Al-Bidayah wa an-Nihayah - Ibn Kathir - (10/505)

Al-Bidayah wa an-NihayahIbn Kathir

So al-Rashīd said to one of his attendants, “What do you have with you?”
He replied, “Four hundred dinars.”
Al-Rashīd said, “Hand them to this Bedouin.”

When the Bedouin took the money, his companion struck him on the shoulder and, quoting, said:
You were the sitting-companion of Qaʿqāʿ ibn ʿAmr;
no one who sits with Qaʿqāʿ ever comes to harm.

Al-Rashīd thereupon ordered one of the servants to give the man who had recited the verse whatever gold he had on him; it turned out to be two hundred dinars.

Abū ʿUbayd said: The origin of this proverb is that Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān once received a gift—golden dishes—which he distributed among those present. Sitting beside him was Qaʿqāʿ ibn ʿAmr, and beside Qaʿqāʿ a Bedouin who was left without a share. The Bedouin lowered his head in embarrassment, whereupon Qaʿqāʿ handed him the dish that had come to him. The Bedouin rose and said:
You were the sitting-companion of Qaʿqāʿ ibn ʿAmr;
no one who sits with Qaʿqāʿ ever comes to harm.

One day al-Rashīd came out from Zubayda bint his cousin, laughing, and was asked, “Commander of the Faithful, what makes you laugh?” He said, “I went in to that woman today—meaning my wife Zubayda—ate with her and lay down to sleep. I did not wake until I heard the sound of gold being poured out.
I asked, ‘What is this?’
They said, ‘Three hundred thousand dinars have just arrived from Egypt.’
Zubayda said, ‘Give them to me, cousin.’
I replied, ‘They are yours.’
Yet before I had even left, she turned on me and said, ‘What benefit have I ever seen from you?!’ ”

Al-Rashīd once said to al-Mufaḍḍal al-Ḍabbī, “What is the finest line ever said about the wolf? If you answer, this ring—bought for one thousand six hundred dinars—is yours.” Al-Mufaḍḍal recited the poet’s words (1):
He sleeps with one eye closed, and with the other he keeps watch
against calamities—thus he is both wakeful and asleep. (2)

Al-Rashīd said, “You only quoted that to take the ring from me,” and he tossed it to him. Zubayda sent and bought it from him for one thousand six hundred dinars, then sent it to al-Rashīd with the message, “I saw how much you admired it.” He returned it to al-Mufaḍḍal together with the dinars, saying, “We are not the sort who seize a thing and then take it back.”

On another occasion al-Rashīd said to al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Aḥnaf, “Which line of the Arabs’ poetry is the most delicate?” He replied, “Jamīl’s words about Buthayna:
Would that I were blind and deaf, and Buthayna guided me,
so that none of her words might escape my notice.”

Al-Rashīd said to him, “More delicate than that is your own verse on the same theme:

Al-Hadith, p. 28, attributes it to certain reciters of the rajaz metre; its wording is: “O you who harbor a concern, do not be anxious— If fever is fated for you, you shall endure it. And if you rise high upon the battlement— How could you turn away when the pen has dried?” (1) He is the pre-Islamic transitional poet Humayd ibn Thawr al-Hilali; the verse appears in his Diwan, p. 56. (2) In manuscript Q it reads “awake yet sleeping”; the Diwan’s recension reads “bi ukhra al-A‘adi,” and the reading confirmed by manuscripts B and H is the former.

فقال الرشيدُ لبعض خدَمِه: ما معَك؟ قال: أربعُ مئة دينار. فقال: ادفَعْها إلى هذا الأعرابي. فلما قبضَها ضرَبَ رفيقُهُ بيدِهِ على كتفه وقال متمثلًا: وكنتَ جليسَ قعقاعِ بن عمروٍ … ولا يَشْقَى بقعقاعٍ جليسُ فأمر الرشيدُ بعضَ الخدم أن يُعْطَى المتمثِّلُ ما معه من الذهب، فإذا معه مئتا دينار. قال أبو عُبيد: إن أصلَ هذا المثل، أنَّ معاويةَ بنَ أبي سفيان أُهديَتْ له هديَّة، جاماتٌ من ذهَب، ففرَّقَها على جُلسائه، وإلى جانبِهِ قعقاعُ بن عمرو، وإلى جانبِ القعقاعِ أعرابيٌّ لم يَفْضُلْ له منها شيء، فأطرق الأعرابيُّ حياءً. فدفَعَ إليه القعقاعُ الجامَ الذي حصلَ له، فنهض الأعرابيُّ وهو يقول: وكنتَ جليسَ قعقاعِ بن عمروٍ … ولا يَشْقَى بقعقاعٍ جليسُ وخرج الرشيدُ يومًا من عندِ زُبيدةَ ابنةِ عمِّه وهو يضحك، فقيل له: مِمَّ تضحكُ يا أميرَ المؤمنين؟ فقال: دخلتُ اليومَ إلى هذه المرأة -يعني زوجتَه زُبيدة- فأكلتُ عندَها ونِمت، فما استيقظتُ إلَّا على صوْتِ ذهبٍ يُصَبّ، فقلتُ: ما هذا؟ قالوا: هذه ثلاثُ مئةِ ألفِ دينار قدِمَتْ من مِصر. فقالتْ زُبيدة: هَبْها لي يا ابنَ عَمّ. فقلت: هي لكِ. ثم ما خرَجْتُ حتى عَرْبَدَتْ عليَّ وقالت: أيّ خيرٍ رأيتُه منك؟!. وقال الرشيدُ مرَّةً للمُفَضَّل الضَّبِّيّ: ما أحسَنُ ما قيل في الذئب؟ ولك هذا الخاتم، وشراؤه ألفٌ وست مئِة دينار. فأنشد قولَ الشاعر (١) : ينامُ بإحدَى مُقلتَيْهِ ويَتَّقِي … بأخرى الرَّزَايا فهو يقظانُ هاجِعٌ (٢) فقال: ما قلتَ هذا إلا لتَسْلُبَنا الخاتم. ثم ألْقاهُ إليه، فبعثَتْ زُبيدة فاشترَتْهُ منه بألفٍ وست مئةِ دينار، وبعثَتْ به إلى الرشيد وقالت: إني رأيتُكَ مُعجَبًا به، فرَدَّهُ إلى المفضل والدنانير، وقال: ما كنَّا لِنَهَبَ شيئًا ونرجعَ فيه. وقال الرشيدُ يومًا للعباسِ بن الأحنف: أيُّ بيتٍ قالتِ العَربُ أرقّ؟ فقال: قولُ جميل في بُثَينة: ألا ليتَني أعمَى أصَمُّ تقودُني … بثينَةُ لا يَخْفَى عليَّ كلامُها فقال له الرشيد: أرَقُّ منه قولُكَ في مثلِ هذا:

= الحديث ص (٢٨)، ونسبها إلى بعض الرجاز، ولفظه: يا أيها المضمر همًا لا تهمْ … إنك إنْ تُقْدَرْ لك الحمَّى تُحَمْ ولو علوت شاهقًا من العلَمْ … كيف تَوَليكَ وقد جَفَ القلَمْ (١) هو الشاعر المخضرم حُميد بن ثور الهلالي والبيت في ديوانه ص (٥٦). (٢) في (ق): "يقظان نائم"، ورواية الديوان: "بأخرى الأعادي". والمثبت من (ب، ح).