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would be according to the analogy of Fuṭays.¹⁵⁵ These vessels are well known to the people of the countryside, as are others, among them the zīr (“water jar”)¹⁵⁶ and the tumnah (“one-eighth measure”) and so on.

      11.3.5

      If it be said, “The definition and, in some cases, the etymologies of the names maḥlabah and miḥlāb and the rest such as qisṭ, rubʿ, and kūz have been given, but what is the meaning of qarrūfih, and how did this strange word come to be applied to this vessel and what was the occasion for that?” we reply that this question may be answered from a number of perspectives. The first is that this vessel was made at the time of the qirr (with i after the q and no vowel after the r),¹⁵⁷ which means “extreme cold”; then they completed (wafaw) its firing in the summer, and so it was called qirrwafih, that is, the firing of this vessel was accomplished (wafiya) and it was finished; then they put a ū after the double r of qirr and made a name for it out of all these letters and said qarrūfih. In this case it would be composed of a noun and a verb.¹⁵⁸ The second is that, when it had just been invented and the milker put it between his legs and directed the milk into it, the milk started to rise and make a lot of froth, so the milkman became afraid that the milk would overflow the vessel and called out to the milk qarr fīh qarr fīh (“Stay in it! Stay in it!”), that is, “Remain in it and be settled!” Then they added a w to the word between the imperative verb and the prepositional phrase, omitted the ī because it was awkward to pronounce, realized the w as ū,¹⁵⁹ and said qarrūfih, and that became its name. The third perspective is that the clay of which it was made was originally taken from a place close to the Qarāfah (“cemetery”) of Cairo, so they started saying “a qarāfī vessel,”¹⁶⁰ then derived this name for it from that sense and said qarrūfih. The fourth is that it is derived from qirfah (“cinnamon”) (with i after the f), which is a spice with a delicious taste and smell that is used in fine dishes and sumptuous foods, for milk too, when fresh from the cow, has an appetizing smell and sweet taste—as the Almighty has said, «pure milk, palatable to the drinkers»;¹⁶¹ then they added a ū to it and made that its name. And fifthly, names cannot be etymologized, so there is no need for these fatuous investigations and inane fabulations. Thus the answer now’s clear, the truth made to appear.

      11.3.6

      Various accounts are given for how the poet’s paternal cousin came by this name. The first is that, when his mother gave birth to him, she heard one person say to another, “Fetch the milk crock!” so she named him thus, taking a good omen from the word and making it into a diminutive, seeing that the child was small. A second version has it that his mother had borne another boy before him and called him Miḥlāb, but he died. When she gave birth to this child, she did not want to call him by his brother’s name, so she made the word feminine¹⁶² and made it a diminutive and said muḥaylibah, and by this he was known. A third account has it that someone visited her with a new milk crock (maḥlabah) at the moment when she gave birth, so she took this as a good omen and said, “I shall call him Muḥaylibah.” This is the extent of what I have learnt from these fatuous investigations and inane fabulations.

      11.3.7

      yawmin (“on the day when”): with in following the m, for the meter.¹⁶³ Yawm (“day”) is a name for the whiteness of daylight that is illumined by the rays of the sun and during which one may undertake a legally meaningful fast, as is well known.¹⁶⁴

      11.3.8

      tajī (“comes”): from the verbal noun majīʾ (“coming”), which means arriving at a place.

      11.3.9

      al-wajbah (“the wajbah”): this takes effect from the moment of the coming, or arrival, of the bailiff or the tax farmer or the Christian in the hamlet or the village, at which time it is distributed among the peasants on the basis of how many carats or feddans, etc., of land each one works. Some are obligated to provide it one day a month, others once a week, and still others once every three days, etc., according to how many or few are the peasants and how extensive or limited is the land. It must be provided every day throughout the stay. Under this system, a man sees to the provisioning of the bailiff and the Christian, if the latter is present, and of all those belonging to the tax farmer’s entourage, and undertakes to provide them with their food and drink and everything they need in the way of fodder for their animals and whatever dishes of meat or fowl they may have a liking for. If the man is poor, they impose this on him by force, or else the bailiff imprisons him and beats him severely. Sometimes a man will flee because he does not have enough to offer, and the bailiff then sends for his children and his wife and demands it from them with threats. A wife may pawn some of her jewelry or her clothes for a little money and use the proceeds to buy poultry or meat, and cook it and prevent her children from touching it for fear of what will happen to her if it is not enough for them. Sometimes a peasant will raise chickens and eat none of them and make himself and his children go without for fear of being beaten or imprisoned, and things such as chickens and butter and flour he will keep aside in readiness for this disaster, doing his own cooking with sesame oil and eating barley bread, and he may put his seed wheat aside for them and eat salty cottage cheese and put himself to the expense of buying sweet fresh cheese and send this with the wajbah, all for fear of what may happen to him because of these matters.

      11.3.10

      It is called wajbah because it has come to be like a duty (wājib) that the tax farmers impose on the peasants, for it has to be done for the bailiff in the village or the Christian or the tax farmer, if he comes, as stated above. While some tax farmers have waived it, they have replaced it with an agreed sum of money and added that to the land tax, forcing them to pay it to the bailiff in the village, the money being taken from them annually. It is a form of injustice, and eating such food is forbidden by religion so long as the peasants do not give it of their own free will and cheerfully,¹⁶⁵ the tax farmer keeping them happy by granting them a little land or something else in return. Some tax farmers have given it up altogether and impose nothing on them, neither for the bailiff nor anyone else, although they may volunteer something of their own free will. In that case, it is not forbidden and it is permitted to eat it. Similar to the wajbah is the fine imposed on the landless and putting them to work without pay, as long as this is without their consent, in return for covering their lodging and compensation for leaving their crops and so on. Anything that involves injury to others is forbidden. The poet says:

      Be as you wish, for God is kind—

      No harm shall befall you if you sin.

      Two things alone you must eschew in full—

      Ascribing partners to God¹⁶⁶ and doing injury to men.

      11.3.11

      If it be said, “If an emir, or someone else, on assuming the right to farm the taxes of a village, finds the wajbah or the fine on the landless or any other form of injustice on the ledgers of those who held the tax farm before him and so imposes that on the people of the village as was done under earlier determinations by the surveyors according to established custom, is the sin then his or that of the person who introduced the practice before him, or both of theirs together?” the answer is to be found in the Tradition of the Prophet, upon whom blessings and peace, that says, “He who introduces into this affair of ours that which is not in it is rejected,” meaning, whoever introduces something that was not present in the time of the Prophet, upon whom blessings and peace—such things being called “innovation”—is rejected, that is, refused, meaning invalid and not to be taken as an example. This shows clearly that there is no difference between someone’s introducing the practice himself and someone else having preceded him in this. Thus the sin pertains to everyone who acts in accordance with this practice or orders others to act in accordance with it, for everyone who performs an act that is not stipulated by the Law is a sinner, as stated in the words of the Prophet, blessings and peace upon him, “He

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