Текст книги "Literary History of the Arabs "

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40 The poet ‘Alqama b. Dhí Jadan, whose verses are often cited in the commentary on the 'Ḥimyarite Ode.'

41 Die Himjarische Kasidehherausgegeben und übersetzt von Alfred von Kremer (Leipzig, 1865). The Lay of the Himyarites, by W. F. Prideaux (Sehore, 1879).

42 Nashwán was a philologist of some repute. His great dictionary, the Shamsu ’l-‘Ulúm, is a valuable aid to those engaged in the study of South Arabian antiquities. It has been used by D. H. Müller to fix the correct spelling of proper names which occur in the Ḥimyarite Ode ( Z.D.M.G., vol. 29, p. 620 sqq.; Südarabische Studien, p. 143 sqq.).

43 Fihrist, p. 89, l. 26.

44 Murúju ’l-Dhahab, ed. by Barbier de Meynard, vol. iv, p. 89.

45 Von Kremer, Die Südarabische Sage, p. 56. Possibly, as he suggests (p. 115), the story may be a symbolical expression of the fact that the Sabæans were divided into two great tribes, Ḥimyar and Kahlán, the former of which held the chief power.

46 Cf.Koran xxxiv, 14 sqq. The existing ruins have been described by Arnaud in the Journal Asiatique, 7th series, vol. 3 (1874), p. 3 sqq.

47 I follow Mas‘údí, Murúju ’l-Dhahab(ed. by Barbier de Meynard), vol. iii, p. 378 sqq., and Nuwayrí in Reiske's Primæ lineæ Historiæ Rerum Arabicarum, p. 166 sqq.

48 The story of the migration from Ma’rib, as related below, may have some historical basis, but the Dam itself was not finally destroyed until long afterwards. Inscriptions carved on the existing ruins show that it was more or less in working order down to the middle of the sixth century a.d. The first recorded flood took place in 447-450, and on another occasion (in 539-542) the Dam was partially reconstructed by Abraha, the Abyssinian viceroy of Yemen. See E. Glaser, Zwei Inschriften über den Dammbruch von Mârib( Mitteilungen der Vorderastatischen Gesellschaft, 1897, 6).

49 He is said to have gained this sobriquet from his custom of tearing to pieces ( mazaqa) every night the robe which he had worn during the day.

50 Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, vol. i, p. 497.

51 Hamdání, Iklíl, bk. viii, edited by D. H. Müller in S.B.W.A.(Vienna, 1881), vol. 97, p. 1037. The verses are quoted with some textual differences by Yáqút, Mu‘jam al-Buldán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, vol. iv, 387, and Ibn Hishám, p. 9.

52 The following inscription is engraved on one of the stone cylinders described by Arnaud. "Yatha‘amar Bayyin, son of Samah‘alí Yanúf, Prince of Saba, caused the mountain Balaq to be pierced and erected the flood-gates (called) Raḥab for convenience of irrigation." I translate after D. H. Müller, loc. laud., p. 965.

53 The words Ḥimyarand Tubba‘do not occur at all in the older inscriptions, and very seldom even in those of a more recent date.

54 See Koran, xviii, 82-98.

55 Dhu ’l-Qarnayn is described as "the measurer of the earth" ( Massáḥu ’l-arḍ) by Hamdání, Jazíratu ’l-‘Arab, p. 46, l. 10. If I may step for a moment outside the province of literary history to discuss the mythology of these verses, it seems to me more than probable that Dhu ’l-Qarnayn is a personification of the Sabæan divinity ‘Athtar, who represents "sweet Hesper-Phosphor, double name" (see D. H. Müller in S.B.W.A., vol. 97, p. 973 seq.). The Minæan inscriptions have "‘Athtar of the setting and ‘Athtar of the rising" ( ibid., p. 1033). Moreover, in the older inscriptions ‘Athtar and Almaqa are always mentioned together; and Almaqa, which according to Hamdání is the name of Venus ( al-Zuhara), was identified by Arabian archæologists with Bilqís. For qarnin the sense of 'ray' or 'beam' see Goldziher, Abhand. zur Arab. Philologie, Part I, p. 114. I think there is little doubt that Dhu ’l-Qarnayn and Bilqís may be added to the examples ( ibid., p. 111 sqq.) of that peculiar conversion by which many heathen deities were enabled to maintain themselves under various disguises within the pale of Islam.

