Assemblies - The Assemblies of Hariri, Volume 2

On backs of Mahrî camels.—Mahrî is the noun of relation formed from Mahrat ibn Haydân, chief of a tribe of Yemen, and its feminine Mahrîyah means a camel descended from those bred by him, which were celebrated for their swiftness, said to surpass that of horses.

Some promising business had cropped up for me at Ṣuḥâr.—This is one of the chief towns of the district ‘Omân, on the south-eastern coast of Arabia, and an emporium for the trade of the country by means of the Persian Gulf, with a harbour one parasang square. The above passage runs in Arabic, wa qad sanaḥa lî arabun bi-Suḥâra, where I translate arabun, an affair or matter, by “promising business,” on account of the verb sanaḥa, which, as was mentioned in a previous note, means: presented itself under favourable auspices.

Who blames himself and finds excuses, i.e., who reproaches himself for venturing on a sea-voyage and exposing himself to its dangers, but at the same time finds excuses, on account of the quantity of his merchandise, which would render the land journey too tedious and expensive.

O ye people of this strong-built ship, etc.—Allusion to the following passages of the Koran, xvii. 68: “It is your Lord, who speedeth onwards the ships for you in the sea”; vi. 96: “This is the Ordinance of the Mighty, the Wise”; lxi. 10: “O ye who believe! shall I direct you unto a merchandise which shall deliver you from the sore torment?”

Whose shadow is not heavy, for: who is no encumbrance, or will not prove a bore, taken from the saying: thy shadow weighs heavy upon me (comp. Assembly XXII., vol. i., p. 230, l. 13; and the note on Deemed his shadow to be heavy, ibid., p. 473).

And not to be stingy in providing for his needs.—The word mâ‘ûn, here translated “in providing for his needs,” has occurred in Assembly XXXVI., p. 80, l. 4 from the bottom, where I have rendered it by “bounty.” It is, according to most lexicographers, a derivative of the measure fâ‘ul, from the verb ma‘n, to flow, whence it signifies rain, and in accordance with the connection existing in the Arabic mind between the idea of water and moisture and that of bounty, of which Chenery speaks in his interesting note on A bucket from his stream (vol. i., p. 282), it becomes synonymous with ma‘rûf, in the sense of kindness, beneficence, etc. A more far-fetched explanation is, that it stands for ma‘ûnah, aid, assistance, from the verb ‘aun, to help, and that the letter of prolongation in the first syllable is inserted to compensate for the dropped termination of the feminine. Be that as it may, the term mâ‘ûn is further applied to anything useful, or borrowed for use, as a kettle, an axe, or household utensils in general. Abû ‘Obaydeh says, mâ‘ûn has in the time of Ignorance the meaning of advantage, gift, and in Islâm that of obedience, piety, legal alms. In modern Arabic, mâ’ûnu ’l-waráq is a ream of paper.

I take refuge with Allah from the paths of destruction.—An ejaculatory prayer of this kind, on embarking in a vessel, is approved of by Mohammed in the following words of a tradition: “It is a safeguard from drowning for my people when they mount their ships.”

Allah . . . has not made it binding on the ignorant to learn, any more than He has made it incumbent on the learned to teach, i.e., He has enjoined the one at the same time, or as well as the other. This alludes to the saying attributed to ‘Alî: “Allah has imposed upon the ignorant the duty of learning, as he has imposed upon those possessed of knowledge the duty of teaching.” Similarly Mohammed bin Ka‘b says: “It is not allowed to one of the learned to be silent concerning his learning, nor is the ignorant allowed to keep silence concerning his ignorance, but he should ask.” The equivalent for “He has made binding upon” is in Arabic akhaẕa, “he has taken from,” where the word ‘ahd or mîs̤âq, “covenant,” is understood, which idiom occurs in full, Koran, iii. 184: “Moreover, when God entered into a covenant with (lit., took a covenant) from those to whom the Book had been given, . . . they cast it behind their backs and sold it for a sorry price! But vile is that for which they have sold it.”

He quoted from the Koran, saying, lit., he read, qara’a, the verb from which the name Qu‘rân or Koran itself is derived. The passage quoted is xi. 43.

By Him who holds in bondage the fathomless sea (al-baḥra ’l-lujjîya). —Lujjî, derived from lujjah, an abyss, is that of which the bottom cannot be reached, and applies likewise to the sea in Koran, xxiv. 40: “Or like the darkness on the unfathomable sea, when covered by billows riding upon billows, above which are clouds: darkness upon darkness. When a man reacheth forth his hand, he can scarcely see it! He to whom God shall not give light, no light at all hath he!”

How could the son of brightness (ibnu jalâ) remain hidden?—a designation given to a man of fame or mark, either because it is used as a metaphor for the morning, the moon, or the dawn of day, or after a notorious depredator, thus called, for whom see Ar. Prov., i. 46.

While the sea was calm (wa ’l-baḥru rahwun), again taken from Koran, xliv. 23: “And leave the sea behind thee resting in calmness,” i.e., restored to its natural condition, after it had swallowed the Egyptians in pursuit of Moses and his people. Rodwell translates here “the disparted sea,” following the interpretation of those commentators who explain the word by opened or split asunder, from rahâ, he opened his legs wide. It is, however, evident, from our text, that Ḥarîri leans to the former notion.

And the travellers forgot all that had been, i.e., the state of things which had prevailed in the early part of their voyage.

But we proceeded to search within its inmost part, etc.—Allusion to the following passages of the Koran, xvii. 5: “So when the menace for the first crime (the slaughter of Isaiah and the imprisonment of Jeremiah, punished by the invasion of the Assyrians) came to be inflicted, We sent against you our servants, endued with terrible prowess; and they searched the inmost part of your abodes, and the menace was accomplished”; ibid., xvi. 50: “Have they not seen how everything which God hath created turneth its shadow right and left,” where the verb tafaiyu’ is used in the sense of turning one’s shadow, which in the text of the Assembly has the meaning of seeking shade; ibid., xxii. 44: “And how many cities which had acted wickedly have We destroyed, and they are laid low in ruin on their own foundations, and wells abandoned and lofty castles.”

We found every one of them in the predicament (lit., skin) of one broken down, and the grief of one taken captive.—This is the reading of De Sacy and my MS., which I follow in my own edition. The Beyrout and Boulak prints have instead: But we found every one of them sorrowful, deep in grief, so that we fancied him utterly broken down or taken captive.

When we saw that their fire was the fire of al-Ḥubâḥib. — This refers to the proverb, akhlafu min nâri ’l-ḥubâḥib, more deceitful than the fire of al-Ḥubâḥib or of Abû Ḥubâḥib (Ar. Prov., i. 454; ii. 343; iii., P. 1, 28), said to have been a miser, who used to kindle his fire from thin wood, so that it was extinguished before any guest, speculating on his hospitality, could approach it. According to others, the appellative applies to the glow-worm, commonly called sirâju ’l-lail, lamp of the night, or to the sparks struck by the hoofs of a horse on stony ground, or produced by the collision of stones in the air. Al-Kat̤âmî says in the Ḥamâseh:

“For sooth, the fires of Kays in winter-time are to the night farer but like the fire of al-Ḧubâḥib,”

which Tabrîzî explains: “Like the sparks springing from a stone under the horse’s hoof.”

And be the churl cursed (qabuḥa), the Arabic verb being taken in the sense in which it is used in Koran, xxviii. 42: “We pursued them with a curse in this world, and they shall be of the execrated (mina ’l-maqbûḥîna) on the day of Resurrection.”

The Shâh of this territory.—The Persian word shâh, king, lends local colour to a scene enacted on an island of the Persian Gulf, and at the same time it contains an allusion to the king of chess, in connection with ruq‘ah, territory, which also means a square of the chess-board.

When it took no longer than to say: Nay, nay!—For this proverbial phrase to express shortness of time and quickness of action see Ar. Prov., ii. 295. It occurs in the following line of Al Komayt ibn Zayd, of whom an account is given by Chenery, vol. i., p. 320:

“The alighting of the people therein is like (saying) nay, nay, for a little while, without putting saddle near saddle,”

i.e., without unsaddling. Jerîr uses in the same sense the expression like nay and like this, in speaking of a short snatch of sleep.

Or an enemy frankly hostile, in Arabic wa ‘adûwin mubînin, allusion to Koran, xvii. 55: “Enjoin My servants to speak in kindly sort: Verily Satan would stir up strifes among them; aye, Satan is man’s avowed foe.”

Sound advisers how often are they suspected, lit., how many a sound adviser is set down as one to be suspected (z̤annîn), a word borrowed from Koran, lxxxi. 24, where, however, the reading ẓannîn, niggard, seems preferable. The Koranic passage refers to Mohammed, of whom it is said that he does not stint or keep back heaven’s secrets. With the reading z̤annîn the meaning would be, he is not subject to the suspicion of falsehood, when he speaks of the invisible world and its mysteries.

That the hand of none menstruous must touch it, indicating that the spell is something sacred, in allusion to a woman in this state being forbidden to touch the sacred book.

Or the interval which the milker observes in drawing milk.—To one who hurries another on, it is said amhilnî fuwâqa nâqatin, allow me the collecting time (fuwâq) of a she-camel, i.e., the time in which she collects a fresh flow of milk, after being milked (Ar. Prov., ii. 602).

So that I was made to fancy him Uwais al Karanî or Dobays al-Asadî. —The former, a native of Karan in Nejd, was the most eminent ascetic and devotee of Kûfa, who was killed in the battle of Ṣiffîn; Dobays, known as Amîr Dobays, or Amîr Saif ad-daulat al-Asadî, a grandee of Bagdad and contemporary of Ḥarîri, noted for his generosity, of which he gave signal proofs to the author of the Makâmât on hearing that he had mentioned him in this work.

But I met from her with the sweat of the water-bag, i.e., with the sweat which the carrying of the water-bag produces in the slave-girl who is burdened with it, a proverbial expression for misery and hardship, for which see Ar. Prov., ii. 347; iii., P. 2, 480. Another explanation is that the sweat of the water-bag means the water which flows from it or the flow itself, so that the meaning of the proverb, “I have imposed upon thee the sweat of the water-bag,” would be either, I have forced thee to travel, when thou needest the sweat of the water-bag, i.e., its water, or, I have imposed upon thee a task which makes thy sweat flow as profusely as the water flows from the water-bag. This would come near the form of the saying, transmitted by Maydâni (Ar. Prov., ii. 436): “I have met therefrom with the sweat of my brow.” Lastly, some interpreters read instead of ‘araq (sweat), the word ‘alaq, synonymous with mi‘lâq, the handle by which the water-bag is carried, and say the proverb signifies: “I have imposed upon thee the carrying of the water-bag,” namely, the necessity of travelling.

What the upshot would be, lit., how the turning-out would be (kaifa ’l-munqalabu).—The word munqalab may be noun of place (turning-point), or verbal noun (the turning-out of a matter). In the Koran, xviii. 34, it occurs in the sense of that which takes the turn of something else: “I shall surely find a better (garden) than it in exchange (munqalaban)”; and ib., xxvi. 228, it has the meaning of return: “But they who treat them (the believers) unjustly shall find out what a return awaiteth them, lit., with what return they shall return (to God, aiya munqalabin yanqalibûna).

Hence I threw my business behind my back, in the Arabic idiom “behind my ear,” to which Ḥarîri, in the short commentary attached by him to this Assembly, quotes Koran, iii. 184: “They cast it behind their backs” (comp. p. 216, above).

Though I should not be of any help.—The fourth form of the verb ghaná, which generally means to enrich, is here used in that of helping, as in Koran, xliv. 41: “A day when a servant shall not help a master in aught (lâ yughnî), neither shall aid be given to them (lâ yúnṣarûna).”

And stint even the fragment of a worn toothpick, lit., the spittings of the siwâk, meaning the splinters of the miswâk, or piece of wood, used for rubbing and thereby cleaning the teeth before prayer, which remain in the mouth, and are spit out, when this preliminary act of ceremonial ablution has been performed (see Hughes’ “Dictionary of Islâm,” p. 353).

Knowest thou not that contumacy provokes the wrath of the Lord?— The Lord may mean “thy husband,” as the Beyrout edition explains, or more probably God Almighty, in allusion to Koran, xxiv. 8, 9: “But it shall avert the chastisement from her (i.e., the woman accused of adultery), if she testify a testimony four times repeated, by God, that he (the accusing husband) is indeed of them that lie; and a fifth time that the wrath of the Lord be on her, if he have spoken the truth.”

And punishes the neighbour for the default of the neighbour.—This and the preceding metaphor are sufficiently transparent to allow of dispensing with the exceedingly plain-spoken definition of the neighbour and the neighbour’s neighbour, given by Sherîshi, who at the same time relates that the saying was addressed by an Arab to his wife, when she excused herself from meeting his advances in due fashion on the plea that she was visited by her menses. The light, thus thrown on the subject, extends also to the following rebuke of the Kadi, in which the salt-marshes stand for a place where no plants grow, and where sowing seed is as futile as looking out for chickens in a place where no chickens are hatched. In the imprecation, with which he concludes: “May no concern of thine prosper” (lâ na‘ima ‘aufu-ka), the same double meaning underlies the word ‘auf, condition, state of affairs, as the word qalam in the first note to Assembly XXXVIII., p. 234, the affirmative form of the idiom na‘ima ‘aufu-ka, being addressed to a man on the point of consummating marriage (Ar. Prov., ii. 747), and in the sentence, “Mayst thou not be safe in that which thou fearest,” the object of fear is offspring, either female, which, as we have seen, p. 209 above, is considered as a misfortune by all ‘Arabs, or offspring in general, which the poorer classes amongst them dread in reversed proportion, as it seems, with those amongst ourselves.

By Him who sends down the winds, quotation from Koran, vii. 55, and passim.

She is more of a liar than Sajâḥi (la-akẕabu min Sajâḥi), according to Harîri’s commentary, a proper name indeclinable in the letter i, like that of the celebrated grammarian Sîbawayhi (see vol. i., p. 497, and comp. barâḥi in Assembly XLVIII.). The woman thus called was the daughter of al-Munẕir, and made claim to the prophetic office in opposition to the pseudo-prophet Musaylamah (see “Dict. of Islâm,” p. 422), whom she went to convert or fight, but whose cause she subsequently embraced, giving herself to him in marriage. The proverb concerning her (Ar. Prov., i. 595) is not as quoted in the text, but aghlamu (azná) min Sajâḥi, hotter (more lecherous) than Sajâḥi, probably an intentional slip of Abû Zayd’s memory, who trusted in that of his audience to give the retort courteous to the accusation of his spouse by a counter-charge.

He is a greater liar than Abû S̤umâmah, the surname of the aforesaid impostor Musaylamah, also called al-Kaẕẕâb, the liar, who in the latter days of Mohammed’s life rose in rivalry with him, and after the Prophet’s death acquired considerable power, until Abû Bekr’s general, Khâlid ibn al-Welîd, crushed his followers in a sanguinary battle, in which the false prophet was slain by the negro slave Wahshî with the same lance wherewith he had killed Mohammed’s uncle Ḥamzah in the battle of Oḥud.

More barefaced than bark, etc.—Abraza is, lit., more showing forth, i.e., displaying her face without a veil, a sign of immodesty in a woman.

Rijlah, which, for the sake of assonance, I translate by “purslane,” is some kind of bitter herb, which grows on the brink of rivers, and is therefore proverbially (Ar. Prov., i. 406), called ḥamqâ, foolish, silly, because exposing itself to be undermined and carried away by the current. The river Tigris, whose Arabic name dijlah rhymes with it, is considered one of the widest rivers, so much so that a flooded country is called dijlah, as resembling it in width and extent.

If Shîrîn had bestowed on thee her beauty, etc.—Shîrîn, wife of the Persian king Khosru Perwez, celebrated for her beauty and the sculptor Farhad’s fatal love for her.—Bilkîs, Queen of Saba (the Scriptural Sheba, for whom see Koran, xxvii. 22, 23).—Zobaydeh, wife of Hârûn ar Reshîd and grand-daughter of Manṣûr, possessed of great wealth, which she spent lavishly in pilgrimage, pious donations, and the building of mosques.—Bûrân, either the daughter of Khosru Perwez, who reigned after his death for forty years, or more probably the wife of the Khalif Ma’mûn, who spread for her on the wedding night a golden carpet, on which he poured from a large vessel a heap of pearls for the waiting women, each of whom took a bead, the remainder being left sparkling on the carpet.—Az-Zebbâ (see notes to Assembly XXVII., p. 190 above), proverbial for magnificence and power (Ar. Prov., ii. 147), and thus called from the length of her hair (zabab), which she trailed behind her when walking.— Rabî‘ah, daughter of Ishmael, of the tribe Ḳays, a woman of Baṣra, celebrated for piety (Ibn Khallikan, i. 263).—Khindaf, surname of Laila, daughter of Ḥulwân bin ‘Imrân, and wife of Alyas bin Moḍar, surpassing all Arab women in glory, as ancestress of the tribe Koraysh.—Al-Khansâ, the Pug-nosed, nickname of Tumâḍir bint ‘Amr ibn Harith ibn ash-Sherîd. She lived up to the rise of Islâm, and was the greatest Arabic poetess, famous especially for her elegies on her brother Ṣakhr (comp. Ar. Prov., ii. 617, and see Chenery’s note, vol. i., p. 387, to Being at one time Ṣakhr, at another time the sister of Ṣakhr).

