94 – The judge Abū al-Qāsim informed us; Abū ʿAlī narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me; Yūnus ibn Bukayr told us:

Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr said to ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Rabīʿ al-Ḥārithī, “You and I are like the protector of Umm ʿĀmir.”

He asked, “Commander of the Faithful, who is the protector of Umm ʿĀmir?”

Al-Manṣūr replied, “Some men went out hunting but could find nothing except a hyena, so they drove it into the tent of a Bedouin. When they tried to seize it, the Bedouin cried, ‘People of such-and-such a clan!’ The hunters withdrew and left the animal. The Bedouin then began to feed the hyena meat and milk until it grew fat. One day he went out on an errand, leaving his ailing brother in a corner of the tent. On his return he found the hyena gone and his brother mangled. At that he recited:

[long metre]
Whoever shows kindness to one who is unworthy of it
will meet what befell the protector of Umm ʿĀmir;
He nourished her when she sought refuge beneath his roof
with the milk of sleek, pregnant camels, that she might feel secure;
He fattened her, and when her strength was full
she tore him with the teeth and claws she possessed.
So tell the people of benevolence: this is the reward
of anyone who extends a hand of favour to the thankless.⦗94⦘

(The final verse is attributed to Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād.)

He said: I heard Abū Yaḥyā al-Ḥārithī say to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ṣāliḥ, “Abū Jaʿfar uttered these words only about Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥārithī.”