56 The Arabic text will be found in Von Kremer's Altarabische Gedichte ueber die Volkssage von Jemen, p. 15 (No. viii, l. 6 sqq.). Ḥassán b. Thábit, the author of these lines, was contemporary with Muḥammad, to whose cause he devoted what poetical talent he possessed. In the verses immediately preceding those translated above he claims to be a descendant of Qaḥṭán.

57 Von Kremer, Die Südarabische Sage, p. vii of the Introduction.

58 A prose translation is given by Von Kremer, ibid., p. 78 sqq. The Arabic text which he published afterwards in Altarabische Gedichte ueber die Volkssage von Jemen, p. 18 sqq., is corrupt in some places and incorrect in others. I have followed Von Kremer's interpretation except when it seemed to me to be manifestly untenable. The reader will have no difficulty in believing that this poem was meant to be recited by a wandering minstrel to the hearers that gathered round him at nightfall. It may well be the composition of one of those professional story-tellers who flourished in the first century after the Flight, such as ‘Abíd b. Sharya (see p. 13 supra), or Yazíd b. Rabí‘a b. Mufarrigh (õ 688 a.d.), who is said to have invented the poems and romances of the Ḥimyarite kings ( Aghání, xvii, 52).

59 Instead of Hinwam the original has Hayyúm, for which Von Kremer reads Ahnúm. But see Hamdání, Jazíralu ’l-‘Arab, p. 193, last line and fol.

60 I read al-jahdifor al-jahli.

61 I omit the following verses, which tell how an old woman of Medína came to King As‘ad, imploring him to avenge her wrongs, and how he gathered an innumerable army, routed his enemies, and returned to Ẓafár in triumph.

62 Ibn Hishám, p. 13, l. 14 sqq.

63 Ibn Hishám, p. 15, l. 1 sqq.

64 Ibid., p. 17, l. 2 sqq.

65 Arabic text in Von Kremer's Altarabische Gedichte ueber die Volkssage von Jemen, p. 20 seq.; prose translation by the same author in Die Südarabische Sage, p. 84 sqq.

66 The second half of this verse is corrupt. Von Kremer translates (in his notes to the Arabic text, p. 26): "And bury with me the camel stallions ( al-khílán) and the slaves ( al-ruqqán)." Apart, however, from the fact that ruqqán(plural of raqíq) is not mentioned by the lexicographers, it seems highly improbable that the king would have commanded such a barbarity. I therefore take khílán(plural of khál) in the meaning of 'soft stuffs of Yemen,' and read zuqqán(plural of ziqq).

67 Ghaymán or Miqláb, a castle near Ṣan‘á, in which the Ḥimyarite kings were buried.

68 The text and translation of this section of the Iklílhave been published by D. H. Müller in S.B.W.A., vols. 94 and 97 (Vienna, 1879-1880).

69 Aghání, xx, 8, l. 14 seq.

70 Koran, lxxxv, 4 sqq.

71 Ṭabarí, I, 927, l. 19 sqq.

72 The following narrative is abridged from Ṭabarí, i, 928, l. 2 sqq. = Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, p. 192 sqq.

73 The reader will find a full and excellent account of these matters in Professor Browne's Literary History of Persia, vol. i, pp. 178-181.

74 Goldziher, Muhammedanische Studien, Part I, p. 225.

75 Maydání's collection has been edited, with a Latin translation by Freytag, in three volumes ( Arabum Proverbia, Bonn, 1838-1843).

76 The Kitábu ’l-Agháníhas been published at Buláq (1284-1285 a.h.) in twenty volumes. A volume of biographies not contained in the Buláq text was edited by R. E. Brünnow (Leiden, 1888).

77 Muqaddimaof Ibn Khaldún (Beyrout, 1900), p. 554, II. 8-10; Les Prolégomènes d' Ibn Khaldoun traduits par M. de Slane(Paris, 1863-68) vol. iii, p. 331.

