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the eye with the sheen of pearls, since whiteness in the latter is desirable,
and they are covered by eyelids so that they do not come to any harm. Others have stated that the eggs of the ostrich are implied, as they have a yellow yolk inside the white. Allah has compared them to the countenance of houris as they have faces of that size: also women are often compared with them. The ostrich, while hatching its eggs, conceals them under its wings so that they may be safe from dust and air. Some other scholars have taken the implication to be darkness and turbidity. Whatever it be, the emphasis is upon the white and yolk of the egg. Imr'alQays says: Like the first egg of the female ostrich whose white has the yolk
nourished by wholesome water.
Exegetes, therefore, hold the egg to be the ostrich's egg. The purity
and importance of the egg has been mentioned by the poet, as primacy is appreciated in everything, that is, the first egg that comes out after fertilisation. Some critics and interpreters say the poet has meant a pearl that is neither totally white nor yellow but bears a mixed colour. By virginity is meant the unperforated egg. About "wholesome water" it has been said that, while pearls are not cultured in sweet waters, they do not grow in very saline waters as well. A good pearl comes out of moderately saline waters and only such water is wholesome, not sweet, but the poet has employed the word, "nourished". Interest in pearls is universal. Were yellow colour the only measure
of merit, then yellow colour would have been preferable and preference for the yellow colour would not have been confined to one people alone. Al-Kindi writes:
A pearl with a touch of yellow is liked by the people of 'Iraq and Al-
Maghrib, and if there be more of the yellow colour it is preferred by
the Isfahanis. They are, therefore, brought from Al-Maghrib, 'Iraq,
and Isfahan, and bear the eponyms of these places.
Humidity in Moist Pearls
When we use the word, humidity, in relation to the moist or humid
pearl, we mean its shine and glitter, the delicacy of its skin, purity, and lustre. We tend to associate the wateriness of the pearl with its humidity which remains as a residue in the things that have water, and therefore, wateriness is employed interchangeably with humidity. This humidity is not the opposite of siccity, just as the people of Iran call gold mast fisiia\ Abual-Qasim Amidi has quoted the following couplet from Abu Tammam: 1 have made the chosen pearl, that is, the verse into the symmetry of
poetry, but it is the humid pearl.
Abu al-Qasim says about this couplet, "By designating the pearl as
humid pearl, Abu Tammam has taken the humid pearl to mean the fresh |
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