68 
C. J. Lyall —The Mo l allaqah of Lebid, with the [No. 1, 
Lebid was then in the mosque, having in his hand a hooked stick ; “ and I 
said to him” (says the messenger) “ ‘ O Abu ‘Aqil! thy brothers send thee 
greeting and ask thee to tell them who is the best poet of the Arabs.’ He 
answered—‘ The Wandering King, the Man of the Ulcers.’ And they sent 
me back to him to ask who was the Man of the Ulcers: he replied ‘ Imra’ el- 
Qeys.’ Then they sent me again to him to ask ‘ Who next ?’ He answered 
‘ The Boy of Eighteen 21 Years.’ They bade me ask him whom he meant : 
he replied 1 Tarafeh.’ Then they sent me a third time to ask—‘And who 
then ?’ he said—‘ The Man of the Hooked Staff, where he says— 
“ Verily fear of our Lord is the best of spoils : 
—it is by God’s leave that I go late or soon ; 
I give praise to God—He has no like : 
in His hand is all good : what He wills He does. 
Whom He leads in the paths of good is guided aright 
with a quiet heart : whom He wills He leads astray.” ’ 
meaning himself : then he said ‘ I ask pardon of God !’ ” 
Ahmed ibn ‘Abd-el-‘Aziz [el-Jauhari] informed me that ‘Omar ibn 
Shebbeh had told him that he had heard from Abu ‘Obeydeh that Lebid 
composed only one verse after he became a Muslim, namely :— 
“ Praise be to God that my end came not to me 
until I clad myself in the robe of el-Islam.” 
The same Ahmed states that he was told by his uncle, who heard it 
from Mohammed ibn ‘Abbad ibn Habib el-Muhellebi, who was told by 
Nasr ibn Ha’b, who had it from Laud son of Abu Hind, who learned it 
from esh-Sha‘bi, that ‘Omar ibn el-Khattab wrote to el-Mughireh son of 
Sho‘beh, 22 who was governor of el-Kufeh, bidding him cause the poets of 
his government to recite before him the poems they had composed under 
el-Islam. And he sent for el-Aghleb the Edjiz, el-Tjli, and said to him 
“ Becite to me thy verses.” And he answered— 
“ Host thou wish for an epigram or an ode ? 
Verily thy request is easy to satisfy at once !” 
Then he sent for Lebid and bade him recite. And Lebid said—“ Host 
thou desire aught of what has been wrapped in forgetfulness ?”—meaning 
his verses of the days of the Ignorance. “ No,” said el-Mughireh, “ recite 
t o me that which thou hast composed under el-Islam.” And Lebid left 
him, and went and wrote out on a sheet of paper the Chapter of the Cow, 23 
and returning with it said—“ God has given me this in exchange for poesy 
since I became a Muslim.” And el-Mughireh wrote all this to ‘Omar ; and 
the Khalifeh diminished the stipend of el-Aghleb by five hundred pieces of 
silver, and added them to that of Lebid, which thus amounted to two thou¬ 
sand five hundred dirhems. And el-Aghleb wrote to the Prince of the 
Believers, saying—“ Host thou diminish my allowance because I obeyed 
