wsm )BSTHAIN & Co. sntal Booksellers I ARTHUR PROBSTHAIN Oriental Bookseller 41 Ct. Russell Street London. WCIB 3PH M A K A M A T. at tfct Hmbotfttg MAKAMAT OR RHETORICAL ANECDOTES OP AL HARIRI OF BASRA TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL ARABIC WITH ANNOTATIONS BY THEODORE PRESTON, M.A. FELLOW OF TKIN1TT COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, MEMBER OF THE ROTAL ASIATIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, AND OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF PARIS. For fondly cherished taste no praise I claim, Content if only unassailed by blame pag. 34 LONDON JAMES MADDEN LEADENHALL STREET JOHN W. PARKER WEST STRAND J. DEIOHTON CAMBRIDGE 1850. fj URil 7755 VIRO NOBILISSIMO ORNATISSIMO ALGERNON DUCI NORTHUMBRIJ: EGREGIO LITERARUM FAUTORI IMPRIMIS ARABICARUM SUORUM IN HOC GENERE STUDIORUM PRIMITIAS LIBENS DEDICAT AUCTOR PREFACE. THE work of Hariri which is the subject of the follow- ing pages has been denominated " the most classical in Arabic literature," and " a master-piece of elegance and refinement." Nor are these appellations unmerited. In elaborate execution and ornateness of style the Makamat are perhaps unrivalled ; they have always been regarded in the East as models of accuracy ; and the design with which they were written was purely literary, namely, to display the vast resources of the Arabic language, to exemplify the most difficult methods of composition, and to embody in a series of rhythmical and metrical anec- dotes all the refinements of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and tradition, that the author's extensive learn- ing could supply. To this design the subject-matter of the work is entirely subordinate, the characters and incidents being selected not for their intrinsic interest or value, but merely as forming a suitable occasion and groundwork for the exhibition of recondite learning and rhetorical skill. It is not the outline but the detail of the per- viu PREFACE. formance, not the importance of the topics but the style in which they are treated, that claims our approbation. At the same time it must be allowed that Hariri has adopted a peculiarly appropiate method of exempli- fying the branches of literature most cultivated and esteemed by his Arabian contemporaries, a method which, it appears, was suggested, and in some degree prescribed to him by the example of an eminent author who had preceded him in the same field of labour. The character of the wily and versatile Abou-Zaid of Seroug, eloquent and erratic like the hero of the Odyssey, roaming from place to place with no means of support except his marvellous powers of language, nor any object except the display of them, restless if without an opportunity of exerting them, but careless from the very confidence of success about employing them in a settled direction, devoting them sometimes to the noblest and sometimes to the meanest purposes, yet never losing sight of the dignity of their possession, but applying them to foil the learned, to cajole the simple, to baffle the powerful, and to defraud the humane, this character is an amplification and improvement of that of Abou'l Fateh in the Makamat of Badiah Al Zamaan of Hamadan; while that of Hareth, the companion and admirer of Abou-Zaid, who is constantly on the look out for him, but always pays dearly for the pleasure of meeting him, and. as a scholar of considerable attainments, narrates PREFACE. ix the adventures and performances of his friend in the highest style of Arabian eloquence is in like manner the counterpart of the Ibn Hashaam of Badiah. By means of the repeated exhibition of these two characters in lively contrast to each other, through a series of unconnected anecdotes, Hariri has succeeded in maintaining a certain unity in his work, and in avoid- ing abrupt transitions, while he introduces specimens of all the different species of composition which it was his design to illustrate. By this means he has preserved a graceful dramatic effect, and such a pleasing variety as might beguile and encourage his readers in the study of what he designates " a combination of serious lan- guage with lightsome, refinement with nervousness of style, and elegant with recondite phraseology, a rich store of choice metaphors, and ancient proverbs, and riddles, and orations, and poems, religious, festive, plaintive, and didactic." The work is no idle rhapsody intended, like "The Thousand and One Nights," to amuse the loiterers of the cafe or the seraglio, but the elaborate result of the literary system of a period in which not only the sciences but the useful arts of life were sacrificed by the ingenious and studious of a great nation to a pro- found grammatical and rhetorical research into the structure and resources of their own most copious lan- guage; and if the author of it has arrayed his pro- 1 PREFACE. duction in the garb of anecdote, this is merely an artifice by which its stateliness might be rendered less forbid- ding, and its treasures more accessible. That literary system originated in the extreme im- portance attached by Mohammedans to the study of the Koran, which is universally regarded by them as of divine origin and verbally inspired. The style of the Koran is so elliptical, and the dialect in which it is written, though allowed to be the purest and best, so totally different from the language of ordinary life, that it was found necessary in order to effect even an approximate solution of its difficulties to institute a close compara- tive study of the contemporary and preceding produc- tions of Arabic poets, and to establish systems of gram- mar, rhetoric, and logic which might be brought to bear upon the revered text. These sciences therefore, being the offspring of religious enthusiasm, acquired so much value in the estimation of Mohammedans under the Khaliphate, as to cause almost every other literary pur- suit to be considered superfluous if not culpable; and thus the study of them became general, and the at- tainment of them the chief standard of excellence. They formed the topics of discussion in all literary and religious assemblies, and those who outshone their com- petitors in masterly familiarity with them, combined with copious command of language, became the objects of public admiration and the munificence of the rich PREFACE. xi and powerful. Hence it resulted that the eloquent were prone to depend exclusively on their rhetorical powers for maintenance or aggrandisement. They be- came as it were the knights-errant of literature, wan- dering from city to city to contest the palm of genius and erudition with any rivals whom they might chance to meet with, and thus attracting the notice and favour of the great. It was not uncommon for a destitute stranger to enter the learned circle where the choicest wits of a province were assembled, and, as soon as an opportunity was offered, compel them all to acknow- ledge his superiority to themselves, and win their bounty by some feat of marvellous improvisation, or a lucid decision on some perplexing difficulty in grammar or rhetoric. Such persons being necessarily exposed in the course of their wanderings to all the vicissitudes of fortune, were tempted in the intervals of success to abuse their ingenuity and fertility of resource by descending to unworthy arts of deception for the sake of subsistence; and thus it appears that the character of Abou-Zaid as depicted in the Makamat is no more than the type to which the then state of literary taste and structure of literary society assimilated many of the most gifted and cultivated minds of the period, though perhaps none of them possessed the completeness or consistency of this their ideal abstract. The Makamat therefore combine the primary excellence of being a xii PREFACE. grand collection of specimens of the literature most admired during a long and important period of Moham- medanism, and the secondary one of containing a correct and interesting delineation of the character of some of its most eminent professors. Of the esteem in which this work has always been held by learned Moslemin, no better proof can be alleged than the numerous commentaries, (second only in number to those upon the Koran), written upon it by natives of the remotest East and West, both Arabian and Persian. Those in Arabic which are most approved are two, the one by a native of Xeres in Andalusia, the other by a native of Khouaresm the N. Eastern province of Persia. Much as every line of the Makamat has been discussed, the consent of the Arabs themselves has decided that scarcely one word or phrase admits of improvement or alteration. An eminent writer has asserted that 'they ought never to be transcribed but in letters of gold on a tissue of silk.' It were superfluous to quote the ver- bose and grandiloquent eulogies bestowed upon them by the above-mentioned commentators at the commencement of their works ; the vast labour of elucidation and illus- tration which they have expended on them is the most valuable testimony which they could offer both of their own esteem, and of the important place of literary emi- nence assigned to them by those best qualified to judge of them. It is true indeed that few books are more PREFACE. xiii unintelligible without the assistance of a commentary, or more removed above the understanding of the vulgar by recondite phraseology and involved construction ; but nevertheless, as De Sacy justly observes, ' it attracts the reader capable of understanding it with an irresistible charm.' That illustrious scholar, however, who has the honour of having raised the most permanent and sub- stantial monument to the genius of Hariri in his admi- rable ' edition and select commentary,' has presumed on the right of criticism supposed to be possessed by one whose editorial labours have rendered him minutely conversant with his author, to condemn the lavish expense of orna- ment and refinement with which, he says, the style of Hariri is surcharged. He accuses him of the abuse of wit and imagination, and of shocking his readers by repeated offences against good taste, and inclines to prefer the Makamat of Al Hamadani as more exempt from these faults, and as depicting with more simplicity a greater variety of subjects and adventures. Perhaps it was natu- ral that, fatigued or disgusted with the magnitude of his own labours in the explanation of the Makamat, he should have been inclined to indemnify himself as it were for the toil that Hariri had cost him by indulg- ing in a few disparaging reflections on his author, reflec- tions which, however unjust, cannot fail to have suggested themselves in the moments of weariness to any one who has perse veringly accomplished the perusal of this most xiv PREFACE. difficult and elaborate work, and which are excusable in one who spent years of indefatigable labour in the illus- tration of it. The truth, on the contrary, seems to be that Hariri has attained a much higher degree of the style at which his predecessor had been aiming, and that the greater richness of his fancy and copiousness of his language enabled him to scatter brighter flowers with a more lavish hand, though the space which he has thus adorned is more limited. Greater simplicity is no praise in a species of com- position the merit of which consists in exuberance of ornament, nor variety of interesting topics any just claim to superiority when the topics themselves are confessedly a mere field for the display of those triumphs of elo- quence which shine with the more concentrated splen- dour, the more contracted and unworthy the space in which they are exhibited. Besides, it must be recol- lected that in matters of taste the opinions of the East and the West can never coincide, because they are respec- tively swayed, if not dictated, by two opposite principles, the love of artificial beauty, and the love of utility ; nor can the quaint imagery and wild extravagance of Ori- ental style be justly tried before the limitary tribunal of rigorous Occidental criticism. The best Arabian authors love to revel in the unbounded resources of their rich language, and, by the unrestricted employment of meto- nyms and metaphors the most recondite and startling, to PREFACE. xv prove their mastery over its difficulties, and their pos- session of its treasures, leaving explicitness of style to be cultivated by those who have not been endowed with so prolific an imagination or so ample a scope for its exercise and display. With De Sacy's criticism on Hariri may be contrasted the unreserved eulogy of the laborious and accomplished Alb. Schultens, who, in the year 1731, published with copious annotations Golius' elegant version of the Maka- mah of Sanaa, with his own translation of five more. He says, ' Haririi consessus totidem limpidos fundunt rivos qui vernantia prata et viridaria amoenissima prseterla- bantur atque rigent. Prsecipua iis admiratio inde con- ciliatur quod ut nihil copiosius et uberius, ita limatius castigatiusque nihil ab ullo humano ingenio proficisci posse videatur.' To this testimony may be added the more recent one of a learned German, who says, 'Lec- tione Haririi nemo carere potest qui de linguae Arabicae copia, volubilitate, elegantia, genio, omninoque de dialectis Semiticis rectum judicium facere voluerit.' TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE INTRODUCTION. PAGE METHOD adopted by the translator 1 On Rhyming Prose 2 Alliteration admired by Orientals 3 Difficulty of the Makamat and necessity of annotations 4 Birth and titles of the author of the Makamat 5 Account given by his son of the occasion of his undertaking this work... 6 Another account found in his own hand-writing 7 On the names of the two principal characters in the Makamat 8 Hariri's failure in the court of the Vizier of Baghdad 9 His other works; his personal appearance. 