O thou viler than Mâdir.—Mâdir, nickname of Mokhâriḳ, a man of the tribe Benû Hilâl ibn ‘Amir, who had taken possession of a cistern to water his camels, and when it had served his purpose, coated it with his excrements, in order to render it useless to those coming after him, and thereby gave rise to the proverb, “more stingy than Mâdir” (Ar. Prov., i. 190).—Ḳâṣhir, either a camel stallion belonging to one of the tribes of S‘ad ibn Zayd Manât ibn Temîm, who covered no she-camel without her dying, or a year of drought, thus called from its stripping (qashr) the ground of vegetation (Ar. Prov. i. 690).—Ṣâfir (whistler), a word of disputed meaning (Ar. Prov., i. 326). Some say it signifies any bird that whistles, and that cowardice is attributed to it, because it is in continual fear of birds and beasts of prey. By others it is said to mean a special kind of bird, which, at the approach of night, clings to some branches and whistles all night through from fear of falling asleep and being captured. According to a third explanation, it designates a man who whistles to a woman, so as to give warning of danger, and all the while is cowed with fear lest he be caught at his errand. Lastly, it is stated that the agent “whistling” stands for the patient “whistled to” (as a signal for flight), as in Koran, lxxxvi. 6, “pouring (dâfiq) water” (i.e., sperm) stands for “water poured forth (madfûq)” and in popular parlance “a riding-beast (râḥilah)” for a beast ridden upon (marḥûlah), a peculiarity of idiom as frequent in Arabic as, vice versâ, the use of the patient instead of the agent, for instance, Koran, xvii. 47, “a hidden (mastûr) veil” for a “hiding or enshrouding (sâtir) veil.”—T̤âmir, the Jumper, with his full title, T̤âmir ibn T̤âmir, Jumper Jumperson, the flea, on account of his extraordinary power of leaping here, there, and everywhere, proverbial for giddiness (Ar. Prov., ii. 52).

More contemptible than nail-parings in a heap of rubbish.—This translation renders the reading of several manuscripts, my own included, which adds after qulâmah, nail-parings, the words fî qumâmah, in sweepings. Although not admitted into the printed editions, it doubtlessly improves the equibalance of the qarînah, and makes the phrase more forcible.

More vicious than the mule of Abû Dulâmeh (Ar. Prov., i. 416), a compendium of all possible depravities, and an impossible one into the bargain, impossible, I mean, to translate decently, but to be guessed at by fox-hunters, who remember what reynard is said to do when hard pressed by the hounds, excusable in his case as a means of self-defence, but in the mule sheer wanton mischief at the cost of harmless passers-by. Her master, son of an emancipated black slave, was a poet who flourished in the days of the last Omayyides and first Abbasides, and he has immortalised the brute by a Kaṣîdeh of considerable length and beauty.

More out of place than a bug (or dung-fly) in a perfume-box, in Arabic aḥyaru minbaqqatin fî ḥuqqat-in, lit., more bewildered, like one who has gone astray or lost his way, and here meaning that Abû Zayd contaminates his surroundings, as the malodorous insect spoils the scents amongst which it is rushing or fluttering about.

And supposing thou wert al-Ḥasan with his preaching and utterance, etc.—Al-Ḥasan Abu Sa‘îd al-Baṣrî, proverbial for pulpit eloquence, and a great devotee († A.H., 110; see Ibn Khallikân, i. 188).— Ash Sha‘bî, ‘Amir ibn ‘Abdallah of the tribe Sha‘b in Yemen, like the preceding a tâbi‘, or one who had conversed with Mohammed’s companions, a great scholar, deeply versed in law, and knowing the Koran by heart. He was a favourite with Ḥajjâj ibn Yûsuf (and died at Kûfa between A.H. 103 and 107 (Ibn Khallikân, i. 344, and Ar. Prov., i. 413).—Al Khalîl, or Abû ‘Abd ar-Raḥmân ibn Aḥmad al-Farâhîdî, the founder of Arabic grammar and prosody, to the discovery of which latter art he was led by listening to the fall of the hammers of blacksmiths, sounding to him alternately like daq, daq-daq, daqaq-daqaq, etc.; and striking on his ear like the rhythmical measures of the constituent elements of his native poetry, whereupon he built a most elaborate system of metrology (born A.H. 100, †160 or 170; see Ibn Khallikân, i. 252).—Jerîr, or Abû Hazrah ibn ‘Âtîyah, considered the greatest poet of early Islâm, rivalled only by Farazdak and Akht̤al, and equally distinguished in erotic and satiric poetry. He died ninety and odd years old, A.H. 110, in the same year as Farazdak, with whom he had carried on a lively warfare of “give and take” in lampoons (see Ibn Khalli-kân, i. 150).—Koss, the eloquent Christian Bishop of Najrân, for whom see Chenery’s note on the formula And now, vol. i. 269, and who is mentioned passim in other Assemblies of our author.— ‘Abd al-Ḥamîd ibn Yaḥyá ibn Sa‘îd, was secretary to Marwân ibn Mohammed, the last Khalif of the House of Omayyeh, and excelled by the beauty of his caligraphy and style, the use of which, however, made in the service of an antagonist, incensed the founder of the Abbaside dynasty against him, who put him cruelly to death.— Abû ‘Amr Rubbân (according to others, Zubbân) ibn al-‘Alâ, noted for his profound knowledge of the Koran in its seven readings, made a vow to recite the whole of the sacred text every three nights. He was also a great grammarian and lexicographer (born in Mecca A.H. 70, † in Kûfa about A.H. 154; see Ibn Khallikân, i. 403).— Ibn Korayb al-Aṣma‘î, spoken of vol. i., p. 319, and frequently alluded to in the Makâmât. His life will be found in Ibn Khalli-kân, i. 403.

Ye twain remind me of Shann and T̤abaqah, and hawk and pellet, lit., I see that ye twain are, etc.—The explanation of the two proverbs here alluded to is disputed, but their meaning in this place is, “I see that you are a match for each other.” The first is, wâfaqa shannun t̤abaqata, Shann has matched T̤abaqah (Ar. Prov., ii. 800, 835), where, according to most interpreters, the names are those of two Arab tribes. Others, however, say that Shann was a sharp-witted Arab, who vowed that he would not wed, unless a woman his equal in sagacity. While he was roaming about in search of her, he met with a travelling companion, whom he asked on setting out together: “Wilt thou carry me, or shall I carry thee?” Said the man: “O thou fool! carries ever one mounted another who is mounted also?” Shann kept silent until they came to a sown field, when he said: “Thinkest thou that this field has already been eaten up or not?” “Thou idiot!” replied the man, “seest thou not that it stands in ears?” Another pause of silence, till they were met by a funeral, and Shann asked: “Reckest thou that the man on the bier is alive or dead?” Then the man exclaimed: “In all my life I have never come across a dafter dolt than thou art; fanciest thou that people escort a living man to the grave?” Presently they reached the village of the man, who made his fellow-traveller welcome at his home. Now he had a daughter called T̤abaqah, and taking her aside, he related to her their colloquy as a piece of rare fun. But she said to him: “The man was quite right in his speech, and his questions were all that might be expected from one like him. When he asked thee, ‘Wilt thou carry me, or shall I carry thee?’ his meaning was, ‘Wilt thou talk to me, or shall I talk to thee, in order to make us bear up with the tediousness of the journey?’ As for his question about the field, whether it had been eaten up or not, he meant, whether its owners had taken and consumed the price of its produce in advance or not. Lastly, when he asked whether the man on the bier was alive, he wanted to know whether he left a son behind, by whom he would continue to live in man’s memory, or not.” When the host joined his guest again, and told him of his daughter’s interpretation of their converse, the latter sued for her hand and married her, and when he brought her to his own people, relating the proofs of sense and sagacity which she had given him, they said: “Shann is well matched with T̤abaqah.” Aṣma‘î is credited with a third, somewhat lame explanation, to the effect that shann means a worn-out skin-bag, which, when furnished with an adequate covering, was fitted for further use, and gave rise to the saying in question. The actual form of the second proverb (Ar. Prov., i. 365), applied to one who is frightened by an enemy or put to the test by his equal, is: khida’a khida‘a warâ’a-ki bunduqah, the verbal meaning of which turns on that of khida’a, which may either be the name of a tribe, warned to be pursued by a rival tribe of the name of Bunduqah, or it may signify the bird thus called (vulture, hawk), in which case bunduqah is the pellet of the archer, the tenor of the proverb being: “Hawk, hawk, the pellet is after (or behind) thee!” Applied to the couple engaged in altercation, it means in both cases that either party finds a match in the other.

Enter in thy conduct the level road, allusion to the proverb, “He who enters the level road is safe from tripping” (Ar. Prov., ii. 675), and here intended as a caution to the husband to approach his wife in lawful fashion.

I shall not hoist my sail to him, another metaphor which sufficiently explains itself, considering that it is the sail which makes the ship to go.

With the three binding forms of oath.—These are either the three forms of divorce allowed by ash-Shâfi‘î (see “Dict. of Islâm,” p. 87, iii., and p. 90, v.); or the oath by the name of God in its three forms: wa’llâhi, bi’llâhi, tallâhi, or divorce, manumission of a slave, and pilgrimage to Mecca.

The fundament of either of you has missed the pit, a proverbial expression (Ar. Prov., i. 444) applied to one who misplaces anything or misses the object of his wish, and arising from a man’s having dug two holes, the one for keeping provisions in, the other to serve as a privy. His two sons mistook the former for the latter, when he addressed them with the words above.

And make an example of you for those who have eyes to see, alluding to Koran, iii. 11: “In this truly was a lesson for men endued with discernment.”

And naught I water but my field for planting.—Compare to this the note on p. 244 above.

That it is I who taught the Shaykh to versify with such glibness, in Arabic anni ’llatî laqqanati ’sh-shaikha ’l-arâjîzâ. In translating thus I follow the reading of my own MS. in preference to De Sacy, who, probably misguided by the French idiom, “C’est moi qui ai,” adopts the reading: laqqantu (1st person) ẕâ ’sh-shaikha. Naṣîf al-Yazaji, in his critical letter, censures him on this point, proposing the very reading which my MS. contains, and Mehren, who has translated and annotated this letter, defends the French against the Arabic scholar, but the redactors of the second edition of De Sacy refute Mehren’s arguments in a lengthy note, which, I think, settles the question definitely. Arâjîz is plural of urjûzah, a poem in rejez metre, and as this is a very popular and easy-flowing kind of metrical composition, I feel myself justified in rendering the word in this place by “to versify with such glibness,” and a little lower down by “doggerel-rhyme.”

He would be like one who pays a debt with borrowed money, and prays the sunset prayer with two inclinations (instead of the prescribed four, which it is unlawful to cut short, even when travelling), meaning that what he had done was as if he had done nothing, since a debt thus paid is still a debt, and a prayer thus curtailed is valueless.

I testify that ye twain are the most crafty amongst men and jinn, allusion to Koran, lv. 31: “We will settle accounts with you, O ye men and jinn,” lit., ye two heavy, i.e., troublesome, ones.

Listening to the tunes of song, in Arabic uẕunan li ’l-aghârîd, lit., being an ear to songs, a remarkable idiom, closely akin to the English, “I am all ear.”

And repented of my falling short in my duty towards Allah, allusion to Koran, xxxix. 57: “So that a soul say, ‘O misery! for my failures in duty towards God! for verily, I was of those who scoffed.’”

And returned from dissipation to collectedness, lit., whose spreading out has returned to being folded up (wa fâ’a mansharu-hu ilá ’t̤-t̤aiyi). A note in my MS. says: “Manshar is an infinitive, in the sense of the patient or passive participle manshûr, that which is spread out, i.e., the pages of the book in which his transgressions are recorded, meaning that by his repentance this book has been folded up or closed, and De Sacy adopts this explanation in his commentary. But it seems simpler and more natural to take with Sherîshi man-sharu-hu in the sense of intishâru-hu, his launching out into the dissolute pleasures of youth and passion, from which he has returned by repentance to a proper and self-possessed frame of mind, like a garment which has been spread out and is folded up again. Preston translates: “Whose conduct was reformed from laxity to strictness,” and aptly quotes the Latin rendering of the passage: “Cujus animus solutus rediisset in plicam,” probably from Peiper’s Latin translation of the Assemblies, mentioned vol. i., p. 101.

When foreign travel had cast me to Tanîs.—Tinnîs, or Tanis, from which latter form the name of the Tanitic mouth of the Nile is derived, was formerly an important town in the Delta, renowned for the fabrication of costly stuffs of various kinds. It is surrounded by an inlet of the Mediterranean, into which the Nile rises at the season of inundation, so that its water is salt during one half of the year and sweet during the other half.

Through his love for it he is slaughtered without a knife.—This may mean either simply without the use of a knife, or, as Sherîshi explains, otherwise than by a knife, for instance, by a stone or a club, in which case death would not follow instantaneously, but under prolonged suffering. Preston translates accordingly: “He perishes by a lingering death,” referring to the torment and misery to which the worldling is doomed by his wretched devotion to the world. It seems, however, to me that the preacher intends to say: He is not bodily killed by violence, but his moral life is destroyed by the very pleasures and sensual gratifications which the world offers to him.

I swear by Him who sent forth both the waters, sweet and salt, and lit up the twain, sun and moon, in Arabic man maraja ’l-baḥraini wa nauwara ’l-qamaraini, lit., “who set free the two seas and gave light to the two moons.” Preston renders the former by: “who mingled the water of the two seas,” and accompanies the word “mingled” by the note: “If we suppose ‘the two seas’ here spoken of to be the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, this rendering of maraja is best. But if ‘the two seas’ intended be the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, it is best to translate maraja ‘mix’; and that these are the two intended is rendered probable by the fact that one of the titles of the Turkish Sultan is ‘Lord of the two seas,’ i.e., the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.” This is ingenious enough, as far as it goes, but it seems strange that he, as well as De Sacy and the redactors of his second edition, has overlooked the allusion to Koran, xxv. 55: “And He it is who hath let loose the two seas, the one sweet, fresh; and the other salt, bitter”; and ibid., lv. 19: “He hath let loose the two seas which meet each other,” to which latter quotation comp. ibid., xxxv. 13: “Nor are the two seas alike: the one is fresh, sweet, pleasant for drink, and the other salt, bitter,” etc. When, moreover, the dictionaries tell us, that baḥr is a term both for the sea and for a large river like the Nile, the passage, as translated by me, appears particularly appropriate to the place where the scene of the Assembly is laid (see the note on Tanîs above). As for the expression al-qamarâni, the two moons, for sun and moon, ash-shamsu wa’l-qamaru, as the two seemingly greatest luminaries, Sherîshî remarks, that they are designated by the dual of qamar, moon, on account of its easier pronunciation and masculine gender, not by that of shams, sun (in Arabic feminine, reversedly with the English idiom), although the former is less brilliant and borrows its light from the latter. In similar manner, the two immediate successors of Mohammed in the Khalifate, Abû Bekr and ‘Omar, are called al-‘Umarân, in spite of the pre-eminence accorded to Abû Bekr over ‘Omar, because this name adapts itself more readily to the dual form.

And exalted the dignity of the two (holy) stones.—The two stones are meant, either for the two precious metals, gold and silver, or for the black stone of the Ka‘beh, and the holy rock in the Temple of Jerusalem, to which Mohammed tied his mount Borâk after his night-journey to heaven; or, the same black stone at Mecca, and the so-called station of Abraham, the sacred stone upon which Abraham stood when he built the Ka‘beh, and which is said to bear the impression of his footmarks. The character of the address renders it more than probable that either of the two last mentioned explanations applies here to the exclusion of the first, for which reason I insert in parenthesis the word “holy” in my translation.

Who plunges into the abode of fire, while he treasures gold and hoards up riches.—Allusion to Koran, ix. 34: “O Believers! of a truth, many of the teachers and monks devour man’s substance in vanity, and turn them from the Way of God. But to those who treasure up gold and silver, and expend it not for the cause of God, announce tidings of grievous punishment,” i.e., the torment of the blazing fire of hell. On the worthlessness and perishableness of worldly goods, the poets are eloquent. Abu ’l-‘Atâhîyah, for instance, says:

“O thou who exaltest thyself by the world and its pomp, such exalting is but that of clay by clay;

If thou desirest for the noblest of all men, then gaze at a king in the garb of a mendicant;

I see man content with the most trifling share of religion, but in life they are by no means satisfied with a trifle;

Let then Allah suffice thee instead of the world of kings, as the world suffices kings instead of religion.”

