A Literary History of the Arabs Part 30

For whom build we, who must ourselves return Into our native element of clay?

O Death, nor violence nor flattery thou Dost use, but when thou com'st, escape none may.

Methinks, thou art ready to surprise mine age, As age surprised and made my youth his prey.

What ails me, World, that every place perforce I lodge thee in, it galleth me to stay?

And, O Time, how do I behold thee run To spoil me? Thine own gift thou tak'st away!

O Time! inconstant, mutable art thou, And o'er the realm of ruin is thy sway.

What ails me that no glad result it brings Whene'er, O World, to milk thee I essay?

And when I court thee, why dost thou raise up On all sides only trouble and dismay?

Men seek thee every wise, but thou art like A dream; the shadow of a cloud; the day Which hath but now departed, nevermore To dawn again; a glittering vapour gay.

This people thou hast paid in full: their feet Are on the stirrup--let them not delay!

But those that do good works and labour well Hereafter shall receive the promised pay.

As if no punishment I had to fear, A load of sin upon my neck I lay; And while the world I love, from Truth, alas, Still my besotted senses go astray.

I shall be asked of all my business here: What can I plead then? What can I gainsay?

What argument allege, when I am called To render an account on Reckoning-Day?

Dooms twain in that dread hour shall be revealed, When I the scroll of these mine acts survey: Either to dwell in everlasting bliss, Or suffer torments of the d.a.m.ned for aye!"[543]

I will now add a few verses culled from the Diwan which bring the poet's pessimistic view of life into clearer outline, and also some examples of those moral precepts and sententious criticisms which crowd his pages and have contributed in no small degree to his popularity.

"The world is like a viper soft to touch that venom spits."[544]

"Men sit like revellers o'er their cups and drink, From the world's hand, the circling wine of death."[545]

"Call no man living blest for aught you see But that for which you blessed call the dead."[546]

FALSE FRIENDS.

"'Tis not the Age that moves my scorn, But those who in the Age are born.

I cannot count the friends that broke Their faith, tho' honied words they spoke; In whom no aid I found, and made The Devil welcome to their aid.

May I--so best we shall agree-- Ne'er look on them nor they on me!"[547]

"If men should see a prophet begging, they would turn and scout him.

Thy friend is ever thine as long as thou canst do without him; But he will spew thee forth, if in thy need thou come about him."[548]

THE WICKED WORLD.

"'Tis only on the culprit sin recoils, The ignorant fool against himself is armed.

Humanity are sunk in wickedness; The best is he that leaveth us unharmed."[549]

"'Twas my despair of Man that gave me hope G.o.d's grace would find me soon, I know not how."[550]

LIFE AND DEATH.

"Man's life is his fair name, and not his length of years; Man's death is his ill-fame, and not the day that nears.

Then life to thy fair name by deeds of goodness give: So in this world two lives, O mortal, thou shalt live."[551]

MAXIMS AND RULES OF LIFE.

"Mere falsehood by its face is recognised, But Truth by parables and admonitions."[552]

"I keep the bond of love inviolate Towards all humankind, for I betray Myself, if I am false to any man."[553]

"Far from the safe path, hop'st thou to be saved?

s.h.i.+ps make no speedy voyage on dry land."[554]

"Strip off the world from thee and naked live, For naked thou didst fall into the world."[555]

"Man guards his own and grasps his neighbours' pelf, And he is angered when they him prevent; But he that makes the earth his couch will sleep No worse, if lacking silk he have content."[556]

"Men vaunt their n.o.ble blood, but I behold No lineage that can vie with righteous deeds."[557]

"If knowledge lies in long experience, Less than what I have borne suffices me."[558]

"Faith is the medicine of every grief, Doubt only raises up a host of cares."[559]

"Blame me or no, 'tis my predestined state: If I have erred, infallible is Fate."[560]

Abu 'l-'Atahiya found little favour with his contemporaries, who seem to have regarded him as a miserly hypocrite. He died, an aged man, in the Caliphate of Ma'mun.[561] Von Kremer thinks that he had a truer genius for poetry than Abu Nuwas, an opinion in which I am unable to concur.