10 Derivation and meaning of the word Makamah 11 Account of Al Hamadani the predecessor of Hariri in this sort of com- position 12 On the town of Hamadan; quotations from poets 13 De Sacy prefers Al Hamadani to Hariri; Arabic commentaries on the Makamat 14 De Sacy's great edition 16 Naseef Al Yazigi, his strictures on Hariri ; Hebrew and Syriac imitations of the Makamat 16 Riickert's Paraphrase of the Makamat 17 Quotations from Riickert 18 Schultens' Latin Version of five Makamat 19 The Prefatory Prayer 20 INTRODUCTION. AFTER the completion of a closely literal version of all the Makamat of Hariri, many of them were found to present almost insuperable obstacles to that union of elegance with accurate translation which is indispensable to a faithful repre- sentation of the highly-finished originals. A selection 1 has there- fore been made of those most suitable for publication, and the rest are merely quoted in notes by way of illustration; while a summary of their contents is added hi the form of an Appendix (see pag. 479), which, it is hoped, will serve as a guide in the perusal of them to those students who may wish to become ac- quainted with the whole of Hariri's work. The Makamat consisting of a stately rhyming prose, inter- spersed with metrical passages, the translator has rendered the latter 1 De Sacy in the Preface to his edition of the Makamat expresses his persuasion that an entire translation of them will never be called for but by those whose acquaintance with them is limited to select extracts. Ho adds, ' II y a des Makamat qui consistent tout entiers en enigmes, en logo- griphes, et expressions & double entente, sorte do jcu d'esprit que le plus grand talent ne saurait pas passer dans une autre langue, et qu'on doit so contenter do faire apercevoir dans une sorte do lontain et comme & travers un brouillard, si Ton ne reut pas sacriner le principal li ce que n'cst qu'acces- soire. La lecture do ces Seances doit otro envisagre seulement commc un moyen d'acquerir une profonde connnissance de la langue Arabo.' 2 2 INTRODUCTION. into English verse, and the former into a species of composition which occupies a middle place between prose and verse, the clauses of which, though not rhyming together, are arranged as far as possible in evenly balanced periods, and never exceed a certain length. Rhyming prose is extremely ungraceful in English, and introduces an air of flippancy, unless the subject be of the most light and frivolous description; whereas the style of com- position which has been adopted, at the same time that it is pleasing to the ear, conveys the best idea of the short, senten- tious, sonorous, and generally antithetical clauses of the original. It is clearly no less suitable for the translation of such a work as the Makamat, than for that of the Proverbs and other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures, to which it has been applied with remarkable success. Besides, though the rhyming prose of Hariri has been elegantly imitated in the most flexible and copious of modern languages by the German poet Friedrich Riickert, a similar imitation in English would probably be found as impracticable as a preservation of all the alliterations of the original, without a greater departure from the literal meaning than even that in- genious author has allowed himself, although he distinctly states, that his work is *a travestie, and not a translation,' 'gibt sich fur keirie uebersetsung, sondern fiir eine nachbildung.' On the other hand, the method adopted in this volume, while it suffi- ciently imposes the artificial restraints without which composi- tion is liable to dwindle from stateliness into insignificance, fully admits of that preservation of the details as well as the outline of the original, which is required by the laws of faithful translation. In the prose part of the present version every effort has been made to convey a closely literal rendering of the words of Hariri in accordance with the expositions of the best commentators, except INTRODUCTION. 3 in some instances where the metaphors of the original are so strange or complicated as to require circumlocution, or where an attempt is made to imitate the alliterations. In the metrical translation of the verses of the Makamat, only the general sense has been adhered to, but a literal version is always given in the annotations, for the sake of the student who may wish to satisfy himself of the accuracy of the renderings. If the poetry never rises into the sublime, it is not on that account the less faithful representation of the corresponding part of the original, the chief merit of which consists in clearness, terseness, and grammatical ac- curacy. An imitation of the Arabic metres and rhymes would in English be a task both fruitless and impracticable, and in German, though a language far richer and more pliant than the English, is but imperfectly effected by one who has proved himself a consummate master of verbal and phraseological resource. Here and there only in the present work a sequence of similar rhymes is preserved through several successive lines, after the manner of the Arabian poets ; and in regard to the metre, the translator has contented himself with selecting that species of ordinary English verse which seemed best suited to the subject of the passages to be translated. Occasionally he has ventured to imitate the alliterations of Hariri, and would apologize to the reader for having thus adopted a species of verbal artifice which is con- demned by the more correct taste of modern Europe, though always admired and practised by Orientals. They regard it as the highest proof of genius in an author, that he should be able to unite so difficult a performance with refinement of expression and ele- gance and appositeness of meaning, and seem to imagine that the merit of a composition increases in proportion to the manifest indications of labour bestowed upon it. In Oriental literature 22 4 INTRODUCTION. nothing is to be found corresponding with those bold and sublime efforts of English poesy, which, as if fearing to be hampered by the trammels of rhyme, have arrayed themselves in the plain but majestic attire of blank verse. An Eastern poet who should neglect to assume the elaborate ornaments of style prescribed by established custom, would at once be condemned unheard, on the score of indolence or incapacity. For such negligence no excel- lence of ideas could atone in the eyes of his countrymen. ' If his conceptions are fine/ they would say, ' why does he not make the exertion requisite to produce them in a more worthy and elegant form ?' The fault of prolixity, which the translator fears will be laid to the charge of his annotations, is one into which he has been almost unavoidably led by the very diffuse character of the com- mentaries which he has had to consult; and the reader will be less surprised at the pains taken to explain the precise meaning of the text, when he is assured that with 'all appliances and means' the Makamat in the Arabic will still be found a most difficult study, and that none but the most highly educated native Arabs are capable of understanding them without constant refer- ence to the commentaries, which however do not always enable them to decide between conflicting grammatical opinions. This arises from the circumstance that nearly every clause is intended to illustrate the use of some rare word, some remarkable idiom, or some paradox in grammar, construction, or signification; so that all that a translator can hope to effect beyond assisting those who may desire to study the original, is to convey to the English reader a general idea of the style and species of excel- lence by which the work of Hariri is distinguished. The most patient and arduous exertion must necessarily fail to do justice INTRODUCTION. 5 to this monument of consummate skill and execution ; the very per- fection of which forms the best apology for the manifest defects of the present attempt to illustrate it. It now remains to give some account of the life of Hariri, of the occasion of his undertaking the Makamat, of the author who preceded him in that field of labour, of the dramatis per- sonce and title of the work, and of those who have edited it or ' commented upon it. The history of Hariri given by Ibn Khalekan in his Biographical Dictionary, (pag. 586. edit. De Slane), is to this effect : ' Abou-Mohammed Al Kaasem Ibn-Aali Al Hariri Al Basri Al ' Haraami, the author of the Makamat, was one of the first writers ' of his age, and attained the greatest perfection in those com- 4 positions, which contain a great part of the riches of the Arabic ' language, and of its rare words, proverbs, and figurative and ' senigmatic expressions. Whoever is acquainted with them, as ' thoroughly as they deserve to be known, must be aware of ' his vast erudition. 4 He was born A.H. 446, (A.D. 1030), and died A.H. 516, at ' Basra, in the street of the Benou Haraam, (a tribe of Bedouin Arabs ' settled there) leaving two sons. He is called Al Haraami from ' the name of that street in which he had generally resided, and ' Al Hariri 1 from the word Harir (silk), because he traded in ' silk, or had a manufactory of it. The family of Hariri belonged l D'Horbolot inaccurately states that ho was so called because he lived in a village of Persia called Harir. Ho adds, in the same style, that 'the Makamat arc declamations on various moral subjects, which were recited in the towns whose names they respectively bear.' 6 INTRODUCTION. ' to the small village of Meshan near Basra, where he is said ' to have possest eighteen thousand palm-trees and to have ' enjoyed great opulence 1 . ' The occasion of his undertaking the composition of the ' Makamat was thus related by his son Abdallah Abou'l Kaasem : ' " My father being seated one day in the mosque which he usually * frequented, in the quarter of the Benou Haraam, there came in * an elderly man (Shaikh) clad in two ragged cloaks ( -xlL*J* * see pag. 384, note 1), and with all the appearance of a destitute 1 Herr Peiper, in the Preface to his improved translation of the five Makamat published by Schultens, disputes the accuracy of this account, on the ground that Hariri states in his Peroration that he was compelled by poverty to offer his Makamat for sale. His words are, ' Vix dives haberi potest ille qui dicit "mala fortuna coactus hsec mercimonia, quibus publicse reprehensioni me expono, venum dedi;" octodecim palmorum millia Me- sbani genti potius quam ipsi Haririo fuisse existimes.' It is clear, however, that he has misunderstood and mistranslated Hariri's metaphorical language, where, speaking of himself and his work with diffidence and modesty, and disclaiming the imputation of forwardness to publish it, he calls his Mak- amat 'worthless wares, deserving to be sold rather than bought, which he had been constrained [by the importunities of his friends] (as appears from the commentators) to present to the public, and, as it were, to proclaim (cry) in the market-place of criticism' phrases used in a sense purely metapho- rical, with respect to the publication of the work, and without any reference to the sale of it ; for in those days (before printing was invented) no profit could be made by the sale of a book ; and the only pecuniary advantage which could possibly result to an author from publication, was a casual reward from a rich man, who might be pleased with his work, or at whose request it might have been edited. The passage from which M. Peiper has derived the too hasty inference by which he has attempted to throw discredit /< on the statement of Ibn Khalekan, occurs in the Peroration of the Makamat IN^ of Hariri, pag. 687, De Sacy's edit. INTRODUCTION. 