a second woman or more in addition. These half-brothers are further qualified as thrown together from deserts, from which it would appear that their case was similar to that of the fictitious son of Abû Zayd and Barrah in Assembly V., vol. i., p. 130, that is that all of them, or at least some, had a common father, who in his wanderings had married their respective mothers, and left them pregnant, without returning to them. On their chance meeting they may have discovered this tie of relationship between them, which in itself was loose enough, but strengthened by their common love for Arab lore, here called the woof of scholarship, and meaning an intimate knowledge of the Arabic language, oratory and poetry. The laxness of manners indicated by this supposed state of affairs would account for their buying wine, for the purpose of a drinking-bout in the open air, a proceeding which is evidently not approved of by Al Ḥârith, but which he is ready to condone for the sake of their accomplishments. I may mention that the term employed for wine is qahwah, the modern word for coffee, but in the older language used for any intoxicating liquor, and in particular as a synonym of khamr. It is said to be thus called because it blunts the sexual appetite (tuqhî shahwata’ l-jimâ‘).

And appeared as a complex compatible in its parts.—The simile is either taken from grammatical terminology, in which it means a compound sentence whose constituent parts are well proportioned to each other, or it is, according to Sherîshi, a comparison borrowed from arithmetic, meaning a number whose parts are congruous, i.e., one which can be divided into its fractions and fractions of fractions (half, third of this, fourth of the result, and so on) without leaving a rest, the smallest of which is 2,520, thus divisible by the first numbers from 2 to 10. The idea seems to be, that however deeply these people entered into the discussion of any question, it never led to a discrepancy of opinion between them.

We began to display both Soha and the Moon, i.e., things insignificant and brilliant (or obscure and evident; see the note on “Sohayl and Soha meet,” vol. i., p. 489, and comp. Ar. Prov., i. 527, 528).

An old man intruded upon us.—The Arabic for “intruded” is here waghala, as in Assembly XXIV., vol. i., p. 244, since those intruded upon are engaged in drinking, in contradistinction from warasha, which would mean he joined uninvited a company taking their meal or celebrating a banquet; see also the note on Ṭofayl, vol. i., p. 411.

Whose comeliness and shapeliness had gone, while knowledge and experience remained with him.—The first clause of this proposition, in Arabic, ẕahaba ḥibru-hu wa sibru-hu, is borrowed from a tradition, and ḥibr is explained as the impression or trace of beauty, from ḥabara, he embellished, whence I translate comeliness, i.e., pleasantness of aspect. Sibr, on the other hand, is that by which a thing is recognized, its form, or shape, and if I render it by shapeliness, I have in my mind the relation which exists in Italian between forma and formositá, or the more emphatic sense of the word in the English idiom “he is in good form.” The Arabic equivalents for knowledge and experience, khubr and sabr, are synonyms for information obtained by testing and probing.

And that both he who drew water from the top of the well, and he who drew it from the bottom, were at a loss.—Al mâtiḥ is a man standing with his legs astride on the brink of a well, and receiving the bucket filled with water from another standing at the bottom, who is called al-mâ’iḥ, a practice which has given rise to the proverb: “Thou knowest this better than the mâ’iḥ knoweth the fundament of the mâtiḥ” (see Ar. Prov.,, i. 111).

Not every thing black is a date, nor every thing ruddy is wine.—The proverb, for which comp. Ar. Prov., ii. 627, runs originally: “Not every thing white is fat, nor every thing black a date,” and is used to indicate an error in opinion or judgment, and difference of nature and disposition. Abû Zayd substitutes for the simile “fat” that of “wine,” in allusion to the pastime in which the party were indulging and, I suppose, insinuating that he for one would not have any scruple to take a share in it.

Then we held on to him, as the chameleon holds to the trees.—One of their proverbs says: “More cautious than the chameleon,” because it never leaves one branch of a tree before it has firmly seized another with its fore-feet (Ar. Prov., i. 399).

The cure of a rent is that it be stitched, a proverbial expression for the reparation of an injury, here referring to the stranger’s sarcastic remark by which he had wounded the susceptibilities of the audience. The word ḥauṣ, stitching, means the sowing together of a torn garment, without using a patch (Ar. Prov., i. 7).

