{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm43.htm","path":"isl/mhm/mhm43.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mhm/mhm43.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 lost some camels of mine and I went forth in search of them. I alighted in a verdant valley and behold there were running brooks, 3 tall trees, ripe fruits, blossoming flowers and broad plains, and lo! an old man was seated there. Now that which terrifies a solitary person from his like made me afraid of him, but he said: 'Have no fear.' Then I saluted him and he ordered me to sit down, and I obeyed. Then he asked me concerning my condition and I informed him. Then he said to me: 'Thou hast got thy guide and found thy stray. Dost thou recite anything of the poems of the Arabs?' I answered: 'Yes,' and I recited from Imr-al-Qais, \u2018Obeid, Lab\u00edd, and \u1e6carafa. But he was not pleased with anything of that and he asked: 'Shall I repeat some of my poetry?' I said to him: 'Produce it.' Then he recited:\nuntil he went over the whole qa\u1e63\u00edda. I said: 'O Shaikh! this is Jar\u00edr's poem, the boys have conned it, the women know it, it has entered the tents and reached the assemblies.' He said: 'Stop this but if thou dost know a poem of Ab\u00fa N\u00faw\u00e1s repeat it to me.' So I recited to him\nHe related: 'Then he rejoiced, cried out and shouted.' So I said: 'God disfigure thee for an old man! I know not whether thou be more stupid in arrogating to thyself Jar\u00edr's poetry, or in thy delight at the poem of Ab\u00fa N\u00faw\u00e1s who is a libertine 7 and a vagabond.' He said: 'Stop this! Go thy way\nand when thou dost meet on the road a man with a leathern bottle, who goes about in the houses, around the cooking-pots, boasts of his form and glories in his beard, say to him: \"Direct me to a bound fish in a sea, slender in the waist, that stings like a wasp, and turbans with light.\" His father is a stone, his mother a male. Gold is his head and flame is his name, and the rest of him is tail. He acts upon clothes with \u1e6dhe action of the moth. In the house he is the bane of the oil, a greedy drinker never satisfied, and a glutton never sated. A bountiful giver whom none forbids; he climbs the acclivity, and his property does not decrease through generosity. What pleases him grieves thee, and what benefits thee injures him. I was going to conceal from thee my story and live with thee in comfort, but thou didst refuse, now hear the truth. 1 There is not a poet 2 but has a helper from among us. And I dictated this qa\u1e63\u00edda to Jar\u00edr. I am the Shaikh Abd M\u00farrah.' 3 Said \u2018\u00cds\u00e1 ibn Hish\u00e1m: 'Then he vanished and I saw him not. And I went on headlong and met a man with a fly-whisk 4 in his hand. I said to myself, 5 \"By Heavens! this is my man.\" So I told him what I had heard of him. Then he handed me a lamp, pointed to a dark cave in the mountain and said: \"There is the cave and thou hast with thee the lamp.\"' He related: 'I entered it and behold I found my camels and they had taken the other direction, but I turned their heads and drove them back. Now, while I was in that situation in the wood, creeping stealthily through the thicket, lo! Ab\u00fa\u2019l-Fat\u1e25 al-Iskander\u00ed met me with a greeting.' I said to him: 'Sirrah! what has driven thee to this place?' He answered: 'The injustice of the days in decisions, and the non-existence of generous men.' I said: 'O Ab\u00fa\u2019l-Fat\u1e25, give then thy command.' He said: 'Bear me\non a young she-camel, and supply me with some provisions.' 1 I said: 'That is thine.' Then he recited and said:--\nThen I told him the story of the old man, whereupon he pointed to his turban and said: 'This is the fruit of his benevolence.' I exclaimed: 'O Ab\u00fa\u2019l-Fat\u1e25, hast thou begged from the devil? Thou art indeed a mighty mendicant.'