What handkerchief is best?

The courtiers surrounding ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan were not particularly erudite. One day, he asked them, "What is the best kind of handkerchief?"
     "The handkerchiefs of Egypt," said one of them "They're like the membrane of an eggshell."
     "The handkerchiefs of Yemen," said another. "They're as [colorful as] the flowers of spring."
     "That's all you've come up with?" said ‘Abd al-Malik. "That's nothing.  The best of handkerchiefs was described by a man of the Banu Tamim," meaning ‘Abda ibn al-Tabib (meter: basīṭ):

      When we halted and rigged up a screen from the sun,
          pots of meat for the party were put on to boil.
      The cook's time was short. Some of the cuts
          were eaten pink, and some were just turning pale.
      We remounted then our branded horses. Their close-cropped
          manes were kerchiefs for [wiping] our hands.

From al-Kamil of al-Mubarrad (cf. Imru’ al-Qays)

A courtroom scene

Abu ‘Ali (al-Qali, d. 356 A.H./967 CE) said: My recitation of this poem by Jamil (ibn Ma‘mar, d. 82/701) was vetted by Ibn Durayd (d. 321/933) (meter: wāfir):

    "What you accuse me of is not a wrong,"
          I told her, "unlike the miser's way, which is collective harm.
      Let's go before two judges, one from my group and one
          from yours, impartial men and not unjust ones."
     "I want one judge," she said, "from my group only,
          lest slanderers hear our case, and embroider on it."
      We went before the judge in his curtained chamber,
          a worldly man whose eyelids sagged,
      and said, "Whatever your decision, we will accept it.
          We trust you with adjudication of our case,
      which will be binding, so judge between us
          as your temper and opinion dictate."
    "I am slain,” I told the judge, “with no recrimination.
          And wrongs unpunished will proliferate!
      Ask her when she’ll make good all that she owes me.
          Is grievance ever righted when it's unredressed?"
    "The plaintiff is a liar," she said, "and a useless person
          whose accusations go on long.
      Am I his slayer? Then where’s my weapon?
          If I attack him, what fighting strength have I?
      Nor have I despoiled his capital. The court will find
          the alleged debt is owed to me."
      Our ruling was up to the sentencer,
          whose legal views were soundly based.
     "Bring forth your witnesses," he said.
          I said, "God is our witness, the Exalted King."
     "The defendant's oath, and I will reach my verdict,"
          ordered the judge, whose every verdict was just and fair.
      She gave her oath, and said the charge against her
          carried lest weight than a date pit's husk.
      [When it was over,] I could not help asking,
         "Our case was settled in my favor, was it not?"
      Buthaynah knit her brows and said, "[You think]
          you’ve prevailed? You, who prevail in nothing you do?
      And don’t let them find you with me, lest I be
          bereft of you. A bereaved woman is no one to mess with!"

From the Dictations of Abu ‘Ali al-Qali

A disputation of frost and ice

In this book (e.g.), I have repeated what others have presented, and cited their sources. I will now tell of madmen observed by me on my travels, for due to my passion for the subject, I have often repaired to madhouses and studied people in various states of madness.

At Merv I entered a madhouse that was located in a graveyard. I heard the clamor of raised voices, then beheld an old man who was tied up next to a young man in chains. They were arguing over ice and frost, and which was better than the other. On spotting me, they said, "Here comes one to moderate between us!"

The old man said, "I speak on behalf of frost, which is superior to ice, because frost is God's doing and not His worshipers'. But [human] beings created by God are capable of creating ice."

The young man said, "Frost has a harmful dryness to it that is lacking in ice. Ice is what occurs [in water] when it turns into ice."

"You're both right," I said, for as I pondered each one, the madness of the opposing statement would catch my ear.

From Madmen Who Were Intelligent by Abu 'l-Qasim al-Nisaburi

If in Brooklyn

Flyer by Nicholas DeBoer

Saints of Kufa at the fruit market

I am informed by my father, who was informed by his father, that Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. ‘Ali said: I am informed by Muhammad b. ‘Abd Allah b. Sulayman, [known as] Mutayyan, that Abu 'l-Muhanna al-Ta’i, [known as] Bunayn [or Buthayn] said:

Dawud al-Ta’i passed along the lane of ‘Amr b. Hurayth, where there were baskets full of ripe dates in even rows. On seeing them, his soul began to crave them. "Let's go," he said to his soul, and went to the vendor and said, "Give us one dirham's worth." "And where's the dirham?" the vendor said. "I'll give it to you tomorrow," Dawud said. "Go on about your business," the vendor said.
      A man [in the crowd] spotted Dawud and said to the vendor, "What did that man say to you?" The vendor said, "He said: 'Give me one dirham's worth of dates.'" At this, the man held out a sack holding one hundred dirhams, and told him, "Here. If he accepts one dirham's worth of dates from you, you can keep the rest."
      When the vendor caught up to Dawud, he was berating his soul, saying: "You, who are not worth one dirham in this world, you wish for Paradise?" The vendor said to him, "Come back, and take as much you need."
     "Get away from me," Dawud said, "I was just testing myself.”

