Page images
PDF
EPUB

Ibn Abi Usrûn was born at Mosul on Monday, the 22nd of the first Rabi, A. H. 492 (February, A. D. 1099); he died at Damascus on the eve of Tuesday, 360 the 11th of Ramadân, A. H. 585 (October, A. D. 1189). He was buried in the madrasa which bears his name and which he himself had founded within that city I have often visited his tomb. On his death (one of his female relatives) received a letter of condolence from al-Kâdi 'l-Fâdil, in reply to one wherein she announced to him this event: his participation in her grief was expressed in the following terms: "I have received the letter of the honourable lady for whose "welfare may God provide! may He preserve her for the happiness of her

[ocr errors]

family; may He smooth for her the path leading to spiritual welfare, and "make her words and actions proceed from the wish to gain his favour." It contained also this passage: "I shall only add-and what I mention is a dimi"nution in the strength of Islamism, and a breach in the frame of human "society, so great as nearly to cause its ruin!-I mean that which God decreed "concerning the death of the imâm Sharâf ad-din Ibn Abi Usrûn, may the "divine mercy be upon him!—the loss sustained in him by the world at large; "the affliction of the pious-and the joy of the foes to religion. For he was a "land-mark set up in the tracts of science, and he counted among the last rem"nants of a holy race now passed away. And God knoweth my grief for his "death, my desolation in the world now deprived of the blessing of his pre66 sence, and my sadness in losing the abundant merits of his charitable pray"ers."-Hadithi means belonging to the Haditha of Mosul, a village on the east bank of the Tigris near (the mouth of) the Upper Zâb. It must not be confounded with another place of the same name, the Haditha of an-Nûra, which is a fortress on an island in the Euphrates, at some parasangs' distance from alAnbar. The former lies at the most eastern extremity of the territory called the Sawad, and is the one meant by the jurisconsults when they say, in their books: "The land of Sawâd extends in longitude from the Haditha of Mosul to Abbâ"dân, and in latitude from al-Kâdisiya to Hulwân.”

(1) There are seven authorised readings of the Koran, named after seven great doctors who first taught them and whose lives are given by Ibn Khallikân; three more readings were afterwards admitted, and Yakub Ibn Ishak al-Hadrami, the author of one of them, is considered as the eighth reader. I have not yet been able to discover the names of the two others.

(2) Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn al-Husain al-Mazrafi, a teacher of the koranic readings and a calculator of the division of inheritances (al-Faradi), inhabited Mazrafa, a village lying between Baghdad and Okbara. He was born at Baghdad, A. H. 439 (A. D. 1047-8), and died praying, A. H. 527 (A. D. 1132).—(Tab al-Kurrâ, fol. 145.)

(3) Saad Ibn Yahya Ibn Abi 'l-Khair al-Imrâni, a native of Yemen and the author of the Bayân, or elucidation of the secondary points of the law, was a doctor of the sect of as-Shâfî, and held a high reputation for his knowledge of the law, dogmatic and scholastic theology, and the science of grammar. None possessed a better acquaintance than he with the works of Abu Ishak as-Shirâzi, and he was surpassed by none in piety and devotion. Students came from all countries to study under him; but it is said that he sometimes combined with the Shafite doctrines certain principles borrowed from the school of Irak, the great imâm of which was Abu Hanifa. He was born A. H. 489 (A. D. 1096), and died A. H 558 (A. D. 1162-3). The following works were composed by him: the Bayan, in ten volumes; the Zawald, or additions to Abû Ishak as-Shirâzi's Muhaddab, in two volumes; the Kitâb as-Sawâl, questions on the obscure points of the Muhaddab; an abridged collection of fatwas; an abridgment of al-Ghazzâli's Ihya olûm ad-din; the Intisar, or aid, a refutation of the Kadarites. He composed the Bayân in somewhat less than four years and the Zawâid in about five.— (Tab. as-Shaf.)-In the autograph MS. of Ibn Khallikân, his surname is given as Abû 'l-Husain; in the Tabakat as-Shâfiyîn, as Abû 'l-Khair; and in the Tabakât al-Fokahâ, as Abû 'l-Hasan, which is also that found in the other manuscripts of Ibn Khallikân's work.