I shall give the judgment of Solomon in the matter of the sown field, meaning a sound judgment, such as was that of Solomon, alluded to in Koran, xxi. 78: “And David and Solomon, when they gave judgment concerning a field, when some people’s sheep had grazed therein; and We were witnesses of their judgment.” The story underlying this passage is thus told by Ibn ‘Abbâs: “Two men came before David and Solomon, one of whom was owner of a field, the other of some sheep. The former said, O Prophet of the Lord, the sheep of this man have broken loose at night and pastured in my field, leaving nothing of its produce. Said David to him: Go, the sheep shall be thine. But Solomon, who was then eleven years old, quoth: Methinks another decision would be more equitable towards both parties. So David authorized him to deliver judgment between the twain, whereupon he said: I see fit that thou give over his sheep to the owner of the field, to whom their young, and their milk and wool and every profit derived therefrom shall belong, and that thou give over the field to the owner of the sheep, to sow therein seed, such as his sheep have pastured of, and keep it until in the coming year it have the same appearance as on the day on which it has been grazed upon, when he shall return it to its owner, and claim the return of his own sheep from him. Then David said to him: The decision be as thou hast decided, and he issued judgment accordingly.”

Golden-coloured cooled (companionable) wine, in Arabic ash-shamûlu ’ẕ-ẕahabîyah, shamûl being a name for wine, either because it gathers the drinkers sociably together (shamala), or more probably because it has been cooled by exposure to the north wind (shimâl, comp. the note on Cooled of the north wind, vol. i., p. 501), and here accompanied by the feminine of the adjective, because it is a synonym of the feminine noun khamr. It will be noticed how persistently the obtruder harps on a subject so congenial to him.

That those who failed may not doubt.—Al-mubt̤ilûna, a term applied in Koran, xxix. 47, to those who treat the sacred book as a vain thing, or accuse it of falsehood, has here the more general meaning of disparaging critics, who raise capricious and frivolous objections.

I am not like him who stints his boon-companion, nor of those whose fat remains in their own dish.—Who stints is in Arabic man yasta’s̤iru, lit., “who prefers himself to others.” The second part of the sentence is an allusion to the proverb, samnu-kum hurîqa fî adîmi-kum , your fat (butter) has been poured out into your own dish, i.e., serves only to render your own food savoury (adîm, a by-dish). Adîm is also synonymous with niḥy, an earthen pail or leather bag, used for buttering, when the meaning would be, your butter remains in your vessel, and is never taken out from it, to prepare food for guests of yours. In either case the proverb is applied to a person who keeps his good things to himself, without letting others benefit thereby. The quotation seems to reprove them for not having offered him a cup (see Ar. Prov., i. 614).

Then he blinked [made sign with his glance] to the third and said. —Allusion to Koran, xix. 12: “And he (Zacharias) came forth from the sanctuary to his people and made sign to them (as though he would say), ‘Praise God at morn and eve.’” (The note to this passage in the second edition of De Sacy misprints ix. for xix.)

We are not of the steeds of this race-course, and have no hands for the untying of these knots.—Two proverbial expressions for: “We are not equal to this task” (see Ar. Prov., ii. 644, and ii. 493). Another form of the second of these sayings is, “No two hands belonging to one man are ten,” meaning “The power of one man is not like that of ten;” in Arabic: lâ yadai li-wâḥidin bi-‘asharah, where the dual with its suppressed nûn before the dative particle li stands for the iẓâfah construction, lâ yadaini wâhidin, as the popular phrase lâ abâ laka, thou hast no father, stands for la abâka, there is no father of thine.

I shall make known to [teach] you that which ye had not known.— Allusion to Koran, ii. 146: “Thus have We sent to you an apostle from among yourselves, to rehearse our signs to you, and to purify you, and to instruct you in the book, and in wisdom, and to teach you that which ye had not known.”

And the pockets (lit., sleeves) became as if yesterday they had not been rich, for “they became emptied of their money.” This again alludes to the Koran, x. 25: “Until the earth hath received its golden raiment, and is decked out: and they who dwell on it deem that they have power over it! Our behest cometh to it by night or by day, and We make it as if it had been mown down—as if it had not been rich only yesterday.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“To seek from the dark-eyed gazelles their intimacy

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

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

“When I had a secret entrusted to me, I concealed it like the eggs of the hawk whose nest is not to be reached.”

