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٥،١١11.5

وَمِنْ نَزْلَةِ الكُشَّافِ شَابَتْ عَوَارِضِي

وَصَارَ لِقَلْبي لَوْعَةٌ وَرَجِيفْ

wa-min nazlati l-kushshāfi shābat ʿawāriḍī

wa-ṣāra li-qalbī lawʿatun wa-rajīf

And from the descent of the Inspectors, my side whiskers have turned white

and my heart is afflicted with pangs and trembling

ش

COMMENTARY

١،٥،١١11.5.1

قوله (ومن نَزْلَةِ) النزلة واحدة النزول وتطلق على الجماعة الكثيرة إذا نزلوا في محلّ واستمرّوا فيه زمنًا كما يقال نزلة بني فلان ونزلة العرب ونزلة الغوازي ومن هذا القرية المعروفة بالنزلة وأمّا النزول فمعناه تدلّي الشيء من الأعلى إلى الأسفل وضدّه الصعود وهو الترقّي من الأدنى إلى الأعلى يقال صعد إلى أعلى الجبل ونزل إلى أدنى الأرض قال امرؤ القيس يصف فرسًا شجاعًا [طويل]

مِكَرٍّ مِفَرٍّ مُقْبِلٍ مُدْبِرٍ مَعًا

كَجُلْمودِ صَخْرٍ حَطَّهُ السَّيْلُ مِن عَلِ

wa-min nazlat (“And from the descent of”): nazlah²¹² is the instance noun from nuzūl (“descending”) and is applied to a large company if it alights at a place and remains there a while. Thus one speaks of nazlat banī fulān (“the settlement of the tribe of So-and-so”) and nazlat al-ʿarab (“the settlement of the Bedouin”) and nazlat al-ghawāzī (“the settlement of the Ghawāzī”); hence also the village known as al-Nazlah.²¹³ Nuzūl means “the descent of something from higher to lower” and its opposite is ṣuʿūd, which means “ascent from lower to higher”; one says, “He ascended (ṣaʿada) to the top of the mountain and descended (nazala) to the lowest part of the land.” Describing a mettlesome steed, Imruʾ al-Qays²¹⁴ says:

At once wheeling and turning, advancing and retreating,

Match for a boulder that the flood throws down from above.

٢،٥،١١11.5.2

وقوله (الكُشّافِ) جمع كاشف واتّصف بهذه الصفة لأنّه يكشف عن الإقليم المتولّي عليه ويزيل ما فيه من المفاسد والمظالم ويسدّ النهور ويمكّن الجسور ويزيل اللصوص وكان هذا عادة كلّ كاشف تولّى في قديم الزمان يسير سيرة حسنة ويمرّ على البلاد وإذا أقبل على قرية يَقْرَع الطبل فيخاف منه أهل البدع وأرباب المفاسد ويرتحلوا هاربين خوفًا منه وربّما وقعوا في يده فيعاقبهم بما يستحقّوه من قتل أو حبس أو ضرب أو أخذ دراهم ثمّ ينزل على القرية إن كان له عليها عادة بالنزول وتأتي إليه مشايخها ويقفوا بين يديه في أشدّ ما يكون من الرعب والخوف ويستخبرهم عن أحوالهم ويسألهم عن أرباب المفاسد وأصحاب البدع ويلزمهم بالقبض عليهم إذا لم يكونوا في القرية ثمّ بعد ذلك يسرعوا له في الأكل والشرب والتقادم ممّا جرت به العادة وإذا وقع في قرية فتنة فيما بينهم أو قتل أو خرجوا عن طاعة أستاذهم هجم عليهم بأمر الوزير وأخرب القرية وقتل منهم من يستحق القتل وأزال العصاة والجبابرة فعلى كلّ حال وجوده على الأقاليم رحمة وسُتْرة وكشف غمّة ما لم يحصل منه ومن عسكره الضرر على الناس من نهب متاعهم وأذيّتهم وتكلّفهم في المأكل والمشرب فوق طاقتهم وإلّا فيكون هذا من باب الظلم وهو حرام ويجب ردّه لأربابه إلّا إن سمحت نفوسهم بذلك فلا بأس وقوله

