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"ditions relative to the Prophet, expelled those which were false; and Abû Obaid “al-Kâsim Ibn Sallâm, who explained the obscure terms of the Traditions, and "had he not done so, the people had rushed into error."-Abû Bakr Ibn al-Anbàri (9) said: “Abû Obaid divided the night in three parts, one of them for prayer, "one for sleep, and one for the composition of his works."—" Abû Obaid," said Ishak Ibn Râhwaih (vol. I. p. 180), surpasses us all in science, in philological "knowledge, and in the mass of information which he has collected; we stand in "need of Abû Obaid, and he standeth not in need of us." Thâlab (v. I. p. 83) declared that if Abû Obaid had been (born) among the children of Israel, he would have been the admiration of his people. Abû Obaid always wore his hair and beard dyed red with hinna (10), and he had a dignified and venerable aspect. On arriving at Baghdad he read his works to the public, after which, in the year 222 (A. D. 837) or 223, he set out to perform the pilgrimage, and having fulfilled that duty, he died at Mekka, or, according to another statement, at Medina. Al-Bukhari (11) places his death in the year 224, and another author adds, in the month of Muharram. The Khatib (vol. I. p. 75) says, in his History of Baghdad, that Abû Obaid died at the age of sixty-seven years; the hâfiz Ibn alJauzi (vol. II. p. 96) refers his birth to the year 150 (A. D. 767-8), and Abû Bakr az-Zubaidi (12) states, in his Kitâb at-Takrit, that he was born A. H. 154.—It is related that, when Abû Obaid had accomplished the pilgrimage and hired (camels) to take him back to Iråk, he had a dream on the night preceding his intended departure, and, in this dream, he saw the Prophet sitting, with persons standing near him to keep off the crowd; whilst a number of persons went in and saluted him and placed their hands in his. "As often as I tried to enter," said Abu Obaid, "the ushers kept me back, and I spoke to them, saying: 'Why will you "not leave the way free between me and the Apostle of God?' to which they "answered: 'No, by Allah! thou shalt not enter, neither shalt thou salute him, "because thou intendest to go hence to-morrow for Irak.' On this I replied: 586" In that case, I shall not depart.' They then took my engagement to

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"that effect and allowed me to approach the Prophet; and I went in and "saluted him, and he took me by the hand. The next morning, I broke off my 'bargain for the hire of the camels, and took up my abode at Mekka.' He continued to inhabit this city till his death, and he was interred in the quarter called Duar Jaafar. Some say that he had this dream at

Medina, and that he died three days after the departure of the pilgrims. He was born at Herât.-Tarasûs (Tarsus) is a city on the coast of Syria, near as-Sis and al-Missisa (vol. I. p. 112). It was (re-)built by al-Mahdi, the son of al-Mansûr, A. H. 168 (A. D. 784-5), according to Ibn al-Jazzâr (vol. I. p. 672), in his History.-Besides the works above-mentioned, Abû Obaid composed treatises on the words which terminate in a long or in a short elif, on the Korân-readings, and on the genders; the book entitled Kitab an-Nisab (book of genealogies), the Kitâb al-Ahdâth (book of accidents) (13), the Adab al-Kâdi (duties of a kâdi), on the number of verses contained in the Korân, on Faith, on Vows, de Menstruis, the Kitab al-Amwâl (liber opum), etc.

(1) See vol. I. page 183, note (3).

(2) The lives of Abû Obaida and Ibn al-Aarâbi will be found in this work.

(3) The life of Yahya Ibn Ziâd al-Farrâ is given by Ibn Khallikân.

(4) In the Introduction to the first volume, page xxv, note (1), I risked two conjectures on the meaning of the word musannaf. We here find Abû Obaid presenting his Gharib al-Musannaf to Abd Allah Ibn Tâhir, and Ibn Khallikân has just stated, that a number of this doctor's kutub musannifa were taught by oral transmission. From this it would appear that my first conjecture is untenable. I therefore conclude that the kutub musannafa were original works, and that the kutub were mere compilations of traditional information.