In Arabic, lâ yunâlu la-hu wakru, where the pronoun in la-hu (whose) refers to the collective noun baiẓ, not to the name of the bird, since the secret concealed in the breast is compared to the eggs deposited in the nest. Both these instances tally with the proverb (Ar. Prov., ii. 148), a‘azzu min baiẓi ’l-anûqi, rarer than the eggs of the hawk, for ‘azîz, of which a‘azz is the comparative, does not imply absolute impossibility, but difficulty of attainment and rareness of occurrence, being, for instance, applied to exceptional or unique grammatical forms, as the plural sarât mentioned p. 224 above. On the other hand, it is stated that Mu‘âwiyeh was asked by a man: “Wilt thou grant me a loan?” He answered “Yes.” Said the man: “And to my son?” “No,” answered the Khalif. “Or to my kindred?” insisted the supplicant. Whereupon Mu‘â-wiyeh said:

“He wanted the piebald, big with young (t̤alaba ’l-ablaqa ’l-‘aqûq),

When he could not find him, he wished for the eggs of the hawk,”

where ablaq means a male piebald horse or spotted camel, for whom it is as impossible to conceive as it is for the male hawk to lay eggs, and consequently the latter phrase here coincides with the popular expression, “the egg of the cock.” Some, however, will have it that the cock lays an egg once without repeating the performance, in support whereof they quote the following verse of the poet Abû ‘Atâhîyah:

“Thou hast visited us once in a lifetime, do so again and let it not be the cock’s egg,”

i.e., let not thy visit remain solitary like it.

As with a frown the lion would fend his mane.—This alludes to the proverb: “More unapproachable than the mane of the lion” (see Ar. Prov., ii. 714). In the text the dual libdatai-hi is used, the reason for which seems to be that the word libdah (mane) is defined in the dictionaries as the matted hair between the shoulders and on the croup of the lion.

As those endowed with firmness bore patiently, in Arabic ṣabra ûlî ’l-‘azmi, a Koranic expression taken from ch. xlvi., v. 34: “Bear thou up, then, with patience, as did the Apostles, endued with firmness.”

Spill not the water of thy face, in Arabic lâ turîq mâ’a ’l-muhaiyâ, for the more usual mâ’a ’l-wajhi, in which the word “water” is used in a similar sense as when we speak of the water of a gem or a blade, meaning the smooth surface and serene aspect of the human countenance, characterising a man who is respected and respects himself. Thus “the water of the face,” like the Persian equivalent, âbi rûy, stands for honour, and to spill it is a metaphorical expression for “demeaning one’s self.”

And if his broidered satin (dîbâj) has gone to rags, sees not his way by begging to fret his cheeks.—Dîbâj, derived through Persian probably from the Greek, is brocade or embroidered silk-stuff, and the feminine form dîbâjah becomes a simile for the forehead and the cheeks, where again the idea of glossiness and smoothness constitutes the link of comparison. The fraying or fretting of the tissue of the face, by rubbing it on the ground in supplication, is an idiom of the same meaning as that explained in the preceding note, with both of which compare Chenery in the passage, Fray the tissue of my countenance , vol. i., p. 280. In addition to the extracts in prose and verse on the shame and humiliation of beggary given there, the following may be quoted. Al-Ḥasan, son of ‘Alî, said on this subject: “Let it suffice thee, as to begging, that it enfeebles the tongue of the speaker, and breaks the heart of the brave, the valiant, that it makes stand the freeborn, the noble, in the place of the abject slave, that it takes away the freshness of colour and wipes away a man’s honour, that it makes him love death and renders life hateful.” Al-Asma‘î relates: “I heard an Arab saying: ‘Begging is the highroad to abasement; it robs the noble of his greatness and the estimable of the esteem in which he is held.” Mu‘âwiyeh is said to have presented Abd Allah ibn az Zobayr with 3,000 dirhems for having recited to him a triplet of Afwah al-Awadî running thus:

“I have tested mankind generation after generation, and seen naught but deceit and strife,

Nor have I witnessed of calamities one more disastrous and hurtful than enmity between man and man,

And I have tasted the bitterness of all things, but there is naught that excels begging in bitterness.”

