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which was Tuesday eve, the 15th of Safar. He died in Old Cairo.-I repeatedly made researches to discover the origin of the surname Shâbushti, but all my pains were fruitless, till I found, some years afterwards, in Abû Ishak as-Sâbi's work, the Tâji (see vol. I. p. 31), that the chamberlain to the Dailamite prince Washmaguir Ibn Ziâr was called as-Shâbushti, and that he was killed, near Ispahân, A. H. 326 (A. D. 937-8). It appears therefore that this is a Dailamite name, and that it resembles a relative adjective in no other point but its form. It is possible that the kâtib Abû 'l-Husain may have been a descendant of this person, and was therefore designated by the appellation of Shâbushti, which patronymic he transmitted to his descendants.-The Washmaguir just mentioned was the father of the emir Kâbûs, whose life will be found farther on.

(1) I follow the autograph for the orthography of this name.

(2) The two Khalidites, whose names were Abû Bakr Muhammad and Abû Othmân Saad, were poets highly distinguished by Saif ad-Dawlat Ibn Hamdân, sovereign of Aleppo. Farther notice shall be taken of them in another part of this work. See also vol. I. p. 557.

IBN AL-KABISI.

Abû 'l-Hasan Ali Ibn Muhammad Ibn Khalaf al-Maâfiri al-Karawi (a member of the tribe of Maâfir, a native of Kairawân), and generally known by the appellation of Ibn al-Kâbisi (son of the native of Kâbis), was a master of high authority in the science of the Traditions, their isnâds (1), and every thing connected with them; and great reliance was placed on his veracity. He composed a work entitled al-Mulakhkhas (chosen selection), containing all those Traditions, supported by an unbroken chain of authorities, which are contained in Ibn Kâsim's edition of Mâlik's Muwatta (2). This treatise, though short, is one of the best on the subject. Ibn al-Kâbisi was born on Monday, the 7th of Rajab, A. H. 324 (June, A. D. 936); he set out for the East on Saturday, the 10th of Ramadân, A. H. 352 (October, A. D. 963), and in A. H. 353, he made the pilgrimage to Mekka, where he heard al-Bukhari's Sahih explained by Abû Zaid (3). He then re

turned to Kairawan, where he arrived on Wednesday morning, the 1st or 2nd of Shaaban, A. H. 357. This we give on the authority of Abû Abd Allah Mâlik Ibn Wuhaib (4). It is related by the hâfiz as-Silafi, in his work the Mojam asSafar (5), that a person said at an assembly presided by Ibn al-Kâbisi at Kaira“Al-Mutanabbi has expressed the following thought with no inferior

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'Our heart is required to forget thee, but nature resists the efforts of him who would change its ways.""

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On this, Ibn al-Kàbisi replied: "I pity your intelligence! what has prevented you from recollecting these words of God (where the thought is expressed much "better): 'No change (can be wrought) on what God has created; that is (a prínciple of) the right religion; but the greater part of mankind know it not (6).' Ibn al-Kabisi died on the eve of Wednesday, the 3rd of the latter Rabî, A. H. 403 470 (October, A. D. 1012), and was interred on the afternoon of the following day at Kairawân. A multitude of people passed the night at his tomb; tents were erected in the neighbourhood, and poets came forward, reciting elegies on his death. When far advanced in age, he used to repeat the following verse of azZuhair Ibn Abi Sulma's (the author of the Muallaka):

I suffer the afflictions of existence; but know that he who has lived eighty years must undergo afflictions.

-Kabisi means belonging to Kâbis, which is a city in the province of Africa, near al-Mahdiya. When it fell into the possession of Tamim Ibn al-Moizz Ibn Badis (vol. I. p. 281), Abû Muhammad, the khatib, or preacher, of Sûsa, pronounced a long kasida, which began thus:

Fortune, though called the frowning, smiled (upon thee) when the vigour of thy resolution forced Kabis to open its gates. Thou hast espoused it, a virgin fortress, and the dowry it received consisted in spears, swords, and horsemen. It was the will of God that thou shouldst gather the fruit of the tree which had been planted by thy father (7). He that presses his suit with the point of the spear obtains stately castles (8) for brides.

