“Cast down your eyes, for you come from Numayr—
You have reached neither Kaʿb nor Kilāb.” (1)
He was nicknamed “al-Rāʿī” (the Shepherd) because of how often he described camels in his verse.
He extolled ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān, and of Ibn al-Riqāʿ al-ʿĀmilī he said:
“Had you belonged to any tribe fit to be satirized,
O son of al-Riqāʿ, I would have lampooned you—
But you belong to none.
Qudāʿah disowns any lineage for you,
And the two sons of Nizār do likewise;
You are but the stray egg of the town.” (2)
He is also the poet who said:
“The age whose gentle breezes we await
Will strike the hardest rock and split it.
Time for mankind is nothing but a caravan at the water-hole:
When one string of camels passes, another appears.” (3)
238 – al-Ḍaḥḥāk b. Muzāḥim al-Hilālī (4)
Abū Muḥammad—though some say Abū al-Qāsim—the compiler of the Tafsīr.
He was one of the vessels of knowledge, yet not precise in his narration of hadith; still, he was reliable in himself.
He had two brothers, Muḥammad and Muslim, and he resided in Balkh and in Samarkand.
(1) The line is recorded in his Diwan, p. 821; in al-Kamil, vol. 1, p. 340; and in al-Khizana, vol. 4, p. 595, where the reading is “faghud,” the letter dad being admissible with any of the three short vowels.
(2) The two lines are transmitted in numerous sources, among them: Ibn Sallam, Tabaqat, pp. 503–504; al-Aghani, Dar al-Thaqafa ed., vol. 23, p. 361, with the wording “lam tuʿraf lakum nasaban” (your lineage was unknown); the same in Lisan al-Arab under the root bayd; the Diwan, p. 64, reads “an tarda lakum nasaban” (that a lineage be acceptable for you); while the author, in his own Tarikh, cites it as “an yuʿza lakum” (that you be attributed).
(3) The two lines are also found in his collected poetry, p. 105, and in al-Thaʿalibi’s Khas al-khas, p. 84. Al-warida denotes one who comes to the water, and al-ʿunuq a group of people.
(*) Principal biographical sources: Ibn Saʿd, Tabaqat, 6/300 and 7/369; Khalifa, Tabaqat, no. 2950; al-Bukhari, Tarikh, 4/332; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-taʿdil, vol. 2, part 1, p. 458; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-kamal, p. 618; al-Dhahabi, Tadhhib al-tahdhib, 2/98b; Tarikh al-Islam, 4/125; al-ʿIbar, 1/124; Mizaan al-iʿtidal, 2/325; al-Mughni fi al-duʿafaʾ, 1/312; Mirʾat al-jinnan, 1/213; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya, 9/223; Ghaya al-nihaya, no. 1467; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-tahdhib, 4/453; al-Nujum al-zahira, 1/248; Khulasa tadhhib al-tahdhib, p. 177; Suyuti, Tabaqat al-mufassirin, 1/216; Shadharat al-dhahab, 1/124.