Malik

“ The slave was named after al-Jarâjimah, because he mixed with them and rebelled with them in Mt. Lebanon. Hearing of his strength and valor, ʿAbd-al-Malik asked his masters to set him free, which they did. He was then put by ʿAbd-al-Malik at the head of a regiment of troops and stationed at Antioch. With 1,000 men from Antioch, he and Maslamah ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik led an invasion to aṭ-Ṭuwânah. [5] After fighting valiantly and standing gallantly, he fell a martyr. This so much grieved ʿAbd-al-Malik that he sent a large army against the Greeks to avenge his death. ”

“ Ḍirâr met Mâlik and, as a result of the conflict which ensued, Ḍirâr took Mâlik and some others captive, and brought them before Khâlid. In accordance with Khâlid's orders, their heads were cut off, [21] Ḍirâr with his own hand cutting off that of Mâlik. According to certain reports, Mâlik said to Khâlid, "By Allah, I did not apostatize!" And abu-Ḳatâdah-l-Anṣâri gave witness that the banu-Ḥanẓalah had laid down their arms and made the public call to prayer. Hearing this, ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb said to abu-Bakr, "Thou hast sent a man who kills Moslems and tortures by fire!" ”

“ Certainly this appears to be the case with Malik and Bunene, who, with Shamash, form a triad that constitutes the chief object of worship in the great temple E-babbara at Sippar, to whose restored cult Nabubaliddin devotes himself. Both names, moreover, occur as parts of proper names in the age of Hammurabi. Malik—i.e., ruler—is one of the names frequently assigned to Shamash, just as the god's consort was known as Malkatu, but for all that Malik is not the same as Shamash. ”

“ In 1298 he entered the service of the Mameluke Sultan Malik al-Nāṣir and after twelve years was invested by him with the governorship of Hamah. In 1312 he became prince with the title Malik us-Sālih, and in 1320 received the hereditary rank of sultan with the title Malik ul-Muʽayyad. For more than twenty years altogether he reigned in tranquillity and splendour, devoting himself to the duties of government and to the composition of the works to which he is chiefly indebted for his fame. He was a munificent patron of men of letters, who came in large numbers to his court. ”

“ A certain man dreamed that he saw Mālik ibn Dīnār and Mohammed ibn Wāsiʿ being led into Paradise, [p. 37] and that Mālik was admitted before his companion. He cried out in astonishment, for he thought Mohammed ibn Wāsiʿ had a superior claim to the honour. “Yes,” came the answer, “but Mohammed ibn Wāsiʿ possessed two shirts, and Mālik only one. That is the reason why Mālik is preferred.”
The Sūfī ideal of poverty goes far beyond this. True poverty is not merely lack of wealth, but lack of desire for wealth: the empty heart as well as the empty hand. ”

“ When ʿAbd-al-Malik departed Yazîd remarked, "It is said that this is the man that will rule after us. If that is right, we would have done him favor and expect to receive something in repay; if it is false, we have granted him a gift." ”

“ Sâd decreed that the male captives should be slaughtered. Mohammad, disapproving the judgment, remarked to Sâd: "Thou hast decided like the decision of a king," meaning thereby a despotic monarch. The best authentic tradition in Bokhari (Kitáb-ul-Jihád) has the word 'Malik,' monarch; but in other three places of Bokhari, Kitabul Monakib, Maghazi, and Istizan, the narrator has a doubt whether the word was "Allah" or Malik. Moslim, in his collection, has also 'Malik,' and in one place the sentence is not given at all. ”

“ At this critical juncture, the withdrawal of Sajah left Malik ibn Nuweira with the Yerbu' tribe in a position of some perplexity, and he was undecided how to act. Conflicting views respecting Malik's loyalty divided the Muslim camp. For some reason Khalid was bent on attacking the Yerbu'. The men of Medina were equally opposed to the design, for which they alleged there was no authority. It had been better for Khalid to have listened. But he replied haughtily, "I am Commander, and it is for me to decide. I will march against Malik with such as choose to follow me. I compel no man." ”