78 Published at Paris, 1847-1848, in three volumes.

79 These are the same Bedouin Arabs of Tanúkh who afterwards formed part of the population of Ḥíra. See p. 38 infra.

80 Ibn Qutayba in Brünnow's Chrestomathy, p. 29.

81 Properly al-Zabbá, an epithet meaning 'hairy.' According to Ṭabarí (i, 757) her name was Ná’ila. It is odd that in the Arabic version of the story the name Zenobia (Zaynab) should be borne by the heroine's sister.

82 The above narrative is abridged from Aghání, xiv, 73, l. 20-75, l. 25. Cf.Ṭabarí, i, 757-766; Mas‘údí, Murúju ’l-Dhahab(ed. by Barbier de Meynard), vol. iii, pp. 189-199.

83 Concerning Ḥíra and its history the reader may consult an admirable monograph by Dr. G. Rothstein, Die Dynastie der Laẖmiden in al-Ḥíra (Berlin, 1899), where the sources of information are set forth (p. 5 sqq.). The incidental references to contemporary events in Syriac and Byzantine writers, who often describe what they saw with their own eyes, are extremely valuable as a means of fixing the chronology, which Arabian historians can only supply by conjecture, owing to the want of a definite era during the Pre-islamic period. Muḥammadan general histories usually contain sections, more or less mythical in character, "On the Kings of Ḥíra and Ghassán." Attention may be called in particular to the account derived from Hishám b. Muḥammad al-Kalbí, which is preserved by Ṭabarí and has been translated with a masterly commentary by Nöldeke in his Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden. Hishám had access to the archives kept in the churches of Ḥíra, and claims to have extracted therefrom many genealogical and chronological details relating to the Lakhmite dynasty (Ṭabarí, i, 770, 7).

84 Ḥíra is the Syriac ḥértá (sacred enclosure, monastery), which name was applied to the originally mobile camp of the Persian Arabs and retained as the designation of the garrison town.

85 Sadír was a castle in the vicinity of Ḥíra.

86 Ṭabarí, i, 853, 20 sqq.

87 Bahrám was educated at Ḥíra under Nu‘mán and Mundhir. The Persian grandees complained that he had the manners and appearance of the Arabs among whom he had grown up (Ṭabarí, i, 858, 7).

88 Má’ al-samá ( i.e., Water of the sky) is said to have been the sobriquet of Mundhir's mother, whose proper name was Máriya or Máwiyya.

89 For an account of Mazdak and his doctrines the reader may consult Nöldeke's translation of Ṭabarí, pp. 140-144, 154, and 455-467, and Professor Browne's Literary History of Persia, vol. i, pp. 168-172.

90 Mundhir slaughtered in cold blood some forty or fifty members of the royal house of Kinda who had fallen into his hands. Ḥárith himself was defeated and slain by Mundhir in 529. Thereafter the power of Kinda sank, and they were gradually forced back to their original settlements in Ḥaḍramawt.

91 On another occasion he sacrificed four hundred Christian nuns to the same goddess.

92 See p. 50 infra.

93 Aghání, xix, 86, l. 16 sqq.

94 Aghání, xix, 87, l. 18 sqq.

95 Hind was a princess of Kinda (daughter of the Ḥárith b. ‘Amr mentioned above), whom Mundhir probably captured in one of his marauding expeditions. She was a Christian, and founded a monastery at Ḥíra. See Nöldeke's translation of Ṭabarí, p. 172, n. 1.

96 Aghání, xxi, 194, l. 22.

97 Zayd was actually Regent of Ḥíra after the death of Qábús, and paved the way for Mundhir IV, whose violence had made him detested by the people (Nöldeke's translation of Ṭabarí, p. 346, n. 1).

98 The Arabs called the Byzantine emperor ' 'Qayṣar,' i.e., Cæsar, and the Persian emperor ' Kisrá,' i.e., Chosroes.

99 My friend and colleague, Professor A. A. Bevan, writes to me that "the story of ‘Adí's marriage with the king's daughter is based partly on a verse in which the poet speaks of himself as connected by marriage with the royal house ( Aghání, ii, 26, l. 5), and partly on another verse in which he mentions 'the home of Hind' ( ibid., ii, 32, l. 1). But this Hind was evidently a Bedouin woman, not the king's daughter."

