“His poems leave no aspect of the age (in which he lived) untouched, and present a vivid picture of degeneracy and corruption, in which tyrannous rulers, venal judges, hypocritical and unscrupulous theologians, swindling astrologers, roving swarms of dervishes and godless Qarmatians, occupy a prominent place.” —Raynold A. Nicholson: A Literary History of the Arabs ↩
“The Mohammedan critics who thought he let his opinions be guided by his pen probably came near the truth. And any man who writes in such fetters as the meter (he means the rhyme-ending; for Abu al-ʻAlaʼ made use of every known meter of Arabic prosody) of the Luzumiyat imposes, can exercise but slight control over his thoughts.” —D. S. Margoliouth: Letters of Abu’l-Ala ↩
This work, of which Professor Nicholson says there are but two copies extant, one in Constantinople and the other in his own collection, was published in Cairo, in 1907, edited by Sheikh Ibrahim ul-Yazeji. ↩
“To let go a flea is a more virtuous act than to give a dirham to a beggar.” —Abu al-ʻAlaʼ ↩
The Orthodox, i.e. the Mohammedans. ↩
I do not find these verses in the printed copies of either the Luzumiyat or Saqt az-Zand. But they are quoted, from some MS. copy I suppose, by the historian Abu’l-Fida. ↩
Omar wrote poetry in Arabic too. My learned friend, Isa Iskandar Maluf of Zehleh, Mt. Lebanon, showed me some quatrains of “Omar the Tentmaker and Astronomer,” in an old Arabic MS. which bear a striking resemblance to some of Abu al-ʻAla’s both in thought and style. ↩
To open a poem with a few amatory lines, is a literary tradition among Arab poets. But Abu al-ʻAlaʼ, having had no occasion to evince such tender emotions, whether real or merely academic, succeeded, as in everything else he did, in deviating from the trodden path. I find, however, in his minor Diwan, Saqt az-Zand, a slight manifestation of his youthful ardor, of which this and the succeeding quatrains, descriptive of the charms of Night, are fairly representative. ↩
“Ahmad,” Mohammed the Prophet. ↩
“And hear the others who with cymbals try,” etc., meaning the Christians; in the preceding quatrain he referred to the Mohammedans. ↩
Milton, in “Il Penseroso,” also speaks of night as “the starred Ethiop queen”; and Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet, has these lines:
“Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiop ear.”
The source of inspiration is the same to all world-poets, who only differ sometimes in the jars they bring to the source. ↩
The purple, white, and gray garments, symbolizing Man’s dreams of power, of love, and of bliss. ↩
The same idea is expressed by Omar Khayyam. Here are the first three lines of the 122nd quatrain of Heron-Allen’s literal translation:
“To him who understands the mysteries of the world
The joy and sorrow of the world is all the same,
Since the good and the bad of the world all come to an end.”
“Howdaj,” a sort of palanquin borne by camels; hence, a wedding or a triumphal procession. ↩
“Thamud” and “ ʻAd,” two of the primitive tribes which figure prominently in the legendary history of Arabia. They flouted and stoned the prophets that were sent to them, and are constantly held up in the Koran as terrible examples of the pride that goeth before destruction.
“Hashem’s fearless lad,” Mohammed the Prophet. ↩
I quote again from Omar, Fitzgerald’s translation:
“And this reviving Herb, whose Tender Green
Fledges the River-Lip, on which we lean—
Ah, lean upon it lightly! for who knows
From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen.”
In justice to both the Persian and the Arab poet, however, I give the 43rd quatrain of Heron-Allen’s, which I think contains two lines of that of Fitzgerald, together with Abu al-ʻAla’s own poetic-fancy.
“Everywhere that there has been a rose or tulip bed
There has been spilled the crimson blood of a king;
Every violet shoot that grows from the earth
Is a mole that was once upon the cheek of beauty.”
“Zaqqum,” a tree which, in Mohammedan mythology, is said to have its roots in hell, and from which are fed the dwellers of hellfire. In one of the Chapters of the Koran, The Saffat, I find this upon it: “And is that a pure bounty, or the Zaqqum tree? It is a tree which groweth in hell; its fruits are like unto the heads of the devils, who eat from it, and from it fill their stomachs.”
Zaqqum is also one of the bitter-fruited trees of Arabia. And the people there speak of “a mouthful of zaqqum” when they want to describe an unhappy experience. It is also the name of one of the plants of the desert, whose flower is like the jasmine; and of one of the trees of Jericho, whose fruit is like the date, but somewhat bitter. ↩
“Jannat,” Paradise. “Jahannam,” Hell. ↩
And Tennyson also says:
“There is more truth in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in all the creeds.”
“Mutakallim,” disputant. The mutakallimun are the logicians and theologians of Islam. ↩
Hadil is a poetic term for dove. And in Arabic mythology it is the name of a particular dove, which died of thirst in the days of Noah, and is bemoaned until this day.
“Ababil,” a flock of birds, who scourged with flint-stones which
