{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm56.htm","path":"isl/mhm/mhm56.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mhm/mhm56.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 was appointed to the governorship of a province in Syria. There arrived there Sa'd ibn Badr 5 of the tribe of Faz\u00e1ra, and he was made waz\u00edr. A\u1e25mad ibn Wal\u00edd 6 was placed over the postal department,\n[paragraph continues] Khalaf ibn S\u00e1lim 1 was posted to the court of appeal, one of the Ban\u00fa Thow\u00e1ba 2 was appointed to the secretariat, and the assessment office was given to a Syrian. Therefore the country became the delight of the intellectuals and their alighting-place. And they ceased not to arrive, one after the other, until they filled the eyes of the townsfolk and oppressed their minds. And among those that came, there arrived Ab\u00fa\u2019l-Nad\u00e1, the Tem\u00edmite, 3 but eyes rested not upon him and hearts were not sincere towards him.\nOne day he came into my presence, and I appreciated him at his true worth, I seated him in the chief place of the assembly and I said: 'What hope has the Master in life and how does he find his affairs?' He looked right and left and then he said: Between loss and meanness, between baseness and contempt, and a people like donkey's dung. Prosperity smells them 4 but they are evil-smelling. They are treated with kindness, but show none, By Heavens! I have come to find them to be a people who resemble human beings only in head and dress.' And he began to recite:\n176:5 Sa\u2018d ibn Badr. The Faz\u00e1rite; I have not been able to identify this individual with any of the important persons of this tribe mentioned in the Ans\u00e1b of al-Sam\u2018\u00e1n\u00ed, pp. 427-8.\n176:6 A\u1e25mad ibn al-Wal\u00edd: I have not been able to identify this person and the name is probably fictitious.\n177:1 Khalaf ibn S\u00e1lim: This name is probably fictitious.\n177:2 Ban\u00fa Thow\u00e1ba: The name of a family, originally Christians, not of a tribe as stated by the commentator, distinguished as official writers or secretaries of state. The most accomplished member of the family was Ab\u00fa \u2018Abd All\u00e1h ibn A\u1e25mad ibn Thow\u00e1ba, secretary to the Khal\u00edfa Mu\u2018ta\u1e0did (A.H. 279-89). See Fehrist, p. 130.\n177:3 Ab\u00fa\u2019l-Nad\u00e1, the Tem\u00edmite: This is probably another fictitious name. There is no trace of any such person in the Ansab of al-Sam\u2018\u00e1n\u00ed, p. 109.\n177:4 \u2026 It smells them: The commentator says it means 'to regard with favour or consideration.' It seems to signify to test by experiment which, perhaps, by an extension of meaning, may be said to connote to pay attention to, to take notice of and the like.\n177:5 O land of Sijist\u00e1n: Metre, wafir.\n177:6 Still who will compensate me for what has perished of it (time), And for the life which cannot be restored: That is, what will make up for the time I have p. 178 lost, when absent, and for that portion of my life spent away from Sijist\u00e1n, which cannot be recalled? This is a somewhat obscure passage and the commentator has understood it to refer to the death of the ruler, Khalaf ibn A\u1e25mad, but this cannot be as Khalaf died in A.H. 399 the year following the death of al-Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed 398). It is evident this maq\u00e1ma was composed before A.H. 393, the year in which Sijist\u00e1n was wrested from Khalaf by Ma\u1e25m\u00fad of Ghazna. See note on page 148, supra. Cf. the following parallel lines by \u2018Ali \u1e24usain, Governor of Ahwaz, brother of Sharaf al-Daula imprisoned and put to death by his uncle in A.H. 375.","title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t: XLVIII. Maqama of Tam\u00edn","type":"page"}