we live in heedlessness and slumber, while death keeps wakeful eyes that never close.
For years we have been travelling toward that final encounter—would that I knew when the encounter will be! (1)
ʿUmārah al-Yamani (2) composed a number of elegies for him; at the funeral he recited:
It was as though the Ark of Moses (3) had been entrusted—
within its sides reposed serenity and majestic dignity.
The Two Sanctuaries and the two Pyramids (4) vied in jealousy over his bier,
for jealousy is aroused only toward the noble. (5)
Yes, al-Malik Abū Shujāʿ Shawar al-Saʿdī served as vizier to al-ʿĀḍid. He had been deputy governor of Upper Egypt under Ṭalāʾiʿ, and his power grew. Ṭalāʾiʿ later regretted appointing him because of his horsemanship and valor, and, while dying, instructed his son not to provoke (6) Shawar.
Nevertheless, Shawar mustered and assembled troops, crossed the desert until he emerged near Tarwaja (7), and then marched on Cairo. He entered the city without opposition, slew Ruzzīk, and seized authority. (8)
(1) Al-Nukat al-ʿAsriyya, p. 49. For his life and poetry, see Kharidat al-Qasr, section “Poets of Egypt”, 1/173–185.
(2) ʿImara b. ʿAli, Najm al-Din, was a Yemeni historian, jurist and man of letters. He arrived in Egypt bearing a letter from the Emir of Mecca; the Fatimid rulers received him warmly and lavished honours upon him, so he stayed with them and composed panegyrics in their praise. After their dynasty fell, he joined seven Egyptian notables in a plot to assassinate Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi. Salah al-Din arrested the conspirators and had them crucified in Cairo, ʿImara among them, in 569 AH/1174 CE. See further: Al-Nukat al-ʿAsriyya; Wafayat al-Aʿyan, 3/431–436.
(3) The base manuscript reads wa-ka-annahu (“as though”), but we follow the reading in Al-Nukat al-ʿAsriyya, p. 64.
(4) Al-Nukat al-ʿAsriyya gives: “wa taghayyara al-hirman wa-al-haraman …” (“and the two sanctuaries were altered …”).
(5) The two verses are taken from a longer qasida recorded in Al-Nukat al-ʿAsriyya, p. 64.
(6) Wafayat al-Aʿyan, 2/440.
(7) A village near Alexandria.
(8) Wafayat al-Aʿyan, 2/440.