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I see, within the circle of necklaces which adorn that slender-waisted nymph, a moon (handsome face) which receives its lustre from the gems of beauty. She is formed like a lance that she may pierce us to the heart, and on this lance gleams a point of blue (steel).

A similar thought is thus expressed by as-Salami :

In embracing her waist, I have clasped a pliant spear; and you will recognise its deadly point in the glances of her eyes.

It was from this verse that Ibn an-Nabîh al-Misri (4) borrowed the idea which he has thus expressed:

The complexion of this brunette is like the colour of the lance (5), and her eyes might be taken for its point, were they not painted with antimony.

The following verses of Ibn Sara's inculcate the renunciation of the world and its pleasures:

O thou who hearkenest to the call of the cupbearer, though warned of thy approaching end by gray hairs and age! If thou wilt not listen to my admonitions, why hast thou hearing to receive men's words, and memory to retain them? He alone is blind and deaf who followeth not the lessons offered by the present and the past. Time shall not endure for ever, nor the world, nor the lofty spheres, nor the two great lights, and the moon. The inhabitants of the world, both those who dwell in tents and those who live in towns, must leave it, though unwilling.

It was he who composed these verses:

the sun

I have for a companion one who, like an inward disorder, cannot be shaken off, and who loves me as the wolf does the shepherd. He extols, me-may God requite him for his good intentions!-with praise such as Hind bestowed upon Rauh Ibn Zinbâ.

This Hind was daughter to an-Nomân Ibn Bashir al-Ansari, and wife to Rauh Ibn Zinbâ 'l-Judàmi (6), the favourite officer of the khalif Abd al-Malik Ibn Marwân. She detested her husband and made on him these lines:

Hind, a filly of pure Arabian breed and sprung from noble steeds, has she not been covered by an ass? If she bear a foal of good points, she had a right to do so; but if it be only a half-blood (ikráf), wonder not! it had a worthless sire.

These verses are attributed also to her sister Humaida, the daughter of an-Noman. The word ikraf indicates that the dam was of Arabian breed and that the sire was not; another word, hujnat, is employed to mark that the sire was of Arabian blood and that the dam was not.-Ibn Sâra composed a great number of poeti

cal pieces, most of them very good, and they have been collected into a volume. He died A. H. 517 (A.D. 1123) at Almeria in Spain, a city already mentioned (in vol. I. pages 43 and 151).—Sâra, his grandfather's name, is written either with a sîn or a sâd (a hard or a soft s).—Shantarîni means belonging to Shantarîn (Santarem), a town in the Spanish peninsula.

تتبع The true reading is (1)

(2) The Arabs consider Canopus as the brightest of the fixed stars; it has consequently no fellow or companion. Ibn Bassâm is here led away, as usual, by the temptation of a mere quibble.

ور

(3) These verses fix the meaning in which the word wiraka ä, must be taken here. It signifies also the profession of a stationer and that of a copyist of books.

(4) "Ali Ibn Muhammad Ibn an-Nabih, one of the most eminent poets of his time in Egypt, died A.H. 621 “(A.D. 1224).”—(As-Soyûti's Husn al-Muhadira, MS. No. 652, fol. 150 verso.)

(5) Lances were generally made of a species of bamboo.

(6) Abû Zarâa Rauh (or Rûh) Ibn Zinbâ, the head of the tribe of Judâm, was possessed of such great influence, that the khalif Moawia resolved on putting him to death, but was induced at length to change his mind. When Abd al-Malik Ibn Marwân came to the throne, Rauh received the government of Palestine and became the intimate and inseparable companion of his master. In the service of Abd al-Malik he filled all the duties of a vizir and proved himself not only prudent and intelligent, but also learned and religious. He died A.H. 84 (A. D. 703).—(Nujûm. Al-Yâfî.)

IBN AS-SID AL-BATALYAUSI.

Abu Muhammad Abd Allah Ibn Muhammad Ibn as-Sid al-Batalyausi was an able grammarian, eminent also in philology and general literature, of which sciences he possessed a profound and exact knowledge. He inhabited the city of Valencia, where his lessons drew crowds of pupils, anxious to study under his tuition and to profit by his learned observations. His mode of instructing and the talent with which he rendered the most difficult points intelligible to his auditors were very superior, and the passages which he cited from memory illustrative of the pure Arabic language were not only copious, but correct. He composed a number of instructive works, such as a Muthallath (1) in two volumes, containing many novel observations and denoting vast erudition in the author. This can be better appreciated when we mention that the (cele

brated) treatise of Kutrub, which bears the same title, fills only one quire (or about twenty pages), and yet it gives as current certain examples which were only poetical licenses, and contains besides some words which do not exist, and others to which a wrong signification is attributed. He wrote also the Iktidab (extemporizing), a work designed as a commentary on the Adab al-Katib, and of which we have already spoken in the life of Ibn Kutaiba (page 23). He drew up also a commentary on Abû Alâ's work, the Sikt az-Zand, in which he fully develops the thoughts and allusions contained in the text of that poet; it is even superior to the treatise on the same subject composed by Abû 'l-Alâ himself and entitled Daw as-Sikt. In a treatise on (the right use of) the letters ~,,,b, and (in the orthography of words), he has assembled a great quantity of curious observations. He composed also the Hulul (elucidations) (2), which is a commentary on the verses cited as examples in (az-Zajjaji's grammatical compendium) the Jumal; the mistakes committed in the same work were pointed out by him in a treatise entitled al-Khalal (the faults) (3). His Tanbîh, or indication, is a treatise on the causes of the dissensions which have prevailed among the (Moslim) people. He composed also a commentary on the (imam Malik's) Muwatta, and another, as I have been informed, on the Diwan of al-Mutanabbi's poems. This last work I have never seen, and it is even said that no copies of it ever reached the East. We may conclude this list by observing that every subject which he undertook was treated in the most masterly manner. He composed also some good poetry, from which we may quote the following passages :

The man of learning lives after his death, though his bones be buried and crumbling into dust. But the ignorant man is dead, though he yet walk upon the earth; he is thought to be of the living, but he is not.

