heads that have ripened and are ready to be cut off (1); I can already see the blood shimmering between turbans and beards. The affair has bared its shank, so bare yours!
He then recited (2):
“This is the hour of tightening—tighten the girth, Zim;
Night has enshrouded her beneath a relentless, crushing driver (3).
I am no herdsman of camels or sheep,
Nor a butcher fussing over shoulder and rump (4).”
He went on to say:
“Night has wrapped it in a wiry swordsman (5),
A formidable raider from among the valiant,
An Emigrant, not a Bedouin.”
He then declared:
“By Allah, people of Iraq, I do not wink at a winker (6), nor can anyone rattle old water-skins in my face. I slipped the leash of sharp intelligence (7) and have sprinted past the furthest finish (8). The Commander of the Faithful, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, emptied his quiver and tested each shaft one by one; he found me the bitterest arrow and the firmest notch (9) and so he sent me to you. Time and again you have spurred (10) through the valleys of sedition, instituted the practices of misguidance (11), and chosen the freshly drawn paths of error (12).
By Allah, I will strip you as bark is stripped from wood (13); I will bind you like the salmah branch is bound until you submit, and I will strike you as stray camels are struck. By Allah, I never promise without fulfilling, nor pierce without severing (14). So beware of these factions and of idle “he said, she said.” By Allah, you will either stand straight upon the path of truth, or I shall leave each one of you busy with a wound in his own flesh.”
He then said:
“Whoever I find, after the third call, still lingering from the contingent of al-Muhallab—meaning those who …”