116 ([return])
[ i.e. what is thy news.]
117 ([return])
[ Bresl. Edit., vol. vi. pp. 188-9, Night ccccxxxiv.]
118 ([return])
[ Of this masterful personage and his énergie indomptable I have spoken in vol. iv. 3, and other places. I may add that he built Wásit city A.H. 83 and rendered eminent services to literature and civilization amongst the Arabs. When the Ommiade Caliph Abd al-Malik was dying he said to his son Walid, "Look to Al-Hajjaj and honour him for, verily, he it is who hath covered for you the pulpits; and he is thy sword and thy right hand against all opponents; thou needest him more than he needeth thee, and when I die summon the folk to the covenant of allegiance; and he who saith with his head—thus, say thou with thy sword—thus" (Al-Siyuti, p 225) yet the historian simply observes, "the Lord curse him.">[
119 ([return])
[ i.e. given through his lieutenant.]
120 ([return])
[ "Necks" per synecdochen for heads. The passage is a description of a barber-surgeon in a series of double-entendres the "nose-pierced" (Makhzúm) is the subject who is led by the nose like a camel with halter and ring and the "breaker" (háshim) may be a breaker of bread as the word originally meant, or breaker of bones. Lastly the "wealth" (mál) is a recondite allusion to the hair.]