A Muslim Poet Consoles a Christian Friend Whose Nephew Has Converted to Islam: al-Qāsim b. Yaḥyā al-Maryamī (d. 316/928 or 929)

The lines below were composed by a Muslim poet of late ʿAbbasid Egypt called al-Qāsim b. Yaḥyā al-Maryamī. Reportedly a descendant of one of the Prophet’s companions, he belonged to the inner circle of Egypt’s Turkic ruler, Abū al-Jaysh Khumārawayh (d. 282/896), whose father, Ibn Ṭūlūn, had shrugged off the waning authority of the ʿAbbasid caliph to seize power in Egypt. Al-Qāsim addresses the poem to his Christian friend, Isḥāq b. Nuṣayr al-ʿIbādī. Isḥāq was a learned Arab Christian from Iraq. As Egypt’s highest chancery secretary, he, too, was close to Khumārawayh. In the brief introduction provided by the renowned