Resolutions come in the measure of the resolute, and noble…

This is the opening line of one of al-Mutanabbi’s most famous poems for the emir Sayf al-Dawla. The poet states a general rule: the greatness of resolutions and deeds follows the greatness of those who make them. The next line carries it further: small things look great to the small, and great things look small to the great. He then applies the rule to the emir, who asks his army to carry the full weight of his own ambition, before turning to the subject of the poem: the fortress of al-Hadath “the Red”, watered by the clouds before he came, and by the skulls of the slain when he drew near.

Al-Hadath guarded the frontier between the Hamdanids and Byzantium. In 954, while Sayf al-Dawla was rebuilding it, a large Byzantine army attacked; he routed it and completed the work. Al-Mutanabbi, who had lived at his court in Aleppo for several years, celebrated the victory in this poem.

The opening line has become one of the most quoted maxims in Arabic. The poem also contains a famous line on the emir’s calm in battle, standing “as if in the eyelid of death while it slept”.

Poem “In the measure of the resolute” (Diwan), opening line, panegyric of Sayf al-Dawla, 954

Original text checked word for word in the work; the translation is by quotesay.

Read the passage in the work