of the _Mulaththamún_.[793] These were a number of tribes descended
from Ḥimyar, of which the most considerable were Lamtúna, Jadála,
and Lamṭa.... Now in the above-mentioned year a man of Jadála,
named Jawhar, set out for Africa[794] on his way to the Pilgrimage,
for he loved religion and the people thereof. At Qayrawán he fell in
with a certain divine--Abú ‘Imrán al-Fásí, as is generally
supposed--and a company of persons who were studying theology under
him. Jawhar was much pleased with what he saw of their piety, and on
his return from Mecca he begged Abú ‘Imrán to send back with him to
the desert a teacher who should instruct the ignorant Berbers in the
laws of Islam. So Abú ‘Imrán sent with him a man called ‘Abdulláh b.
Yásín al-Kuzúlí, who was an excellent divine, and they journeyed
together until they came to the tribe of Lamtúna. Then Jawhar
dismounted from his camel and took hold of the bridle of ‘Abdulláh
b. Yásín's camel, in reverence for the law of Islam; and the men of
Lamtúna approached Jawhar and greeted him and questioned him
concerning his companion. 'This man,' he replied, 'is the bearer of
the Sunna of the Apostle of God: he has come to teach you what is
necessary in the religion of Islam.' So they bade them both welcome,
and said to ‘Abdulláh, 'Tell us the law of Islam,' and he explained
it to them. They answered, 'As to what you have told us of prayer
and alms-giving, that is easy; but when you say, "He that kills
shall be killed, and he that steals shall have his hand cut off, and
he that commits adultery shall be flogged or stoned," that is an
ordinance which we will not lay upon ourselves. Begone
elsewhere!'... And they came to Jadála, Jawhar's own tribe, and
‘Abdulláh called on them and the neighbouring tribes to fulfil the
law, and some consented while others refused. Then, after a time,
‘Abdulláh said to his followers, 'Ye must fight the enemies of the
Truth, so appoint a commander over you.' Jawhar answered, 'Thou art
our commander,' but ‘Abdulláh declared that he was only a
missionary, and on his advice the command was offered to Abú Bakr b.
‘Umar, the chief of Lamtúna, a man of great authority and influence.
Having prevailed upon him to act as leader, ‘Abdulláh began to
preach a holy war, and gave his adherents the name of Almoravides
(_al-Murábitún_)."[795]
[Sidenote: The Almoravide Empire (1056-1147 A.D.).]
The little community rapidly increased in numbers and power. Yúsuf b.
Táshifín, who succeeded to the command in 1069 A.D., founded the city of
Morocco, and from this centre made new conquests in every direction, so
that ere long the Almoravides ruled over the whole of North-West Africa
from Senegal to Algeria. We have already seen how Yúsuf was invited by
the ‘Abbádids to lead an army into Spain, how he defeated Alphonso VI at
Zalláqa and, returning a few years later, this time not as an ally but
as a conqueror, took possession of Granada and Seville. The rest of
Moslem Spain was subdued without much trouble: laity and clergy alike
hailed in the Berber monarch a zealous reformer of the Faith and a
mighty bulwark against its Christian enemies. The hopeful prospect was
not realised. Spanish civilisation enervated the Berbers, but did not
refine them. Under the narrow bigotry of Yúsuf and his successors free
thought became impossible, culture and science faded away. Meanwhile the
country was afflicted by famine, brigandage, and all the disorders of a
feeble and corrupt administration.
[Sidenote: Ibn Túmart.]
The empire of the Almoravides passed into the hands of another African
dynasty, the Almohades.[796] Their founder, Muḥammad Ibn Túmart, was
a native of the mountainous district of Sús which lies to the south-west
of Morocco. When a youth he made the Pilgrimage to Mecca (about 1108
A.D.), and also visited Baghdád, where he studied in the Niẓámiyya
College and is said to have met the celebrated Ghazálí. He returned home
with his head full of theology and ambitious schemes. We need not dwell
upon his career from this point until he finally proclaimed himself as
the Mahdí (1121 A.D.), nor describe the familiar methods--some of them
disreputable enough--by which he induced the Berbers to believe in him.
