Page:Muhammad Diyab al-Itlidi - Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Khalîfahs - Alice Frere - 1873.djvu/39

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10

ʾILÂM-EN-NÂS.

Masʾûd,^[1] arrived at the place, and cried, "Peace be upon thee, O Commander of the Faithful!" Upon hearing which the old woman smote her head with her hand, and exclaimed, "Alas! what a misfortune! I have insulted the Commander of the Faithful to his face." But ʾOmar said to her, "You have done no wrong. May God have mercy upon you!" And then he asked for a piece of parchment, that he might write upon it; but as none could be found, he cut off a piece of his shirt, and wrote upon it, "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful:

↑ ʾAbd-Allâh-ibn-Masʾûd was one of the first to profess el-Islám, and was amongst those who fled into Egypt from the persecution of the Kuraish. He was a learbed man, and celebrated amongst the Associates, to whom he was known as Sahib es Sawâd wa ʾs Siwâk (lord of blackness and toothsticks), the former probably because he was lord or proprietor of the rural districts (called Sawâd) of el-Kûfah, to which place he belonged; and the latter because he may have possessed a district or plantation of a certain tree called Arâk, from the branches and roots of which the Siwâk or Miswâk (toothstick) is made. Sawâdi means belonging to the Sawâd (or cultivated plains) of ʾIrâk. This region was so called because the Arabs of the dsert, when they first saw the verdure of the trees, exclaimed, "What is that sawâd (dark thing)?" and this ever afterwards continued to be its name. ʾAbd-Allâh died A.H. 23 (A.D. 653), at el-Medînah, aged between 60 and 70 years, and was buried there in the cemetery called el-Bâkiyă, in the reign of ʾOthmân-ibn-ʾAffân, the third of the er-Rashîd Khalîfahs.

[1] ʾAbd-Allâh-ibn-Masʾûd was one of the first to profess el-Islám, and was amongst those who fled into Egypt from the persecution of the Kuraish. He was a learbed man, and celebrated amongst the Associates, to whom he was known as Sahib es Sawâd wa ʾs Siwâk (lord of blackness and toothsticks), the former probably because he was lord or proprietor of the rural districts (called Sawâd) of el-Kûfah, to which place he belonged; and the latter because he may have possessed a district or plantation of a certain tree called Arâk, from the branches and roots of which the Siwâk or Miswâk (toothstick) is made. Sawâdi means belonging to the Sawâd (or cultivated plains) of ʾIrâk. This region was so called because the Arabs of the dsert, when they first saw the verdure of the trees, exclaimed, "What is that sawâd (dark thing)?" and this ever afterwards continued to be its name. ʾAbd-Allâh died A.H. 23 (A.D. 653), at el-Medînah, aged between 60 and 70 years, and was buried there in the cemetery called el-Bâkiyă, in the reign of ʾOthmân-ibn-ʾAffân, the third of the er-Rashîd Khalîfahs.

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