{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm42.htm","path":"isl/mhm/mhm42.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mhm/mhm42.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 turned aside with a few 2 of my friends to the front of a tent to ask hospitality from its occupants, and there came out to us a portly little man 3 and asked: 'Who are you?' We replied: 'Guests who have tasted nothing for three nights.' He related: 'He coughed and then said: \"O young men! What do you say to fresh butter of the flock, like the head of a bald man, in a broad shallow dish adorned with the dates of Khaibar, 4 taken from the bunch of a branch of a tall, young, and large palm-tree? One of them would fill the mouth of one of a hungry company five days without water; 5 the tooth is lost in it, and its stone is like\nthe tongue of a bird, and they scoop up the butter with it, taken with deep wooden drinking-bowls of milk drawn from good milking-camels pastured on haram 1 and rabl. 2 O young men, do ye like it?\"' We answered: 'Yes, by Heavens! we like it.' 'Ha, ha,' laughed the old man, 'Your uncle also likes it.' Then he said: 'O young men! What is your opinion of white flour like unto a piece of molten silver collected on a round piece of hide with the odour of the qaraz\u0324? 3 From among you one springs forward, a young, comely and active man, and mixes it without violently disturbing or scattering it. Then he leaves it before it is well kneaded. After a while he mixes it thoroughly with milk, more or less diluted with water. He next proceeds to work it up and then leaves it around the pan 4 till it is leavened without becoming dry; then he betakes himself to the gha\u1e0da 5 wood and kindles it. Then, when the fire subsides, he spreads it over his oven, 6 goes to his dough, flattens it out, after he has well kneaded it, lays it upon the hot ashes and then covers it up.'\n'Then, when it has dried and risen, 7 he places on it hot stones sufficient to unite the two heats. 8 He covers them up over the bread, in the form of a round plate, until it cracks and splits and its crust resembles that of a circular cake, and its\nbrownness 1 looks like that of the \u1e24ij\u00e1z date, 2 famous as Umm al-Jirdh\u00e1n 3 or \u2018Idq ibn \u1e6c\u00e1b. 4 Wild honey, white as snow, is then poured over it till it penetrates the brown crust 5 and the pith absorbs all it has upon it. It is then brought before you, and you gobble it with the gobbling of Juwain, 6 or Zankal. 7 Young men, do you desire it?' He related: 'Each one of us stretched his neck towards what he had described, his mouth watered and he licked his lips and smacked them,' and we answered: 'Yes, by Heavens! we like it.' 'Ha! ha!' laughed the old man, and said: 'And your uncle, by Heavens! does not hate it.' Then he said: 'What is your opinion, O young men, of a wild she-kid of Nejd and Aliya 8 which has fed upon the artemisia Judaica of Nejd, the artemisia abrotanum and hashim, 9 nibbled at the thick herbage and is filled with tender grass? Her marrow is abundant, her inner membrane is covered with fat 10 and she has been slaughtered without blemish. Next it is suspended head downwards in an oven till it is perfectly baked without being either burnt or underdone, and then it is placed before you with its skin cracked, exposing white fat, on a table with thin cakes disposed thereon, as though they were unfolded Egyptian linen, or fine cloth of Kohist\u00e1n coloured with red clay. It is surrounded with vessels containing mustard\nand raisin sauce 1 and divers kinds of fluid seasonings. 2 Then it is served to you exuding fat and dripping with gravy. O young men, do you like it?' We replied: 'Yes, by Heavens! we like it.' He said: 'And your uncle, by Heavens! will dance for it.' Then one of us sprang towards him with a sword and said: 'Does not our hunger suffice thee that thou mockest us?' Then his daughter brought us a tray upon which were a piece of dry bread, scraps and leavings, and she entertained us well. So we departed, praising her and blaming him.\n135:2 \u2026 A few (Individuals): A number of persons from three to nine.