{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm22.htm","path":"isl/mhm/mhm22.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mhm/mhm22.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 us and said: I was in one of the regions of the Faz\u00e1ra 6 tribe riding one noble mount and leading another which in turn coursed along with me. And I was making for my native land so that the night with its terrors did not divert me, nor did distance with its deserts turn me from my purpose.\nI struck off the leaves of day 7 with the staff of travel, and with the horse's hoofs I penetrated into the maw of night. Meanwhile, in a night so dark that the Qa\u1e6d\u00e1\u1e6d would lose its way, 8 and the bat could not see 9 in it, I was going swiftly and\nsmoothly along, 1 nothing passing from the right but a lion and nought from the left save a hyena, when suddenly there appeared to my view a rider fully armed; he was making for some tamarisk trees and traversing towards me the intervening stretches of desert. So there seized me because of him what seizes the unarmed in the presence of one bristling with weapons. But I put on a bold front and said: 'Perish thy father, stand! Before thou canst attain thy object thou wilt have to endure wounds of steel, 2 strip the tragacanth 3 of its leaves, and face a stout foeman with the pride of an Azdite. I am for peace, if thou wilt, or for war, if thou desirest. Tell me, who art thou?' He replied: 'Peace hast thou found.' I said: 'Thou hast answered well, but who art thou?' He answered: 'A counsellor, if thou seekest counsel, an orator if thou desirest converse, but before my name is a veil which the mentioning of no proper name can remove.' I then said: 'What is thy trade?' He replied: 'I roam about the interiors of the countries, in order that I may light upon the dish of a generous man. I have a mind served by a tongue, and rhetoric which my own fingers record. My utmost desire is a generous person who will lower me one of his saddlebags and give me his wallet, like the free-born youth that met me yesterday as the rising sun and vanished from my sight with the going down of the same. But although he has disappeared, the memory of him remaineth, and, though he has taken leave of me, the marks of his favour accompany me still.' Pointing to what he had on, he continued: 'None can acquaint you of them 4 better than they themselves.' I exclaimed to myself, 'by the Lord of the Ka\u2018ba an importunate, grasping beggar, experienced in the craft, nay but a past master 5 of the art: Thou wilt have\nto give him something and pay liberally,' 1 so I said: 'Young man, thou hast manifested thy diction; how does thy poetry compare with thy prose?' He replied: 'There is no comparison between my prose and my verse.' Then he summoned aid from his natural ability, raised his voice to such a pitch that it filled the valley, and recited saying:--\nThen I said to him: 'Gently, O youth, and thou canst command what I have with me.'\nHe said: 'The provision bag with its contents.' I replied: 'Aye and its bearer too.' Then I clasped him with my hands and said: 'By Him who hath endowed them with the sense of touch, and from one split them into five, thou shalt not leave me, unless I learn thy state.' Then he lowered his veil from his face and lo! by heavens! it was our Sheikh, al-Iskander\u00ed! Without further waiting I said:\n67:6 Faz\u00e1ra: The name of an Arab tribe.\n67:7 The leaves of day: Figure for the hours of the day.\n67:8 The Qa\u1e6d\u00e1\u1e6d would lose its way: Cf. De Sacy, \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed, i, 260, \u2026 The bird called (\u2026) Qa\u1e6d\u00e1, is a species of sandgrouse. It is related of this bird that it will leave its young at dawn and go to drink at a place a night's journey off and will return in the morning bringing water to its chicks, that again in the early afternoon it will fly to the place once more returning to bring water a second time without losing its way.\n67:9 In which the bat could not see: See Arab Proverbs, i, 194,\n68:1 I was going swiftly and smoothly along: Literally, I flowed with the flowing of water.\n68:2 The wounds of steel: The scarifying of sharp edges or points. Cf. the expression sharp tongues. \u2026\n68:3 Strip the tragacanth: Meid\u00e1n\u00ed, Arab Proverbs, i, 233. (Bulak edition A.H. 1284). Before one can attain it one has to strip the tragacanth, a species of tree with short curved thorns, by grasping each branch and drawing one's hand down it i.e. one has to perform what will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. Literally, less difficult than that would be the stripping of the tragacanth.\n68:4 Of them: i.e. the marks of favour.\n68:5 \u2026 Master: Arabicised from the Persian \u2026 a master, or teacher.\n69:1 \u2026 Pay him liberally: Literally, pour upon him.\n69:2 The five (toes) that barely touched the ground: Literally, while one says 'No, No.'\n69:3 His timber: figurative for disposition.\n69:4 \u2026 Bright and beaming: \u2026 is primarily applied to a horse with a white forehead and \u2026 to a horse with white feet, both figuratively mean, bright and cheerful or distinct and clearly marked.\nCf. The lines by Samau\u2019al, \u1e24amasa (Freytag). p. 53. \u2026 'And our days of victory over our enemies are as conspicuous and remarkable as the blaze on the forehead and feet of a horse.'\n\u2026 is from \u2026 an anklet as the white on the foot is where the anklet is worn. Another reading \u2026 most honourable and dignified. Metre, taw\u00edl.\n70:1 Ab\u00fa\u2019l-Fat\u1e25: in pride hast thou girt on this blade: Metre, hezej. The MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale has the first two lines only. The thought introduced here is taken from the following lines of another poet (See footnote on Text, p. 69).\nCf. Scott, Bridal of Triermain, xxvii.","title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t: XIV. The Maq\u00e1ma of Al-Faz\u00e1ra","type":"page"}