37 – ʿUmar ibn Bukayr narrated to me, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṭāʾī, from Milḥān ibn ʿArakī ibn Ḥalbas al-Ṭāʾī, from his father, from his grandfather—who was ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim’s half-brother through their mother—who said: ⦗36⦘

It was said to al-Nawār, the wife of Ḥātim, “Tell us something about Ḥātim.” She replied, “Everything he did was wondrous. A year of drought struck us that stripped the land of all it possessed; the earth bristled, the sky turned dusty, wet-nurses failed their infants, the she-camels came home barren and gaunt, yielding not a single drop, and all wealth had vanished.

We were in a pitch-black night—long from one end to the other—when the children, ʿAbd Allāh, ʿAdī and Sufānah, began to wail at me from hunger like wolves. By Allāh, we had nothing with which to soothe them. He rose, picked up one of the boys, and I attended to the girl, trying to calm her. By Allāh, the two of them did not quieten until a good part of the night had passed. Then we went to the other boy and comforted him until he too fell silent, though barely so.

Next we spread out a tufted Syrian blanket of ours, laid the children upon it, and he and I lay down in a small chamber with the children between us. He turned toward me, coaxing me so that I would sleep, and I knew what he wanted, so I feigned slumber. He said, ‘What is the matter—have you fallen asleep?’ I kept silent. He continued, ‘It seems she has nodded off, though sleep is far from me.’

When the night grew utterly dark, the stars had sunk, every voice was hushed and every footstep stilled, one side of the tent was lifted. He asked, ‘Who is there?’ The figure withdrew, but when I thought dawn was upon us—or nearly so—she returned, and he asked again, ‘Who is there?’ She said, ‘Your neighbour, so-and-so, O Abū ʿAdī. I found no one but you to rely on. I have come to you from children howling with hunger like wolves.’ He said, ‘Bring them to me quickly.’

Al-Nawār recounts: ‘I sprang up and said, “What have you done? By Allāh, your own children have just been crying and you found nothing to give them—what then of this woman and her children?” He answered, “Be quiet. By Allāh, I shall fill your stomachs and theirs, if Allāh wills.”’

The woman arrived carrying two children while four walked at her sides, as though she were an ostrich surrounded by its chicks. He went to his horse and drove his spear into its chest; ⦗37⦘ then he struck flint and steel and kindled a fire, fetched a knife, skinned the animal and handed the knife to the woman, saying, ‘Take over.’ Then he said to all present, ‘Help yourselves,’ and added to her, ‘Send for your children,’ so she sent them.

He then declared, ‘Shame on you—will you eat while the rest of the camp has nothing?’ He went round the people until they awoke, came to him, and the whole encampment gathered round his tent. He then lay down to one side watching us. By Allāh, he did not taste a single morsel, though he was the one who needed it most. Morning came and nothing of the horse remained on the ground except bone or hoof.

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān explained: ‘al-ṣirm refers to about ten households that camp together on one side of the settlement.’