(1) See vol. I. Introduction, page xxii.

(2) See vol. II. page 86.

(3) The full name of this Abû Zaid is Muhammad Ibn Ahmad al-Marwazi al-Fâshâni. His life is given by Ibn Khallikân.

(4) Read, in the printed text. Abu Abd Allah Mâlik Ibn Wahib, a native of Spain and one of the vizirs in the service of Ali Ibn Yusuf Ibn Tàshifin, the emperor of Morocco, was a member of the committee of doctors appointed by that prince to examine the Mahdi Ibn Tûmart, and the only man among them who penetrated into his projects. He is the author of a work entitled Kûrâda tad-Dahab (grains of gold), containing accounts of the most despicable characters among the Arabs both before and after Islamism. This treatise, said to be very curious, was seen by the Shaikh Muhi ad-din Abd al-Wâhid in the library belonging to the Abd al-Mumin family. He remarked also a copy of Ptolemy's Almagest in the handwriting of Ibn Wahib.-(P. 183 of Abd al-Wahid al-Marrakshi's Kitab al-Mojib, MS. of the Leyden Library, Cat. No. 1798. M. Weyer has given a notice on this MS. in the Prolegomena ad ed. Ibn Abdûni, p.6.)

(5) This was probably a series of biographical notices on the doctors and other learned men with whom as-Silafi became acquainted in his travels, or from whom he took lessons.

(6) Koran; surat 30, verse 29.

(7) This is perhaps an allusion to the embellishments which Kâbis received from al-Moizz.

(8) The words here rendered stately castles signify also fair ladies dwelling in castles. In the original Arabic, the double meaning of these words helps out the metaphor.

IBN AL-KATTAA.

The philologer Abû 'l-Kàsim Ali, surnamed Ibn al-Kattâa, a member of the tribe of Saad, a Sicilian by birth, but an Egyptian by residence and death, was the son of Ali Ibn Jaafar Ibn Ali Ibn Muhammad Ibn Abd Allah Ibn al-Husain Ibn Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ziâdat Allah Ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Aghlab asSaadi Ibn Ibrahim Ibn al-Aghlab Ibn Sâlam Ibn Ikâl Ibn Khafaja Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Abbad Ibn Mahrath Ibn Saad Ibn Haràm (1) Ibn Saad Ibn Mâlik Ibn Saad Ibn Zaid Manât Ibn Tamim Ibn Murr Ibn Udd Ibn Tâbikha Ibn al-Yâs Ibn Modar Ibn Nizar Ibn Maadd Ibn Adnan (2). Such is the genealogy which I found in my own handwriting among my rough notes, but I do not know from what source I drew it, and there exists another list copied from the handwriting of Ibn al-Kattâa himself; it is as follows: Ali the son of Jaafar Ibn Ali Ibn Muhammad Ibn Abd Allah Ibn al-Husain as-Saadi as-Shantarini (belonging to Santarem), a descendant of the tribe of Saad Ibn Zaid Manât Ibn Tamîm. I am unable to say which is the more correct.-Ibn al-Kattàa held a high rank by his acquirements in literature, and especially in philology. He composed some instructive works, such as the Book of Verbs, which is admirably executed and surpasses the former work, that of Ibn al-Kûtiya (3), on the same subject. Another work of his, contain