al-kushshāfi (“the Inspectors”): plural of kāshif, so called because he inspects (yakshifu) the region placed under his charge and does away with whatever corruption and unauthorized imposts may exist there, and dams the waterways, strengthens the dikes, and rids the place of robbers; such was the custom of every Inspector in former times. He would behave righteously and make a progress around the settlements, and when he approached a village the drums would beat and those who had introduced unsanctioned practices and the corrupt would feel frightened and run away in fear of him and sometimes fall into his hands, in which case he would punish them as they deserved, whether by execution, imprisonment, beating, or fines. Then he would descend on the village, if it was his custom to stop there, and its shaykhs would come and stand before him in the utmost terror and fear, while he interrogated them concerning their affairs and asked them who was corrupt and who had introduced unsanctioned practices, and enjoined them to apprehend the latter if they were not in the village. Afterward they would hurry to bring him the customary food, drink, and presents. If any conflict had arisen among them in a village, or any killing, or they had shown disobedience to their Master, he would attack them on the viceroy’s orders, lay waste to the village, kill those of them who deserved to be killed, and destroy the rebels and tyrants.²¹⁵ However that may be,²¹⁶ his presence in charge of the provinces constitutes a mercy, a shield, and a discovery of afflictions, provided no injury is done to people at his hands or at the hands of his soldiers by way of seizure of their property, harassment, or commanding them to provide food and drink beyond their capacity to do so. Should such things occur, it should be considered injustice and, as such, forbidden by religion, and whatever is taken should be returned to its owner (unless he had provided it of his own free will in the first place, in which case there is no objection).

٣،٥،١١11.5.3

(الكشاف) ولم يكونوا غير واحد فهو على حذف مضاف تقديره أي ومن تواتر نزول كاشف بعد كاشف مع ما يحصل لي منه من الرعب والخوف من قرع الطبول ودكدكة الخيول وهيبته عند السير والنزول ورجفان القلب من رؤية العسكر والمقدَّمين والبلاّصيّة وخوفي من هذا الأمر أن ينالني منه ضرر

His saying “the Inspectors,” even though there would not be more than one of them, should be taken as implying the suppression of the first term of a genitive annexation,²¹⁷ whose implied sense would be “from the continuous descents of inspector after inspector, accompanied by the terror and fear that afflict me as a result of the beating of the drums, the stamping of the horses’ hoofs, the Inspector’s awe-inspiring demeanor when on progress and descending on the village, and the thudding of my heart at the sight of the soldiers, the retainers, and the torturers, and my fear that he should cause me injury on this account.”

٤،٥،١١11.5.4

(شابت عوارضي) لضعفي عن مقابلة الكشّاف وعجزي عن شيء يأخذوه من داري من جلّة للمطبخ أو غير ذلك فمن هنا تنزعج الأعضاء وترجف الجوانح وينبت الشيب في غير أوانه والشيب كرامة من الله تعالى لعبده أكرمه به وأوّل من شاب إبراهيم الخليل عليه السلام شابَ نصف لحيته فقال يا ربّ ما هذا فقال هذا وقار لك في الدنيا ونور لك في الآخرة فقال يا ربّ زدني من هذا الوقار فأصبح وقد ابيضّت لحيته كلّها وفي الحديث إنّ الله يستحي أن يعذّب شيبة شابت في الإسلام وللشيب فضائل كثيرة منها أنّه وقار للشخص كمّا تقدّم وهيبة له ويذكّره قرب حِمامه لأنّه نذير الموت قال بعضهم [طويل]

