244
ʾILÂM-EN-NÂS.
ceived a black standard[1] which had certainly come from el-Kûfah, and was advancing towards el-Hîrah.[2] And the idea struck me that people had come out to seek for me. So I fled forth in disguise, and reached el-Kûfah by another road. And, by Allâh! I was uncertain what to do, knowing nobody there. And lo! I found myself at the great gate of an enclosed court; so I entered the court, and stood near the house. And behold! there came by a man of gracious mien, mounted upon a horse, and with him a crowd of friends and attendants. And he came into the court, and saw me waiting in perplexity. So he asked me, 'What dost thou want?' I replied, 'I am a stranger who fears lest he should be murdered.' He said,
- ↑ Black was the chosen colour of the Abbasside family. All its members, and the chief officers of their empire, wore that colour. Ibrahîm-ibn-Muhammad, when he succeeded his father as Imâm of the house of el-Abbâs, sent to his general, Abu Muslim, a black standard, ordering him to have it borne before him while he proclaimed his master legal Khalîfah and Imâm, and published the title and pretensions of the house of el-Abbâs. The standard was called es-Sáhab, the cloud, and a banner sent at the same time was called ezh-Zhill, the shadow, which names he interpreted thus: that as the earth would never be uncovered by the clouds, nor quite void of shade, so the world would never henceforth be without a Khalîfah of the house of el-Abbâs.
- ↑ For el-Kûfah and el-Hîrah, see Prefatory Note, p. 37.