From The Merits of Abu Hanifa by Ibn Abi 'l-‘Awam

⯁        

We are informed by ‘Abd al-Rahman that Abu Sa‘id al-Ashajj said: A man whose name I don't recall told me that

Sufyan al-Thawri passed along the lane of ‘Amr b. Hurayth, together with a man who gawked left and right at all the fruit on display. When they arrived at the gate of Musa ibn Talha [in the neighborhood of the Kunasa, which was Kufa's refuse depot], the man stepped in human excrement. Sufyan said to him: "Everything you were gawking at turns into this."

From Finding Faults and Findings in Favor [of Individual Hadith Narrators] by Ibn Abi Hatim al-Razi

A Sisyphus of Baghdad

I am informed by Tahir ibn Muhammad al-Ahwazi, who said:

I saw Abu Hayyan al-Muwaswas after he went from Basra to Baghdad. His only care was for the purchase of a wide-mouthed ceramic jug, which he filled with water from the Tigris and took to the canal of al-Sarat to pour it out. Then he would carry water back from al-Sarat and pour it into the Tigris. And from the time he came to Baghdad until his death, he did no other work but this. When night fell, he would set down his jug and weep over it, saying, "Dear God, lighten for me the task I am performing, and relieve me of it!"

I am also informed by Muslim ibn ‘Abd Allah, who said:

I saw Abu Hayyan al-Muwaswas when he came to Baghdad and conceived his passion for pouring water. He would carry it from one place to another to pour it out, and when asked about it, he would say, "If I don't do this every day, I'll die."

       And here is one of Abu Hayyan's poems (meter: munsariḥ):

       Weep no more for Hind, nor the level sands,
            nor springtime pastures known by you,
       but stop at Qatrabull and its amusements,
            tether there your camels from the trek,
       and stop in on the old man of the monastery
            whom People of the Book call the Qissis.
       He's not amassed a fortune. All that he owns
            is his crucifix and a bell.
       But he has a wineskin over his shoulder that he brings
            to be my portion, carrying it spout downward.
       On my first visit, I frightened him, and he quaked at me,
            so I mentioned Moses. "[How about] Jesus, though!" said he,
       and poured into my cup a bright, clear, unmixed stream
            from a vineyard where no grubs have breached the vine.

Abu Hayyan's speech became disordered at the end of his life when he went mad. But he was not disordered in his verse. This is the way of poets who suffer dementia late in their careers: their speech becomes profoundly incoherent, but when it comes to poetry, they transcend [the confusion in] their heads, and follow the traces that were familiar to them before their madness. 

From The Rankings of the Poets by Ibn al-Mu‘tazz

In Memoriam Peter Wilson

1945 — 2022

Regard the eddies

I was told by my father, on the authority of Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Yazīd, on the authority of Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr that

‘Abd al-A‘lā ibn Ziyād al-Aslamī said: One day I saw Dāwūd al-Ṭā’ī standing on the bank of the Euphrates in a state of amazement. "What has made you stop here?" I asked him.
       He said: "Look at the eddies in the river, and how they whirl in obedience to God’s command, be He exalted."

From the Ornament of God's Friends of Abu Nu‘aym al-Isbahani

Guest artist: Roberto Harrison

Roberto Harrison, "buffalo person for the morning" (2020). 
Pencil and ink on paper, 12.7 x 17.8 cm.
From the series Tec Alliance

Ever green

Ibn Khālawayh said: In the speech of the Arabs, khaḍir / khaḍira is used for just five things. (1) Al-Khaḍir is the name of a prophet, God's blessings and peace be upon him. He was called that because when he sat on a patch of ground, it sprang into greenness beneath him.

(2) Khaḍira is an epithet of the world here below. The Prophet of God, God's blessings and peace be upon him and his family, said: Al-dunyā ḥulwatun khaḍiratun ("This world is sweet and green").

