{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm24.htm","path":"isl/mhm/mhm24.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mhm/mhm24.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 passing through one of the towns of Ahwaz when my supreme object was to capture a stray word, 6 or add to my store an eloquent expression. My journeying led me to a vast open space of the town where lo!\nthere was a company of people gathered around and listening to a man who was tapping the ground with beats which varied not, I knew there must be a tune with those beats. So I withdrew not, in order that I might enjoy the song or hear a chaste expression, but remained among the spectators, shouldering this one and pushing that one, until I reached the man. I passed my eye over him 1and I found him to be a person short and portly like a beetle, 2 blind, and wrapped up in a woollen blanket, whirling round like a top, wearing a burnous 3 too long for him, and supporting himself with a staff to which were attached a number of tiny bells. With this he was beating the ground with a rythmical sound, while with plaintive air and pathetic voice proceeding from a straightened breast, he sang:--\nSaid \u2018\u00cds\u00e1 ibn Hish\u00e1m: By Heavens! my heart became tender towards him and my eyes were filled with tears for him.\n[paragraph continues] So I gave him a dinar I had with me. And he delayed not but said:--\nThe people then gave him what they were disposed to give. Then he left them. But I followed him, for I knew by the quickness with which he recognized the dinar that he was feigning blindness. As soon as we were alone 3 I stretched forth my right hand, seized his left arm and said: 'By Heavens! thou shalt disclose to me thy secret, or else I will assuredly expose thee.' Then he opened his pair of almonds. 4 I drew his veil from his face and behold--by Heavens! it was our Sheikh Ab\u00fa\u2019l-Fat\u1e25, al-Iskander\u00ed. Said I: 'Art thou Ab\u00fa\u2019l-Fat\u1e25?' He answered: 'Nay;\n73:6 To capture a stray word: The collecting of (\u2026) rare words was a favourite pursuit.\n74:1 I passed my eye over him: Literally, from him to.\n74:2 \u2026 Like a beetle: The Qaramb\u00e1 is an insect resembling the beetle called \u2026 Khanfas\u00e1. It is said 'the Qaramb\u00e1 in the eye of its mother is beautiful.' Arab Proverbs, ii, 253.\n74:3 Burnous: Worn by devotees in the first age of Isl\u00e1m; any garment of which the head forms a part. Some say it is from \u2026 meaning cotton and the \u2026 augmentive. It appears to be a foreign word.\n74:4 O people my debt weighs down: Metre, rejez.\n75:1 What beauty is hers! Cf. De Sacy, \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed, i, 34. Metre, rejez.\n75:2 I refer thee to God: Literally, go to God.\n75:3 \u2026 We were alone: Literally, seclusion strung us together.\n75:4 Pair of almonds: Figurative for both eyes.\n75:5 I am Ab\u00fa Qalam\u00fan: Metre, mujtath.\nAb\u00fa Qalam\u00fan: a kind of variegated Greek fabric. The expression is used to describe a very fickle person. (Ibn al-Ath\u00edr, Kunya Lexicon (Kitab al-Mura\u1e63\u1e63\u2019a, Edited by Seybold, p. 175.)\nThis maq\u00e1ma has been translated by De Sacy, Chrestomathie Arabe, iii, 251.\n75:6 \u2026 Repel time: Cf. De Sacy, \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed, i, 304,\n75:7 Cf. This maq\u00e1ma with De Sacy, \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed, i, 75, where the impostor also feigns blindness.","title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t: XVI. The Maq\u00e1ma of the Blind","type":"page"}