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in this manner, the objection falls to the ground; but it appears very improbable that such could have been the poet's meaning. - Kuthaiyir was noted for his thoughtlessness. It is related that he went one day into the presence of Yazid Ibn Abd al-Malik and said: "Commander of the faithful! what did as-Sham"mâkh (10) mean by these words:

" اذا الارطی توسد ابردیه خدود جواري بالرمل عين

The khalif answered: "And what harm can it do me if I know not what that "boorish Arab of the desert meant to say? turn this fool out (11) ! When Abd al-Aziz Ibn Marwân, the father of (the khalif) Omar Ibn Abd al-Aziz, was governor of Egypt, he had an attack of sickness, and his family wished to amuse him and make him laugh. Kuthaiyir (therefore) went to visit him, and pronounced these words as he stood at his bed-side: "Were it not that your "pleasure would be incomplete in case that I got sick in order to restore you "to health, I should implore the Lord God to pass your sickness over to me. "I shall, however, pray him to grant thee health and me a life of enjoyment "under thy protection." This made Abd al-Aziz laugh, and Kuthaiyir repeated these verses :

We visit the sick-bed of our prince, the prince of all mankind; O that his sufferings could be transferred to his visitors! If his health could be redeemed at any price, I should sacrifice for it the most precious of my possessions.

One of Kuthaiyir's most admired kasîdas is that rhyming in t, wherein he says:

In my wild passion for Azza, after our mutual affection had cooled, I resembled the man who at noon waits for the coming of a cloud, but, when he lies down to sleep under its shade, it disappears.

Kuthaiyir was in Egypt and Azza in Medina, when he conceived an anxious wish to see her. He therefore set out to visit her, and, as she was then travelling towards Egypt, they met on the road. A conversation, too long to relate, passed between them, and she then left him to pursue her journey. Some time after, Kuthaiyir returned to Egypt and went to see her, but found the people coming home from her funeral. He immediately proceeded to the grave, and, making his camel kneel down, he remained there for some time, and then departed, reciting a piece of verse in which were the following lines:

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I exclaimed, when my emaciated camel stopped at her tomb, and my eyes overflowed with tears Receive the salutation of meeting! when thou wert alive, I used to weep

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on leaving thee, but now, alas! thou art farther from me than ever!"

The stories told of him and Azza are very numerous.

He died A. H. 105 (A. D. 723-4). Muhammad Ibn Saad al-Wâkidi relates that Khâlid Ibn al-Kâsim al-Baiâdi said: "Kuthaiyir and Ikrima, the mawla of Ibn Abbâs, died on the same day, in the year 105. I was present at the funeral prayer; it was said over them both together, in the afternoon, and the people declared that they had lost the ablest jurisconsult and the best poet in the world. They died at Medina." We have already noticed, in the life of Ikrima (page 207 of this volume), the conflicting statements relative to the date of the latter's death; to that article we therefore the reader.-The meaning of the word Khuzai has been already explained (in this article).- Kuthaiyir is the diminutive form of the adjective kathir (great); he received this name on account of his extremely diminutive size. He was so short that, when he went to visit Abd al-Aziz Ibn Marwàn, that prince used to banter him and say: "Stoop your head, lest you "hurt it against the ceiling." He was also called Rabb ad-Dubab (the king of the flies), for the same reason. One of his contemporaries said: “I saw him "making the circuits round the Kaaba ; and if any one tell you that his stature "exceeded three spans, that person is a liar."

(1) See Eichhorn's Monumenta, tab. XIII.

(2) See Pococke's Specimen Hist. Ar. pp. 97, 319 et seq.

(3) See M. de Sacy's Mémoire sur divers événements de l'histoire des Arabes avant Mahomet in the Memoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, tom. 47.

(4) See vol. I. p. 142.

(3) Az-Zamakhshari says in his geographical dictionary that the word at-Taff is employed to designate those high lands of Arabia which overlook the cultivated country of Irâk. The author of the Marasid applies this denomination to the open country of Kufa, on the road leading to the desert, and he adds that al-Husain was slain there. It is therefore the name of the territory in which Kerbela is situated; and Kuthaiyir most certainly alludes here to the murder of al-Husain, the grandson of Muhammad, and of his followers by the troops of the Omaiyide khalif Yazid, the grandson of Abu Sofyân, and great-grandson of Sakhr. (6) The verb

means the Omaiyide princes.

signifies to expose to the sun, to wither, to injure. By the sons of Marwân he

(7) The original has: whose jathjâth and whose Azar exude sap. Those plants are unknown to me. (8) See my Diwân d'Amro 'l-Kais, page 37.

(9) I insert here a passage absolutely necessary for the sense, although omitted in all my MSS.

(10) See vol. II. page 453.

(11) The verse is certainly difficult, and it is not surprising that the khalif was unable to understand it Its meaning appears to me to be this: "When the cheeks of large-eyed maidens in the desert are pillowed at morning and at evening under the shade of the arta-tree...."

KUKUBURI.

