Behold the object of the passion which I so long concealed, wishing thus to spare the feelings of her whom I adore. O thou who wast the first, and shalt be the last, to cause my torment! who can tell the ardour of my passion (4)?

They departed, and grief came to settle in my heart! none ever felt such torments as they made me suffer : love, desire, the burning fires of passion; my strength fails me! I sink! I can bear it no longer!

It would not have harmed the camel-drivers had they set out less promptly with my beloved friends! The morning of their departure brought me to my last gasp! A heart in trouble-tears which flow as if through emulation-whilst my firmness was already shaken by the dread of that separation.

Abû 'l-Husain Ahmad Ibn al-Mubarak was born A. H. 482 (A. D. 1089-90); he died, A. H. 552 (A. D. 1157-8), or 553.

(1) The Suraijian question, so named after Abû 'l-Abbâs Ibn Suraij (vol. I. p. 46), was a treatise very familiar to Shafite students, and contained the discussion of some points relative to divorce.

(2) See vol. II. page 331, note (1).

(3) In the printed text, the word

should have been placed in the first hemistich.

(4) Literally: Who can interpret the signs (verses) of my passion for me? An allusion to the interpreting of the signs or verses of the Koran.

MUHI AD-DIN IBN AZ-ZAKI.

Abù 'l-Maàli Muhammad Ibn Abi 'l-Hasan Ali Ibn Muhammad Ibn Yahya Ibn Ali Ibn Abd al-Aziz Ibn Ali Ibn al-Husain Ibn Muhammad Ibn Abd ar-Rahman Ibn al-Kasim Ibn al-Walid Ibn al-Kasim Ibn Abd ar-Rahman Ibn Abbân Ibn Othman Ibn Aflân (a descendant of the khalif Othmân), a member of the tribe of Koraish, and surnamed Muhî ad-din (reviver of religion), but generally known by the appellation of Ibn az-Zaki, or son of Zaki ad-din, was a native of Damascus and a doctor of the sect of as-Shâfi. He displayed acquirements of the most varied kinds, being versed in the law, general literature, and other sciences, and having composed some beautiful poetry, sermons (khotbas), and epistles. On Wednesday, the 20th of the first Rabi, A. H. 588 (April, A. D. 1492), he was

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appointed kadi of Damascus; so, at least, I have found it written in the handwriting of al-Kadi 'l-Fadil (vol. II. p. 111), and the same place had been previously filled by his father and grandfather, as it was subsequently by two of his own sons. He possessed, to the highest degree, the favour of the sultan Salâh ad din, and, when that prince took the city of Aleppo, on Saturday, the 18th of Safar, A. H. 579 (June, A. D. 1183) (1), he recited to him a poem rhyming in b, a masterpiece of perfection. One of its verses, which has since obtained great currency among the public, was the following:

Thy taking of the Grey Castle (2) in the month of Safar, announces the conquest of al-Kods (Jerusalem) for the month of Rajab.

This was really the case, that city having been taken on the 27th of Rajab, A. H. 583 (Oct. A. D. 1187). Muhi ad-din having been asked how he came by that idea, he replied that he took it from the comment of Ibn Barrajan (3) on these 656 words of the Koran : Alef, lâm, mim. The Greeks have been overcome in the nearest

part of the land, but, after their defeat, they shall be victorious within a few years (4). From the moment I met with the verse given above, and learned this account of it, I began searching for the commentary of Ibn Barrajàn, and found the statement to be true; but the passage was written on the margin of the leaf and in a different hand from that of the text, and I know not whether it be an interpolation or a part of the work. A long (cabalistic) calculation of his is there given, by which he deduces this result from the words: a few years. – When the sultan Salah ad-din took Aleppo, he confided to Muhi ad-din the post of chief magistrate and judge, and gave him for deputy Zain ad-din Banna Abù 'l-Fadl Ibn al-Bânyâsi. On the conquest of Jerusalem, all the learned men who happened to be in the retinue of the sultan, aspired to the honour of pronouncing the khotba on the ensuing Friday, and each of them sent in for examination a khotba written with great eloquence, in the hopes of being chosen; but the sultan addressed an order to Muhi ad-din, directing him to be the preacher. This was the first Friday on which the public prayer was said at Jersulem after the taking of the city, and the sultan with all the chief men of the empire attended at the ceremony. Muhi ad-din then mounted the pulpit and commenced his discourse by pronouncing the opening sûrat of the Koran, and then said: "God hath cut off "the uttermost part of those who acted perversely; so praise be unto God, the

"lord of all creatures. Praise be unto God, who hath created the heavens and the earth, and hath disposed darkness and light! (Koran, sûrat 6, verse 1.) Praise be "unto God who hath not begotten any child, who hath no partner in the kingdom, nor "requireth any one to protect him from contempt; and magnify him by proclaiming "his greatness (sur. 17, ver. 111). Praise be unto God, who hath sent down unto "his servant the book (of the Koran), and hath not inserted therein any crookedness, but "hath made it a straight rule; that he should threaten thereby the unbelievers with a "grievous punishment from himself, and should bear good tidings unto the faithful, "who work righteousness, that they shall receive an excellent reward, (the reward of paradise,) wherein they shall remain for ever; and that he should warn those who say God hath begotten issue (s. 18, v. 1, 2, 3). Say, Praise be unto God; and God more worthy, or the false gods Praise be to God, unto whom be

peace be unto his servants whom he hath chosen! is "which they associate with him? (s. 27, v. 60.)