Wilt thou teach thy mother how to copulate, and thy nurse how to give suck?—Alluding to and enlarging upon the proverb “like one who instructs her mother in copulation” (Ar. Prov., ii. 325), said of a person who affects to teach another more knowing than himself. In similar manner the popular sayings: “The scorpion has rubbed himself against the snake, and the weanlings have coursed along with the stallions,” apply to one who attempts a task to which he is not equal (comp. Ar. Prov., i. 609).

And lowered to him the wing of the kindly, an expression borrowed from Koran, xvii. 25: “And lower to them (your parents) the wing of humility out of compassionate tenderness and say, ‘Lord have mercy on them both, even as they reared me when I was little.’”

As for those in need, an exception is made for them in matters prohibited. —This refers to the popular saying aẓ-ẓarûrâtu tabîḥu ’l-maḥz̤ûrâta , “necessities permit things forbidden,” which is akin to our proverb “necessity knows no law,” and, according to Sherîshi, is justified by Koran, v. 5: “Whoso then without wilful leanings to wrong shall be forced by hunger to transgress, to him, verily, will Allah be Indulgent, Merciful.

Was it not thou who contradicted his father irreverently in saying?— This translation presupposes the reading wa qâla, which is that of the native editions and of most MSS., my own included, assigning the following verses to the youth, whom his father quotes, as the son had done with the preceding verses belonging to the old man. De Sacy reads iẕ qâla, “when he said,” making the father to be their author also, and thereby to contradict himself by blaming contentment and resignation which he had praised and commended before. The editors of De Sacy’s second edition, in remarking that the former reading supports Rückert’s opinion on the point to the same effect, add with good reason, that only in this manner the Kadi’s indignation at the lad’s inconsistency becomes intelligible, who first refused to beg at his father’s injunction and now deems an appeal to the generous preferable to bearing distress patiently.

For Moses met it heretofore and al-Khaẓir did the same.—Al-Khaẓir, more commonly called al-Khiẓr, is the servant of God and companion of Moses, mentioned in the Sûra of the Cave, xviii., verse 76 of which relates the incident here alluded to: “Then went they on until they came to the people of a city. Of its people they asked food, but they refused them for guests.” The Mohammedans consider him to be one of the Prophets, who has survived from the time of Moses to the present age, and a legend says that he is present whenever his name has been pronounced, whence the following line of the poet Abû t̤-Ṭaiyib:

“As soon as we recall his liberality, he appears, far or near he hastens to the spot with the foot of al-Khizr.”

Temîmî at one time and Kaisî at another?—In the original Temîmî and Kaisî stand in the accusative or objective case, which is either that of condition (ḥâl), or depending on an elided verb: “Showest thou thyself at one time as a Temîmî, at another as a Kaisî, i.e., displayest thou alternately the lofty disposition of the tribe Temîm and the baseness of the tribe Kais? The form of interrogation has here the force of an assertion, implying reproof. To Temîmî compare the note, p. 225, above.

“By Him who has made thee a key for the truth, and an opener (fattàḥ) amongst mankind, meaning a dispenser of justice amongst them, as in Koran, vii. 87: “O our Lord! decide (lit., open) between us and between our people with truth, for Thou art the best of those who decide,” where the participle fâtiḥ, lit., one who opens, coincides with the more intensive form fattâḥ of the present passage.

For among the missing arrows is one that hits, meaning that even a miser may have a fit of generosity (see Ar. Prov., ii. 625).

So he was not slow (lit., he belied him not) to set his net and to bake his fish before the fire.—These are two proverbial expressions, according to a marginal note in “Myths of Modern Origin,” for using stratagem or planning deceit, the former self-evident, the latter arising from the practice of a thief, who on seeing a fire, walked up to it with the purpose of stealing, but when surprised, pretended he had come to bake his fish by it.

Are rooted more firmly than mount Raẓwá.—This is the name of a mountain near Medina with far-spreading ramifications, which explains the comparison here made between its extent and that of the Kadi’s wisdom and clemency.

Whose gifts are like yon quails and yon manna, allusion to Koran, ii. 54: “And We caused the clouds to overshadow you, and We sent down manna and quails upon you” (comp. also vii. 160 and xx. 82).

