The Dīnārī Maqāmah: From Hunger to a Dinar’s Praise

1. The complaint continues through bodily imagery

The stranger has already described the loss of possessions, security and status. Now he turns poverty into physical experience. The emotional force rises, although these remain claims within his speech rather than independently established facts.

«وَطَوَيْنَا الْأَحْشَاءَ عَلَى الطَّوَى»
We folded our insides upon hunger—our stomachs tightened from starvation.

Al-aḥshāʾ refers to the inner organs; al-ṭawā denotes hunger. The closely sounding ṭawaynā / al-ṭawā also join the literal action of folding with an embodied picture of deprivation.

2. Sleeplessness in place of eye cosmetic

«وَاكْتَحَلْنَا السُّهَادَ»
And we applied sleeplessness as if it were kohl.

The verb iktaḥala normally means applying kohl to the eyes. Suhād means insomnia or wakefulness. Replacing the expected cosmetic with sleeplessness presents distress through a vivid sensory substitution.

Two words evoke a long anxious night. The clause should not be read as a report about actual eye treatment: its power lies in its metaphorical use.

3. Low ground and a bed of thorns

«وَاسْتَوْطَنَّا الْوِهَادَ وَاسْتَوْطَأْنَا الْقَتَادَ»
We made the lowlands our home and trod upon—or lay upon—thorny growth.

Wihād, plural of wahdah, means low-lying ground; qatād is a harsh thorn-bearing plant. The first verb portrays a forced change of dwelling; the second makes even a place of rest painful.

Istawaṭannā / istawṭaʾnā are similar in sound but not identical in meaning. The contrast of location and physical discomfort intensifies the loss of ordinary shelter.

4. Lost transport and exhausted hope

«وَتَنَاسَيْنَا الْأَقْتَادَ»
We all but forgot the gear used for riding.

Aqtād, plural of qatad, is associated with wooden saddle frames or riding equipment. Tanāsaynā expresses forgetting—or behaving as though something has been forgotten—because the ordinary means of travel are now beyond reach.

A vocabulary distinction matters here: qatād is thorny vegetation, but aqtād is riding gear. Their similar appearance does not make them synonyms.

5. A disturbing wish for an end to suffering

«وَاسْتَطْبَنَا الْحَيْنَ الْمُجْتَاحَ وَاسْتَبْطَأْنَا الْيَوْمَ الْمُتَاحَ»
We came to regard devastating death as almost welcome, while the day of relief seemed unbearably slow in coming.

Ḥayn here indicates destruction or death; mujtāḥ evokes devastation. Istabṭaʾnā means finding the arrival of something too slow.

This is deliberate rhetorical exaggeration expressing extreme suffering, not a universal recommendation or instruction. The rhetoric reaches its emotional height just before a direct plea for kindness.

6. The speech turns toward a benefactor

«فَهَلْ مِنْ حُرٍّ آسٍ أَوْ سَمْحٍ مُوَاسٍ؟»
Is there then any honourable comforter or generous helper?

Ḥurr suggests nobility of character, āsin someone who consoles, samḥ a generous person, and muwāsin a person who shares another’s hardship.

Having stirred the audience through images of suffering, the speaker now asks for assistance. The paired words create an audible link while signalling two closely related acts: sympathy and practical support.

7. From a clan to having no shelter

«لَقَدْ أَمْسَيْتُ أَخَا عَيْلَةٍ، لَا أَمْلِكُ بَيْتَ لَيْلَةٍ»
I have fallen into destitution; I do not even possess a place to stay for one night.

Akhā ʿaylah literally calls a person a ‘brother of poverty’: a conventional way of describing one engulfed by a condition. Bayta laylah reduces his claim to the most basic need for a night’s shelter.

The speaker’s rhetoric traces a fall from former comfort to an alleged absence of even temporary accommodation.

8. Al-Ḥārith feels sympathy but tests the claim

«فَأَوَيْتُ لِمَفَاقِرِهِ وَلَوَيْتُ إِلَى اسْتِنْبَاطِ فَقْرِهِ»
I felt compassion for his needs, yet turned to investigating the reality of his poverty.

Awaitu conveys sympathy and concern. Istinbāṭ originally involves drawing out what is hidden; here it refers to probing beneath appearances.

The narrator displays two simultaneous attitudes: compassion and caution. His subsequent act is not merely a gift but a way of examining the stranger’s claim through literary skill.

