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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
In the last sentence of my paper on Part I of the ufrān (J.R.A.S., October, 1900) I described the Second Part as “more difficult, but also more characteristic and interesting.” Further study has led me somewhat to modify this view. It is more difficult to read, because the scribe, hastening to the goal, drove his pen furiously. On the first reading a good deal of it seemed to me almost hopeless, but a closer acquaintance has removed not a few of these stumbling-blocks, and I am convinced that only patience and determination are needed to remove all, or nearly all, that are left. If indeed Abū'l-‘Alā had always written as he writes in the section to which this article is mainly devoted, his readers would have no cause for complaint: it comprises many anecdotes and comparatively little rhetoric ; hence it is, beyond doubt, less difficult than any other section of the Risāla. Unfortunately, these twenty or thirty pages are but an oasis in the surrounding desert. Elsewhere Abū'l-‘Alā seldom escapes from his artificial prose with its forced metaphors and tyrannous rhymes. The passages of which I have attempted a, translation, on pp. 127–129 and 161–163, may serve to illustrate his typical manner. But on the whole, when account is made of the large number of scattered anecdotes, the Second Part is scarcely equal in difficulty to the First. That it is more characteristic will be admitted, in the sense that it is more personal.
page 76 note 1 Book ii, § 11 Sqq. (ed. Dindorf). On leaving the Happy Isles Lucian, like the Shaikh in the ufrān, visited the infernal regions. Cf. also his Nccyomanteia.
page 77 note 1 Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, i, 288.
page 77 note 2 I.e. they acknowledged no prophet.
page 78 note 1 I confess to having grave doubts of the author's honesty. Hypocrisy, he repeatedly observes, is the way of the world, and one fears that he himself practised it as a fine art. Cf. what he says about Ibnu'l-Rāwandī's Dāmi , and note od loc.
page 78 note 2 Ibn allikān, Translation, ii, 191, where he is casually mentioned in the life of Ibn Jinnī. I shall be grateful for further references. The very brief notice in Bāarzī gives no information.
page 80 note 1 One may be mentioned. Sir Charles Lyall proposes to connect (see J.R.A.S. for 1900, pp. 686–7) with Syriac = elevatus, suspensus, ‘crucified.’ This gives exactly the meaning required.
page 80 note 2 He cites a verse of rajaz that occurs under in Ibn Wallād's Kitäbu'l-Maḳ ūr wa'l-Mamdūd, ed. Brönnle, p. 95, last line, and a verse by Nābia (Derenbourg, i, 42).
page 80 note 3 The author says in introducing the story :
“ Presently I shall join the dead, without regret or repentance. Yet I fear to approach the Omnipotent before I have duly seen to the grafting of my palmtrees (sown in order that I may reap).”
page 81 note 1 They begin:
page 81 note 2
“ God is my witness that I detest the vain pretensions made on my behalf as the Messias detested those who would have it that he was the Lord of glory. But he left no loophole for mischief, as is shown by his words,” etc. (Ḳor'ān, v, 116).
page 81 note 3 E.g. in proverbs. The author quotes among other examples :
This may be addressed to anyone, whatever his name. Instances follow in which the feminine does duty for the masculine, and vice versâ.
page 81 note 4 Abū'l-‘Alā says: “ He is not to be blamed on this account; from being a habit it has become second nature ” .
page 82 note 1 Brockelmann, i, 146.
page 82 note 2 al-Sīrāfī's Muḳni‘ or Hḳnā‘, which, he left unfinished, was completed by his son.
page 82 note 3 Abū'l-‘Alā says that Ibnu'l-Sarrāj completed the first half of his Mūjiz and made a rough draft of the second half, which then received its final shape from Abū ‘Alī al-Fārisī.
page 83 note 1 By Ibnu'l-Rāwandī and Abū Zaid al-azrajī (Ḥājī alīfa, v, 137). The full title is given in the Fihrist (Vienna Oriental Journal, iv, 224):
Abū'l-‘Alā's description is purely rhetorical, abounding in plays upon the different meanings of ḳaḍīb.
page 83 note 2 I do not find this work of Ibnu'l-Rāwandī mentioned elsewhere, but in the Fihrist (ibid., 224) we read :
It would not be safe to conclude positively that is a false reading: the two works may be distinct. Considering, however, the very untrustworthy character of the Leiden MS., from which this fragment is published, I think it likely that is a corruption. The frequent word-plays leave no doubt that is the genuine reading in the Risāla. The title in either case may mean “ Book of the Sword.”
page 84 note 1 The Banū'l-Ḥāri b. ‘Adī. They were so called because they would not ally themselves with other tribes, but preferred “a splendid isolation.”
