Note 89 — THE CALIPH OMAR BIN ABD AL-AZIZ AND THE POETS.[85]
Richard Francis Burton translation · Edition 2
Arab. “Bákiyah,” which may also mean eternal as opposed to “Fániyah” = temporal. Omar’s answer shows all the narrow-minded fanaticism which distinguished the early Moslems: they were puritanical as any Praise-God-Barebones, and they hated “boetry and bainting” as hotly as any Hanoverian.