Or, to quote the words of another poet:

“Anybody addicted to this life is nobody in our eyes, and this abode of perishableness we reck not an abode:

For our riches are but loans, which he who lends will presently take back from him that borrows.”

Feather the free, etc.—Compare to this Assembly XI., vol. i., p. 167, l. 4, and the note to it, ibid., p. 368.

By the Faithful, the Guardian.—See Koran, lix. 23: “He is God, beside whom there is no god. He is the King, the Holy, the Peaceful, the Faithful, the Guardian, the Mighty, the Strong, the Most High! Far be the Glory of God from that which they associate with Him.”

Will ye enjoin on men what is right, and forget your own souls?— Quotation from Koran, ii. 41: “Will ye enjoin what is right upon others, and though ye read the Book, forget your own souls?” Mohammed is related to have said: “In my night-journey I passed by some men, whose lips and tongues were being cut off with scissors of fire. Then I asked, Who are these, O Gabriel? He said, These are the preachers from amongst thy people who enjoin on mankind that which is right, and forget their own souls.” Abu ’l-‘At̤âhîyah addresses Manṣûr ibn ‘Ammâr (for whom see Ibn Khallikân, ii. 545) in the following words:

“O preacher of men, thou hast become suspected, since thou blamest actions of theirs which thou thyself committest,

Like one who clothes in garments the naked, while his nakedness is apparent to men, without his trying to conceal it;

Yet the most grievous case known in any soul, after idolatry, is its blindness for its own sins,

Its knowledge of the faults of others which it clearly perceives, while it perceives not the fault within itself.”

That will do, a popular English idiom for the equally popular Arabic qad-ka, which is synonymous with ḥasbu-ka, “let this suffice thee.” The following “shame on thee” is in the original itta ’ib, imperative of the 8th form of wa’b, which is generally explained by istaḥî, be ashamed, in which sense the verb has occurred in Assembly XVIII., p. 212, l. 10. According to other authorities, it is equivalent to irja‘, return! be gone! leave off!

He turned his back and went without returning.—This is taken from Koran, xxvii. 10: “And when he (Moses) saw that it moved itself as though it were a serpent, he retreated backward and returned not.” Also xxviii. 31: “And ‘Throw down now thy rod.’ Then when he saw it stir itself as though it were a serpent, he retreated and fled and retraced not his steps.”

Clinging closer to me than love to the Benû ‘Uẕrah, and bravery to the race of Abû Ṣufrah.—The tribe of the Benû ‘Uẕrah were famous for their fatal love-passion, of which an instance is related in the three hundred and eighty-fourth of the Arabian Nights. One of their poets sings:

“If an ‘Uẕrî escapes from death through love, that one, by the Lord of lovers, is an interloper,”

and the tale goes that an Arab was asked, “From what tribe art thou?” He answered, “From a people, who when they love, they die.” Whereupon a damsel, who had heard him, exclaimed: “An ‘Uẕrî, by the Lord of the Ka‘beh.” As for the race of Abû Ṣufrah, they are his son al-Muhallab, commander of Baṣra under al-Ḥajjâj, and the sons of al-Muhallab, who were all distinguished for valour and every knightly virtue, so that a poet in the Ḥamâseh says of them:

“The race of al-Muhallab are a stock endowed with glory, such as no Arab has attained, nay, nor comes near attaining.”

Abû Ṣufrah is the kinyeh of Z̤âlîm (oppressor) ibn Ṣarrâq or Ṣârîq (robber), the ominous significance of which names induced Khalif ‘Omar to refuse him a post of Governor for which he had applied. His sons and grandsons played a conspicuous part in the troubles caused by Mu‘âwiyeh’s usurpation of the Khalifate (see Weil, “Geschichte der Chalifen,” i. 365 and following).

Now when I had alighted at Najrân, in Arabic fa lammâ alqaitu ’l-jirâna, lit., when I had laid down my neck, for which idiom compare Assembly XIX., vol. i., p. 215, l. 30, and the note at the bottom of p. 446, ibid. Najrân is a town of Yemen, called after its founder, Najrân ibn Zayd, and halfway between Sanâ‘ and Hadra-mowt, in ancient times mostly inhabited by Christians, whose eloquent Bishop Koss has been mentioned repeatedly.

Forsooth the morning-brightness shows clear to those possessed of eyes, a proverb (Ar. Prov., ii. 255) which admits of two interpretations. De Sacy, in his commentary, says it is applied to anything perfectly self-evident, and the verb baiyana (shows) is here used intransitively for tabaiyana. Sherîshi, who mentions this explanation without repudiating it, remarks, however, that the night in its darkness is the same for the blind and the seeing; but that the morning, when it appears, reveals all objects to those endowed with eyesight. I have tried in my translation to preserve the ambiguity.

And beholding holds the stead of two witnesses, i.e., is equally convincing. The passage alludes to Koran, ii. 282: “And call to witness two witnesses from among your men; but if there not be two men, let there be a man and two women of those whom ye shall judge fit for witnesses,” namely, such as are upright, ‘adl, which term Ḥarîri uses here as synonym of shâhid, witness.

And responded to his challenge to the combat, in Arabic wa mulabbûna dâ‘iya munâbaẕati-hi, lit., they were saying labbai-ka to the caller for combat with him (comp. Ḥarîri’s Preface, vol. i., p. 105, line 10 from the bottom, where a similar expression occurs).

Their wrath was allayed, lit., their knots were loosened, a proverbial expression for the abatement of anger, for which see Ar. Prov., i. 251.

A driver she has, kinsman of hers, meaning the rope by which the canvas fan is led, and which is, like itself, made of hemp.

Through whom the Writ [imâm] is known, as holy recording angels take their pride in him.—This translation is based on the supposition: 1. That the word imâm is here used in the same sense as Koran, xvii. 74: “One day We will summon all men with their writ (bi-imâmi-kim) ; then they whose book shall be given into their right hand shall read their book, and not be wronged a thread.” It is true that Rodwell renders “with their leaders,” but most commentators interpret the term as above, and this view of the case is eminently supported by xxxvi. (the celebrated Sura Yâ Sîn) 11: “Verily it is We who will quicken the dead, and We write down the works which they send on before, and the traces which they leave behind; and everything do We set down in a clear Writ (fî imâm-in mubîn-in).” Rodwell translates, or rather paraphrases, “in the clear Book of our decrees,” and says in a note, “lit., in the clear prototype, that is, in the Preserved Table, on which all the actions of mankind are written down.” 2. The preceding inference seems to justify me in assuming that al-kirâm has in our passage the same meaning as in Koran, lxxx. 11–15: “Verily it (the Koran) is a warning (and whoso is willing beareth it in mind); Written on honoured pages, Exalted, purified, By the hands of Scribes, honoured (kirâm-in), righteous.” Also lxxxii. 10–12: “Yet truly there are guardians over you—Illustrious recorders—(kirâman kâtibîna) cognisant of your actions.” A more commonplace explanation is that under imâm the Khalif is meant, said to be made known by the pen, because it writes down his commands and decrees, and that kirâm signifies distinguished official scribes or secretaries, who take pride in their pen, because it frequently assures to them access to the highest dignities under Government. Still, the former interpretation seems preferable, the more so as the word riddled upon, in Arabic qalam, is in itself an allusion to the Koran, whose Sura lxviii. has it for its title.

When given to drink he flies about like one athirst, and settles to rest, when thirstiness gets hold of him, meaning that the pen, when supplied with ink, hurries along the paper like one in search of drink, and when it is thirsty, i.e., dry for want of ink, it rests, contrary to man, who anxiously moves about in seeking for water, when he is thirsty, but rests when his thirst is quenched.

And no offence at his wedlock is ever found, lit., “In his marriage there is no way against him,” where the word way or road (sabîl) is to be taken as in Koran, ix. 92: “It is no crime in the weak, and in the sick, and in those who find not the means, to stay at home (in times of war), provided they are sincere with God and His Apostle. In those who act righteously, there is no cause of blame (mâ min sabîl-in): and God is Gracious, Merciful.” In this passage of the sacred text sabîl is explained with t̤arîq bi ’t-ta‘zîb, way for punishment.

As the spouses are growing grey, lit., with the grey hair (‘inda ’al- mashîbi), where the article stands for the personal pronoun “their,” and allows, therefore, the substitution of the nouns to which this pronoun refers. This use of the article is frequent enough in Arabic, but the commentators find it worth their while to mention that it is sanctioned by the Koran, xli. 31: “We are your guardians in this life and in the next; yours therein shall be what your souls desire (mâ tashtahî ’l-anfusu [the souls] for anfusakum [your souls]), and yours therein whatever ye shall ask for.”

One swerving although firmly joined, bestowing gifts not working mischief. —This seems to me the most simple and natural way of rendering the play on the word jâfî, which I take first in the sense of deviating, inasmuch as one of the sides of the water-wheel continually seems to turn away from the other, although they are inseparably united (mauṣûl); secondly, in that of exercising tyranny, doing injury, meaning that the water-wheel, far from causing a disastrous inundation, fertilizes the fields by irrigating them, and is therefore called waṣûl, which the commentators paraphrase by kas̤îru ’l-‘at̤â’, abounding in benefits.

Yet is his fierceness to be feared.—His fierceness signifies here excessive swiftness of rotation, which may put the machinery of the wheel out of order and damage the receptacles for the water. The purity of heart refers of course to the limpidity of the water contained in those receptacles.

And close your five upon them, i.e., close your fingers upon them, for “preserve them well in your memory.” The expression “five” for “fingers” has occurred in the seventh Assembly, vol. i., 140.

Now the desire for more beguiled (istafazzat) the people into allowing themselves to be taxed with dulness.—The verb, here used, is another idiom borrowed from the Koran, xvii. 66, where, after the refusal of Iblîs to prostrate himself before Adam, it is said to him: “And entice (istafziz) such of them (Adam’s offspring) as thou canst by thy voice.”

One veiled as if sorrowful, yet gladsome apparently.—Here it is difficult for the translator to do justice to the original. To render the text at all intelligible, it must be stated that the cooling-flask, or refrigerator, is a green jar, covered with canvas, whence its name, al-muzallamah, the enveloped one, and lined between this cover and its own outer surface with a layer of straw, to keep the water in it cool in summer time. The middle of it is perforated, and holds a tube of silver or some other metal, by which people drink out of it. It is therefore in the riddle called masrûrah, provided with a navel (surrah), referring to the hole into which the tube is fixed, but also passive participle of the verb surûr, to rejoice, and therefore translated gladsome. It is further described as maghmûmah, which may either mean covered, as the sky is covered by clouds (ghumûm), or grieved, sorrowful, part. pass. of the verb ghamm, to grieve.

Approached for her offspring’s sake at times, i.e., in summer on account of the water which is contained in it, like the offspring, lit., the fœtus, in the mother’s womb. The second “at times” means, of course, in winter, when the cooling-flask is shelved away, which is playfully stigmatised as an act of cruelty or ingratitude for services rendered afore.

Her outward attire is showy, disdained is her undercloth.—The showy outward attire is a gaily coloured wrapper over the coarse canvas-cover, and the disdained undercloth (lit., lining) is meant for the coating of straw, which, however, ought not to be despised, since it serves the wise purpose of keeping the water cool.

Seen during Ḥajj he ceases to be seen on ‘Îd, how strange to tell.—The word translated by Ḥajj, pilgrimage, is in Arabic al-‘ashr, for ‘ashru ẕî ’l-ḥijjah, i.e., the first ten days of the month ẕû ’l-ḥijjah, in which the pilgrimage takes place, and during which period the nails are allowed to grow; and the word translated by ‘Îd is an-naḥr, the day of sacrifice, called ‘îd, or feast, which terminates the pilgrimage, when the nails are pared again. At the same time, the former word may signify the ten fingers, the natural place of the nails, and the latter the throat or chest, where none are to be found, a double meaning which it is, of course, impossible to render in English.

If both wear painted cheeks, she is put to torture, i.e., if either end of the match is coated with naphtha, it is made to burn.

What is the thing that when it corrupts, its error turns to righteousness? —Meaning that wine, which is forbidden to the believer, turns into vinegar, when it gets sour, and thereby becomes lawful.

One fickle and leaning with one half to one side, etc.—To render this plain, it will suffice to transcribe Sherîshi’s commentary on the passage: “In spite of his fickleness and leaning to one side (i.e., partiality), he is always seen in an elevated place, like a king who distributes justice (meaning either that the balance is lifted up by the hand, or raised on a stand). Common stone and gold are the same to him, and if thou look at him with the eye of the sagacious, thou wilt wonder to find that people are satisfied with his decision, although he is by nature partial to one of the litigants, showing a bias towards him.”

And reck this to be our dowry of divorce.—The dowry or provision of divorce (mu‘tatu ’t̤-t̤ilâqi) is a gift made by the husband to a wife, divorced before consummation has taken place, in obedience to Koran, ii. 237: “It shall be no crime in you, if ye divorce your wives, so long as ye have not consummated the marriage nor settled any dowry on them. And provide for them—he who is in easy circumstances according to his means, and he who is straitened, according to his means: this is a duty for those who do what is right.” Here the meaning is: Let the revelation of thy pedigree be thy parting gift before we separate.

As one who shakes two divining arrows, i.e., divided between despondency and hope, like one who shakes the two arrows of success and failure (comp. p. 80 above). According to others, it alludes to the popular saying: “Either booty or loss, either dominion or destruction.”

And the onslaught of the host of Ḥâm, equivalent to the preceding words, “the downfall of darkness,” Ḥâm, son of Noah, being the father of blackamoors, and therefore his army a simile for the blackness of night.

Whether to gather my skirt, and tether or face the night and grope my way, meaning whether I should tuck my garments round me for taking my night’s rest, after having tied up my travelling beast, or continue my journey at all hazards and in spite of all difficulties and obstacles. In the above translation I use the infinitives of the verbs, for the sake of conciseness, but in the original the aorist is employed, “or face the night,” for instance, is expressed by am a‘tamidu ’l-laila, “or should face the night.” This is the reading of the native prints, which I adopt in my own edition. De Sacy has aghtamadu, which is explained by: “should make the night my scabbard” (ghimd), in a similar sense as it is said in Assembly XXIX.: “I made night my shirt.” But while the latter comparison graphically pictures a state of utter denudation and penury, the simile of the scabbard, seems somewhat far-fetched and inappropriate.

Now while I was revolving in my mind for what I should decide myself, lit., while I was turning about my deliberation and churning my resolve, the Arabic for which latter verb is imtikhâẓ, explained as istikhrâju ’z-zubdati mina ’l-labani, the bringing out of the butter from the milk.

Drowned in sleep, in Arabic aktaḥala bi-ruqâdi-hi (he had applied koḥl by his sleep), where the sleep which had taken possession of him is likened to koḥl, or antimony applied to the eyes. In the next line these eyes are called “his two lamps,” lit up again on his recovery from unconsciousness, which, as it were, had extinguished them.

Thy brother or the wolf, a proverb which also takes the form “the brother or the night,” and applies to one who is in doubt and perplexity. The meaning is that Abû Zayd was frightened by the other’s sudden appearance, and asked himself, Is he whom I see a friend or foe, but as the words are spoken in the hearing of Al Ḥârith, they are addressed at the same time to him, implying the question: Dost thou approach me with friendly or hostile intention? Wherefore he replies: No, I am but a casual comer, who has lost his way in the darkness of night (comp. Ar. Prov., i. 75).

So give me light, that I also may strike it for thee, another proverb, in the explanation of which the commentators exercise their ingenuity, as is so frequently the case, to little purpose. Some take objection to it on the ground that he who has the means of striking a light for himself applies not for a light to another. Maydâni (Ar. Prov., ii. 8) says it means: “be for me, then I shall be for thee,” i.e., I shall prove towards thee, as thou provest towards me, and a further explanation is: “be more for me than I can be for thee,” since giving light is more than merely striking it. It seems to me that Abû Zayd’s reply, in connection with what had gone before, makes the matter sufficiently clear. In apostrophizing himself audibly to Al Ḥârith with the words, “Thy brother or the wolf,” he admitted implicitly that the latter had an equal right to suspect the intentions of a stranger whom he had met accidentally. Al-Ḥarith therefore says, Enlighten me as to thy own disposition towards me, and I will model mine accordingly towards thyself. To this Abû Zayd answers, in allusion to the first-quoted proverb: “Let thy anxiety be at rest, for thou hast many a brother whom thy mother bore not,” thereby clearly indicating that he was animated only by feelings of a most friendly kind. The appropriateness of this second proverb (Ar. Prov., i. 529, 549) lies more in the sense which it derives from the context than in its original purport, which, far from removing suspicion, expresses such. It is attributed to Lok-mân ibn ‘Âd, who, it is told, found in a house to which he had come to quench his thirst a woman engaged in dalliance with a man, and on asking her, “Who is this youth at thy side, for I know that he is not thy husband,” was answered, “He is my brother,” whereupon he uttered the above rejoinder.

