The Penguin Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature

by Robert Irwin

  Then he looked down with an unroving eye, and uttered not a word in reply, so that we said, ‘An awe hath astounded him, or a faintness hath dumbfounded him.’ At last he raised his head and heaved his breath and said, ‘I swear by heaven with its starry train, and by the earth with its highways plain, and by the streaming rain, and by the blazing lamp of the Inane, and by the sounding main, and by the dust-whirling hurricane: truly this is the most auspicious of charms and will stand you in better stead than the men-at-arms: he that cons it at the smiling of the dawn dreads no calamity ere evening’s blush comes on; and he that murmurs it to the scouts of darkness as they advance is ensured for the night against any thievish chance.’

  Said the narrator: So, for our part, we learned it till we knew it by heart, and we repeated it each man to his neighbour, lest we should forgot it and lose our labour. Then we marched, speeding the beasts along by prayers, not by the drivers’ song, guarding bundle and bale by holy words, not by men in mail; and our friend, although his attention we never lacked, was not claiming the fulfilment of our pact, until, when the house-tops of ‘Ana rose in the distance, he cried, ‘Now, your assistance! your assistance!’ whereupon we brought to him of our goods both the concealed and the revealed, and the corded and the sealed, and said, ‘Take at thy choice, for thou wilt not find amongst us a dissentient voice.’ But all his delight was for the light and the fine, nothing pleased his eye but the coin: ‘twas a full load he shouldered and bore, enough to keep want from his door; then off he skipped as the cutpurse skips, and away he slipped as quicksilver slips. We were distressed by his defaulting and amazed at his bolting, and we sought everywhere for a clue and inquired after him from false guides and true, till we heard that since foot in ‘Ana he set he had never quitted the cabaret. The foulness of this rumour egged me on to test the ore of its mine and meddle with what is not in my line. Long before sunrise I repaired to the tavern in disguise, and lo, amidst jars and vats, there was the old varlet in a robe of scarlet, and around him cupbearers beaming and candles gleaming and myrtle and jessamine and pipe and mandolin: now he would be broaching the jars, now waking the music of guitars, now inhaling sweet flower-smells, now sporting with the gazelles. When I struck upon his guileful way and the difference of his to-day from his yesterday, I said, ‘Woe to thee, O accursed one! So soon hast thou forgotten the day of Jairun?’ But he guffawed with a will and began merrily to trill:

  ‘I ride and I ride through the waste far and wide, and I fling away pride to be gay as the swallow;

  Stem the torrent’s fierce speed, tame the mettlesome steed, that wherever I lead Youth and Pleasure may follow.

  I bid gravity pack, and I strip bare my back lest liquor I lack when the goblet is lifted:

  Did I never incline to the quaffing of wine, I had ne’er been with fine wit and eloquence gifted.

  Is it wonderful, pray, that an old man should stay in a well-stored seray by a cask overflowing?

  Wine strengthens the knees, physics every disease, and from sorrow it frees, the oblivion-bestowing!

  Oh, the purest of joys is to live sans disguise, unconstrained by the ties of a grave reputation,

  And the sweetest of love that the lover can prove is when fear and hope move him to utter his passion.

  Thy love then proclaim, quench the smouldering flame, for ‘twill spark out thy shame and betray thee to laughter:

  Heal the wounds of thine heart and assuage thou the smart by the cups that impart a delight men seek after;

  While to hand thee the bowl damsels wait who cajole and enravish the soul with eyes tenderly glancing,

  And singers whose throats pour such high-mounting notes, when the melody floats, iron rocks would be dancing!

  Obey not the fool who forbids thee to pull beauty’s rose when in full bloom thou’rt free to possess it;

  Pursue thine end still, though it seem past thy skill: let them say what they will, take thy pleasure and bless it!

  Get thee gone from thy sire if he thwart thy desire; spread thy nets nor enquire what the nets are receiving;

  But be true to a friend, shun the miser and spend, ways of charity wend, be unwearied in giving.

  He that knocks enters straight at the Merciful’s gate, so repent or e’er Fate call thee forth from the living!’