100 Aghání, ii, 22, l. 3 sqq.

101 When Hurmuz summoned the sons of Mundhir to Ctesiphon that he might choose a king from among them, ‘Adí said to each one privately, "If the Chosroes demands whether you can keep the Arabs in order, reply, 'All except Nu‘mán.'" To Nu‘mán, however, he said: "The Chosroes will ask, 'Can you manage your brothers?' Say to him: 'If I am not strong enough for them, I am still less able to control other folk!'" Hurmuz was satisfied with this answer and conferred the crown upon Nu‘mán.

102 A full account of these matters is given by Ṭabarí, i, 1016-1024 = Nöldeke's translation, pp. 314-324.

103 A similar description occurs in Freytag's Arabum Proverbia, vol. ii. p. 589 sqq.

104 Ṭabarí, i, 1024-1029 = Nöldeke's translation, pp. 324-331. Ibn Qutayba in Brünnow's Chrestomathy, pp. 32-33.

105 A town in Arabia, some distance to the north of Medína.

106 See Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, vol. ii, p. 611.

107 A celebrated Companion of the Prophet. He led the Moslem army to the conquest of Syria, and died of the plague in 639 a.d.

108 Ibn Qutayba in Brünnow's Chrestomathy, pp. 26-28.

109 The following details are extracted from Nöldeke's monograph: Die Ghassânischen Fürsten aus dem Hause Gafna's, in Abhand. d. Kön. Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften(Berlin, 1887).

110 Nöldeke, op. cit., p. 20, refers to John of Ephesus, iii, 2. See The Third Part of the Ecclesiastical History of John, Bishop of Ephesus, translated by R. Payne Smith, p. 168.

111 Iyás b. Qabíṣa succeeded Nu‘mán III as ruler of Ḥíra (602-611 a.d.). He belonged to the tribe of Ṭayyi’. See Rothstein, Laẖmiden, p. 119.

112 I read yatafaḍḍalufor yanfaṣilu. The arrangement which the former word denotes is explained in Lane's Dictionary as "the throwing a portion of one's garment over his left shoulder, and drawing its extremity under his right arm, and tying the two extremities together in a knot upon his bosom."

113 The fanakis properly a kind of white stoat or weasel found in Abyssinia and northern Africa, but the name is also applied by Muḥammadans to other furs.

114 Aghání, xvi, 15, ll. 22-30. So far as it purports to proceed from Ḥassán, the passage is apocryphal, but this does not seriously affect its value as evidence, if we consider that it is probably compiled from the poet's díwánin which the Ghassánids are often spoken of. The particular reference to Jabala b. al-Ayham is a mistake. Ḥassán's acquaintance with the Ghassánids belongs to the pagan period of his life, and he is known to have accepted Islam many years before Jabala began to reign.

115 Nábigha, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 78; Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 96. The whole poem has been translated by Sir Charles Lyall in his Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 95 sqq.

116 Thorbecke, ‘Antarah, ein vorislamischer Dichter, p. 14.

117 The following narrative is an abridgment of the history of the War of Basús as related in Tibrízí's commentary on the Ḥamása(ed. by Freytag), pp. 420-423 and 251-255. Cf. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 39 sqq.

118 See p. 5 supra.

119 Wá’il is the common ancestor of Bakr and Taghlib. For the use of stones (anṣáb) in the worship of the Pagan Arabs see Wellhausen, Reste Arabischen Heidentums(2nd ed.), p. 101 sqq. Robertson Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites(London, 1894), p. 200 sqq.

120 Ḥamása, 422, 14 sqq. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 39, last line and foll.

121 Ḥamása, 423, 11 sqq. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 41, l. 3 sqq.

122 Ḥamása, 252, 8 seq. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 44, l. 3 seq.

123 Hind is the mother of Bakr and Taghlib. Here the Banú Hind (Sons of Hind) are the Taghlibites.

124 Ḥamása, 9, 17 seq. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 45, l. 10 sqq.