With the approach of morning people praise night-faring, proverbial for bearing hardships in the hope of ensuing rest (Ar. Prov., ii. 70). The saying originates with Khâlid ibn al-Welid, when Abû Bekr bade him go from Yemâmeh, where he happened to be, to Irak. He proposed to travel by the waterless desert, when Râfi‘ aṭ-Ṭâ’î said to him: “I have traversed it in the time of ignorance. It allows of watering the camels only on the fifth day, and I think thou wilt not be able to cross it unless providing thyself with water.” So he bought a hundred generous camels, which he let grow thirsty, and after having watered them, he sewed up their pudenda and muzzled them. After two days’ travel in the desert he feared the effects of thirst on his men and horses, and that the water in the bellies of the camels might be absorbed. He therefore drew it off, and made the men and horses to drink, whereupon he continued his march. In the fourth night Râfi‘ said: “Look out whether you can see some lofty Lotus-trees; if so, all is well; if not, we are doomed to perish.” The men did so, and having got sight of the trees, brought him the tidings, when he exclaimed, “God is great!” and the people shouted with him, “God is great!” and rushed towards the water. But Khâlid, recited the following lines:

“How doughty a wight is Râfi‘, when rightly guided he has crossed the waterless desert from Qurâqir to Suwá,

A five days’ journey; when the craven travels it, he weeps; no man is to be found that performed it before him;

With the approach of morning, people praise night-faring, and all that drowsiness had concealed from them reveals itself in brightness.”

The Arabic for “a five days’ journey” of my translation is khims-an, objective case of the noun khims, a desert in which water is so scarce that the camels can only be watered at an interval of five days, and its nominative has occurred above in Râfi‘’s address to Khâlid. Qurâqir and Suwá are the names of two watering-stations.

While his saddle-beast flitted along (stepped hurriedly, taziffu) with the speed of the young ostrich, allusion to Koran, xxxvii. 92: “Then his tribesmen rushed on him with hurried steps (yaziffûna).”

I had her exhibited to me for sale at Ḥaḍramowt.—Ḥaḍramowt is as mentioned in the Epitome, an important town on the south coast of Arabia Felix, noted for its camel breed and its cordwainery, from which the Arabic titles of this Assembly are derived, Bakrîyah being the noun of relation of bakr, a young camel, and ḥaḍramîyah being that of Ḥaḍramowt, applied both to a camel bred in that locality and to a peculiar kind of shoes or sandals manufactured there.

And I endured death-pangs to acquire her, an idiom which, as far as energy of expression goes, is an improvement on the English, I was dying to obtain possession of her.

Until I found her proof for travels and a provision for the time of stay, meaning that her strength and power of endurance were equal to the most fatiguing journeys, and that her milk and foals provided means of support when I was staying at home. My translation follows the reading of the Beyrout edition: wa‘uddata qarâr-in, although in my text revision I had adopted that of De Sacy, and of my own MS., ‘uddata firâr-in, which would signify “an equipment for flight.”

Who knew not what pitch is, i.e., who never suffered from scab, which would require the application of pitch to the affected places (comp. the note to Assembly XXXVIII., p. 234, above).

Now it happened that she had strayed some little while since, in Arabic muẕ muddatun, where the student should notice the nominative of the depending noun, in accordance with the rule, stated by Ḥarîri himself in his grammatical treatise “Mulḥatu ’l-i râb,” on the government of the two synonymous particles munẕ and muẕ. Both are equivalents of fî, in, with regard to the present, and of min, from, for, meaning since, with regard to the past; but while the former governs the oblique case in either sense, the latter governs the oblique case with the present, and requires the nominative of the noun with the past. “I have not seen him to-day” would therefore be mâ ra’aitu-hu munẕ al-yaumi, or muẕ al-’yaumi, but “I have not seen him for two days (two days since)” would be munẕ yaumaini (oblique case), or muẕ yaumâni (nominative). This, at least, is, in Ḥarîri’s opinion, the more elegant construction, although the lexicographical authorities have a great deal more to say on the subject.

Nor the quiet of despair, meaning, nor could I persuade myself to give over further search as hopeless, which would, in a certain measure, have set my mind at rest, in the sense of the proverb: “Despair is one of the two kinds of rest.”

Her blemish has been cut short, in Arabic ‘arru-hâ qad ḥusima, which to him, who understands the mount of Ḥaḍramowt to be a camel, would mean that she had been cured of the scab, but applied to the shoe, that the scars of scab in the hide, from which it was made, had been removed by the knife of the shoemaker. In like manner, other similarities between the two are more or less forcibly explained, as, for instance, “her back is as though it had been broken and re-set,” refers to the elevated part on the upper side of the shoe-sole, which resembles the swelling that remains in a broken limb after its re-setting. This part of the shoe is called sanâm, the usual term for the hump of a camel. To trace the comparisons further would only weary the English reader, but for the Arabs it was a favourite theme, even with poets such as Mutenebbi, who in his poems frequently plays on these double-meanings.

She adorns her who travels thereon, and furthers the journey at the oncoming of night, a somewhat lengthy rendering of the Arabic tazînu ’l-mâshiyata wa tu‘înu ’l-nâshiyata, in which I follow Sherîshi’s explanation as the simplest and most plausible. As referring to the shoe, he takes mâshiyah, fem. of mâshî, walker, to mean the walker’s foot, rijl, which, like other double members of the human body, is in Arabic feminine, while with regard to the camel, mâshiyah would be any female walking along with it. Nâshiyah stands, according to him, for nâshi’ah, with change of the Hamzeh into y, to make it conform with the preceding mâshiyah, and its literal sense is the growing one, figuratively applied to the early part of night, when, after the heat of day, travelling on foot or beast is helped on, i.e., becomes less toilsome in the hot climate. For this meaning of the word nâshi’ah comp. Koran, lxxiii. 6: “Verily the oncoming of night is most fitted for earnest devotion, and speech is more collected.” The substance of this passage is disputed amongst the commentators, but about the word in question most of them agree.

When I alighted at Yabrîn, a town three days’ journey distant from Yemâmeh on one side, and from Ḥasâ on the other, and forming with them a triangle, Yemâmeh lying to the west, Ḥasâ to the east, and Yabrîn to the south.

On whom one could perceive that the birds might perch quietly, i.e.; the gravity of his demeanour and his dignified restfulness were such that they might have emboldened the birds to alight on him. Similarly a poet of the Ḥamâseh says:

“As though the birds had settled on their heads, no fear of violence, but the awe inspired by majesty;”

and tradition relates that it was said of Mohammed’s companions “as though the birds rested upon their heads.” To a grave and placid person, the proverb is applied: inna-hu la-wâqi‘u ’t̤-t̤airi, “he is one on whom the birds alight.”

If it is she by whom he expected twenty.—The Arabic û‘t̤iya bi-hâ ‘ishrîna may mean: he was given for her twenty, viz., denars, or given with her twenty, viz., blows, an ambiguity turning on the force of the preposition bi, and which I have tried to preserve in the above translation, which may signify either he hoped to realize by her the price mentioned, or he was afraid to receive the same amount of slaps by means of her. It is quite in the character of a popular jester, like the one introduced here, to speak the next moment of a thing expected as if it had really taken place, when it serves his purpose to have the laughter of the audience on his side. So he presently says the evidence of his own eyes must show him that nobody would offer twenty for this shoe, or if he wants to prove that he has got his twenty with it, let him bare the back of his neck, and everybody would see the traces of the blows.

And do good according to thy power.—De Sacy reads here, wa-’j ali ’l-khaira bi-ḥasabi t̤âqati-ka, which he explains in his commentary: “Give me for her keep as much as thou canst afford.” The redactors of the second edition of his text remark to this: “On the margin of a MS. the words wa-’jali l-khaira are said to mean wa-’shkuru ’llâha, render thanks to Allah, which seems to us preferable to the interpretation given in the note. The Kadi is far too generous to demand payment for the care bestowed by him on the camel which he had found.” De Sacy himself, however, mentions that some MSS. have fa-’f‘ali ’l-khaira, and do good, and this, with the substitution of wa for the initial fa, is indeed the reading of my own MS. and of the native editions. While, therefore, concurring in the opinion that the Kadi enjoins gratitude towards Allah to Abû Zayd, I think that by doing so in the words of the last quoted versions he alluded to Koran xxii. 76: “Believers! bow down and prostrate yourself, and worship your Lord, and work righteousness (wa’f‘alû ’l-khaira),” implying that the most meritorious way of paying thanks to God is by demonstrations of piety and the performance of good actions.

So live as long as camels speed the pilgrims on.—The original says: “Mayst thou last as long as the ostrich and the camels last” (dum dauma ’n-na‘âmi wa-’n-na ami), to which the commentators remark, that the ostrich is said to live a thousand years, and the race of camels dies never out, so that the phrase means, live for ever. The word na‘am is, of course, used for the rhyme’s sake, and na‘âm for that of alliteration, but although the mention of camels may be justified by the subject-matter of the Assembly, the ostrich may be easily dispensed with, and I hope I shall not be blamed for my attempt to bring the last line into closer connection with the first one and its allusions to the Ka‘beh and the sanctuary of Mecca. For na‘am some MSS. read ni‘am, kind deeds, pl. of ni‘mah, which in itself would be appropriate enough, but make the ostrich appear still more out of place.

Without dinning his benefit into my ears.—The Arabic imtinân is mentioning to another boastfully the benefits conferred on him, and making him feel painfully the obligation he has incurred. Hence the name mannânah, given to a rich woman who has married a poor man, and keeps harping on the advantages she has bestowed on him (comp. the note on ḥannânah, p. 270, below).

By Allah, yea, in Arabic allahumma na‘am, lit., “O Allah! yes,” an idiomatical use of the vocative, which in De Sacy’s commentary is explained in a lengthy note, translated in full by the redactors of the second edition, vol. ii., p. 80. It emphasises the negative or affirmative answer to a question, by apostrophising the Divine Power, to call it as it were to witness of the truth of the reply, and will be easily understood by the English reader, if he remembers such familiar expressions as “Good gracious! no.” “Good heavens! yes.”

Whose face pleaded in his favour, lit., in whose face there was an intercessor, taken from a poem of Ibn Ḳanbar, in which he says: “How ever great an offence he may have committed, he is excused for what he has done, for in his face there is an intercessor, that effaces the offence from the hearts of men.” A tradition attributes to Mohammed the saying: “Three things gladden the eye: to look at the verdure of the fields, at running water, and at a beautiful face.”

And a hidden egg, viz., of the ostrich, which hides its eggs in the grass, to protect them from dust or injury (comp. Ass. XLVI., below), an allusion to Koran, xxxvii. 47: “And with them (the inhabitants of Paradise) the large-eyed ones with modest refraining glances, fair like the sheltered egg.” Beautiful women are compared to the egg of the ostrich on account of the whiteness of their complexion, and the yellowish tint which mingles with it. Thus Imr al-Kays, in the 32nd verse of his “Mo‘allaḳah” (Arnold’s edition, p. 14), likens his mistress to the egg of the ostrich, or, according to others, to a virgin pearl, whose whiteness is suffused with a shade of yellowness.

No intimate has known her, in Arabic lâ ’staghshâ-kâ lâbis-un, lit., a coverer has not enveloped her. This alludes to Koran, ii. 183: “You are allowed on the night of the fast to approach your wives: they are your garment and ye are their garment,” a simile for the intimacy and close connection between husband and wife, the former of whom is accordingly called lâbis, as though he covered the latter with a garment. Compare the English term to cover, for to embrace or know carnally.

The experienced who repeats her favour, in Arabic al-mu ‘allilah, the active form of the participle, of which the passive occurs in verse 15 of the “Mo‘allaḳah,” just quoted:

“Then I said to her, Travel on, loosening the camel’s rein, and repel me not from the repeated culling of thy fruit.”

An easy knot for the wooer, i.e., a knot easily untied, in allusion to the proverb mâ ‘iqâlu-ki bi-unshût̤at-in, the tether of thy love is not lightly loosened (Ar. Prov., ii. 621).

And have displayed the two hinds—al-mahâtainî, dual of mahât, a wild cow, with whose eyes the eyes of a woman are compared, in analogy with the Homeric epithet , bestowed on the queen of the gods.

And which rouses thy appetite?—a translation which I beg the indulgent reader to consider rather as a modest rendering of the asterisks, which the Beyrout edition substitutes to the unsophisticated words of the text than of the words themselves.

A stone to be feared by the adversary, in Arabic al-murâjim, which Sherîshi explains, he at whom thou throwest stones and who throws stones at thee.

From which the cupping-places are made to bleed, meaning the shoulder and lower part of the neck.

Her intercourse is unprofitable, lit., is a thunder-cloud without rain (ṣalifatun) from ṣalaf, little rain, accompanied with much thunder, whence the proverb, many a scanty rainfall is under the thundercloud, applied to a man who praises himself much and has little merit, or who assumes a threatening air without standing his ground when it comes to the point (Ar. Prov., i. 535). Sherîshi, however, explains ṣalifah by fastidious, disdainful, deriving it from ṣalîf, side of the neck, the showing of which to a person corresponds to the English idiom “showing him the cold shoulder.” Lastly, it is said to mean untractable, difficult to manage, from arẓun ṣalifatun, a hard ground which resists cultivation.

Her hand is clumsy (kharqâ’).—This word is variously interpreted as “foolish,” “unskilful in handiwork,” “too proud to work with her fingers,” “wanting in gentleness,” “lavish in household expenditure.” A proverb says: al-kharqâ’u lá ta‘damu ‘illat-an, the foolish woman is not at a loss for pretexts (Ar. Prov., iii., P. 1, p. 364).

Her night is a night indeed.—One of the many grammatical resources of Arabic is to create comparatives of any noun, by forming the measure af‘al from the respective root. I remember to have read somewhere an amusing story of a judge who, being carried across a swollen stream astride on the back of a client, uttered the prayer: “O Allah, strengthen this ass, to bring me safely over.” Said the client within himself: “Thou callest me an ass, and makest use of me as such, but thou art a greater ass than I” (aḥmar, more of an ass, comparative of ḥimâr, ass), presently dropping him into the water, where the poor man would have been drowned if his judicial embonpoint had not served him as a life-buoy, that floated him comfortably to the shore. In similar manner the noun lail, night, forms the comparative alyal, more of a night than night itself, which occurs in the phrase khâbit̤u lailin alyali (by metrical license for alyala, the comparative form being imperfectly declined), which Chenery translates: one stumbling in the night-dark night (see vol. i., p. 129, six lines from the bottom). The fem. of alyal is lailâ’, as in the passage now under consideration, the Arabic of which is: wa-lailata‘hâ lailâ’u, the objective case of the noun depending on the preceding inna. The same expression has been met with in Assembly XV., where Al Ḥarith is made to say: “Until I formed a wish that I might be granted a talk-fellow, who (as Chenery again renders it) should shorten the tedium of my night-dark night (li-yaqṣura t̤ûla lailatî ’l-lailâ’i, see vol. i., p. 186, and the corresponding note, ibid., p. 398). The native Dictionaries describe both lailun alyalu and lailatun lailâ’u as synonyms of lailun lâ’ilun, where lâ’il has the force of an active participle, as we would say “nighten-ing” for “darkening,” and which they explain as a long and dark night, or as one of the three nights preceding the new moon. In the present instance I think my translation, “her night is a night indeed,” expresses sufficiently the idea which the precocious youth wishes to convey.

And to know her needs the lifting of a veil.—This may mean, her real character is a mystery to the husband, which only reveals itself to him after long acquaintance and intercourse, or, according to others, it refers to her virginity and its physical sign.

And subdues the experienced stallion, in Arabic wa’ẓra‘ati ’l-fanîqa ’l-bâzila, literally, she subjugates the stallion, who has grown the tooth bâzil, and is then called by the same name, an event which takes place with the camel of either sex, when it has reached the ninth year. The term stands here metaphorically for a man of whom we would say, “he has cut his wisdom-teeth.” For the verb aẓra‘at comp. the proverb: “The fever has humbled me before thee,” or in another version, “The fever has made me succumb to sleep,” which professes submission to a calamity, and is said to originate with an Arab of the tribe Kalb, named Murîr, or Murîn, who uttered the words when, in an attempt to liberate his brothers from the captivity of the Jinn, he was, in consequence of a fever, overpowered by sleep, and fell captive himself to one of them (Ar. Prov., i. 364).