(3) About two hundred and sixty pounds sterling. A large monthly pension, if the statement be true. (6) This may perhaps be the same person as Muhammad Ibn Wahb, a celebrated devotee and a disciple of al-Junaid, whose death is placed by the author of the Mirat (MS. No. 640, fol. 211) in A. H. 271 (A.D. 884-5). (7) I find in ad-Dahabi's Târîkh al-Islâm, year 337, that Hilâl Ibn al-Alâ was one of the masters of Ishak Ibn Ibrahim al-Jurjâni, a hafiz who died in that year.

(8) His life will be found in this work.

(9) The life of Ibn al-Anbâri is given by our author.

(10) See vol. I. page 46, note (3).

(11) His life is given in this work.

(12) His life will be found in this work.

(13) This seems to have been a treatise on the pollutions and other accidents which invalidate prayer. Every work on Moslim law contains a chapter on this subject.

VOL. II.

62

ABU 'L-KASIM AL-HARIRI.

Abû Muhammad al-Kàsim Ibn Ali Ibn Muhammad Ibn Othman al-Harìri alBasri (native of Basra) al-Harami, the author of the Makâmât (stations), was one of the ablest writers of his time, and obtained the most complete success in the composition of his Makamas, wherein is contained a large portion of the language spoken by the Arabs of the desert, such as its idioms, its proverbs, and its subtle delicacies of expression. Any person who acquires a sufficient acquaintance with this book to understand it rightly, will be led to acknowledge the eminent merit of this man, his extensive information and his vast abilities. The circumstance which induced him to compose it is thus related by his son, Abû 'l-Kàsim Abd Allah (1): "My father was sitting in his mosque, (situated) in the (street of "Basra called) Banou Haràm, when in came an elderly man dressed in tattered "clothes (2), carrying the implements of travel (3), and miserable in his appear

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ance, who spoke with great purity and expressed himself with elegance. The "assembly asked him whence he came, and he replied: from Sarùj; they then "desired to know his name, and he answered: Abû Zaid. In consequence of

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says:

"And

this, my father composed the Makama called al-Harâmiya, now the forty-eighth "of the collection, and gave it under the name of this Abû Zaid. It then got "into circulation, and its existence came to the knowledge of Sharaf ad-din Abù "Nasr Anushrewân Ibn Khâlid Ibn Muhammad al-Kâshâni, the vizir of the "imâm khalif) al-Mustarshid billah; and he, having read it, was so highly pleased, that he advised my father to add some more to it. My father "therefore completed his work in fifty Makamas."-It is to this vizir that he alludes in the passage of his introduction to the Makamas, wherein he "one whose advice is an order, and whom all are eager to obey (4), recom"mended me to compose some Makamas in the style of Badi az-Zaman's (5); "yet (I knew that) the foundered steed could never come up to the point which "the sound one had already reached."—I found the circumstance thus related in a number of historical works (6), but I have since met at Cairo, in the year 656 (A. D. 1258), with a copy of the Makamas, the whole of it in the handwriting of the author al-Harîri, and I found written on the cover in his own hand also, that he had composed the work for the vizir Jamâl ad-din Amid ad-Dawlat Abû Ali

al-Hasan Ibn Abi 'l-Izz Ali Ibn Sadaka.

