72 
C. J. Lyall— The Mo l allaqah of Lebid, with the [No. 1, 
man, “ but I wish thee to do as I ask.” And el-Welid said—“ Come with 
me, that I may be quit of thee in the place where I took thee upon myself.” 
And he went with him to the Holy Temple 32 ; and when he found himself 
there face to face with a company of the Qureysli, he said to them—“ This 
is Ihn Ma<5‘un—I took him under my protection, and now he asks me to 
withdraw my shelter from him : is it as I say, 0 ‘Othman ?” “ Yes,” said 
he. Then said el-Welid, “ I call you to witness that I am quit of him.” 
The teller of the tale goes on to say that there were sitting there a com¬ 
pany of the Qureysh to whom Lehid son of B,abi‘ah was reciting his verses ; 
and ‘Othman went and sat down with the people. And Lebid said— 
“ Yea, everything is vain except only God alone !” 
And ‘Othman said to him—“ Thou speakest truth.” And Lebid continued— 
“ And every pleasant thing must one day vanish away.” 33 
And ‘Othman said—“ Thou liest I” And the people knew not what he meant; 
and one of them signed to Lebid to repeat the verse again, and he did so ; 
and ‘Othman again said that he spoke truth in the first half-verse, and lied 
in the second : for the delights of Paradise shall never vanish away. And 
Lebid cried—“ O ye people of the Qureysh ! there used to be no such man 
as this in your assemblies !” And Ubayy son of Khalaf (others say, his 
son) rose and smote ‘Othman on the face ; and some one said to ‘Othman— 
“ But yesternight thou wast safe from treatment like this.” He re¬ 
plied—“ How needful is it for this sound eye of mine that there should 
befall it what befell the other for the sake of God !” 
Mohammed ibn Khalaf ibn el-Marzuban told me that he had heard 
from Ahmed ibn el-Heythem, who was told by el-‘Omari, who learned it 
from el-Heythem ibn ‘Adi, who had it from ‘Abdallah ibn ‘Ayyash, that 
[the Khalifeh] ‘Abd-el-Melik wrote to el-Hajjaj bidding him send to him 
esh-Sha‘bi ; 34 and he sent him. And the Khalifeh attached him to his sons, 
and bade him educate and instruct them. Ibn ‘Ayyash continues—“ He 
invited me one day to visit him during the illness of which he died: and he 
choked with a morsel of food while I was with him. And he rested himself 
for a long time : then he said—‘ I have become as the poet says— 
“ I am as though, now that I havemver-passed seventy years, 33 
I had stripped my shoulders bare to meet the stroke of Fate.” 
But he lived till he reached a hundred and ten, when he said— 
“ Is there no life left for a man after that he has lived 
a hundred years, and after that yet ten years more ?” 
A 
Still fie lived on till he reached a hundred and twenty, when he said— 
“ Verily I am aweary of life and its length 
and of hearing men ask ‘ How goes Lebid ?’ 
Men are overborne, but he stands still unconquered 
by Time, the new, the everlasting dreary length ; 