Then the youth repented bitterly.—The Arabic for this: fa-suqit̤a ’l-fatá fî yadi-hi, contains a peculiarity of idiom, which has greatly exercised the ingenuity of the philologists. Suqût̤, to fall, is a neuter verb of which the passive can only be used in the third person singular suqit̤a, with the impersonal meaning “it was fallen,” and the proverbial expression suqit̤a fî yadi-hi (Ar. Prov., i. 604), which is applied to one deeply repentant, signifies, a falling into his hand was caused, namely, of his head or mouth, brought about by his remorse, since people in a paroxysm of contrition were wont to bite their fingers. A note in De Sacy’s second edition points out, that grammatically speaking the phrase is very similar to the Latin “Sic itur ad astra,” literally, “thus a going or soaring to the stars is done,” for: this is the road to fame. The Arabic mode of speech seems to have been unknown to the poets of the pre-Islamite period, but appears for the first time in the Koran, vii. 148, where it is said of the worshippers of the golden calf wa-lammâ suqit̤a fî aidî-him, translated by Rodwell: “But when they bitterly repented.” Mohammed, no doubt, had heard the locution on his journeys amongst the desert Arabs, but when the later poets adopted it from the sacred book, they inadvertently or intentionally overlooked the impersonality of the passive form, and Abû Nuwâs, for instance, was not afraid to say: wa niswatin suqit̤t̤u minhâ fî yadî. This is about the same as if a facetious Latinist of the middle ages had, in the sentence quoted above, added the termination of the first person to the verbal form itur, and written: sic ituro ad astra. Intelligent readers would have understood him to mean: “Thus I do what is done to reach the stars or the pinnacle of glory,” just as the fellow-countrymen of Abû Nuwâs perceived his meaning to be: “And there is many a woman by whom I was made sorely to repent.” In the present case the construction could have been rendered perfectly correct in two ways by saying either: fa iẕâ ’l-fatâ suqit̤a fî yadi-hi or fa suqit̤a fî yadi ’l-fatâ, the former signifying “Then, as for the youth, it was fallen into his hand,” the latter meaning, “Then it was fallen into the hand of the youth,” where the expression “it was fallen” is to be explained as has been done in the beginning of this note. Now it may be asked, why did Ḥarîri, who possessed such a thorough mastery over his language, choose the more objectionable form when he knew better? My answer is, that it is not he who speaks in his work, but the Râwî, who relates Abû Zayd’s adventures, and Ḥarîri shows his skill in making him speak in the most natural and life-like manner. Al Ḥârith, who may be supposed to be an Arab of liberal education, above all well versed in his Koran and the poetry of his age, had begun with the proverbial and sacred formula fa suqit̤a, but remembering that the pronoun in yadi-hi would be without a subject to refer to, as the person mentioned last, was the Kadi, he throws in at once, by way of parenthesis, the word al-fatá , “as for the youth,” without waiting for the end of the sentence. We have seen on various occasions that Ḥarîri likes to introduce such disputed points of grammar and etymology, partly to show that he is well acquainted with the controversy, partly perhaps to provoke further discussion on the subject. Finally I may add, for the sake of completeness, that one solitary reading of the Koran substitutes the active saqat̤a for the passive suqit̤a, supplying the noun al-nadamu, “repentance,” as subject to the former, which interpretation, however, Ḥarîri himself in his grammatical treatise “Durrat al-Ghawwâṣ” declares to be faulty; a sufficient reply to those who would make the same substitution in the text of the Assembly.

And (might) learn from what tree his fire sprang, lit., might know the tree of his fire, for “his origin and character,” alluding to the proverb (Ar. Prov., ii. 207, 256): “In every tree is fire, but the Markh and the ‘Ufâr excel,” viz., in yielding fire when rubbed, or feeding it, when kindled; so much so that in the hot season frequently trees of these kinds are set aflame by the friction, brought about by the wind, and spread conflagration over a whole valley. A poet of the Hamâseh says:

“Thy fire-shafts are the best of fire-shafts of kings in which the Markh-wood mixes with the ‘Ufâr.

But even wert thou in the darkness of night to rub a pebble with the wood of the Naba‘ tree, thou wouldst elicit fire.”

The Naba‘ is a tree whose wood, on account of its hardness, is preferred for making bows, so that the production of a spark by rubbing it against a pebble is a striking simile for any marvellous and extraordinary feat.