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ing a most complete collection of the Forms of Nouns, remains a proof of his extensive information. He wrote also a good and elegant treatise on prosody; a work containing extracts from the productions of the poets who were natives of the Island (4), and entitled ad-Durra tal-Khatira (the precious pearl); and the Lumah al-Mulah, or glimpses at beauties, containing a collection of (notices on) many of the poets of Spain. He was born in Sicily on the 10th of Safar, A. H. 433 (October, A. D. 1044), and he studied the belles-lettres under the most eminent masters in that island, such as Ibn al-Barr the philologer and others. Ile acquired also a complete mastery of grammar. When Sicily was on the point of falling into the possession of the (Norman) Franks, he left the country, and in A. H. 500 (A. D. 1106-7) he arrived in Egypt, where he was received with every mark of honour. As an oral transmitter of pieces of literature preserved by tradition, he was accused of incorrectness and carelessness. In the year 446 he began to compose verses, of which the following may serve as specimens.—On a young female who had an impediment in her speech :

Behold a gazelle whose tongue is knotted, but yet undoes my knots (dissolves my forces) and weakens my fortitude. Those who knew not her worth reproached me for loving her, but I said to them: "Have you never heard of the (enchantments wrought by) "breathing on knots?" (5).

From one of his kasidas:

Consume not thy life in the pursuits of love; let not (the cruelty of) Sôda or (of) Nôm afflict thee any longer. Lament not over the ruined cottage on the edge of the desert, where Maiya (6) once resided; and shed not the drops of thy eyelids over mouldering walls (7). The true object of man's life is to obtain one necessary thing (8), but (the memory of his) culpable discourses and conduct subsists after him (9).

A great deal of poetry was composed by him. He died at Old Cairo in the month of Safar, A. H. 545 (April-May, A. D. 1121).

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(2) We have here an

instance of the utility which may sometimes be derived from the long genealogies given by Ibn Khallikân. Had he curtailed this list, we should not have known the ancestry of the Aghlabite family and the links of their genealogical chain up to Adnân.

(3) His life will be found in this volume.

(4) I do not know whether Spain or Sicily be meant by the island in this case, but it is generally the former which is so designated.

(3) An allusion to a verse of the Koran, surat 113.

(6) Sôda, Nôm, and Maiya are names of females, and occur frequently in poems.

(7) This verse is not given in the autograph.

(8) Salvation is probably meant.

(9) I omit translating the piece which follows, for motives already stated. In the second verse is a play upon the word which is a proper name, and

which signifies burning coals.

IBN HAZM AR-ZAHIRI.

Abu Muhammad Ali (generally known by the appellation of Ibn Hazm az-Zâhiri) was the son of Ahmad Ibn Said Ibn Hazm Ibn Ghâlib Ibn Sâlih Ibn Khalaf Ibn Maadan Ibn Sofyan Ibn Yazid. His ancestor Yazid was a mawla to Yazid Ibn Abi Sofyân Sakhr Ibn Harb Ibn Omaiya Ibn Abd Shams the Omaivide, and the first of the family who embraced Islamism. They were originally from Persia, and Khalaf was the first of his forefathers who went to Spain. Ibn Hazm was born in the eastern quarter of Cordova (1), on Wednesday morning, before sunrise, the 30th of Ramadân, A. H. 384 (November, A. D. 994). He was a learned hâfiz, versed in all the sciences connected with the Traditions and in their application to jurisprudence; he possessed also great skill in deducing from them and from the Koran the solution of questions touching the secondary principles of the law. He had been at first a follower of the Shafite sect, but abandoned it for that of the Zahirites (2). His knowledge was of the most varied kind, and although he, as his father before him, had held an exalted post in the vizirate and the administration of the empire, he manifested the utmost indifference to worldly advantages. His profound humility equalled the greatness of his talents; the number of works composed by him was very considerable; and, possessing a large collection of books, formed by himself, on the Traditions, traditional information, and original subjects, he had also a memory richly stocked with such information as could only be supplied by oral transmission. He composed a work on the application of the Traditions to jurisprudence, and entitled Kitab al-Isal ila fahmi Kitab il-Khisâl, etc. (guidance to the understanding of

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