7 ' wayfarer, but who spoke with fluency, and expressed himself ' with great elegance ; and when asked by the people present who * and whence he was, told them that he was Abou-Zaid of Seroug. ' Astonished at finding such eloquence in one so indigent, my father ' went home and composed concerning him the Makamah entitled ' that of the Mosque Beni Haraam, in the form of an anecdote ' narrated by Abou-Zaid himself. This Makamah was published, * and being read by Abou-Nasr Anoushirwan, Vizeer of the * Khaliph Mostarshid Billahi, an erudite and talented person and ' an author of history, it pleased him so much, that he engaged my * father to write more of the same sort 1 , which he did, and com- ' pleted their number to fifty. It is to this Vizeer that my father ' alludes in the Preface of his Makamat, where he speaks of a * personage, a suggestion from whom is obligatory, and obedience * to whose behests is clear gain." I found, says Ibn Khalekan, an * account similar to this in many historical works ; but happening to * be at Cairo in the year 656 (A. H.), I saw there a copy of several * of the Makamat in Hariri's own hand-writing, with an inscrip- ' tion on the cover, stating that such was the case, and that ' they had been composed expressly for Jelaal-addeen Ibn Sadakah, ' who, as well as Anourshirwan (above mentioned) was a Vizeer of ' Mostarshid Billahi ; and this account is certainly more to be * relied on than the other, as having been written by the author's ' own hand. There is also a discrepancy in the accounts of the 1 This account from the mouth of Hariri's son does not agree with the whole of the account given by Hariri himself in his preface, (pag. 25), where ho states that it was a conversation about the Makamat of a preceding author, Al Hamadani, that suggested to the Vizocr to request him to com- pose some after that model, ' however difficult it might be for him,' as ho says, ' to try to equal the excellence of so distinguished an author.' 8 INTRODUCTION. ' reason that suggested to Hariri to make a person named Abou- ' Zaid 1 the principal character who displays his eloquence in all the ' Makamat. One account is that given above. Another narrated ' by Jamaal-addeen Ibn Yousouf, governor of Aleppo, in his ' " Biography of Grammarians," is that " Hariri intends under this ' name to represent a pupil of his own, one Motahher Ibn Salaam, * a native of Basra, who cultivated grammar and lexicography, ' and having pursued his studies under the auspices and with ' the assistance of Hariri, became thereby a great adept hi them, ' insomuch that on one occasion he repeated by heart to the ' governor of Waset a grammatical work of Hariri, written in ' verse, entitled Moulhat Al Irab (the beauties of Syntax)." The ' name Hareth Ibn Hammam, by which Hariri designates the ' reporter of Abou-Zaid's adventures and performances in the ' Makamat, is also fictitious. Many commentators assert that he ' intends thereby to denote himself 2 . The name is borrowed from 1 Whoever the original of the Abou-Zaid in the Makamat may have been, it is evident that this is a fictitious name, being one of the most ordi- nary that could be selected. The name Zaid is used by the Arabs to denote ' any man whatever/ (e. g. in the examples of grammatical rules) and cor- responds nearly with the Hebrew "0172 or the Greek 6 Seu/a, or the English 'such an one,' so that the name ' Abou-Zaid' is equivalent to 'any body's father,' and is analogous to that of the corresponding character in the Makamat of Al Hamadani, viz. Abou'l Fateh (* the young man's father'), a name, as Hariri himself observes (pag. 25), ' too ordinary -and general to be recognised as the designation of a particular individual.' 2 This is not improbable ; because Hareth is always represented in the Makamat as a native of Basra, as generally in easy circumstances, as en- gaged in trade, as a tolerable proficient in literature, and as entertaining a great admiration for feats of eloquence like those of Abou-Zaid all cir- cumstances which characterized Hariri himself. INTRODUCTION. 9 ' an expression attributed to Mohammed, who said to his followers, ' " each of you is a Hareth, and every one of you a Hammam." ' The word " Hareth" signifies " one who acquires gain by trade ' or other means," and Hammam, " one who is subject to cares . ' and anxieties," so that there is not an individual of mankind * to whom these names may not be properly applied 1 . I have ' read in a collection of narratives that Hariri at first composed ' no more than forty Makamat. He brought them with him ' from Basra to Baghdad, and there published them as his own * work, but many literary persons would not believe that he was * the author of them, declaring that they were composed by a ' very eloquent Moor, who had come to Baghdad and died there, ' and whose papers had fallen into Hariri's hands. The Vizeer ' hearing of this summoned him to his court, and asked him what ' was his profession ; he replied that he was a Mounshee (a com- ' posing scribe). Thereupon the Vizeer commanded him to com- ' pose a letter in a high style of eloquence on a subject that he ' gave him. Hariri retired into a corner of the court with a pen * and paper, but remained a long time utterly at fault, and was at ' last obliged to withdraw in confusion. Among those who had ' accused him of plagiarism was one Ibn Allah, a poet, who on ' occasion of this failure of Hariri composed the following satirical ' lines : ' " We have a doctor who claims descent from Rabiah Al Fares 2 , ' " Who in his folly and imbecility pulls out the hairs 3 of his beard ; 1 The name Hareth Ibn Hammam is therefore as general and indetermi- nate as Abou-Zaid. 2 A very eloquent Arab of ancient times. 3 A habit of Hariri when in deep meditation. 10 INTRODUCTION. ' " May God send him to display his eloquence at Meshan l , ' "As he has smitten him in the court of the Vizeer with utter silence." ' Hariri after this discomfiture returned home and composed ten ' more Makamat, which he sent to Baghdad, in order to convince ' the literary there that his failure had been the effect of the ' awe with which he was seized in the august presence of the ' Vizeer of Baghdad, and not the result of incapacity 2 . ' Beside his Makamat, Hariri composed several other excellent ' works ; e. g. (l) a treatise on the errors of style discoverable in ' good authors, (2) the grammatical poem above mentioned (in the ' style of the Alfyia of Ibn Malek), on which he wrote a com- ' mentary himself ; (3) a collection of letters, and (4) many poems, * full of alliterations and plays of words, beside those that occur in * the Makamat 3 . ' Hariri is said to have been of so mean and ill-favoured an ' appearance that a stranger, who visited him with the intention ' to engage him as an instructor, conceived an instantaneous con- 1 Meshan was the residence of Hariri, and also a place of exile for those who had offended the court of Baghdad, being selected for that purpose because it had the reputation of being very unwholesome ; so that the intro- duction of its name in the above verses is not without point. 2 It is probable, however, that Hariri's Makamat were composed with great labour on his part; of this at least they bear every mark, though many of the compositions which they contain profess to be improvisa- tions. That absolute correctness in which the most accurate critics have failed to discover more than a few very small flaws, (and those by no means unquestionable), could scarcely but be the result of assiduous and severe application. 3 Of these Ibn Khalekan here gives several specimens. INTRODUCTION. 11 ' tempt for him on that account. Hariri perceived this, and when * asked by him to recite some verses, addressed him in the fol- ' lowing lines : * " Thou art not the first traveller whom moon-shine has deceived, * "Nor the first explorer (sent before a tribe to find a place of encampment) who has been deluded by fallacious 1 verdure. * " Seek an instructor who will suit thee better than I ; ' " Since, as for me, I am like Moadd 2 one whom you should hear spoken of rather than see." ' The meaning of the word Makamah, as used by Hariri, is thus explained by Motarrezi, one of his commentators. 'It primarily ' signifies (agreeably to its derivation from ^15) "a place where ' one stands upright," (just as " Medglis" signifies " a place where 'one sits"), and hence, "the place where one is at any tune." ' Next it is used metonymically to denote " the persons assembled ' in any place," and finally, by another transition, " the discourses ' delivered or conversations held in any such assembly." (The same ' remarks apply to the word " Medglis," which by a similar extension ' of meaning is used in the same sense as " Makamah.") Similarly, ' the word f\*~ " heaven" is used to express not only " the ' clouds" but the "rain" which falls from them; and "rain" is ' called " haya," " life," because it enlivens the herbs and trees 3 .' 1 Sec pag. 134, note 1, on the phrase 'greenness of a dung-heap,' a metaphor for falsely-fair appearances. 2 A person proverbial for high reputation but ill-favoured aspect. 9 A still closer analogy with this use of this word Makamah has been noticed in the Latin phrases ' concionem habere,' aut ' legore,' for ' oratiouom ' habcre', aut ' legere.' 12 INTRODUCTION. This metaphorical use of the word Makamah has however been restricted to discourses and conversations like those nar- rated by Hariri and his predecessor Al Hamadani, which are composed in a highly finished and ornamental style, and solely for the purpose of exhibiting specimens of various kinds of eloquence, and exemplifying rules of grammar, rhetoric, and poetry. It is never applied to the colloquies of ordinary life, like those narrated in ' The Thousand and One Nights ' for the purpose of mere amuse- ment, and not instruction. f Hariri tells us (in his Preface, pag. 25) that Badiah Al I Zamaan Al Hamadani was the first who wrote this species of ' composition. He speaks of him in terms of the most unqualified praise, though not without an evident feeling of chagrin that his own ground should have been so ably preoccupied, and that Badiah should have been preferred to himself by his contem- poraries merely on account of his priority of time. Such indeed appears to have been the case, for Shareeshi says that when one of the critics of his time was asked which of the two he admired most, he replied, ' Hariri never acquired the title of " Wonder of a day," and how should he be put in comparison with one who had the title "the Wonder of all time?"' (such is the signification of ' Badiah Al Zamaan/ the surname of that author.) His name was Ahmed Abou-Al-Fadel. He was called Al Hamadani from Hamadan or Hamadthan, ..^tX.^ in Persia, which was his native place, as appears from the following verses : (V ' Hamadthan is my country, so that I should speak in its praise, INTRODUCTION. J3 * But it is one of the most villanous l of countries : ' Its young men are like its 'old ones in villany, ' And its old ones like young men in understanding.' Al Hamadani was celebrated not only for his Makamat, but his elegant epistles, of which Ibn Khalekan gives several specimens. His Makamat are shorter than those of Hariri, but more numerous. He is said to have written four hundred, only a small part of 1 This blame is less to be wondered at, as we find another poet saying, U J^> \Q CyJJl JjljJ -flcjJl ^R^l I J Lo oj jj Uj jjJJc* ' May Hamadthan be blest with timely rain ! I say no otherwise, ' Though I left it with a tire [of disappointment] burning within me. ' And why should I not be sincere in good wishes for a town ' In which I succeeded in forgetting every thing I had learnt, ' In which I forgot every thing profitable that I knew, and only came away ' With the recollection that I was in debt without a shilling in my house ?* Ahmed Ibn Yusuf says of it in his Topographical Dictionary : 'Its inhabitants are courteous of speech, and excellent in disposition, ' and you can never see any one in sadness, though ho have reason to ' bo so, but mirth and joy are universal there. Nevertheless, they are with ' reason accused of frivolity, and weakness of mind, and one of them has well said, "Thou wilt not blame me for the feebleness of my understanding ' When thou art assured that I am a native of Hamadthan.' 