125 Ḥamása, 252, 14 seq. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 46, l. 16 sqq.

126 Ḥamása, 254, 6 seq. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 47, l. 2 seq.

127 Ḥamása, 96. Ibn Nubáta, cited by Rasmussen, Additamenta ad Historiam Arabum ante Islamismum, p. 34, remarks that before Qays no one had ever lamented a foe slain by himself ( wa-huwa awwalu man rathá maqtúlahu).

128 Ibn Hishám, p. 51, l. 7 sqq.

129 In the account of Abraha's invasion given below I have followed Ṭabarí, i, 936, 9-945, 19 = Nöldeke's translation, pp. 206-220.

130 I read ḥilálak. See Glossary to Ṭabarí.

131 Ṭabarí, i, 940, 13.

132 Another version says: "Whenever a man was struck sores and pustules broke out on that part of his body. This was the first appearance of the small-pox" (Ṭabarí, i, 945, 2 sqq.). Here we have the historical fact—an outbreak of pestilence in the Abyssinian army—which gave rise to the legend related above.

133 There is trustworthy evidence that Abraha continued to rule Yemen for some time after his defeat.

134 Ibn Hishám, p. 38, l. 14 sqq.

135 Ibid., p. 40, l. 12 sqq.

136 See pp. 48-49 supra.

137 Full details are given by Ṭabarí, I, 1016-1037 = Nöldeke's translation, pp. 311-345.

138 A poet speaks of three thousand Arabs and two thousand Persians (Ṭabarí, I, 1036, 5-6).

139 Ibn Rashíq in Suyúṭí's Muzhir (Buláq, 1282 a.h.), Part II, p. 236, l. 22 sqq. I quote the translation of Sir Charles Lyall in the Introduction to his Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 17, a most admirable work which should be placed in the hands of every one who is beginning the study of this difficult subject.

140 Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, vol. ii, p. 494.

141 Numb. xxi, 17. Such well-songs are still sung in the Syrian desert (see Enno Littmann, Neuarabische Volkspoesie, in Abhand. der Kön. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, Göttingen, 1901), p. 92. In a specimen cited at p. 81 we find the words witla yā dlêwēna– i.e., "Rise, O bucket!" several times repeated.

142 Goldziher, Ueber die Vorgeschichte der Higâ-Poesiein his Abhand. zur Arab. Philologie, Part I (Leyden, 1896), p. 26.

143 Cf.the story of Balak and Balaam, with Goldziher's remarks thereon, ibid., p. 42 seq.

144 Ibid., p. 46 seq.

145 Rajazprimarily means "a tremor (which is a symptom of disease) in the hind-quarters of a camel." This suggested to Dr. G. Jacob his interesting theory that the Arabian metres arose out of the camel-driver's song ( ḥidá) in harmony with the varying paces of the animal which he rode ( Studien in arabischen Dichtern, Heft III, p. 179 sqq.).

146 The Arabic verse ( bayt) consists of two halves or hemistichs ( miṣrá‘). It is generally convenient to use the word 'line' as a translation of miṣrá‘, but the reader must understand that the 'line' is not, as in English poetry, an independent unit. Rajazis the sole exception to this rule, there being here no division into hemistichs, but each line (verse) forming an unbroken whole and rhyming with that which precedes it.

147 In Arabic 'al-bayt,' the tent, which is here used figuratively for the grave.

148 Ibn Qutayba, Kitábu ’l-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará, p. 36, l. 3 sqq.

149 Already in the sixth century a.d. the poet ‘Antara complains that his predecessors have left nothing new for him to say ( Mu‘allaqa, v. 1).

150 Ancient Arabian Poetry, Introduction, p. xvi.

151 Qaṣída is explained by Arabian lexicographers to mean a poem with an artistic purpose, but they differ as to the precise sense in which 'purpose' is to be understood. Modern critics are equally at variance. Jacob ( Stud. in Arab. Dichtern, Heft III, p. 203) would derive the word from the principal motive of these poems, namely, to gain a rich reward in return for praise and flattery. Ahlwardt ( Bemerkungen über die Aechtheit der alten Arab. Gedichte, p. 24 seq.) connects it with qaṣada, to break, "because it consists of verses, every one of which is divided into two halves, with a common end-rhyme: thus the whole poem is broken, as it were, into two halves;" while in the Rajazverses, as we have seen (p. 74 supra), there is no such break.

