{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/arp/arp005.htm","path":"isl/arp/arp005.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/arp/arp005.htm","text":"Arabian Poetry, by W. A. Clouston, [1881]\na lament for the departure of a fair one, and a description of her personal charms; passing abruptly to an account of the noble qualities of the poet's horse or camel, or a eulogium on his tribe, and his own prowess in battle\u2014judgment was impartially passed on their respective merits; and those poems which were considered as most excellent were afterwards written upon silk, in characters of gold, and hung up in the Temple\u2014hence, it has been supposed, they were called Mu\u2018allaq\u0101t, or \"Suspended,\" and also Mudhahhab\u0101t, or \"Gilded\" (not \"Golden,\" as the term is usually rendered). * Of these \"Prize Poems\" seven, entitled The Mu\u2018allaq\u0101t, par excellence, are preserved in many of the European libraries: they are the composition of Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays; Tarafa; Zuhayr; Leb\u012bd; \u2018Antara; \u2018Amr; and El-H\u0101rith;\nand in the Pocock MSS., No. 174, preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, are some forty others which were also hung up in the Ka\u2018ba.\nTo Sir William Jones, who first directed the attention of the learned in Europe to the rich treasures contained in the ancient literature of Hindustan, belongs also the honour of having been the first to translate the Seven Arabic Prize Poems into a European language. In 1782 was published his English translation of the Mu\u2018allaq\u0101t, with Arguments, and the original texts in Roman characters. * And this was\nnot only the first, but it remains the only complete English translation of these remarkable compositions; for, strange as it may appear, no attempt has been made by our modern English Arabists to give their unlearned countrymen a more accurate translation than was perhaps possible in the time of Sir W. Jones.\nThe original metre employed in Arab poetry was the Rajaz, a short iambic verse, always ending with\nthe same rhyme: this was the measure of the rude songs of the camel-drivers; and it was well adapted for extemporary verse, to express defiance, contempt, or panegyric. The Mu\u2018allaqa Poems are composed in verses, or couplets (called bayts), of double the length of the Rajaz, and consisting of two halves or hemistichs; the two hemistichs of the first bayt invariably rhyming with each other, and with the second hemistich of each succeeding couplet. This form of verse is called the Qas\u012bda (Kas\u012bdah, or Casida); and, being that adopted in the composition of the Prize Poems, it has been thought that the term was derived from the word Qasd, which signifies an object or aim: these poems (or Qas\u012bdas) having been composed with the special object of obtaining preeminence at the poetical contests. * But this generally received interpretation of the term Qas\u012bda is rejected by Professor Ahlwardt, who ascribes it to another signification of the word Qasd\u2014\"the breaking of things into halves\": each bayt, or verse, being divided into hemistichs (as is shown in the Frontispiece to the present volume), the whole poem may be said to consist of two halves. Sixteen different measures\nare known in Arabian prosody, four of which are adopted in the Mu\u2018allaqa Poems; but the movement of the rhyme (qas\u012bda) is the same in them all.\nThe authors of the Mu\u2018allaq\u0101t were all men of high poetical genius, although they were in no sense possessed of literary culture\u2014indeed, it is almost certain that scarcely one of them could read and write. They were natural poets, whose ignorance of letters was fully compensated by a nice sense of rhythm and the faculty of clearly and vigorously expressing in their rich and copious language what they thought and felt;\u2014impulsive children of the desert, whose passions had free scope for good and evil; who were capable of the most intense affection, and of the most bitter hatred: whose strong feelings found vent in flowing verse.\nA century had elapsed after the rise of Isl\u0101m when the fragments of the early poetry, and anecdotes of the most famous bards of the Arabian peninsula\u2014especially the poets of Yaman\u2014which had been handed down orally from generation to generation, were finally reduced to writing. How much of the traditions regarding the pagan Arab poets is fabulous cannot now be ascertained; but to the task of investigating the authenticity of the so-called reliques of ancient Arabic poetry the most learned scholars of Germany have for some time been devoted, with results which are more or less conclusive, and which will be touched upon in the next section of this\n[paragraph continues] Introduction. The following particulars regarding the several authors of the Mu\u2018allaq\u0101t are gleaned from the best Oriental writers.\n[paragraph continues] the son of Hujr, the son of Harith, was a prince of the tribe of Kinda. His real name was Hunduj, and he acquired the epithet of Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays (\"the man of adversity\") from his misfortunes. * Muhammad called him el-Maliku \u2019dz-Dzilt\u012bl, \"the most erring prince,\" as being the best of the pagan Arab poets, whom, he also said, Imr\u2019 would head on their way to the place of woe. His love adventure with a damsel of another tribe, alluded to in vv. 8-43 of his Mu\u2018allaqa, and detailed in the translator's Argument, so exasperated his father that he expelled him from the tribe; and for many years the poet led a wandering, reckless life among the Arabs of the desert, a life of peril and often of privation; occasionally varied by a halt at some well-watered spot, where he and his comrades feasted\non camel's flesh and caroused, while singing-girls amused them with their lively songs. The poet was thus engaged, drinking and gaming, when a messenger from his tribe arrived, and announced that his father had been slain by his rebellious subjects. Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays made no answer; and on his companion stopping his game, he simply said: \"Play on.\" But when the game was finished, he remarked to his comrade: \"I would not have thy game interrupted;\" and then, turning to the messenger, he inquired minutely into all the circumstances of his father's assassination. Having learned the particulars, he said: \"As a youth, my father banished me from his house; as a man, it is my duty to avenge his death. But to-day we shall drink; to-morrow, sobriety: wine, to-day; business, to-morrow.\"\nWith an army of the tribes of Taglib and Bakr (who were not then at variance), Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays marched against his rebellious people, who, however, escaped his vengeance, by placing themselves under the protection of the King of H\u012bra. Upon this his followers forsook him, and he then sought help of the Himyarite prince Marthad el-Khayr, who promised him 500 men, but died soon afterwards; and his successor showed little disposition to assist the unfortunate prince.\nAt this juncture, Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays had recourse to divination, as was customary among the pagan Arabs before any enterprise of moment was undertaken. The prince drew the lot with the three\narrows of \"order,\" \"defence,\" and \"expectation\"; and having drawn the second one three times in succession, he broke the arrows and threw them in the face of the idol, exclaiming: \"If they had killed thy father, thou wouldst not limit thyself to defence alone!\"\nFinding he could obtain no assistance from the prince of Yaman, he next proceeded to the court of the Emperor Justinian; but unfortunately an Arab was there whose father had been killed by the poet's father, and he prejudiced the Emperor's mind against Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays, who quitted the court with all speed. But the Emperor, incited by his Arab courtier, sent a messenger after him with a poisoned garment. The poet was overtaken at Ancyra, and no sooner had he put on the fatal garment than he was seized with dreadful pains, his body was covered with ulcers, and soon afterwards he expired in great agony. His last words were: \"He, from whose lips flowed eloquence, at whose sword-strokes flowed the blood of his enemies, at whose feasts flowed rich wine\u2014he came to Ancyra, and no farther.\"\n[paragraph continues] the son of El-\u2018Abd, the son of Sufy\u0101n, was of the tribe of Muzayna, a branch of the Banu Bakr (sons of Bakr, or Becr), and hence he was surnamed El-Muzan\u012b. He may be said truly to have \"lisped in numbers,\" for at the tender age of seven he gave proof of his poetical genius. He was travelling with his uncle, and, the party resting for the night on the banks of a clear\nstream, Tarafa\u2014boy-like\u2014set snares to catch larks; but not having succeeded when they resumed their journey in the morning, the little poet expressed himself on the occasion in verses to the following effect:\nRejoice, O lark! in the expanse of the plain: thou enjoyest free air\u2014sing, then, and increase in security. Fly round about, and pick up all that thou canst desire: the bird-catcher is gone\u2014rejoice then at his departure! The snare is removed, and thou hast nothing more to fear;\u2014but yet fear thou always; for at length thou shalt be taken!\nThe occasion which gave rise to his Mu\u2018allaqa\u2014the loss of the camels belonging jointly to himself and his elder brother\u2014is related in the translator's Argument. C. de Perceval states that \u2018Amr the son of Marthad, one of the noble chiefs whom the poet compliments in v. 81, sent for Tarafa, and said to him: \"Children God alone can give thee; but as to goods I will set thee on the same footing with my own sons.\" He then called his seven sons and three grandsons, and ordered each of them to give the poet ten camels; thus making good the loss upon which his brother had so bitterly reproached him.\nThe most remarkable event in Tarafa's brief life is his tragical end. \u2018Amr the son of Hind, king of H\u012bra, had sent Tarafa and Mutalammis, also a famous poet, to be companions to his younger brother Q\u0101b\u016bs, whom he intended for his successor. Q\u0101b\u016bs, it appears, was greatly addicted to drinking, and was often discovered intoxicated; and both poets composed some very satirical verses on him and the\n[paragraph continues] King. Enraged at these lampoons (which probably came to his knowledge through some \"good-natured friend\"), \u2018Amr gave each of the poets a \"Bellerophon letter\" to the governor of Bahrayn, in which he was ordered to put the bearer to death. Mutalammis, suspecting the designs of the King, broke open his letter, and showed it to a friend, who read it to him; and on learning the contents, he destroyed it, and advised Tarafa to turn back with him. But Tarafa, perhaps thinking that his friend had been imposed upon by the reader of the letter, * declined his advice, and continued his fatal journey. On delivering his letter, the governor of Bahrayn, carrying out the orders of \u2018Amr, cut off the poet's hands and feet, and then caused him to be buried alive. Tarafa was only twenty-six years old when he thus miserably perished.