9. A dinar becomes a literary challenge

«فَأَبْرَزْتُ دِينَارًا وَقُلْتُ لَهُ اخْتِبَارًا: إِنْ مَدَحْتَهُ نَظْمًا فَهُوَ لَكَ حَتْمًا»
I produced a dinar and challenged him: if you praise it in verse, it is certainly yours.

Abraz(tu) means producing or bringing something into view; ikhtibāran indicates testing; naẓman means in verse. In ... fa-huwa laka expresses a condition and its promised result.

A request for charity becomes a display of improvised poetic skill. The promised coin gives the stranger both subject matter and incentive.

10. Why a single dinar matters to the plot

Dīnār denotes a gold coin in this setting, not simply an unrestricted synonym for any modern currency. The coin al-Ḥārith holds up is both the subject of the poem and its promised prize.

AspectRole in the storySubjectPraise of the coinTestCompose accomplished verse immediatelyRewardReceive the coin if the condition is met

The title Dīnārīyah now gains a precise narrative function: one gold coin drives the literary challenge.

11. A striking opening built on the coin’s colour

«فَانْبَرَى يُنْشِدُ فِي الْحَالِ مِنْ غَيْرِ انْتِحَالٍ»
He launched into verse at once, without passing off someone else’s work as his own.

«أَكْرِمْ بِهِ أَصْفَرَ رَاقَتْ صُفْرَتُهُ»
How splendid is this yellow coin, whose golden colour delights the eye!

Akrim bihi is an exclamatory formula of admiration, not an ordinary command to honour a person. Rāqat means proved pleasing. The poem begins with the coin’s most immediate physical attribute: its golden colour.

12. The coin’s far-reaching travels

«جَوَّابَ آفاقٍ تَرَامَتْ سَفْرَتُهُ»
It is a traveller across far horizons, its journeys reaching distant lands.

Jawwāb is an intensive form for a frequent traveller, while āfāq signifies distant regions. The coin travels not by its own steps but through trade and changes of ownership.

The poet makes an inanimate object into a world-roaming traveller: a form of personifying imagery that gives a tiny coin a remarkably expansive life.

13. Reputation and engraved marks

«مَأْثُورَةٌ سُمْعَتُهُ وَشُهْرَتُهُ»
Its reputation and fame are widely known.

«قَدْ أُودِعَتْ سِرَّ الْغِنَى أَسِرَّتُهُ»
Its engraved lines seem to contain the secret of wealth.

Asirratuhu here signifies lines of a face or engraved marks on the coin; it is not a reference to a family. This precision matters: the poet turns the coin’s visible stamped lines into the emblem of riches.

14. Success and the coin’s admired face

«وَقَارَنَتْ نُجْحَ الْمَسَاعِي خَطْرَتُهُ»
Its appearance has become associated with the success of endeavours.

«وَحُبِّبَتْ إِلَى الْأَنَامِ غُرَّتُهُ»
People have been made fond of its radiant face.

Khaṭrah suggests appearance or occurrence; ghurrah a prominent, bright and handsome feature. The poet elevates the coin from an economic object to a symbol of success and popularity, through deliberate praise and exaggeration.

15. The coin enters hearts and money-bags

«كَأَنَّمَا مِنَ الْقُلُوبِ نُقْرَتُهُ»
It is as though this coined piece were shaped out of people’s very hearts.

«بِهِ يَصُولُ مَنْ حَوَتْهُ صُرَّتُهُ»
Whoever holds it in his money-bag can act with greater force or confidence.

Nuqrah can indicate a worked piece of metal, while ṣurrah is a tied purse. The first line dramatizes emotional attachment to gold; the second depicts the social power that money can confer.

16. An enduring fascination with gold

«يَا حَبَّذَا نُضَارُهُ وَنَضْرَتُهُ»
How fine its pure gold and its radiant lustre!

Nuḍār evokes fine gold, whereas naḍrah is freshness or splendour. Ḥabbadhā is a fixed exclamation of admiration. The poem joins the substance of gold and the visual pleasure of its lustre in one rhyming pair, without treating these near-homophones as identical in meaning.

17. Material help and command

«وَحَبَّذَا مَغْنَاتُهُ وَنُصْرَتُهُ»
How welcome its practical benefit and assistance!

«كَمْ أَمْرٍ بِهِ اسْتَتَبَّتْ إِمْرَتُهُ»
How many undertakings or authorities have been stabilized through it!

Maghnāh concerns usefulness or sufficiency; imrah relates to command and authority. Kam here is exclamatory and expresses abundance. The poet is praising the social influence of wealth, not stating that money must always produce good government.