So I look out for one who holds and spends, i.e., one who has hoarded up money and expends it freely, so that I may indulge in fine raiment and pleasant companionship.

One dainty (ẕawwâqah, of fastidious and changeable taste, especially in matters matrimonial), alluding to a saying attributed by tradition to Mohammed, in answer to a man who had told him that he had divorced his wife: “Allah loves not the dainty, either man or woman.”

I was and have become, meaning “under my former husband I was honoured and well-to-do, but now I am despised and poverty-stricken.”

And if she thus be a habitual lamenter, blest with family and withal a bold-faced wanton.—A lamenter, ḥannânah, is a woman who always bewails the late lamented, and blest with family, barûk, is explained as one who has up-grown sons. For the following “and withal” De Sacy reads “or,” which in itself would be preferable, but is not warranted by the native editions and the MSS. consulted by me.

Then he chid me as the tutor chideth at the slip of his pupil.—The word translated with chiding (intihâr) is taken from Koran, xciii. 10: “And as to him that asketh of thee, chide him not away (lâ tanhar).”

Dost thou bethink thee of what thou hast heard? in Arabic aturâ-ka mâ sami‘ta, lit., wilt thou be made to see or ponder? where the pronominal suffix of the first verb is not considered as a maf‘ûl or objective case, but as corroborative of the inflectional pronoun, just as we might say: “Wilt thou be made to see for thyself,” or “with thy own eyes?” Compare Koran, vi. 40, and Bayḍâwi’s commentary; also De Sacy, Gramm., i. 1189, and ii. 866, note.

That there is no monkery in Islâm, alluding to a tradition which makes Mohammed say: “In Islâm there is no monkery (ruhbânîyah) and no celibacy (tabattul),” the former Arabic term being derived from ruhbân, a Christian monk, the latter from the verb batl, cutting off, which in its fifth form means cutting one’s self off from all worldly concerns, and in particular abstaining from sexual intercourse. To the same root the word batûl, virgin, is to be traced, which is applied to the Virgin Mary and to Mohammed’s daughter Fât̤imeh. Another tradition relates that the Prophet asked of ‘Akâf ibn Wadâ‘ah: “O ‘Akâf, hast thou a wife?” and when he answered in the negative, Mohammed said: “Then thou art of the brothers of Satan; if thou belong to the Christian monks, stick to them; but if thou belong to us, one of our ordinances is the married state.”

Sobers thy sight, i.e., prevents thy eyes from looking at other women.

Through her thou beholdest the coolness of thy eye, and the flower sweet to thy nostrils.—These two similes, and the metaphorical expressions which follow them, stand for offspring.

How, then, art thou averse to the ordinance of the sent ones, refers to the traditional saying of Mohammed: “Four are the ordinances of the apostles, the use of scents (for hygienic purposes), the cleansing of the teeth by the miswâk, matrimony, and a bashful behaviour” lastly, “the advantages enjoyed by the owners of a household” alludes to another tradition by which Mohammed is recorded to have said: “Two inclinations (in prayer) of those who possess a family are better than eighty-two of a celibate.”

And darted aside as the locust darts, an allusion to the proverb anzá mina ’l-jarâdi, more given to darting off than locusts (Ar. Prov., ii. 791).

So that thou mayst indulge thyself a bit, and dispense with a damsel thou wouldst have to endower.—Here again I am obliged to tone down the terse literalness of the original, while trying to preserve the idiomatical force of its two diminutives, at least in form, ‘umairah, a name given here to the hand, as instrumental in a vice severely denounced by Mohammed, and muhairah, diminutive of mahîrah, a woman of noble birth, and therefore exacting a large dowry.

And not let thy generation grow to man’s estate, i.e., mayst thou die young, for if Allah shortens the lives of those who belong to the same generation with him, his own life will be but short.

By Him who has planted the forests, in Arabic bi-man anbata ’l-aika, the final word being a plural, the singular of which occurs in Koran, xxvi. 176, and passim.

Lick up the honey and ask no questions, viz., ask not where it comes from, or as a modern proverb has it: kuli ’l-baqla wa lâ tasal ‘ani ’l-maqbalah, eat the cabbage, and ask not for the cabbage-field (comp. Ar. Prov., ii. 393).

That the goal of his talk was distant, and that the Shaykh was a mighty sharp one.—The former idiom, in Arabic ash-shaut̤u bat̤înun (for which comp. Ar. Prov., iii., P. 1, p.262) is taken from a racehorse, whose course up to the goal is called shaut̤. The second, in the original ash-shaikhu shuwait̤înun, means literally the Shaykh is a devilkin, the epithet being the diminutive of shait̤ân, Satan, which, as a note in my MS. remarks, “is fai‘âl of shut̤ûn, being distant, on account of his remoteness from the Mercy of Allah.” But shait̤ân, applied to men and Jinn, has also the meaning of haughty, mischievous, cunning, and the diminutive is explained as ṣâḥibu adabin wa dahâ’-in, possessed of learning and sagacity.

And see clearly thy quiddity, in Arabic istabantu inna-ka, which may be interpreted: “I fully perceive what inna-ka means, when thou art concerned.” It will be remembered that the inchoative particle inna, behold, is placed before a nominal sentence, governing the accusative of the subject, which of course may be an affixed pronoun, and the nominative of the predicate, for instance, inna Zayd-an (inna-hu) la-‘âlimun, behold Zayd (behold he) is learned indeed, which is more emphatical than the simple sentence, Zaydun âlimun (huwa ‘âlimun) Zayd is learned (he is learned). The youth, therefore, intends to say, I know perfectly what kind of a man thou art, and am not at a loss how to complete my speech when I begin it with inna-ka, “behold thou art.” The word quiddity, as an abstract noun derived from another part of speech, seems a fair equivalent.

In this place poetry fetches not a barley-corn, etc.—The satire, contained in this and the preceding passage, is a favourite theme with the poets. One, for instance, says:

“If the eloquence of Sahbân, and the caligraphy of Ibn Muklah, and the intellect of the Benû Kand, and the piety of Ibn Adham

Were collected in one man, and that man poor, though free-born withal, he would not be worth a dirhem,”

where the attribute “free-born,” besides implying that he has en joyed a liberal education and is highly cultivated, at the same time suggests that he is of no value, even if he is sold as a slave, because such a sale would be invalid, as amusingly illustrated in Assembly XXXIV.

I came in a night of deepest darkness, in Arabic ‘ashautu fî lailatin dâjiyati ’z̤-z̤ulmati. The verb ‘ashautu means originally I came at nightfall, but subsequently it took the signification of “I came” in general, in which it governs the preposition ilá, to. Followed by the preposition ‘an, from, it occurs in the sense of departing in Koran, xliii. 35: “And whoso shall withdraw from (man ya‘shu ‘an) the Warning of God of Mercy, We will prepare a Satan for him, and he shall be his fast companion.”

Her bosom closely buttoned.—This simile is explained by the following qarînah, the purport of which is that the heaped-up clouds covered the sky so completely that no interstice was left for the stars to shine through.

I was colder therein than the eye of the chameleon and a mangy goat, two proverbs to the same effect, for which see Maydâni’s Collection, i. 743. The eye of the chameleon is said to be cold, because, according to the popular belief, it always seeks the sun and the warmth emanating from it, while the denudated state of the mangy goat sufficiently accounts for her suffering from the severity of the seasons. The word used for cold (ṣard, in the comparative aṣrad) is in this signification borrowed from the Persian sard, the Arabic root ṣard having different meanings, as being scanty, missing the aim, etc. In the short commentary, attached by Ḥarîri to this Assembly, he mentions that some lexicographers declare the second of the above proverbs to be a misreading of the first, caused by displacing the diacritical points of ‘aini ’l-ḥirbâ’i, which thereby becomes ‘anzi ’l-jarbâ’i. Prosaic matter-of-fact people deemed probably the former too fanciful, and thinking the shivering goat a more appropriate comparison, tried to improve on the eye of the chameleon, although they had to introduce a spurious al before the word ‘auz, which article has nothing whatever to do with the word ‘ain of the original proverb, as this noun governs another noun in construction.

Well is he wont to ward against the ills of time with gathered ashes, sharpened knives, literally: “he is against the evil of time, accustomed to evil, one gathered of ashes, sharpened of knives,” a thoroughly idiomatic expression for: his heaped - up ashes and sharpened knives proclaim that he is always ready to kindle his fires and slaughter his animals for the benefit of those who suffer from the hardships of time and take refuge with his hospitality.

Whose camels [‘ishâr] bellowed, whose cauldrons [a‘shâr] boiled.—The connecting link between the two words ‘ishâr and a‘shâr is the numeral ‘ashar, ten, the former being pl. or collective noun of ‘usharâ’, a she-camel who has been pregnant for ten months or thereabouts, when she drops her young, during the whole of which time she goes by the above name; the latter, originally the pl. of ‘ushr, a tenth part, is applied to a kettle so large that it equals ten of ordinary size in capacity.

Who were gathering the fruit of winter, i.e., enjoying the warmth of the fire. Ḥarîri, in the above-mentioned commentary, quotes the following lines of a later poet:

“Fire is the fruit of winter; who then desires in winter to taste fruit, let him warm himself,

Ay, fruit in winter is worth wishing for, but fire is for the frozen the best that he can taste.”

And when embarrassment had passed away, in Arabic wa lammâ an sará ’l-ḥaṣaru. The word ḥaṣar, which has occurred in Ḥarîri’s Preface, vol. i., p. 103, l. 12, and was translated there by “hesitation,” has here the meaning of embarrassed silence, which would be natural at the first meeting of many persons hitherto unacquainted with each other.

Proof (lit., protected) against the blamer and caviller, i.e., the most fastidious and dainty eater would not have been able to find fault with them.

Then we heeded not what is said about gluttony.—This alludes to the proverb: al-bit̤natu ta’fanu ’l-fit̤nata, gluttony does away with sense, with regard to which the meaning of the next clause is, “on the contrary, we found sense in indulging it.” It is reported of the Khalif ‘Omar that he used to say: “Be on your guard, O men, against gluttony, for it corrupts the body, and makes you neglectful of prayer, and heirs to sickness.” (Comp. Ar. Prov., i. 180.)

For he crouched apart.—This alludes to the proverb: “he grazes in company (wasat̤an, literally, in the middle, i.e., amongst the rest), and lies down by himself,” applied to one who is ready to partake in another’s affluence, but turns aside from him at the approach of misfortune (Ar. Prov., ii. 910).

And were afraid of being worsted when we questioned him, in Arabic wa khashînâ fî ’l-mas’ilati ’l-‘aula, literally, “we feared in questioning the disproportionality,” an idiom taken from the Mohammedan law of inheritance, for which see Chenery’s note on the passage the day’s duties pressed upon us of Assembly XXI., vol. i., p. 462.

Verily this is naught but stories of those gone before (lit., of the first or former ones)—quotation from Koran, vi. 25: “and though they see all kinds of signs, they refuse faith in them until, when they come to thee to dispute with thee, the infidels say, ‘Verily, this is nothing but fables (asât̤îr) of the ancients.’” I translate the Arabic term asât̤îr with stories, because its singular ist̤ûr, or ust̤ur, has etymologically been identified with the Greek . Its derivation from sat̤r, writing, as that which has been written down, appears, however, quite as legitimate, if not more so.

Then he begged a hearing from the night-talkers.—In the original the singular “night-talker” (sâmir) is used, to which Ḥarîri comments: sâmir is a collective noun, standing for the plural summâr, as ḥâẓir, lit., one present, is a name for a tribal division alighting at a watering-place, and as bâqir means a herd of cattle, or, according to others, cattle together with their herdsmen. The word sámir itself is derived from samar, the shade produced by the moon, in which the night-talkers mostly assemble, whence the proverb, “lâ ukallimu-hu ’l-qamara-wa-’s-samara”—“I shall not talk to him in the moon-light, or in the shade of the moon” (Ar. Prov., ii. 418; compare also vol. i., p. 303, the note on “His talk-fellow”).

The second signification of “nasl” is “running fast.”—In this sense the word occurs Koran, xxi. 96: “And they shall hasten (yansilûna) from every high land.”

In a camel-litter between cords (sabab).—For the meaning of cord, as applied to the word sabab, comp. Koran, xxii. 15: “Let him who thinketh that God will by no means aid his Apostle in this world, and in the next, stretch a cord to heaven,” etc.

It is what the world knows as wine.—This seems to be the meaning of khamru ’l-‘âlami, the wine of the world, to which De Sacy remarks, “i.e., the Ghubairâ’ is like wine, such as its qualities are known to mankind, in which regard there is no difference between them.”

In which latter sense some commentators explain the Koranic imshû.— This occurs Koran, lxvii. 15, where, however, Rodwell translates: “Traverse then its (the earth’s) broad sides” (fa’mshû fî manâ-kibi-hâ ). According to the interpretation mentioned here by Ḥarîri, the meaning is: “may ye have abundance of cattle,” by way of prayer for their prosperity, which is in keeping with the concluding part of the passage: “and eat of what He has provided—unto Him shall be the resurrection.”

Dumb withal.—Dumbness, says De Sacy’s commentary, is ascribed to him in order that the hearers should not think ḥâ’ikan to be a metathesis of ḥâkiyan, one who relates a story, as shâkî, one clad in full armour, is transposed into shâ’ik. Without having recourse to the supposition of such a metathesis, I may mention that ḥâ’ik denotes also one who composes poetry, which to the Arab mind appears as the spontaneous outpour of the emotions of the soul, and therefore naturally as improvisation. For this reason I translate somewhat freely “deaf and dumb,” since from a person afflicted with this infirmity, poetical effusions would scarcely be expected.

Wonders will never cease, lit., then, how many wonders are there in creation!

And also “the telling of a lie.”—In the passage of the Koran quoted to this (xxvi. 137), the expression khalqu ’l-auwalîna is used in the same sense as asât̤îru ’l-auwalîna in that quoted, p. 275, above.

And also the lachrymal gland.—Sherîshi mentions a third signification of gharb, a large bucket, and explains in this connection ḥalab with saiyalân, running, streaming, which, however, scarcely yields a satisfactory meaning, and seems not to have been in Ḥarîri’s mind when he composed this line.

Of Arabs and wives beloved.—This translation follows De Sacy’s reading min ‘urbin wa min ‘urubi, which is also that of my MS. The native editions have min ‘ujmin wa min ‘urubi, where ‘ujm is pl. of ‘ajam, one who speaks Arabic badly or not at all, a foreigner.

And also used metaphorically for “woman.”—Compare the expression libâs, garment, in the same sense which occurs in the Koranic passage quoted, p. 267, above.

It is no nest of thine, so get thee out, in Arabic laisa bi-‘ushshi-ki fa-’drujî , a proverb applied to one who claims or usurps that to which he is not entitled. Ḥarîri, in his commentary to the Assembly, remarks that ‘ushsh is the term for a nest built on a tree, while wakr is a nest made on a wall or in a mountain-cave.

He taunted us with the taunt of the unconcerned towards the troubled.— Comp. Ar. Prov., ii. 612, 815; also i. 720.

The coaxing before provoking the milk-flow, in Arabic al-înâsu qabla ’l-ibsâsi, another proverb (Ar. Prov., i. 94), taken from the habit of the milker to coax the camel before he draws the milk, saying to her during the act, bus, bus, in order to keep her quiet and elicit a copious flow. The camel which gives milk freely when this is said to her is called basûs (compare Chenery’s note on The war of Al Basûs, vol. i., p. 526 and foll.). The meaning of the passage in the context is, of course, that Abû Zayd expects to be gratified by a gift before vouchsafing the explanation of his verbal puzzles.

One of those who want a return for their gift.—The four concluding words of this sentence are in Arabic represented by the single word shukm, the opposite of which is shukd, a free gift. In some manuscript copies of Ḥarîri’s commentary the following line of a poet is quoted:

“My gift to be returned (shukmî) is ready, and likewise my free gift (shukdî), for good and evil there is a place with me,” where, however, the meaning seems to be, I am equally prepared to return evil for evil, as good for good.

It grieved our host, in the original sâ’a abâ mas̤wá-nâ, lit., the father of our place of shelter, or, as Ḥarîri explains, the entertainer, to whom they had repaired, and whose hospitality they were enjoying.

An ‘Îdî camel and a robe like Sa‘îd’s.—An ‘Îdî camel means, according to the author’s commentary, either one descended of a generous stallion of the name ‘Îd, or the noun of relation refers to ‘Îd ibn Mahrah, a tribal division, which, like the tribe Mahrah itself, was renowned for its camel breed (comp. the note on Mahrîyah, p. 238, above). A robe like Sa‘îd’s alludes to a garment in which Mohammed clad Sa‘îd ibn al-‘Aṣ when he was a youth.

