{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm59.htm","path":"isl/mhm/mhm59.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mhm/mhm59.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: Bishr ibn \u2018Aw\u00e1nah, the \u2018Abd\u00edte, was a robber, and he made a raid upon some riders on camels among whom was a beautiful woman whom he married. And he said: 'I have never seen the like of to-day.' 4 So she recited:--\nSaid Bishr: 'Fie on thee! 1 Whom dost thou mean?' She replied: 'Thy paternal uncle's daughter, F\u00e1tima.' He asked: 'Is she as beautiful as thou hast described?' She answered: 'More so, and much more so.' Then he recited saying:--\nSo she said:--\nThen he sent to his uncle asking for his daughter in marriage, but the uncle denied him his request. 5 Therefore he swore not to show any of them any consideration, if he would not marry his daughter to him. So he inflicted many injuries upon them, and continuously vexed them. Therefore the men of the tribe assembled before his uncle and said: 'Save us from thy madman.' He replied: 'Clothe me not with infamy, 6 but respite me that I may destroy him by stratagem.' They said: 'Do so.' Then his uncle said to him: 'I have sworn not to marry this my\ndaughter, save to him who will drive to her a thousand she-camels as a dowry, and I will be satisfied with none but the she-camels of the Khuz\u00e1\u2018ah.' 1 Now the object of the uncle was that Bishr should traverse the road between him and the Khuz\u00e1\u2018ah so that a lion might tear him to pieces; for the Arabs used to avoid that way in which there was a lion named Dadh and a serpent called Shuja\u2018. One of them says concerning her\nThen did Bishr travel that road, but he had not traversed half of it when he met the lion. His colt reared and beat the ground with its hind-feet. So he alighted and hamstrung it. Then he drew his sword on the lion, attacked it and cut it in two, breadthwise. Then he wrote with the blood of the lion on his shirt to his cousin:--\nNow, when these lines reached his uncle, he repented of his forbidding him to marry her, and he feared lest the serpent might suddenly attack him. So he arose, went in his track, and came up with him when the fierceness of the serpent had taken possession of him, but, when he saw his uncle, rage of the days of savagery 1 seized him, so that he put his hand into the serpent's mouth, thrust his sword into her and said:--\nNow when he had slain the serpent, his uncle said: 'Verily I exposed thee to danger in a matter from which God hath diverted me. So return, that I may marry thee to my daughter.' Now when he turned back, Bishr filled his mouth with boasting, until there appeared on his horse a beardless youth, like unto the crescent moon, enveloped in his weapons. So he said: 'O Uncle, I hear the sound of a quarry.' And he went forth and behold, a spear's length off, a young man who said: 'May thy mother be bereft of thee! O Bishr, if thou hast slain a worm and a beast, dost thou fill thy jaws with boasting? Thou art safe if thou\nsurrender thy uncle.' Said Bishr: 'Perish thy mother! Who art thou?' He answered: 'The black day and the red death.' 1 Said Bishr: 'May she, who excreted thee, be bereft of thee.' He retorted: 'O Bishr and she that excreted thee.' Then each one attacked the other, but Bishr could do nothing to him, while the youth was able to inflict upon him twenty thrusts in the region of the kidneys, 2 but, as often as the point of the spear touched him, he prevented it from wounding his body, in order to spare him. He said: 'O Bishr, what thinkest thou? Could I not, if I wished, have given thee as food to the point of the spear?' 