me to write Obaid Allah in the Arabic text corresponding to the present passage: but Abd Allah is the true reading in both places, not Obaid Allah. (14) Obaid Allah Ibn Kais Ibn Shuraih Ibn Mâlik Ibn Rabia al-Aâmiri, a native of Hijâz and a celebrated poet, composed verses in honour of Musâb Ibn az-Zubair and Abd al-Malik Ibn Marwân. He was surnamed ar-Rukaiyat, because he sung in some of his pieces the charms of three females, each of whom bore the name of Rukaiya.-(See Suyûti's Sharh Shawahid al-Moghni, MSS. No. 1238, fol. 33.) 66 (15) We read however as follows in Ibn Shâkir's Oyûn at-Tawarikh, vol. III. fol. 4: "A. H. 80 (A. D. 699-700). In this year died Talha Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Khalaf, one of the persons renowned for their gene"rosity, and the most liberal man of all the inhabitants of Basra. Al-Asmâi says: Those noted for their beneficence were Talha Ibn Obaid Allah at-Tamimi, surnamed al-Khair (the good); Talha Ibn Amr Ibn "Abd Allah Ibn Mâmar, surnamed al-Jûd (liberality); Talha Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Auf Ibn Akhi Abd ir'Rahman Ibn Auf, surnamed an-Nida (abundant gifts); Talha Ibn al-Hasan Ibn Ali, surnamed al-Faiyad (overflowing with generosity), and Talha Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Khalaf, surnamed Talhat at-Talhat (the Talha of the Talhas), who, in generosity, surpassed them all.'' 66 66 6 66 6 ABU 'L-AMAITHAL. The katib Abû 'l-Amaithal Abd Allah Ibn Khulaid was a mawla to Jaafar Ibn Sulaiman Ibn Ali Ibn Abd Allah Ibn al-Abbas Ibn Abd al-Muttalib, and came, it is said, of a family which inhabited Rai (in Persian Irak). In his style he affected pompous expressions and the use of uncommon terms (1). He was employed as a secretary by Tâhir (Ibn al-Husain al-Khuzûi), and was afterwards at-370 tached in the same capacity, and in that of a poet, to the service of Abd Allah, Tâhir's son. The pure Arabic language was well known to him, and he made frequent use of the idioms peculiar to it. In the art of poetry he displayed considerable abilities, and the following lines on Abd Allah Ibn Tâhir are of his composing: O you who desire to possess qualities such as those of Abd Allah, be silent and listen! I swear by Him to whose temple the pilgrims resort, that I shall give you a sincere advice; hearken then, or renounce your project: Be true, be modest, be charitable; endure with patience and indulgence; pardon, oblige; be mild, be gentle and be brave; act with kindness and lenity, with longanimity, courtesy, and forbearance; be firm and resolute; protect the feeble, maintain the right and repel injustice. Such is my counsel, if you choose to accept it, and are disposed to follow a straight and open way. This is really a piece of extraordinary beauty, and he composed some others, equally fine. It is related that he one day went to the palace of Abd Allah Ibn Tâhir, but was refused admittance, on which he said: Never shall I return to this door whilst admittance is so difficult as I find it now; I shall wait till access be more easy. And on the day in which I did not find a means to enter, I at least found means of not favouring the master with my presence. These verses were repeated to Abd Allah, who blamed the door-keeper's conduct, and gave orders that the poet should be admitted. Abû 'l-Amaithal observed that the word nomûn was one of the terms used to designate blood, and that the flowers called shakdik an-Nomân, or Nomân poppies (2), had received this name on account of their red colour, the opinion that they were so called after an-Nomân Ibn al-Mundir being totally unfounded. "I made this observation," continued he, "to al-Asmâi, who repeated it, adding: 'Such are the words of "Abú Amaithal.' This opinion however is in contradiction with that held by all eminent philologers; thus Ibn Kutaiba says, in his Kitâb al-Maârif: “An"Nomân Ibn al-Mundir"- the last Lakhmide king of Hira-" went out of "Kûfa into the open country at a time in which it was all yellow, red, and green, from the quantity of herbage and flowers, among which were poppies "in great abundance. On seeing them, he declared that their beauty pleased "him and that he forbade them to be gathered. This prohibition none dared "to transgress, and they were therefore called an-Noman's poppies." Al-Jawhari also mentions in his Sahâh that they were so denominated after this anNomân, and other writers have made a similar statement: which opinion may be right, God best knows! It is related that when Abû Tammâm recited to Abd Allah Ibn Tàhir his poem rhyming in B, of which we have spoken in his life (3), Abû 'l-Amaithal, who was present, said to him: "Abû Tammam! why do you "not say something which may be understood?" To this the other retorted: "Abû Amaithal! why do you not understand what people say?"-Abû Amaithal one day kissed the hand of Abd Allah Ibn Tâhir, and as the prince complained of the roughness of his mustachioes, he immediately observed that the spines of the hedgehog could not hurt the wrist of the lion. Abd Allah was so highly pleased with this compliment, that he ordered a valuable present to be given to the poet.-The following works, amongst others, were composed by thal: a treatise on the terms which bear different meanings; a work entitled Kitâb at-Tashâbuh (4) (mutual resemblance); a notice on those verses which are current and well known, and a treatise on the ideas usually expressed in poetry. He died A. H. 240 (A. D. 854-5).