Abû Said Kûkubûri Ibn Abi 'l-Hasan Ali Ibn Baktikin Ibn Muhammad, surnamed al-Malik al-Muazzam (the exalted prince) Muzaffar ad-din (the triumphant in religion), and lord of Arbela, was the son of Zain ad-din (ornament of religion) Ali, surnamed Kutchek, who was blessed by Providence with a great number of other children. Zain ad-din, being low in stature, received the appellation of Kutchek, a Persian word, which means little (1). He was by race a Turcoman. Having obtained possession of Arbela and many other cities in 609 the same territory, he distributed them among the sons of the atâbek Kutb addin Maudud (2), the son of Zinki and lord of Mosul, reserving for himself Arbela only. The history of these transactions would lead us too far. He lived to an advanced age, some say upwards of a hundred years, and he lost his sight towards the close of his life. (Zain ad-din having distributed his estates,) remained ever afterwards at Arbela, and he died there on the eve of Sunday, the 14th of Zû 'l-Kaada, A.H. 563 (August, A. D. 1168). Ibn Shaddâd says, in his life of Salah ad-din (3), that his death occurred in the month of Zû 'l-Hijja of that year. He was interred in the sepulchral chapel which bears his name and is situated within the city-walls, near the Old Mosque. His great courage and strength rendered him particularly conspicuous. A number of colleges and other remarkable establishments for pious purposes were founded and endowed by him at Mosul. My master Izz ad-din Ibn al-Athir the hafiz (see page 288 of this volume) says, in his lesser historical work, composed by him at the desire of the Banu Atâbek, sovereigns of Mosul: "Zain ad-din departed from Mosul "for Arbela in the year 563, and delivered all the cities and fortresses which "he possessed into the hands of the atûbek Kutb ad-din. Amongst them were

"Sinjar, Harrân, Kalaat Akr al-Humaidiya (4), all the castles in the country "belonging to the tribe of Hakkår, Tikrit, Shahrozûr, etc., reserving only “Arbela for himself. He had made the pilgrimage, A.H. 555 (A.D. 1160), in 66 company with Asad ad-din Shirkûh (vol. I. p. 626).”—On the death of Zain ad-din, his son Muzaffar ad-dîn (Kûkubûri), who was then fourteen years of age, succeeded to the throne, but remained under the tuition of his atabek Mujahid ad-dìn Kâimâz (vol. II. page 510), who, having conceived a strong prejudice against him, wrote to the August Divan (or court of Baghdad), representing him as unfit to govern, and requesting to know what should be done. He then imprisoned him and placed his younger brother, Zain ad-din Abù 'l-Muzaffar Yûsuf, on the throne. Some time afterwards, Muzaffar ad-din left the country and proceeded to Baghdad, whence, after some fruitless endeavours to obtain justice, he removed to Mosul. Saif ad-din Ghâzi Ibn Maudûd (vol. II. p. 441), the sovereign of that city, then took him into his service and granted him the town of Harrân as a fief. Having removed to Harràn, he continued to make it his place of residence till he at length entered into the service of the sultan Salâh ad-din, by whom he was treated with great favour. In the year 578 (A. D. 1182-3), this prince, who had conceived a high esteem for his dependent, took the city of Edessa from Ibn az-Zafarâni and bestowed it on Muzaffar ad-din in addition to Harrân; he then indemnified Ibn az-Zafarâni with the gift of ar-Rakka, which city he took from Ibn Hassan. It would be too long to relate the particulars of this transaction (5). Some time afterwards, he bestowed on him the city of Sumaisât, and married him to his sister, as-Sitt Rabia Khâtùn her ladyship the princess Rabia), the daughter of Aiyûb (vol. I. p. 243). Before that, she had been the wife of Saad ad-din Masûd Ibn Mûîn ad-din, lord of the Castle of Muin ad-din in the province of al-Ghaur (6), who died in the year 581 (A. D. 1185-6). Muzaffar ad-din fought in a great number of Salah ad-din's battles and displayed the highest bravery and resolution, standing firm in conflicts from which all others receded, as is testified by Imâd ad-din al-Ispahàni, Bahà addin Ibn Shaddâd, and other historians. These facts are so well known, that it is needless to insist on the subject, and his conduct at the battle of Hittin (7) would alone suffice for his reputation. In this battle he and the prince of Hamât, Taki ad-din (vol. II. p. 391), held their ground, although the whole army was routed and driven back; the soldiers then heard that these two chiefs still

continued to resist the enemy, on which they returned to the charge, and the victory was decided in favour of the Moslims. When the sultan Salâh ad-dîn was besieging Acre, which city had fallen into the hands of the Franks, the princes of the East came to his assistance, and placed themselves under his orders, and amongst the number was the lord of Arbela, Zain ad-din Yûsuf, the brother of Muzaffar ad-din. Soon after his arrival he fell sick, and, on the 28th of Ra- 610 madan, A. H. 586 (October, A. D. 1190), he expired at Nâsira (Nazareth), a village near Acre, in which, according to one of several conflicting statements, the blessed Messiah was born. On the death of Zain ad-dîn Yûsuf, his brother Muzaffar ad-din requested to obtain Arbela in exchange for Harrân, Edessa, and Sumaisât; the sultan having acceded to his wish, and granted him Shahrozûr besides, he set out, and made his entry into Arbela in the month of Zû 'l-Hijja, A. H. 586 (January, A. D. 1191). This is the summary of his history, but, as to the proceedings which mark his character, we may say that, in works of charity, he performed what no single man was ever known to have done before. He delighted in nothing so much as alms-giving, and every day he caused immense sums to be distributed, in different parts of the city, to crowds of needy persons assembled to receive them. His first distribution was made at daybreak, and, when he dismounted from his horse (on returning from the mosque, he found great numbers waiting at the palace-door: these he ordered to be brought in, and gave to each a dress adapted to the season, according as it was winter or summer, and with the dress he bestowed on him two or three pieces of gold, sometimes more, sometimes less. He built four asylums for the blind, and persons suffering from chronic distempers; these were always full, and every day he provided the inmates with all things requisite for their wants every Monday and Thursday evening he visited these establishments and entered into all the chambers, bestowing on (8) the occupants a small sum for extraordinary expenses, and inquiring into the state of their health. In this manner he visited each chamber successively, conversing affably with the inmates and jesting with them so as to soothe their hearts. He built a house for the reception of widows, another for orphan children, and a third for foundlings; in this last a number of nurses were always in waiting, ready to suckle whatever children might be brought in. Every day, the occupants of these establishments were provided by his directions with all

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