الهجنة

الهجنة

Al-hajna, the Arab stigma of impure lineage: Lisan al-Arab defines it as speech that disgraces you, the hajin being an Arab son of a slave-mother — 'for he is marked'. Ibn Abd Rabbih reports the Umayyads would not appoint the sons of slave-mothers, saying the Arabs do not fit them; al-Asma'i explained it astrologically — they saw their rule ending at a slave-mother's son's hands — but Ahmad Amin favours the popular explanation of sheer disdain. A Bedouin asking the qadi Suwar about his inheritance grew furious when told the hajin shared equally; Khalid al-Qasri, governor of Iraq, was lampooned because his mother was a Greek slave.