A literary history of Persia

3/0 DECLINE OF THE CALIPHATE>others of his verses, however, breathe the old Bedouin spirit,amongst these being the verse which, as Ibn Khallikan says, 1"caused his death." For, as he was returning from Persiawith a large sum of money which had been bestowed on himby the Buwayhid prince 'Adudu'd-Dawla, he was attackednear Kura by Arabs of the tribe of Asad. Being worsted inthe combat, he was preparing to take to flightwhen his slavecried to him ": Let it never be said that youfled from thecombat, you who are the author of this verse :' I am known to the horse-troop, the night and the desert's expanse,Not more to the paper and pen than the sword and the lance !' "So al-Mutanabbf turned again to the combat and met hisdeath like a true son of the desert. The Arab pride of racewhich animated him is shown by the following incident. Oneday a number of learned men 2 were conversing in the presenceof that illustrious prince Sayfu'd-Dawla, and the grammarianIbn Khalawayh was expressing his views on some point ofArabic philology, when al-Mutanabbf interrupted him, saying," Silence, fellow ! What hast thou to do with Arabic, thou"who art a Persian of Khuzistan ?More admirable, according to Western taste, than al-Mutanabbi, though less celebrated, was his contemporary AbuFiras, the cousin of the above-mentioned princeA Himdlmf Sayfu'd-Dawla, to whose circle " also (along witha galaxy of less famous poets like an-Nam{, an-Nashf, az-Zahf, ar-RafFa4 and al-Babbagha) he belonged.Von Kremer 3 esteems him very highly, and concludes hisnotice of him in these words :"Thus is Abu Firas the picture of the stirring times in which helived : in him once again the old, proud, warlike spirit of antiquitywas re-incarnated, only the finer feelings being the outcome of the1See de Slane's translation, vol. i, pp. 105-6. Ibid., p. 109.s Culturgeschichte, vol. ii, pp. 381-6.