page 84 note 2 Also by Ibnu'l-Rāwandī:
(Fihrist, ibid.).
page 84 note 3 Brockelmann, i, 79.
page 84 note 4 See Ibnu'l-Aīr, vi, 351–359. As this and the following passages are almost entirely rhetorical, I have not translated them.
page 84 note 5
For Afīn see Weil's Geschichte der Chalifen under the reign of al-Mu‘ta im (ii, 296 sqq.). The Kāḍī Aḥmad Ibn Abī Dā'ūd (Houtsma, Zum Kitāb al-Fihrist, Vienna Oriental Journal, iv, 222) took a prominent part in his trial.
page 84 note 6 The MS. has , but as they are mentioned in connection with Muḥammad Ibnu'l-Ḥanafīyya, this must be an error of the scribe.
page 84 note 7 A contemporary of the author, living at Bara. Some people pretended that he was an incarnation of the Deity, and the revenues from the property-tax were handed over to him. Abū'l-‘Alā adds, however, that “he conveyed a large portion of them to the Sul ān.”
page 85 note 1
Nājir corresponds to afar. The month of the horse seems to be Nātiḳ, which also means ‘ a restive horse’ and corresponds to Ramaḍān.
page 85 note 2 The famous ūfī, who was at first a highwayman.
page 85 note 3 Wāil b. ‘Aā, after whom the sect of the Wāilīyya was called.
page 85 note 4 Ibn allikān (Wüstenfeld). 205.
page 85 note 5 Sprenger's Muḥammad, iii, 33, note.
page 85 note 6 Ibid., i 82 sqq.; A ānī, iii, 15–17; Nawawī, 264.
page 85 note 7 Nawawī, 178 ; Wüstenfeld, Register, 441.
page 85 note 8 The name is written ‘ alḥa ’ on its first occurrence; afterwards ‘ Abū alḥa.’
page 85 note 9 Ibn allikān (Wüstenfeld), 617.
page 85 note 10 Flügel, Grammatischen Schulen der Araber, 223.
page 86 note 1 A ānī, xiv, 88–90.
page 86 note 2 The MS. reads Abū'l-alt, but see Ibn Hiām, p. 40, where the verses are quoted.
page 86 note 3 Flügel, 230.
page 86 note 4 His name was ‘Abdu'l-Wāḥid b. ‘Alī. Ibn Khālawaih nicknamed him Ḳurmūatu'l-Kabaral on account of his short stature. Abū'l-‘Alā also mentions several of his works, adding that many have perished, because he and his father were slain by the Greeks who took Halab (351 A.H.)
page 86 note 5 Cf. Ḥarīrī (ed. De Sacy), p. 34; Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, ii, 780.
page 86 note 6 A ānī, ix, 157.
page 86 note 7 Well known as a ūfī (Ibn allikān, 228; Jāmī, Nafaḥātu'l- Uns, 201). Abū'l-‘Alā says:
page 88 note 1 , mima, actress (Wellhausen in Z.D.M.G., lii, 511). here seems to have the same sense.
page 88 note 2 is not in the dictionaries, and I am doubtful as to its meaning. If it is not = ‘ fire in which sinners are plunged,’ it may perhaps have the sense of ‘ tavern ’ . Cf. the lines of Yazīd b. Mu'āwiya (Kāmil, 218, 6 sqq.) and the following passage from the Risāla, p. 13 :
page 88 note 3 The whole of this passage should he compared with another in the Letters (ed. Margoliouth), p. 1, l. sqq.
page 89 note 1 Literally : “of the woman spying or of the woman that is the spy's object.”
page 89 note 2 The Dīvāns, lii, 22. Abū'l-‘Alā has altered into .
page 89 note 3 In order to save space, I omit three poetical oaths which follow in the MS. : that of Zuhair (The Dīvāns, xvi, 16 seq.), of Sā'ida (whom I cannot identify):
and the famous lines of Farazdaḳ (Kāmil, 69. 9 sqq.).
page 89 note 4 For or cf. Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, ii, 608.
page 90 note 1 The ‘ sparrows ’ of al-Munir were camels (see Lane under ). My reading ( for ) does not involve a great change from the original, of which I can make nothing.
page 90 note 2 The MS. reads , ‘froth issuing from a camel's mouth.’
page 90 note 3 I.e. “does not make truth prevail over falsehood.” But the reading is uncertain. I take as a periphrasis for .
page 90 note 4 For in this sense see Dozy under . The exact translation is: “that the rumours (of his wealth) bring him loads (of solid merchandise).”
page 91 note 1 I.e. the feeblest attack reduces me to helplessness.