A disposition like Akhzam’s, a proverb the origin of which is ascribed to Sa‘d ibn al-Ḥashraj, grandfather of Ḥâtim T̤ay, the prototype of generosity with the Arabs and the people of the East in general, when he found that the youth Ḥâtim, in growing up, had developed more and more the liberal and magnanimous qualities for which his own grandfather Akhzam was renowned, saying: “a disposition which I know from Akhzam” (Ar. Prov., i. 658). Maydâni (ii. 688) adduces the authority of Ibn al-Kalbî for the statement that the proverb originated with the father of Akhzam, which latter is said to have been a disobedient and undutiful son to him. When Akhzam died he left sons behind him, who one day assaulted their grandfather and wounded him severely, whereupon he indited the following verses:

“Children of my own blood have stained me with my blood, whoever meets with lions amongst men, will be wounded, a disposition known to me from Akhzam.”

The verses occur in the Ḥamâseh, p. 646 of Freytag’s edition, where the Commentary attributes their authorship, implying that of the proverb, to various other persons. Ḥarîri, in his own notes to this Assembly, asserts that they were composed by ‘Akîl ibn ‘Ullafah, and that the final words are only a quotation of the current proverb. This is probable enough, and in this case ‘Akîl evidently means simply to say, that the disposition of his sons was inherited from their father, as that of Ḥâtim was from his grandfather Akhzam.

He sprang to the camel and straightway saddled her, etc.—This passage has been translated as interpreted in Ḥarîri’s commentary, which takes occasion from the term “saddled” (raḥala) to supplement the explanation of râḥilah, saddle-beast, mentioned p. 247 above, by the remark that it applies as well to the male as the female camel, and that its feminine termination has no reference to the sex, but is that of intensity (mubâlaghah). To the word “mounted” (irtaḥala), the author quotes a characteristic anecdote recorded of Mohammed, to the effect that once, when he was prostrated in prayer, and his grandson Ḥasan riding on his back, he prolonged his devotion and afterwards said: “The little one had mounted me (irtaḥala-nî), and I was loath to curtail his pleasure.” Lastly to “hastened on” he refers to the tradition: “At the approach of the hour (of resurrection) a fire will come forth from the bottom of ‘Aden, which will hasten on mankind.”

Contented with a chance draught, nashḥ, lit., a draught insufficient to quench the thirst, and, according to the dictionary Muḥît̤, by opposition, drinking one’s fill.

And went away under every star of heaven, a proverbial expression applied to those who separate and travel on different roads (comp. Ar. Prov., i. 508).

And checked his bark, in Arabic khasa’at-hu ‘ani ‘n-nubâḥi, lit., scared him away from his bark. The verb, which is here transitive in the sense of driving away a dog, etc., is also used intransitively for taking one’s self off, as in Koran, xxiii. 110: “He will say (to those whose balances at the day of judgment shall be light), ‘Be ye driven away into it (ikhsa’û fî-hâ, the pronoun referring to hell-fire), and address Me not.’”

And eased his back after his pebble-throw.—Jamrah, here translated with “pebble-throw,” is the ceremony of stoning the devil at Mina, which concludes the rites of the pilgrimage, and thereby removes the weight, which, as it were, is imposed on the back of the pilgrim by his religious duties. A marginal note in my MS. says, ‘aná bi-hâ ’l-nut̤fata, the author means by it the semen virile, and however distasteful the repeated allusions to the pilgrimage and its ceremonies may appear to the European mind, in connection with these matrimonial squabbles, we must not forget that Orientals look on such matters simply as natural facts, and, far from intending blasphemy, honestly believe they mitigate in this way their language in speaking on subjects of that kind.

He followed Abû Yûsuf’s view.—This eminent lawyer, a disciple of Abû Ḥanîfeh, was born at Bagdad A.H. 113, and died A.H. 182, after having filled the office of Chief Justice (qûẓî ’l-quẓât) under Hârûn ar-Reshîd and his two immediate predecessors. The lesser pilgrimage, or ‘umrah, consists in the performance of the ceremonies of circumambulating the Ka‘beh, and running between al-Marwah and aṣ-Ṣafâ, but omitting the sacrifices and other observances of the Hajj. The practice of combining the ‘umrah and the ḥajj, wearing the same iḥrâm, or pilgrim’s cloak, is called qârin “joining,” that of performing the ‘umrah before the ḥajj in the same year, but in a different iḥrâm, is termed tamattu‘, “reaping advantage,” because it procures the advantages of both ceremonies. Lastly, the name ifrâd (isolation) is given to either act, if performed separately in different years.

Obedient to old Abû ’l-Murrah’s hest.—Abû ’l-Mûrrah is a nickname given to Iblîs, because it was that of the old man of Nejd, in whose likeness he appeared to the Koraysh, instigating them to destroy Mohammed by the sword.

Who clears himself from doubts cast on him, lit., who explains his excuse in that which causes her to doubt.

Professed so staunchly by ‘Uẕrah’s tribe.—Compare the note on the Benû ‘Uẕrah, p. 255, above.

Like one who vows chastity for caution’s sake, in Arabic hijrâna ‘affin âkhiẕin ḥiẕra-hu, with the renouncing of the chaste, who takes his precautions, in allusion to Koran, iv. 73: “O ye who believe, make use of precautions” (khuẕû hiẕra-kum; the passage refers to the mode of warfare to be adopted against the infidels).

And not from grudge held I aloof from my field.—The final word, in the sense in which it is used here, is again taken from the Koran, ii. 223: “Your wives are your field; go in therefore to your field in what way soever ye will; but do first some act for your soul’s good; and fear ye God, and know that ye must meet Him; and bear these tidings to the faithful.”

Thou lack-food and lack-a-lance, lit., “O thou who art no food and no tilting,” i.e., neither possessed of the one nor fit for the other. De Sacy and the Beyrout edition read here: yâ man huwa lâ t̤a‘âmun wa lâ t̤i‘ânun, with the full nominative termination of the two nouns; while my own MS. has lâ t̤a‘âma wa lâ t̤i‘âna, in the accusative without tanwîn. These are the most approved of the legitimate five modes of construing the repeated absolute negative lâ with two nouns, which are illustrated in Palmer’s “Arabic Grammar,” p. 255, by the different manners of expressing the celebrated ejaculatory prayer: “There is no strength and no power but with God,” in Arabic. In the above passage of our text the negative and noun together form logically a compound, as rendered in my translation. The word t̤i‘ân, infinitive of the third conjugation, stands here metaphorically for jimâ‘, copulation, which has the same grammatical measure fi‘âl.

When for every grazing creature there is a pasture ground, in Arabic wa li-kulli akûlatin mar‘án.—The woman affects in this speech the language of the proverbs, intending to say that everybody has his appointed share in the bounty of the Creator, and therefore ought to be contented with his lot, and trust in Providence. But although the saying does not appear in this form amongst the proverbs of the Arabs, its leading words are contained in the proverb: mar‘án wa là-akûlata, “a pasture, but none to graze on it,” which is applied to a rich man, who allows no other person to take part in the enjoyment of his wealth (Ar. Prov., ii. 619). Akûlah means originally a sheep, which is fattened in order to be slaughtered for food, but is here used in a general sense for any grazing animal, and the above sentiment is taken from Koran, xi. 8: “And there is no moving thing on earth whose nourishment dependeth not on God, and He knoweth its haunts and final resting-place; all is in the clear Book.”

If thou wert to wrangle with al-Khansâ she would go away from thee silenced.—For al-Khansâ comp. the note, p. 246, above.

There is enough in his concern for his growling entrails (qabqab) to make him forget his pendulum (ẕabẕab).—This alludes to the proverb: man wuqiya sharra laqlaqi-hi wa qabqabi-hi wa ẕabẕabi-hi faqad wuqiya ’sh-sharra kulla-hu, which may be translated freely: “He who is safe from the mischief of his rattler (tongue), and his growler (belly), and his swinger (penis) is safe from all mischief” (Ar. Prov., ii. 663).

After appeal to the judge, in Arabic ba‘da ’l-munâfarah. This is originally a technical term for the contention before an umpire on the titles of a man or tribe to nobility or honour over others, for which see Chenery’s note on Pride to Assembly XII., where the word occurs in the form nifâr (vol. i., p. 375). Here, however, it is merely a synonym of muḥâkamah, judicial contest, litigation in a court of justice, or of taḥâkum, which a little lower down will be translated “resort to the judgment-seat.”

Content therewith the two hollows.—Al-ajwafân, the two hollows, is equivalent to al-ghârân, the two caves (os et pudenda), for which compare the note, vol. i., p. 460).

Resist the stirrer of mischief (nâzigh) between two friends, allusion to Koran, vii. 199, where the same verb is applied to Satan: “And if stirrings to evil from Satan stir thee, then fly thou for refuge to God; He verily heareth, knoweth!”

For the handsome way in which he had dismissed them, in the text ‘alá ḥusni ’s-sarâḥi. The word sarâḥ, which originally means allowing the cattle to pasture freely, if applied to a woman, signifies divorce, and has here the sense of dismissal, as in the proverb as-sarâḥu mina ’n-najâḥi, dismissal is part of success (Ar. Prov., i. 602). In explanation of this the commentators say: “If thou art not able to supply a man’s want, thou shouldst make him despair, i.e., renounce all hope of obtaining it.” It is therefore tantamount to the proverb, “Despair is one of the two kinds of rest,” which we have met with in a former Assembly (see p. 264 above).

So he rose to go defiantly, but came back defeated.—This translation is more in accordance with the spirit than the letter of the two proverbs quoted in the text. He rose to go defiantly is in Arabic nahaẓa yanfuẓẓu miẕrawai-hi, lit., he rose shaking the extremities of his buttocks, a proverbial expression for the threatening and arrogant deportment of an adversary, which ‘Antarah did not hesitate to use in one of his ḳaṣîdehs (Ar. Prov., i. 301). He came back defeated, ‘âda yaẓribu aṣdarai-hi, alludes to the saying, “He came beating his shoulders” (Ar. Prov., i. 288), which means, “He came empty-handed, without having accomplished his object.”

Flight with Qurâb is the wiser thing.—Here again I follow the reading of my MS. in preference to De Sacy, who writes kirâb with kasrah instead of qurâb with ẓammah. The latter is the name of a generous steed which belonged to ‘Abdallah, the brother of Durayd ibn aṣ-Ṣimmah. They were engaged in war, and Durayd, considering himself and his people inferior in force to the enemy, advised his brother to flee, with the words quoted above, implying that speedy flight was more prudent than fighting on unequal terms. Abdallah, however, would not listen to him, but resolved on combat, in which he was killed and the horse taken captive. Abû Zayd in this version, therefore, means to say that to flee in the utmost haste was the safer course for them. On the other hand, qirâb signifies the scabbard of a sword, or any case in which a mounted traveller keeps his utensils; or it may be synonymous with qarîb, that which is near at hand and easily carried off. In this form the proverb is said to originate with Jâbir (according to others, Khâlid) ibn ‘Amr al-Mâzanî, who, while journeying with some companions, saw the tracks of two men on the road, and, through his skill in reading footprints, discovered them to be men of great violence and rapacity. He therefore urged his companions to take to flight with the most portable of their goods, before losing the rest of them together with their lives. Thus the purport of the proverb, and its application in the present instance, would be to enjoin contentment with small advantages, such as the couple had already reaped, without running into danger in the hope of getting more (see Ar. Prov., ii. 210).

Nay, the return to the charge is praiseworthier, in Arabic bali ’l-‘audu aḥmadu. The comparative aḥmad is formed from the passive participle maḥmûd, praised, when the sense would be, if a beginning is to be praised, the return to the same line of conduct is still more so (Ar. Prov., ii. 130). Some interpreters take the adjective in a personal sense, “one praiseworthier,” and contend that al-‘aud stands for ẕû ’l-‘aud, “he who returns,” as, according to this view, firâr in the preceding note stands for ẕû ’l-firâr, he who takes to flight. But as Abû Zayd in the verses following repeats the word al-‘aud in the sense of return, in evident allusion to the words of his wife, the former explanation seems to me more appropriate.

Even though its keeper made it free to all comers.—The Arabic sabbalu-hâ, here rendered with “made it free to all comers,” means the same as ja‘ala-hâ fî sabîli ’llâhî, gave it over in the way, i.e., service of Allâh to the use of the public (others read fî sabîli ’l-khairi, by way of a good action, or explain the phrase by aḥalla-hâ li ’bni ’s-sabîli, made it lawful to the son of the road, i.e., the traveller).

Abû Mûsá, before thee, has been deceived.—The text says: Before thee the Shaykh of the Ash‘arîs has been deceived, alluding to Abû Mûsá ‘Abdallah ibn Kais al-Ash‘arî (†A.H. 44), who was appointed together with ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aṣ, to be arbiter between ‘Ali and Mu‘âwiyeh after the battle of Ṣiffîn, and was outwitted by ‘Amr to Ali’s detriment (see Weil, “Geschichte der Chalifen,” i. 230 and following).

A most ardent desire, in Arabic t̤alabun yâ la-hu min t̤alabin; a thoroughly idiomatic expression, the literal rendering of which would be “a desire, O what of a desire it was,” the vocative particle yâ referring to the pronoun of the third person, and this itself being affixed to the so-called lâmu ’t-ta‘ajjub, or particle of admiration. Similar constructions occur in the beginning of the lines of the “Hamâseh,” quoted vol. i., p. 449, in the Note on The guarded domain of Kolayb: “Oh lark! (yâ la-ki min qubburatin), the valley is open to thee in this pasture land,” and in the poet Ẕû ’l-Rummah’s verse: “Oh, oval cheek (yâ la-ki min khaddin asîlîn), and tender speech and form, that only a caviller would presume to blame.” In both these examples the vocative particle and that of admiration have the same reference to the suffix of the second person feminine, which they have ir our text to the third of the masculine.

To sound the stupidity of the people of her soil.—The character of dulness and stupidity was, according to Mot̤arrezi, so well established in public opinion, as to the natives of Emessa, that if the people of Bagdad wished to denote a man as a consummate fool, they called him Ḥimsî, one born at Ḥims.

With the swiftness of the shooting-star when it swoops down to stone, viz., the Shait̤âns stealing a hearing from the angels, allusion to Koran, lxvii. 5: “And of a surety We have decked the lower heaven with lights, and have placed them there to be hurled at the Satans, for whom We have prepared the torment of the flaming fire.” Also xv. 17, 18: “And We guard them from every stoned Satan, save such as steal a hearing: and him do visible flames pursue.”

Whose old age was coming on and whose youth had turned its back on him, a reversal of the proverb adbara gharîru-hu wa aqbala harîru-hu (Ar. Prov., i. 484), generally explained by “whose pleasant disposition had departed and whose peevishness had come,” taking harîr in the sense of yelping or snarling, like an ill-natured dog. But Sherîshi rightly remarks, that this description is not borne out by the schoolmaster’s demeanour towards his pupils, whom he treats in the sequel of the Assembly with playful kindliness. He, therefore, derives the word from the idiom harra ’sh-shauk, the thorn has dried up and grown hard, like the teeth of a cat (hirr), and considering it as a synonym of yabs, dryness, brought on by old age, renders it by haram, senility. With regard to gharîr, he observes that one of it?? meanings is “one who stands security or bail,” and refers it to youth, as a guarantee for length of life. This seems sufficiently to justify my translation, which at the same time is not inconsistent with the first mentioned interpretation.

So that I might test in him the learned folks of Ḥims, meant, of course, ironically, as presently indicated by the avowed intention of the narrator to fathom the essence of the man’s foolishness.

And greeted me with even a handsomer greeting than I had given him, in accordance with the injunction of the Koran, iv. 88: “If ye are greeted with a greeting, then greet ye with a better greeting, or at least return it; verily God taketh count of all things.”

Indite the unadorned couplets, in Arabic al-abyâta ’l-‘awât̤ila, i.e., those which contain only words consisting of letters without diacritical dots.

Nor gain’st thou glory courting girls full of hip, lit., and the place for seeking glory is not a damsel with heavy hips. This translation is based on the reading marâdu ’l-ḥamdi, which is that of the native editions and of my MS., the governing noun marâd, with fatḥah, being explained by Sherîshi as a synonym of mar‘á, pasture ground. De Sacy prefers murâd, wish, which, however, seems here less appropriate, and gives scarcely a satisfactory sense.

And praise he wins, etc., lit., his knowledge that the one-eyed are not endowed with the dowries of the sound, has obtained praise for him, meaning that he is deservedly commended for his discernment in discriminating between the relative value of things and actions.

