Arab Hospitality

I was going to include this anecdote in the post below, but my connection was really slow for some reason and I decided to just get it done. It is quoted from Volume XXVIII of the SUNY translation of at-Tabari's History, entitled "Abbasid Authority Affirmed," translated by Jane Dammen McAuliffe:

"According to...Ibn Jashib al-Lihbi, 'I stayed with the Banu Rasib in the days of Ibn Mu'awiyah, and one day a young man from there asked me my name. One of the elders slapped him saying, 'What business is it of yours?' Then he looked at an old man who was sitting in front of him and said, 'Do you see this old man? His father settled with us in the days of al-Hajjaj and remained until this son of his was born. That young man has now matured and reached this age, and, by God, to this day we know neither his name, nor his father's name, nor who his people are."