إِذا اِسْوَدَّ جِلْدُ المَرْءِ واِبْيَضَّ شَعْرُهُ	وَطالَ عَلَيْهِ ثَوْبُهُ مِنْ أمامهِ
وَقارَبَ عِنْدَ المَشْيِ في خَطَواتِهِ	هُنالِكَ بَشِّرْهُ بِقُرْبِ حِمامِهِ

وقال آخر وأجاد [سريع]

تَبَسُّمُ الشَّيْبِ بِوَجْهِ الفَتَى	أَوْجَبَ سَحَّ الدَّمْعِ مِنْ جَفْنِهِ
وكَيْفَ لا يَبْكي عَلَى نَفْسِهِ	مَنْ ضَحِكَ الشَّيْبُ عَلَى دَقْنِهِ

shābat ʿawāriḍī (“my side whiskers have turned white”): because of my inability to face the Inspectors and my having nothing for them to take from my house such as dung cakes for the kitchen or anything else. Consequently, my limbs tremble, my heart flutters, and white hairs sprout before their time. White hairs are a sign of the Almighty’s favor, with which He honors one of His slaves. The first to grow white hairs was Ibrāhīm the Beloved,²¹⁸ blessings and peace be upon him. Half his beard turned white, and he said, “Lord, what is this?” The Lord said, “It is a token of your venerability in this world, and a light for you in the next.” So Ibrāhīm said, “Lord, give me more of this venerability!” and he awoke the next morning and the whole of his beard had turned white. In the Tradition it says, “Verily, God would feel ashamed to treat harshly hairs that had turned white in Islam.” White hair has many virtues, among which are that it is a sign of venerability in a person, as already mentioned, and a sign of dignity for him, and that it reminds him of his approaching end, for it is the harbinger of death. A poet says:

When a man’s skin turns black and his hair turns white,

And his robe’s too long in front,

And he takes short steps as he walks along,

Tell him then that he’s close to defunct.

And another, putting it excellently, said:²¹⁹

The smile of white hairs on the young man’s cheeks

Forced tears from his eyelids to race.

And who would not weep for himself

When white hairs laugh in his face?

٥،٥،١١11.5.5

وفي هذين البيتين الطباق اللفظيّ كما لا يخفى والشيب مذموم عند النساء قال هارون الرشيد لزوجته ما تحبّون من الرجال فقالت من خدّه كخدّي * وأيره كزندي * قال فإذا التحا قالت يُطْرِق الحَدَقَة * ويَعْجَل بالنَفَقَة * قال فإذا شاب قالت يصبر على الخناق * أو يبادر بالطلاق * فهو عندهم مذموم * وصاحبه من أنس الغانيات محروم * خصوصًا إذا قل ماله * وساء حاله * قال بعضهم [طويل]

سَلُوني عَن ٱحوالِ النِّساءِ فَإِنَّني	خَبْيرٌ بِأَحْوالِ النِّساءِ طَبْيبُ
إِذا ابْيَضَّ شَعْرُ المَرْءِ أَو قَلَّ مالُهُ	فَلَيْسَ لَهُ في وُدِّهِنَّ نَصِيبُ

The lines contain “antithesis” in the wording,²²⁰ as you will have noticed. Women, however, dislike white hair. Hārūn al-Rashīd asked his wife, “What kind of men do you women find attractive?” She replied, “One whose cheek is like my cheek and whose member is like my forearm.” “And if his beard grows?” he asked. “He should keep his eyes to himself, and be ready with his wealth!” she said. “And if his hair turns white?” he said. “He must either put up with strife, or offer to divorce his wife!” she said—for this is something they condemn and the company of pretty women is denied to such men, especially if their money’s tight, in which case their outlook’s not bright. As the poet²²¹ said:

Ask me how women are, for I’m

Well versed in women’s ways, a physician.

When a man’s hair turns white or his money runs out,

Let him abandon all hope of their affection.