“ After the death of Malik in 179 legend takes him to Yemen, where he is involved in an ʽAlid conspiracy, carried prisoner to Bagdad, but pardoned by Hārūn al-Rashīd. He was certainly pursuing his studies, and he seems to have come to Bagdad in some such way as this and then to have studied under Ḥanifite teachers. He had not yet formulated his own system. After a journey to Egypt, however, we find him in Bagdad again, as a teacher, between 195 and 198. There he had great success and turned the tide against the Hanifite school. ”

“ When the Ommiade Caliph Abd al-Malik was dying he said to his son Walid, "Look to Al-Hajjaj and honour him for, verily, he it is who hath covered for you the pulpits; and he is thy sword and thy right hand against all opponents; thou needest him more than he needeth thee, and when I die summon the folk to the covenant of allegiance; and he who saith with his head—thus, say thou with thy sword—thus" (Al-Siyuti, p 225) yet the historian simply observes, "the Lord curse him." ”

“ He knew the ordinance of Abu Bekr, that none but they who resisted and who refused the call to prayer should be molested. So he told his people that there was 25
no longer use in opposing this new way, but that bowing down they should suffer the wave to pass over them. "Break up your camp," he said, "and depart every man to his house." Khalid, still bent on treating the neighbourhood as enemy's land, sent forth bands everywhere to slay and plunder, and take captive all who failed to respond to the call for prayer. Amongst others, Malik was seized with his wife and a party of his people. ”

“ Ja'afar said, "Allah accomplisheth unto thee these three occasions. As for the money, it shall be carried to thy house this very hour: as for the government, I make thy son Viceroy of Egypt; and as for the marriage, I give him to mate Such-an-one, the daughter of our lord the Prince of True Believers, at a dowry of such and such a sum. So depart in the assurance of Allah Almighty." Accordingly Abd al-Malik went away much astonished at Ja'afar's boldness in undertaking such engagements. ”

“ Then said he, “Allow us to be a partaker in your pleasures, and give us to drink of your Nabíz. [265] ” So they brought him a silken robe and poured him out a pint, when he said, “We crave your indulgence, for we have no wont of this.” Accordingly Ja’afar ordered a flagon of Nabíz be set before him, that he might drink whatso he pleased. Then, having anointed himself with perfumes, he chatted and jested with 161them till Ja’afar’s bosom broadened and his constraint ceased from him and his shame, and he rejoiced in this with joy exceeding and asked Abd al-Malik, “What is thine errand? ”

“ The procession had now come to the walled lane to the Bab Toot, the gate going out to Tangier and to Shawan. There the way was so narrow and the concourse so great that for a moment the procession was brought to a stand. Seizing this opportunity, Reuben Maliki stepped up to Israel and said, so that all might hear, “Look at the crowds that have come out to speed you, O saviour of your people! ”

“ There was another—Malachy Blake his name was—a great man, full of gosther and brag; you’d think it was the world he must have for himself, the whole world, no less, from Liscanor Head to Renvyle Point out yonder, and farther still. Well, I will tell you now about Malachy Blake. The heart of him was no better than the heart of a pullet—of a sick pullet, when the eyes of it begin to turn up, and it squeaks when you take it in your hand and turns over and dies on the floor. That was what Malachy Blake’s heart was like—no better! ”

“ Malcolm's main thought was, What a grand thing it would be to rouse a woman like Clementina to lift her head into the
⁠regions mild of calm and serene air,
Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot
Which men call earth!
If any one think that love has no right to talk religion, I answer for Malcolm at least, asking, Whereof shall a man speak if not out of the abundance of his heart? That man knows little either of love or of religion who imagines they ought to be kept apart. ”

“ I have noticed that the families of the Maleks exceed the common people in respect of stature and stoutness. The Malek, in whose house I lodged, a man about 60 years of age, was near seven feet high, and very stout. ”

“ Malcolm was in two minds whether to take him or not, but the chance that his [Pg 274] life might depend on a reliable horse, and, perhaps, a touch of the gambler’s belief in luck, swayed his judgment, and Nejdi was saddled. Chumru rode a spare charger which Malcolm had purchased at the sale of a dead officer’s effects. Fully equipped in their character as rebel non-commissioned officers, the two rode forth, crossed the Jumna, reached the Meerut road unchallenged and turned their horses’ heads toward the bridge of boats that debouched beneath the walls of the King’s palace. ”

