520 Ed. by De Goeje, p. 5, ll. 5-15.

521 Cf. the story told of Abú Tammám by Ibn Khallikán (De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 350 seq.).

522 See Nöldeke, Beiträge, p. 4.

523 Ibn Khaldún, Muqaddima (Beyrout, 1900), p. 573, l. 21 seq.; Prolegomena of Ibn K., translated by De Slane, vol. iii, p. 380.

524 See Professor Browne's Literary History of Persia, vol. ii, p. 14 sqq.

525 Aghání, xii, 80, l. 3.

526 Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, vol. i, p. 46 seq., where the reader will find the Arabic text of the verses translated here. Rückert has given a German rendering of the same verses in his Hamâsa, vol. i, p. 311. A fuller text of the poem occurs in Agháni, xii, 107 seq.

527 Díwán, ed. by Ahlwardt, Die Weinlieder, No. 26, v. 4.

528 Ibn Qutayba, K. al-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará, p. 502, l. 13.

529 For the famous ascetic, Ḥasan of Baṣra, see pp. 225-227. Qatáda was a learned divine, also of Baṣra and contemporary with Ḥasan. He died in 735 a.d.

530 These verses are quoted by Ibn Qutayba, op. cit., p. 507 seq. 'The Scripture' (al-maṣḥaf) is of course the Koran.

531 Die Weinlieder, ed. by Ahlwardt, No. 47.

532 Ibid., No. 29, vv. 1-3.

533 Ibn Khallikán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, No. 169, p. 100; De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 393.

534 Cf. Díwán (ed. of Beyrout, 1886), p. 279, l. 9, where he reproaches one of his former friends who deserted him because, in his own words, "I adopted the garb of a dervish" (ṣirtu fi ziyyi miskíni). Others attribute his conversion to disgust with the immorality and profanity of the court-poets amongst whom he lived.

535 Possibly he alludes to these aspersions in the verse (ibid., p. 153, l. 10): "Men have become corrupted, and if they see any one who is sound in his religion, they call him a heretic" (mubtadi‘).

536 Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya declares that knowledge is derived from three sources, logical reasoning (qiyás), examination (‘iyár), and oral tradition (samá‘). See his Díwán, p. 158, l. 11.

537 Cf. Mání, seine Lehre und seine Schriften, by G. Flügel, p. 281, l. 3 sqq. Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya did not take this extreme view (Díwán, p. 270, l. 3 seq.).

538 See Shahrastání, Haarbrücker's translation, Part I, p. 181 sqq. It appears highly improbable that Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya was a Shí‘ite. Cf. the verses (Díwán, p. 104, l. 13 seq.), where, speaking of the prophets and the holy men of ancient Islam, he says:—

539 Aghání, iii, 128, l. 6 sqq.

540 Transactions of the Ninth Congress of Orientalists, vol. ii. p. 114.

541 Díwán, p. 274, l. 10. Cf. the verse (p. 199, penultimate line):—

The ascetic "lives the life of a king" (ibid., p. 187, l. 5). Contented men are the noblest of all (p. 148, l. 2). So the great Persian mystic, Jalálu ’l-Dín Rúmí, says in reference to the perfect Ṣúfí (Díván-i Shams-i Tabríz, No. viii, v. 3 in my edition): Mard-i khudá sháh buvad zír-i dalq, "the man of God is a king 'neath dervish-cloak;" and eminent spiritualists are frequently described as "kings of the (mystic) path." I do not deny, however, that this metaphor may have been originally suggested by the story of Buddha.

542 Díwán, p. 25, l. 3 sqq. Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya took credit to himself for introducing 'the language of the market-place' into his poetry (ibid. p. 12, l. 3 seq.).

543 Díwán (Beyrout, 1886), p. 23, l. 13 et seqq.

544 Ibid., p. 51, l. 2.

545 Ibid., p. 132, l. 3.

546 Ibid., p. 46, l. 16.

547 Díwán, p. 260, l. 11 et seqq.

548 Ibid., p. 295, l. 14 et seqq.

549 Ibid., p. 287, l. 10 seq.

550 Ibid., p. 119, l. 11.

551 Ibid., p. 259, penultimate line et seq.

552 Ibid., p. 115, l. 4.

553 Díwán, p. 51, l. 10.

554 Ibid., p. 133, l. 5.

555 Ibid., p. 74, l. 4.

556 Ibid., p. 149, l. 12 seq.

557 Ibid., p. 195, l. 9. Cf. p. 243, l. 4 seq.

558 Ibid., p. 274, l. 6.

559 Ibid., p. 262, l. 4.

560 Ibid., p. 346, l. 11. Cf. p. 102, l. 11; p. 262, l. 1 seq.; p. 267, l. 7. This verse is taken from Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya's famous didactic poem composed in rhyming couplets, which is said to have contained 4,000 sentences of morality. Several of these have been translated by Von Kremer in his Culturgeschichte des Orients, vol. ii, p. 374 sqq.

