{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm15.htm","path":"isl/mhm/mhm15.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mhm/mhm15.htm","text":"The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t of Bad\u00ed\u2018 al-Zam\u00e1n al-Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed, tr. W.J. Prendergast [1915]\n\u2018\u00cdS\u00c1 IBN HISH\u00c1M related to me and said: 'While we were at Jurj\u00e1n in a meeting-place of ours discussing, there was with us\nthat chief scholar and narrator of the Arabs, \u2018Ismat ibn Badr, the Faz\u00e1rite'. 1 The conversation finally led us to discuss those who pardon their enemies out of gentleness and those who forgive them out of contempt, till we mentioned As-\u1e62alatan, al-\u2018Abd\u00ed, 2 and al-Ba\u2018ith, 3 and the contempt of Jar\u00edr and al-Farazdaq for them.\nSaid \u2018Ismat: 'I will relate to you what mine eyes have seen and not what I have got from another. When I was journeying in the country of Tam\u00edm, mounted on a noble camel and leading a spare mount, there appeared before me a rider on a dusky camel, frothing thickly at the mouth. He continued to advance towards me till our bodies collided, 4 when he shouted: \"Peace be unto you!\" I said, \"And upon thee peace and the mercy and blessing of God! Who is the loud-voiced rider who salutes with the salutation of Isl\u00e1m?\" He answered: \"I am Ghailan, ibn \u2018Uqba.\" So I said: Welcome to him of fair renown and famous lineage whose diction is well-known.\" He replied: \"Broad be thy valley and powerful thy associates! but who art thou? I answered, \"I am \u2018Ismat ibn Badr, the Faz\u00e1rite.\" He said, \"May God prolong thy life! What an excellent friend, associate and companion!\" Then we travelled together. When we had journeyed on till noon, 5 he said: \"\u00cdsmat, shall we not take a nap, for the sun has melted our brain? I said: \"As thou wilt.\" Se we moved in the direction of\nsome \u0101la trees as though they were maidens 1 with their hair down, displaying their charms, and to a collection of tamarisk trees opposite to them. Then we unsaddled and partook of some food. Now Dh\u00fa'l-Rumma was a small eater. After that we prayed. Then each of us betook himself to the shade of a tamarisk tree, intending to take the noonday nap. Dh\u00fa\u2019l-Rumma lay down and I desired to do as he did. So I lay on my back, but no sleep took possession of my eyes. I looked and saw a short distance of a large-humped camel, jaded by the sun, with her saddle thrown off, and behold a man like a hireling, or slave was standing guarding her. But I turned away from them, for what had I to do with enquiring about that which did not concern me? Dh\u00fa\u2019l-Rumma slept for a little 2 while and then awoke. Now this was in the days of his satirizing the tribe of Murr\u00ed, so he raised his voice, 3 and recited saying:--\nWhen he got as far as this verse, the sleeper awoke, began to rub his eyes and to say: \"Does little Dh\u00fa al-Rumma 1 deprive me of sleep with an incorrect 2 and unpopular poem?\" I said: \"O Ghailan, who is this?\" He replied: \"al-Farazdaq?\" Then Dh\u00fa al-Rumma waxed hot and said:--\nThen I said: \"Now he will choke and fret and thoroughly lampoon him and his tribe.\"\nBut by Heavens! al-Farazdaq only said: \"Fie on thee little Dh\u00fa al-Rumma dost thou oppose one like me with stolen verses?\" 4 Then he went to sleep again, as though he had not heard anything. Dh\u00fa al-Rumma went away and I went with him, and verily I perceived in him humiliation until we parted.'\n46:6 Ab\u00fa\u2019l-\u1e24ar\u00edth Ghailan Ibn \u2018Uqba Ibn Buhaish, generally known by the surname of Dh\u00fa\u2019l-Rumma (the old-rope man) is regarded as the last of the Bedaw\u00edn poets. He died in A.H. 117 (A.D. 735-6) and was therefore a contemporary of Jar\u00edr and Farazdaq, see Ibn Khallikan, ii, 447, and Ibn Qutaiba, Kit\u00e1b al-Sh\u2018ir wa\u2019l-Shu\u2018ar\u00e1 (De Geoje), p. 333. (The University Press of Cambridge is publishing for the first time an edition of this poet's work. The editor is Mr. C. H. H. Macartney of Clare College, Cambridge.)\n47:1 \u2018Ismat ibn Badr the Faz\u00e1rite: I think this character may be identified with Ab\u00fa \u2018Abdu\u2019ll\u00e1h Marw\u00e1n ibn Mu\u2018awiyah ibn Badr al-Faz\u00e1r\u00ed (d. 193 or A.H. 194). Among those who learned traditions from him was Ibn \u1e24anbal (A.H. 164-241) Ansab of al-Sam\u2018\u00e1ni, p. 427, Gibb Memorial Series.