(3) Whatever is said to be yours khaḍiran naḍiran ("green and flourishing") is free for you to take it. [The dual noun] al-khaḍiratān is heard in the expression for "Two things that are ever green: sakhbar and raiding"—[as if they were] two bushes, their freshness surpassing all other green things. In other words, one is impelled toward them both.

(4) Khaḍir is any green herbage that the earth puts forth, whether trees or panic grass or lush greenery [The IX^th form verb] ikhḍarra is used for this, and for a tree whose greenery is plentiful.
     The Prophet, God's prayers be upon him, said: "Refrain from those plants in your diet (khaḍirātikum) that have a strong smell," meaning garlic, onion, and leeks.
     Palm trees too are called khaḍir. And khaḍir can refer to a dish of tender greens. Ukhtuḍira, [a passive VIII^th form verb meaning "to be cut off in a state of greenness"] is said of someone who dies in their youth, leaving nothing finished. 

(5) And Khaḍir is the name of a tribal group.

From volume 5 of
The Book of "Not in the Speech of the Arabs"
by Ibn Khalawayh (Süleymaniye MS Shahid ‘Ali Pasha 2143, fol. 20v-21r)

Sultan Ezi is the Lord of the Cup

      

In 2017, I made a selection of poems by the caliph Yazid ibn Mu‘awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, and prepared "trots" of them for Peter Lamborn Wilson to versify in his book on the Yezidi religion. That book is now available from Inner Traditions (Rochester, VT), and [UPDATED MAY 23] I'm consoled that Peter lived to see it. Thanks to all who made it possible, especially Charles Stein, Renée Heitman, and Raymond Foye.

Alexander the Sleepless XIII

At the end of four days' travel, they arrived at the place where a large monastic community had for its chief Alexander's own brother, their archimandrite. Did his way of life accord with the Gospel of the Lord? It was Alexander's intention to find out. 

He brought a single member of his brotherhood up to the gates with him and knocked. "Patience," responded the gatekeeper in the ordinary fashion. "Let me notify the abbot, and then you may enter." But Alexander refused to wait, and followed him inside, to find out if the archimandrite would be roused against his gatekeeper. 

When his saintly brother, whose name was Peter, beheld him after thirty years, he recognized his sibling at once, for even in darkness it is natural to recognize one's own. And he fell at his feet, and hugged them, and begged Alexander to forgive what had taken place. But the blessed one spoke harshly and accusingly. "Our father Abraham received his guests personally and attended to them, and our lord Jesus Christ made it the law." And he shook the dust from his clothes and went back on the road. The most reverend Peter and all the brothers of his community were in tears as they begged him to stay, even if just one day, but Alexander declined. And with this lesson in true monastic poverty and divine love he left them, and set off for Antioch.

The Life of Alexander the Sleepless III.37

Alexander the Sleepless XII

In the company of his brethren, whose hymn-singing continued without interruption, the blessed Alexander went all the way across the desert to arrive at Solomon's city—the city he built "in the wilderness," as it says in the Book of Kings, now called Palmyra. But when, from far away, the people of the city caught sight of the brethren drawing nearer in their numbers [....], they closed the gates. "Who could possibly feed all those men?" they said to one another. "If they come into our city, then all of us will starve."

At this, the holy man gave praise to God. "Trust in the Lord is better than trust in men," he said. "Take courage, brothers, for the Lord watches over us in unsuspected ways." And [sure enough,] the barbarians of those parts showed a humanitarian concern that was unparalleled. The brethren had abided in the desert for three days when, from a distance of four days' travel, there arrived a group of camel-riders sent to them by the Lord with supplies, in accordance with what the holy one had said. To God the brethren gave praise and thanks, and let others share in the bounty. It was so much more than they needed that they found themselves distributing the goods sent to them among the poor of that city.

Some eager members of the brethren formed a plan. As consolation for their recent sufferings, they wished to bring refreshment to the brethren in their great numbers, and so they disobeyed the holy one by preparing a mixed grill for the brethren's gustatory delight. But Alexander decided to give them a lesson in sublimating their woes. As soon as the feast was all prepared, he took up the parchments of the Holy Gospel as was his custom, saying "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will toward men," which was his habitual way of taking leave. With that, he gave word that the feast be left untouched, and went back on the road. And the brethren held back from all that was laid out for them, and got back on the road. 

From The Life of Alexander the Sleepless III.35-6

If in Boston

After an 18th-century MS of al-Qazwīnī’s ‘Ajā’ib al-makhlūqāt 

(The Wonders of Creation) illustrated in a workshop of Palestine. 

Bavarian State Library, Cod. arab. 463, fol. 181v