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Jamâl ad-din also was one of al-Mustarschid's vizirs, and there can be no doubt that this statement is more exact than the former, since it is the author himself who makes it. The vizir Jamâl ad-din died in the month of Rajab, A. H. 522 (July, A. D. 1128).—Such was alHariri's motive for putting the Makâmas under the name of Abû Zaid as-Sarûji (7). It is stated by al-Kâdi 'l-Akram Jamâl ad-din Abû 'l-Hasan Ali Ibn Yûsuf as-Shaibâni al-Kifti, the vizir of Aleppo (8), in his work entitled Anba ar-Ruwât fi Abnd in-Nuhât relations of historical traditionists concerning the sons of grammarians), that the real name of the person designated as Abû Zaid was al-Mutahhar Ibn Salàm (9), "who was," says he, "a native of Basra, a grammarian, and a pupil of al-Hariri, under whom he studied in that city, and by "whose lessons he attained proficiency: he was licensed also by al-Hariri to teach orally some pieces of traditional literature which he had communicated to ❝ him. The kadi Abu 'l-Fath Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn al-Mandài al-Wàsiti taught al-Hariri's Mulha tal-Irab with the authorisation of Abû Zaid, and he "mentioned that he had learned it from him as he had learned it from the au"thor. He came to us at Wàsit in the year 538, and we learned that work from 387 "his lips. He then went up to Baghdad and died there after a short residence(10).” Such also is the statement made by as-Samâni in his Zail (supplement) (v.II. p.157), and by Imad ad-din in the Kharida. -The latter adds: "His honorary title was “Fakhr ad-din; he exercised the Sadriya (magistracy) (11) at al-Mashàn and "died there subsequently to the year 540 (A. D. 1145-6)."-" In choosing the "name of Harith the son of Hammam for the person who is supposed to relate the “Makâmas, al-Hariri meant to designate himself." So I have found it written "in some commentaries on that work; and the name itself is taken from the saying of Muhammad: "Every one of you is a hârith and every one of you is a hammâm,” wherein hârith means a gainer, and hammâm, one who has many cares; and there is no person but is hârith and hammâm, because every one is employed in gaining his livelihood and is solicitous about his affairs. A great number of persons have commented the Makamas, some in long, and others in short, treatises.-I read in a certain compilation that, when al-Hariri had composed his Makâmas, which were at first only forty in number, he left Basra and went with the work to Baghdad, where he gave it as his own production. But a number of the literary men of that city refused to believe him, and they declared that it was not he who composed it, but

a native of Maghrib, an elegant writer, who died at Basra and whose papers alHariri had appropriated. The vizir therefore called al-Hariri before the diuân, or council, and asked him his profession; to which he replied that he was a mûnshi (12). The vizir then required him to compose an epistle on a subject which he indicated, and al-Hariri retired, with ink and paper, into a corner of the diwan, where he remained a long time without being favoured with any inspiration on the subject. He at length rose up and withdrew in confusion (13). Among the persons who denied al-Hariri's claim to the composition of the Makamas was the poet Abû 'l-Kâsim Ali Ibn Aflah (vol. II. p. 324); and he, on this occasion, made the two following verses, which are, however, attributed by others to Abù Muhammad Ibn Ahmad al-Harimi, surnamed Ibn Jakina (14), a native of Baghdad and a celebrated poet :

We have a shaikh, sprung from Rabîa tal-Faras, who now plucks his beard through frenzy. May God send him back to prate at al-Mashân (15), as he already struck him dumb in the diwân.

It must be here observed that al-Hariri pretended to draw his origin from Rabia tal-Faras (16), that he had a custom of plucking his beard when absorbed in thought, and that he inhabited al-Mashân in the neighbourhood of Basra.— Having returned to his native town, al-Hariri composed ten more Makâmas, and sent them (to Baghdad), attributing, at the same time, the embarrassment and inability which he manifested in the diwân to the awful respect with which he had been overcome.—Al-Hariri has left some (other) fine works; such are the Durra tal-Ghawwâs fi auhâm il-Khawâss (the pearl of the diver, being a treatise on the mistakes committed by persons of rank [in speaking Arabic]) (17); the Mulha tal-Irâb (elegancies of grammar) (18), a treatise in verse which he afterwards explained in a commentary; a diwân, or collection of epistles, and a great number of poeticalpieces besides those contained in his Makamas. One of them offers a very fine thought and merits insertion (19). The following verses are given as his by Imâd ad-din, in the Kharida :

How many (were) the gazelles at Hajir (20) which fascinated with their eyes! How many the noble minds struck with amazement by fair maidens ! How often did the graceful movements of a nymph, advancing with a stately gait, excite an ardent passion in (my) bosom! How many were the pretty cheeks whose aspect induced the censurer (of my foolish love) to excuse me! How many pains combined to afflict my heart, when the ringlets of her I loved were unveiled and disclosed to sight!

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