Brides of Arabic Poetry: Jamil's Buthayna

Buthayna, daughter of Hubba ibn Tha'laba, of the Banu 'Udhra. Jamil ibn 'Abdallah ibn Ma'mar loved her to distraction and celebrated her in his poetry, so that he came to be known by her — indeed he is known only as Jamil Buthayna. She was married to a man called Nubayh ibn al-Aswad, yet Jamil went on visiting her without any breath of suspicion. Buthayna was among the most beautiful of women, the most perfect in refinement and grace, and the most delightful in conversation; between her and Jamil there passed many anecdotes, verses, and gallantries, all of them cloaked in chastity and good breeding. Among them is the cause of Jamil's first attachment to her: one day he came driving his camels until he brought them down to water in a valley called Baghid. He lay down and let his camels graze, and Buthayna's people were then encamped on one side of the valley. Buthayna came with a girl neighbor of hers to fetch water; the two passed by some kneeling camel-calves of his, and Buthayna frightened them off — she was then a little slip of a girl. Jamil abused her, and she returned his abuse and reviled him in her turn. Her railing pleased him, and from that hour he was enamored of her. Of this he says:

The first thing that drew love between us,
in the valley of Baghid, O Buthayn, was an exchange of insults;
we said a word to her and she returned its like —
for every speech, O Buthayn, there is an answer.

Buthayna went out one festival day — women in those days would adorn themselves and gather, drawing near one another and showing themselves to the men at every feast. Jamil came and stopped where Buthayna and her sister Umm al-Husayn stood among women of the Banu al-Ahabb, and saw in them a charming sight. He sat with them and then went his way. With him were young men of the Banu al-Ahabb, and he knew that the people had recognized in his gaze his love for Buthayna and had taken it ill of him; so he left her — and composed love verses about her.

When Buthayna heard that Jamil had sung of her, she swore by God that he should never come to her in private but she would go out to him, and that she would never hide herself from him. So he would come to her when the men were off their guard and converse with her and her sisters, until word of it reached her menfolk. They were jealous men, and they lay in wait for him with a band. He came on al-Sahba, his she-camel, and stopped before Buthayna and Umm al-Husayn as the two talked with him. While he was thus, the men sprang upon him; he loosed the camel's rein, and she shot out from among them like an arrow.

One day she promised Jamil that they would meet in a certain place, and he came at her appointment. A Bedouin arrived seeking the people's hospitality; they lodged him and entertained him, and he said to them: 'I have seen in the bed of this valley three men, scattered and hiding among the trees, and I fear for you lest they carry off some of your camels.' They knew it was Jamil and his two companions, so they set a guard over Buthayna and prevented her from keeping her promise. When morning broke, he went away downcast, thinking ill of her, and returned to his people. She met him after a long estrangement, and they exchanged reproaches at length; her father and her brother overheard her reproaches, and in them her noble and chaste love, and so they left the two to themselves. But when Buthayna's people learned of her repeated meetings, they swore together to kill him, and the Caliph declared his blood forfeit to them. The world grew narrow for Jamil; he would climb the sand dunes by night and breathe in the wind blowing from the direction of Buthayna's encampment, and when dawn appeared he would depart.

He went out one day to visit Buthayna and halted near the water, watching for a slave girl of Buthayna's or a shepherdess

to make her a go-between for delivering his message. And behold, an Abyssinian slave woman, carrying a waterskin, came down to the pool to fill it — and she knew him. When each had recognized the other, she greeted him and sat with him, and he began to talk with her and ask her for news of Buthayna, telling her what he suffered from the pain of separation and charging her with his message to Buthayna. Then he gave her his ring and asked her to hand it to her, and took from her a promise to return to him, and stayed waiting for her return. The slave girl went back to her people, having delayed long upon them. Buthayna's father, her husband, and her brother met her and asked her what had kept her; she evaded them and told them nothing of what had passed between her and Jamil, making excuses to them. So they beat her cruelly, and under the pain of the beating she told them how she had met Jamil, and handed over his ring to them.

It chanced that while she was in that plight two young men of the Banu 'Udhra passed by; they heard the story and learned the place where Jamil was. Wishing to ward this danger off from him, they said to the people: 'If you meet Jamil when Buthayna is not with him, and then kill him, every evil consequence will fall upon you.' Now Buthayna's people were the mightiest of the Banu 'Udhra; so they summoned the slave woman, gave her the ring, and ordered her to deliver it to Buthayna, warning her against telling her that they had learned the story. She did so, and Buthayna knew nothing of what had happened. The two young men went off and warned Jamil, saying: 'Stay with us in our tents until the pursuit dies down; then we will send word to her, and she will visit you, and you can go your way safe and sound.' He said: 'For now, send her someone to warn her.' They brought him a shepherdess of hers and said to him, 'State your errand.' He said: 'Go in to her and say to her: I meant to hunt a gazelle, but a company of men put it on its guard, and so it escaped me tonight.' She went and told her what he had said to her; Buthayna recognized his story, searched into it, and understood it completely, and she did not go out to visit him that night. They watched her, and she never stirred from her place; and they went tracking him and found his she-camel, and knew that he had eluded them. Then they grew loath to kill him, fearing that a war might break out between them and his people over his blood — for his people were stronger in battle than Buthayna's. So they renewed their complaint against him to the Caliph, who sought him relentlessly, and he fled to Yemen, where he stayed for a time, until that governor was removed. Buthayna's people had meanwhile moved toward the region of Syria, and he came back to them; whereupon the elders of the encampment complained of him to his father — a man of standing, merit, and worth among his people. They adjured him by God and by the ties of kinship, and begged him to restrain his son from their girl, from singing of her, and from the scandal he was bringing upon them among the people. He promised to restrain and check him as far as he was able.

Then they departed. He summoned him and said to him: 'My son, how long will you be blind in your error? Are you not ashamed to cling to a wedded woman while you are kept far from her — she deluding you with her words and her wiles, showing you constancy and affection, while she harbors for her husband what a freeborn woman harbors for the man who possesses her, so that her talk to you is mere dallying and deception; and when you leave her, she goes back to her husband? This is humiliation and disgrace, and I know of no arrow more futile nor life more wasted than yours. I adjure you by God: desist, and consider your case, for you know that what I have said is true. Were there any way to her, I would spend all I own upon her; but this is a matter that has failed, and he for whom it was fated holds it fast — and among women there are others in her stead.'

Jamil said to him: 'The judgment is as you have judged, and the word is as you have said. But have you ever seen anyone before me who was able to thrust his passion out of his heart, or had the power to console himself, or could avert what has been decreed for him? By God, if I could blot her memory from my heart, or remove her image from my eyes, I would do it. But there is no way to that. It is an affliction with which I have been tried, until a term appointed for me. Yet I will refrain from approaching this encampment or coming near it, though I should die of grief. That is my utmost effort and the limit of what I am able to do.' And he rose weeping; and his father wept, and all who were present, in sorrow at what they saw of his love for Buthayna.

It is said that when the news of Jamil's death reached Buthayna, she mourned him for three days; then her own end overtook her.