\n135:3 \u2026 A portly little man: Literally, large-bellied and short, short in step, or a niggard. I think Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed had both meanings in his mind; the man's appearance would justify the former and his behaviour the latter, e.g. he began by coughing and on p. 187 of the text we find that coughing is indicative of a disinclination to give. Cf. also Text, p. 218: 'O coughing of the host when the bread is broken.'\n135:4 Khaibar: A well-known town in the district of \u1e24ij\u00e1z and four days' journey, or about fifty-four miles north-west of the city of Mad\u00edna, In the time of Mu\u1e25ammad the name Khaibar was borne by a whole province which was inhabited by various Jewish tribes. It comprised seven fortresses, meadows, and numerous groves of palm-trees. It was noted for the abundance and excellence of its dates. Cf. the line of \u1e24assan ibn Th\u00e1bit quoted by Yaq\u00fat, ii, 505.\nIn A.H., 6 or 7, Mu\u1e25ammad made himself master of the place and all its castles and strongholds, and took spoils to a great value. Yaq\u00fat, ii, 504. Jewish Encyclop\u00e6dia, vii, 480.\n135:5 Five days without water: An allusion to the drinking of camels on the fifth day counting the day of the next preceding as the first; their p. 136 drinking one, then pasturing three days, then coming to the water on the fifth day, the first and last days on which they drink being thus reckoned. Lane, p. 810.\n136:1 \u2026 Haram: The name of a plant whose leaves are intensely acid, a t species of sorrel.\n136:2 \u2026 Rabl: The name applied to certain sorts of trees that break forth with leaves in the end of the hot season. They are intensely green.\n136:3 \u2026 Qaraz\u0324: A species of mimosa the leaves and fruit of which are used for tanning.\n136:4 \u2026 The pan: Literally, a stone cooking-pot.\n136:5 Al-Gha\u1e0da: A wood proverbial for making a powerful and lasting fire. This shrub, which is of the genus Euphorbia, is said to be peculiar to the Arabian Peninsula. See Palgrave in his Travels, i, 38; cf. De Sacy, \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed, i, 60 and ii, 632.\n136:6 \u2026 Oven: Literally, a hollow which a man digs wherein to sit to protect himself from the cold.\n136:7 \u2026 Risen: Literally, became domelike.\n136:8 \u2026 The two heats: That is, the heat above and the heat below,\n137:1 \u2026 Its brownness: Literally, its redness.\n137:2 \u2026 Date: The term applied to dates that have become coloured but have not become ripe. Cf. Heb. \u05d1\u05b9\u05bc\u05e1\u05b6\u05e8 unripe dates.\n137:3 Umm al-Jirdh\u00e1n: Literally, mother of the field mice. A large kind of date and the last to ripen. It is cultivated in \u1e24ij\u00e1z. It is said that, before the fruit is cut from the tree, the field mice collect beneath.\n137:4 \u2018Idq ibn \u1e6c\u00e1b: The name of a species of palm-tree in Mad\u00edna.\n137:5 \u2026 Brown crust: Literally, red leather. For the use of this word to describe red colour, see Qur\u2019\u00e1n, lv, 37.\n137:6 Juwain: Diminutive of Juw\u00e1n, is the name of a man who was notorious for making free with other people's property. Fara\u2019id Al-La\u2019\u00e1l, i, 134.\n137:7 Zankal: Ibn \u2018Al\u00ed ibn Ab\u00fa Faz\u00e1ra is mentioned on page 362 of the Taj al-\u2018Ar\u00fas, but there is nothing to connect him with greedy feeding.\n137:8 Aliya: Belonging to the region above Nejd.\n137:9 Hash\u00edm: A plant that is dry and brittle.\nFor \u2026 in the text read \u2026 from \u2026 it became much or abundant.\n137:10 Her inner membrane is covered with fat: That is, from tail to throat.\n138:1 \u2026 Raisin sauce: Made of mustard and raisins.\n138:2 \u2026 Fluid seasonings: See Qur\u2019\u00e1n, xxiii, 20.\nCf. Maq\u00e1ma twenty-five of the Text, p. 125; the themes are identical.\nThis maq\u00e1ma is remarkable for its collection of recondite words and technical terms; the disquisition on Bedaw\u00edn baking being extremely difficult to render into English. The conventional concluding lines of poetry are wanting.","title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t: XXXIV. The Maq\u00e1ma of Fresh Butter","type":"page"}