To inquire after his good and evil hap, in Arabic li-asta‘rifa sâniḥahu wa bâriḥa-hu. This is taken from the flight of a bird, or from game, which are called sâniḥ, if coming from the left and turning their right to you, which is considered by most Arabs to portend good, while bâriḥ means the reverse, and is said to augur evil. According to Sherîshi, however, the people of Nejd regard, on the contrary, the former as an ominous, the latter as an auspicious sign.

Ever since . . . . my pen sputtered.—The most obvious explanation of this phrase is that it means: Since I knew how to write, but the word qalam, pen, is also used metaphorically for ẕakar, membrum virile, when the idiom allows of the interpretation, “since I had reached puberty.”

I clutched his stirrup with both my hands, in allusion to the proverb, ushdud yadaika fî gharzi-hi, tighten thy hands on his stirrup, meaning, cling to one who has the power to benefit thee, or stick to an undertaking unflaggingly (see Ar. Prov., i. 660).

In applying the pitch to the places where the scab begins to show, again proverbial (Ar. Prov., iii., P. 1, p. 541), for being well grounded in a matter, and knowing how to treat or mend it.

Swifter than the moon in her changes, the last word being in Arabic nuqal, plural of nuqlah, her movement from one sign of the Zodiac to the next, which is performed in about two days and eight hours. Another reading is fî ’l-nufal, during her second three nights (the first three being called ghurar), when her swiftness means her earliness of setting during those nights. The preceding expression, to wander abroad faster than the proverb, refers to the phrase al-mas̤alu ’l-sâ’ir, the current proverb.

Which is part of man’s chastisement (or torment), allusion to a tradition which is recorded, in the following words, in the Muwat̤t̤â, one of the oldest collections of the Ḥadîs̤, compiled by the Imâm Mâlik (†A.H., 179): “Travel is a portion of man’s punishment, it deprives you of sleep and drink and food; so when one of you has obtained his object in undertaking it, let him return to his people in all haste.”

So at a time when I had strayed to Merv, and no wonder.—Merv, in Arabic Marw, an imperfectly declined noun, whence the oblique case Marwa, is a large and celebrated town of Khorasan, called the mother of that country. As the people of Khorasan were renowned for their stinginess, it is not surprising that the inhabitants of the mother-town were said to excel in it all the rest of the world. Witness the story, related in Sadî’s Gulistân, if I remember well, of the merchant of Merv, who would not allow his son to eat cheese, but made him rub his bread against the glass cover under which it was kept. In the title of this Assembly, Ḥarîri uses the regular form of the noun of relation marwî, in preference to the more usual marwazî, probably for marghazî, derived from marghaz, an older name of Merv (compare my Persian Dictionary, p. 1217). The words in the text, no wonder, in Arabic la gharwa, are, of course, thrown in to rhyme with marwa, but they are not entirely irrelevant, as the fame and importance of the city may naturally enough induce a traveller to visit it.

Nor saw I any trace or dust of him, in the original lâ ará la-hu as̤ar-an wa lâ ‘is̤yar-an, which final word means dust raised by his foot in walking, and seems more appropriate than the reading ‘ais̤ar-an of some MSS., the meaning of which, “a slight and feeble trace,” would appear pleonastic after as̤ar-an.

And clings to the people commanding respect, as one clings to his wife and his close relations.—The text of this passage, wa ’ltazama li-ahli ’l-ḥurami ka-mâ yultazamu li ’l-ahli wa’l-ḥurami, contains a play on the double meaning of the words ahl and ḥuram. The latter is the plural of ḥurmah, which may be synonymous with iḥtirâm, honouring, paying respect, revering, and if in connection with it, ahl is taken in the sense of people, the expression ahlu’l-ḥuram signifies “people of respects,” i.e., to whom respects are due. But the plural of ḥurmah has also the special meaning of close relatives, comprising the relations of a man by consanguinity, affinity, or fosterage, with whom marriage is unlawful, while al-ahl, with the article, stands for his household or more in particular for his wife. The reading which I have adopted is that of my own MS. and of the native editions. De Sacy has al-ḥaram for the second al-ḥuram, but the former, in the sense of “harem,” would be almost identical with al-ahl, as his own definition in his commentary shows.

For Allah’s grace upon thee has been great—quotation from Koran, iv. 113: “And God hath caused the Book and the Wisdom to descend upon thee, and what thou knewest not He hath caused thee to know; and the grace of God towards thee hath been great.”

