Farwa ibn Amr al-Judhami's verses in prison and at his crucifixion

Verses composed by Farwa ibn Amr al-Judhami in the Byzantine prison and at his crucifixion. Ibn Ishaq gives them in the account of his martyrdom. ¹

A qasida on the rhyme of the nun. A visitor, Sulayma, came to him an hour into the night while the Byzantines stood between the door and the gate; the apparition held her back and what he saw troubled him, and he was about to sleep but was overcome with weeping. He instructs Sulayma never to put kohl on her eyes after him. He addresses Abu Kabisha, saying that he is among the honoured and his tongue will not be cut off; if he dies, they will have lost their brother, and if he lives, they will know where he is. The poem gathers the finest of the qualities a young man can have: generosity, courage and eloquence. ¹

When the Byzantines agreed to crucify him at a water called Afra in Palestine, he said two verses: they ask whether Sulayma has heard that her husband is at the water of Afra, on one of the mounts, on a camel whose mother has never been mated, its ends trimmed with sickles. ¹ The editors explain "one of the mounts" as the wooden post on which he was crucified, and "trimmed" as stripped of its branches. ¹ Al-Zuhri claimed that when they brought him forward to kill him, he said: "Convey to the leaders of the Muslims that I am at peace with my Lord, my bones and my station," and then they struck off his head and crucified him at that water. ¹

"Al-Mawhin" means an hour into the night; "al-Qiran" is the plural of "qaru", a wooden trough from which animals are watered; "aghfa" means to sleep lightly; "al-ithmid" is a kind of kohl; "la yuhas" means will not be cut off. In the commentary of al-Zurqani on "al-Mawahib", "Afra" is written with a long vowel, and its shortening in verse is a licence; in the original sources it is "Afra". ¹