3\nHe then threw down the spear, drew his sword, and struck Bishr twenty blows with the flat of the blade, but Bishr could not deal him one. Then he said: 'O Bishr, surrender thy uncle and go in safety.' He replied: 'Yes, on condition that thou tell me who thou art.' He said: 'I am thy son.' He 4 exclaimed: 'Good gracious! I have never approached a worthy woman, whence then this gift?' He answered: 'I am the son of the woman who directed thee to thy uncle's daughter.' Then said Bishr:--\nAnd he swore never to ride a noble steed or wed a fair lady. Then he married his uncle's daughter to his son.\n185:4 I have never seen the like of to-day: Cf. the saying (1) of al-Farazdaq, Ibn Qutaiba, Sh\u2018ir wa Shu\u2018ar\u00e1, p. 49, and (2) of \u2018Amr ibn-Hind, when he heard \u2018Amr ibn K\u00falth\u00fam recite his qa\u1e63ida, Mu\u2018allaq\u00e1t, (edition by Lyall), p. 107.\n185:5 The intense blackness in my eye: Metre, rejez.\n185:6 That walk on two feet: Cf. Qur\u2019\u00e1n, xxiv, 44.\n185:7 The morning would manifest itself to the possessor of two eyes: Cf. a similar phrase quoted by Lane, p. 2647. Art. v., \u2026.\n186:1 Fie on thee! Metre, rejez,\n186:2 So sing and lay thine eggs: A variation of \u1e6carafa's line. See Freytag, Arab Proverbs, i, 432.\n186:3 Many a wooer: Metre, rejez.\n186:4 \u2026 Closely related: That is, his first cousin.\n186:5 The uncle denied him his request: Cf. Agh\u00e1n\u00ed, xii, 10. This refusal was a breach of Bedaw\u00edn law 'which acknowledges a right in first cousins to the hands of marriageable daughters. At the present day the consent of all first cousins on the father's side must be obtained to a girl's marriage with a stranger.' Blunt's translation of the romance, The Stealing of the Mare, pp. 8 and 122.\n186:6 \u2026 Clothe me not with infamy: By asking him to save them from his madman because (1) he was unable to put a stop to his ravages by force, and (2) if he were now to give his consent to the marriage, he would expose himself to the charge of having submitted to force majeure himself.\n187:1 Khuz\u00e1\u2018ah: The name of an Arab tribe.\n187:2 Swifter to slay than Dadh: Metre, rejez.\n187:3 \u2026 Dadh: According to Dozy the people of North-West Africa call the white chameleon \u2026, The unique dadh.\n187:4 \u2026 O F\u00e1\u1e6dima: Metre, wafer. An example of apocopation. These verses are attributed to \u2018Amr ibn M\u2018ad\u00ed Kariba, but the commentator considers it merely a coincidence of ideas and that the lines refer to two distinct episodes. See Hamasa, i, 73. Cf. al-Was\u00e1\u1e6da, pp. 109-111.\n187:5 Khabt: There are four places of this name: (1) the desert of al-Jam\u00edsh, between Mecca and Mad\u00edna. (2) The oases of Kalb. (3) Bazw\u00e1, between Mecca and Mad\u00edna. (4) A village in Yemen. Yaq\u00fat, ii, 397.\n187:6 \u2026 (fierce sturdy) lion: According to Dozy it is the name of an animal which resembles the wild cat found in Abyssinia.\n187:7 \u2026 He advanced proudly: Literally, he played the lion (\u2026). Freytag says the word also means an obsequious camel. Cf. \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed, p. 376, line 5.\n188:1 \u2026 To him: That is, to the lion.\n188:2 Kaz\u0324ima: A desert in the direction of the coast between Ba\u1e63ra and Ba\u1e25rein.\n188:3 It is to me a hard thing: Cf. Letters, p. 80.\n189:1 \u2026 The days of savagery: Generally called the 'Days of the Ignorance,' or period of paganism, in Arabia before Isl\u00e1m.\n189:2 A Bishr, whose ambition: Metre, rejez.\n190:1 \u2026 Red death: Death by the sword.\n190:2 In the region of the kidneys: Literally, in his kidneys.\n190:3 \u2026 The point of the spear: Literally, the fangs of the spear.\n190:4 \u2026 He (Bishr) exclaimed.\n190:5 \u2026 That staff is from this stave: Metre, rejez. Freytag, Arab Proverbs, i, 17 and Meid\u00e1n\u00ed (Bulak), i, 12. Al-\u2018As\u00e1 is said to have been the name of a famous horse belonging to Jadhima\u2019l-Abrash and 'Au\u1e63ayyah' that of its mother. See Journal Asiatique, Mars, 1838, pp. 245-51. Cf. English, 'A chip of the old block'.\n190:6 Does the serpent bring forth other than the serpent: Cf. Letters, p. 165.","title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t: L...","type":"page"}