\n[paragraph continues] the son of Ab\u016b Sulm\u00e0, Rab\u012b\u2018a, was distinguished from early youth for his poetical genius. He was a special favourite of his grand-uncle Bashama, who was himself a famous poet; yet, when the old man felt his end approaching, he divided his goods among his relations and left nothing to Zuhayr. \"Wilt thou leave me nothing?\" asked Zuhayr.\u2014\"I leave thee,\" said the patriarch, \"the finest part of my inheritance\u2014my talent for poetry.\"\u2014\"But that is already mine,\" replied Zuhayr.\u2014\"Nay,\" said the old man, \"all\n[paragraph continues] Arabia knows that poesy is an inheritance of my family, and that it went from me to thee.\" Zuhayr got a legacy, nevertheless.\nHis Mu\u2018allaqa was composed, on the conclusion of the War of D\u0101his, in honour of el-H\u0101rith son of \u2018Auf and Harim son. of Sin\u0101n, the peace-makers. Zuhayr also composed a great number of eclogues in praise of Harim, the son of Salm\u00e0, who had sworn not only to grant all the poet's requests, but to give him, for every poem he composed in his praise, either a female slave or a horse. This liberality rendered Zuhayr so bashful in the presence of his patron, that whenever the poet chanced to enter a company in which Harim was, he would say: \"I salute you all, excepting Harim, although he is the best among you.\"\nA son of Harim having recited to the Khalif \u2019Omar one of Zuhayr's eclogues in praise of his family, \u2019Omar remarked: \"Zuhayr has said many beautiful things about you.\"\u2014\"True,\" answered the son of Harim; \"but we have made him as many fine presents.\"\u2014\"What you gave him,\" said \u2019Omar, \"will perish through course of time; but his praises will endure for ever.\"\u2014\u2019Omar, though no great friend of poets or admirer of poetry, always spoke favourably of Zuhayr, because in his poems he had praised only such as really deserved praise, as Harim the son of Salm\u00e0.\nUmm Auf\u00e0, whom he mentions in the first verse of his Mu\u2018allaqa, was Zuhayr's first wife, whom he\ndivorced on account of her jealousy, but of this he afterwards repented. The children she bore him died young. A second wife gave him two sons: Ka\u2018b, author of the celebrated qas\u012bda entitled el-Burda, or the Mantle (generally known throughout the East as the B\u0101nat Su\u2018\u0101d\u016b, from the opening words of the poem: \"Su\u2018\u0101d hath departed\"), which he recited before Muhammad (a.d. 630), when he made his peace with the Prophet, and professed himself a Muslim; and Bujayr, who was an early convert to Isl\u0101m.\nAccording to the Kit\u0101bu-\u2019l-Ag\u0101n\u012b (Book of Songs), compiled by Ab\u016b-\u2019l-Faraj el-Isfahani, Muhammad saw Zuhayr when he was a hundred years old, and exclaimed: \"God grant me a refuge from his Devil\"\u2014meaning, his cunning in song; and it is added that before the Prophet had quitted the house, Zuhayr was dead. Another account is that Zuhayr foretold to his sons Ka\u2018b and Bujayr the advent of Muhammad, and earnestly recommended them to give ear to the Apostle's teaching when he did come; but that Zuhayr was dead before Muhammad began his mission.\n[paragraph continues] (or Lab\u012bd) was the son of Rab\u012b\u2018a, of the Band Kil\u0101b, who, because of his great liberality, was called Rab\u012b\u2018atu-\u2019l-muqtir\u012bn, that is, \"The Spring of the indigent ones.\" Leb\u012bd's kunya, or bye-name, was Ab\u016b \u2018Aq\u012bl. His uncle was \u2018Ab\u016b Biz\u0101\u2019ir, \u2018Amir, son of\n[paragraph continues] M\u0101lik, surnamed Mul\u0101\u2018ibu-\u2019l-\u2018Asinna,\u2014\"the player with lances.\" While yet a mere youth, Leb\u012bd accompanied a deputation of his tribe, headed by his famous uncle, to the court of Nu\u2018m\u0101n of H\u012bra, where, by a satirical poem, which he composed almost extempore and recited before the king, he effected the disgrace of a courtier who was obnoxious to his tribe.\nLeb\u012bd is one of the poets who belonged to \"the time of the Ignorance\" and also to Isl\u0101m. Various accounts are given of the circumstance which led to his conversion. According to the Ag\u0101n\u012b, Leb\u012bd was one of a deputation that waited upon the Prophet after the death of the poet's brother \u2018Arbad (who was killed by a stroke of lightning a day or two after he had made an impious speech against the fundamental doctrine of Isl\u0101m), and the aged poet then and there professed himself a convert. Others say that it was the custom for poets in those days to affix their verses to the gate of the Ka\u2018ba, as a general challenge against the next assembly at \u2018Uk\u0101tz, and that Leb\u012bd had put up the following poem (translated by Mr. C. J. Lyall):\nAnd all the race of men\u2014there shall surely come among them\n \u00a0\u00a0a Fearful Woe, whereby their fingers shall grow pale:\nAnd every mother's son, though his life be lengthened out\n \u00a0\u00a0to the utmost bound, comes home at last to the Grave:\nAnd every man shall know one day his labour's worth,\n \u00a0\u00a0when his loss or gain is cast up on the Judgment Day.\n[paragraph continues] These verses were universally admired, and for some time no one ventured to rival them, until Muhammad placed the opening passages of the second chapter of the Qur\u2019\u0101n by the side of them. Leb\u012bd was struck with their sublimity, and, declaring that they must have been written by divine inspiration, tore down his own verses, and immediately professed himself a Muslim. From that time he renounced all poetry; having, it is said, only composed one couplet after his conversion:\n[paragraph continues] Muhammad acknowledged that no pagan poet had ever produced nobler verses than those of Leb\u012bd above quoted.