"And a slave-girl to prepare the game, and cook it for us," continued the other.
"Give him a slave-girl," said es-Saffâh.
Then Abu-Dulâmah said, "These, O Commander of the Faithful! form a family, and without question they must have a house to live in."
"Give him a house which will hold them all," said es-Saffâh.
Presently Abu-Dulâmah added, "But though they have a house, whence are the means of living to come?"
Es-Saffâh made answer, "Verily I bestow upon thee ten ghamîrât villages in the plains of the children of Israel."
"What is the meaning of ghamîrât, O Commander of the Faithful?" asked Abu-Dulâmah.
"That which is uncultivated," answered es-Saffâh.
"Then," said Abu-Dulâmah, "I bestow upon thee, O Commander of the Faithful! a hundred ghamîrât villages in the plains of the Benu-Saʾad."[1]
- ↑ I am unable to explain the point of this repartee. My sheikh, who was however more apt to give any answer which he thought would satisfy me than to trouble himself with research, told me that there was no such tribe as the Benu-Saʾad; and I therefore imagined that the answer was much as if a person in