  I said to him, ‘Bravo, bravo, for thy recitation, but fie and shame on thy reprobation! By God, whence springeth thy stock? methinks thy riddle is right hard to unlock.’

  He answered, ‘I do not wish to explicate but I will indicate:

  I am the age’s rarity, the wonder of mankind,

  I play my tricks amongst them all, and many a dupe I find;

  But then I am a needy wretch whom Fortune broke and beat,

  And father, too, of little ones laid bare as butcher’s meat.

  The poor man with a family – none blames him if he cheat.’

  Said the narrator: Then I knew he was Abu Zaid, the rogue of his race, he that blackens the face of hoariness with disgrace; and I was shocked by the greatness of his iniquity and the abomination of his obliquity. ‘Old man,’ I said, ‘is it not time that thou draw back from thy course of crime?’ He growled and scowled and fumed, and pondered a moment and resumed,’ ‘Tis a night for exulting, not for insulting, and an occasion for wine-quaffing, not for mutual scoffing. Away with sorrow till we meet tomorrow!’ So I parted from him, in fear of a row, not because I relied on his vow; and I passed my night in the weeds of contrition for having gained admission to the daughter of the vine, not to a mosque or a shrine. And I promised God Almighty that nevermore would I visit a drinking-shop, not though the empire of Baghdad were given me as a sop, and never see the vats of wine again, even if the season of youth might be mine again.

  Then we saddled the camels tawny-white in dawn’s twilight, and left Abu Zaid in peace with his old tutor, Iblis.

  Nicholson, Translations of Eastern Poetry and Prose, pp. 119–24

  COMMENTARY

  ‘The Mother of the Qur’an’ is the name given to the first sura of the Qur’an.

  Iblis is the Devil.

  The nadim was a professional companion or friend. But many authors wrote on less formal ties of friendship. Much of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ ‘s treatise entitled Adab al-Kabir dealt with the importance of choosing the right friends and counsellors. Much of his animal-fable book Kalila wa-Dimna deals with such matters as trust, co-operation, reciprocity and the limits of loyalty. The Sufi thinker Ghazzali (on whom see Chapter 7) wrote a treatise on the duties of brotherhood. The historian Miskawayh (see below) wrote about business and travelling friendships in his Kitab Tahdhib al-Akhlaq (‘The Training of Character’). The exchange of letters between brethren or friends constituted a literary genre known as ikhwaniyyat. A preoccupation with brotherly co-operation between men provides part of the context for the coming together of a secretive literary and scientific brotherhood based in Basra in the tenth and eleventh centuries known as the IKHWAN AL-SAFA’, or ‘Brethren of Purity’. (Tawhidi was acquainted with members of this secretive group, as is clear from his al-lmta” wa-Mu’anasa.)

  The Ikhwan al-Safa’ probably took their name from the opening of the ‘Ring Dove’ chapter of the Kalila wa-Dimna, in which King Dabshalim asked the sage Bidpai if he could tell him anything about the Brethren of Purity. Whereupon the sage told him a story about how birds and animals co-operated to free themselves from the snares of a huntsman. The Ikhwan explicitly cited this story to illustrate the importance of mutual help and, generally, their work reveals a close familiarity with the writings of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘. (These included Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ ‘s translation into Arabic of a version of the life of the Buddha.) The Ikhwan produced an encyclopedia, which was cast in the form of letters (hence its title, the Rasa’il), and which covered all the sciences, including, among other topics, lexicography, grammar, prosody and metre, business, occult science, agriculture, religion, dream interpretation, mathematics, logic, music, astronomy, meteorology, mineralogy, botany
and zoology. The authors, who made a point of stressing their eclecticism and tolerance, drew on a wide range of material not only from the Islamic lands, but also from India, Greece and elsewhere. Pythagorean doctrines shaped the Ikhwan’s approach to such subjects as mathematics and music. The Ikhwan, who may have been Isma‘ili Shi’i sympathizers, also seem to have shared the rationalistic attitudes of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘. No doubt inspired by him, the Ikhwan made use of fables as a vehicle for instruction; besides drawing on Kalila wa-Dimna, they took Indian and Christian folklore as source material. Additionally they made up some stories and, like Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Sina later, they put fiction to the service of philosophy. They held that ‘religious law is medicine for the sick, whereas philosophy is medicine for the healthy’. In the case of the Ikhwan, the aim was to use philosophy to purify religion of its corrupt accretions. Despite their rationalist tendencies, the Ikhwan believed that the first goal to be striven for was happiness in the next world. Happiness in this world came next. Salvation would be achieved by right living and right thinking. The highest level of enlightenment was only achievable after the age of fifty.