561 In one of his poems (Díwán, p. 160, l. 11), he says that he has lived ninety years, but if this is not a mere exaggeration, it needs to be corrected. The words for 'seventy' and 'ninety' are easily confused in Arabic writing.

562 Tha‘álibí, Yatimatu ’l-Dahr (Damascus, 1304 a.h.), vol. i, p. 8 seq.

563 See Von Kremer's Culturgeschichte, vol. ii, p. 381 sqq.; Ahlwardt, Poesie und Poetik der Araber, p. 37 sqq.; R. Dvorak, Abú Firás, ein arabischer Dichter und Held (Leyden, 1895).

564 Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 493. Wáḥidí gives the whole story in his commentary on this verse.

565 Mutanabbí, it is said, explained to Sayfu ’l-Dawla that by surra (gladden) he meant surriyya; whereupon the good-humoured prince presented him with a slave-girl.

566 Literally, "Do not imagine fat in one whose (apparent) fat is (really) a tumour."

567 Díwán, ed. by Dieterici, pp. 481-484.

568 The most esteemed commentary is that of Wáḥidí († 1075 a.d.), which has been published by Fr. Dieterici in his edition of Mutanabbí (Berlin, 1858-1861).

569 Motenebbi, der grösste arabische Dichter (Vienna, 1824).

570 Abulfedæ Annales Muslemici (Hafniæ, 1789, &c.), vol. ii, p. 774. Cf. his notes on Ṭarafa's Mu‘allaqa, of which he published an edition in 1742.

571 Chrestomathie Arabe (2nd edition), vol. iii, p. 27 sqq. Journal des Savans, January, 1825, p. 24 sqq.

572 Commentatio de Motenabbio (Bonn, 1824).

573 Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur (Weimar, 1898, &c.), vol. i, p. 86.

574 I have made free use of Dieterici's excellent work entitled Mutanabbi und Seifuddaula aus der Edelperle des Tsaâlibi (Leipzig, 1847), which contains on pp. 49-74 an abstract of Tha‘álibí's criticism in the fifth chapter of the First Part of the Yatíma.

575 Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 182, vv. 3-9, omitting v. 5.

576 The author of these lines, which are quoted by Ibn Khallikán in his article on Mutanabbí, is Abu ’l-Qásim b. al-Muẓaffar b. ‘Alí al-Ṭabasí.

577 Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 581, v. 27.

578 Ibid., p. 472, v. 5.

579 Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 341, v. 8.

580 Margoliouth's Introduction to the Letters of Abu ’l-‘Alá, p. xxii.

581 Ibid., p. xxvii seq.

582 Luzúmiyyát (Cairo, 1891), vol. i, p. 201.

583 I.e., his predecessors of the modern school. Like Mutanabbí, he ridicules the conventional types (asálíb) in which the old poetry is cast Cf. Goldziher, Abhand. zur Arab. Philologie, Part 1, p. 146 seq.

584 The proper title is Luzúmu má lá yalzam, referring to a technical difficulty which the poet unnecessarily imposed on himself with regard to the rhyme.

585 Abulfedæ Annales Muslemici, ed. by Adler (1789-1794), vol. iii, p. 677.

586 Literaturgesch. der Araber, vol. vi, p. 900 sqq.

587 Sitzungsberichte der Philosophisch-Historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, vol. cxvii, 6th Abhandlung (Vienna, 1889). Select passages admirably rendered by Von Kremer into German verse will be found in the Z.D.M.G., vol. 29, pp. 304-312; vol. 30, pp. 40-52; vol. 31, pp. 471-483; vol. 38, pp. 499-529.

588 Z.D.M.G., vol. 38, p. 507; Margoliouth, op. cit., p. 131, l. 15 of the Arabic text.

589 Z.D.M.G., vol. 29, p. 308.

590 Margoliouth, op. cit., p. 133 of the Arabic text.

591 This passage occurs in Abu ’l-‘Alá's Risálatu ’l-Ghufrán (see infra), J.R.A.S. for 1902, p. 351. Cf. the verses translated by Von Kremer in his essay on Abu ’l-‘Alá, p. 23.