٦،٥،١١11.5.6

فكيف بمن فيه النوعين الشيب والفقر فهو عندهنّ وجوده كالعدم وقال القاضي الفاضل رحمه الله [بسيط]

تَعَجَّبَتْ حينَ راحَ سَعْدي	مِن بَعْدِ نَضْوِ الخِضابِ حالي
قالَتْ أَهذا الَّذي أَراهُ	غُبارُ طاحُونَةٍ بَدا لي
فَقُلْتُ لا تُعْجِبي فَهذا	غُبارُ طاحُونَةِ اللَّيالي

أي إنّها تكدّرت لمّا رأت هذا الشيب المشبّه بغبار الطاحونة قد لاح على وجهه وغيّر لحيته وتعجّبت من حدوثه بسرعة وتعجّبها منه يقتضي تكدّر صدرها وطيّ بساط أنسها فأجابها بقوله لا تعجّبي من إسراع ظهوره فإنّ عجائب الليالي واستنتاجها المصائب المشبّهة عند دورانها بالطاحون أظهرت هذا الغبار الّذي ترينه فلا تلومي واصبري على ما بُلِيتي به وبعضهم شبّه حدوث الشيب في لحيته بالطائر المعروف بالنَسْر لبياضه وشبّه بقيّتها في السواد بابن داية وهو الغراب الأسود فقال [طويل]

وَلَمَّا رَأَيْتُ النَّسْرَ حَدَّ ابنِ دايةٍ

وعَشَّشَ في وَكْرَيْه١ ضاقَ لَهُ صَدْري

١ بي: وكرها.

How much worse, then, for the man who has both—white hair and poverty! Such a one might as well not exist, as far as they are concerned. Al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil,²²² God have mercy on him, said:

She wondered, when my wealth took off

Right when my hair had lost its hue—

“This thing I see,” she said, “what is’t?

Is it dust from some mill that I have in view?”

Said I, “Be not amazed! This is

The powder that from time’s mill does accrue.”

—that is, her mood darkened when she saw that white hair resembling mill dust had appeared upon his face and altered his beard, and she wondered at its sudden onset, a wonderment that necessarily plunged her into gloom and “rolled up the carpet of her conviviality.” Then he answered her by saying, “Be not amazed” at how fast it has appeared—for the wondrous events that the passing of time brings and the disasters that result from these, which may be likened in their turning to a mill, have caused the appearance of these flecks that you see; so do not blame me, and patiently endure this misfortune that has befallen you. A poet²²³ has compared the onset of white hair in the beard to the bird called the vulture because of the latter’s whiteness²²⁴ and compared the remaining part, in its blackness, to the “Ibn Dāyah” (“Son of a Midwife”), which is the black crow. He says:

When I saw the vulture mourn Ibn Dāyah

And roost in its two nests,²²⁵ my heart felt pain at his loss.

٧،٥،١١11.5.7

(ومنهم) من شبّه حدوثه بظهور الصبح واشتعاله في السواد كاشتعال النار في الحطب الغليظ اليابس قال ابن دُرَيْد رحمه الله تعالى في أوّل مقصورته [رجز]

يا ظَبْيةً أشْبَهَ شَيْءٍ بِالمَهَا	راتِعَةً بَيْنَ العَقِيقِ واللِّوا
أما تَرَى رَأسِي حَاكَى لَوْنُهُ	طُرَّةَ صُبْحٍ تَحْتَ أَذْيالِ الدُّجا
وَاِشْتَعَلَ المُبْيَضُّ في مُسْوَدِّهِ	مِثْلَ اشْتِعالِ النَّارِ في جَزْلِ الغَضا
فَكانَ كَاللَّيْلِ البَهِيمِ حَلَّ في	أَرْجائِهِ ضَوْءُ صَباحٍ فَانْجَلَى

Others have likened its onset to the appearance of the light of morning and have said that the way it “catches fire” in the blackness is like fire catching in thick, dry firewood. Ibn Durayd, may the Almighty have mercy upon him, says at the start of his maqsūrah:²²⁶

Ah Gazelle, so like the oryx

’Twixt al-ʿAqīq and al-Liwā grazing,²²⁷

See you not how my head’s color has mimicked

The dawn’s gleam ’neath the skirts of darkness trailing,

And how the whiteness in the blackness has caught

Just as fire in a saxaul log breaks out blazing?

