his opponent by “In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Most Compassionate.”
The old man braced himself against the Abyssinian, ripped him open with his sword and split his belly, drawing out something that looked like a black lantern. Then he said, “O ʿAmr, this is the treachery and rancor that lay within him.”
He added, “Do you know who that young woman is?”
“No,” I replied.
“She is al-Fāriʿah, daughter of al-Sulayyil al-Jurhumi. Her father was among the noblest of the jinn, and those others are her kinsmen—her cousins. Each year one of them attacks me, and Allah grants me victory over him through ‘In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Most Compassionate.’
“You have seen what I did to the Abyssinian, yet hunger has overcome me. Bring me something to eat.”
I spurred my horse into the wilderness and found nothing but ostrich eggs. When I brought them back, I found him asleep, his head resting on something like a piece of wood. I drew it out—it was a sword, a span wide and seven spans long. I struck his legs a single blow that cut off both shanks and feet. He sat upright on the vertebrae of his back, crying, “May Allah destroy you! How treacherous you are, O betrayer!”
ʿUmar asked, “And then what did you do?”
I replied, “I kept hacking at him with my sword until I had chopped him into pieces, piece after piece.”
ʿUmar fell silent, then recited:
(Kāmil metre)
By treachery you drew near and slew a brother of Islam—
never have I heard the like among the Arabs of old;
Even the non-Arabs would disdain, from sheer nobility, what you have done—
woe for what you wrought against that sagacious chief!
I marvel: how did you manage to kill him at all,
and how did he not requite you for your sin when you never repented?
A mighty man pardoned you time after time,
though his hands once gripped your body at the very point of death.
Had I, in Islam, treated you as the idol-worshippers did
in the Age of Ignorance with their images and crosses,
Then by the justice I wield a barbed blade would have reached you,
making whoever tastes it cry out for woe and ruin!
He asked, “What became of the girl?”
I said, “I went to her, and when she saw me she asked, ‘What has happened to the old man?’ I answered, ‘The Abyssinian killed him.’ She retorted, ‘You lie! You yourself killed him by your treachery.’ Then she began to recite:
(Khafīf metre)