A man described as ‘abāmā’ is a doltish simpleton. Jamīl said (meter: ṭawīl):
This dolt has never joined a fight, or knelt a camel
for its saddle as it strains against a tether.
Herds are what he's busy at, pasture
his eternal quest. His thoughts are of his nanny goats
sired by a dusky buck, with horns that poke up
from their skulls like pods of carob.
His gut is big, and though his mind's a muddle,
his eye is ever on the smallest kid, and long his rod.
Al-Aṣma‘ī said: A man who is ṭabāqā’ is without insight into what concerns him, as in the verse by Jamīl:
This dullard's never joined a fight, or knelt a camel
for its saddle as it strains against a tether.
This is the Basran recension of the verse as al-Aṣma‘ī recited it, and Abū ‘Ubayd reported that he said: "‘Ayāyā’ has the same meaning as ṭabāqā’, and is said of the male camel that won't mount a female." In his Book of Uncommon Words, Abū ‘Ubayd says: "A ṭabāqā’ is an impotent dullard."
From The Curtailed and the Prolonged by Abū ‘Alī al-Qālī
