{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm28.htm","path":"isl/mhm/mhm28.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mhm/mhm28.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: While I was in the city of Peace, 1 returning from the Sacred Territory, 2 I was swaggering along, with the swaggering of pedestrians, on the bank of the Tigris, observing those rare sights and closely examining those embellishments until, suddenly, I reached a ring of men crowding together, excitement agitating their heads 3 and laughter exploding 4 their cheeks. Curiosity impelled me to do what it had driven them to do, till I stood within earshot of the voice of a man without being able to see his face, because of the intensity of the thronging and the excessiveness of the crowding, and behold! it was a monkey-trainer causing his monkey to dance and making those near him to laugh. So I bounded as bounds the well-trained hound, 5 and went forward, after the manner of one lame, over the necks of the people. This one's shoulder throwing me in that one's stomach, 6 until I made the beards of two men my carpet and sat down after much fatigue. 7 And verily shame choked me with its spittle and the straitness of the place distressed me. When the monkey-trainer had finished his performance and the place of assembly divested itself of its people, I arose, and verily terror had clothed me in its garb, and I stood up that I might see his face, and lo! by Heavens! it was Ab\u00fa\u2019l-Fat\u1e25, al-Iskander\u00ed. So I said: 'Sirrah, what meaneth this baseness?' Then he indited saying:--\n84:1 The city of Peace: i.e., the city of God. Al-Man\u1e63\u00far is said to have called Baghdad the city of Peace--Mad\u00edna al-Sal\u00e1m--because the Tigris had been previously called the valley and river of Peace. It is said \u2018Abd al-\u2018Az\u00edz ibn \u2018Al\u00ed Ruwwid called it the city of Peace, because in Persian bagh is an idol and dad a gift which made an impious or ill-omened name. Yaq\u00fat, i, 678. See also Le Strange, Baghdad during the \u2018Abb\u00e1sid Khal\u00edfate, p. 10.\n84:2 The sacred territory: Mecca.\n84:3 \u2026 Their heads: Literally, their necks.\n84:4 Exploded (literally, split) their cheeks: Cf. English, split their sides.\n84:5 \u2026 Well-trained hound: Literally, having a collar of white shells such as are worn on the neck to avert the evil eye. It seems that only trained hounds were given this collar.\n84:6 \u2026 Stomach: Literally, the navel.\n84:7 \u2026 great fatigue: Another reading is \u2026 between two.\n85:1 The sin is the days: Metre, k\u00e1mil.\nThis maq\u00e1ma has been translated by De Sacy. See his Chrestomathie Arabe, iii. p. 246.","title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t: X...","type":"page"}