14 INTRODUCTION. which are extant. De Sacy has published several of them with a translation in his Chrestomathie, and one or two have also been edited by M. G. de Lagrange in his Anihologie. De Sacy, as already stated, prefers his taste to that of Hariri, because 'he does not affect to employ at once all the riches of the language and all the resources of rhetoric.' He was a most able and accomplished poet, surpassing all his contemporaries. According to Ibn Khalekan he died at Herat in Persia, where he had resided most of his life, being buried when in a state of coma, before he was really dead. Shareeshi says, that he could improvise a Makamah in verse or prose without premeditation on any subject proposed to him; which it appears from an anecdote narrated above that Hariri was unable to do. The Arabic commentators on Hariri are very numerous. De Sacy compiled his Commentaire Choisi chiefly out of those of Al Shareeshi, Al Motarrezi, Al Razi, and Al Okbari. Beside these there have been forty or fifty more. The translator has found the elaborate annotations of Shareeshi a most valuable accompa- niment to De Sacy's commentary, and has been enabled by means of them to elucidate satisfactorily many difficult passages which De Sacy passes over almost in silence. This author (Ahmed Abou-Al-Abbas) was surnamed Al Sha- reeshi from his native place Sharesh (Xeres) in Andalucia. His commentary is the most voluminous that has been written on the Makamat. Hadgi Kalfa, who says that it renders all others super- fluous, places his death in A.H. 619. His explanations are certainly very clear, complete, and valuable ; but he is fond of displaying the extent of his reading, and encumbers his pages with a pro- fusion of quotations from poets, many of which are but remotely connected with the subject. INTRODUCTION. 15 The commentary of Borhan-addeen Al Motarrezi of Khonaresm, who died A.H. 610, is valuable as a treatise on the rhetorical beauties of Hariri. He confines himself in his remarks almost exclusively to discussions on the anomalous grammatical con- structions with which the Makamat abound, and furnishes very little explanation of verbal difficulties. In his preface he gives a most complete account of the various forms of metaphor and simile in use among elegant writers, and exemplifies them from Hariri. De Sacy has borrowed largely from him in the more diffuse and profound parts of his Commentaire Choisi, as well as from Shems-addeen Al Razi. The work of Moheb-addeen Al Okbari of Baghdad (ob. A.H. 610), to which he occasionally refers, is a sort of vocabulary of the rare words hi the Makamat. It will be observed, that the principal commentators on Hariri wrote about 100 years after his death, hi the first half of the 13th century of our aera. Beside those above mentioned, the trans- lator has availed himself of a very excellent running commentary in two volumes, contained in the Burckhardt collection of the Cam- bridge University Library. In this MS. the text is written in red letters, and the commentary inserted between the clauses of the text in black so as to complete and elucidate the sense of the original, after the manner of the commentary of the Jelaalain on the Koran. It is a very lucid and valuable work, and well deserves to be edited. The grand edition of the Makamat, in folio, by the Baron Silvestre de Sacy is too celebrated to require description. As the performance of one who was not a native Arab, and to whom the Arabic was known only as a classical language, (for though he wrote it in perfection, he could not converse in it) it is a marvel- lous conquest of difficulty and triumph of accuracy. Strictures 16 INTRODUCTION. have been written upon it in Arabic by Naseef Al Yazigi, a learned native of Beyrout now living, and translated into Latin by Herr Mehren, but the blemishes (if such they can be called) which his critical research has discovered are extremely few and trivial, seldom exceeding two or three in the commentary on each Ma- kamah. De Sacy gives a specimen of the translation of the Makamat into Hebrew by a Jewish Rabbi of Andalucia, Jehuda Alkharizi. It is in rhyming prose, with a translation of the poetry into Hebrew verse, the names Ithiel and Chabar being substituted for Hareth and Abou-Zaid. It is a very close imitation of Hariri's work. About the year 1291 A.D. one Abaad Jesu, in obedience to the order of the Patriarch, composed a work in Syriac in imitation of the Makamat, to convince the Arabs that their language was not the only one that possessed flexibility or copiousness. How far he succeeded the translator is unable to say. Before the edition of De Sacy, the Makamat had been printed at Calcutta in 1809, 1812, and 1814, with an Arabic and Persian glossary ; and at Paris in 1818. A reprint of De Sacy's work has been edited in quarto by MM. Reinaud and Derenbourg in 1847, to which they promise French annotations and an index. Mention has already been made of the elegant Travestie of the Makamat by the German poet Riickert. It possesses every merit with the exception of that of furnishing assistance to a student of the original. In versification, rhyme, and richness of phraseology, it rivals or surpasses the Makamat themselves, and is so well adapted to the taste of the literary German public, that in 1844 it had reached a third edition. M. Riickert has undoubtedly made his work more pleasing and attractive to a general reader by imitating Hariri in the form only and not in INTRODUCTION. 17 the details of the Makamat, but at the same time has deprived it of all utility as an explanatory accompaniment of the original. A few quotations will convince the reader of the truth of this remark. The prefatory Prayer of Hariri, of which a close translation is given below, pag. 20, appears in the following form at the beginning of Riickert's " Verwandlungen des Abu-Seid;" 'GottDir danken wir, wie fiir jede Habe, also auch fur die Redegabe; wie fiir des Hauses Ausgang und Eingang, so fiir des Geistes ausklang und einklang ; und wie fiir des Kleides An und Ablegung, so fur des Shines Ein und Auslegung ; Wir danken dir wie fiir Trarikung und Speisung, so fur Lenkung und Unterweisung, &c.' This direct and express reference to the ordinary comforts of life as a ground of thankfulness, is the most foreign that can be conceived to the design of Harm, whose work is of a purely literary character, and to whose intentions therein his prefatory prayer exclusively relates. Let us open again in the Mak. of Sowa (pag. 88, Vol. I. Riickert) where the translation given at pag. 265 of this Volume is as follows: * How long wilt thou manifold artifice try * To inveigle thy prey, and our censure defy ?' To which Abou-Zaid unhesitatingly replies, ' Cease chiding, and see if a man thou canst spy ' With the game in his hand, who to win will not try.' The corresponding passage in M. Riickert's book is this; ' O Abu-Seid, wie lange 'Willst du noch seyn die Schlange, 'Stets lauernd neucm Fange 4 Und wechselnd Haut um Haut ?* 3 18 INTRODUCTION. Er aber antwortete ohne Bangen und unbefangen: 'Mach dir mit Gottes Schutze 'Des Pred'ger's Wort zu Nutze 'Ihm unter die Kaputze 'Zu schaun ist un-erlaubt.' At page 86, Vol. II. the passage corresponding to that of the present translation (pag. 253) beginning "May God help thee, O Judge," is as follows: "Gottes Macht stiitze den Richter das er das Recht schiitze! Hier mein Pflegesohn ist ein stbckiges Pferd ein eingestocktes Schwerd, ein Bogen ein unbiegamer, ein Zogling ein unfiigsamer ein Schreibekiel, ein knarriger, ein scharriger ein storriger Bursch und starriger starsinniger, trotz- kopfiger hartnackiger, halstarriger mir unwillfahrig und fahrig widerspenstig und widerhaarig. All seine Art ist Unart, und jede seine Fahrt eine Unfahrt Widerwart ist sein Kleid und, Widerpart sein Geschmeid, &c." Again, the passage translated, " Nor despair of God's help, &c." (pag. 442 of this Volume) is thus paraphrased by M. Riickert. " Und verzweifle, solang' ein Weg dir frei stand nicht an Gottes Beistand! denn 'an Gottes Beistand verzweifeln allein die Unglaubigen' Doch wo du zu wahlen hast zwischen morgen und heut, zwischen dem was man verspricht und dem was man beut, so wisse ; besser ist jeder Handel baar denn Menschensinn und Geschick ist wandelbar : zwischen heut und mor- gen sind Griifte und zwischen Versprechen und Erf iillen Kliifte. Du aber gehe nicht tiefer ins Wasser als fester Sand ist, und lange nicht hoher als deine Hand ist; mische Wasser unter den Saft der Reben, und Sparen unter das Ausgeben : und da wo dir die Nahrung ausgeht, gehe geschwindest, denn dein Vaterland ist da wo du Weide findest. Sey iiberall gewandt und verschlagen, INTRODUCTION. 19 so kann es dir nichts verschlagen wohin dich die Winde vers- chlagen Niemand wird dich verschlagen." This and innumerable other passages are so diluted with extraneous words and meta- phors, as to make the style of Hariri himself appear terse and concise by comparison. Again, at page 165, Vol. II. of Ruckert's work, he has combined together two or three Makamat of Hariri in such a way that the result is a very good specimen of a Makamah, but can neither be called Hariri's, nor his own. Occasionally, however, when he has given the reins less freely to his fancy, he has produced an admirable version of a short passage, and this quite often enough to prove that he is an excellent Arabic Scholar, and that it is not by reason of deficient acquaintance with the original that he has departed so far from literal translation. His command of language is astonishing; and he could not have chosen a more appropriate field for the dis- play of it. The Latin version of five Makamat by A. Schultens is likely to perplex the student of the original by its frequent and great inaccuracies combined with the manifest purpose of the author to translate closely and correctly, inaccuracies to be attributed probably to the imperfection of the only Arabic commentary (that of Teblebi) to which he seems to have had access. The translator has not thought proper to discuss those errors in detail, leaving it to the critical reader to determine whether the numerous discrepancies between the present version of those five Makamat and that of Schultens are not absolutely necessary. 32 20 THE PREFATORY PRAYER OF AL HARIRI. Hariri, in accordance with Oriental custom, prefaces his work with a prayer for exemption from the failings to which authors are liable, and for aid to attain that elegance and purity of style of which he designed the Makamat to be a model. The translation of it is as follows : 'WE praise thee, O God 1 , ' For whatever perspicuity of language thou hast taught us, 'And whatever eloquence thou hast inspired us with, 'As we praise thee 'For the bounty which thou hast diffused, ' And the mercy which thou hast spread abroad : 'And we pray thee to guard us ' From extravagant expressions and frivolous superfluities, 'As we pray thee to guard us * From the shame of incapacity and the disgrace of hesitation : 'And we entreat thee to exempt us from temptation ' By the flattery of the admirer or connivance of the indulgent, 'As we entreat thee to exempt us from exposure ' To the slight of the detractor or aspersion of the defamer : 'And we ask thy forgiveness, 'Should our frailty betray us into ambiguities, A name used in addressing the Deity, probably derived from the Hebrew D^tT?^ though the Arab commentators are agreed that the Mim at the end is only a substitute for L> at the beginning, and that the word is equivalent to me to compose some Makamat, In which I should endeavour to follow the method of Badiah, 1 Literally, * whose wind has subsided.' The word ^ . is used to ex- press the ' prevalence of the power ' of an individual or state, see pag. 278. 2 See pag. 11. 3 See pag. 12. 4 This name should perhaps be written Hamadthan; for Ibn Khalekan (Biog. Diet. edit. De Slane, pag. 528, line 22) says the word must be spelt with j and not confounded with .Jjk^H an Arab tribe in Yemen. 5 The names Abou'l-Fateh and Ibn Hashaam correspond in the Makamat of Badiah with Abou-Zaid and Harcth Ibn Hammam in those of Hariri. 6 Here Hariri inserts the following remark : ' Both of these names are too ordinary to be recognised as designations], and too general to be known as belonging to an individual],' i.e. both the characters in the Makamat of Badiah arc entirely fictitious, and their names as common as those of Harcth and Abou-Zaid. 7 A Vizecr of the Khaliph Mostarshid Billahi. See pag. 7 26 THE PREFACE OF AL HARIRI. Notwithstanding the inability of one so feeble 1 as myself To attain the superiority of one so mighty in the course. In reply I reminded him of the well known adage 2 About the consequences of composing even two words, Or stringing 3 together only one or two verses; And begged " to be excused from occupying a position, Wherein the mind is perplexed and the fancy bewildered, Whereby the depth of the intellect is necessarily fathomed, And a man's real merit exposed to observation ; The occupier whereof is inevitably constrained To be like 4 one who gathers wood in the dark, Or who musters foot-soldiers and horsemen in one troop, And wherein he who says much is seldom secure, Or succeeds in having his mistakes overlooked :" But finding that he consented not to excuse 5 me, And desisted not from his demand upon me, 1 Literally, 'Although the lame Qhorse] never attains that victory in * the race which belongs to the strong and fleet courser.' .luJl is explained by the commentators xl 2 The adage referred to expresses that ' one who writes a book, or com- poses a poem, if he succeed in winning admiration, is thereby exposed to envy; and if he fail to please the public, becomes an object of contempt.' 