[94]. Arab. “Yá Bilál”: Bilal ibn Rabah was the Prophet’s freedman and crier: see vol. iii. 106. But bilal also signifies “moisture” or “beneficence,” “benefits”: it may be intended for a double entendre but I prefer the metonymy.
[95]. The verses of this Kasidah are too full of meaning to be easily translated: it is fine old poetry.
[96]. i.e. of the Koraysh tribe. For his disorderly life see Ibn Khallikan ii. 372: he died however, a holy death, battling against the Infidels in A.H. 93 (= 711–12), some five years before Omar’s reign.
[97]. Arab. “Bayn farsi-k wa ’l-damí” = lit. between fæces and menses, i.e. the foulest part of his mistress’s person. It is not often that The Nights are “nasty”; but here is a case. See vol. v. 162.
[98]. “Jamíl the Poet,” and lover of Buthaynah: see vol. ii. 102, Ibn Khallikan (i. 331), and Al-Mas’udi vi. 381, who quotes him copiously. He died A.H. 82 (= 701), or sixteen years before Omar’s reign.
[99]. Arab. “Safíh” = the slab over the grave.
[100]. A contemporary and friend of Jamíl and the famous lover of Azzah: See vol. ii. 102, and Al-Mas’udi, vi. 426. The word “Kuthayyir” means “the dwarf.” Term. Essay, 268.
[101]. i.e. in the attitude of prayer.
[102]. In Bresl. Edit. “Al-Akhwass,” clerical error noticed in Ibn Khallikan i. 526. His satires banished him to Dahlak Island in the Red Sea, and he died A.H. 179 (= 795–6).
[103]. Another famous poet Abú Firás Hammám or Humaym (dimin. form), as debauched as Jarir, who died forty days before him in A.H. 110 (= 728–29), at Basrah. Cf. Term. Essay, 269.