Note 421 — KAMAR AL-ZAMAN AND THE JEWELLER’S WIFE.[375]

This was a saying of Mohammed about over-frequency of visits, “Zur ghibban, tazid hubban” = call rarely that friendship last fairly. So the verse of Al-Mutanabbi,

“How oft familiarity breeds dislike.”

Preston quotes Jesus ben Sirach, μὴ ἔμπιπτε ἵνα μὴ ἐπωσθῇς, καὶ μὴ μακρὰν ἀφίστω ἵνα μὴ ἐπιλησθῇς. Also Al-Hariri (Ass. xv. of “The Legal”; De Sacy p. 478 l. 2.) “Visit not your friend more than one day in a month, nor stop longer than that with him!” Also Ass. xvi. 487, 8. “Multiply not visits to thy friend.” None so disliked as one visiting too often (Preston p. 352). In the Cent nouvelles (52) Nouvelles (No. lii.) the dying father says to his son:—Jamais ne vous hantez tant en l’ostel de votre voisin que l’on vous y serve de pain bis. In these matters Moslems follow the preaching and practice of the Apostle, who was about as hearty and genial as the “Great Washington.” But the Arab had a fund of dry humour which the Anglo-American lacked altogether.