67 
1877 .] life of the poet as given in the Kitdb-el-Aghdni. 
approached him a young man of Gliani who said—“ May God bring evil 
upon Tufeyl for that he said 20 — 
4 May God requite Ja‘far for what they did to us when our sandals 
made us of those who tread the earth and slipped so that we fell! 
They refused to be weary of us : and verily if our mother 
had met from us that which they met, she would have been a-weary ! 
The lord of abundant wealth and every afflicted one— 
in the chambers of their house they were warmed and sheltered : 
They said “ Hasten in hither, until ye can see your ways 
when the darkness is folded away by the dawning of the day.” ’ 
Would that I knew what good he met at the hands of the Benu Ja‘far, 
that he should say this of them” ! And Lebid drew aside the mantle from 
his face and said—“ Son of my brother ! the men that thou knowest belong 
to a time when a Police has been established, when men call on one another 
for help and receive it: when a House of public provision has been set up 
whence the servant goes forth with a wallet to feed the hungry, and a Pub¬ 
lic Treasury from which every Muslim receives his stipend ; but if thou 
hadst known Tufeyl on the day when he said this, thou wouldst not have 
reviled him.” Then he lay down again on his back, saying, “ I ask pardon 
from God I” and he continued to repeat these words until he arose from 
rest. 
Isma‘il ibn Yunus informed me that he had been told by ‘Omar ibn 
Shebbeh, who heard it from Mohammed ibn Hakim, who had it from Kha- 
lid ibn Sa‘id, that Lebid one day in el-Kufeh passed by a place where a 
company of the Benu Nahl were sitting : and he was supporting himself by 
a hooked staff. And they sent a messenger to ask him who was the best 
poet of the Arabs. He replied—“ The Wandering King, the Man of the 
Ulcers.” And the messenger returned and told them, and said “ This is 
Imra’ el-Qeys.” Then he returned again and asked him “ Who next ?’* 
He answered “ The Boy of the Benu Bekr that was slain.” And he came 
back and told them, and said “ This is Tarafeh.” Then he returned a second 
time and asked “ Who next ?” Lebid answered—“ Next after these is the 
Man of the Hooked Staff,” meaning himself. This story is differently 
told by Ahmed ibn ‘Abdallah ibn ‘Ammar, who says that it was related to 
him by Ya‘qub eth-Thaqafi, Ibn ‘Ayyash, and Mis‘ar ibn Kidam, all of whom 
heard it from ‘Abd-el-Melik ibn ‘Omar, who affirmed that he had been told 
it by the very person who was sent to Lebid by the men who were called “ The 
noble reciters of the Qur’an— el-qurra 1 el-asliraf.” (El-Heythem says that 
he asked Ibn ‘Ayyash who were “ the noble reciters of the Qur’an,” and 
that he replied that they were Suleyman son of Sarad el-Khuza‘i, el- 
Musayyab son of Nejbeh el-Fezari, Khalid son of ‘Orfutah ez-Zuhri, Mes- 
ruq son of el-Ajda‘ el-Hamdani, and Hani’ son of ‘Orweh el-Muradi.) 