Display the bridal couplets.—The couplets following in the original are called bridal, i.e., adorned like brides, because all the letters contained therein are dotted, in direct contradistinction from the preceding ones. According to Sherîshi, it was a custom with the ancient Arabs to apply to the cheeks of brides beauty-spots, painted with saffron, and called nuqat̤, pl. of nuqt̤ah, which is also the grammatical term for the diacritical points of letters.

A blessing has been bestowed on thee amongst fawns, as a blessing has been bestowed on yonder olive-tree.—The Arabic text contains here two expressions, which require explanation. The word translated by fawns is t̤alâ, the young of any cloven-hoofed animal, as a cow, a sheep, a gazelle. The olive-tree is designated by lâ wa lâ (lit., “neither nor”), suggestive of the passage of the Koran, xxiv. 35: “God is the Light of the Heavens and of the Earth. His Light is like a niche in which is a lamp—the lamp encased in glass—the glass, as it were, a glistening star. From a blessed tree it is lighted, the olive, neither of the East nor of the West (lâ sharaqîyatun wa-lâ gharabîyatun), whose oil would well-nigh shine out, even though fire touched it not. It is light upon light!” etc. In illustration of this, it is told that an Arab addressed to Abû Ḥanîfeh the question “With one wâw (letter w for the conjunction wa), or with two wâws?” He replied “With two,” whereupon the Arab said to him, “A blessing has been bestowed in thee, as a blessing has been bestowed in lâ wa-lâ.” After he had gone, Abû Ḥanîfeh’s disciples asked him what the man’s question had meant. Abû Ḥanîfeh answered, “He demanded me whether the profession of faith should be said with two wâws, like that of Ibn Mas‘ûd, namely, ‘I testify that there is no (lâ) god but God and (first wâw) that Mohammed is His servant and (second wâw) Apostle,’ or with one wâw, like that of Abû Musá al-A‘sharî, to wit, ‘I testify that there is no god but God, and that Mohammed is his Apostle.’ In approval of my decision, he called me blessed, and alluded to the passage of the sacred book on the blessed olive-tree.” With regard to the latter a tradition goes, that a man saw the Prophet in a dream, and complained to him of an ailment from which he suffered, whereupon the Prophet said to him: “have lâ wa lâ.” Ibn Sîrîn, a celebrated interpreter of dreams (for whom see Ibn Khallikân, i. 635) was consulted on the meaning of these words, and declared it to be “Eat olives” (or olive oil).

O Qut̤rub,—which may be translated “O fidget,” being the name of a little animal, which is continually on the move, proverbially applied to one who travels much about, and used as a nickname ever since the grammarian Sibawayh called by it Mohammed ibn al-Mustanîr (see Ibn Khallikân, i. 693, and comp. Ar. Prov., i. 643).

Or the likeness of an ivory-doll, allusion to the proverb aḥsanu minu ’d-dumyatî (mina ’z-zûni), more beautiful than a figure or image, both of which, according to Maydâni, mean idols (Ar. Prov., i. 408).

Write down the mongrel couplets, in the original urqum al-abyâta ’l-al- akhyâf, i.e., verses, the alternate words of which consist of dotted and undotted letters in turn. The term akhyâf is applied to sons of the same mother by different fathers, or to men of heterogeneous character and condition, and is derived from khaif, the quality of having one eye blue and the other black in a horse.

O stiff-neck, O [essence of the] perfume of Mausham, two epithets for bold and mischievous, the first of which, in Arabic ghashamsham, is applied to a man of unbending nature, who bows his head to no one, and whom nothing can avert from his purpose. The second alludes to the proverb ash’amu min ‘it̤ri maushamin, more ill-omened than the perfume of Mausham, the most plausible explanation of which is that Mausham is the name of a woman trading in perfumes, who was surprised and despoiled of her goods by a gang of robbers. When she complained of this to the people of her tribe, they pursued the pillagers, and killed every one on whom they smelled the scent of the perfume. See Ar. Prov., i. 155, 692, where other readings and interpretations will be found.

Kills beholders, in the sense in which the Irish speak of a killing beauty, and in which presently her rounded bosom, or, according to others, her swelling hip, is called a deadly bane for the enamoured admirer.

The two bordered couplets, in the text al-baitaini ’l-mut̤rafaini, meaning that the beginning and ending of either couplet form a rhyme, and thereby resemble a cloak which is bordered with embroidered designs. Some MSS. read mut̤rifaini, participle of at̤rafa, he produced something novel and wonderful, when the sense would be the two couplets, which fill the hearers with marvel or challenge comparison. A third rendering is mut̤arrafaini, in allusion to a horse, which is called mut̤arraf when its head and tail are white.

And are sure not to be matched (lit., abetted or strengthened, yu‘azzazû) by a third is taken from Koran, xxxvi. 13: “When We sent two unto them and they charged them with imposture, therefore with a third We strengthened them (‘azzaz-nâ), and they said, ‘Verily we are the Sent unto you of God.’”

Make thee a mark whose traces show fair to sight.—The initial words are in Arabic sim simatan, impress a sign (viz., on thy conduct, which in pause would read sim simah, in conformity with the final simsimah, a grain of sesame or coriander-seed. In similar manner the second couplet opens with wa’l-makru mahmâ, “and fraud or craftiness as far as” (supply “thou art able—do not practise it”), the first four syllables of which are identical in sound with the terminating wa’l-makrumah, “and honour, reverence, fair fame amongst men.”

O father of despoilment, in Arabic yâ abâ ’l-ghulûl.—Ghul-ûl is originally the purloining of part of a booty to the detriment of one’s companions, and the meaning is here that the beauty of the boy is such, that it pre-eminently captivates the minds of the beholders so as to curtail the legitimate share of his fellow-pupils in the admiration due to them.

O cymbal-beater of the troop (yâ ṣannâjata ’l-jaishi).—The Persian sanj, cymbal, has furnished Arabic with the word ṣannâj, a cymbal-beater, which in the form ṣannâjah with the feminine termination of intensity occurs in the nickname by which one of the bards of the Ḥamâseh, A‘shá Kays, is known as sannâjatu ’l-‘arab, on account of his facundity as an orator and poet.

Well done, O thou mite, thou eye of a fly.—In default of a better equivalent, I translate with “mite” the Arabic ḥibiqqah (according to Sherîshi, a fart), which is used in taunting a man with his diminutive size. Other authorities say it means long or lanky, but this would scarcely tally with the following “eye of a fly,” another playful and endearing term, indicating excessive smallness of person, which Tradition puts into the mouth of Mohammed, when dandling his grandsons, al Ḥasan and al-Ḥosayn.

Saying to him: I commend thee to the protection of Allah from the eye of the envier, and fain would be made thy ransom.—This is, of necessity, the ponderous paraphrase of ‘auwaẕa-hu wa faddâ-hu, second form of the verbs ‘auẕ and fadá respectively, which means to pronounce the formulas translated above in full.

O Ḳa‘ḳâ‘, a male proper name, for an instance of which see vol. i., p. 471, and the etymological explanation of which is disputed. Of the various meanings assigned to it, here that of “loud-voiced” seems the most appropriate, since it is said of the boy that he recited his verses in a high-pitched key. The following “O thou bird cautious as to where thou sippest water,” in Arabic yâ bâqi‘ata ’l-baqâ‘i, lit., “O crafty bird of the water-pools,” alludes to the proverb (Ar. Prov., i. 162), mentioned and explained vol. i., p. 318.

Brighter than the fire of hospitality to the eyes of the son of night-faring. Another proverbial saying, for which see Ar. Prov., i. 408.

Thou who askest me about the two letters Ẓâd and Z̤â.—For the reason stated in the epitome to this Assembly, I restrict myself to giving here the remainder of this long string of words without regard to versification, together with their English equivalents. They are muwâz̤ib, one who persists in; intiz̤âr, expectation; ilz̤az̤, importunity; waz̤îf, thinnest part of the leg of a horse or camel; z̤âli‘, crooked; ‘az̤îm, great; z̤âhir, helper; faz̤z̤, water in a camel’s stomach (also harsh, cruel); ighlâz̤, rough treatment; naz̤îf, clean, tidy, neat; z̤arf, a vessel; z̤alaf, continence; z̤âhir, evident; faz̤i‘, sweet water (also ugly, difficult); wu‘‘âz̤, preachers; ‘ukâz̤, place of the annual fair between Mecca and Tâ‘if, the name being derived from the verb ‘akz̤, in the sense of thronging together; z̤a‘n, travelling; maz̤z̤, wild pomegranate; ḥanz̤al, colocynth; qâriz̤ân, the two tan-gatherers (see p. 6 above); aushâz̤, pl. of washîz̤, mixed crowd, rabble; z̤irâb, hillocks; z̤irrân, sharp stones; shaz̤af, distress; bâhiz̤, heavy to bear, oppressive; ja‘z̤arî, boaster, vainglorious; jawwâz̤, profligate (also gluttonous); z̤arâbîn, pole-cats; ḥanâz̤ib, male beetles; ‘unz̤ub, male locust; z̤ayyân, wild jessamine; ru‘z̤, hole in a spear or arrow to fix the head in; shanaz̤î, surroundings of a mountain; dalz̤, pushing back; z̤âb (z̤âm), clamour, noise (also brother-in-law); z̤abz̤âb, ailment; ‘unz̤uwân, a saline plant; jin‘âz̤, fool; shinẓîr, ill-tempered; ta‘âz̤ul, hanging together of locusts or dogs in copulation; iz̤lim, indigo; baz̤r, clitoris; in‘âz̤, erection. With the exception of a few more words of exceedingly rare occurrence, this list is said to be complete, and cognate forms are, of course, as far as the letter z̤â is concerned, spelt alike, for instance, qaiz̤, excessive heat, and qâz̤û, they were hot, etc.

May thy mouth never be harmed.—Thus Chenery translates (vol. i., p. 183, last line but one) the idiom lâ fuẓẓa fû-ka, which also occurs in the fourteenth Assembly. The literal rendering would be, “may thy mouth not be broken,” where mouth is said to stand for “teeth.” The expression was, according to Tradition, used by Mohammed, when the poet Nâbighah recited to him his ḳaṣîdeh in the letter Râ, terminating in the lines:

“We have reached the summit in praise, and glory and lordship, yet we hope to attain to a station even above this.”

“Whither to, O father of Lailá?” asked the Prophet, and on the poet’s answer, “to Paradise,” he said to him approvingly: “lâ afẓaẓa ’llâḥu fâ-ka,” “may Allah not harm thy mouth.” The substitution of “teeth” for “mouth,” in the interpretation of the commentators, is in congruity with the original meaning of the verb faẓẓ, “breaking a seal.”

A safer keeper than the earth, alluding to the proverb: aḥfaz̤u mina ’l-arẓi wa aktamu wa âmanu, “more keeping and more concealing and more trusty than the earth,” because it keeps safely what is buried in it of wealth, etc., like a custodian, and pays back what is confided to it like a trustee, and on account of the saying “speak not ill of the dead, so that the earth may not shield him better than thou.”

Therefore remember me: I will remember you; and render thanks to me, and be not ungrateful to me—quotation from Koran, ii. 147.

But I was like one who tries to see in the dark, etc.—My translation follows here the reading of my own MS.: wa ana, “but I,” or of the native editions: wa kuntu, “but I was,” instead of that of De Sacy: “wa huwa, “but he,” which seems to me an evident misprint or slip of the pen, overlooked by the editors of the 2nd edition.

Than one who speaks from experience, in Arabic mis̤lu khabîrin. Compare Koran, xxxv. 15: “If ye cry to them (the false gods), they hear not your cry, and if they heard they would not answer you; and in the day of Resurrection they will disown your joining them with God. And none can instruct thee like Him who is informed (khabîr) of all.”

Thou art the son of the days, i.e., well acquainted with their conditions and proof against their vicissitudes, as we would say “a thorough man of the world.”

While I was staying at Ḥajr of Yemâmeh.—Yemâmeh is one of the most fertile districts of Ḥijâz, and at the same time the name of its chief town, situated in the east of Mecca. It has been mentioned in Assembly XL., p. 103, above, as the scene of the Musay-limeh’s insurrection under the Khalifate of Abû Bekr, which was crushed by a sanguinary battle, in which the impostor himself was slain. The Shuhadâ’, or martyrs on the Moslem side, were buried in Ḥajr, the second town of importance in the district, about two days’ journey distant from Yemâmah town to the north-west.

Or met with accident (lit., state, condition) after accident, in Arabic rakiba t̤abaqan ‘an t̤abaqin, where the preposition ‘an, from, takes the meaning of ba‘da, after, as in Koran, lxxxiv. 19: “(And I swear, etc.) that state after state ye will encounter.”

Who has disappointed his master, lit., who is a burden (kall) to his master, again taken from the Koran, xvi. 78: “God also propounds a comparison between two men, one of whom is dumb, and hath no power over anything, and is a burden to his lord (wa huwa kallun ‘alá maulâ-hu): direct him where he will, he cometh not back with success.”

Is this the tardiness of Find along with the failure of thy fire-shaft? —This is meant as a reproach for being late on his errand, and, after all, returning without having accomplished it. The allusion is to the proverb abt̤a’a min findin, “slower than Find,” a freedman of ‘Âyeshah bint Sa‘d, who sent him one day to fetch fire from a neighbour’s house. On his way he met some people who were travelling to Egypt, and, joining them, he stayed away for a whole year. After his return, he borrowed the fire-brand for which he had been sent, and ran home with it, but he stumbled and fell, and the fire got extinguished, whereupon he exclaimed, “Hurry be cursed!” (Ar. Prov., i. 197, 236).

More busily engaged than the woman of the two butter-bags, in the original ashghalu min ẕâti ’n-niḥyaini, a proverb of which Ḥarîri himself gives the following account: She was a woman of the tribe Taim Allâh ibn S̤a‘labah, who was present at the fair of ‘Okâz with two butter-bags. Khauwât ibn Jubair (who afterwards was converted and became one of the Helpers or Anṣârîs) took her aside under the pretext of buying them, opened them, tasted the contents, and returned them to her one after the other, and while she was holding them under her arms and kept their mouths closed with her hands, he outraged her. When he went away from her, she said to him: “May it do thee no good.” As for the tribal name Taim Allah, it is a corruption of Taim al-Lât, servant of Lât, an idol of the time of Ignorance, for which the religious ardour of the Faithful substituted the name of the true God in their anxiety to eliminate all traces of paganism from their early history. The comparative ashghalu is another instance of the measure af‘al, derived from maf‘ûl instead of fâ‘il, for which comp. the note on aḥmad, p. 283, above (Ar. Prov., i., 463, 687).

There is no blame on him who goes to the privy.—Sherîshi here inserts the story of the youth of Kufa, who visited an uncle of his at Medina, and during a year’s stay was never known to enter that place. When he had returned to his home, it came out on inquiry, that whenever he had asked his uncle’s slave girls for it by one of the numerous names by which it is more or less euphemistically called by the Arabs, they answered him by a verse of some popular poem, in which the same word occurred with a different and perfectly guileless meaning, leaving the poor lad no wiser than before, and throwing him mercilessly back on his own resources for expedients, to which he took with a vengeance.

A youth like Samṣâmah, i.e., straight and sharp like a sword. According to Sherîshi, Ṣamṣâmah is in particular the name of a sword belonging to ‘Amr Mad‘ákarib, the sharpness of which was such as to cut iron as easily as iron cuts wood.

Nor seek traces after the substance is gone.—Comp. Ar. Prov., i. 221, and Chenery’s note, vol. i., p. 362.

He frowned and he turned his back, beginning of Sura lxxx., to which Rodwell remarks in a note: “We are told in the traditions that, when engaged in converse with Welid, a chief man among the Koraysh, Mohammed was interrupted by the blind Abdallah Ibn Omm Maktûm, who asked to hear the Koran. The Prophet spoke very roughly to him at the time, but afterwards repented, and treated him ever after with the greatest respect. So much so that he twice made him Governor of Medina.”

So trust to the stream of my mountain-slope, i.e., to my word and promise. If no confidence is felt in the sincerity of a man’s protestations, it is said to him, “I trust not in thy mountain-slope” (lâ as̤iqu bi-tal‘ati-ka), viz., that any water will flow down from it, the water, as has been mentioned frequently, serving as a simile for liberality and generous disposition (Ar. Prov., i. 49). The expression tal‘ah, lit., a rising ground, or the watercourse down from a mountain, occurs also in the proverb: “I am afraid of nothing but the current from my mountain-slope,” meaning thereby one’s nearest relations.

Where the wolf howls, metaphorical for a deserted place, a “howling” wilderness.

If thy father had lorded it over ‘Abd Manâf, or if ‘Abd al-Madân had been thrall to thy maternal uncle.—‘Abd Manâf, surnamed al-Mugh airah, was the eldest son of Koṣṣai, and one of the most famous chiefs of the tribe Koraysh, for whose glory, as the Commentators remark, it would suffice that he belonged to the ancestors of Mohammed. ‘Abd al-Madân was proverbial for nobility and prowess in warfare. The poet Laqît̤ alludes to him in the line:

“I drank wine until I fancied myself to be ‘Abd al-Madân or Abû Kâbûs.”