  In the extract presented here, the Ikhwan pay tribute to Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ by making the jackal, Kalila, advocate for the animals in the case they bring against mankind at the court of the King of the Jinn. Besides condemning man’s cruelty towards animals and his ecological heedlessness, the Ikhwan were of course concerned to present a more anthropocentric critique of the corruption and injustice of the age they wrote in. What follows is from the first two chapters of the narrative of the court case brought by the animals and birds against mankind. (Despite making many good points, the animals lose in the end.)

  1

  It is said that when the race of Adam began to reproduce and multiply they spread out over the earth, land and sea, mountain and plain, everywhere freely seeking their own ends in security. At first, when they were few, they had lived in fear, hiding from the many wild animals and beasts of prey. They had taken refuge in the mountaintops and hills, sheltering in caves and eating fruit from trees, vegetables from the ground, and the seeds of plants. They had clothed themselves in tree leaves against the heat and cold and spent the winter where it was warm and summer where it was cool. But then they built cities and villages on the plains and settled there.

  They enslaved such cattle as cows, sheep, and camels, and such beasts as horses, asses, and mules. They hobbled and bridled them and used them for their own purposes – riding, hauling, plowing, and threshing – wore them out in service, imposing work beyond their powers, and checked them from seeking their own ends, where hitherto they had roamed unhindered in the woodlands and wilds, going about as they wished in search of pasture, water, and whatever was beneficial to them.

  Other animals escaped, such as the wild asses, gazelles, beasts of prey, and wild creatures and birds which once had been tame and lived in peace and quietude in their ancestral lands. They fled the realms of men for far-off wastes, forests, mountain peaks, and glens. But the Adamites set after them with various devices of hunting, trapping, and snaring, for mankind firmly believed that the animals were their runaway or rebellious slaves.

  The years went by, and Muhammad was sent, God bless and keep him and all his House. He called men and jinn to God and to Islam. One party of jinn answered his call and became good Muslims. In the course of time a king arose over the jinn, Biwarasp the Wise, known as King Heroic. The seat of his kingdom was an island called Balasaghun in the midst of the Green Sea, which lies near the equator. There the air and soil were good. There were sweet rivers, bubbling springs, ample fields, and sheltered resting places, varieties of trees and fruit, lush meadows, herbs, and flowers.

  Once upon a time in those days storm winds cast up a seagoing ship on the shore of that island. Aboard were men of commerce, industry, and learning as well as others of the human kind. They went out and explored the island, finding it rich in trees and fruit, fresh water, wholesome air, fine soil, vegetables, herbs and plants, all kinds of cereals and grains which the rainfall from heaven made grow. They saw all sorts of animals – beasts, cattle, birds, and beasts of prey – all living in peace and harmony with one another, demure and unafraid.

  These folk liked the place and undertook to settle there. They built structures to live in. Soon they began to interfere with the beasts and cattle, forcing them into service, riding them, and loading them with burdens as in their former lands. But these beasts and cattle balked and fled. The men pursued and hunted them, using all manner of devices to take them, firmly convinced that the animals were their runaway and recalcitrant slaves. When the cattle and beasts learned that this was their belief, their spokesmen and leaders gathered and came to set their complaint before Biwarasp the Wise, King of the jinn. The King, accordingly, sent a messenger to summon those persons to his court.