152 Kitábu ’l-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará, p. 14, l. 10 sqq.

153 Nöldeke ( Fūnf Mo‘allaqát, i, p. 3 sqq.) makes the curious observation, which illustrates the highly artificial character of this poetry, that certain animals well known to the Arabs ( e.g., the panther, the jerboa, and the hare) are seldom mentioned and scarcely ever described, apparently for no reason except that they were not included in the conventional repertory.

154 Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 83.

155 Verses 3-13. I have attempted to imitate the 'Long' ( Ṭawíl) metre of the original, viz.:—

The Arabic text of the Lámiyya, with prose translation and commentary, is printed in De Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe(2nd. ed.), vol. ii ^e, p. 134 sqq., and vol. ii, p. 337 sqq. It has been translated into English verse by G. Hughes (London, 1896). Other versions are mentioned by Nöldeke, Beiträge zur Kenntniss d. Poesie d. alten Araber, p. 200.

156 The poet, apparently, means that his three friends are likethe animals mentioned. Prof. Bevan remarks, however, that this interpretation is doubtful, since an Arab would scarcely compare his friendto a hyena.

157 Ḥamása, 242.

158 Ḥamása, 41-43. This poem has been rendered in verse by Sir Charles Lyall, Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 16, and by the late Dr. A. B. Davidson, Biblical and Literary Essays, p. 263.

159 Mahaffy, Social Life in Greece, p. 21.

160 See pp. 59-60 supra.

161 Ḥamása, 82-83. The poet is ‘Amr b. Ma‘díkarib, a famous heathen knight who accepted Islam and afterwards distinguished himself in the Persian wars.

162 Al-Afwah al-Awdí in Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 4, ll. 8-10. The poles and pegs represent lords and commons.

163 Ḥamása, 122.

164 Ibid., 378.

165 Cf. the verses by al-Find, p. 58 supra.

166 Ḥamása, 327.

167 Imru’u ’l-Qays was one of the princes of Kinda, a powerful tribe in Central Arabia.

168 Aghání, xix, 99. The last two lines are wanting in the poem as there cited, but appear in the Selection from the Aghání published at Beyrout in 1888, vol. ii, p. 18.

169 See p. 45 sqq.

170 Aghání, xvi, 98, ll. 5-22.

171 Aghání, xvi, 97, l. 5 sqq.

172 His Díwánhas been edited with translation and notes by F. Schulthess (Leipzig, 1897).

173 Ḥamása, 729. The hero mentioned in the first verse is ‘Ámir b. Uḥaymir of Bahdala. On a certain occasion, when envoys from the Arabian tribes were assembled at Ḥíra, King Mundhir b. Má’ al-samá produced two pieces of cloth of Yemen and said, "Let him whose tribe is noblest rise up and take them." Thereupon ‘Ámir stood forth, and wrapping one piece round his waist and the other over his shoulders, carried off the prize unchallenged.

174 Lady Anne and Mr. Wilfrid Blunt, The Seven Golden Odes of Pagan Arabia, Introduction, p. 14.

175 Aghánixvi, 22, ll. 10-16.

176 Agháni, xviii, 137, ll. 5-10. Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, vol. ii, p. 834.

177 Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 81.

178 Mufaḍḍaliyyát, ed. Thorbecke, p. 23.

179 See Goldziher, Muhammedanische Studien, Part II, p. 295 sqq.

180 Koran, xvi, 59-61.

181 Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, vol. i, p. 229.

182 Koran, xvii, 33. Cf. lxxxi, 8-9 (a description of the Last Judgment): " When the girl buried alive shall be asked for what crime she was killed."

183 Literally: "And tear the veil from (her, as though she were) flesh on a butcher's board," i.e., defenceless, abandoned to the first-comer.

