81 
1877.] life of the poet as given in the Kitab-el-Agliani . 
he professed el-Islam ; he left his tribe and settled in el-Kufeh with Sa‘d son of Abu 
Waqqas, and was present at the battle of Nuhawend (A. H. 21), where he was among 
the slain. 
23 The second, or, if we omit the Fatihah from our reckoning, the first Surah of 
the Qur’an. 
24 G| : That is “ I shall be but a ghost (hameh) to-day or to¬ 
morrow.” It is remarkable that this speech, savouring of the superstitions of the 
Ignorance, when men spoke of the spirits of dead men as owls , should be put into the 
mouth of so pious a Muslim as Lebid, especially after the Prophet had specifically de¬ 
nied the existence of the hameh as of other things regarded with superstitious awe. (See 
Mes‘udi, Muruj-ec$-(5ahab, Yol. Ill, p. 311). But it will be seen from a discussion 
elsewhere that this particular superstition (or at least language having reference to it) 
was by no means eradicated by el-Islam, and that lidmeh was used generally to indicate 
a dead person even by Muslims. 
These words (“I am but an owl of to-day or to-morrow”) are given as a proverb in 
el-Meydani (Freytag’s edn., Yol. II, p. 885) and a history added which connects them 
with Lebid’s own tribe of ‘Amir. Shuteyr ibn Khalid ibn Nufeyl was taken prisoner 
by Dirar son of ‘Amr of Dabbeh, who said to him—“ Choose one of three things : first, 
restore to me my son el-Hoseyn, whom thy son ‘Otbeh has slain.” “ I cannot raise up 
the dead to life,” said Shuteyr. “ Then give up to me thine own son to be slain in his 
place,” said Dirar, “ Nay,” replied Shuteyr, “ the Benu ‘Amir would never agree to 
surrender a knight valiant in battle for a one-eyed dotard who is but an owl of to-day 
or to-morrow.” “ Then thou must die,” said Dirar, and bade his son slay him. 
25 For el-Welid see note (18). 
26 These verses are sufficiently clear. De Sacy supposes that Abu ‘ Aqil is the 
name of a tribe in el-‘ Iraq which dwelt eastward of el-Kufeh, so that the breeze that 
blew from thence would be the East wind: but Abu ‘ Aqxl is the Kunyeh or by-name of 
Lebid, as will have been noticed from a previous passage in this account of him. 
“ High-nosed” having the quality called in the nose : that is, straight¬ 
ness with length and height: it is used to describe a magnanimous man who holds his 
head high. “ Highheaded” Jxaao) : this word is properly applied to a camel who, by 
reason of the disease called is obliged to hold his head up in the air without 
turning it to right or left: hence it is applied in both a good and a bad sense to a proud 
and noble man who holds his head high. “ Long-armed” pbJj t. e. generous. In 
«» ^ *♦ 
the last line De Sacy reads while the Bulaq ed. has ; the former would 
mean the East wind’s moaning or whistling : the latter the sweeping in different direc¬ 
tions of its skirts as it blew. 
27 The Arabic word for “ of ‘ Abd-Shems’s line,” viz. deserves notice as 
M 
a curious contracted nominal adjective. In lines 5 and 6 the idea is that the camels, 
which are black—the most precious kind of all (see ‘ Antarah, Mo‘all. 12)—have humps 
so large (the hump being the most esteemed part of a camel as food—Tarafeh, Mo‘all. 93) 
that they look as if a company of negroes were riding on their backs. Abu Wahb was 
el-Welid’s Kunyeh or by-name. Therid is a mess of bread crumbled into broth—a 
much appreciated dish in the simple cookery of the Arabs. 
28 El-Farezdaq, with el-Akhtal and Jerir, made up the famous triumvirate of 
most excellent poets of the third order, the Islamis or those who had seen nothing of the 
days of the Ignorance. 
29 El-Mo‘tasim reigned from A. D. 833 to 842 : he succeeded his brother el- 
Mamun, whose reign extended from 813 to 833 A. D. 
L 