On the length of a night (passed in suffering):

Behold! the dark locks of our night are turned hoary with age. She has become gray like myself; or rather, a meadow, white with flowers, is spread over the heavens. The seven nights of the week seem to have come together in the sky without a day's interval between them.

From the beginning of a kasida in praise of al-Mustâin Ibn Hûd (4):

My patience under affliction was born away from me by the people of that tribe, when they set out with moons encircled with necklaces and which rose from over a willow branch (5). They have left me here, in the valley amongst the sands of the desert, but

wherever they go, my heart journeys with their caravan. May the spot where I last saw them on the border of the valley be watered with grateful showers, copious, but yet nearly equalled by the torrent of my tears. O my friends! will those days ever re- 374 turn? till the end of time can I ever receive consolation for your absence? My eyes are bathed in tears; and in my bosom is a heart always yearning to meet you. Fortune was cruel to me after your departure, and misfortunes of every kind have alighted at my dwelling.

In the eulogistic part of the poem he says:

We saddled the camels of eulogium and abandoned that spot; its fountain was not like that of Sudda, neither did it produce the saadân (6). And we went to a prince on whom Joseph had bestowed his beauty, and whose lofty palace had been reared by Solomon (7); one of those high-minded men whose hands are torrents (of generosity) and whose minds are all fire.

This kasida is of great length, but we shall confine our citations to those just given. Ibn as-Sid was born at Batalyaus (Badajos), A. H. 444 (A. D. 1052-3;; he died at Valencia on the 15th of Rajab, in the year 524 (July, A. D. 1427

Sid is one of the names by which the wolf is known, but it is also used as the proper name of a man.-Batalyausi means belonging to Batalyaus (or Badajos); this city and Valencia are situated in the Spanish peninsula and have produced a number of learned men.

(1) The works called by the generic title of Muthallath, or Ternary, treat of those words which bear three different significations accordingly as the first syllable is pronounced with an a, an i, or an u.

(2) The word is the plural and signifies travellers who halt after their journey and untie the cords which hold their baggage on the camels. It must therefore mean here: Observations which untie or unravel knotty difficulties.

(3) In the Arabic text, this title is incorrectly printed

(4) Abû Aiyûb Sulaiman Ibn Muhammad Ibn Hûd, surnamed al-Mustaîn billah came to the throne of Saragossa A.H. 431 (A.D. 1039.) He died A.H. 438 (A.D. 1046–7), after a reign of seven or eight years.

(5) The moons are the faces of fair maidens, and the willow branch is the pliant waist over which the poet supposes each of these moons to culminate.

(6) Sudda is the name of a well, the water of which was celebrated for its purity. Saadan is the name of a plant which furnishes excellent food for camels. See Freytag's Maidani, tom. II. pp. 617, 620, and De Sacy's Hariri, p. 39.

(7) The poet means Ibn Hûd himself, whose name was Sulaiman (Solomon), but he plays upon the word and makes an allusion to the edifices raised by the ruler of the Jews.

IBN NAKIYA.

Abû 'l-Kasim Abd Allah (some say Abd al-Baki) Ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Husain Ibn Dawûd Ibn Nakiya, was a native of al-Harim az-Zàhiri, a quarter in the city of Baghdad. His talents as a poet and a philologer, his acquaintance with the belles-lettres, and his abilities as a writer of epistles obtained for him a high reputation. He composed some works remarkable not only for their beauty, but for the instruction which they conveyed; such were his Mulah alMumâliha (elegancies of polished intercourse), and the Kitâb al-Jumân (book of pearls), in which he treats of the similes employed in the Koran. He is also the author of a well-known collection of makâmas, in which he displays a great command of pure Arabic. Besides these works, he made an abridgement in one volume of the Kitâb al-Aghâni, and a commentary on the Fasîh (1). His poetry forms a large book, and his epistles have also been collected into a separate volume. The kâtib Imâd ad-din al-Ispahâni mentions him with commendation in the Kharida, and after giving a sketch of his life, he cites the two following verses addressed by him to a certain emir who had got himself bled :

May He who possesses all perfections grant to you, from thy blood-letting, recovery and health. Say now to thy right hand: "May thy bounties never cease! Pour "forth thy showers, for thou art a cloud (of beneficence) overshadowing the world!"

These verses are certainly very well turned.—In another of his pieces he

says:

Since your departure, my dearest friends! I have never been familiar with the sweets of life, and sorrowful remembrance has never forsaken my bosom. The taste of sleep I have not enjoyed, neither have my eyes perceived an object grateful to their sight. My fingers have never since wantoned with the wine-cup when the bearer passed it round, neither have they touched the strings of the dulcimer.

Ibn Nakiya bore the reputation of an atheist and a follower of the doctrines held by the ancient (Greek philosophers); he even composed a treatise on the subject, and he was noted also for his disorderly life. It is related on good au573 thority that, when he died, the person who washed his body previously to its interment perceived that his left hand was closely shut, and having opened it