“ If only men could read the future, how Malcolm’s soldier spirit would have kindled as Mayne told him the names of those squalid communities! Each yard of that road was destined to be sprinkled with British blood, while its ditches would be choked with the bodies of mutineers. But these things were behind the veil, and the one dominant thought possessing Malcolm now was that unless Winifred and her uncle obtained food of some sort they must fall from their saddles with sheer exhaustion. ”

“ These, during the last nine years, had gradually grown familiar, first with the little childish form, carried about tenderly in Malcolm's arms, and then with the muffled figure, scarcely less of a child to look at, which Malcolm, and sometimes Miss Cardross, drove about in a pony-chaise. At the kirk especially, though he was always carefully conveyed in first, and borne out last of all the congregation, his face—his sweet, kind, beautiful face was known to them all, and the children were always taught to doff their bonnets or pull their forelocks to the earl. ”

“ In the seventh year of Malcolm (949–50) , when Olaf Sitricson made a last attempt to restore the Danish power in Northumbria, the Scots made a foray to the Tees, carrying away captive many men, as well as cattle. Tradition varied whether Malcolm in person led this raid, or whether the old Constantine, whose cowl had not extinguished the warlike spirit, asked back the command ‘for a week, that he might visit the Angles.’ Freeman's suggestion that Malcolm was unwilling to break his treaty with the West-Saxon king is modern and improbable. ”

“ Malcolm the poet was born, and spent his years of boyhood and early youth, in the tall naked house; and the surrounding landscape is that to which he refers in his "Tales of Flood and Field," as rising in imagination before him, bright in the red gleam of the setting sun, when, on the steep slopes of the Pyrenees, the "silent stars of night were twinkling high over his head," and the "tents of the soldiery glimmering pale through the gloom." The tall house is the manse of the parish of Frith and Stennis; and the poet was the son of the Rev. John Malcolm, its minister. ”

“ Now at that time the king of Kosala, Mallika by name, was also ruling his kingdom with righteousness; and when seeking for some fault in himself, he also found no fault-finder in the palace but only heard of his own virtue! So [129] seeking in country places, he too came to that very spot. And these two came face to face in a low cart-track with precipitous sides, where there was no space for a chariot to get out of the way!
Then the charioteer of Mallika the king said to the charioteer of the king of Benares, "Take thy chariot out of the way!" ”

“ Then he bade farewell to his child and her lord, and returned to his home. But a great part of his fellowship he commanded to go with her for their service.
Malakin came back to his own land, where he was welcomed right gladly of his friends, and served and honoured by all the folk of his realm. He lived long and tenderly with his wife, neither were they childless, as this story testifies. For of this lady, who was called the Fair Captive, was born the mother of that courteous Turk, the Sultan Saladin, an honourable, a wise, and a conquering lord. ”

“ This mollified the soldier, and the Malek took a place as well as he could. The Malek then addressed the soldier in a mild manner, and asked him why he had bestowed such appellations upon one who was a Mussulman, as well as himself. The soldier positively refused to allow the Malek's claims to this honorable appellation. The chief demanded upon what grounds the soldier denied it: "Because," said the soldier, "the women of your country are all whores, and the men all get drunk with bouza, araky, and other forbidden liquors, which you make out of durra and dates;" ”

“ Malcolm has the grace to colour, which I am afraid the rest of us have lost long ago. Never mind, Malcolm, there are plenty of Scotch cadets have mended their fortune by means of a rich heiress before now, and I hope there will be many more. I am on the lookout for a wealthy young countess myself, and I don't think there is one here who would not lay aside his armour and sword on such inducement. ”

“ What should Malachy do? There was nothing to be done except to recur to that one accustomed refuge of his. Gathering an exceeding mighty army, a great crowd of his own disciples, he went to the king, and demanded him who was bound; he was refused. But Malachy said, "You act unrighteously against the Lord, and against me, and against yourself, transgressing the covenant;749 if you disregard it, yet shall not I. A man has entrusted himself to my guarantee; if he should die, I have betrayed him. ”