\nAfter his conversion, Leb\u012bd settled in the city of K\u016bfa, where he died, about the end of the reign of Mu\u2018\u0101wiya (a.d. 660), at the age of 157, says Ibn Qutayba, or 145, according to the notice of him in the Ag\u0101n\u012b, \"of which he lived ninety in the Ignorance, and the rest under Isl\u0101m.\" The following is a translation of the verses Leb\u012bd is said to have composed when he was considerably over a hundred and twenty years old:\nThe governor of K\u016bfa once sent for Leb\u012bd and desired him to recite one of his poems. Leb\u012bd recited the second chapter of the Qur\u2019\u0101n (entitled \"The Cow\"), saying, when he had finished, \"God has given me this in exchange for poesy since I became a Muslim.\" The Khal\u012bf \u2019Omar, on being informed of this, added 500 dirhems to the 2000 Leb\u012bd was already allowed. When Mu\u2018\u0101wiya became Khalif, he purposed retrenching the poet's stipend, but Leb\u012bd reminded him that he was not likely to live much longer: Mu\u2018\u0101wiya's heart was touched, and he despatched the poet's allowance in full, but Leb\u012bd died before it reached K\u016bfa.\nLeb\u012bd's last words, remarks Dr. Carlyle, breathe more of the spirit of a wit than that of a devotee: \"I am going to enjoy the novelty of death; but it is a novelty by no means agreeable.\"\n[paragraph continues] the son of Shadd\u0101d, * the renowned warrior and poet, of the tribe of \u2018Abs, was born in the beginning of the sixth century. His mother was an Abyssinian slave, captured in a predatory incursion; and for many\nyears his father refused to recognise him as his son, until, by his heroic achievements, he had rendered himself worthy of that honour. \u2018Antara is invariably described as being of a very dark complexion, and having his lower-lip cloven.\nThe tents of \u2018Abs having been suddenly attacked and plundered, the father of \u2018Antara promised him his freedom if he rescued the women who had been taken captive, a feat which the hero accomplished, after slaying many of the enemy single-handed. From this time \u2018Antara was recognised as the champion of his tribe; yet envious spirits did not scruple frequently to taunt him with his base birth. One of these having insultingly called his mother a negress, the hero retorted: \"If it were a question of mutual help, neither thou, nor thy father, nor thy grandfather, would ever be invited to a feast; for thou wouldst never be placed at the head of those that make gains [i.e., spoils].\" And when Qays son of Zuhayr said that the victory they had gained over an enemy was owing to the son of a negress, \u2018Antara replied, in verse: \"One half of me is of the purest blood, the other half is my sword: therefore it is, that, when you are in trouble you call upon me to relieve you, rather than those who can reckon up a host of noble ancestors.\"\n\u2018Antara's heroic exploits and his excellent poetry. preserved by oral tradition, furnished material for the celebrated Romance of chivalry which purports to recount his life and adventures. Allowing for its\nhyperbolical style (which never, in the opinion of Orientals, invalidates the truth of history), \"the whole work,\" says Von Hammer, \"may be esteemed as a faithful account of the principal tribes of the Arabs, particularly of the tribe of \u2018Abs, from which sprung \u2018Antara, in the time of Nushirvan, King of Persia.\"\nThe circumstance of \u2018Antara's death, as related by some authors\u2014echoing the voice of tradition\u2014though hardly so striking, is perhaps not less in accordance with the rules of poetical justice than that which concludes the Romance. It is said that, returning home with a herd of camels, of which he had robbed a clan of the tribe of T\u0101\u2019\u012b, \u2018Antara was struck with a spear, thrown at him by one of the plundered tribe, who had followed the party unseen, until a favourable opportunity offered for revenge. Mortally wounded, and now an old man, \u2018Antara had still sufficient strength left to ride home to his tribe, where he died soon after his arrival.\nMuhammad was fascinated by the stories related of \u2018Antara's prowess and poetry: \"I have never heard an Arab described,\" said the Prophet, \"whom I should like to have seen so much as \u2018Antara.\"\n[paragraph continues] the son of Kulth\u016bm, was a prince of the tribe of \u2018Ar\u0101qim (i.e., \"the speckled snake\"), a branch of the Ban\u016b Taglib. His mother, Layl\u00e0, was the daughter of Muhalhil and Hind; and at her birth, according to the barbarous custom of the pagan Arabs, Muhalhil\ngave order that she should be immediately buried alive. But hearing in his sleep a voice that told him his daughter should be the mother of heroes, he asked for the infant, and, finding that she was still alive, allowed her to be brought up. In course of time Layl\u00e0 was married to Kulth\u016bm, and shortly before \u2018Amr was born, she dreamed that a supernatural being assured her that her son should prove the bravest of warriors.\nThe tribes of Taglib and Bakr having been long at war, in consequence of the murder of Kulayb the son of Rab\u012b\u2018a, it was mutually agreed to terminate the feud by referring the dispute to the decision of \u2018Amr the son of Hind, king of H\u012bra\u2014the same who had so foully caused the murder of the poet Tarafa. \u2018Amr the son of Kulth\u016bm appeared as the advocate of the Ban\u016b Taglib, and el-H\u0101rith the son of Hilliza, on behalf of the Ban\u016b Bakr. The arguments employed by \u2018Amr on this occasion are contained in his Mu\u2018allaqa; and his boastful\u2014even minatory\u2014declamation was little calculated to please the royal arbiter. The King of H\u012bra gave judgment in favour of the Ban\u016b Bakr, and not long afterwards he was slain by \u2018Amr the son of Kulth\u016bm\u2014in revenge, as some think, for the murder of Tarafa; but others allege, perhaps with more reason, in retaliation for the judgment he had pronounced against the tribe of Taglib.