Abu Nuwas

“ Then the Khalif addressed the others successively in the same manner, and when the turn of Abu Nuwas came, he struck his sides with his hands, and crowing like a cock, said: 'My lord, hens are useless without a cock. These are hens, and I am their cock.' Hereon the Khalif burst out laughing, and approved of his excuse.
IV. A certain king was much addicted to women, and one of his viziers warned him of the danger. ”

“ There are many anecdotes about him, and many sayings of clever men regarding him. Abu Nuwas took lessons from Abu Obaida, praised him highly, and decried Al-Asmai, whom he detested. When asked what he thought of Al-Asmai, he replied, 'A nightingale in a cage,' meaning probably that a nightingale in a cage is pleasing to hear, but there is nothing else good about it. Abu Obaida he described as 'a bundle of science packed up in a skin.'
Abu Zaid al-Ansari was a philologist and grammarian, and a contemporary of the two persons just described. ”

“ Yet the fact that poetry should be part of the life of a passionate people who lived in the desert, free and untrammeled, is not strange. The Arabs themselves attribute also their great superiority in poetry to the beauty of their language, especially as spoken by the Bedouins in the desert. The great Arabian poet Abu Nuwas completed his education by sojourning a year among the Bedouins. ”

“ In traditions, Dhū-Nuwās was the name of the Jewish king of Yaman, who burnt the Christians of Nejrān in a fiery trench on their refusing to forsake their faith. The idol is imaginary; from Nebuchadnezzar.
126 Qur’ān xvi. 41; xxxvii. 72; xl. 76; speaks of the “Gates of Hell;” and a commentary to the last says they are held to be seven.
127 Abū-Jahl was a surname given by Muhammed to one of his most inveterate enemies of the Quraysh, killed at Badr. The word means: “Father of Ignorance,” and here indicates fleshly pride. ”

“ Only a truce was arranged between us, according to which we agreed to give them some wheat and lentils, and they to give us slaves. It is all right to buy their slaves from them or from others."
Abu-ʿUbaid from al-Laith ibn-Saʿd:—The latter said, "The terms we made with the Nubians stipulated only that we neither fight against them nor they against us, that they give slaves and we give them their value in terms of food. If they desire, therefore, to sell their wives or children, there is no reason why they should not be bought." ”

“ There is nothing now spoken in this whole neighbourhood but Arabic; but there is still a recollection of the former Nubian population, as there are yet a number of villages distinguished from the others as Nuba villages. Above the province Dongola, the following were pointed out to me as such:—Gebel Maqál and Zûma on the right shore, and near the island Massaui, which also bears the Nubian name of Abranârti; then on the left hand Belled e’ Nûba, between Debbe and Abu Dôm, Haluf or Nuri, and Bellel, opposite Gerf e’ Sheikh and Kasinqar. ”

“ Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that Abu Niyyah knew and was certified of his comrade Abu Niyyatayn being dead, so he cried aloud, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah the Glorious, the Great. ”

“ Abu Nowas one day shut himself up and, making ready a richly-furnished feast, collected for it meats of all kinds and of every colour that lips and tongue can desire. Then he went forth, to seek a minion worthy of such entertainment, saying, "Allah, my Lord and my Master, I beseech Thee to send me one who befitteth this banquet and who is fit to carouse with me this day!" Hardly had he made an end of speaking when he espied three youths handsome and beardless, as they were of the boys of Paradise, [FN#83] differing in complexion but fellows in incomparable beauty ”

“ Then he set it before the Sultan and said to him, "Show it to the Youth and say to him, The dowry of the Princess, my daughter, is a jewel like unto this." But whilst Abu Niyyah was standing between his hands the King showed him the gem and repeated to him the words of the Wazir, thinking to himself that it was a pretext for refusing the youth, and saying in his mind, "He will never be able to produce aught like that which the Wazir hath brought." Hereupon Abu Niyyah asked, "An so be I bring thee ten equal to this, wilt thou give me the damsel?" and the King answered, "I will." ”