—The word Amaithal serves to designate a number of things, and, amongst the rest, the lion; that such is its meaning in the present case is perfectly evident. (1) In the Arabic text, read. (2) The Shakdik an-Nomân, here translated an-Noman's poppies, is considered by Ibn Baithår as the same plant which Dioscorides describes under the name of the anemony. This writer notices two species of it, the wild and the cultivated, and a genus called by him argemoné, resembling the wild poppy. The flower of this plant has furnished the Arabian poets with a great number of comparisons, from which it would appear that its petals were red or vermilion-coloured, and its stamens black or brown. According to the author of the Kamus, these flowers were called shakdik, because their colour was red, like that of the lightning-flash; he gives also the same reason as Ibn Kutaiba for the origin of the name shakaik an-Nomân. It cannot, however, escape observation that a great resemblance subsists between the word an-Nomân and the old Greek name of anemoné, from which it may be inferred that the former is a mere alteration from the latter. (3) See vol. I. page 350, the lines which begin thus: "At the sight of dwellings," etc. (4) Such is the orthography of Hajji Khalifa and of Ibn Khallikân himself: all the later manuscripts of his work are wrong here. ABU 'L-ABBAS AN-NASHI IBN SHIRSHIR. Abû 'l-Abbas Abd Allah Ibn Muhammad an-Nashi al-Anbâri, generally known by the name of Ibn Shirshir, was a poet of great talent and a contemporary of Ibn ar-Rûmi and al-Bohtori. It is he who is denominated an-Nashi 'l-Akbar (the elder Nâshi), to distinguish him from an-Nâshi al-Asghar, or the younger, whose life is to be found in this volume. He was also a grammarian, a prosodist, and 371 a scholastic theologian. The city of Anbar was the native place of his family, but he himself resided during a long period at Baghdad, and then proceeded to Old Cairo where he passed the remainder of his life. He was deeply versed in a number of sciences, and his skill as a logician was so great, that he could overturn any proofs alleged by grammarians in favour of their doctrines. His penetration and sagacity enabled him also to bring into doubt the established VOL II. 8 principles of prosody, and to lay down forms of versification entirely different. from those admitted by al-Khalil Ibn Ahmad. He wrote a kasida of four thousand verses, all terminating in the same rhyme, and in this poem he treated of various sciences. A number of fine works were written by him, and he composed a great quantity of verses on the animals used for hunting, on the different sorts of game, on the implements and every other subject connected with the chase. In these poems he displayed knowledge worthy of a professional sportsman, and many passages are quoted from them by Koshâjim, in his work called al-Masdid wa 'l-Matârid. Some of his poems are kasidas, and some, tardiyas or hunting-pieces, in the style of those made by Abû Nuwàs; the rest are detached passages, but in all of them his talent is equally conspicuous. One of his tardiyas, containing the description of a falcon, runs as follows: When the veil of darkness was rent off the face of the heavens, and the light of the morning rejoiced in shedding its brightness, I went forth on the track of the game, with a cream-coloured (bird), from its birth, of singular beauty. It was clothed by the Creator in raiment of the softest tissue, and when it darted forward or circled around, the eye could not follow its motions. From its cheeks to its eyes extends an ornament which serves it as a diadem (1). Its active spirit is denoted by its beak, and by its claws is shown the art wherein lies its skill. Were a traveller journeying in darkness, the eye of that animal might serve him as a taper to light him on his way. In describing a singing girl of great beauty, he expresses himself in the following terms: O thou for whose welfare I should sacrifice my life! (The spies who surround me) do not appreciate thy charms, or else they had not allowed me to fix my eyes on thine. They forbid me to look on any other females; did they think it possible that the eyes of men could be turned towards any but thee? They placed thee to watch my conduct; whom then have they placed as a watch over thine? Fools that they were! did they not read in thy cheeks the written revelation of thy beauty? -- His poetical works are very numerous, but we shall confine ourselves to the foregoing extracts. He died at Old Cairo, A. H. 293 (A. D. 905-6).—Nâshi was a surname given to him (2). — Anbari means belonging to al-Anbar, which is a town on the Euphrates, ten parasangs (to the west) of Baghdad; it has produced a number of learned men. Anbar is the plural of nibr, and signifies magazines of provisions; this place was so called because the ancient kings of Persia used to keep provisions stored in it (for the use of their troops). (1) He must mean the dusky bars which mark the plumage of the gyrfalcon, or else its hood. (2) The word nashi has a number of meanings; it is therefore not easy to determine what is the signification it bears here. BARCELON IBN SARA AS-SHANTARINI. Abu Muhammad Abd Allah Ibn Muhammad Ibn Sàra as-Shantarîni, a native of Spain and a member of the tribe of Bakr, was celebrated as a poet, but he possessed also superior abilities as a prose-writer. Notwithstanding his talents, his lot through life was little else than adversity and disappointment: he lived without finding a place of abode to suit him or a prince to protect him. He is noticed by (Ibn Khakan) the author of the Kalaid al-Ikiyan, and is praised by Ibn 372 Bassam in the Dakhira. This writer says: "After endeavouring to obtain (1) "even the meanest employments and undergoing great sufferings, he rose at length to fill the place of secretary to a provincial governor; but at the period "in which (Yusuf Ibn Tâshifin) dispossessed the Spanish sovereigns of their dominions, he retired to Seville in a state more dismal than night itself and "more solitary than the star Canopus (2). He then supported his existence by binding books, an art with which he was well acquainted and in which "he displayed great skill. This profession he followed, although it had then greatly fallen off and was almost totally neglected. To this he alludes in the "following lines: 66 66 The trade of a bookbinder is the worst of all; its leaves and its fruits are nought but 'disappointment. I may compare him that follows it to a needle, which clothes others, 'but is naked itself!'" (3) These verses also are by the same poet : That maid with the flowing ringlets is encircled by a host of tender charms, and for her a tender passion fills our hearts. It is not dark curls which shade her cheeks, but rather a tint cast upon them by the black pupils of her eyes. He said also of a girl with blue eyes: |