His doctrines, however, may be briefly stated. "In most questions," says
one of his biographers,[797] "he followed the system of Abu ’l-Ḥasan
al-Ash‘arí, but he agreed with the Mu‘tazilites in their denial of the
Divine Attributes and in a few matters besides; and he was at heart
somewhat inclined to Shí‘ism, although he gave it no countenance in
public."[798] The gist of his teaching is indicated by the name
_Muwaḥḥid_ (Unitarian), which he bestowed on himself, and which
his successors adopted as their dynastic title.[799] Ibn Túmart
emphasised the Unity of God; in other words, he denounced the
anthropomorphic ideas which prevailed in Western Islam and strove to
replace them by a purely spiritual conception of the Deity. To this main
doctrine he added a second, that of the Infallible Imám (_al-Imám
al-Ma‘ṣúm_), and he naturally asserted that the Imám was Muḥammad
Ibn Túmart, a descendant of ‘Alí b. Abí Ṭálib.
[Sidenote: The Almohades (1130-1269 A.D.).]
On the death of the Mahdí (1130 A.D.) the supreme command devolved upon
his trusted lieutenant, ‘Abdu ’l-Mu’min, who carried on the holy war
against the Almoravides with growing success, until in 1158 A.D. he
"united the whole coast from the frontier of Egypt to the Atlantic,
together with Moorish Spain, under his sceptre."[800] The new dynasty
was far more enlightened and favourable to culture than the Almoravides
had been. Yúsuf, the son of ‘Abdu ’l-Mu’min, is described as an
excellent scholar, whose mind was stored with the battles and traditions
and history of the Arabs before and after Islam. But he found his
highest pleasure in the study and patronage of philosophy. The great
Aristotelian, Ibn Ṭufayl, was his Vizier and court physician; and Ibn
Rushd (Averroes) received flattering honours both from him and from his
successor, Ya‘qúb al-Manṣúr, who loved to converse with the
philosopher on scientific topics, although in a fit of orthodoxy he
banished him for a time.[801] This curious mixture of liberality and
intolerance is characteristic of the Almohades. However they might
encourage speculation in its proper place, their law and theology were
cut according to the plain Ẓáhirite pattern. "The Koran and the
Traditions of the Prophet--or else the sword!" is a saying of the
last-mentioned sovereign, who also revived the autos-da-fé, which had
been prohibited by his grandfather, of Málikite and other obnoxious
books.[802] The spirit of the Almohades is admirably reflected in Ibn
Ṭufayl's famous philosophical romance, named after its hero, _Ḥayy
ibn Yaqẓán_, _i.e._, 'Alive, son of Awake,'[803] of which the
following summary is given by Mr. Duncan B. Macdonald in his excellent
_Muslim Theology_ (p. 253):--
[Sidenote: The story of Ḥayy b. Yaqẓán.]
"In it he conceives two islands, the one inhabited and the other
not. On the inhabited island we have conventional people living
conventional lives, and restrained by a conventional religion of
rewards and punishments. Two men there, Salámán and Asál,[804] have
raised themselves to a higher level of self-rule. Salámán adapts
himself externally to the popular religion and rules the people;
Asál, seeking to perfect himself still further in solitude, goes to
the other island. But there he finds a man, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓán,
who has lived alone from infancy and has gradually, by the innate
and uncorrupted powers of the mind, developed himself to the highest
philosophic level and reached the Vision of the Divine. He has
passed through all the stages of knowledge until the universe lies
clear before him, and now he finds that his philosophy thus reached,
without prophet or revelation, and the purified religion of Asál are
one and the same. The story told by Asál of the people of the other
island sitting in darkness stirs his soul, and he goes forth to them
as a missionary. But he soon learns that the method of Muḥammad
was the true one for the great masses, and that only by sensuous
allegory and concrete things could they be reached and held. He
retires to his island again to live the solitary life."
[Sidenote: Literature under the Almoravides and Almohades (1100-1250
A.D.).]
Of the writers who flourished under the Berber dynasties few are
sufficiently important to deserve mention in a work of this kind. The
philosophers, however, stand in a class by themselves. Ibn Bájja
(Avempace), Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ibn Ṭufayl, and Músá b. Maymún
(Maimonides) made their influence felt far beyond the borders of Spain:
they belong, in a sense, to Europe. We have noticed elsewhere the great
mystic, Muḥyi ’l-Dín Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí († 1240 A.D.); his
fellow-townsman, Ibn Sab‘ín († 1269 A.D.), a thinker of the same type,
wrote letters on philosophical subjects to Frederick II of Hohenstaufen.
