O generous and indulgent and munificent Muʾâwiyah!
And O liberal and wise and uncorrupt and powerful!
I came to thee when my pathway on earth was narrowed;
Then, mighty one! refuse not my prayer for justice.
But vouchsafe me judgment 'gainst the oppressor, who
Has injured me in suchwise; 'twere better had he slain me.
He forced from me Saida, and my suit hath wasted me;
And he tyrannized, and acted not justly, but tore from me my wife;
And he thought to kill me, but my time was not yet
Accomplished, nor ended the term of my daily sustenance.
Then when Muʾâwiyah heard his words, and the fire that burnt within him, he said to him, "Gently, O brother of the Arabs! Tell your tale, and let me judge of your affair."
"So he began: “O Commander of the Faithful! I had a wife. I was enamoured of her and fascinated by her. Through her my eye was refreshed and my heart was glad. And I had a camel foal to which I looked for the maintenance of my condition and the support of my beloved. But a year of misfortune fell upon us; I lost even to socks and slippers, and there remained to me of my possessions, nothing. And when that which I had held was diminished, and my wealth was gone, and my state impoverished, I
Tábary, however, intimates that Marwân died of the plague, nor does Abuʾl-Fáraj say anything of his wife's being accessory to his death. He reigned less than a year.
