{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm27.htm","path":"isl/mhm/mhm27.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mhm/mhm27.htm","text":"The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t of Bad\u00ed\u2018 al-Zam\u00e1n al-Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed, tr. W.J. Prendergast [1915]\nSAID \u2018\u00cdS\u00c1 IBN HISH\u00c1M: One of my journeys set me down at Damascus. Now one day when I was at the door of my house there suddenly appeared before me a troop of the sons of S\u00e1s\u00e1n. 7\nThey had muffled up their faces, and besmeared their clothes with red ochre while each of them had tucked under his armpit a stone with which he beat his breast. Among them was their chief, who was reciting, they alternating with him; he intoning and they answering him. And, when he saw me, he said:--\nSaid \u2018\u00cds\u00e1 ibn Hish\u00e1m, I gave him a dirhem and said to him, 'I announce to thee the invitation, and we will soon prepare and\nmake ready to receive thee. We will do our best endeavour and thou hast our promise for the future. And this dirhem will be a reminder for thee, so take the ready money and expect the promised.' He seized it and went to another man, and I thought he would address him 1 with the same with which he had addressed me, but he recited:--\nSaid \u2018\u00cds\u00e1 ibn Hish\u00e1m: When this speech of his had penetrated my ear I 6 knew there was excellence behind it, so I followed him until he reached the mother of his house, and I stood away from him so that he could not see me, but I could see him. The princes lowered their veils and behold their chief was Ab\u00fa\u2019l-Fat\u1e25, al-Iskander\u00ed! So I looked at him and said: 'Sirrah, what meaneth this fraud?' Then he indited, saying,\n81:7 S\u00e1s\u00e1n: S\u00e1s\u00e1n al-Akbar, son of Bahman, son of Isfandiyar, son of Gushtasp a prince of Western Persia, is the reputed chief and patron of all beggars and mountebanks. The legend mentioned by Ibn al-M\u00fakaff\u00e1 is that B\u00e1hman being near his death sent for his daughter \u1e24omaya, who was pregnant, and settled the succession on her and her child, if the child proved a boy, to the exclusion of his own son S\u00e1s\u00e1n. S\u00e1s\u00e1n indignant at this left the court and lived the life of a shepherd among the Kurds so that his name became a proverb for one who leads a vagabond p. 82 life. Hence 'the people of S\u00e1s\u00e1n, the Kurd', is a phrase signifying beggars, prestigiators, people that feign blindness, go about with dogs, monkeys and the like. These people had a cant of their own which was not thought unworthy of study by the learned.\nSher\u00edsh\u00ed gives another account of the origin of this term. He says that after the Persians had been subdued in the time of the Khal\u00edfa \u2018Umar, they submitted peaceably to the conquerors adopting their manners and their religion, and that, being a clever and artful people, they betook themselves to various ways of making a living, one of which was mendicancy. Their way of exciting commiseration was to give out that they belonged to the royal house of S\u00e1s\u00e1n, or, as we call them, the S\u00e1s\u00e1nians, and to describe the cruel change of fortune and their deplorable condition. So that at last people came to call a beggar a S\u00e1s\u00e1n\u00ed. This may be the true derivation, but it is evident from the forty-ninth maq\u00e1ma that \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed adopted the legend which makes S\u00e1s\u00e1n a real person. (Chenery, translation of \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed, p. 287-8, and \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed i. 23.)\n82:1 I desire from thee: Metre, mujtath. Cf. De Sacy \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed i. 159.\n82:2 \u2026 A turban: also a woman's veil or muffler. syn. \u2026 See Agh\u00e1n\u00ed ix. 158. Heb. \u05e2\u05e0\u05d9\u05e3 See lexicon. Isaiah iii. 23 and lxii. 3. Probably from \u2026 it became halved, alluding probably to the length of the veil.\n82:3 \u2026 A vessel: Probably situla, a bucket for drawing water, indirectly borrowed from the Latin. See Dozy Supplement aux Dictionaires, i. 653.\n83:1 \u2026 Would address him: Literally, meet him.\n83:2 O excellent one! Metre, mujtath.\n83:3 Coat it with bread: According to the context this seems to be the meaning rather than the explanation given by the commentator, viz., that meat was something forbidden and therefore to desire it was to render him worthy of stripes.\n83:4 Drop thy hand: Lower it to the pocket to undo the knotted money.\n83:5 Put both thy hands: An allusion to Qur\u2019\u00e1n xx. 23. He uses both hands here designedly so as to be sure of getting out some money, not knowing which side \u2018\u00cds\u00e1 ibn Hish\u00e1m carried his cash.\n83:6 Penetrated my ear: Literally, split my ear.\n83:7 This age is ill-starred: Metre, mujtath.\n83:8 \u2026 Nocturnal visitant: The \u1e6caif al-Khay\u00e1l or Khay\u00e1l \u1e6caif frequently occurs in Arabic poetry. It is supposed to be the image of the person beloved which appears to the lover in his dream. For an excellent account of the \u1e6caif al-Khay\u00e1l, illustrated by several quotations from the poets, see Journal Asiatique, pp. 376-85, April 1838 (M.G. Slane).","title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t: XIX. The Maqama of S\u00e1s\u00e1n","type":"page"}