Ghālib b. Ṣaʿṣaʿa

GhalibEI.pdf Ghālib b. Ṣaʿṣaʿa b. Nādjiya b. ʿIḳāl b. Muḥammad b. Sufyān b. Mudjāshiʿ b. Dārim, an eminent Tamīmī, famous for his generosity, the father of the poet alFarazdaḳ. The tradition that Ghālib was a contemporary of the Prophet (lahu idrāk) seems to be valid; the tradition that he visited the Prophet and asked him about the reward of the deeds of his father in the time of the Djāhiliyya (Aghānī, xix, 4) seems however to be spurious. Ghālib belonged to the generation after the Prophet; his name is connected with the names of Ṭalba b. Ḳays b. ɈĀṣim and ɈUmayr b. al-Sulayl al-Shaybānī, tribal leaders in the time of MuɈāwiya, in the story of the men of Kalb who tried to find the most generous man (Aghānī, xix, 5; in Ibn Abi ɇl-Ḥadīd's Sharḥ, iii, 426, ed. 1329 A.H., Ghālib is mentioned with Aktham b. Ṣayfī and ɈUtayba b. al-Ḥārith, which is an obvious anachronism). The most generous man among the three sayyids was indeed Ghālib. (Ghālib was a neighbour of Ṭalba in al-Sīdān, in the vicinity of Kāẓima). He is said to have visited ɈAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and introduced to him his son al-Farazdaḳ; ɈAlī recommended him to teach his son the Ḳurɇān. (According to the tradition of Aghānī, xix, 6 he visited him in Baṣra after the battle of the Camel. According to the story quoted in Baghdādī's Khizāna, i, 108, Ghālib was then an old man; al-Farazdaḳ was in his early youth). Ghālib earned his fame by his generosity. Muḥammad b. Ḥabīb counts him in his list of the generous men of the Djāhiliyya (al-Muḥabbar, 142); al-Djāḥiẓ stresses that he was one of the generous men of the Islamic period, not inferior to the generous men of the Djāhiliyya, although public opinion prefers the latter (al-Ḥayawān, ii, 108, ed. ɈAbd alSalām Hārūn). Ghālib is said to have granted bounteous gifts to people, not asking them even about their names. The story of his contest with Suḥaym b. Wathīl al-Riyāḥī in slaughtering camels in the time of ɈUthmān is quoted in many versions. Al-Farazdaḳ mentions this deed of his father boastfully in his poems; Djarīr refers to it disdainfully; the competition was censured in Islam as a custom of the Djāhiliyya (Goldziher, Muh. St., i, 60). A peculiar story in Naḳāʾiḍ 417 tells how he threw to the populace in Mecca (anhaba) 40,000 dirhams. Ghālib was assaulted by Dhakwān b. ɈAmr al-Fuḳaymī in consequence of a quarrel between Fuḳaymī men and a servant of Ghālib who tried to prevent them from drinking water from a reservoir belonging to Ghālib in al-Ḳubaybāt. MudjāshiɈī tradition denies the Fuḳaymī claim that Ghālib died in consequence of this assault. He died in the early years of the reign of MuɈāwiya and was buried at Kāẓima. Al-Farazdaḳ mourned his father in a number of elegies (cf. Dīwān al-Farazdaḳ, 163, 210, 611, 676, ed. al-Ṣāwī). His tomb became a refuge for the needy and the oppressed who asked help, which had indeed always been granted to them by al-Farazdaḳ (cf. Dīwān al-Farazdaḳ, 94, 191, 757, 893 and Naḳāʾiḍ 380). Al-Farazdaḳ often mentions him in his poems as “Dhu ɇl-Ḳabr” or “Ṣāḥib al-Djadath” (Goldziher, Muh. St., i, 237). (M.J. Kister) Bibliography In addition to the sources quoted in the article: Balādhurī, Ansāb, Ms. 971a-b, 972a, 974a, 978b, 992a, 1043b al-Marzubānī, Muʿdjam, 486 al-Mubarrad, al-Kāmil, 129, 280 Ibn Ḳutayba, K. al-ʿArab (Rasāʾil al-Bulaghāʾ), 350 idem, Shiʿr, ed. de Goeje, index Ibn Durayd, Ishtiḳāḳ, ed. Hārūn, 239-40 Al-Djāḥiẓ, al-Bayān, ed. al-Sandūbī, ii, 187, 225, iii, 139, 195 Aghānī , index Naḳāʾiḍ, ed. Bevan, index al-Djumaḥī, Ṭabaḳāt, ed. S̲h̲ākir, 261 al-Ḳālī, Amālī, ii, 120 idem, Dhayl al-Amālī, 52, 77 Yāḳūt s.v. Ṣawɇar, Miḳarr Ibn Ḥadjar, al-Iṣāba, s.v. Ghālib (N. 6925), Suḥaym (N. 3660), al-Farazdaḳ (N. 7029), Hunayda (N. 1115-women) Baghdādī, Khizāna, i, 462 al-ɈAynī, al-Maḳāṣid, i, 112 [on margin of Khizāna] al-Farazdaḳ, Dīwān, ed. al-Ṣāwī Ṭabarī, ed. Cairo 1939, iv, 179. [Print Version: Volume II, page 998, column 1] Citation: Kister, M. J. "Ghālib b. ṢaɈṣaɈa b. Nādjiya b. ɈIḳāl b. Muḥammad b. Sufyān b. MudjāshiɈ b. Dārim." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; and W. P. Heinrichs. 2