3 See pag. 109, note 3, on the comparison of a poem to a string of pearls. 4 He means that an author runs the risk of making an indiscriminate choice of materials in consequence of the perplexity arising from the dif- ficulty of his task, or his apprehension of not satisfying those for whom he writes, and is therefore like a man gathering wood in the dark, who can- not distinguish between the good and the bad, or one who forms a troop of cavalry of men taken indiscriminately, and so runs the risk of mustering an undisciplined and ill-assorted army. 5 <3la! is a word primarily used in mercantile transactions, and means * the being let off a bargain/ or ' the letting another off a bargain.' The verb JjLjLs\ is derived from this word, and means literally 'to beg to be excused ; ' see line 6 of this page. THE PREFACE OF AL HARIRI. 27 I responded 1 to his invitation with obedient acquiescence, And displayed abundant zeal in complying with his desire Like one conscious of ability to perform the task; And I composed, in spite of hinderances that I suffered From dulness 2 of capacity, and dimness of intellect, And dryness of imagination, and distressing anxieties, These Makamat 3 , which contain serious language and lightsome, And combine refinement with dignity of style, And brilliancies with jewels of eloquence, 1 The verb ^J which occurs in this passage is derived from a phrase used in prayer by the pilgrims to Mecca, and means, primarily, to say CXxjJ i- e. ' Here I am and wait thy commands ; ' or, 'I am facing thee ' (from ^^1.> in the phrase 'my house faces his'); or, 'my love to thee' (from the word jjJ 'attached to a husband'); or, 'my sincerity to thee' (from (_AjJ in the phrase ' a pure lineage'). By an extension of meaning it implies secondarily 'to profess submission to God,' and is here used metaphorically in the sense ' to profess obedience to a superior.' Similarly, signifies 'a group of people,' 'because,' as Shareeshi says, 'they darken the ground by their shade ;' just as .Asr"* 'a person,' primarily means ' a dark spot.' 3 The two verses which Hariri quotes from an extraneous source in the Makamah of Holouan do not form a couplet but are quoted separately from different poems. See pag. 396, note 5, and pag. 401. 4 * Two others, twins ;' t. e. ' two which form a couplet iu the poem from which they are quoted.' See pag. 487- 3 Literally, 'pater virginitatis ejus;' or 'dominus primitiarum ejus,' a metaphor commonly used by Hariri, as above (vid. pag. 28), to denote ^ * originality of invention. Compare pag. 312, note 6. *].&. <3Lj. 9 Jub ' broach a virgin composition.' 8 ' He who first cut it out of the rude block, or solid wood.' 7 Literally, 'sweet or bitter,' i.e. 'good or bad,' as in the Makamah of Sowa: ^A\ eforehand with him ; a feeling which he displays 32 THE PREFACE OF AL HARIRI. And although I have introduced much frivolity 1 [into my work], And ventured to draw from a source 2 that is liable to censure, I still have hope that it may not be my fate therein To be like ' the animal that scraped up its bane with its own hoof 3 ,' Or, 'the man who mutilated his face with his own hand,' In being classed with those who fail in their performances, And whose course through life is one of error, While they imagine that they are doing everything aright. more distinctly in passages of the Makamat where he says that former authors were preferred merely on account of their priority in time, and not for any superiority of intrinsic worth that they possessed. Thus in the Makamah of Meragra, he upbraids his contemporaries for ' dignifying mould- ering bones, and slighting those among whom they lived, and whom friend- ship ought to have led them to prefer.' See pag. 314. 1 Literally, ' I hope that in the frivolity that I have had recourse to, and the [objectionable] source that I have ventured to resort to &c.' 2 i.e. ' diverting anecdote.' 3 He alludes here to two proverbial instances of self-injury, analo- gous to that which he deprecates. One of them is that of an Arab, who found a sheep in the desert, and wishing to kill it for food, had nothing to slaughter it with, until the sheep began to scrape on the ground and uncovered a knife, with which the Arab killed it. The other is an anecdote of one named Kozeir, alluded to in the Bedouin Makamah, pag. 278, where we find the proverb : * Kozeir had a good reason for cutting off his nose,' ctX>. Lo -<$ . Kozeir mutilated himself in this way in order to gain the confidence of a Queen named Zebbaa, who had murdered his master the King of Irak, a leper, who had sought her in marriage, pretend- ing to her that his master's nephew had inflicted that punishment upon him for not putting the King on his guard against her. The artifice succeeded so well in making her believe him a faithful friend, as having suffered from his master's relatives through his attachment to her cause, that he soon found opportunity to avenge his master on the murderess. There can be no doubt that the allusion of Hariri above is to this anecdote, because the word iX- is used here as well as in the Bedouin Makamah. It has the peculiar sense ' nasi apicem abscidit.' THE PREFACE OF AL HARIRI. 33 But though the intelligent and indulgent will connive at me, And the lenient 1 admirer will acquit me of blame ; Still I know that I am hardly likely to escape [calumny] From the dull and ignorant, or the malignant and prejudiced, Who may pretend to be unacquainted [with my motives], In their detracting from me on account of this publication, And representing it as of the class prohibited by our law 2 ; And yet whoever examines with an eye of intelligence, And makes good his insight into fundamental principles, Must place 3 my Makamat on the list of profitable productions, And class them along with those [fabulous] compositions 4 Whose subjects are taken from animate and inanimate nature ; jlsr* is primarily ' one who lowers the price of an article of sale to a friend in preference to others.' 2 The Mohammedan law was formerly very severe against books of amusement, nor was Omar singular in deeming all literature superfluous unless illustrative of the Koran. The cultivation even of Grammar and Rhetoric was encouraged solely on the ground of their utility in the elu- cidation of Koranic difficulties. 3 Literally, 'will string them on the thread of profitable things.' 4 i.e. such works as the 'fables of Lokman,' 'the Kalila wa Damna,' or the work of Ibn Arabshah entitled -tULsil d^lj which are much esteemed by the Arabs, being exempted from the general condemnation of works of amusement on account of the moral lessons which they convey, and the high origin of the * Kalila wa Damna,' which existed from remote times under the title of Hitupadasa ('exhibition of right doctrine') in the Sanscrit, and having been brought from India to the court of Kesra Nou- shirwan king of Persia (in the 41st year of whose reign Mohammed was born), and translated into Palvi by Birzoweieh the physician, was again translated into Arabic under the Khaliphate of Al Mamoun, and afterwards into modem Persian by Abou'l Maali, witli the title ' Anwari Soheili,' and revised by Hassan Kashefi, the author of the Persian commentary on the Koran. The Arabic version, which is very elegant, was printed at Boulac in the time of Mohammed Aali Paslia. 4 34 THE PREFACE OF AL HARIRI. And surely none will be found [however scrupulous] Whose ears are averse from listening to such narratives, Or who condemn the recital l of them on ordinary occasions. Besides, if intentions constitute the merit of a performance, And on these depends our being influenced by religious obligation, What blame can attach to one who has composed anecdotes, With the motive of conveying instruction, not deceptive display 2 , And sought therein the improvement of others, not mere fiction? Nay, does he not thereby occupy the same position As one who avows his assent to right doctrine, And 'leads mankind in the path of rectitude 3 '? However, 'For fondly cherished taste no praise I claim, ' Content if only unassailed by blame 4 .' 1 or ' reciters.' Si., is the plural participle of (jr.. ' narravit.' Vid. Gol. 2 & MJ is derived from the same root as >t< ' water,' and means ' the steeping of iron or brass in a metallic solution, to give it the appearance of silver or gold,' and hence ' deception by means of false display.' 3 A quotation from the first Surah of the Koran, 4 This is a quotation from a poet who entreats his beloved not to reproach him for cherishing his passion however unavailing, saying that 'he will be content to relinquish all claim to a return of his love, pro- vided that he is only exempt from blame on account of it.' Since the words ^aJb may mean ' taste' or ' caprice' as well as ' love,' Hariri em- ploys this quotation to express that 'in acquitting himself of his self- imposed task he will be content to claim no praise, provided only that he is exempt from blame for thus indulging his taste.' The literal translation is, 'However I am content to bear my love (or 'taste') and to be quit of it without any debt upon me or to me ;' L e. ' without incurring blame or acquiring merit.' Compare note 3, pag. 286, on the idiomatic use of the prepositions _Le and J to express respectively 'liability' and 'claim.' THE PREFACE OF AL HARIRI. 35 And to God I trust for assistance in my undertaking, For preservation from what is reprehensible, And for guidance to all that leads right; Since there is no refuge to be found but in Him, And no help to be sought but from Him, And no success to be obtained but through Him, And no secure asylum but He ; On Him therefore I rely, and to Him I have recourse. %* The following Makamah is placed first, because the incidents nar- rated in it led to the composition of the whole work, and the principal character is introduced at once to the reader, the narration being put into his mouth; whereas in all the rest Hareth is the narrator. The occasion of the composition of this Makamah is thus explained in Hariri's own words, according to Al Razi : ' Abou-Zaid was a mendicant Shaikh, of great eloquence, who often visited Basra. One day he came into the mosque of the Benou Haraam where I was praying, when it happened to be full of literary persons. He told us that the Greeks had captured his daughter, and that he was unable to ransom her; and we were so much moved by his eloquence that we granted him the desired relief. In the evening I had a party of friends at my house, to whom I related what had occur- red, describing to them the eloquence and address of this mendicant ; when some of them stated that on the same day they too had met with Abou- Zaid in other mosques, and that he had told a different story in each with similar eloquence and success. My admiration was so much excited by his wonderful versatility and powers of improvisation, that I began that very night the composition of the Makamah of the mosque Beni Haraam, in which I imitated his style, and represented him as narrating his own performance. As soon as it was finished, I read it to a party of friends. They expressed approbation of my performance, and reported it to the vizeer of Basra, who persuaded me to compose more on the same model.' 42 THE MAKAMAH OF THE THE WORDS OF ABOU-ZAID OF SEROUG. PjTNCE the day when I first equipped my camel, ^ And journeyed away from my wife and my children 2 , I was always as eager as the oppressed for deliverance To make a visit in person 3 to the city of Basra 4 , 1 This mosque was in the street of the Benou Haraam, a tribe of Bedouin Arabs who had settled in Basra. Of all places of public resort mosques are the most frequented by mendicants, because almsgiving being a religious duty of Moslemin the claims of the indigent are most likely to be attended to by them there. The same was the case with the synagogues of the Hebrews. In the third Sat. of Juvenal, when a miscreant wishes to insult a passer-by by calling him a beggar, he says to him, ' In qua te quaero proseucha?' and it appears from Acts, ch. iii., that lame, blind, and impo- tent persons used to sit in the porches of the temple in the early times of the Christian asra. Observe that in the title of this Makamah, viz. 'The Makamah of the Beni Haraam,' there is an ellipsis of the word ' Mosque' before ' Beni Haraam ' which is the genitive case of Benou Haraam. 2 Literally, ' my planting.' Conf. Isai. Ix. 21, ^JSD "CM * the branch of my planting,' and Ps. cxxviii. 