\nThe circumstances of the King's death are thus related. The King having asked some one, \"Do\nyou know an Arab whose mother would refuse to serve my mother?\" the reply was: \"Only Layl\u00e0, the mother of \u2018Amr son of Kulth\u016bm; for her father and uncle were the most honoured among the Arabs.\" Piqued at this reply, the king sent a messenger to the poet, desiring him and his mother to visit at his court. \u2018Amr set out, with his mother in a litter, and accompanied by a troop of horsemen. The king had erected a pavilion between H\u012bra and the Euphrates, and there, with his mother Hind, he awaited the arrival of the poet and his mother Layl\u00e0. When the latter entered the royal pavilion, Hind desired Layl\u00e0 to reach her the keys, who boldly replied: \"Let them rise and do thy bidding whom such service befits.\" At this refusal, Hind began to insult Layl\u00e0, and even to use violence against her, which \u2018Amr the son of Kilth\u016bm seeing, his wrath knew no bounds; and, seizing the only sword (the King's) that hung upon the wall, he smote King \u2018Amr on the head and killed him.\nBesides his Mu\u2018allaqa, \u2018Amr the son of Kulth\u016bm composed a number of bitter satires upon King Nu\u2018m\u0101n of H\u012bra and his mother, who was the daughter of a goldsmith.\n\u2018Amr is reported to have attained the great age of a hundred; and to his descendants, gathered round his death-bed, he thus spoke: \"I have lived longer than my forefathers, and I am now going to join them. Hear, then, the counsel of my experiences. Each time I blamed another, I was the object\nof well-founded or ill-founded blame. He who attacks will be attacked: guard, therefore, against offending any one. Be benevolent and hospitable towards your friends: thus you will gain their esteem. It is better to refuse a request, than to promise and break your word. When a man speaks to you, listen to him attentively: when you speak, be brief; for long speeches are not free of folly. The bravest warrior is he that returns to the attack; and the best death is that on the battle-field.\"\n[paragraph continues] the son of Hilliza, * when over a hundred years old, but still comparatively vigorous, was sent to the court of \u2018Amr son of Hind, King of H\u012bra, to represent the tribe of Bakr when the dispute between them and the Ban\u016b Taglib was submitted to that prince as arbiter. His Mu\u2018allaqa contains the arguments he made use of on that occasion in behalf of his tribe; and such was the effect of his reasoning, his eloquence, and skilful praise of the prince of H\u012bra, that the royal arbiter decided in favour of the Ban\u016b Bakr; and, as a mark of special honour to the poet, the prince cast off the seven veils in which he was enveloped during the recitations of the rival-chiefs, and caused Harith to sit beside him. For this decision there is reason to believe the King soon afterwards lost his life at the\nhand of \u2018Amr son of Kulth\u016bm, as has been already mentioned. *\n___________________________\nIt has been said of translation in general that \"the wrong side of tapestry will represent more truly the figures on the right, notwithstanding the floss that blurs them, than the best version the beauties of the original.\" This remark would seem to apply with special force to English translations of early Arabic\npoetry, of which indistinctness is said to be the very essence. \"The language,\" says Burton, \"'like a faithful wife, following the mind, and giving birth to its offspring,' and free from that 'luggage of particles' which clogs our modern tongues, leaves a mysterious vagueness between the relation of word to word, which materially assists the sentiment, not sense, of the poem. When verbs and nouns have\u2014each one\u2014many different significations, only the radical or general idea suggests itself. Rich and varied synonyms, illustrating the finest shades of meaning, are artfully used: now scattered to strike us by distinctness; now to form, as it were, a star, about which dimly seen satellites revolve.\" Yet even in an English translation the more striking beauties of the Mu\u2019allaq\u0101t are not altogether lost.\nThe Poem of Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays is the most picturesque\u2014even dramatic\u2014of the whole seven: it presents a series of scenes of desert life, graphic, yet without the least attempt at detail: rapidly sketched, like the cartoons of a great artist, yet full of colour and vraisemblance, like finished pictures. We see the poet at supper in the sandhills, with the maidens whom he had surprised at their primitive bath; and while they all ply the leathern bottle of generous wine, we fancy we can hear their merry laughter at the jests of the wild young prince. We follow the bold youth at midnight, as he threads his way\u2014not without a beating heart\u2014among the tents of a hostile tribe, to the dwelling of the maiden for whose sake he thus\ncarries his life in his hand: we see the expectant damsel (for evidently the visit was pre-arranged) peeping timidly from the opening of her tent: we see them stealing softly away together, while she \"draws over their footsteps the train of her pictured robe.