184 Ḥamása, 140. Although these verses are not Pre-islamic, and belong in fact to a comparatively late period of Islam, they are sufficiently pagan in feeling to be cited in this connection. The author, Isḥáq b. Khalaf, lived under the Caliph Ma’mún (813-833 a.d.). He survived his adopted daughter—for Umayma was his sister's child—and wrote an elegy on her, which is preserved in the Kámilof al-Mubarrad, p. 715, l. 7 sqq., and has been translated, together with the verses now in question, by Sir Charles Lyall, Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 26.

185 Ḥamása, 142. Lyall, op. cit., p. 28.

186 Ḥamása, 7.

187 Ḥamása, 321.

188 See p. 55 sqq.

189 Cf. Rückert's Hamâsa, vol. i, p. 61 seq.

190 Ḥamása, 30.

191 Aghání, ii, 160, l. 11-162, l. 1 = p. 13 sqq. of the Beyrout Selection.

192 The Bedouins consider that any one who has eaten of their food or has touched the rope of their tent is entitled to claim their protection. Such a person is called dakhíl. See Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys(London, 1831), vol. i, p. 160 sqq. and 329 sqq.

193 See p. 81 supra.

194 Stuttgart, 1819, p. 253 sqq. The other renderings in verse with which I am acquainted are those of Rückert ( Hamâsa, vol. i, p. 299) and Sir Charles Lyall ( Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 48). I have adopted Sir Charles Lyall's arrangement of the poem, and have closely followed his masterly interpretation, from which I have also borrowed some turns of phrase that could not be altered except for the worse.

195 The Arabic text will be found in the Hamása, p. 382 sqq.

196 This and the following verse are generally taken to be a description not of the poet himself, but of his nephew. The interpretation given above does no violence to the language, and greatly enhances the dramatic effect.

197 In the original this and the preceding verse are transposed.

198 Although the poet's uncle was killed in this onslaught, the surprised party suffered severely. "The two clans" belonged to the great tribe of Hudhayl, which is mentioned in the penultimate verse.

199 It was customary for the avenger to take a solemn vow that he would drink no wine before accomplishing his vengeance.

200 Ḥamása, 679.

201 Cf.the lines translated below from the Mu‘allaqaof Ḥárith.

202 The best edition of the Mu‘allaqátis Sir Charles Lyall's ( A Commentary on Ten Ancient Arabic Poems, Calcutta, 1894), which contains in addition to the seven Mu‘allaqátthree odes by A‘shá, Nábigha, and ‘Abíd b. al-Abraṣ. Nöldeke has translated five Mu‘allaqas (omitting those of Imru’ u’ l-Qays and Ṭarafa) with a German commentary, Sitzungsberichte der Kais. Akad. der Wissenschaften in Wien, Phil.-Histor. Klasse, vols. 140-144 (1899-1901); this is by far the best translation for students. No satisfactory version in English prose has hitherto appeared, but I may call attention to the fine and original, though somewhat free, rendering into English verse by Lady Anne Blunt and Wilfrid Scawen Blunt ( The Seven Golden Odes of Pagan Arabia, London, 1903).

203 Ancient Arabian Poetry, Introduction, p. xliv. Many other interpretations have been suggested– e.g., 'The Poems written down from oral dictation' (Von Kremer), 'The richly bejewelled' (Ahlwardt), 'The Pendants,' as though they were pearls strung on a necklace (A. Müller).

204 The belief that the Mu‘allaqátwere written in letters of gold seems to have arisen from a misunderstanding of the name Mudhhabátor Mudhahhabát( i.e., the Gilded Poems) which is sometimes given to them in token of their excellence, just as the Greeks gave the title ƒÔƒÏύƒÐƒÃƒ¿ ἔðç to a poem falsely attributed to Pythagoras. That some of the Mu‘allaqátwere recited at ‘Ukáẓ is probable enough and is definitely affirmed in the case of ‘Amr b. Kulthúm ( Aghání, ix, 182).

205 The legend first appears in the ‘Iqd al-Faríd(ed. of Cairo, 1293 a.h., vol. iii, p, 116 seq.) of Ibn ‘Abdi Rabbihi, who died in 940 a.d.