3, ' Thy children shall be like olive- branches.' 3 The phrase in the original is equivalent to Ju'JO .*ajyH > \\ . 4 This city is to be distinguished from the much more ancient Bosrah THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. 37 The high repute of its remarkable sites 1 and learned men, And the traditional renown of its shrines and martyrs Having been confirmed to me by the united testimony of all Who possessed accurate knowledge, or correctness in reporting: in the Houraan, which is written by the Arabs ^-nj whereas Basra on the Tigris is written SfOi . ' Basra,' the scene of this Makamah, and eulogized by Hariri, is com- paratively a modern place; it was founded A.H. 15, by command of the Khaliph Omar, in order to interrupt the communication of the Persians, with whom he was then at war, with India, down the united streams of the Tigris and Euphrates. The river Ailah, which falls into the Tigris close to it, waters its gardens, and makes them so fruitful that it is reckoned one of the four earthly paradises by the Arabs, (the rest being the vales of Damascus, Shiraz, and Samarcand JuuJI.) It was remarkable during the Khaliphate for its population, and for the great number of its mosques. There was a celebrated market-place there, called Merbad, where poems and other compositions used to be recited aloud, a practice which gave rise to so much literary emulation, that the city became one of the most famous for learning in the East. Basra had a famous school of grammar, which rivalled that of Koufa; and Arab grammarians are divided into the two schools of the Koufiyans and the Basriyans. See the notes on the Maka- mah of Basra, pages 455, 456, &c. of this Volume. 1 Literally, ' on account of the unanimous consent of the possessors of accurate knowledge, and authors of (correct) reports, concerning the pecu- liar excellencies of its remarkable places and learned men, and the cele- brities of its places of resort (as ' the shrines of saints, mosques,' &c.) and its martyrs.' The words which seem in the translation to be coupled together somewhat incongruously, are placed in juxta-position in the original merely on account of their rhyme and alliteration, and not with respect to their meaning, and therefore cannot be expected to produce a pleasing effect in translation. \-^*r is the plural of Ju^-i , and means, 4 martyrs to the faith of Islam,' such as fell in the early wars between the first Khaliphs and the Persians, and were buried and enshrined in Basra or its neighbourhood. These tombs were visited as objects of groat sanctity ; and the existence of such sites in their neighbourhood was regarded as THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HAEAAM. And I ceased not 1 to pray God to let me tread on its soil, That I might enjoy the delightful prospect of it, And to entreat Him to place 2 me within its precincts, That I might be able to explore every quarter of it. Now when good fortune had at last brought me to it, And my eyes had surveyed it in every direction, I found there whatever could fill the eye with cheerfulness 3 , Or beguile a stranger from the recollection 4 of his home. So one morning, when the shades 5 of night were disappearing, highly advantageous to the inhabitants, who could not fail to be benefited and blest by the saints whom they thus honoured; and was therefore an inducement to pious Moslemin to take up their abode or to sojourn there. 1 The words (^Jj Lc ' I ceased not,' are to be supplied here before in the original from a preceding clause. See the third line of the translation. 2 Literally, 'to make me to ride on its back.' 3 or, ' coolness ;' refrigeration being regarded by the Arabs as identical with refreshment and delight. Comp. pag. 213, note 1. 4 Comp. Mak. xxix. (pag. 352, De Sacy), where, describing a Khan, he says, that ' the company there was so agreeable, and the place itself so pleasant, that any stranger would be inclined to make it his home, and to forget his native place however dear to him.' 5 Literally, 'stains.' c-jLdi- means primarily 'the stains of henna on a woman's hand,' and J^ is the verb used to express ' the disappearance or wearing off of these stains, when it becomes necessary to renew them.' We find the same metaphor used for ' the disappearance of the shades of night before the morning light,' in the Makamah of Damietta, in the words 'the morning was wiping off her dark stains/ i.e. "those shades of night which were still mixed with her dawning light ;' where the verb (^*L> is used, which primarily means 'to wash off the stains of henna.' The henna here alluded to, is not the red henna applied to the nails, THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. 39 And the bird of announcement 1 was calling to the sleepers, I arose early to explore the streets of the town, And to satisfy my desire of penetrating into the midst of it ; And by traversing it, and walking to and fro throughout it, I was brought at last to a quarter remarkable for its sanctity, And named after the tribe Benou-Haraam 2 who occupied it, Which contained mosques 3 that were much frequented, And fountains that were much resorted to, And well-constructed buildings, and agreeable dwellings, That possessed peculiar excellences and many advantages ; but the dark grey or lead-coloured, with which Oriental females dye the inside of their hands and feet, and other parts of the body. See note, pag. 402, on the lines, ' Her fingers that, with henna dight, 'Seem purple grapes in cluster bright.' To the red henna applied to the nails there is possibly an indirect al- lusion in the Homeric epithet of ' morning,' poSodaWuAos, since Homer was an Ionian, and the practice in question is of unknown antiquity in the East. 1 Literally, 'the father of admonition.' The same bird is also called by the Arabs .^UaAjJ! *)\ 'father of wakcfulness.' For a number of similar epithets of different animals, see pag. 439, below. Conf. the Mo- allakah of Labid, line 61, . j l^cbJ <_^fc ^^ 1^1* Jcil *js?"t ^^ V 1 ^^- ^^ ' I begin with wine earlier than the cock crows in the morning,' &c. 2 A tribe of Bedouins that, like many others in Baghdad and Basra, had left the desert and settled in a town. 3 Ajg****"* ' mezquitas,' the smaller mosques or ' prayer houses,' fre- quented by the inhabitants of particular quarters for the performance of daily prayers and ablutions ; of which Basra contained a very great number. The word Ag*"-' is to be distinguished from *-- ' a cailiedral mosque' frequented by all the inhabitants of a city on the Friday c^sr /.>. Soc pag. 452, note 2, below. 40 THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. There 1 thy companions thou mayst choose 2 From every class and kind ; For some there are who still devote To pleasure all their mind, And some, in true devotion's path Who all their pleasure find ; Some choral music 3 loving best, Some on Koran 3 to muse ; Some skilled to extract 4 from hardest books The meaning most abstruse, 1 These verses in the original are full of paronomasia, a species of alli- teration, which the translator has attempted to imitate. 2 Literally, ' in that place there is whatever you please to desire, religious or worldly, and neighbours who differ widely from one another in character and occupations.' jW< here means 'sentiments,' 'motives of action.' 3 ' You will find one zealously devoted to ^studying] the texts of the Koran, and another practised in the harmonies of musical strings.' The name ^ \JUJ1 is sometimes, as here, applied to the whole Koran, either because it is constantly perused and recited, or because it is charged throughout with a double import, and contains both blessings for the right- eous, and threatenings for the wicked. Sometimes the first chapter of the Koran (Surah Al-Faatahah) by itself is called by this name, (as in the Makamah of the Denar, see pag. 127, n te 4), because it is more frequently repeated in prayers and exorcisms than any other, or because it is used as a form of thanksgiving. The entire Koran is also called -jliij because ' it furnishes a distinctive criterion between right and wrong/ The second .Jlxo of this clause in the original means 'double-toned musical strings ;' see pag. 306, note 6, below. 4 ' There is one mighty in eliciting and explaining the meanings of pas- sages of books (especially the Koran), and another intent on relieving the enthralled.' 4 _ / axsr J is ' the complete exegesis of the full meanings .jU of sen- tences.' Both these words are technically used in rhetoric by the Arabs. THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. 41 Some swift to extricate the mean From hardship and abuse ; Some 1 who, though dear it cost their eyes, No toil in reading spare 2 , And some who spare no cost that guests The ready meal may share ; 1 Literally, 'there are many given to reading (recitation of the Koran) and many to hospitality.' The verb \3 means primarily 'to read the Koran ..^j aloud in recita- tive,' and hence 'to quote from the Koran.' ^^J on the contrary means 'to shew hospitality,' 'to furnish meals to guests.' See the Makamah of Koufa, (pag. 218, line 8,) ' How should a needy wretch furnish a hospitable meal ? ' ,_$ jjj t_j^j 8 'The former (those given to reading) wear out eyes [with reading] and the latter (those given to hospitality) wear out broad dishes [jn en- tertaining guests].' Some commentators say that the meaning of the first part of this clause is, that ' there are those who read the Koran in a manner so plaintive and heart-stirring, as to move their hearers to tears of penitence, and thereby to wear out their eyes ; ' but it is more natural to understand it as referring to the injury done to the eyes of the readers themselves by constant ap- plication to study. ' Broad dishes ' were necessary for the entertainment of guests among the Arabs, since for that purpose they ordinarily slaugh- tered camels or horses. Compare the xxvth Makamah (pag. 295, Do Sacy, line 1) ^Ja\ is\>\. .*> Q^*J 'The well-fed camels complained of the mornings of my hospitable entertainments,' (because many of them were slaughtered for guests to feast upon). Compare also pag. 578, DC S. icy's Hariri; and the Moallakah of Amrou Al Kais, line 11, 'On that day I killed my camel to feast the maidens, * (And how strange it was to see them carrying the saddle and trappings), 'They continued helping each other to the roasted flesh, 'And the delicate fat like the fringe of finely woven white silk.' 42 THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. "Tis there that liberal arts abound 1 , And best of sages meet, 'Tis there that bounty's 2 liberal hand Bestows her blessings sweet, And there that beauty's tuneful band 3 The hearer sweetly greet ; In the Lamiyah Al Agam, allusion is made to the same practice, with a play of words like that in the above passage of Hariri, the author prais- ing the beauty of the women and bounty of the men of a tribe, by stating that the former kindled a fire in the hearts of lovers, and the latter caused a fire to be lighted on the heights, in order to announce that camels and horses had been slain for the entertainment of guests. ^ cV a v. *i*\ Which may be paraphrased thus : ' 'Tis there that beauty ever darts ' The flame of love to youthful hearts ; 'And smitten lovers helpless lie, * Or else are doomed for love to die. 'There bounty ever kindles high 'The flame of hospitality; ' And camel choice and stately steed ' Full oft are doomed for guests to bleed.' 1 ' There is many a school of learning there (or ' many a learned man ') to give instruction.' 2 'And many an assembly for beneficence, whose liberality is delightful to all ; ' (or, ' many a person who invites Bothers]] to receive his bounty.') 3 ' And many an abode wherein are unceasingly heard warbling the har- monious voices and songs of damsels so beautiful as to need no ornament.' Vid. Golium in verbo AC p. 1738. Compare pag. 197, line 1. 'Where, thy goblets to supply, ' Tuneful beauties wait around, ' Warmed by glances of whose eye, 'Mirth and soft desires abound.' THE MAKAMAH OP BENI HARAAM. 