the earliest generations’ excessive narration of hadith, and had I been able to begin anew, I would have narrated nothing except what the people of hadith unanimously accept.”
I say: al-Haytham is weak.
It is also related from al-Shaʿbī that he said: “The children of this age have been granted so much intelligence that an equal portion has been deducted from their lifespans.”
Ibn Shubruma said: “Al-Shaʿbī and I once passed by a man who was reciting:
‘Al-Shaʿbī was smitten when …
he lifted his gaze toward her…’
When the man noticed al-Shaʿbī (1) he stopped before finishing the verse, so al-Shaʿbī completed it: ‘…his eyes looked toward her.’
I say: These are well-known lines. They were composed by a man who, together with his wife, litigated before al-Shaʿbī during his days as judge (2). In them he says:
‘She captivated him with the tips of her fingers…
and with the twin traces of her eyes (3).
He said to the bailiff (4): “Bring her forward
and summon her two witnesses.”’
(1) The parenthetical phrase “yaʿni habah” (i.e., “meaning: he held him in awe”) is an additional wording found in Ibn ʿAsakir, no. 223 (ed. ʿAsim ʿAyyad). The same report also appears in al-Maʿrifa wa-l-Tarikh, 2/594-595.
(2) Wakiʿ transmits in Akhbar al-Qudat, 2/416-417, that the verses are by al-Barqi, composed after a legal dispute with a woman; another report attributes them to al-Hakam b. ʿAbdal. Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, in al-ʿIqd al-Farid, cites the whole story and the lines, adding: “al-Shaʿbi said: I entered upon ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwan; when he saw me he smiled and said: ‘The seducer of al-Shaʿbi…’ Then he asked, ‘What did you do with the author of those verses?’ I replied, ‘Commander of the Faithful, I beat him soundly for violating my dignity in the court session and for the lies he fabricated about me.’ He said, ‘You did well.’” See al-ʿIqd al-Farid, 1/73.
(3) This is how it appears in the base manuscript, but the reading is probably erroneous. Wakiʿ, Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, and Ibn ʿAsakir all have: “wa-bi-khatti hajabayha” (“and with the arch of her eyebrows”). The phrase with “muklaytayn” (her two eyes) occurs in another verse: “wa-bananun ka-l-madara / wa-bi-husni muklaytihā.”
(4) The manuscript reads “li-l-jawaz,” which is a misprint; the correct word is al-jalwaz, meaning a police officer.