page 91 note 2 This appears to mean: “ It is a waste of good powder and shot to criticize me, because I am already past praying for.” The words may perhaps allude to the proverb (Freytag, i, 383), , “ he carried him on the buck's horn,” i.e. inflicted a great misfortune upon him.
page 91 note 3 The only person with this nisba whom I can find is Ibn Sa'īd al-Ḳurabbulī, mentioned in the Fihrist, p. 124. That he was nearly contemporary with Ibn Abī'l-Azhar may be gathered from the statement of Ibn allikān (Translation, iv, 80), that Yaḥyā lbnu'l-Munajjim, who died 300 A.H., found him a pleasant companion. Ḳurabbul is a village between Badād and ‘Ukrabā.
page 91 note 4 Fihrist, 147; Flügel, Grammatischen Schulen der Araber, 97. He died 325 A.H.
page 92 note 1 I do not understand this derivation.
page 92 note 2 Possibly should be omitted; the metre will then be awīl.
page 92 note 3 Abū Nuwās.
page 92 note 4 I.e. they were inveterate, radical zindīḳs. Cf. the German phrase, ‘ von Hause aus.’
page 93 note 1 This verse is supplied at the bottom of the page.
page 93 note 2 This verse is in ahrastānī, p. 433 ; Wright's Reading-book, p. 150. The second line is misunderstood by Haarbrücker. For the sense, “what splendid hospitality was shown by the fallen!” cf. Ḥamāsa, p. 611: where = ‘ crowned with pieces of flesh.’ The hump was considered to, be the choicest part of the camel.
page 94 note 1 ahrastānī (p. 433) gives the line thus: which is a manifest reconstruction. Ibn Kaba stands, hy poetical license, for Ibn Abī Kaba. This was a nickname derisively applied to Muḥammad; it could hardly fail, therefore, to be expunged by the pious rāwī. According to a marginal note:
Cf. abarī, i, 1565 ; Sprenger's Muḥammad, iii, 179.
page 94 note 2 The desperate man has nothing to gain by holding his tongue. This seems better than to translate “ in defence of them.”
page 94 note 3 xlv, 23.
page 95 note 1 According to a marginal note:
page 95 note 2 Possibly Knthayyiru ‘Azza, who was a fanatical ī'ite (A ānī, viii, 27); or, as is more likely, Abū ar al-Hualī (A ānī, xxi, 143 sqq.).
page 96 note 1 I have not been able to find any further mention of this poet.
page 96 note 2 Cf. the verse cited by Lane under :
page 96 note 3 This is a variation of the phrase .
page 96 note 4 The three days following the tenth of ū'l-Ḥijja (Ḳor. ii, 199).
page 96 note 5 The first ten days of ū'l-Ḥijja (Ḳor. xxii, 29).
page 96 note 6 Opposite this line comes the marginal note:
page 97 note 1 A . iii, 70. The lines are cited very inaccurately. Ya'ḳūb was the wazīr of al-Mahdī. According to the MS. (marginal note) :
page 98 note 1 A . iii, 54. Another account makes al-Afa the critic.
page 98 note 2 This word is not in the lexica. Probably it means ‘nimble,’ ‘quick in her movements.’
page 98 note 3 Muḥammad b. Dā'ūd b. al-Jarrāḥ (Ibn allikān, Translation, i, 25, n. 6). The Kitābu'l- Waraḳa ismentioned ibid., ii, 361. See also Fihrist, p. 128.
page 99 note 1 Perhaps should be read. Cf. Letters , l. . The manuscript reading is to be explained by the fact that also means ‘ water left by a torrent.’
page 99 note 2 For the omission of in colloquial Arabic cf. Van Vloten's preface to the Kitābu'l-Bu alā, p. 8.
page 100 note 1 This line, of which the metre is munsariḥ, occurs in Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, i, 214. According to the scholiast, Baār b. Burd used to say , referring to Muī‘ b. Iyās (Brockelmann, i, 73). The same authority declares that it is wrong to say “more elegant than a zindīḳ,” but the example of the ābi'ans, at Badäd and elsewhere, and of many Persian freethinkers, fully justifies a general application of the phrase. Muī‘ seems to be the person intended by the vague description “ one of the Banū'l-Ḥāri,” i.e. Ḥāri b. Bakr b. ‘Abd Manāt (Wüstenfeld, Genealogische Tabellen, N. 11).
page 100 note 2 The Dīvāns, li, 10.
page 101 note 1 The first two lines are cited in the aḥāh under and the fourth line ibid, under .
page 101 note 2 .
page 101 note 3 See Wright's Grammar, ii, 369 D, Rem. a.