592 For the term 'Ḥaníf' see p. 149 supra. Here it is synonymous with 'Muslim.'

593 Z.D.M.G., vol. 38, p. 513.

594 This work, of which only two copies exist in Europe—one at Constantinople and another in my collection—has been described and partially translated in the J.R.A.S. for 1900, pp. 637-720, and for 1902, pp. 75-101, 337-362, and 813-847.

595 Margoliouth, op. cit., p. 132, last line of the Arabic text.

596 Z.D.M.G., vol. 31, p. 483.

597 De Gobineau, Les religions et les philosophies dans l'Asie centrale, p. 11 seq.

598 Z.D.M.G., vol. 31, p. 477.

599 Ibid., vol. 29, p. 311.

600 Z.D.M.G. vol. 38, p. 522.

601 According to De Goeje, Mémoires sur les Carmathes du Bahrain, p. 197, n. 1, these lines refer to a prophecy made by the Carmathians that the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, which took place in 1047 a.d. would herald the final triumph of the Fáṭimids over the ‘Abbásids.

602 Z.D.M.G., vol. 38, p. 504.

603 Z.D.M.G., vol. 31, p. 474.

604 Luzúmiyyát (Cairo, 1891), i, 394.

605 Ibid., i, 312.

606 Von Kremer, op. cit., p. 38.

607 Safar-náma, ed. by Schefer, p. 10 seq. = pp. 35-36 of the translation.

608 Luzúmiyyát, ii, 280. The phrase does not mean "I am the child of my age," but "I live in the present," forgetful of the past and careless what the future may bring.

609 See Von Kremer, op. cit., p. 46 sqq.

610 See the article on Ṭughrá’í in Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 462.

611 Ibid., vol. iii, p. 355.

612 The spirit of fortitude and patience (ḥamása) is exhibited by both poets, but in a very different manner. Shanfará describes a man of heroic nature. Ṭughrá’í wraps himself in his virtue and moralises like a Muḥammadan Horace. Ṣafadí, however, says in his commentary on Ṭughrá’í's ode (I translate from a MS. copy in my possession): "It is named Lámiyyatu ’l-‘Ajam by way of comparing it with the Lámiyyatu ’l-‘Arab, because it resembles the latter in its wise sentences and maxims."

613 I.e., the native of Abúṣir (Búṣír), a village in Egypt.

614 The Burda, ed. by C. A. Ralfs (Vienna, 1860), verse 140; La Bordah traduite et commentée par René Basset (Paris, 1894), verse 151.

615 This appears to be a reminiscence of the fact that Muḥammad gave his own mantle as a gift to Ka‘b b. Zuhayr, when that poet recited his famous ode, Bánat Su‘ád (see p. 127 supra).

616 Maqáma (plural, maqámát) is properly 'a place of standing'; hence, an assembly where people stand listening to the speaker, and in particular, an assembly for literary discussion. At an early period reports of such conversations and discussions received the name of maqámát (see Brockelmann, Gesch. der Arab. Litteratur, vol. i, p. 94). The word in its literary sense is usually translated by 'assembly,' or by the French 'séance.'

617 The Assemblies of al-Ḥarírí, translated from the Arabic, with an introduction and notes by T. Chenery (1867), vol. i, p. 19. This excellent work contains a fund of information on diverse matters connected with Arabian history and literature. Owing to the author's death it was left unfinished, but a second volume (including Assemblies 27-50) by F. Steingass appeared in 1898.

618 A full account of his career will be found in the Preface to Houtsma's Recueil de textes relatifs à l'histoire des Seldjoucides, vol. ii. p. 11 sqq. Cf. Browne's Lit. Hist. of Persia, vol. ii, p. 360.

619 This is a graceful, but probably insincere, tribute to the superior genius of Hamadhání.

620 The above passage is taken, with some modification, from the version of Ḥarírí published in 1850 by Theodore Preston, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who was afterwards Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic (1855-1871).

621 Moslems had long been familiar with the fables of Bidpai, which were translated from the Pehleví into Arabic by Ibnu ’l-Muqaffa‘ († circa 760 a.d.).

622 Al-Fakhrí, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 18, l. 4 sqq.

623 A town in Mesopotamia, not far from Edessa. It was taken by the Crusaders in 1101 a.d. (Abu ’l-Fidá, ed. by Reiske, vol. iii, p. 332).

