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the same opinions; but the assembly thought him too young, and suborned a person to come forward and ask him the definition of drunkenness, and in what state a man should be, so as to be considered drunk. The reply which Abû Bakr made, was: "When his cares are dispelled, and he reveals the secret "which he had kept hidden." They all approved of his answer, and acknowledged the high rank he had attained in learning. In his early youth, he composed a work entitled az-Zuhara (the planet Venus), and containing a great quantity of curious anecdotes and novel information on literary subjects, with some charming pieces of verse. He was one day holding a discussion on the subject of ila (2), with Abû 'l-Abbas Ibn Suraij, in the presence of the vizir Ibn al-Jarrâh (vol. I. p. 25), and his adversary said to him: "When you first pronounced "this verse of yours: He that looks often (at a female) shall sigh often, you displayed more intelligence than you do when you discourse about ila." To this Abu Bakr replied: "If I pronounced that verse, I can also pronounce

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"these :

I permit my eye to roam through the garden of beauty, but I hinder my soul from committing ought unlawful; and I take upon myself such a burden of love, as would break by its weight the solid rock itself. My eye interprets the sentiments of my heart, and, did I not adroitly recall my glances, they would speak aloud. I have seen that all are subject to love, but I see no lover woundless and unscathed.

On hearing these lines, Ibn Juraij said: "In what point do you think to "outdo me? If I pleased, I also could say:

(The fair slave) (3) was still awake; her eyes shot wanton glances, and I passed the night in repelling from her the approach of balmy sleep; so highly did I prize her sweet discourse and her reproaches; whilst I turned frequent glances towards her cheeks. So passed the night; and when the rays of morn appeared, she retired, bearing off the seal of her master and the written deed by which he set her free.

Here Abu Bakr exclaimed: "Let the vizir bear these words in mind, so that "the slave may produce (if necessary) two creditable witnesses to the effect of "her receiving the seal of her master!" To this Ibn Suraij replied: “In that "case I shall incur the same penalty as you have done when you said: I permit my eyes to rove through the gardens of beauty, but I hinder my soul from committing "aught unlawful." Here the vizir laughed and said: "You both possess wit

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"and finesse, and intelligence and learning."-In a collection of various pieces, I found the following verses attributed to Ibn Dâwûd :

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Every man has a guest to rejoice him by his presence, but I have no other guests than sorrows and care. (She whom I love) has eyes which shoot arrows into our hearts, and wound deeper than the redoubled stroke of the sword. My beloved asked me how I supported her absence? and I replied: "Was it possible to support it at all, that you now ask me how I did support it?"

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Abu Bakr Abd Allah Ibn Abi 'd-Dunya (4) relates as follows: "I was present "at one of Ibn Dawûd's assemblies, when a man went up to him and handed him a paper. Ibn Dawud took it and reflected over it for a long time, whilst his "pupils imagined that it was a question on a point of law to which an answer was requested. He then wrote some words on the back of the paper, and "returned it to the man whom we recognised to be the celebrated poet Ibn "ar-Rumi (vol. II. p. 297). The paper contained these words:

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"O son of Dawud! O doctor of Iråk! give us your opinion on the eyes whose glances "slay us. Can they be punished for the wounds which they inflict, or may they shed "with impunity the heart's blood of lovers?

"Here was the answer :

"How can he give you an opinion who has been slain and prostrated by the darts " of separation and desire? The son of Dawûd opineth that death produced by meet❝ing the beloved is less painful than death caused by separating from her."

Ibn Dâwûd was deeply learned in jurisprudence. He left a great number of works, such as the Kitab al-Wasûl ila Mârifa til-Usûl (the mode of acquiring a knowledge of the fundamentals of jurisprudence); the Kitâb al-Inzâr (book of admonition); the Kitab al-Aazar (book of excuses); the Kitâb al-Intisûr, etc. (defence [of the truth] against Muhammad Ibn Jarir and Abd Allah Ibn Shirshir and Isa Ibn Ibrahim adDarir) (5), etc. He died on Monday, the 9th of Ramadàn, A. H. 297 (May, A.D. 910), at the age of forty-two years; some say, erroneously however, that his death took place in the year 296. The kâdi Yûsuf Ibn Yâkûb died on the same day. It is related that, when Ibn Suraij received intelligence of the death of Ibn Dawûd, he threw away the leaves of the volume which he was then writing

out, and said: "The man is dead who gave me the most powerful motives to "study, for I desired to hold discussions with him and maintain them with "ability."

(1) See vol. I. page 502, note (1).

(2) In Moslim jurisprudence the term ila is employed to designate the oath made by a husband not to have intercourse with his wife. The fulfilment of this oath during four months effects a divorce. See d'Ohsson's Tab. Gén. de l'Emp. Othom., tom. V. p. 216.

(3) I must observe that in this piece I have substituted the feminine pronouns for the masculine. (4) See vol. I. page 531, note (2).

(5) For Muhammad Ibn Jarir, see page 597 of this volume; for Ibn Shirshir, see same vol. p. 57.

ABU BAKR AT-TORTUSHI.

Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn al-Walid Ibn Muhammad Ibn Khalaf Ibn Sulaiman Ibn Aiyûb al-Kurashi al-Fihri (descended from Fihr, the progenitor of the Koraish family) al-Andalusi at-Tortûshi (native of Tortosa in Spain), and generally known by the surname of Ibn Abi Randaka, was a doctor of the Malikite sect, noted for self-mortification. He studied under Abû 'l-Walid al-Bâji (vol. I. p. 593), at Saragossa, and learned from him the solution of the objections (made to the doctrines of Mâlik); he heard him also teach Traditions, and obtained from him a certificate authorising him to teach in his turn. He studied also, in his native place, the science of arithmetic and the art of calculating inheritance shares. In Seville he cultivated the belles lettres under Abû Muhammad Ibn Hazm (vol. II. p. 267). Having set out for the East in the year 476 (A. D. 1083-4), he made the pilgrimage and visited Baghdad and Basra. He studied jurisprudence under Muhammad Ibn Ahmad as-Shâshi, surnamed al-Mustazhiri (vol. II. p. 625), the Shafite doctor, and under Abû ('l-Abbâs) Ahmad al-Jurjâni (vol. I. p. 272) (1). He resided for some time in Syria, and gave lessons in that country. His character was that of a learned imâm and devout ascetic, pious, humble, practising self-mortification, leading a life of poverty and content with little. He used to say: "When two advantages are offered to you,

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one of them worldly and the other spiritual; seize on the latter, and you will "obtain them both." He often recited the following lines:

God possesses intelligent servants who have renounced the world through fear of temptation. When they considered it and discovered that it was not a fit abode for the living, they took it for an ocean and made of their good works a ship.

Having gone to see al-Afdal Shahanshah (vol. I. p. 612), he spread on the floor a cloak which he had brought with him, and having sat down, he addressed an exhortation to that emir which drew tears from his eyes. He then said:

O thou whom it is a pious act to obey, and whose rights all are bound to acknowledge! (Muhammad,) he for whose sake thou hast been exalted, is considered by that man as a liar.

He here pointed to a Christian who was seated at al-Afdal's side, and the emir immediately ordered the man away. Al-Afdal had confined at-Tortûshi in the mosque of Shakik al-Mulk, near the observatory (2), and, as this doctor grew fatigued of staying there, he at length said to his servant: "How long must we "suffer with patience? go and collect for me some of the (food) left out for the

use (of the poor)." The servant gathered him food, and he eat thereof for three days; then, towards the hour of evening prayer, he said to his attendant: “I have 672 “hit him now!" and, the very next morning, al-Afdal was assassinated whilst riding out. On the death of this emir, the government of the country devolved to al-Mâmûn al-Batâihi (vol. II. p. 427), and this vizir treated our shaikh with the utmost respect. It was for him that at-Tortùshi composed his work called Sirâj al-Huda (flambeau of guidance), a very good treatise of its kind. He is also the author of the Siraj al-Mulûk (flambeau for princes), a Tarika, or system of controversy, and other treatises. I met with some poetry attributed to him, the following piece, for instance, which has been also inserted by the hâfiz Zaki ad-din Abd al-Azim al-Mundiri (vol. I. p. 89) in his biographical notice of atTortúshi:

When you wish to advance an affair for the success of which you are anxious, let your messenger be blind, deceitful, deaf and dumb-spare every other messenger, and employ that one which is called money.

In the life of the philologer Abû 'l-Husain Ahmad Ibn Fàris (vol. I. p. 101),

will be found two verses containing nearly the same expressions.

"I was one

night sleeping in the Holy Temple (at Jerusalem)," says at-Tortûshi, "when, "towards the hour of midnight, I heard a melancholy voice recite these lines:

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Can fear (of God) and sleep exist together? how strange! beshrew thee for a heart; thou art a liar! I swear by the might of God that, if thou wast true, no portion of thee would ever yield to slumber.

"These words awoke all the sleepers, and brought tears into every eye.” At-Tortûshi was born in or about the year 451 (A. D. 1059-60), and he died on the last third of the night preceding Saturday, the 26th of the first Jumâda, A. H. 520 (June, A. D. 1126). Ibn Bashkuwâl (vol. I. p. 491) says, in his Silat, that he died in the month of Shaaban of that year, at Alexandria; the funeral prayer was said over him by his son Muhammad, and he was interred in the Wâla cemetery, near the New Tower (el-Burj el-Djadîd), and to the south of the Green Gate (al-Bab al-Akhdar).—Tortûshi means belonging to Tortûsha (Tortosa), a maritime city situated at the eastern extremity of the territory possessed by the Moslims in Spain.-Randaka is a Frankish word; I asked a Frank the meaning of it, and he answered radd taâl (3).—We have already spoken of the Wâla cemetery in the life of hâfiz as-Salafi (vol. I. p. 88).

(1) All the MSS. have omitted the word. I adopt it on the authority of al-Yafi, who has copied the entire passage, in the notice given by him on at-Tortûshi in the Mirât. See MSS. No. 644, year 520. 2) For al-Makrizi's description of the observatory of Cairo, see Notices et Extraits, t. VII, p. 20. (3) The words Radd taâl mean render, come hither, and may be held as equivalent to the Spanish words renda-se aca, which Ibn Khallikân and his Frank seem to have considered as the original whence Randaka, or Rendaqué according to the Moorish pronunciation, was formed.

ABU 'L-HUDAIL AL-ALLAF.

Abu 'l-Hudail Muhammad Ibn Hudail Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Mak'hûl al-Abdi, generally known by the surname of al-Allaf al-Mutakallim (the forage-man, the

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