among the goats.’

Al-Shuʿbī said: al-Ḥajjāj had no idea what he meant, so he exclaimed, “Woe to you! You are talking to the people of Syria—make it clear to them.”

He replied, “Certainly, may Allah set the governor aright. The land has grown fertile: dates, clarified butter, fresh butter, and milk are plentiful, so no fire is even lit for baking. As for the women’s complaint, a woman stays by the ribq (1) of her lambs, churning their milk, and at night she lies groaning from the ache in her upper arms as though they were no longer attached to her. And as for the goats’ rivalry, they graze on every kind of tree, the varied colors of fruit, and the blossoms of plants—enough to fill their stomachs but never to satisfy their eyes. They bed down with their rumens distended, rumbling from surfeit (2), and that rumble goes on until it draws down a full flow of milk.

He then said, “Let the next man in.”

A client (mawlā) entered—said to have been one of the toughest men of that time (3)—and al-Ḥajjāj asked him, “Was there any rain behind you?”

He answered, “Yes, but I do not know how to speak as these men have spoken.”

Al-Ḥajjāj said, “Speak as you are able.”

He replied, “A cloud met me at Hulwān (4), and I kept treading in its wake until I entered upon the governor.”

Al-Ḥajjāj remarked, “Though yours is the briefest account of the rain, yours will be the longest reach when the sword is drawn (5).”

Through this chain, to Abū Nuʿaym: Abū Ḥāmid ibn Jabalah narrated to us; Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn Mūsā al-ʿUklī narrated to us; my father narrated to us, who told me that Abū Bakr