624 The 48th Maqáma of the series as finally arranged.

625 Chenery, op. cit., p. 23.

626 This has been done with extraordinary skill by the German poet, Friedrich Rückert (Die Verwandlungen des Abu Seid von Serug, 2nd ed. 1837), whose work, however, is not in any sense a translation.

627 A literal translation of these verses, which occur in the sixth Assembly, is given by Chenery, op. cit., p. 138.

628 Ibid., p. 163.

629 Two grammatical treatises by Ḥarírí have come down to us. In one of these, entitled Durratu ’l-Ghawwáṣ ('The Pearl of the Diver') and edited by Thorbecke (Leipzig, 1871), he discusses the solecisms which people of education are wont to commit.

630 See Chenery, op. cit., pp. 83-97.

631 The Caliphate, its Rise, Decline, and Fall, p. 573.

632 Another example is ‘Umar al-Khayyámí for ‘Umar Khayyám. The spelling Ghazzálí (with a double z) was in general use when Ibn Khallikán wrote his Biographical Dictionary in 1256 a.d. (see De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 80), but according to Sam‘ání the name is derived from Ghazála, a village near Ṭús; in which case Ghazálí is the correct form of the nisba. I have adopted 'Ghazalí' in deference to Sam‘ání's authority, but those who write 'Ghazzálí' can at least claim that they err in very good company.

633 Shamsu ’l-Dín al-Dhahabí († 1348 a.d.).

634 ‘Abdu ’l-Raḥím al-Isnawí († 1370 a.d.), author of a biographical work on the Sháfi‘ite doctors. See Brockelmann, Gesch. der Arab. Litt., vol. ii, p. 90.

635 Abu ’l-Ma‘álí al-Juwayní, a famous theologian of Naysábúr († 1085 a.d.), received this title, which means 'Imám of the Two Sanctuaries,' because he taught for several years at Mecca and Medína.

636 I.e., the camp-court of the Seljúq monarch Maliksháh, son of Alp Arslán.

637 According to his own account in the Munqidh, Ghazálí on leaving Baghdád went first to Damascus, then to Jerusalem, and then to Mecca. The statement that he remained ten years at Damascus is inaccurate.

638 The MS. has Fakhru ’l-Dín.

639 Ghazálí's return to public life took place in 1106 a.d.

640 The correct title of Ibn Ḥazm's work is uncertain. In the Cairo ed. (1321 a.h.) it is called Kitábu ’l-Fiṣal fi ’l-Milal wa ’l-Ahwá wa ’l-Niḥal.

641 See p. 195 supra.

642 Kor. ix, 3. The translation runs ("This is a declaration) that God is clear of the idolaters, and His Apostle likewise." With the reading rasúlihi it means that God is clear of the idolaters and also of His Apostle.

643 Ibn Khallikan, De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 663.

644 See p. 128.

645 Ibn Khallikán, No. 608; De Slane's translation, vol. iii, p. 31.

646 See pp. 131-134, supra.

647 Goldziher, Muhammedanische Studien, Part I, p. 197.

648 Ibid., p. 195.

649 Ibn Qutayba, Kitábu ’l-Ma‘árif, p. 269.

650 While Abú ‘Ubayda was notorious for his freethinking proclivities, Aṣma‘í had a strong vein of pietism. See Goldziher, loc. cit., p. 199 and Abh. zur Arab. Philologie, Part I, p. 136.

651 Professor Browne has given a résumé of the contents in his Lit. Hist. of Persia, vol. i, p. 387 seq.

652 Ed. by Max Grünert (Leyden, 1900).

653 Vol. i ed. by C. Brockelmann (Weimar and Strassburg, 1898-1908).

654 The epithet jáḥiẓ means 'goggle-eyed.'

655 See p. 267.

656 Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 250.

657 One of these, the eleventh of the complete work, has been edited by Ahlwardt: Anonyme Arabische Chronik (Greifswald, 1883). It covers part of the reign of the Umayyad Caliph, ‘Abdu ’l-Malik (685-705 a.d.).

658 The French title is Les Prairies d'Or. Brockelmann, in his shorter Hist. of Arabic Literature (Leipzig, 1901), p. 110, states that the correct translation of Murúju ’l-Dhahab is 'Goldwäschen.'

659 Concerning Ṭabarí and his work the reader should consult De Goeje's Introduction (published in the supplementary volume containing the Glossary) to the Leyden edition, and his excellent article on Ṭabarí and early Arab Historians in the Encyclopædia Britannica.