—“Away with you! By Allah, nothing kept me from fleeing on the Day of Ṣiffīn except the words of Ibn al-Iṭnābah when he said:
My chastity held me back, and so did my tried afflictions,
And my purchase of praise at the richest price;
My giving of wealth when poverty presses,
My charge at the champion brandishing his blade;
And whenever my innards quake and surge
I say, ‘Stand your ground—be excused (1) or take your ease!’
Thus do I repel attacks on noble deeds
And afterwards safeguard an unblemished honor. (2)
He then wrote to his father: “Have him learn poetry.” The father coached him until thereafter he never stumbled over any of it.
Among his later verses are:
Marwān son of Niswah shall surely know
That when the squadrons meet I thrust at them askance;
And if guests arrive while I possess no fare
Save my own steed, I shall bring it (3) to them for slaughter. (4)
On another occasion Muʿāwiyah asked the people of Baṣrah about Ibn Ziyād. They said, “He is witty, but he commits laḥn.” He replied, “Does not that very laḥn make him even wittier?”
Ibn Qutaybah and others explain that they meant he indulges in laḥn in his speech, that is, he speaks in riddles; and he is all the more subtle in debate, just as the poet said:
Eloquent speech that sometimes bends—
The finest discourse is that which is suggestive. (5)
Others maintained that by laḥn they meant grammatical slips, the opposite of correct iʿrāb; still others said they meant simple error, which is the likelier view—and Allah knows best.
What Muʿāwiyah admired in him was the ease of his diction: he neither over-refined nor inflated his language, nor did he mouth his words. Some also said he carried a slight foreign accent, for his mother Marjānah was a concubine, the daughter of a Persian king—Yazdegerd or another—and traces of a non-Arab tongue showed in his speech. One day he asked a member of the Khārijites, “A-hurūrī are you?” meaning, “A-ḥarūrī are you?” On another occasion he declared, “Whoever qātelanā, qātelnā-hū,” that is, “Whoever fights us, we fight him.” Muʿāwiyah’s comment, “That only adds to his charm,” meant that it suited him, for he inclined toward his maternal kin, who were renowned for sound governance, capable stewardship, and noble traits.
When Ziyād died in 53 AH, Muʿāwiyah appointed Samurah ibn Jundub as governor of Baṣrah for a year and a half, and then dismissed him.