Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

The impugning and tarnishing of ʿAlī and his son, Ḥasan L, that this poem
holds is obvious, something which is very rare.
It was because of these themes which he continuously included in his poetry did
he become the special poet of the Abbasids. 1
Similarly some poets expressed the same themes in their poetry due to knowing
its impact upon the Abbasids, akin to what one of them had did with al-Muktafī
and others. 2
One such poem was said by Manṣūr al-Namirī 3 in the court of Hārūn al-Rashīd.
Therein he denigrated the Alawids saying:
يسمون النبي أبا ويأبى
وإن قالوا:‏ بنو بنت فحق
وما لبني بنات من تراث
بنى حسن ورهط بني حسين
أميطوا عنكم كذب الماني
من الحزاب سطر في السطور
وردوا ما يناسب للذكور
مع العمام في ورق الزبور
عليكم بالسداد من المور
وأحالما بعدن عدات زور
They dub the Nabī ‘father’ and they by doing so reject a verse from the
verses of Sūrah Aḥzāb. 4
And if they say: ‘the children of the daughter’ it is true, but then they reject
what is suited for the males.
There is no inheritance for the sons of the daughters in the presence of the
uncle in the pages of the Holy Scripture.
1 Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 57/292.
2 Al-Wāfī bi al-Wafayāt 27/236; Fawāt al-Wafayāt 2/528.
3 Manṣūr ibn Salamah ibn al-Zabriqān (and some say Manṣūr ibn al-Zabriqān ibn Salamah ibn
Sharīk, Abū al-Qāsim al-Namirī. A poet of the Abbasid court. He was originally from the Arabian
Peninsula. He came to Baghdad and lauded Hārūn al-Rashīd. It is said that he did not laud any other
ruler besides him. He passed away around in 210 A.H. See: Tārīkh Baghdād 13/65; al-Muntaẓam 9/211;
Fawāt al-Wafayāt 2/528.
4 Referring to a verse no. 40 thereof which translates as, “Muḥammad is not the father of any of your
men, but the messenger of Allah and the seal of the prophets.”
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