43 And there thou mayst a playful friend 1 , Or prayerful, freely choose, Improve 2 a wise man's company, Or cups of wine abuse. Now while I explored the streets and surveyed their beauty, Until the westering of the sun and the approach of evening, I observed a remarkably excellent and well-frequented mosque 3 , Where the people were discussing the interchangeable letters 4 , And coursing along as it were in the arena of controversy; So I turned aside to them, intending to solicit 5 their bounty, 1 Literally, ' Then join, if thou choosest, the prayerful, or have recourse to the wine-bins.' 2 ' There thou hast the opportunity, released from any bridle of restraint on thy choice, of consorting with the clever and wise, or of addicting thy- self to wine-cups.' 3 ' A mosque remarkable for its advantages (i. e. its spaciousness, its fountains, &c.), and agreeable with respect to the character of the wor- shippers who frequented it.' 4 'Had entered on discussion about the letters of transposition.' He alludes to the substitution of Aleph for Waw in j^| (from Jo-.); the interchange of I and t in the conjugation of verbs beginning with ^ ; of I and j in verbs that have \ for their initial letter; of Aleph and Yod in the termination of verbs that end in these letters; of Aleph and "Wav in verbs like ; &c. s 3 Literally, 'to beg rain from their *y* or 'to look for rain from them, S as from the jy ' t. e. ' to seek gifts from their bounty.' ' Rain ' is here, as s usual, a metonym for 'gifts;' and ^J [which primarily means ' the setting of one star and simultaneous rising of another (the Pleiades ?) after which rain begins in Arabia,' and hence 'the tokens of approaching rain'] is metaphorically used to express 'bounty.' In the forty-fourth Makamah (pag. 579, line 5, De Sacy) a hospitable man is represented as declaring that ' he was always ready to entertain quests, though all the world beside were 44 THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. Not from any desire to learn their opinions on grammar; But sooner than a person in haste can snatch a firebrand 1 The calls of the Muezzins were heard summoning to prayer, And the appearance of the Imaum 2 followed their call ; So that the discussion was necessarily interrupted 3 , And the people bestirred themselves to rise 4 and stand up. unwilling to do so,' which he expresses by saying, 'though the soil of the country has become dry, and the rising and setting of the stars of rain has been niggardly,' i.e. 'has not brought or been followed by rain as usual,' There is a similar expression to this in the Aiyah of Ibn Fared, line 9, where he says, that the tears he shed for the absence of his friend were so copious that * water would abound even if the rising and setting of the stars of rain had brought no showers in a year when drought had descended on the land.' ^- kiuo 3\ i-J^a)! ^ ^a 1 Compare the following verse : \j\j jjjgjJjU <^0 \j\j ' A visitor who just comes and goes, as hastily as one snatching a firebrand.' Other phrases in the Makamat expressing ' an instant of time' are ' as long as a spark shines,' ' as long as it takes to point with the finger,' ' the time of saying No.' See pag. 248, note 1. 2 i. e. ' the priest who leads the devotions of the worshippers in a mosque.' 4- He stands on a suggestum Juu> and the people in rows U~s before him ; and he sometimes faces them, when reading the Koran or preaching, and sometimes turns his back on them when praying towards Mecca, pag. 53, n.l. 3 ' The swords of speech were sheathed.' Conf. pag. 426, note 4, ' Then he sheathed his tongue like a sword.' 4 Literally, 'the loops were loosed for standing up.' This and similar expressions in the Makamat are allusions to a practice of the Arabs in squatting on the ground, to support themselves in that position, in the absence of a wall to lean against, by either clasping their arms round their shins, or fastening a turban or garment round them so as to hold THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. And I was thus diverted 1 by the duties of devotion From endeavouring to procure the means of maintenance, And prevented by God's worship from seeking man's bounty. But when our obligatory 2 prayers were finished, And the congregation was about to disperse, There came from the midst of them a man of sweet eloquence, Who united with a graceful manner and address Fluency of speech and consummate 3 power of rhetoric ; Who thus addressed us, * O my neighbours, whom I preferred above my countrymen 4 , their legs and thighs together. When they rise up, this sort of loop is necessarily loosed. The position is neither graceful nor commodious, but natural enough in default of chairs. So in Mak. xvi. (pag. 179, De Sacy) U*--* Ull5 \Asrl ^1 IjLs* 'So they rose up to me (literally, 'they loosed the loops to me') and said, Welcome.' Mak. xvii. (pag. 198, De Sacy) Uar! UIL*. ,^\ -\ *J ^jJuuuJl 'Then he fastened a loop like the rest of the company,' i.e. 'he sat down with them.' See also Mak. xxxiii. (pag. 423, line 5, De Sacy). 1 Literally, 'I was too much engaged in standing in prayer to seek to provide food for my maintenance.' 2 (jOJiM are 'the obligatory and prescribed prayers and prostrations,' S as distinguished from those of supererogation, ^Jjo . See pag. 469, note 1, below. 3 'Eloquence like that of Qthe celebrated] Hassan of Basra.' 4 Literally, ' the branches of my own tree.' In the Makamah of IIo- louan, pag. 395, note 3, Harcth calls his native land ' the place where his tree first sprouted,' (t. e. ' where he first grew up like a tree.') The speaker here means that since lie had taken up his residence among the inhabitants of Basra in preference to remaining in his native country, he had obtained some claim to their regard and sympathy. 46 THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. ' And whose land I chose as my place of refuge 1 , ' And whom I made my most intimate confidants 2 ' And the depositaries 3 of my every secret, ' And whom, both in my presence and in my absence, ' I have constituted 4 my only provision and resource, ' Know that the garb of truth is brighter than robes of pomp, ' That the disgrace of this world is lighter than that of the next, ' That real religion is to give sincere counsel to others, ' That the indication of true faith is to guide others aright, ' That he whom we consult is the depositary of our confidence, ' That he who solicits our guidance has a right to our advice, ' That a brother is he who reproves thee, not who excuses thee, ' And that a real friend is he who tells thee the truth, ' Not he who always allows that thou art right.' And those present replied, ' O most affectionate friend, ' O thou who hast been our most beloved companion, ' Tell us the hidden meaning of thy ambiguous words, ' And the real purport of thy concise address to" us ; ' And as for that which thou desirest from us, ' It shall speedily be fulfilled, however difficult it be 5 ; 1 Literally, ' the scene of my Hegira.' An allusion to the retreat of the prophet, when he took refuge from the persecutions of his countrymen, in the city of Yathreb, called from that time ' Medina of the prophet/ 2 (ji.^ 1 'the stomach of a camel that contains the cud,' metaphorically means 'the depositary of one's thoughts,' 'a confidant.' 3 &JJ&. ' a wallet,' is used metaphorically in the same sense as .i . The phrase is quoted from an expression of Mohammed about the Ansari, who accompanied his retreat to Medina. 4 ' Whom I took as a provision for my presence and my absence.' 5 \jsF\ !, is equivalent to sLsr* Ijjjsfl J 'Though the accomplish- ment of it almost foil us,' ' surpass our power.' These words are omitted in many MSS. THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. 47 ' For by Him who conferred thy friendship upon us, ' And made us of thy sincerest wellwishers, ' We will not fail to give thee our best advice, ' Nor withhold from thee our aid or protection.' And he replied, ' May you be rewarded with good and saved from evil ; ' For you are men from whom no insincerity ever proceeds, ' And of whom no companion ever has cause to complain, ' By whom no reasonable expectation is ever frustrated, ' And from whom no secret need ever be concealed. ' I will tell you at once what distresses my breast, ' And consult 1 you on that whereby my patience is overcome: ' Know then that while my means were straitened 2 , ' And while fortune continued to be averse from me, ' I was sincere 3 in my purpose of covenant with God, 1 'I will ask your decision, as on a point of canon law;' the question which he proposes being of that kind, viz. by what means he might purge himself from the guilt contracted by having indulged in strong drink con- trary to the Moslem law. From the verb here used the word ' Mufti' is derived. Observe that one of the names of wine used in the following passage is 8* which was afterwards appropriated to coffee, and is derived (according to Abd Al Kader, see De Sacy's Chrestom. pag. 180, and 226) from \g>\ ' fastidire fecit ;' coffee, like wine, producing disinclination to food. Some however of the admirers of coffee among the Moslemin called it Kihwa instead of Kahwa, in order to distinguish its name from that of wine. 2 Literally, ' when my flint refused to give sparks ;' t. e. ' when I was like a flint that refused to give sparks,' t. e. ' indigent and therefore un- able to be bountiful.' See pag. 58, note 1. 3 The law in the Koran against drinking wine is not so explicit as the strictness with which religious Moslemin abstain from it might seem to imply. 'Flic prohibition is contained in various passages scattered through different chapters, which vary in import and distinctness, and arc said to have been revealed to Mohammed at different periods in order to meet 48 THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. ' And gave Him the pledge of a solemn vow, ' That I would never buy wine, nor carouse with companions, ' Nor quaff strong drink, nor array myself in drunkenness ; ' And yet my misleading propensity and deluding appetite ' Seduced me to enter the company of profligates, the increasing exigency of the case. They are all collected and discussed hy Al Beidhawi in his commentary on the first of them which occurs in the Surah Al Bakara, verse 216 (pag. 16, Freitag). He there says, that ' the first revelation on (this subject) made to the prophet was that which occurs in the 16th Surah, verse 69 (pag. 140, Freitag). /&S . ' From the fruit of the date palms and from grapes, ye shall obtain an inebriating liquor, as well as excellent nourishment. Verily herein there is a sign to the intelligent,' i. e- ' there are many combinations of good and bad in the world, and as God often brings good out of evil, man often turns his good gifts to evil purposes; for intance, they pervert grapes and dates, which eaten in their natural state are good, by distilling from them a pernicious drink.' This passage being misunderstood or un- noticed by the followers of the prophet, they continued to drink wine, until Omar and other leaders of the sect observing it to be abused, requested of the prophet a further decision on the subject, telling him that wine was clearly prejudicial to the understanding. The verse in the Surah Al Bakara (above mentioned) was thereupon revealed to the prophet, viz. ]* j^LaJl \y Ju ^ ' Ye shall not engage in prayer when inebriated/) until Omar besought a farther and more explicit revelation on this subject, which was given in the words of the 5th Surah, verse 92 (pag. 61, Freitag), ' O ye who believe, know that wine, and lots, and images, and arrows for divina- THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. 49 ' And there to pass 1 round among us flagons of wine, tion are an abomination of the work of Satan; therefore avoid them, that ye may prosper; for Satan seeketh to put enmity and hatred among you by means of wine and lots, and to prevent you from remem- bering God, and from prayer. Will ye not therefore abstain from them ?' \ jj -c *x<3.tj -*uX*Mj. This was the^naZ decision; yet even this does not seem to forbid the use of wine in moderation, though it certainly is understood in that sense by strict Moslemin, who have always rigorously abstained from it, unlike the reprobate Turks of the present day, who are much addicted to arrack of dates. A strong feeling on this subject is indicated in the present Makamah, as well as at the conclusion of that of Damascus, where Hareth expresses repentance for having entered the saloon of a wine-shop (deskerah), though he had not drunk there. Accordingly, poems written in praise of wine by the Arabs have almost always a mystical sense. The Persians are much less rigid in this respect than the Arabs. The wine of Shiraz is highly celebrated, anjl the praise lavished upon it by Ilafiz is often too explicit to be only metaphorical. Thus there is an Ode of his beginning, ' Cup-bearer, bring wine. Dismiss sullen and fruitless objections ; and since the passing breeze reminds thee of the short duration of youth, drink wine, the medicine of the soul, which removes care from the breast of youth. In comparison thereof all else in the world is vain ; for soon there will be nothing of us left,' &c. 1 This word ^L>lc (3rd conj. of lac) means to pass (a cup) from one to another, a method of drinking particularly objected to by Moslemin, who connect the idea of it with wine-bibbing ; as we find in the anecdote spoken of at the end of the note on coffee, (pag. 47), where this expression is used, t-_ >\.A\ ^x*J Jlfc j-jlsr <__. >Ua>- ,^. He means that his guilt was not the simple one of inebriation ; but that this offence was aggravated, in his case, by its being a relapse after good resolutions and vows of amendment, and by its being committed on the eve of the sixth day of the week (_^si} ^y) the Mohommedan sabbath, which, as appears from a passage of the Koran quoted above, would be a most grievous sin in the eyes of a Moslem. In the following counsel offered by Abou-Zaid to this anxious penitent, he assures him that if he will adopt the method of atonement which he recom- mends, even his relapses, if repented of, shall be forgiven. 