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.
٦،٣،١١
(وأمّا) سبب تسمية ابن عمّ الناظم بهذا الاسم فعلى أقوال (أحدها) أنّ أمّه لمّا وضعته سمعت إنسانًا يقول لآخر هات المحلبة فسمّته بذلك تفاؤلًا بهذا اللفظ وصغّرته لكون الولد صغيرًا (الثاني) أنّ أمّه أتت بولد قبله وسمّته محلاب فمات ثمّ ولدته وكرهت أن تسمّيه باسم أخيه فأنّثت اللفظ وصغّرته وقالت محيلبه واشتهر بذلك (الثالث) أنّ أمّه لمّا ولدته زارها إنسان بمحلبة جديدة ساعةَ ولادتها فتفاءلت بذلك وقالت محيلبه فهذا ما ظهر لي من هذه المباحث الفشرويّة والخرافات الهباليّة وقوله
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.
٧،٣،١١
(يوم) بالتنوين وخفض الميم لضرورة النظم واليوم اسم لبياض النهار المضيء المُشْرِق بسبب الشمس الّذي يُصام شرعًا كما لا يخفى وقوله
yawmin (“on the day when”):in with 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
٨،٣،١١
(تجي) من المجيء وهو الحضور
tajī (“comes”): from the verbal noun majīʾ (“coming”), which means arriving at a place.
٩،٣،١١
(الوجبه) ووقت مجيئها وحضورها بمجرَّد طلوع الشادّ أو الملتزم أو النصرانيّ إلى الكفر أو البلد فتوزعّ على الفلّاحين بحسب ما يخصّهم من الأرض من القراريط والفِدْن ونحو ذلك فمنهم من يكون عليه في الشهر يومًا ومنهم من يفعلها في كلّ جمعة مرّة ومنهم من يجعلها في كلّ ثلاثة أيّام وهكذا بحسب كثرة الفلّاحين وقلّتهم وحسب زيادة الأرض ونقصها فلا بدّ منها في كلّ يوم مدّة الإقامة فيقوم الرجل بكُلْفة الشادّ والنصرانيّ إن كان حاضرًا وجميع من يكون من طائفة الملتزم بأكلهم وشربهم وجميع ما يحتاجوا إليه من عليق دوابهم وما يتمنّوه عليه من المآكل من اللحم والدجاج ولو كان فقيرًا ألزموه بذلك قهرًا عليه وإلّا حبسه الشادّ وضربه ضربًا موجعًا وربّما هرب من قلّة شيء يضعه فيرسل إلى أولاده وزوجته ويهدّدهم ويطلب منهم فربّما رهنت المرأة شيئًا من مصاغها أو ملبوسها على دراهم وأخذت بهم الدجاج أو اللحم وطبخته وأحرمت أولادها من الأكل منه خوفًا على نفسها من أنّه لا يكفيهم مثلًا وقد يربّي الفلّاح الدجاج فلا يأكل منه شيئًا ويحرم نفسه وعياله من خوفه من الضرب والحبس ومثل الدجاج والسمن١ والدقيق يبقيه لأجل هذه البليّة ويطبخ بالسيرج ويأكل الخبز الشعير ويضع لهم القمح الزرّيع ويأكل الجبن القَريِش المالح ويتكلّف لشري الجبن الطري الحلو ويرسله في الوجبة كلّ ذلك خوفًا على نفسه من هذه الأمور
١ بي: السمن.
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.,
