[621] Moslems had long been familiar with the fables of Bidpai, which were translated from the Pehleví into Arabic by Ibnu ’l-Muqaffa‘ († circa 760 a.d.).
[622] Al-Fakhrí, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 18, l. 4 sqq.
[623] A town in Mesopotamia, not far from Edessa. It was taken by the Crusaders in 1101 a.d. (Abu ’l-Fidá, ed. by Reiske, vol. iii, p. 332).
[624] The 48th Maqáma of the series as finally arranged.
[625] Chenery, op. cit., p. 23.
[626] This has been done with extraordinary skill by the German poet, Friedrich Rückert (Die Verwandlungen des Abu Seid von Serug, 2nd ed. 1837), whose work, however, is not in any sense a translation.
[627] A literal translation of these verses, which occur in the sixth Assembly, is given by Chenery, op. cit., p. 138.
[628] Ibid., p. 163.
[629] Two grammatical treatises by Ḥarírí have come down to us. In one of these, entitled Durratu ’l-Ghawwáṣ ('The Pearl of the Diver') and edited by Thorbecke (Leipzig, 1871), he discusses the solecisms which people of education are wont to commit.
[630] See Chenery, op. cit., pp. 83-97.