Part 55 (1/2)

[517] I am deeply indebted in the following pages to Goldziher's essay ent.i.tled _Alte und Neue Poesie im Urtheile der Arabischen Kritiker_ in his _Abhand. zur Arab. Philologie_, Part I, pp. 122-174.

[518] _Cf._ the remark made by Abu 'Amr b. al-'Ala about the poet Akh?al (p. 242 _supra_).

[519] _Diwan des Abu Nowas, Die Weinlieder_, ed. by Ahlwardt, No. 10, vv. 1-5.

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

[521] _Cf._ the story told of Abu Tammam by Ibn Khallikan (De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 350 seq.).

[522] See Noldeke, _Beitrage_, p. 4.

[523] Ibn Khaldun, _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] _Aghani_, xii, 80, l. 3.

[526] Freytag, _Arab.u.m Proverbia_, vol. i, p. 46 seq., where the reader will find the Arabic text of the verses translated here. Ruckert has given a German rendering of the same verses in his _Hamasa_, vol. i, p.

311. A fuller text of the poem occurs in _Aghani_, xii, 107 seq.

[527] _Diwan_, ed. by Ahlwardt, _Die Weinlieder_, No. 26, v. 4.

[528] Ibn Qutayba, _K. al-s.h.i.+'r wa-'l-Shu'ara_, p. 502, l. 13.

[529] For the famous ascetic, ?asan of Ba?ra, see pp. 225-227.

Qatada was a learned divine, also of Ba?ra and contemporary with ?asan. He died in 735 A.D.

[530] These verses are quoted by Ibn Qutayba, _op. cit._, p. 507 seq.

'The Scripture' (_al-ma??af_) is of course the Koran.

[531] _Die Weinlieder_, ed. by Ahlwardt, No. 47.

[532] _Ibid._, No. 29, vv. 1-3.

[533] Ibn Khallikan, ed. by Wustenfeld, No. 169, p. 100; De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 393.

[534] _Cf._ _Diwan_ (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” (_?irtu fi ziyyi miskini_). 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-'Atahiya declares that knowledge is derived from three sources, logical reasoning (_qiyas_), examination (_'iyar_), and oral tradition (_sama'_). See his _Diwan_, p. 158, l. 11.

[537] _Cf._ _Mani, seine Lehre und seine Schriften_, by G. Flugel, p.

281, l. 3 sqq. Abu 'l-'Atahiya did not take this extreme view (_Diwan_, p. 270, l. 3 seq.).

[538] See Shahrastani, Haarbrucker's translation, Part I, p. 181 sqq. It appears highly improbable that Abu 'l-'Atahiya was a s.h.i.+'ite. _Cf._ the verses (_Diwan_, p. 104, l. 13 seq.), where, speaking of the prophets and the holy men of ancient Islam, he says:--