{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm55.htm","path":"isl/mhm/mhm55.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mhm/mhm55.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 we were at Sariah 3 with the governor thereof there came before him a youth with the fragrance of saffron upon him. So the assembly stood up for him and, out of respect, he was seated in the chief place; but awe of him hindered me from asking him his name. Then he began and said to the governor: 'What hast thou done with yesterday's discussion, perhaps thou hast relegated it to oblivion?' 4 He said: 'God forbid! but there has hindered me from attaining to it a reason which it is impossible to explain, and one whose wounds 5 cannot be healed?' Said the intruder: 'Sirrah, the delay in the fulfilment of this promise has been long, and I shall not find thy morrow regarding it other than thy to-day, or\nthy to-day concerning it other than thy yesterday. In promise breaking, I can only compare thee to the Salix Aegyptia tree whose blossoms fill the eye, but there is no fruit there.'\nSaid \u2018\u00cds\u00e1 ibn Hish\u00e1m: When he had reached this point, 1 I cut him short and said: 'God guard thee, art thou not al-Iskander\u00ed?' He answered: 'And perpetual may thy preservation be, how excellent is thy sagacity!' Then I said: 'Welcome to the commander of speech and to the stray of the generous. 2 I have searched for it till I found it, and sought it till I obtained it.' Then we became mutually friendly till the highland attracted me and the lowland swallowed him. I ascended and he descended, and I fared eastwards and he westwards. After his departure, I said:--\n175:3 Sariah: A town in Tabaristan (Mazandaran) and the seat of the governor during the rule of the \u1e6c\u00e1hirides.\n175:4 \u2026 Oblivion: Probably an allusion to Qur\u2019\u00e1n, xix, 23.\n175:5 Whose wounds: That is, the effects of his inability to perform what he had promised.\n176:1 \u2026 This point: Literally, this place.\n176:2 \u2026 The stray of the generous--That is the stray camel of the generous to which \u2018\u00cds\u00e1 ibn Hish\u00e1m here compares al-Iskander\u00ed.\n176:3 O would that I knew of a brother: Metre, kamil.\n176:4 \u2026 May poverty not prosper: Literally, may the milk of poverty not flow copiously!","title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t: X...","type":"page"}