A Literary History of the Arabs Part 56

[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-'Atahiya'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 (_Diwan_, 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'alibi, _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, _Abu Firas, ein arabischer Dichter und Held_ (Leyden, 1895).

[564] Mutanabbi, ed. by Dieterici, p. 493. Wa?idi gives the whole story in his commentary on this verse.

[565] Mutanabbi, 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] _Diwan_, ed. by Dieterici, pp. 481-484.

[568] The most esteemed commentary is that of Wa?idi ( 1075 A.D.), which has been published by Fr. Dieterici in his edition of Mutanabbi (Berlin, 1858-1861).

[569] _Motenebbi, der grosste arabische Dichter_ (Vienna, 1824).

[570] _Abulfedae Annales Muslemici_ (Hafniae, 1789, &c.), vol. ii, p. 774.

_Cf._ his notes on ?arafa'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 ent.i.tled _Mutanabbi und Seifuddaula aus der Edelperle des Tsaalibi_ (Leipzig, 1847), which contains on pp. 49-74 an abstract of Tha'alibi's criticism in the fifth chapter of the First Part of the _Yatima_.

[575] Mutanabbi, ed. by Dieterici, p. 182, vv. 3-9, omitting v. 5.

[576] The author of these lines, which are quoted by Ibn Khallikan in his article on Mutanabbi, is Abu 'l-Qasim b. al-Mu?affar b. 'Ali al-?abasi.

[577] Mutanabbi, ed. by Dieterici, p. 581, v. 27.

[578] _Ibid._, p. 472, v. 5.

[579] Mutanabbi, ed. by Dieterici, p. 341, v. 8.

[580] Margoliouth's Introduction to the _Letters of Abu 'l-'Ala_, p.

xxii.

[581] _Ibid._, p. xxvii seq.

[582] _Luzumiyyat_ (Cairo, 1891), vol. i, p. 201.

[583] _I.e._, his predecessors of the modern school. Like Mutanabbi, he ridicules the conventional types (_asalib_) in which the old poetry is cast _Cf._ Goldziher, _Abhand. zur Arab. Philologie_, Part I, p. 146 seq.

[584] The proper t.i.tle is _Luzumu ma la yalzam_, referring to a technical difficulty which the poet unnecessarily imposed on himself with regard to the rhyme.

[585] _Abulfedae 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 Cla.s.se der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften_, vol. cxvii, 6th Abhandlung (Vienna, 1889). Select pa.s.sages 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 pa.s.sage occurs in Abu 'l-'Ala's _Risalatu 'l-Ghufran_ (see _infra_), _J.R.A.S._ for 1902, p. 351. _Cf._ the verses translated by Von Kremer in his essay on Abu 'l-'Ala, p. 23.

[592] For the term '?anif' 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, _Memoires 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 Fa?imids over the 'Abbasids.

[602] _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 38, p. 504.

[603] _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 31, p. 474.

[604] _Luzumiyyat_ (Cairo, 1891), i, 394.

[605] _Ibid._, i, 312.