\n47:2 As-\u1e62alatan, al-\u2018Abd\u00ed was a contemporary of al-Farazdaq and Jar\u00edr as the following incident shows: 'When as-Salatan, al-\u2018Abd\u00ed pronounced al-Farazdaq superior to Jar\u00edr in point of lineage, and Jar\u00edr superior to al-Farazdaq as poet, Jar\u00edr reported with this proverb:\n'When was God's wisdom in husbandmen and possessors of palm trees?' (Freytag, Arab Proverb, ii, 628; Lane, p. 2602 art \u2026) The point of this lies in the fact that the region of as-\u1e62alatan's tribe abounded in palm trees.\n47:3 Al-Ba\u2019ith: a contemporary of Jar\u00edr. He was one of those who had the temerity to satire the great poet's tribe, the Kulayb. Agh\u00e1n\u00ed, vii, 41.\n47:4 Bodies collided: Literally, form with form.\n47:5 \u2026 We journeyed on till morn: From \u2026 noon when the heat is fiercest.\n48:1 As though they were maidens: Cf. Text, p. 26.\n48:2 \u2026 A little: Literally, paucity of milk of a camel and then applied to paucity of sleep in which latter sense it is used by al-Farazdaq, \u2026 Their sleep is little (Lane, p. 2239, art \u2026) Cf. Arab Proverbs, i, 613: \u2026 His abundant milk flow preceded his paucity thereof.\n48:3 \u2026 He raised his voice: Perhaps originally connected with Heb. \u05e7\u05e8\u05e8. For similar examples of transposition Cf. Arabic \u2026 = Heb. \u05e8\u05e7\u05e2; Arabic \u2026 = Heb. \u05e7\u05e8\u05e2.\n48:4 In the days of his satirizing the tribe of Murr\u00ed: The occasion of this bitter satire was the inhospitable treatment of Dh\u00fa\u2019l-Rumma by Hish\u00e1m al-Murr\u2018\u00ed at the village at Mar\u2019at. See Agh\u00e1n\u00ed, vii, 57.\nAre the traces of Maiya to be found. Metre, mutaq\u00e1rib. Maiya--The beloved of Dh\u00fa\u2019l-Rumma whose beauty he often extolled in his poems, see Ibn Qutaibas Sh\u2018ir wa Shu\u2018ar\u00e1, p. 334. Mr. Macartney, the editor of Dh\u00fa\u2019l-Rumma's Diw\u00e1n, to whose courtesy I am indebted for much useful information regarding this poet, says, 'although these verses put into the mouth of Dh\u00fa\u2019l-Rumma do not exist in the MSS. of the Diw\u00e1n, still they have a genuine ring and the ideas have their correspondences in the Diw\u00e1n.'\n49:1 \u2026 dawn: Literally, the sneezer; also a gazelle coming before one.\n49:2 Soon there will reach Imr al-Qais: This refers to the tribe of Imr al-Qais, a branch of the Tam\u00edm descended from Imr al-Qais ibn Sa\u2018ad ibn Man\u00e1t ibn Tam\u00edm, and not to the poet of the tribe of Kindeh.\nThis Qa\u1e63\u00edda begins with the conventional erotic prologue over the deserted encampment of the beloved, a prelude which was condemned in the poet's own day. It is related that, as Dh\u00fa al-Rumma was reciting his verses in the camel market, he said to al-Farazdaq who stopped to hear him: 'Well, Ab\u00fa Fir\u00e1s! what dost thou think of that which thou hast heard?' Al-Farazdaq replied: 'What thou hast uttered is really admirable.' 'Why then ', said the other, 'is my name not mentioned with those of the first-rate poets?' 'Thou hast been prevented from attaining their eminence' answered al-Farazdaq 'by thy lamentations over dunghills, and thy descriptions of the excrements of cattle and their pinfolds.' Ibn Khallikan, ii, 447.\n49:3 Can the dry stone feel pain: A rather poor pun on \u2026 a stone and \u2026 the name of the tribal ancestor.\n49:4 \u2026 Spinsters: pl. of \u2026 a spinster or a widow. Another reading \u2026 their women.\n50:1 Little Dh\u00fa al-Rumma: The diminutive is used to express contempt.\n50:2 \u2026 incorrect: Literally crooked, from \u2026 lit., a spear straightened or made even.\n50:3 And the base men of Maj\u00e1sh'a: Metre mutaq\u00e1rib; Maj\u00e1sh\u2019a: The name of one of al-Farazdaq's ancestors.\n50:4 Stolen verses. This was no libel: Dh\u00fa al-Rumma was notorious for appropriating the verses of others, See Ibn Qutaiba, Sh\u2018ir wa\u2019l Shu\u2018ar\u00e1, p. 338.\nThis was not the only rebuke administered to Dh\u00faal-Rumma by al-Farazdaq. See note on the condemnation of the conventional prelude, p. 49, supra.","title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t: V...","type":"page"}