Valuable works on the literary history of Spain were composed by Ibn
Kháqán († 1134 A.D.), Ibn Bassám († 1147 A.D.), and Ibn Bashkuwál (†
1183 A.D.). The geographer Idrísí († 1154 A.D.) was born at Ceuta,
studied at Cordova, and found a patron in the Sicilian monarch, Roger
II; Ibn Jubayr published an interesting account of his pilgrimage from
Granada to Mecca and of his journey back to Granada during the years
1183-1185 A.D.; Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), who became a Vizier under the
Almoravides, was the first of a whole family of eminent physicians; and
Ibnu ’l-Bayṭár of Malaga († 1248 A.D.), after visiting Egypt, Greece,
and Asia Minor in order to extend his knowledge of botany, compiled a
Materia Medica, which he dedicated to the Sultan of Egypt, Malik
al-Kámil.
[Sidenote: Reconquest of Spain by Ferdinand III.]
[Sidenote: The Naṣrids of Granada (1232-1492 A.D.).]
We have now taken a rapid survey of the Moslem empire in Spain from its
rise in the eighth century of our era down to the last days of the
Almohades, which saw the Christian arms everywhere triumphant. By 1230
A.D. the Almohades had been driven out of the peninsula, although they
continued to rule Africa for about forty years after this date. Amidst
the general wreck one spot remained where the Moors could find shelter.
This was Granada. Here, in 1232 A.D., Muḥammad Ibnu ’l-Aḥmar
assumed the proud title of 'Conqueror by Grace of God' (_Ghálib billáh_)
and founded the Naṣrid dynasty, which held the Christians at bay
during two centuries and a half. That the little Moslem kingdom survived
so long was not due to its own strength, but rather to its almost
impregnable situation and to the dissensions of the victors. The latest
bloom of Arabic culture in Europe renewed, if it did not equal, the
glorious memories of Cordova and Seville. In this period arose the
world-renowned Alhambra, _i.e._, 'the Red Palace' (al-Ḥamrá) of the
Naṣrid kings, and many other superb monuments of which the ruins are
still visible. We must not, however, be led away into a digression even
upon such a fascinating subject as Moorish architecture. Our information
concerning literary matters is scantier than it might have been, on
account of the vandalism practised by the Christians when they took
Granada. It is no dubious legend (like the reputed burning of the
Alexandrian Library by order of the Caliph ‘Umar),[805] but a
well-ascertained fact that the ruthless Archbishop Ximenez made a
bonfire of all the Arabic manuscripts on which he could lay his hands.
He wished to annihilate the record of seven centuries of Muḥammadan
culture in a single day.
The names of Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb and Ibn Khaldún represent the highest
literary accomplishment and historical comprehension of which this age
was capable. The latter, indeed, has no parallel among Oriental
historians.
[Sidenote: Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb (1313-1374 A.D.).]
Lisánu ’l-Dín Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb[806] played a great figure in the
politics of his time, and his career affords a conspicuous example of
the intimate way in which Moslem poetry and literature are connected
with public life. "The Arabs did not share the opinion widely spread
nowadays, that poetical talent flourishes best in seclusion from the
tumult of the world, or that it dims the clearness of vision which is
required for the conduct of public affairs. On the contrary, their
princes entrusted the chief offices of State to poets, and poetry often
served as a means to obtain more brilliant results than diplomatic notes
could have procured."[807] A young man like Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb, who had
mastered the entire field of belles-lettres, who improvised odes and
rhyming epistles with incomparable elegance and facility, was marked out
to be the favourite of kings. He became Vizier at the Naṣrid court, a
position which he held, with one brief interval of disgrace, until 1371
A.D., when the intrigues of his enemies forced him to flee from Granada.