Both, however, as he points out, are distinctive types of their time. If Abu Nuwas presents an appalling picture of a corrupt and frivolous society devoted to pleasure, we learn from Abu 'l-'Atahiya something of the religious feelings and beliefs which pervaded the middle and lower cla.s.ses, and which led them to take a more earnest and elevated view of life.

With the rapid decline and disintegration of the 'Abbasid Empire which set in towards the middle of the ninth century, numerous petty dynasties arose, and the hitherto unrivalled splendour of Baghdad was challenged by more than one provincial court. These independent or semi-independent princes were sometimes zealous patrons of learning--it is well known, for example, that a national Persian literature first came into being under the auspices of the Samanids in Khurasan and the Buwayhids in 'Iraq--but as a rule the anxious task of maintaining, or the ambition of extending, their power left them small leisure to cultivate letters, even if they wished to do so. None combined the arts of war and peace more brilliantly than the ?amdanid Sayfu 'l-Dawla, who in 944 A.D. made himself master of Aleppo, and founded an independent kingdom in Northern Syria.

[Sidenote: Tha'alibi's eulogy of Sayfu 'l-Dawla.]

"The ?amdanids," says Tha'alibi, "were kings and princes, comely of countenance and eloquent of tongue, endowed with open-handedness and gravity of mind. Sayfu 'l-Dawla is famed as the chief amongst them all and the centre-pearl of their necklace. He was--may G.o.d be pleased with him and grant his desires and make Paradise his abode!--the brightest star of his age and the pillar of Islam: by him the frontiers were guarded and the State well governed. His attacks on the rebellious Arabs checked their fury and blunted their teeth and tamed their stubbornness and secured his subjects against their barbarity. His campaigns exacted vengeance from the Emperor of the Greeks, decisively broke their hostile onset, and had an excellent effect on Islam. His court was the goal of amba.s.sadors, the dayspring of liberality, the horizon-point of hope, the end of journeys, a place where savants a.s.sembled and poets competed for the palm. It is said that after the Caliphs no prince gathered around him so many masters of poetry and men ill.u.s.trious in literature as he did; and to a monarch's hall, as to a market, people bring only what is in demand. He was an accomplished scholar, a poet himself and a lover of fine poetry; keenly susceptible to words of praise."[562]

Sayfu 'l-Dawla's cousin, Abu Firas al-?amdani, was a gallant soldier and a poet of some mark, who if s.p.a.ce permitted would receive fuller notice here.[563] He, however, though superior to the common herd of court poets, is overshadowed by one who with all his faults--and they are not inconsiderable--made an extraordinary impression upon his contemporaries, and by the commanding influence of his reputation decided what should henceforth be the standard of poetical taste in the Mu?ammadan world.

[Sidenote: Mutanabbi (915-965 A.D.).]

Abu 'l-?ayyib Ahmad b. ?usayn, known to fame as al-Mutanabbi, was born and bred at Kufa, where his father is said to have been a water-carrier. Following the admirable custom by which young men of promise were sent abroad to complete their education, he studied at Damascus and visited other towns in Syria, but also pa.s.sed much of his time among the Bedouins, to whom he owed the singular knowledge and mastery of Arabic displayed in his poems. Here he came forward as a prophet (from which circ.u.mstance he was afterwards ent.i.tled al-Mutanabbi, _i.e._, 'the pretender to prophecy'), and induced a great mult.i.tude to believe in him; but ere long he was captured by Lu'lu', the governor of ?ims (Emessa), and thrown into prison. After his release he wandered to and fro chanting the praises of all and sundry, until fortune guided him to the court of Sayfu 'l-Dawla at Aleppo. For nine years (948-957 A.D.) he stood high in the favour of that cultured prince, whose virtues he celebrated in a series of splendid eulogies, and with whom he lived as an intimate friend and comrade in arms. The liberality of Sayfu 'l-Dawla and the ingenious impudence of the poet are well brought out by the following anecdote:--

Mutanabbi on one occasion handed to his patron the copy of an ode which he had recently composed in his honour, and retired, leaving Sayfu 'l-Dawla to peruse it at leisure. The prince began to read, and came to these lines--

_Aqil anil aq?i' i?mil 'alli salli a'id zid hashs.h.i.+ bashs.h.i.+ tafa??al adni surra ?ili._[564]