D. 661
) ravaged Islam, conspired to assassinate them; but only
succeeded in killing Ali, Muawiyeh escaping with a wound and the
fanatic charged with the murder of Amr slaying Kharijeh, the
chief of the police at Cairo, by mistake, in his stead. The
above verses are part of a famous but very obscure elegy on the
downfall of one of the Muslim dynasties in Spain, composed in the
twelfth century by Ibn Abdoun el Andalousi, one of the most
celebrated of the Spanish Arabic poets.
[FN#65] i.e. fortune. The word dunya (world) is constantly used
in poetry to signify "fortune" or "the fortune of this world."
[FN#66] This line is a characteristic example of the antithetical
conceits so common in Oriental poetry. The meaning is, "My grief
makes all I behold seem black to me, whilst my tears have washed
out all the colour from my eyes."
[FN#67] i.e. the tomb.
[FN#68] The wood of which makes a peculiarly fierce and lasting
fire.
[FN#69] Koran iv. 38.
[FN#70] Most happy.
[FN#71] Wretched.
[FN#72] Most happy.
[FN#73] The gift of God. The h in Nimeh becomes t before a vowel.
[FN#74] i.e. happiness.
[FN#75] Num is synonymous with Saad. The purpose of the change
of name was to make the little one's name correspond with that of
Nimeh, which is derived from the same root.
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