\n138:3 \u2026 Brooks: Literally, little streams, from \u2026 he made it little.\n138:4 The co-partners have separated: Metre, bas\u00edt. See Ibn Qutaiba's Sh\u2018ir w\u00e1 Shu\u2018ar\u00e1, p. 9.\n\u2026 Co-partners: plural of \u2026 and \u2026 literally, a cord of twisted bark with which camels are tied.\n139:1 I will not lament over the deserted abode: Metre, basit. Ab\u00fa Nuw\u00e1s was one of the first to condemn the time-honoured prelude in the form of the erotic prologue to the qas\u00edda. Allusion has already been made in the note on Dh\u00fa al-Rumma, p. 49, to al-Farazdaq's condemnation of it.\n139:2 \u2026 Is not long enjoyed: Literally, is not enduring, from he lived with.\n139:3 \u2026 A young gazelle: That has become strong and has no need of its mother from \u2026 he became strong,\n139:4 \u2026 Girded with a girdle, an ally of the rosary and sanctification. In this line the poet seems to refer to Christianity (the girdle), Isl\u00e1m (the rosary), Judaism (\u2026) which refers to that part of the Jewish Liturgy where God's name is sanctified. Cf. War\u00e1qah's exclamation to Khad\u00edja \u2026 'Holy! Holy!' Life of Mu\u1e25ammad (W\u00fcstenfeld), p. 153.\n139:5 The piety of Shaikh Ibl\u00eds: An allusion to the piety of Ibl\u00eds per contrarium. For the use of 'Shaikh' as a title for Ibl\u00eds, see \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed, p. 144.\n140:1 \u2026 The throne of Balq\u00eds: (Queen of Sheba) See Qur\u2019\u00e1n, xxvii, 23. Bai\u1e0d\u00e1w\u00ed says this throne was made of gold and silver and crowned with precious stones. Its surface was eighty cubits square and its-height eighty cubits. Bai\u1e0d\u00e1w\u00ed\u2018, Commentary (edited by Fleischer), ii, 66.\n140:2 \u2026 The bells: Plural of \u2026 arabicized from the Syriac naqusha, an oblong piece of thick wood with several holes bored through it struck with a mallet called \u2026 rabil, used by Christians in Muslim countries instead of church bells to summon people to prayer. Hence, in the present day, applied to a bell, and particularly to the bell of a church or convent.\n140:3 \u2026 The priest: Arabicized from the Syriac qash\u00e1 a presbyter.\n140:4 \u2026 Probably \u2026 plural \u2026 a convent, monastery or cloister. From the Syriac dair\u00e1, Chaldaic. \u05d3\u05d9\u05e8\n140:5 \u2026 Ministered: The context shows that the poet has evidently used the Hebrew \u05ea\u05b7\u05e9\u05c1\u05de\u05b4\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1 from \u05e9\u05b8\u05c1\u05de\u05b7\u05e9\u05c1 to minister, the double entendre of which suits the line.\n140:6 \u2026 A priest: From the Syriac qash\u00edsh\u00e1, from gash, to be old.\nThese verses are a sample of the thinly veiled obscene allusions in which Ab\u00fa Nuw\u00e1s revelled. They are not found in the published Diw\u00e1n of this poet.\n140:7 \u2026 A libertine: The diminutive is used for aggrandizement.\n141:1 Now hear the truth: Literally, now take it.\n141:2 There is not a poet: An allusion to the popular belief that every poet was inspired by a Jinn or Satan. Cf. the twenty-seventh Maq\u00e1ma, p. 137, line 5. For a similar story, see Letters of Ab\u00fa \u2018Al\u00e1 al-Mu\u2018arr\u00ed, translated by Professor Margoliouth, p. 74 and Yaq\u00fat, vi, 122.\n141:3 Ab\u00fa M\u00farrah: Literally, the father of calamity. The most famous of the nicknames of Ibl\u00eds. Said also to have been the nickname of Pharaoh. Ibn al-Ath\u00edr, Kunya Lexicon, edited by Seybold, p. 197.\n141:4 A fly-whisk: Literally a small leathern bottle.\n141:5 \u2026 Literally, so I said.\n142:1 Supply me with some provisions: Literally, pour some water into the wood.\n142:2 My soul a ransom: Metre, k\u00e1mil.","title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t: XXXV. The Maqama of Ibl\u00eds","type":"page"}