Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (19/481)

Siyar Aʿlām al-NubalāʾShams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi

My palate is pure prosody; almost every word I utter springs from the language itself,
and grammar is second nature to me—so what metrical foot could still shackle me? (1)

I said to him, “That is enough. By Allah, after this I shall never again deem any great thing beyond you.” From that time on he kept close to me and, through our sessions, acquired a share of letters that left him self-sufficient.

Ibn al-Qaysarānī relates: Hibat Allāh ibn Badīʿ, Abū ’l-Najm, signed an order for Ibn al-Khayyāṭ granting him one thousand dinars; he is the last poet in our age to receive a stipend of one thousand dinars.

Among Ibn al-Khayyāṭ’s verses in praise of Sadīd al-Mulk Abū ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muqallid ibn Naṣr ibn Munqidh (2) of Shayzar are these:

My certainty protects me from the sudden assaults of calamity,
and my resolve is the saddle-girth I tighten on noble mounts.

An army of determination will hasten to my aid; how often
have I with it subdued the very crisis that sought to subdue me.

Whoever has waged war against Time itself
has schooled his soul to wrestle with the nights, not with ranked battalions.

Not everyone who draws near his goal emerges victorious,
nor is the one far from his hope inevitably doomed to defeat.

Riches, by Allah, lie closer to me
than the space between my eye and my brow.

(1) This poem is absent from the printed Diwan; the editor has inserted it here on the basis of the present source. (2) Banu Munqidh was a distinguished family that produced many eminent figures, most of them both valiant horsemen and accomplished poets. They inherited the fortress of Shayzar, situated north of Hama, from the time of Salih ibn Mirdas, who seized Aleppo in 417 AH and was killed in 419 AH. The fortress later fell to the Crusaders, but Sadi-d al-Mulk Abu l-Hasan Ali ibn Muqallad recovered it in 474 AH. It remained in the family’s hands until an earthquake destroyed it in 552 AH, burying almost all the Munqidhids beneath the rubble. The sole survivors were Usama ibn Munqidh and his brothers, who happened to be outside the walls. This tragic event left a deep mark on Usama and spurred him to compose the book al-Manazil wa-l-Diyar (The Dwellings and Abodes). He spent sixteen years on the work, selecting passages from pre-Islamic poetry up to his own time that deal with homes, lands, ruins, landmarks, cities, kinsfolk, loved ones, and related themes, and interwove the anthology with brief pieces of his own verse—most of which are absent from his printed Diwan. By God’s grace I have edited and annotated this book; it was published in Damascus in 1965.

ذَوْقِي عَرُوضِي وَلَفْظِي جُلُّهُ لُغَتِي ... وَالنَّحْو طَبْعِي فَهَلْ يَعْتَاقُنِي سَبَبُ (١) ؟ فَقُلْتُ: حسبُك، وَاللهِ لاَ اسْتَعظمتُ لَكَ بَعْدَهَا عَظِيْماً، وَلزَمَنِي بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ، فَأَفَاد مِنَ الأَدب مَا اسْتَقلَّ بِهِ. وَقَالَ ابْنُ القَيْسَرَانِيّ: وَقَّعَ هِبَةُ اللهِ بن بَدِيع أَبُو النّجم لابْنِ الخَيَّاط بِأَلفِ دِيْنَار، وَهُوَ آخِرُ شَاعِر فِي زَمَانِنَا وَقَّعَ بِأَلف دِيْنَار. وَلَهُ فِي سديدِ المُلْكِ أَبِي الحَسَنِ عَلِيِّ بنِ مُقَلِّد بن نَصْرِ بن مُنْقِذ (٢) بِشَيْزَرَ: يَقينِي يَقينِي حَادِثَاتِ النَّوَائِب ... وَحزمِي حَزْمِي فِي ظُهُوْرِ النَّجَائِبِ سَيُنْجِدُنِي جَيْشٌ مِنَ العَزْمِ طَالَمَا ... غَلَبْتُ بِهِ الخَطْبَ الَّذِي هُوَ غَالِبِي وَمَنْ كَانَ حَرْبَ الدَّهْرِ عَوَّدَ نَفْسَهُ ... قِرَاعَ اللَّيَالِي لاَ قِرَاعَ الكَتَائِبِ وَمَا كُلُّ دَانٍ مِنْ مَرَامٍ بِظَافِرٍ ... وَلاَ كُلُّ نَاءٍ عَنْ رَجَاءٍ بِخَائِبِ وَإِنَّ الغِنَى مِنِّي لأَدْنَى مَسَافَةً ... وَأَقْرَبُ مِمَّا بَيْنَ عَيْنِي وَحَاجِبِي

(١) لم ترد في الديوان، وأثبنها محقق الديوان من هنا. (٢) بنو منقذ أسرة مجيدة نشأ فيها رجال كبار، جلهم فارس شجاع، وشاعر أديب، وكان حصن شيزر - وهو في شمال حماة - يتوارثونه من أيام صالح بن مرداس الذي ملك حلب سنة (٤١٧) هـ وقتل سنة (٤١٩) هـ ثم خرج من أيديهم بعد ذلك إلى الصليبيين، واسترده منهم سديد الملك أبو الحسن علي بن مقلد سنة (٤٧٤) هـ، وبقي في أيديهم حتى خرب بالزلزال في سنة ٥٥٢ هـ، وقتل كل من فيه من بني منقذ تحت أنقاضه، ولم ينج منه سوى أسامة بن منقذ وإخوته الذين كانوا خارجه، وقد ترك هذا الحدث الفاجع في نفس أسامة أثرا بالغا حفزه على تأليف كتاب " المنازل والديار " الذي استغرق في صنعه ست عشرة سنة وضمنه نماذج متخيرة من شعر الجاهليين فمن بعدهم حتى أيامه، مما قيل في المنازل والديار والاوطان والمغاني والاطلال والآثار والمدن والاهل والاحباب وما إلى ذلك، وقد خلله مقاطيع من نظمه لم يرد لاكثرها ذكر في ديوانه المطبوع. وقد يسر الله لي تحقيق هذا الكتاب والتعليق عليه، وتم نشره في دمشق سنة ١٩٦٥.