\"\u2014A weird journey through the desert on a gloomy night, when the darkness seems to enfold the solitary wayfarer as with a garment, and he starts ever and anon at the gaunt bones of camels and their riders that have been bleached on the sands by the noontide sun.\u2014An exciting chase of the wild cow\u2014a primitive feast on the game\u2014a thunderstorm.\nTarafa is the only one of the Seven Poets who compares camels to ships. In his opening verses, the camels that bore away his beloved are likened to \"ships sailing from Aduli\"; and in verse 28, he says that the neck of his own camel \"resembles the stern of a ship floating high on the billowy Tigris.\" Nearly one third of the poem is taken up with what Sir W. Jones terms \"a long and no very pleasing description\" of the poet's camel; yet we must suppose this minute detail of the points of an animal so indispensable to desert life in Arabia to have been very highly appreciated by the poet's countrymen; and the reader is recompensed for his patience by the fine simile with which it concludes: \"She floats proudly along with her flowing tail, as the dancing-girl floats at the banquet of her lord, and spreads the long white skirts of her trailing robe\"\u2014a simile which suggests a pleasing image to the reader's mind. After\nthe long panegyric on his camel, the poet proceeds to speak of his own prowess in battle; then to hint at his pleasant way of life, in company of gay youths like himself, and beautiful singing-girls; followed by a series of Horatian maxims: life is brief\u2014therefore let me enjoy the fleeting moments\u2014let me drink my full draught of wine to-day, come what may to-morrow. Once more he refers to his warlike performances, armed with a scimitar which is no mere pruning-hook, but the genuine brother of confidence\u2014one stroke of which renders a second needless. He concludes with a sagacious observation, which Muhammad said was prophetic of his own great mission: \"Time will produce events of which thou canst have no idea; and he to whom thou gayest no commission will bring thee unexpected news.\" *\nBold metaphor is a marked characteristic of the Poem of Zuhayr\u2014that of War as a foul monster, the mother of twin-born Famine and Desolation, being particularly striking and apposite: not less so perhaps is the poet's description of the contending parties in the fierce and protracted War of D\u0101his, under the figure of camels driven out to pasture on noxious weeds and to drink from foul and loathsome pools. The maxims tagged to the Poem, for the most part,\nexpress sentiments such as must occur to all thoughtful minds, matured by time and observation of life. *\nThe elegiac verses with which Leb\u012bd's Poem opens, by their natural and unembellished touches of pathos, must, even in an English translation, come home to every feeling heart. Six of the Mu\u2018allaqa Poems commence with the conventional lament for the departure of a mistress, but this elegy of Leb\u012bd excels them all, for beauty of imagery and tenderness of expression\u2014contrasting agreeably with the artificial eclogues of some modern European poets, whose aim has been rather to dazzle by contrast of words and brilliancy of diction than to reach the heart by natural thoughts conveyed in natural language. His camel the poet compares to a wild he-ass, hastening with his mate from the hills after the winter is past; and to a wild cow chased by the hunters. Like the Scottish poet Burns, whose large heart welled-up in sympathy for all natural objects\u2014a crushed daisy\u2014a ruined field mouse\u2014little birds on a winter's night\u2014like all true poets, the old Arabian bard could feel pity for the wild cow who had lost her young one, and who passed the night in agony, roaming restlessly to and fro, while the rain fell continuously upon her back. There is no such humane feeling as this\nexpressed in any of the other Poems, unless indeed it be in that of \u2018Antara, who seems to have pitied his wounded steed, who, he says, upbraided him with his eyes, and would have spoken if he could. Bright sketches of Arab life are furnished in this masterpiece of early poetry: outlines, but boldly and clearly defined, of which the reader is left to fill in the details from his own imagination. We see the poet, chief among his gay companions at the tavern, drinking rich wine long hoarded in leathern bottles, while the nimble fingers of the fair lutanist skilfully touch the strings of her instrument. We find him superintending the gaming, with headless and featherless arrows, for camels, which the poet himself generously provides as the prizes. We see him rise early in the morning and mount his horse, to defend his tribe against invaders. And at the opening of his tent we behold crowds of the poor and the needy\u2014the widow and the fatherless\u2014all partaking largely of his bounty.\nThe Poem of \u2018Antara is a curious medley of gentle pastoral utterances and fierce breathings of slaughter and revenge. The passage (vv. 14 to 19) in which the poet compares the mouth of his beloved to a fragrant bower, which the gentle rains have kept in perennial verdure, is perhaps finer than anything in the other six Poems. Interesting glimpses of Arab life are afforded us in this mosaic of poetical fragments: the breaking up of a family-camp in the desert at night\u2014the camels, laden and\nbridled, grazing on khimkhim grains; young ostriches flocking round the parent male bird, like a herd of black camels of Yemen assembling at the call of their keeper: the poet-hero quaffing old wine, bought with shining coin\u2014frequently replenishing his crystal goblet from a well-stoppered jug: a stolen interview with a beautiful damsel of a hostile tribe: protracted and fierce single combats with the most renowned warriors.