Note 46 — Chapter VI · STORY OF MALIK IBN NOWEIRA. A.H. XI. A.D. 632.

A full account of Mâlik and Motammim, with copious extracts from their poetry, will be found in Nöldeke’s Poesie der alten Araber, Hanover, 1864. Arab critics take Motammim as the model of elegiac poets, both for beauty of expression and intensity of feeling. For twenty years he had been blind of an eye, and now he told Omar that grief for his brother’s cruel fate had brought floods of tears from that eye, which all these years had been bereft of moisture. ‘Verily this surpasseth all other grief!’ said Omar. ‘Yes,’ replied Motammim, ‘it would have been a different thing if my brother had died the death of thy brother Zeid upon the field of battle.’ The noble mien and generosity of Mâlik are painted in glowing colours. He used to kindle a great fire by his tent all night until the day broke, in the hope of attracting travellers to his hospitable home.