LessonsʿAmr ibn Kulthūm: Address to Abā Hind, Tribal Pride and the Mill of War (Verses 23–38)Quiz

مَتَى نَنْقُلْ إِلَى قَوْمٍ رَحَانَا يَكُونُوا فِي اللِّقَاءِ لَهَا طَحِينَا
Whenever we bring our mill against a people, in the encounter they become its flour.

Raḥānā means “our mill,” but it represents the war machine. Ṭaḥīnā is flour or ground grain: defeated adversaries are imagined as grain crushed by the mill.

Matā nanqul introduces a conditional pattern (“whenever we bring…”), and yakūnū supplies the consequence. The entire line is a hyperbolic martial metaphor, not a description of a literal mill.

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Verse 30: The mill of war

ʿAmr ibn Kulthūm: Address to Abā Hind, Tribal Pride and the Mill of War (Verses 23–38)

مَتَى نَنْقُلْ إِلَى قَوْمٍ رَحَانَا يَكُونُوا فِي اللِّقَاءِ لَهَا طَحِينَا
Whenever we bring our mill against a people, in the encounter they become its flour.

Raḥānā means “our mill,” but it represents the war machine. Ṭaḥīnā is flour or ground grain: defeated adversaries are imagined as grain crushed by the mill.

Matā nanqul introduces a conditional pattern (“whenever we bring…”), and yakūnū supplies the consequence. The entire line is a hyperbolic martial metaphor, not a description of a literal mill.