18. Luxury, regret and reversals

«وَمُتْرَفٍ لَوْلَاهُ دَامَتْ حَسْرَتُهُ»
A person accustomed to luxury might have suffered lasting regret without it.

«وَجَيْشِ هَمٍّ هَزَمَتْهُ كَرَّتُهُ»
Many an army of sorrow has been routed by its return.

Mutraf denotes one spoiled by luxury; ḥasrah is regret; karrah is a return or repeated onslaught. Jaysh hamm, an army of worry, is metaphorical, and the coin’s reappearance becomes the force that defeats it.

19. A shining figure and a fiery temper

«وَبَدْرٍ ثُمَّ أَنْزَلَتْهُ بَدْرَتُهُ»
Even a person likened to the full moon may be brought down by a purse of money.

«وَمُسْتَشِيطٍ تَتَلَظَّى جَمْرَتُهُ»
And many a furious person has a temper blazing like an ember.

Badr means the full moon and can signify a radiant person, while badrah denotes a bag containing a substantial sum. Their similar sound invites a pun. The next image presents anger as burning fire.

20. The whisper that calms fury

«أَسَرَّ نَجْوَاهُ فَلَانَتْ شَرَّتُهُ»
He confided a private message to him, and the severity of his temper softened.

Najwā is whispered or private conversation; sharrah indicates fierceness or sharpness. The furious figure in the preceding line now becomes pliable when a financial incentive enters the scene.

This can also work as a satirical image of how material gain changes human behaviour. It is an observation embedded in hyperbolic praise, not an endorsement of buying people’s goodwill.

21. The coin as a means of liberation

«وَكَمْ أَسِيرٍ أَسْلَمَتْهُ أُسْرَتُهُ»
How many captives have been abandoned even by their families!

«أَنْقَذَهُ حَتَّى صَفَتْ مَسَرَّتُهُ»
Yet the coin rescued him, leaving his joy unclouded.

Asīr / usrah resemble one another in sound but mean captive and family respectively. Anqadhahu is a past-tense verb meaning rescued him. The poet intensifies the praise of gold by invoking an actual financial possibility: ransom or material help leading to release.

22. The poem approaches a deliberate limit

«وَحَقِّ مَوْلًى أَبْدَعَتْهُ فِطْرَتُهُ»
By the Lord whose creative power brought it into being!

«لَوْلَا التُّقَى لَقُلْتُ جَلَّتْ قُدْرَتُهُ»
Were it not for reverence for God, I might have said that its power is exalted.

The closing lines deliberately approach the outer limit of panegyric, then introduce taqwā as a restraint. Praise of a created object must not become an attribution of divine status. The literary effect depends on tension between extreme flattery of the coin and an explicit religious boundary.

23. A unified rhyme without a single repeated meaning

Across the poem the recurring -tuhu / -ratuhu sound creates a recognizable cadence, but the words do not all mean the same thing. Within one end-rhyme the poet moves from colour and travel to reputation, wealth, regret, anger, deliverance and restraint.

WordMeaningṢufratuhuIts yellow colourṢurratuhuHis money-bagḤasratuhuHis regretUsratuhuHis family

The artistry lies in creating fresh meanings within a closely repeated sound pattern.

24. The narrator fulfils his promise

«ثُمَّ بَسَطَ يَدَهُ بَعْدَ مَا أَنْشَدَهُ»
After reciting the poem, he extended his hand.

«أَنْجَزَ حُرٌّ مَا وَعَدَ، وَسَخَّ خَالٌ إِذْ رَعَدَ»
An honourable man has fulfilled his promise, just as a rain-cloud pours generously after it thunders.

«فَنَبَذْتُ الدِّينَارَ إِلَيْهِ وَقُلْتُ: خُذْهُ غَيْرَ مَأْسُوفٍ عَلَيْهِ»
So I tossed the dinar to him and said, Take it; I will not regret parting with it.

The narrator had made verse-composition the condition for the reward. The stranger fulfils that condition, and the narrator hands over the promised coin.

25. A quick conclusion—and the next turn

«فَوَضَعَهُ فِي فِيهِ وَقَالَ: بَارَكَ اللَّهُ فِيهِ»
He put the dinar into his mouth and said, May God bless it.

The first fī fīhi refers to putting it in his mouth; the final fīhi refers back to the coin. Similar sound carries two distinct referents and gives the sentence a compact verbal effect.

This level’s narrative sequence is now complete: a story of hardship → a request for help → a poetic test → immediate praise → receipt of the dinar. The following passage develops the encounter in a new direction and is reserved for the next level.