He sought refuge at Fez, and was honourably received by the reigning
Sultan, ‘Abdu ’l-‘Azíz; but on the accession of Abu ’l-‘Abbás in 1374
A.D. the exiled minister was incarcerated and brought to trial on the
charge of heresy (_zandaqa_). While the inquisition was proceeding a
fanatical mob broke into the gaol and murdered him. Maqqarí relates that
Ibnu ’l-Khaṭib suffered from insomnia, and that most of his works
were composed during the night, for which reason he got the nickname of
_Dhu ’l-‘Umrayn_, or 'The man of two lives.'[808] He was a prolific
writer in various branches of literature, but, like so many of his
countrymen, he excelled in History. His monographs on the sovereigns and
savants of Granada (one of which includes an autobiography) supply
interesting details concerning this obscure period.
[Sidenote: Ibn Khaldún (1332-1406 A.D.).]
Some apology may be thought necessary for placing Ibn Khaldún, the
greatest historical thinker of Islam, in the present chapter, as though
he were a Spaniard either by birth or residence. He descended, it is true,
from a family, the Banú Khaldún, which had long been settled in Spain,
first at Carmona and afterwards at Seville; but they migrated to Africa
about the middle of the thirteenth century, and Ibn Khaldún was born at
Tunis. Nearly the whole of his life, moreover, was passed in Africa--a
circumstance due rather to accident than to predilection; for in 1362
A.D. he entered the service of the Sultan of Granada, Abú ‘Abdalláh Ibnu
’l-Aḥmar, and would probably have made that city his home had not the
jealousy of his former friend, the Vizier Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb, decided him
to leave Spain behind. We cannot give any account of the agitated and
eventful career which he ended, as Cadi of Cairo, in 1406 A.D. Ibn
Khaldún lived with statesmen and kings: he was an ambassador to the
court of Pedro of Castile, and an honoured guest of the mighty
Tamerlane. The results of his ripe experience are marvellously displayed
in the Prolegomena (_Muqaddima_), which forms the first volume of a huge
general history entitled the _Kitábu ’l-‘Ibar_ ('Book of
Examples').[809] He himself has stated his idea of the historian's
function in the following words:--
[Sidenote: Ibn Khaldún as a philosophical historian.]
"Know that the true purpose of history is to make us acquainted with
human society, _i.e._, with the civilisation of the world, and with
its natural phenomena, such as savage life, the softening of
manners, attachment to the family and the tribe, the various kinds
of superiority which one people gains over another, the kingdoms and
diverse dynasties which arise in this way, the different trades and
laborious occupations to which men devote themselves in order to
earn their livelihood, the sciences and arts; in fine, all the
manifold conditions which naturally occur in the development of
civilisation."[810]
Ibn Khaldún argues that History, thus conceived, is subject to universal
laws, and in these laws he finds the only sure criterion of historical
truth.
[Sidenote: His canons of historical criticism.]
"The rule for distinguishing what is true from what is false in
history is based on its possibility or impossibility: that is to
say, we must examine human society (civilisation) and discriminate
between the characteristics which are essential and inherent in its
nature and those which are accidental and need not be taken into
account, recognising further those which cannot possibly belong to
it. If we do this we have a rule for separating historical truth
from error by means of a demonstrative method that admits of no
doubt.... It is a genuine touchstone whereby historians may verify
whatever they relate."[811]
Here, indeed, the writer claims too much, and it must be allowed that he
occasionally applied his principles in a pedantic fashion, and was led
by purely _a priori_ considerations to conclusions which are not always
so warrantable as he believed. This is a very trifling matter in
comparison with the value and originality of the principles themselves.
Ibn Khaldún asserts, with justice, that he has discovered a new method
of writing history. No Moslem had ever taken a view at once so
comprehensive and so philosophical; none had attempted to trace the
deeply hidden causes of events, to expose the moral and spiritual forces
at work beneath the surface, or to divine the immutable laws of national
progress and decay. Ibn Khaldún owed little to his predecessors,
although he mentions some of them with respect. He stood far above his
age, and his own countrymen have admired rather than followed him. His
intellectual descendants are the great mediæval and modern historians of
Europe--Machiavelli and Vico and Gibbon.
[Sidenote: Ibn Kaldún's theory of historical evolution.]