206 See the Introduction to Nöldeke's Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Poesie der alten Araber(Hannover, 1864), p. xvii sqq., and his article 'Mo‘allaḳḳát' in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

207 It is well known that the order of the verses in the Mu‘allaqát, as they have come down to us, is frequently confused, and that the number of various readings is very large. I have generally followed the text and arrangement adopted by Nöldeke in his German translation.

208 See p. 42 supra.

209 Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 105.

210 See the account of his life (according to the Kitábu’ l-Aghání) in Le Diwan d'Amro’lkaïs, edited with translation and notes by Baron MacGuckin de Slane (Paris, 1837), pp. 1-51; and in Amrilkais, der Dichter und Königby Friedrich Rückert (Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1843).

211 That he was not, however, the inventor of the Arabian qaṣída as described above (p. 76 sqq.) appears from the fact that he mentions in one of his verses a certain Ibn Ḥumám or Ibn Khidhám who introduced, or at least made fashionable, the prelude with which almost every ode begins: a lament over the deserted camping-ground (Ibn Qutayba, K. al-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará, p. 52).

212 The following lines are translated from Arnold's edition of the Mu‘allaqát(Leipsic, 1850), p. 9 sqq., vv. 18-35.

213 The native commentators are probably right in attributing this and the three preceding verses (48-51 in Arnold's edition) to the brigand-poet, Ta’abbaṭa Sharr ^an.

214 We have already (p. 39) referred to the culture of the Christian Arabs of Ḥíra.

215 Vv. 54-59 (Lyall); 56-61 (Arnold).

216 See Nöldeke, Fünf Mu‘allaqát, i, p. 51 seq. According to the traditional version ( Aghání, ix, 179), a band of Taghlibites went raiding, lost their way in the desert, and perished of thirst, having been refused water by a sept of the Banú Bakr. Thereupon Taghlib appealed to King ‘Amr to enforce payment of the blood-money which they claimed, and chose ‘Amr b. Kulthúm to plead their cause at Ḥíra. So ‘Amr recited his Mu‘allaqabefore the king, and was answered by Ḥárith on behalf of Bakr.

217 Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, vol. ii, p. 233.

218 Aghání, ix, 182.

219 Vv. 1-8 (Arnold); in Lyall's edition the penultimate verse is omitted.

220 Vv. 15-18 (Lyall); 19-22 (Arnold).

221 The Arabs use the term kunyato denote this familiar style of address in which a person is called, not by his own name, but 'father of So-and-so' (either a son or, as in the present instance, a daughter).

222 I.e., even the jinn(genies) stand in awe of us.

223 Here Ma‘add signifies the Arabs in general.

224 Vv. 20-30 (Lyall), omitting vv. 22, 27, 28.

225 This is a figurative way of saying that Taghlib has never been subdued.

226 Vv. 46-51 (Lyall), omitting v. 48.

227 I.e., we will show our enemies that they cannot defy us with impunity. This verse, the 93rd in Lyall's edition, is omitted by Arnold.

228 Vv. 94-104 (Arnold), omitting vv. 100 and 101. If the last words are anything more than a poetic fiction, 'the sea' must refer to the River Euphrates.

229 Vv. 16-18.

230 Vv. 23-26.

231 A place in the neighbourhood of Mecca.

232 Vv. 40-42 (Lyall); 65-67 (Arnold).

233 See ‘Antarah, ein vorislamischer Dichter, by H. Thorbecke (Leipzig, 1867).

234 I have taken some liberties in this rendering, as the reader may see by referring to the verses (44 and 47-52 in Lyall's edition) on which it is based.

235 Ghayẓ b. Murra was a descendant of Dhubyán and the ancestor of Harim and Ḥárith.

236 The Ka‘ba.

237 This refers to the religious circumambulation ( ṭawáf).

238 Vv. 16-19 (Lyall).

239 There is no reason to doubt the genuineness of this passage, which affords evidence of the diffusion of Jewish and Christian ideas in pagan Arabia. Ibn Qutayba observes that these verses indicate the poet's belief in the Resurrection ( K. al-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará, p. 58, l. 12).