Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded. Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī
us now then embark on what we promised in advance and the occasion for all this song and dance—for a man’s knowledge and craft must make themselves heard, and “the piper doesn’t hide his beard.”11 Before wading, however, into the ocean of this verse, and others like it or even worse, we will tell of things that befell the commoners of certain of the people of the countryside, with a description of their vulgarity, scurrility, and personal puerility, of their names that are arsy-varsy and their hats that are topsy-turvy, of their shifts all frayed and their verses disarrayed, and of their disquieting womenfolk with the calamities and disasters they provoke.
٢،٢
فنقول أمّا سوء أخلاقهم وقلّة لطافتهم فمن كثرة معاشرتهم للبهائم والأبقار * وملازمتهم لشيل الطين والعَفار * وعدم اكتراثهم بأهل اللطافه * وامتزاجهم بأهل الكثافه * كأنّهم خُلِقُوا من طينة البهائم * كما قال في ذلك الناظم [سريع]
| لا تَصْحَبِ الفلّاح لَوْ أَنَّهُ | نَافِجَةٌ أَرْيَاحُها صَاعِدَهْ |
| ثِيرانُهم قَدْ أَخْبَرَتْ عَنْهُمُ | بِأَنَّهُمْ مِنْ طِينَةٍ واحِدَهْ |
Thus we declare: the baseness of their morals and their lack of refinement are the result of spending so much time in the company of beasts and cattle and of constantly hauling mud and dust, not to mention their lack of contact with the refined and their frequent intercourse with the coarse. They and the beasts are as though created from the same raw material, leading the poet to say:
Befriend not the peasant, be he a musk pot of fragrant bouquet!
Their oxen have let out the secret, that they’re both of one clay.
٣،٢
فهم لا يخرجون عن طَوْر القحافه * لملازمتهم المحراث والجرّافه * وهزّ قحوفهم حول الأجران * وطردهم في المَلَق والغيطان * ودورانهم حول الزرع * ونطّهم في الحصيدة والقلع * وغطوسهم في الجِلّة والطين * وعدم اكتراثهم بالصلاة والدين * إذ الواحد منهم لا يعرف غير الحزام والنَبُّوت * والبقرة والأَنْتُوت * والساقية والفَرْقِلّه * وشيل الطين والجِلّه * والعياط والغاره * والطبلة والزُمّاره * والحِدْوة خلف قفاه * ومزراقه وهزّ رِداه * وحزامه الليف * والتبن والشليف * وخَلَقَته المشرمطة وصورته المخلبطه * وقاووقه الدَنِس * وكَرّه الغَلِس * وطرده للغارات * والدواهي والبليّات * ومشيه حافي * في الحرّ والحلافي * وعياطه في الظلام * بالصوت يالْحَرام * فتجتمع عليه اللموم * ويهجموا بلاد القوم * وهم سعد وحرام * ويخرجوا إليهم بالتمام * فيقع بينهم الحرب والعناد * وتَخْرُبُ بسببهم البلاد * ويقطعوا الطريق * على العدوّ والصديق * ويترتّب من ذلك المفاسد * وتمتنع عن بلادهم الفوائد *
Indeed, they never escape their condition of uncouthness, because they spend all their time with the plow and the shovel-sledge and shaking their caps around the threshing floors, or rushing about in the swamps12 and the fields, or bustling around after the crops, or jumping about harvesting and reaping, or plunging into dung and mud, while devoting little time to prayer or religion. For the only things a countryman knows are belts and cudgels, cows and plow-shaft pins, waterwheels and drover’s whips, hauling mud and dung, shouting and screaming, drums and pipes, his leather sandals slung behind his neck, his lance and the shaking of his robe, his palm-fiber belt, straw and net sacks, his tattered garment and tatterdemalion form, his grubby cap and filthy turban, rushing off on raids, disasters and calamities, walking barefoot in the heat and through the esparto grass, and crying out loud in the dark, “Clan of Ḥarām!” At this the war bands gather around him and attack the villages of their enemies, be they Saʿd13 or Ḥarām, and turn out against them to the last man. Thus war and stubborn confrontation arise among them, and villages are ruined at their hands. They block the roads against friend and foe, leading to evil consequences and depriving their villages of benefits.
٤،٢
وكلّ هذا من قلّة عقلهم * وكثرة جهلهم * وسوء أخلاقهم * وعدم اتّفاقهم * إذ كلّهم في الظاهر مسلمون * والقتل عندهم حُكْمَ الديون * وأيضًا عندهم قلّة الوفاء * وعدم الأنس والصفاء * لا يؤدّوا القرض * ولا يعرفوا السُنّة والفرض * إن عاملتهم أكلوك * وإن نصحتهم بغضوك * وإن أقمت لهم الشرع رفضوك * وإن ألنت لهم الجانب مقتوك * العالم عندهم حقير * والظالم عندهم كبير * أمورهم معانده * وليس عندهم فائده * عندهم قابض المال * أعزّ من العمّ والخال * سود الوجوه * إذا رأوا معروفًا أنكروه * قال الشاعر [بسيط]
| أَهْلُ الفِلاحةِ لا تُكْرِمْهُمُ١ أَبَداً | فَإِنَّ٢ إِكْرامَهُمُ في عَقْبِهِ نَدَمُ |
| يُبْدوا الصِّياحَ بِلا ضَرْبٍ وَلا أَلَمٍ | سُودُ الوُجوهِ إِذا لَمْ يُظْلَمُوا ظَلَمُوا |
١ بي: تُكْرِمَنَّهُمْ. ٢ بي وجميع النسخ: كان.
All this is due to their lack of intelligence and overwhelming ignorance, the baseness of their morals and their contentiousness—for while all of them in outward show are Muslims, murder to them is no different from debt. Furthermore, they cannot be trusted to keep their word and have no sociability and good cheer. They will not repay a loan and cannot tell what the Law demands from what one is free to decide on his own.14 If you do business with them, they devour you. If you offer them advice, they hate you. If you try to enforce the Divine Law with them, they will have nothing to do with you, and if you show them kindness, they repay you with malice. To them a scholar is nothing, while a tyrant