Beat not cold. iron, from the proverb “thou beatest cold iron” (Ar. Prov., i. 218), which is applied to one who wishes for something unattainable. Al-Mubarrid quotes the following verses of Abû ’sh-Shamaqmaq on Sa‘îd Ibn Salm:

“Alas! thou beatest cold iron if thou wishest for a gift from Sa‘id;

By Allah, if he were possessed of all the seas together and a Moslem came to him in the time of flood

Begging from him a draught to perform his ablution, he would deny it to him and say, Make thy ablution with the sand of the ground.”

The nose in the sky and the rump in the water, proverbially said of a grandiloquous boaster whose performances are poor (Ar. Prov., i. 23).

And art ruthless with the ruthlessness of the cat, allusion to the proverb a‘aqqu mina ’l-hirri, more ruthless than the cat, who is said, like the hyena, occasionally to devour her young. It was applied by a poet amongst the partisans of Ali to ‘Âyeshah, when she set out for the battle of the camel. As I have a tender corner in my heart for this animal, which I consider much maligned by those who call it devoid of affection, I gladly take note of the statement of Ḥamzah Al Iṣbahânî, that the Arabs say also, in flat contradiction to the above, “more affectionate (abarru) than the cat,” maintaining that the devouring, if it is done now and then, proceeds from pure excess of love, in order to preserve the little ones from all future trouble. It is true he adds that they offer no satisfactory argument in proof, but then he ought to repeat their arguments, such as they are, and allow us to form our own judgment. Meanwhile I am fain to credit the soundness of their saying and solemnly declare on behalf of my four-footed friends: “Well said, ye Arabs, faithful believers in feline kindliness, who deserve for aye to live in the grateful remembrance of the tribe of Puss, son of Grimalkin, son of Caterwauler.”

Less occupied than the cupper of Sâbât̤ (Ar. Prov., ii. 227).—The tale goes that for want of customers he cupped soldiers for a dâniq (small fraction of the dirhem) apiece, payable at their convenience, and when for some length of time none presented himself, he practised on his mother, so as not to be reproached with idleness, until her blood was exhausted, and the poor lady died of inanition.

Heavy of hand.—Here I have taken a liberty with the words of the text, s̤aqîlu-’l-ishtirât̤i, the literal translation of which would be “heavy in making stipulations.” But as this would come pretty much to the same as the preceding “excessive in his charges,” I hope the substitution will be condoned, while it introduces a fresh item into the description of what a cupper ought not to be.

That he was complaining to one who would not silence his complaint, a proverbial expression applying to a person who is not concerned at another’s condition, and does not care for the removal of his complaint, for if he alleviated it, the other would cease complaining (see Ar. Prov., i. 219). Thus a poet says, addressing his camel:

“Thou complainest to one who will not still thy complaint; so bear thy heavy burden patiently or die.”

Of a similar purport is the proverb which will follow a little lower down: hâna ‘alâ ’l-amlasi mâ lâqâ ’d-dabira, “what befalls the back-sore sits lightly on the smooth-skinned” (Ar. Prov., i. 653).

His sleeve became torn, literally, his sleeve recited the Sura inshiqâq, the splitting asunder (lxxxiv.), the sound of the tearing garment being whimsically compared to the sound of a reading voice.

Hast thou not heard what is said of him who exercises forgiveness?— Allusion to a saying reported by Tradition of Mohammed: “He who remits the offence of a believer, Allah will remit to the same his offence on the day of resurrection.”

My surroundings over-tax my liberality, meaning, that his household expenditure leaves him no surplus, which he might spend on others. The Arabic for surroundings is shi‘âb, pl. of shi‘b, a mountain cleft or valley, here used in the sense of nawâḥî, neighbouring parts, for family, etc.

They are of no account, even though he should be a liar, in Arabic lâ kânâ wa lau kâna ẕâ mainin, lit., the two have not been, even if he be possessed of lying, which a marginal note in my MS. paraphrases by: “There is no value in the two dirhems, even if the old man should have told a lie.”

A milk-flow, half of which belongs to thee, taken from the proverb: uḥlub ḥalaban la-ka shat̤ru-hu, milk the milk of which half shall be thine, inciting to the pursuit of an object by the promise of an equal share in the result (Ar. Prov., i. 345).

As nicely as the fruit of the dwarf-palm splits, in Arabic shiqqa ’l-ublumati (also read ablimati and ablamati).—According to Sherîshi ublumah is synonymous with daumah, wild or dwarf palm, whose leaves split into two equal halves. Abû Ziyâd says it is a plant growing horn-shaped fruits like beans, and which splits lengthwise in two halves of perfect equality. Hence the proverb: al-mâlu bainî wa baina-ka shiqqa ’l-ublumati, the money is or shall be equally divided between myself and thee, where the accusative shiqqa is that of the infinitive of corroboration, i.e., divided with the splitting, etc. (Ar. Prov., ii. 618).

Any shoe suits the bare-footed who walks on flints, said of one who adapts himself to the circumstances as best he can (Ar. Prov., ii. 317).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When he had neared ninety-three years, lit., the fist, al-qabẓah, which, in the method of calculation carried on by the hand and fingers, indicates the said number. Others explain the word by “the grip of death.”

For one like thee it needs no tapping with the staff, nor an awakening by the throw of pebbles.—This alludes to the proverb: “The staff is not knocked to the ground for him, nor are pebbles thrown for him” (Ar. Prov., ii. 343), which is applied to one experienced and wide awake. The first part of it refers to ‘Âmir ibn az̤-Z̤arab, a judge in the time of ignorance, who, when he had reached a great old age, committed errors in his decisions, so that people began to doubt him. This came to the knowledge of his daughter, and she remonstrated with him, whereupon he enjoined on her to tap with his staff on the floor whenever she noticed that his wits were beginning to wander, in order to call his mind back to the point. The throwing of pebbles is originally a kind of vaticination from the figures which they form when shaken and cast on the ground. Here, however, allusion is made to a custom of the Arabs, when they wished to test the fitness of a man for participating in a journey or a raid. They left him by himself, until he had fallen asleep, when one of them took up a small pebble and threw it in his direction. If the faint sound awoke him, they trusted him, but if not, they would have nothing to say to him. More on the subject will be found in the passage of Maydâni, quoted above, and ibid., i. 55, but it would here be out of place as irrelevant for the explanation of the context.

He has been called upon to give warning, allusion to Koran, li. 55: “Yet warn them, for, in truth, the warning will profit the believers.”

That which Seth bequeathed not to Nabat̤, viz., something better than it, a form of expression for which comp. vol. i., 304, the note: “With an earliness beyond the earliness of the crow.”—Nabat̤ is a collective noun for the Nabateans, who, according to the commentators, were the descendants of Seth, thus called because they inhabited the lowlands between the two Iraks, which abounded in water (nabt̤).

Nor Jacob to the tribes (asbât̤), i.e., to the twelve patriarchs, his sons, as the progenitors of the Jewish tribes. His behest to them is recorded as follows in the Koran, ii. 126: “And this to his children did Abraham enjoin, and Jacob also, saying: O my children! truly God has chosen a religion for you; so die not without having become Moslems.”

Thy smoke will arise aloft, i.e., thou wilt be able to kindle the fires of hospitality, and akin to the idiom “he whose ashes are heaped up or plentiful,” for which see p. 274, above, and the opposite of which occurs in the next qarînah but one.

The means of livelihood are ministry (imârah), and commerce (tijârah), and husbandry (zirâ‘ah), and handicraft (ṣinâ‘ah)—a division which broadly coincides with the popular German classification of the four social orders: Wehrstand (order of warding off for civil and military government), Mehrstand (order of making more, for commerce as increasing the wealth of the nation), Nährstand (order of providing nourishment, for agriculture), and Lehrstand (order of teaching, for the learned and technical professions).

Like the entanglements of dreams, allusion to Koran, xii. 44: “They said: They are confused dreams (aẓghâs̤u aḥlâmin, confusions of dreams), nor have we knowledge in interpretation of dreams.”

The bitterness of being weaned therefrom, meaning of being dismissed from office, neatly expressed in the line of a poet:

“The intoxication of power is pleasant, but the state that follows is bitter exceedingly.”

Similarly a proverb says: “Command is sweet to suckle, but bitter to be weaned of” (Ar. Prov., i. 145).

They are subject to risks, in Arabic ‘urẓutun li ’l-mukhât̤arâti, the word ‘urẓah being synonymous with nuṣb, butt, target, object to be aimed at, as Koran, ii. 225: “And swear not by God that ye will be virtuous and fear God,” the lit. translation of which Rodwell gives in a note as: “Make not Allah the scope for your oaths.” As for the dangers to which merchandise is exposed, Tradition records the saying of Mohammed: “Verily the traveller and his goods are at the very brink of destruction (‘alâ qalatin), save that which Allah takes under His protection.”

Easy to win, lit., cold of booty, said of spoil which is obtained without exposing one’s self to the heat of battle or exertion.

To the sons of dust, i.e., the poor, in Arabic li-banî ghabrâ’a, so called because the ground is their bed, without pillow or cover. In the 55th verse of Ṭarafeh’s Mo‘allakah they are opposed to the “owners of the wide-spread leather tent,” meaning the rich, who enjoy every comfort and luxury (see Arnold’s edition, p. 54).

Who rises and sits down again, i.e., who demeans himself with impotent and uncontrollable anger.

Wheresoever they alight they pick up, a proverb, for which see May-dâni, i. 416.

Thou hast stitched together, but not ripped open, in the vernacular idiom rataqta wa mâ fataqta, for thou hast summarised in thy speech, but not entered into details or particulars.

From which end the shoulder is to be eaten, allusion to the proverb: “He knows from where the shoulder is eaten,” applied to the sharp-sighted and experienced, who is well aware how a difficult matter is to be treated in the most efficacious manner (see Ar. Prov., i. 63; ii. 144). Aṣma‘î mentions that the Arabs say of a man of weak intellect, “He does not eat the shoulder neatly,” and quotes the verse:

“I know, in spite of what you see in me of old age, from which end the shoulder must be tackled,”

i.e., I am in the full possession of my senses.

Be more on the move than the Qut̤rub.—For this and the following popular sayings as far as “more aggressive than the wolf that plays the tiger,” see the proverbs: ajwalu min qut̤rubin (Ar. Prov., i. 329; i. 643); asrá min jarâdin (ibid., i. 463); anshat̤u min z̤abyin muq-mirin (ibid., ii. 184, 788); aslat̤u min ẕi’bin mutanammirin (ibid., i. 641).

Let down thy bucket into every fountain, taken from the proverb adli dalwa-ka fî ’l-dilâ’i, let down thy bucket among the buckets, for which see l.c., ii. 436, and the note in vol. i., p. 402.

With the earliness of the raven, and the boldness of the lion.—The raven, or crow, is called in the text abû zâjir, father of the scarer, because he is roused by shouting, to take augury from the direction of his flight, and he is proverbial for earliness (see vol. i., p. 304). The name given to the lion is abû ḥâris̤, father of the prey-winner, because he is the most powerful of wild beasts for securing his prey, and he has given rise to the proverb: “Bolder than the bearer of the mane” (Ar. Prov., i. 329, 334, 335).

The caution of the chameleon, here called abû qurrah, father of coolness, with reference to the proverb “Colder than the eye of the chameleon,” for which see p. 273, above. The reason for its being proverbial for cautiousness has been mentioned in a note to Assembly XXXVI., on p. 222. The kinyehs, or nicknames, used in the sequel of the passage are abû ja‘dah for wolf, which is explained in various ways, the most probable being that ja‘dah is here synonymous with rakhl, lamb, the wolf’s favourite tit-bit; the proverbs concerning him are to be found in the Majma‘, i. 464, 637; ii. 151, 191. Abû ‘uqbah, father of (numerous) progeny, for pig, concerning whose greed the following anecdote is recorded of Buzurjmirh (see Kalilah wa Dimnah, p. 9): he was asked “By what means hast thou obtained thy successes?” and answered, “By earliness like the earliness of the crow, and eagerness like the eagerness [covetousness] of the pig, and patience like the patience of the ass.” Abû was̤s̤âb, father of the leaper, for gazelle, the proverb with regard to whose nimbleness has been quoted on the preceding page. Abû ’l-ḥuṣain, father of the little castle, for fox, on account of his elaborately-constructed hole, or the cunning manner in which he protects himself, proverbial for deceitfulness, stealth, and craftiness (Ar. Prov., i. 577). Abû aiyûb, father of Job, for camel, proverbial for endurance (Ar. Prov., i. 737). Abû ghazawân, father of warfare, viz., against rats and mice, for cat, anent whom De Sacy’s commentary here quotes again the proverb recorded p. 293, above, “More affectionate than the cat,” and mentions the following saying of Ibn al-Muḳaffa‘: “I have adopted from everything that which is most beauteous in it, as from the pig its eagerness for that which is good for it and its earliness in providing for its needs, from the dog his sensibleness and watchfulness, from the cat the insinuating gentleness of its purr, its quickness in seizing its opportunity for game, and its pretty ways of asking,” the last of which accomplishments Sherîshi describes with all the glee of an appreciative observer and connoisseur. Abû barâqish, for a bird, probably of the heron kind, for which I substitute the hummingbird, because it is the variegation of its plumage which forms its characteristic, and has occasioned its figurative use to designate a person of variable disposition (see Ar. Prov., i. 409, and comp. vol. i., bottom of p. 477).

Inquire after the state of the market before bringing thy goods to it.— This and the following idioms are amplifications of the proverb (ii. 259): “Before shooting arrows let the quivers be full,” to the effect that one ought to make all necessary preparations before engaging in an important undertaking.

And despair not of the mercy of Allah, taken from Koran, xii. 87: “Go, my sons, and seek tidings of Joseph and his brother, and despair not of God’s mercy (rauḥ), verily none but the unbelieving despair of the mercy of God.”

Promises have their reversals, in Arabic (li ’l-‘idâti mua‘qqibâtin, objective case dependent on the preceding inna), allusion to Koran, xiii. 41: “And if God pronounces a doom, there is none to reverse (mu‘aqqib) His doom, and swift is He to take account.”

Display then the patience of those endowed with firmness, an expression borrowed from Koran, xlvi. 34: “Bear thou up, then, with patience, as did the Apostles endued with firmness,” and applying, according to the most trustworthy interpretation, to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.

Hold not thy hand tied to thy neck, etc., quotation from the same, xvii. 31: “And let not thy hand be tied up to thy neck; nor yet open it with all openness, lest thou sit thee down in rebuke, in beggary.”

And gratified with poor fruit and bad measure, proverbially applied to one who meets with two evils or calamities. Aṣma‘î relates that Abû Ja‘far al-Manṣûr encountered an Arab in Syria, and said to him: “Praise be to God that He took from you the plague under our government.” The prompt reply was: “Allah does not bestow on us at the same time poor fruit and bad measure, to wit, your government and the plague” (Ar. Prov., i. 368).

For the neighbour before the house, and the fellow-traveller before setting out on the road, two popular sayings of self-evident meaning, for which see Ar. Prov., i. 368.

If I be spared after thee—but may I never taste thy loss, a figure of speech, called by grammarians ḥashw, parenthesis, as in Koran, lvi. 74, 75: “And I swear by the places where the stars do set,— And that is surely a great oath if ye only knew it.”

How like is the night to yesternight, i.e., how like is the son to the father (Ar. Prov., ii. 615). This proverb, expressive of perfect equality, is said to originate with the following couplets, ascribed to Ṭarafeh, although they are not to be found in his dîwân:

“Every familiar I have treated with true friendship, but as for them, may Allah not leave them a tooth to show in their smile,

All of them are falser than the fox, how like is the night to yesternight.”

“A tooth to show in their smile” is a paraphrase of the Arabic wâẓiḥah, which is explained as a tooth that becomes visible in laughing, and the phrase itself is a counterpart of the idiom “may thy mouth not be harmed,” mentioned in the notes to Assembly XLVI., p. 289, above.

He who resembles his father does not go wrong, a proverb the meaning of which is, “he misplaces not his resemblance, because none is worthier of the son’s likeness than the father.” Its origin is ascribed to the line of Ka‘b ibn Zohayr:

“I am the son of one who has never opposed me in his life heretofore, and he who is like his father does not go wrong” (Ar. Prov., ii. 665).

Above the mandates of Lokman, the Sage, after whom Sura xxxi. of the Koran is named, to the title of which Rodwell remarks: “The opinion most generally received is that Lokman is the same person whom the Greeks, not knowing his real name, have called Æsop, i.e., Æthiops.”