IBN ASAAD AL-MAUSILI.

Abû 'l-Faraj Abd Allah Ibn Asaad Ibn Ali Ibn Isa, generally known by the appellation of Ibn ad-Dahhân al-Mausili (son of the Mosul oil-merchant), entitled also al-Himsi (native of Emessa) and surnamed al-Muhaddab (1), was a jurisconsult of great abilities, a learned scholar and a fine poet. His verses are remarkable for the elegance of their turn and the beauty of their thoughts. Poetry became his ruling passion, and it was to it that he owed his reputation. His poetical works are all of great merit and form a small volume. Mosul was his native place, but poverty forced him to take the resolution of going to Egypt, that he might pay his court to as-Sâlih Ibn Ruzzîk, the lord of that country (see his life, vol. 1. page 657). Obliged, by the insufficiency of his means, to leave his wife behind him, he addressed the following lines to the sharif Diâ ad-din Abû Abd Allah Zaid Ibn Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Obaid Allah al-Husaini, the nakib or chief of the sharifs at Mosul :

An afflicted female, bathed in tears for my departure, hoped to detain me by declaring my project the result of folly. Her entreaties were urgent, and when she saw me deaf to her prayers, the tears which fell from her eyes wounded me to the heart. She perceived the camels already loaded,—and the moment of separation had united the lamenters and those for whom they were lamenting,-when she said: "Who will save me from starva"tion in thy absence?"-"God," I replied, "and thy patron Ibn Obaid Allah. Fear "not for want of sustenance; there is one whose beneficence is ample, like the showers of the Pleiades; him I have asked to shed abundance upon thy place of dwelling."

66

When the sharif read these verses, he immediately undertook to provide for the poet's wife, and he furnished her with every thing she required as long as her husband was absent. As for Ibn Asaad, he went to Egypt and recited to as-Salih Ibn Ruzzik the poem composed in his praise, and rhyming in K, of which some verses have been already given (vol. I. page 658). He afterwards underwent various vicissitudes of fortune and became at length a professor at Hims (Emessa), where he fixed his residence. It was for this reason that he re- 361 ceived the surname of al-Himsi. The kutib Imâd ad-din speaks of him in the Kharida: "When I was in Irak," says he, "my constant desire was to meet him, "for I had read his admired kasîdas and was struck with the beauty of his ideas; "his poem rhyming in K had already circulated throughout all the literary "world, and was itself a written proof that none of his contemporaries had at"tained to such a degree of excellence as he." After this eulogium he continues: "A slight lisp only served to display the perfection of his style, and the very impediment in his speech only showed off better his command of lan66 guage. Farther on he says: "When the sultan Salâh ad-din arrived at “Emessa and encamped outside the city, this Abû 'l-Faraj came out to us, and "I presented him to the sultan, saying: 'This is the man who said in his poem "on Ibn Ruzzîk:

[ocr errors]

'What! shall I praise the Turks in hopes of their bounty? Why! the Turks have 'always left poetry in neglect.'

"On this the sultan made him a present, and observed at the same time that "he did so in order to prevent him at least from saying that he was neglected." The poet then celebrated the praises of the sultan in a kasîda of which each verse ends in the letter ain; it is in this poem that we find the following passage:

I shall say to her (2) whom religious scruples prevented from replying to my salutation: "Why then didst thou shed my heart's blood without feeling compunction? Thy pro

362

"mise was to meet me in the coming year; but think not that I shall survive till thy "return. Miracle of beauty! thou in whose face alone the Creator employed his utmost "care! it could not have harmed thee hadst thou given me, on the day of our separation, a sign of recognition with thy eye or with thy hand. Be assured, however, that I "love thee with devotion; so do with me as thou pleasest."

