AUTHOR'S PREFACE
THUS spoke Abu Muhammad, God forgive him:
No better beginning can there be for my book than that I should praise Almighty God as He is worthy, and pray for His blessings upon Mohammed His servant and messenger in particular, and upon all His prophets in general.
And next-may God preserve us and you from bewilderment, and may He not burden us with more than we can bear; may He of His goodly aid decree for us a guide to lead us into obedience of His Will, and bestow on us of His assistance some means that will draw us away and turn us from all offences against His commandments! May He not hand us over to our own weak resolves and feeble powers, the frailty of our physical frame and the confusion of our opinions, our evil choice, our little discretion, the corruption of our passions! Your letter came down to me from the city of Almeria to my dwelling-place in the Court of Jativa, in which you gave me joyous news of your well-being: I thanked God for this, and prayed to Him that he should continue it so, and grant you increase of your prosperity. Thereafter a little while and I beheld you in person, for you yourself sought me out despite the far distance, the vast sundering of our abodes the one from the other, the remoteness of the place of visitation, the great length of the space to be traversed, and the terror of the journey; and there were besides other obstacles which might well have diverted the most eager heart, and distracted the most resolute remembrance, except a man, held firm like you to the cord of loyalty, respecting those ancient dues and strongly-rooted affections, the rights of childish fondness and the comradeship of youth, a true lover withal for God. Such is the attachment, which God has established between us, and for this we praise Him and give Him thanks.
In the aforesaid letter you expressed ideas exceeding what I was accustomed to find in your other communications. Then on your arrival you revealed your intention plainly to me, and informed me of your views with that frankness which has always characterized our relations, that habit of sharing with me your every sweetness and bitterness, your every private thought and public profession. In this you were led by true affection, the which I doubly reciprocate, desiring no other recompense but to receive a like return. It was upon this theme that I composed the following verses in a long poem addressed to 'Ubaid Allah Ibn `Abd al-Rahman Ibn al-Mughira, great-grandson of the Caliph al-Nasir (God have mercy upon him!), who was a dear friend of mine.
Are like a desert's noontide haze:
I love thee with a constant love
Unwithering through all my days.
This fondness I profess for thee
Is pure, and in my heart I bear
True love's inscription plain to see,
And all its tale is written there.
Had any passion, thine beside,
At any time my soul possessed,
I would have torn my worthless hide
And plucked that alien from my breast.
There is no other prize I seek:
Thy love is my desire sincere:
Only upon this theme I speak
To capture thy complacent ear.
This if I win, the earth's expanse,
And all mankind, are but as dust,
Yea, the wide world's inhabitants
Are flies that crawl upon its crust.
You charged me--may God exalt you! -to compose for you an essay describing Love, wherein I should set forth its various meanings, its causes and accidents, and what happens in it and to it, after the way of truth, neither adding anything nor embroidering anything, but only setting down exactly what I have to tell according to the manner of its occurrence, and mentioning all to the full extent of my recollection and the limit of my capacity. I have accordingly hastened to fulfill your desire; though but for the wish to comply with your commission I would never have undertaken it at all, being too poverty-stricken to attempt so great a task. Indeed it behoves us rather, considering the brief duration of our lives, not to expend them save upon those enterprises which we may hope will secure for us a spacious destination and. a fair homecoming upon the morrow. Yet it is true that Cadi Humam Ibn Ahmad has informed me on the authority of Yahya Ibn Malik, who had it from ` A'idh upon a chain of authority mounting to Abu 'l-Darda', that the latter said, "Recreate your souls with a little vanity, that it may the better aid them to hold fast to the truth." A righteous and well-approved father of the faith declared, " The man who has never known how to comport himself as a cavalier will never know how to be truly god fearing." The Prophet is reported to have said, " Rest your souls from time to time: they are apt to rust, in the same way that steel rusts."
In performing this task with which you have charged me I must perforce relate such things as I 'have personally witnessed, or what I have discovered by diligent research, or matters communicated to me by reliable informants of my own times. Pray excuse me if I sometimes do no more than hint at the names of the heroes, of my anecdotes, and do not mention them more explicitly; this is due either to some shame which I do not hold it permissible to uncover, or in order to protect a loving friend or an illustrious man. It will suffice me to name only those the naming of whom does no harm, and whose mention brings no opprobrium either upon ourselves or them; either because the affair is so notorious that concealment and the avoidance of clear specification will do the party concerned no good, or for the simple reason that the person being reported on is quite content that his story should be made public, and by no means disapproves of its being bandied about.
I shall be quoting in this essay verses which I have composed myself upon my own observations. Do not take it amiss, my friend, or whoever else may happen to see this volume, that I am here following the fashion of those who always quote themselves in their stories; such is the way of men who affect the writing of poetry. Moreover my friends make me shy to write about their adventures after their own private ways and habits; so I have been satisfied to mention here only what has occurred to me, within the terms of reference you have prescribed, in every case attributing the incident to myself. I have kept in this book to the bounds set by you, limiting myself to things which I have either seen with my own eyes, or I am convinced are true as deriving from trustworthy reporters. Spare me those tales of Bedouins, and of lovers long ago! Their ways were not our ways, and the stories told of them are too numerous in any case. It is not my practice to wear out anybody's riding-beast but my own; I am not one of those who deck themselves up in borrowed plumes.
In all this I ask God's forgiveness and succour; there is no Lord beside Him.
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