The Literature of Arabia / With Critical and Biographical Sketches by Epiphanius Wilson

by Unknown

AN EPIGRAM UPON EBN NAPHTA-WAH[22]

By the former with ruin and death we are curst,
In the latter we grieve for the ills of the first;
And as for the whole, where together they meet,
It's a drunkard, a liar, a thief, and a cheat.

Mohammed Ben Zeid Almotakalam.

[22] Mohammed Ben Arfa, here called Naphta-Wah, was descended from a noble family in Khorasan. He applied himself to study with indefatigable perseverance, and was a very voluminous author in several branches of literature, but he is chiefly distinguished as a grammarian. He died in the year of the Hegira 323.