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and unto him be praise in the

longeth whatever is in the heavens and on earth "world to come; for he is wise and intelligent (s. 34, v. 1.). Praise be unto God, "the Creator of heaven and earth; who maketh the angels his messengers, furnished "with two, and three, and four pair of wings. God maketh what addition he pleaseth unto his creatures; for God is almighty (s. 35, v. 1).”—In this, the preacher's design was, to quote all the passages of the sacred Koran in which praise is given to God; he then commenced the khotba and said: "Praise be "unto God by whose aid Islamism hath been exalted, and by whose might polytheism hath been humbled; whose orders control all events, and who "rewardeth gratitude by continuing his favours. He hath enveloped the infidels "in his toils, whose justice hath decreed that time should be a series of vicissi"tudes, whose bounty hath granted success to those that feared him, who spread "his shade over his servants, and caused his religion to triumph over every "other. In his might he is far above his creatures, and nought can resist him; "his sway extends over the world, and nought can withstand it. He ordereth "what he pleaseth, and none can disobey him; he decideth what he will, and none can oppose him. I praise him for his victorious assistance; for his exalting of his friends; for his aiding of those who aided in his cause, and for "his cleansing of his Holy House from the-filth of polytheism and its pollutions. "(I give him) such praise as a man can offer whose inmost feelings are conscious "of gratitude, and who denotes it by his outward bearing, and I declare that

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"there is no other god but the Only God, who hath no associate in his power, "who is one and eternal; who begot not offspring, neither was he begotten, and who "never had any one like unto him (5). Such is the declaration of one who "hath purified his heart by the professing of God's unity, and hath given it in charge unto his Lord. I bear witness that Muhammad is his servant and apostle, the remover of doubt, the confuter of infidelity, and the dispeller "of falsehood; that God transported him by night from the Holy Temple (of Mekka) to the Farther Temple (of Jerusalem) (6), and raised him up to the highest heavens, even unto the lote-tree of the utmost bound, near which is the garden of eternal abode; and his eye-sight turned not away, neither did it wan"der (7) may God's blessing be upon him and upon his khalif (successor) Abù "Bakr as-Siddik (the veracious), the first to embrace the faith; and upon the "commander of the faithful, Omar Ibn al-Khattab, the first who removed from "this house the sign of the cross; and upon the commander of the faithful, "Othman Ibn Affan, the possessor of the two lights (8), the collector of the "Koran; and upon the commander of the faithful, Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the "destroyer of polytheism and the breaker of idols; and God's blessing be on "the family of Muhammad, on his Companions, and on the Tâbis. O Men, 657" rejoice at good news! God is pleased with your conduct; and that is the "utmost term, the highest point, of man's desires; inasmuch as he rendered it

easy for your hands to recover this strayed camel (Jerusalem) from the pos"session of a misguided people, and to bring it back to the fold of Islamism, "after it been abused by the polytheists for nearly one hundred years. (Rejoice

at) the purifying of this house which God allowed to be raised, and in which he permitted his name to be mentioned (9); the ways of which he hath delivered from polytheism, after he had spread his tent over it and established his "rites within it; a house of which the foundations were laid on the profession "of God's unity, for that is the best basis to build on, and of which the edifice "was erected to his glory, for it stands founded on piety from ancient times "till now. It was the dwelling-place of your father Abraham; the spot from

which your blessed Prophet Muhammad mounted to heaven; the kibla towards "which you turned to pray at the commencement of Islamism, the abode of the prophets; the place visited by the saints; the cemetery of the apostles; the "spot where the divine revelation descended, and to which the orders and the

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"prohibitions were sent down it is the country where mankind will be as"sembled for judgment; the ground where the resurrection will take place; the holy land whereof God hath spoken in his perspicuous book (10); it is the mosque wherein the Apostle of God offered up his prayer and saluted the angels "admitted nearest to God's presence; it is the town to which God sent his "servant and apostle, and the Word which he caused to descend on Mary, and "his spirit Jesus, whom he honoured with that mission and ennobled with the gift of prophecy, without removing him from the rank he held as one of his "creatures and the Almighty said that Christ will not proudly disdain to be a "servant unto God, neither the angels who approach near to the divine presence ́44 ̧.

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They lied, those who said that God had equals, and widely did they err. God "hath not begotten issue; neither is there any other God with him: otherwise every god had surely gone (apart) with that which he had created; and some of them had "exalted themselves above the others. Far be that from God which they affirm of "him (12). They are surely infidels who say: Verily God is Christ, the son of

Mary(13)."-Here the preacher repeated the remaining verses of the sûrat of the Table." This temple is the first of the two kiblas (14), the second of the two "sacred Mosques (15), the third after the two holy cities (Mekka and Medina); "the next place, after these two Mosques, to visit which travellers girth their "camels; the next spot named after these two mansions, when the number of

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holy places is counted on the fingers. Therefore, had you not been of God's "chosen servants, of those whom he selected from amongst the dwellers in his cities, he had not honoured you with this favour wherein you will never have "a rival, and in the excellence of which you will remain without a competitor. "Blessings be on you for an army which hath procured the triumph of the "miraculous powers displayed in the Apostle's gift of prophecy, which hath

fought battles like those of Bedr, which hath shown resolution like that of “Abû Bakr, achieved conquests like those of Omar's, behaved like the armies of "Othman, and charged like those of Ali! You have renewed for Islamism the "the glorious days of Kadisiya, the conflicts of Yarmuk, the sieges of Khaibar, " and the impetuous attacks of Khalid Ibn al-Walid. May God grant you his best "rewards for the service you have rendered to his blessed prophet Muhammad! 66 may he recompense you for the blood you lost in combating his foes! may he accept from you as an agreeable offering the blood which you have shed! and

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