Methought it was some pitch-dark night

In whose expanse the morn, unloosed, turns all to light!

٨،٥،١١11.5.8

والتشبيه للشيب من هذا المعنى كثير وهو مشتقّ من الشَيْبة الّتي تباع عند العطّار لبياضها ورقّة عروقها واشتباك الشعر بعضه ببعض ولهذا يقال رأوا في الشيبة نجاسة مثلًا ومصدره شاب يشيب شيبًا وذِكْرُه الشيب في العارضين أوّلًا يدلّ على أنّه كان من الأماثل والكرماء لأنّ أوّل ما يشيب من الكرام العارضان ومن اللئام العَنْفَقَة قال الشاعر [متقارب]

فَشَيْبُ الكِرامِ مِنَ العارِضَيْنِ	وَشَيْبُ اللِّئامِ مِنَ العَنْفَقَهْ
وَشَيْبُ الرُّؤوسِ بِما في النُّفوسِ	وَشَيْبُ الصُّدورِ مِنَ الزَّنْدَقَهْ

Similes of this sort for white hair are legion. The word shayb (“white hair”) is derived from the shaybah (“artemisia”) that is sold at the druggist’s, because of its whiteness and the fineness of its roots and the way its hairs become entangled with one another, which is why they say, “They saw impurity in the artemisia” as a proverb.²²⁸ The paradigm is shāba, yashību, shayban (“to turn white (of hair)”). The fact that he mentions that the sides of his beard turned white first is an indication that he was a man of stature and nobility, for the first thing to turn white on a noble man is the sides of the beard, and on an ignoble man the hair between the lower lip and the chin. The poet says:

White hairs on the noble start at the whiskers,

On the vile above the chin.

White hairs on the head by worry are fed

And white hairs on the chest are a sin!

٩،٥،١١11.5.9

وقصره الشيب في عارضيه ليس على بابه وإنّما كان ابتداؤه في عارضيه ثمّ جرى في بقيّة لحيته بيقين فذكر الأصل والفرع تابع له وأمّا إلحاقه تاء التأنيث في الفعل فهو جرى على لغة الريّافة والناظم منهم وأيضًا لو قال شاب عارضي أو شابوا عوارضي لاختلّ الوزن فراعى لغته ووزن الكلام

However, his restriction of mention of white hairs to those on the sides of his beard is arbitrary: they would begin at the edges and then progress ineluctably to the rest of his beard. In other words, he stated the root, and the secondary phenomena follow as a matter of course. As for his adding the feminine marker -t to the verb, he follows in this the language of the country people, of whom the poet was one; and, in addition, had he said shāba ʿāriḍī or shābū ʿawāriḍī, the meter would have been thrown off. Thus he acted in accord with both his own speech habits and the meter.²²⁹

١٠،٥،١١11.5.10

(مسألة هباليّة) لأيّ شيء قال ومن نزلة الكشّاف ولم يقل ومن نزولهم لئلّا يتوهّم سامع بليد الطبع أنّها النَزْلة الّتي تعتري الإنسان من حصول برد يحلّ به فينزل في رأسه ويتولّد منها العُطاس والأذى وغير ذلك ودواؤها أن تدهن الجبهة ببياض البيض ممزوجًا بالمصطكى فإنّه يخفّف ذلك وما الحكمة في أنّه أتى بعد العارضين بالقلب وهو بعيد عنهما وليس بينه وبينهما مناسبة وكان حقّه أن يأتي بالشاربين والعنفقة كقول الشاعر [رجز]