“ Now Abou Nuwas was on this wise given and loved to sport and make merry with the fair and cull the rose from every fresh-flowered cheek, even as saith the poet:
Full many a graybeard is amorous and loves Fair faces and music and dalliance and glee:
From Mosul, the country of pureness, [1] he comes, Yet nought but Aleppo [2] remembereth he.
So he accosted them with the salutation, and they returned his greeting with all honour and civility and would have gone their way; but he stayed them, repeating these verses:
To none but me your footsteps steer ”

“ The habits and customs of the inhabitants of the middle Nile valley display a remarkable amalgamation of inherited and acquired characters. Taciturn and carelessly pliant, the Nubian seems as willing to adapt himself to what is new as to forget the traditions of his home. Worshipper of Islam more in name than in reality, he is as innocent of strict adherence to the tenets of his creed as of intolerance towards those of another faith. Until he has reached mature manhood or old age, he seldom or never respects the commandments of the Prophet with the conscientiousness of Arab or Turk. ”

“ Then he accosted the youth and saluting him, asked him, "Why do I see my lord lone and lorn? Meseemeth thou art a stranger and knowest not this country; so, with leave of my lord, I will put myself at his service and acquaint him with the streets, for that I know this city." Nur al-Din answered, "This will be of thy favour, O nuncle." Abu Nowas rejoiced at this and fared on with him, showing him the streets and bazars, till they came to the house of a slave-dealer, where he stopped and said to the youth, "From what city art thou?" "From Damascus," replied Nur al-Din ”

“ So ʾAbd-Allâh sat down, and el-Mansûr inquired, "What is thy story about the King of Nubia?"
"O Commander of the Faithful," he answered. "I was the heir-apparent to my father, and when thou didst pursue us I sent for ten of my slaves, and placed in the hands of each one of them a thousand dinârs, and equipped five mules, and fastened a jewel of great price within my girdle, and fled to the land of Nubia. ”

“ But one day of the days, as he was sitting in his pleasaunce, suddenly the man Abu Niyyatayn passed before him leaning on a palm-stick, and crying, "O ye beneficent, O ye folk of good!" When Abu Niyyah beheld him he said to his Chamberlain, "Hither with yonder man;" and as soon as he was brought he bade them lead him to the Hammam and dress him in a new habit. They did his bidding and set the beggar before his whilome comrade who said to him, "Dost thou know me?" "No, O my lord," said the other; and he, "I am thy companion of old whom thou wouldst have left to die in the well ”

“ South of Aswân and Philse begins Nubia. The Nubian language, which is quite different from Arabic, is spoken by everybody on the island of Elephantine, and its various dialects are used as far south as Dongola, where Arabic again is generally spoken till we reach the land of the negroes, south of Khartum. In Ptolemaic and Roman days the Nubians were a powerful people, and the whole of Nubia and the modern North Sudan formed an independent kingdom, ruled by queens who bore the title or name of Candace. ”

“ Indeed of late days a student came hither, a youth who knew nothing of expelling the Evil One, and he accepted the task and the Sultan designeth to smite his neck at this very hour; so the people are flocking with design to divert themselves at the decapitation." Now when Abu Niyyah heard these words he rose without stay or delay and walked in haste till he came into the presence of the Sultan whom he found seated upon his throne and the Linkman standing with his scymitar brandished over the head of the young student and expecting only the royal order to strike his neck. ”

“ The Nuba on the contrary belong originally to the Negro stock, with hair of the common negro type, and are among the darkest skinned tribes in the Sudan, their colour varying from a dark chocolate brown to the darkest shade of brown black.
But rightly to understand the question we have carefully to avoid confusion between the Nubians of the Nile Valley and the Negro Nubas, who gave their name to the Nuba Mountains, Kordofan, where most of the aborigines (Kargo, Kulfan, Kolaji, Tumali, Lafofa, Eliri, Talodi) still belong to this connection [203] . ”

