76 
[No. 1, 
C. J. Lyall —The Mo'allaqah of Lebid, with the 
drink, when he would be healed of his disease. Lebid on this occasion 
stayed some time with Mohammed and heard the Qur’an, and while there 
copied out on a sheet of paper these words—“ er-Rahmanw i allama-l-Qv/r > an” 
[“ God the Merciful has taught men the Qur’an”] and carried them home 
with him. ‘Amir recovered as the Prophet had said ; but Arbed, whom 
Lebid met on the way home and told of Mohammed’s noble bearing and 
holiness, and to whom he read the words he had written, impiously replied— 
“ Would that I might meet er-Rahman in this waste—my blood be upon 
me if I smote him not with my sword!” And shortly afterwards, going 
out in the night to search for his camels, he was struck dead by lightning 
in the place where he had spoken these words. Of these two stories the 
first is to be preferred, as most in accordance with the other known facts of 
Lebid’s life, and with the tenor of the marthiyehs or dirges which he uttered 
over Arbed. Several of these have been preserved ; one has already been 
given : the following few lines are to be found in the Hamaseh , and the 
Aghdni tells us (p. 140) that they were quoted by the first Khalifeh Abu 
Bekr and applied by him to the Prophet— 
“ By my life ! verily if the messenger spoke true, 
a grievous stroke has fallen on Ja‘far from the hand of Fate ! 
A brother was he that gave me aught that I asked of him 
freely, and pardoned all the wrong that I did to him !” 
Notes to the Notice of Lebid. 
1 The second hemistich of this couplet offers some difficulty. De Sacy reads 
£♦..^1 JaA. IgJ ji 
and renders “tandis que la ligne entiere de l’escadron avoit ete enfoncee et avoit cede 
h leur violence.” But the reading of the Bulaq edition of the Aghani is distinctly 
and the use of LA in the sense of is of doubtful authority; while the render¬ 
ing given above would require the line to begin with -The translation adopted 
follows the explanation of the phrase \j given by Lane, and understands the 
hemistich as meaning that the whole fortune of the war hung on the spear-points 
which ‘Amir took to himself: he was the faris-el-jeysh —“ the knight of the host,” a 
warrior such as ‘Antarah draws for us in vv. 64 to 71 of his Mo‘allaqah. 
2 Lebid was thus nearly connected with the king of Hawazin, Zuheyr son of 
Je'Simeh, who was slain by Khalid son of Ja‘far of ‘Amir, Lebid’s great uncle on the 
father’s side; he was (through his mother) first cousin once removed of Q,eys son of 
Zuheyr, the leader of ‘Abs in the war of Dahis. It should be added that the text of 
the Aghani appears to make Zinba‘ a woman, whereas the name is that of a man ; 
we may perhaps understand “ one of the daughters of Je<5imeh” as applying to Tamireh, 
and “ daughters” as meaning female descendants generally. 
3 Hdjara. De Sacy renders “ qu’il accompagna ensuite le Prophete dans sa fuite 
a Mediae.” This, however, is impossible, for the death of ‘Amir ibn et-Tufeyl occurred 
in A. H. 10. • 