Who grovels in the dust after he had rolled in riches, in Arabic tariba ba‘da ’l-itrâbi. The verb tariba means he has become poor, as though he were bent to the dust (turâb) by dint of his poverty, and itrâb, infinitive of the fourth form of the same verb, signifies being wealthy, as though a man’s riches were plentiful, like dust.

And hopefulness is the best means of propitiation of him who begs, and the best gift of him who gives.—The commentators say in explanation of this: “The trusting hopefulness with which you represent your need to the generous on approaching him, gains his favour for you more effectually than the intercession of a third person, and it is a source of even greater pleasure and gratification to him than the gift itself, which he may be prevailed upon to bestow on you.”

And deal me fair as Allah has dealt fair with thee.—Taken from Koran, xxviii. 77: “But seek, by means of what God hath given thee, to attain the future Mansion; and neglect not thy part in this world, but be bounteous to others; as God has been bounteous to thee.”

Then he stopped short, to wait for the fruit of his planting (ukla gharsi-hi).—Ukl , lit., that which is eaten, occurs in the sense of fruit, Koran, xviii. 31: “Now set forth to them as a parable two men; on one of whom We had bestowed two gardens of grape-vines, and surrounded both with palm-trees, and placed corn-fields between them; Each of the gardens did yield its fruit (ukl), and failed not thereof at all.”

Mayst thou forfend a curse, i.e., mayst thou guard thyself or refrain from doing anything that would bring a curse upon thee, a formula of greeting, implying a prayer, addressed to kings in the times of the Ignorance. Jauharî quotes the following verse, which he attributes to Zohayr bin Janab al-Kalbî, a warrior poet, on whom see Caussin de Percival’s “Essai,” i. 116; ii. 174:

“For sooth, I have obtained all that man may obtain, except the salute,”

where the word “salute,” in Arabic at-taḥaiyah, is explained by al-mulk, i.e., royal power and dignity.

And when he began with a bounty, follows it up with another; in the text, wa in bada’ bi-‘â’idat-in ‘âda. The verb ‘aud means to come back, to return, to repeat. Hence the feminine participle ‘â’idah, that which returns, stands like the English word “return” for profit, advantage, gain, which, when conferred upon somebody else, becomes a benefit. ‘Âda has then its usual sense: he comes back to it, repeats it again and again.

And never meet stinginess and praise, so that one would think a lizard this, that a fish, etc.—An Arab proverb says, “I shall never do this until the lizard goes to the water” (Ar. Prov., i. 574), and of two things or persons utterly incompatible with each other it is said “they are as far asunder as the lizard and the fish,” because the former avoids that which is the element of the latter (comp. vol. i., p. 431).

Made him alight on the seat of the circumciser (maq‘adu ’l-khâtini), a popular expression for closest proximity, as mazjaru ’l-kalb, the place to which a frightened dog is driven, stands for a great distance. Synonymous with the former idiom are maq‘adu ’l-qâbilati and maq‘adu ’l-izâri, seat of the midwife, place of the waistband, respectively, and a more emphatic form of expressing remoteness is manât̤u ’l-‘uyûq (s̤-s̤uraiyâ), the suspension place of Capella (of the Pleiades).

That which announced to him length of skirt and shortness of night.— Length of skirt is a metaphor for wealth and luxury, for which compare the following passage in the twenty-sixth Assembly, vol. i., p. 264: “Until when his gifts had overwhelmed me, and his gold had lengthened my skirt, I contrived to depart in the fair condition thou seest.” In similar manner, shortness of night means a life of pleasure, since the night is short only for him who passes it in delight and enjoyment, while, as the poet says, the shortest night becomes long in sorrow and grief. Many conceits of the poets turn on this subject, amongst others the following play of Abû ’l-Kâsim as-Sâlimî on the consonance of sound between lailî, my night, and lailá, name of a mistress:

“My night and Lailá are alike in contrariness, making of me a proverb in love-matters,

My night is lavish of its length (t̤ûl) whenever Lailá stints me her favour (t̤aul), and when she is lavish thereof it is my night that stints me.”

That my earnings are due to worth, not to meddling, and my station to power of speech, not to kings’ grace.—To this the commentators quote Mutenebbî’s line:

“Not through my people have I attained to greatness, they are great through me,

By my own self have I risen, not by my ancestors.”