“ This is due to the large number of slaves drawn by Arab dealers from the Nūba negroes of Kordofan, who appear to constitute the original stock of the Nubian races (but see Hamitic Races) . On the other hand, the name has never included all the inhabitants of Nubia. Peoples of three distinct stocks inhabit the country—the comparatively recent Semitic Arab intruders, mainly in Upper Nubia, the Beja (? Hamitic) family of tribes (the Ababda, Bisharin, Hadendoa, Beni-Amer, &c.) , everywhere between the Nile and the Red Sea ”

“ The camels of the Bisharins and Ababdehs are no less famous for their speed than the horses of Dongola. Inhabitants. Often conquered, and consisting of little more than the double riverain zone of the Nile, Nubia is peopled with tribes of very mixed origin, such as Ilamites, Arabs, Nigritians, and Turks. Nevertheless the basis of the Nubian population may be said to consist of Bar&bras, who call themselves " the people of the soil." ”

“ The conquest of Nubia having been almost entirely the work of the Theban dynasties, the Theban triad, Amon, Maût, and Montû, and their immediate followers were paramount in this region, while in the north, in witness of the ancient Elephantinite colonisation, we find Khnûmû of the cataract being worshipped, in connexion with Didûn, father of the indigenous Nubians. ”

“ And Al-Nu'uman cried, "By Allah, I will be the third of you, lest it be said, Mercy hath departed from the kings." So he pardoned him and bade abolish the day of ill-luck; whereupon the Arab began to say,
"A many urged me that I false my faith, * But I refused whatso the wights could plead; For I'm a man in whom Faith dwells for aye, * And every true man's word is pledge of deed."
Quoth Al-Nu'uman, "What prompted thee to keep faith, the case being as thou sayest?" Quoth he, "O king, it was my religion." Al-Nu'uman asked, "What is thy religion?" and he answered "The Nazarene!" ”

“ During the early years of their occupation, the Nubians beyond a question treated the country most shamefully; there are traces still existing which demonstrate that large villages and extensive plots of cultivated land formerly occupied the scene where now all is desolation. Boys and girls were carried off by thousands as slaves to distant lands; and the Nubians, like the parvenu who looks upon his newly-acquired wealth as inexhaustible, regarded the territory as being permanently productive; they revelled like monkeys in the durra-fields of Taka and Gedaref. ”

“ The Theban princes, to whom Nubia was directly subject, had been too completely engrossed in the wars against their hereditary enemy, to devote much time to the continuation of that work of colonization in the south which had been carried on so vigorously by their forefathers of the XIIth and XIIIth dynasties. The inhabitants of the Nile valley, as far as the second cataract, rendered them obedience, but without any change in the conditions and mode of their daily life, which appear to have remained unaltered for centuries. ”

“ Now there accosted him once, on his day of ill-omen, an Arab of the Benou Tai, [FN#170] and En Numan would have put him to death; but the Arab said, "God quicken the king! I have two little girls and have made none guardian over them; so, if the king see fit to grant me leave to go to them, I will give him the covenant of God [FN#171] that I will return to him, whenas I have appointed them a guardian." En Numan had compassion on him and said to him, "If a man will be surety for thee of those who are with us, [I will let thee go] , and if thou return not, I will put him to death." ”

“ Though the convert referred to is neither a Christian nor a Nubian, still the story shows that there was such a thing as conversion to Islam in Nubia in the fifteenth century. Ibn Salīm says that he once met a man at the court of the Nubian chief of Muqurrah, who told him that he came from a city that lay three months’ journey from the Nile. When asked about his religion, he replied, “My Creator and thy Creator is God; the Creator of the universe and of all men is One, and his dwelling-place is in Heaven.” ”

“ As their small republican communities have not been able to form a solid con- federation, they make no resistance to their enemies. Nevertheless there are a few Nuba villages which by payment of a tribute acquire the right to live unmolested near the plains, and are allowed to descend to the markets to dispose of their gocnls. The Nubas dress like the Arabs, but do not plait their hair. They are completely black, with the face very prognathous, nor do their features possess that peculiar sharpness which distinguishes the riverain Nubians of the Nile. ”