شواربكْ والعنفقهْ	في طيزِ كَلْبَه مْطلَّقهْ
وٱلْحسْ خراها يا فَهيمْ	ومَزْمِزُهْ بالمِلْعَقهْ

(قلنا الجواب) أنّ النزلة على وزن العجلة والنزول على وزن العجول والعجول جماعة فاكتفى بالأقلّ دون الأكثر وأيضًا الأنثى ألطف من الذكر في الذات والصفات وإن كان الذكر أشرف وأيضًا الفلّاح عنده العجلة أو البقرة أكثر نفعًا من العجل والثور فيُعْلَم من هذا أنّ الناظم كان يهوى الأناث دون الذكر بخلاف مذهبنا نحن معاشر الفسّاق فإنّنا على حدّ قول أبي نواس [طويل]

عَجِبْتُ لِمَنْ يَزْني وفي النَّاسِ أَمْرَدُ

أَلَيْسَ رُكوبُ الفَحْلِ في الحَرْبِ أَجْوَدُ

A Silly Topic for Debate: What makes him refer to the nazlah (“descent”) of the Inspectors instead of their nuzūl, when a slow-witted listener might imagine that the former refers to the nazlah that afflicts a person when he catches cold, that is, “catarrh,”²³⁰ and then descends (yanzilu) in the head and gives rise to sneezing and sickness and so on, the treatment for which is to anoint the forehead with egg white mixed with mastic, which alleviates it? And what is the wisdom in his immediately following a reference to the sides of the beard with one to the heart, which is located far from the former and has no meaningful connection with them? Should he not rather have talked about his mustache and the hair on his lower lip, after the manner of the poet who said:

Up the ass of an unleashed bitch

Shove your mustache, plus the tuft below your lip!

Then lick her shit, good Connoisseur,

And spoon it, sip by sip!?

We respond: the reply is that nazlah is of the measure of ʿijlah (“female calf”) and nuzūl is of the measure of ʿujūl (“calves”), and ʿujūl is a plural, so he used the lesser to stand for the greater; likewise the female²³¹ is more refined in form and feature than the male (albeit the male is more honorable)—not to mention that, to a peasant, the female calf or cow is more useful than the male calf or the ox. From this it may be deduced that the poet loved females rather than males, in contrast to the school of reprobates like us—for we follow the words of Abū Nuwās:²³²

I wonder at one who has sex with girls

When there’s a beardless boy in sight.

Aren’t we all agreed from the start

Your stallion’s the better mount in a fight?

١١،٥،١١11.5.11

وأمّا ذِكْره القلب مع العارضين إنّما هو تغاير في اللفظ والمعنى واحد من حيثيّة أنّ الروح سارية في الجسد كلّه فإذا اهتمّ القلب وتعب سرى ذلك في الجسد ونشأ الشيب منه فيكون على معنى ما قارب الشيء يعطي حكمه أو على حدّ قولهم شاب القلب فيكون شيبًا معنويًّا فلا اعتراض فاتّضح الإشكال عن وجه هذا الهبال

As for his mentioning the heart in the same breath as the sides of the beard, this amounts to no more than a shift in wording while the meaning remains the same, from the perspective that the spirit diffuses itself throughout the body, so that, if the heart experiences anxiety and suffering, this is diffused throughout the body and white hairs sprout in response to it; in which case, it would be a matter of “what is in proximity to a thing lends it its own stamp.” Or perhaps it should be taken in the sense that people use when they say “my heart’s hairs turned white,” in which case it would be a metaphorical whitening of the hair, and there would be no grounds for objection. Thus the problem is now revealed, such silliness no more concealed.

١٢،٥،١١11.5.12

والعارض مشتقّ من العرضيّ الّذي يُلَفُّ على الرأس أو من عارضة الباب أو من العَروض الّذي يعتري الإنسان من لمس الجنّ أو من العارض الّذي يأتي بالمطر أو من عارض الجبل قال بعضهم [كامل]