The Kūfan Maqāmah: A Stranger at the Door after Midnight

Read-only question overview. Answers and scoring remain inside authenticated learner attempts.

• In what city does the fifth maqāmah begin?
• What does samartu mean in this opening?
• What is given a skin-like surface in adīmuhā dhū lawnayn?
• What does lujayn mean?
• Which element marks an explicit simile in ka-taʿwīdh?
• What is eloquence likened to in ghudhū bilibān al-bayān?
• What is the effect of invoking Saḥbān?
• What is the point of yuḥfaẓu ʿanhu wa-lā yutaḥaffaẓu minhu?
• What changes between yamīlu ilayhi and yamīlu ʿanhu?
• What is tahwīm?
• What did the group hear first at the door?
• What is behind the word mustanbiḥ?
• Mustaftiḥ is the active participle of which verb?
• Al-mudlahimm describes what in the question at the door?
• What does al-maghna mean in the visitor’s poem?
• What is the function of wuqītum sharran?
• What does ikfaharra suggest in the poem?
• What image is formed by shaʿithan mughbarran?
• What is intensified by isbaṭarra?
• What two signs appear in muḥqawqifan muṣfarran?
• What is the traveller’s bent posture compared with?
• What does muʿtarran suggest here?
• What two things are requested by qirā and mustaqarr?
• What does the stranger claim by saying qanūʿan ḥurran?
• What figure is prominent in iḥlawlā wa amarrā?
• How did al-Ḥārith and his companions respond to the poem?
• The stranger’s identity is disclosed in this opening section.
• Mustanbiḥ and mustaftiḥ each convey seeking or trying to elicit a response.
• Qirā and mustaqarr name the same thing here.
• The sweet/bitter contrast is the guest’s promise to accept varied hospitality.