\nThe Poem of \u2018Amr the son of Kulth\u016bm is the only Mu\u2018allaqa which does not begin with an address to a real or imaginary mistress. \u2018Amr calls loudly for his morning draught of wine in a capacious goblet, and goes on to praise the magical influence of the generous beverage in causing the miser to forget for a time his golden hoard, and in diverting even the lover from his passion. Nevertheless the inevitable departure of his mistress is referred to, and her charms very minutely described, in the tenth to the twenty-second verses. The rest of his Poem consists of an arrogant panegyric on the Ban\u016b Taglib\u2014their greatness and power, rich possessions and glorious achievements; and the beauty of their women, and the high estimation in which they were held by all their brave warriors.\nOf a sober and staid cast, as befitted his venerable years, is the Poem of el-Harith, in reply to the intemperate harangue of his boastful opponent; yet he does not scruple to claim for his tribe all the virtues which should characterise a noble race.\n\u201cThe range of thought in the early Arab poetry,\u201d remarks Sir William Muir, * \u201cis of limited extent. Past experiences and the sentiment of the moment are described with illustrations drawn from pastoral life. The future is not thought of, nor is the attempt made to draw lessons from the past. Childlike, it is in the present that the Arab poet lives. . . The pastoral life is pictured in the simple imagery of undisturbed rural scenery. The cavalcade, bearing the whole worldly goods of the tribe\u2014the matrons and maidens borne in litters on the camels\u2019 backs\u2014passes along the desert with its scant and scattered foliage of hardy shrubs, and, after a weary march, encamps, it may be, in a vale where the springs break forth from the slope of an adjacent hill. The clustering tents darken the background, while the grateful fountain, with its green environs and its grove of date-trees, stands in delightful contrast to the wild bleak scenery around. \u2020 The maidens go forth with their pitchers to the spring; and the herds of goats return with full udders from the pasture, or still sweeter but scanty foliage of the stunted acacia-trees.\n\u201cArab life lives, truly, a life of its own. There is no advancing civilization wherewith to rehabilitate\nthe surrounding imagery. The nearest approach in our own language to Arabian Poetry is the Book of Job, with its illustrations of the conies, the goats, and the wild ass; and even such is still the life of the desert at the present day. Cut off from the world by wilderness and by nomad habits, the Arab maintains unchanged his simplicity, affected as little by the luxury and civilization of surrounding nations as by their politics. The eclogues of the classics are ever bordering upon urban life; but here the freshness and freedom of the wild desert is untainted by the most distant approach of the busy world. The din of the city, even the murmur of the rural hamlet, is unheard. The poet is unconscious of their existence.\u201d\nxxxii:* The actual meaning of these terms, as applied to the \"Seven Ancient Arabic Prize Poems,\" is, however, a vexed question among modern European Arabists. The current interpretations, that these Poems were entitled Mu\u2018allaq\u0101t (in the singular, Mu\u2018allaqa), either because they were suspended on the Ka\u2018ba, or because each of the so-called Poems consists of fragments or short pieces \"hung\" or strung together, are utterly rejected by Professor W. Ahlwardt, the eminent German Orientalist; as also the surmise of Herr Von Kremer, that the terns is derived from another meaning of the word\u2014\"written down from the dictation of the R\u0101w\u012bs\" (Reciters of Poetry): he rather regards the name as being analogous with the other term, Mudhahhab\u0101t, or gilded, and to signify \"set with ornaments \"pre-eminent, or \"golden\" verses. The same learned Professor moreover considers the accounts of poetical contests, at \u2018Uk\u0101tz and other places, as mere fictions of Oriental writers.\nxxxiii:* In quarto, entitled: The Mo\u00e2llak\u00e1t; or Seven Arabian Poems which were Suspended on the Temple at Mecca, with a Translation and Arguments. By William Jones, Esq. London, 1782. From the \"Advertisement\" prefixed to this work we learn that Sir W. Jones purposed furnishing a Preliminary Discourse which was to comprise \"observations on the antiquity of the Arabian language and letters; on the dialects and characters of Himyar and Koraish, with accounts of some Himyarick poets; on the manners of the Arabs in the age immediately preceding that of Mahomed; on the temple at Mecca, and the Mo\u00e2llak\u00e1t, or pieces of poetry suspended on its walls or gate; lastly, on the lives of the Seven Poets, with a critical history of their works, and the various copies or editions of them preserved in Europe, Asia and Africa.\" There were also to be Notes, giving \"authorities and reasons for the translation of controverted passages; elucidating all the obscure couplets, and exhibiting or proposing amendments of the text; directing the reader's attention to particular beauties, or pointing out remarkable defects; and throwing light on the images, figures, and allusions of the Arabian poets, by citations, either from writers of their own country, or from such of our European travellers as best illustrate the ideas and customs of Eastern p. xxxiv nations.\" This elaborate scheme, however, was never carried out.\u2014From a letter addressed to his learned Dutch friend, H. A. Schultens, in June, 1781, we learn that Sir W. Jones was guided in his translation of the Mu\u2018allaq\u0101t by the Commentary of Tabrizi, the paraphrase of Zauzani, and other native grammarians.