HAMMAD  AR-RAWIYA [

Abu-l-Qasim I3ammad ibn Abi Laila Sapur (or ibn Maisara)] (8th century A.n.), Arabic scholar, was of Dailamite descent, but was born in Kufa . The date of his birth is given by some as 694, by others as 714 . He was reputed to be the most learned man of his time in regard to the " days of the Arabs " (i.e. their chief battles), their stories, poems, genealogies and dialects . He is said to have boasted that he could recite a hundred long'qasidas for each letter of the alphabet (i.e. rhyming in each letter) and these all from pre-Islamic times, apart from shorter pieces and later verses . Hence his name Hammad ar-Rawiya, " the reciter of verses from memory." The Omayyad caliph \Valid is said to have tested him, the result being that he recited 2900 gasidas of pre-Islamic date and Walid gave him roo,000 dirhems . He was favoured by Yazid II. and his successor Hisham, who brought him up from Irak to Damascus . Arabian critics, however, say that in spite of his learning he lacked a true insight into the genius of the Arabic language, and that he made more than thirty—some say three hundred—mistakes of pronunciation in reciting the Koran . To him is ascribed the collecting of the Mo'allakdt (q.v.) . No diwan of his is extant, though he composed verse of his own and probably a good deal of what he ascribed to earlier poets . Biography in McG. de Slane's trans. of Ibn Khallikan, vol. i. pp . 470-474, and many stories are told of him in the Kitdb ul-Aghdni, vol. v. pp . 164-175 .

(G . W T.) The origin of the word "

hammer-cloth," an ornamental cloth covering the box-seat on a state-coach, has been often explained from the hammer and other tools carried in the box-seat by the coachman for repairs, &c . The New English Dictionary points out that while the word occurs as early as 1465, the use of a box-seat is not known before the 17th century . Other suggestions are that it is a corruption of " hamper-cloth," or of " hammock-cloth," which is used in this sense, probably owing to a mistake . Neither of these supposed corruptions helps very much . Skeat connects the word with a Dutch word hemel, meaning a canopy . In the name of the bird, the yellow-hammer, the latter part should be " ammer." This appears in the German name, Emmerling, and the word probably means the " chirper," cf. the Ger. jammern, to wail, lament .