66

The katib mentions also that Ibn Asaad recited to him the following lines, and stated that the thought which they contained was perfectly original and had never before been expressed:

His letters are the destruction of squadrons; and when they go forth, I know not which is most effectual,-their lines or an army. The sand adhering to the writing had not been appropriate, did earth not adhere to the soldiers' legs when marching.

These two verses belong to a kasida, and the author has displayed in them great originality. But a certain poet has said, in comparing the pen to an army (3):

A family who, when they seize their pens in anger and dip them in the ink of fate, inflict with them on their enemies greater harm than with their swords.

I may observe that the idea expressed in Ibn Asaad's first verse resembles that which is contained in the following lines, composed by Abù Tammâm, in praise of Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Malik az-Zaiyât, al-Motasim's vizir:

Prince of the faithful! you have roused Muhammad, and in your hand he is a lance and a sword. You no sooner direct his thoughts towards a rebel, than you have directed an army against that foe.

I afterwards discovered an idea similar to that contained in Ibn Asaad's second verse; it is to be found in a kasîda composed by at-Togrâi (whose life has been given, vol. I. page 462), in honour of Nizam al-Mulk :

When the day is changed to night by the cloud of dust which shrouds the battle-field, those heroes never cease to wield their blood-stained weapons of Indian steel. Lines are traced on their armour by the strokes of the sword; those lines are pointed by the thrusts of lances; thus is formed a page of writing for which the dust of the combat serves as sand.

The following verses by Ibn Asaad are currently cited:

All day she avoids me as she would an enemy; but from evening to morning she bears me company. When she passes by me, she fears discovery and her words are reproaches; but her wanton glance is a salutation.

By the same, on a girl whose lip was stung by a bee:

How dear to me is that maiden stung by the bee! It gave pain to the noblest and most precious of beings. Its sting left a mark on that lip which God had only created to be kissed. It took her mouth for its hive, on finding that the moisture of her lips was like honey.

The apprehension of lengthening this notice too much prevents me from giving more curious passages from his poems. He died at Emessa in the month of Shaaban, A. H. 581 (November, A. D. 1185), but some say, 582: the latter date is that given in the work entitled as-Sail wa 'z-Zail (4), but the former is the true one. He was then nearly sixty years of age.—The sharif Ibn Obaid Allah, of whom we have spoken above, died at Mosul in the year 563 (A. D. 1167-8). He was a generous râis (5), always ready to do good and possessed of every virtue. He is the author of some poetry, of which we may cite the following lines:

(My enemies) said (to my beloved): "He is resigned to his loss." They spoke the truth; I am resigned to the loss of all consolation; not to the loss of her affection. They said: "Why has he ceased to visit her?" I answered: "Through fear of censorious "spies." They said: "How can he live in such a state?" I replied: "That is really "the wonder."

The katib Imâd ad-din mentions Ibn Obaid Allah in the Kharida, and, after praising him highly, he says: "When at Baghdad I heard a piece of verse sung "there which some Syrians attributed to the sharîf Dîâ ad-dîn; in it was the "following passage:

[ocr errors]

O willow of the valley! thou whose glances have shed my heart's blood!-or shall I ⚫ not rather call thee the slender reed of the plain ?—It is mine to disclose to thee what I suffer from the pains of love, and it is thine not to hearken to me. By what means

⚫ shall I obtain the object of my wishes? my hands are unable to grasp it, and I feel like ⚫ one deprived of them (6) !'"

(1) Al-Muhaddab is probably the equivalent of Muhaddab ad-din.

(2) Literally: Say to her; that is, bear this message from me to her.

(3) The observations which follow are evidently later additions. They are written in the margin of the autograph MS. and it may be perceived from a close inspection, that they were inserted successively and at three different periods. It may even be remarked that many of the author's later additions, such as these, are of very slight importance.

(4) This is a mistake, but it is found in all the manuscripts, the autograph included. Ibn Khallikân should

« PreviousContinue »