\nIt may be added, that, in issuing his translation of the Mu\u2018allaq\u0101t, with the original texts transliterated into European characters, Sir W. Jones solicited the co-operation\u2014the strictures and annotations\u2014of continental scholars. \"But,\" he remarks, \"the Discourse and Notes are ornamental only, and not essential to the work\"\u2014surely a curious statement, from an English reader's point of view, at least; since without some previous knowledge of the habits and manners of the old Arabs, and some notes explanatory of obscure allusions, these compositions must be in a great measure unintelligible to general readers. But Sir W. Jones doubtless meant that the proposed Discourse and Notes were unnecessary to scholars, who might consult the native commentaries. However this may be, it is probable that to the absence of explanatory notes is due the circumstance that his translation of the Mu\u2018allaq\u0101t had not been reprinted since it was included in the editions of his collected works: 6 vols., quarto, 1799, and 13 vols., octavo, 1807.\nxxxv:* Some commentators say that praise-poems, or eclogues in praise of great men, which were always composed in this form of verse, first obtained the name of Qas\u012bdas: panegyric being their special object or aim. Even the nature of the Qas\u012bda is variously reported: some have said that it must be over three distichs (the lowest Arabic plural); others, over seven; and others, over sixteen.\u2014A specimen of the Qas\u012bda rhyme, in English verse, is given in page 367 of this volume.\nxxxvii:* In Sir W. Jones\u2019 \"Genealogy of the Seven Poets,\" prefixed to his translation of the Mu\u2018allaq\u0101t, the father of Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays (\u2018Amrio\u2019l-Kais) is called Maiah; his grandfather, Rabeiah (who was the father of Kulayb, the proud chief, whose murder caused a long and bloody war between the tribes of Taglib and Bakr); and his great grandfather, Hareth. Possibly \"Maiah\" was another name of Hujr, the father of Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays; however, the asterisk after the name in Sir W. Jones\u2019 list evidently indicates that it was doubtful.\u2014According to Professor Ahlwardt, the poet was also styled Ab\u016b Zayd (father of a son called Zayd), son of Hujr, son of Harith.\nxli:* From this it would appear that the poet Mutalammis, and probably Tarafa also, could not read.\nxlvi:* So this poet is generally styled by Oriental writers; and according to Sir W. Jones\u2019 \"Genealogy of the Seven Arabian Poets\" (prefixed to his translation of the Mu\u2018allaq\u0101t in this volume), \u2018Antara was the son of Shadd\u0101d, the son of Mu\u2018\u0101wiya; but Professor Palmer and other modern authorities reverse this order of descent, and make Mu\u2018\u0101wiya the father of \u2018Antara, and Shadd\u0101d his grandfather.\nli:* According to Sir W. Jones\u2019 \"Genealogy of the Seven Arabian Poets.\" D\u2019Herbelot (Biblioth\u00e8que Orientale) says that he was \"either el-Harith son of \u2018Amr, or \u2018Amr son of el-Harith.\"\nlii:* The order in which the several poems of the Mu\u2018allaq\u0101t are placed seems purely arbitrary; since they are not arranged either according to merit, date, length, or the rank of the authors. In the order of poetical merit, doubtless the Qas\u012bda of Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays would still retain the first place; that of Leb\u012bd would come next, followed by \u2018Antara, Tarafa, and Zuhayr; and \u2018Amr, and el-H\u0101rith, whose compositions are political declamations rather than eclogues, would occupy, as they do at present, the last places in the poetical Pleiades. If they were arranged in chronological order, they would probably stand thus: Tarafa; el-Harith; \u2018Amr; \u2018Antara; Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays; Zuhayr; Leb\u012bd. In the order of length: \u2018Amr, whose poem contains 108 verses; Tarafa, 103; Leb\u012bd, 89; el-Harith, 85; \u2018Antara, 81; Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays, 75; and Zuhayr, 64 verses. According to social rank, Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays again would take precedence of the others, while \u2018Antara would- occupy the last place, as being the son of a slave-woman. Between these two extremes\u2014Imra\u2019u-\u2019l-Qays, the prince, and Antara, the son of a slave\u2014would stand the five others, of whom at least four were connected with the court of H\u012bra, where the great poets of Arabia assembled in the century before the time of Muhammad.\u2014In some editions of the \"Seven Poets\" the poems of en-Nabiga of Duby\u0101n and el-\u2018Asha take the places of those of \u2018Amr and el-H\u0101rith.\nliv:* A \"dark\" saying, which seems a parallel to that of Agatho, who remarks that \"it is extremely probable that the most improbable things will occur\"; as well as to the favourite saying of Lord Beaconsfield, that \"it is always the unexpected that happens.\"\nlvi:* Verse 62, for instance, offers a parallel to the well-known Greek epigram of Palladius, which has been thus rendered into English verse:\nlix:* In an excellent paper on \"Ancient Arabic Poetry,\" published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1879.\nlix:\u2020 And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and three score and ten palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters.\u2014Genesis xv. 27.","title":"Arabian Poetry: Introduction: II.\u2014The Mu\u2018alla...","type":"page"}