62 
C. J. Lyall —The Mo‘allaqah of Lebid, with the [No. 1, 
Lebid. 
(Kitab-el-Aghani XIV. pp. 93—102.) 
Lebid was the son of Itabi‘ah son of Malik son of Ja‘far son of Kilab 
son of Babi‘ah son of ‘Amir son of Sa‘sa‘ah son of Mo‘awiyeh son of Bekr 
son of Hawazin son of Mansur son of ‘Ikrimeh son of Khasafeh son of Qeys 
son of ‘Eylan son of Mudar. His father was called jR aM 1 at-el-mo 1 tarrin 
(“a Spring to those who came to ask for his bounty”) on account of his 
liberality and generosity : he was slain by the Benu Lebid in the war which 
befell between them and their tribe and his people. His uncle was Abu 
Nizar ‘Amir ibn Malik Mul&ib-el-Asinneh (“the player with lances”), a 
name which he gained from the verse of Ans son of Hojr— 
“ ‘Amir played gaily with the points of the spears, 
And the fortune of the whole host betook itself thereto. 1 ” 
The mother of Lebid was Tamireh daughter of ZinbtV of ‘Abs, one of 
the daughters of JeSimeli the son of Bawaliah. 2 Lebid was one of the 
poets who are counted as belonging to the Ignorance, and also a mulchad- 
rim , or one who attained to the days of el-Islam ; and he was one of the 
noblest of poets who composed faultless verses, of good knights, of reciters 
of the Qur’an, and of those who attained to long life : it is said that he lived 
a hundred and forty-five years. 
Ahmed ibn ‘Abd-el-‘Aziz el-Jauhari states in his traditions respecting 
Lebid’s life, on the authority of ‘Omar ibn Shebbeh, who heard it from 
‘Abd-allah ibn Mohammed ibn Hakim, and it is also asserted by el-Hasan 
ibn ‘All, who was told by Ibn Mahraweyh, who heard it from ‘Abd-allah ibn 
Abi Sa‘d, who heard it from ‘Ali ibn es-Sabbah, who heard it from Ibn el- 
Kelbi, and also from ‘All ibn el-Musawwar, who had it from el-Asma‘i, and 
also from el-Meda’ini and other men whom he mentions, among whom are 
Abu-1-Yaq'San, Ibn Da’b, Ibn Ja‘diyeh, and el-Waqqasi,—that Lebid son 
of Babi‘ah came to the Prophet of God (may God bless him and grant him 
peace!) with a deputation from the Benu Kilab after the death of his bro¬ 
ther Arbed and ‘Amir ibn et-Tufeyl: that he then professed el-Islam, and, 
sej3arating himself from his tribe, became a companion of the Prophet, 3 
and was a sincere believer ; that he afterwards settled in el-Kufeh in the 
days of ‘Omar ibn el-Ivhattab (may God be satisfied of him !), and abode 
there until his death towards the end of the Khalifeh-ship of Mo‘awiyeh. 
His life reached to a hundred and forty-five years, of which he lived ninety 
in the Ignorance and the rest under el-Islam. 
‘Omar ibn Shebbeh says in his traditions, and I was also told by ‘Abd¬ 
allah ibn Mohammed ibn Hakim, that Lebid said, when he reached the 
age of seventy and seven— 