6 Literally, ' Father of bitterness,' an epithet of the devil, of the class called -ls^, and the phrase g*za or <>.ls!.l ^aa expresses ' to perform any of the ordinary and necessary functions of life,' and is used here metaphorically, weeping and complaining not being of that, class. 3 Literally, * thy opportunity for the chase,' a metaphor constantly used in this book for the artifices by which Abou-Zaid deceived his hearers, and obtained relief from them, which resembled the artful designs by which hunters inveigle their prey. So, in the next Makamah (that of Sanaa), ' E'en lions I dare to assail in their lair,' by which he means, that he had cajoled even the most rich and powerful men, and brought them to do what he wished, by his artifices. Abou-Zaid, on hearing the above inquiry addressed to the people in the mosque, perceived that by a well-devised tale he might turn the circum- stance to his own advantage, and make the enquirer imagine that by relieving him he would be atoning for the sin for which he was so penitent; he thereupon roused himself, and indited the following lines. 4 ' Now therefore,' such is the sense of the particle <_J in this place. It is a conjunction of such varied power in the Arabic language, that it is almost worth while to read the Makamat in the original only for the sake of observing with what dexterity it is employed by Hariri. 5 Literally, 'turn up thy sleeves from thy hand and thy vigour;' the usual action of the Arabs in preparing for action, eating, &c., just as it is among us of one preparing for self-defence. There is a curious anecdote of Merouan, the last of the Kaliphs of the race of Beni Omai, who preceded THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. 53 So I sprang up from my seat, like a brave champion, And started forth from my row 1 like an arrow, And said 2 'My most illustrious friend 3 , in noble rank, ' And high distinction proudly eminent, ' Who seekest one to guide thee to a path ' That may thy final happiness 4 ensure ; ' Thou soon wilt find 5 a cure for thy distress, the Abbasides. * He was so fond of the kidneys of sheep, that whenever a sheep was served up to him, he was so impatient to eat the kid- neys that he did not wait to 'turn up his sleeves,' but at once plunged his hand into the fat of the intestines to pull them out; and thus at his death left behind him three-thousand shirts, the sleeves of all of which were stained with the fat of kindeys.' The verb +J& is also used of gathering up the gown from the legs and feet in order to run. 1 i_b has the strict sense of 'passing the night.' The word <^jo 'a house/ is derived from it, as a place for pernoctation. _^Lc means 'a medicine or remedy [for distress].' The clause resembles a passage of ^Eschylus, Prom. Vin. 257 : T * ^olov evpwv TJ peculiarly signifies, ' to observe clouds and the lightning flashing from them, in order to detect the pro- t bability of rain ;' and, unless the observer (>^l-J) was an experienced one, he was very likely to be deceived. To this we find allusions in various passages of the Makamat. Abou-Zaid says to the pilgrims in the Makamah of Kamleh, vid. translat. infra, ' Regard not every cloud whose flashes gleam, ' Though charged with copious store of rain it seem ;' i. e. ' Live in tranquil contentment, and do not be constantly in quest of bounty from others, who may possibly disappoint thy expectations, just as clouds do not always give rain when Ifghtning gleams from them.' In the Makamah of Holouan, he says with respect to fortune, ' When her rain-portending flashes ' Lighten with fallacious glare, ' Trust them not They falsely promise * Showers we vainly hope to share.' In the Rahabeian Makamah (pag. 121, De Sacy), he says, ' Observe well, and do not look for rain at every sort of lightning ; sometimes there ia lightning wherein are bolts of destruction : ' In Makamah xxxiv. (De Sacy, pag. 432, lin. t>), j^ l$J ^ %, ' the thunder of their promises gave no rain.' In Makamah xl. (pag. 524, lin. 10), ' He sent me back more dis- appointed and foiled than one who observes light flashes [of lightning] in the month of August,' (and thinks they betoken rain) rH ^ * *J> (literally, in the month of Tamrauz). The lightning in the evening in the 58 THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. ' Or that 1 , whene'er my proffered boons they claimed, 'They "struck 2 on flints that failed to yield a spark:" summer months is of the sort called here ' light,' i. e. harmless sheet light- ning which does not indicate the approach of rain. 1 Literally, ' And no seeker of fire (no one who wanted fire) tried to strike a light from my flint (me as a flint) and failed to obtain a spark;' another idiomatic expression, implying the certainty with which he fulfilled the expectations of those who looked to his bounty for aid. It may be paraphrased thus, ' No one who in need applied to me for bounty, found me niggardly and unimpressible by solicitation.' ^JJj -i\5 /U means literally, ' desired (or * sought') the eliciting of fire from my shaft,' i- e. ' sought to elicit a spark from it by friction ;' for anciently the flint and steel were not used for that purpose, but a spark was obtained by the sharp friction together of two shafts of a species of dry and hard wood, each of which was called Jjj. The nearest approach however that can be made to the sense of the passage in a translation, is by rendering jJj ' a flint,' which is in more familiar use for the same purpose. _ jjj is ex- plained by Shereeshi x\j -^jS-***], and xL0| by jj^ \j\ Jo^ll jl*>! If JJ j , i.e. l the verb jju \ is used of one whose shaft fails to produce a spark by friction.' The form of expression, 'no one sought fire from my flint and failed/ instead of ' no one sought to obtain fire from me as from a flint, and failed,' is not uncommon in Arabic or in Hebrew. Thus when he says, in the Makamah of Teflis, 'the stroke of fortune felled my tree,' he means ' it felled me down like a tree.' "When he says, 'no one looked to my cloud for rain, and went away athirst;' he means, ' no one looked to me for aid, and failed ;' or, ' no one found his expectations from my bounty disappointed, as though he had expected rain from a cloud which gave none.' And again, when the Psalmist says, ' Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong;' he means, 'Thou hast made me to stand strong like a mountain which is immoveable.' 2 Or more literally, but less intelligibly, ' They sought for fire from shafts that gave no spark.' Jo j being, as stated in the last note, ' one of two shafts of hard wood which the ancient Arabs rubbed together for the purpose of obtaining fire.' THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. 59 'But, while 1 my fortune smiled, I still appeared 'To all around a source of affluence 2 ; ' Though soon 3 , alas ! my lot was doomed to change ' For lo ! a feud 4 with foreign foes appeared, 'And God permitted infidels of Koum 5 'To seize our lands and dwellings, and enslave 1 UJU?, which here means 'while,' 'so long as,' frequently means in this book ' how often ! ' See the Makamah of Sanaa. 2 Literally, 'as long as the times (fortune) assisted, favoured [me], I ever became an assister [of others]-' The verb ^-^, which properly means * to arise in the morning,' is used here, as often, simply in the sense ' to become,' or 'to be ;' just as cub , which properly means ' to pass the night;' 'to remain all night [in any state],' is used to mean simply ' to continue,' or ' to be in any state.' 3 'But God determined, decreed, to change what he had accustomed me to.' 4 'He caused the Greeks to make a descent upon our land, after an hostility or animosity that had been produced ' (literally, ' generated '). This event is again alluded to in the Makamah of Mecca (vid. pag. 162, De Sacy), where Abou-Zaid being asked about his country, replies, \j*aAj I g i ^Jlcj!! \j\ jjj * Seroug is my abode ; but how can I resort thither, seeing that the enemy have settled in it, and committed ravages upon it?' 5 'Infidels of Roum.' *. 'Roum' was the name by which the Arabs anciently called all the Christian inhabitants of those countries which had formed the Roman Empire. In the above passage it denotes the Christians of 'the lower Roman Empire' (the capital of which was Constantinople), who were mostly Greeks. The Arabs in the present day apply it only to the Greeks of the Turkish empire ; while they denominate European Chris- tiana by the term Frangi or Afrang, (1.7. Frank.) 60 THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. ' The families of all who there professed 'A simple 1 faith in Allah's 2 unity. 1 Literally, ' So that they took captive the families ( -j >. ' Hareem ' means either ' the whole family, wives, slaves, and young children,' or ' a wife' alone, if there be no children or servants) of all whom they found there believers in the Unity of God,' (i. e. all whom they found Moslemin). The Unity of God is a tenet on which Moslemin especially value themselves, making it the chief article in their confession of faith, and accusing the Christians of holding the plurality of the Deity. On that account Christians are constantly called in the Koran and Moslem histories .j^-iiu* ,.#.' those who make others equal with God, and give him associates who are equal with him.' The Messiah, who is always spoken of with the greatest respect in the Koran, is constantly represented there as asserting his inferiority to God, and disclaiming the equality which his followers would attribute to him. And in the authorized tradition of the ascent of Mohammed into the seventh heaven, called t jj^\ _, yc* , the latter is represented as conversing with the Messiah in the first heaven, and being told by him that he lamented over the error of his own sect in exalting him to equality with God. Accordingly, Moslemin say that Christians misunderstand the Gospel, and especially the declarations of the Messiah with respect to his own personal dignity, asserting that he meant to claim sonship and equality with God only in the same sense that all mankind may, as created by him and partaking of his image and likeness; but that nevertheless he was a prophet of the first class, and endowed with a most extraordinary degree of the Divine spirit and power. Some of the most remarkable passages in the Koran on this subject are the following : Surat v. in fine, " When God shall say unto Jesus, the son of Mary, at the last day, ' O Jesus, son of Mary, didst thou say to men, Take me and my mother for two Gods beside God ?' he shall answer, ' Praise be unto thee ! it is not for me to say that which I ought not. If T had said so thou wouldst surely have known it ; I have not spoken to them any other than what thou didst command me,' namely, * Worship God, my Lord and your Lord :' " Surat v. in medio, " They are surely infidels who say, ' Verily, God is Christ, the son of Mary;' since Christ says, ' O children of Israel, serve God my Lord and yours ; whoever shall make another equal with God, God shall exclude him from paradise, and his habitation shall be hell fire :' " Surat iv. in THE MAKAMAH OF BENI HARAAM. 61 They took whate'er 3 was mine of great or small ; ' And since that day an outcast 4 I have been, ' Still roaming far and wide, and craving 5 aid fine, "Verily, Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, is the apostle of God. Be- lieve therefore in God and his apostles, and say not, ' There are three Gods ;' ' Christ doth not disdain to be a servant to God,' " &c. It seems probable that there was a blasphemous sect of Christians at that time who held the Trinity to be composed as intimated in these passages, and, if that were not the case, the worship paid by Papists in the middle ages to the mother of the Messiah might easily suggest such an idea to the adversaries of Chris- tianity. The Jews were also included by Mohammed under the name of j-v, as we find in a passage in the 9th Surat, where they are ac- cused of regarding Ezra as the sou of God. This, however, was erroneous ; they only pretended that that prophet was raised to life after having been dead an hundred years, in order that he might dictate the Bible to scribes. 2 The translator has here introduced the Arab name of God, in allu- sion to the confession of faith referred to, viz.