  A group from the ship, about seventy men of diverse lands, answered the summons. When their arrival was announced, the King ordered that they be welcomed with decorum and shown to their lodgings. After three days he brought them into his council chamber. Biwarasp was a wise, just, and noble king, open-handed and open-minded, hospitable to guests, and a refuge to strangers. He had mercy for the afflicted and did not allow injustice. He ordained what was good and would not tolerate what was evil but interdicted all wrong doing. His sole hope in all this was to please God and enjoy His favor. When the men came before him and saw him on his royal throne, they hailed him with wishes of long life and well-being. Then the King asked through his interpreter, ‘What brought you to our island? Why did you come uninvited to our land?’

  One of the humans answered, ‘We were drawn here by all we have heard of the merit of the king, his many virtues – goodness, nobility of character, justice, and impartiality in judgment. We have come before him that he might hear our arguments and the proofs we shall present, and judge between us and these escaped slaves of ours who deny our authority, for God upholds the righteous cause and will render right triumphant.’

  ‘Speak as you wish,’ said the King, ‘only make clear what you say.’

  ‘I shall, your Majesty,’ the human spokesman answered. ‘These cattle, beasts of prey, and wild creatures – all animals in fact – are our slaves, and we are their masters. Some have revolted and escaped, while others obey with reluctance and scorn servitude.’

  The King replied to the human, ‘What evidence and proof have you to substantiate your claims?’

  ‘Your Majesty,’ said the human, ‘we have both traditional religious evidence and rational proofs for what I have said.’

  ‘Let us have them,’ said the King.

  Then a spokesman of the humans, an orator, descended from ‘Abbas, God’s grace upon him, rose, mounted the witness stand, and said, ‘Praise be to God, Sovereign of the universe, hope of those who fear Him and foe to none but the unjust. God bless Muhammad, seal of the prophets, chief of God’s messengers and intercessor on the Day of Judgment. God bless the cherubim, His upright servants, all who live in heaven and earth who are faithful, and all Muslims. May He in His mercy place you and us among them, for He is the Most Merciful.

  ‘Praised be God who formed man from water and his mate from man, multiplied their race and lineage, mankind and womankind, gave honor to their seed and dominion over land and sea, and gave them all good things for their sustenance, saying, “Cattle He created for you, whence you have warmth and many benefits. You eat of them and find them fair when you bring them home to rest or drive them out to pasture.” He also said, “You are carried upon them and upon ships,” and, “horses, mules, and asses for riding and for splendor.” He also said, “so that you might be mounted upon their backs and remember the goodness of your Lord.” And there are many other verses in the Qur’an and in the Torah and Gospels which show that they were created for us, for our sake and our slaves and we their masters. God grant pardon to you and to myself.’

  ‘Cattle and beasts,’ said the King, ‘you have heard the vers
es of Qur’an this human has cited as evidence for his claims. What say you to this?’

  At that the spokesman for the beasts, a mule, got up and said, ‘Praise be to God, One, Unique and Alone, Changeless, Ever-abiding and Eternal, who was before all beings, beyond time and space and then said, “BE!” – at which there was a burst of light He made shine forth from His hidden Fastness. From this light He created a blazing fire and a surging sea of waves. From fire and water He created spheres studded with stars and constellations, and the blazing lamp of the heavens. He built the sky, made wide the earth and firm the mountains. He made the many-storeyed heavens, dwelling place of the archangels; the spaces between the spheres, dwellings of the cherubim. The earth he gave to living things, animals, and plants. He created the jinn out of the fiery simoom and humans out of clay. He gave man posterity ‘from vile water in a vessel sure,’ allowed man’s seed to succeed one another on earth, to inhabit it, not to lay it waste, to care for the animals and profit by them, but not to mistreat or oppress them. God grant pardon to you and to myself.

  ‘Your Majesty,’ the mule continued, ‘there is nothing in the verses this human has cited to substantiate his claims that they are masters and we slaves. These verses point only to the kindness and blessings which God vouchsafed to mankind, for God said that He made them your servants just as he made the sun, the moon, the wind and clouds your servants. Are we to think, your Majesty, that these too are their slaves and chattels and that men are their masters? No! God created all his creatures on heaven and earth. He let some serve others either to do them some good or to prevent some evil. God’s subordination of animals to man is solely to help men and keep them from harm (as we shall show in another chapter) not, as they deludedly suppose and calumniously claim, in order that they should be our masters and we their slaves.