It is worth while to sketch briefly the peculiar theory of historical
development which Ibn Khaldún puts forward in his Prolegomena--a theory
founded on the study of actual conditions and events either past or
passing before his eyes.[812] He was struck, in the first place, with
the physical fact that in almost every part of the Muḥammadan Empire
great wastes of sand or stony plateaux, arid and incapable of tillage,
wedge themselves between fertile domains of cultivated land. The former
were inhabited from time immemorial by nomad tribes, the latter by an
agricultural or industrial population; and we have seen, in the case of
Arabia, that cities like Mecca and Ḥíra carried on a lively
intercourse with the Bedouins and exerted a civilising influence upon
them. In Africa the same contrast was strongly marked. It is no wonder,
therefore, that Ibn Khaldún divided the whole of mankind into two
classes--Nomads and Citizens. The nomadic life naturally precedes and
produces the other. Its characteristics are simplicity and purity of
manners, warlike spirit, and, above all, a loyal devotion to the
interests of the family and the tribe. As the nomads become more
civilised they settle down, form states, and make conquests. They have
now reached their highest development. Corrupted by luxury, and losing
the virtues which raised them to power, they are soon swept away by a
ruder people. Such, in bare outline, is the course of history as Ibn
Khaldún regards it; but we must try to give our readers some further
account of the philosophical ideas underlying his conception. He
discerns, in the life of tribes and nations alike, two dominant forces
which mould their destiny. The primitive and cardinal force he calls
_‘aṣabiyya_, the _binding_ element in society, the feeling which
unites members of the same family, tribe, nation, or empire, and which
in its widest acceptation is equivalent to the modern term, Patriotism.
It springs up and especially flourishes among nomad peoples, where the
instinct of self-preservation awakens a keen sense of kinship and drives
men to make common cause with each other. This _‘aṣabiyya_ is the
vital energy of States: by it they rise and grow; as it weakens they
decline; and its decay is the signal for their fall. The second of the
forces referred to is Religion. Ibn Khaldún hardly ascribes to religion
so much influence as we might have expected from a Moslem. He
recognises, however, that it may be the only means of producing that
solidarity without which no State can exist. Thus in the twenty-seventh
chapter of his _Muqaddima_ he lays down the proposition that "the Arabs
are incapable of founding an empire unless they are imbued with
religious enthusiasm by a prophet or a saint."
In History he sees an endless cycle of progress and retrogression,
analogous to the phenomena of human life. Kingdoms are born, attain
maturity, and die within a definite period which rarely exceeds three
generations, _i.e._, 120 years.[813] During this time they pass through
five stages of development and decay.[814] It is noteworthy that Ibn
Khaldún admits the moral superiority of the Nomads. For him civilisation
necessarily involves corruption and degeneracy. If he did not believe in
the gradual advance of mankind towards some higher goal, his pessimism
was justified by the lessons of experience and by the mournful plight of
the Muḥammadan world, to which his view was restricted.[815]
[Sidenote: The fall of Granada (1492 A.D.).]
In 1492 A.D. the last stronghold of the European Arabs opened its gates
to Ferdinand and Isabella, and "the Cross supplanted the Crescent on the
towers of Granada." The victors showed a barbarous fanaticism that was
the more abominable as it violated their solemn pledges to respect the
religion and property of the Moslems, and as it utterly reversed the
tolerant and liberal treatment which the Christians of Spain had enjoyed
under Muḥammadan rule. Compelled to choose between apostasy and exile,
many preferred the latter alternative. Those who remained were subjected
to a terrible persecution, until in 1609 A.D., by order of Philip III,
the Moors were banished _en masse_ from Spanish soil.
[Sidenote: The Arabs in Sicily.]
Spain was not the sole point whence Moslem culture spread itself over
the Christian lands. Sicily was conquered by the Aghlabids of Tunis
early in the ninth century, and although the island fell into the hands
of the Normans in 1071 A.D., the court of Palermo retained a
semi-Oriental character. Here in the reign of Frederick II of
Hohenstaufen (1194-1250 A.D.) might be seen "astrologers from Baghdád
with long beards and waving robes, Jews who received princely salaries
as translators of Arabic works, Saracen dancers and dancing-girls, and
Moors who blew silver trumpets on festal occasions."[816] Both Frederick
himself and his son Manfred were enthusiastic Arabophiles, and
scandalised Christendom by their assumption of 'heathen' manners as well
as by the attention which they devoted to Moslem philosophy and science.
Under their auspices Arabic learning was communicated to the
neighbouring towns of Lower Italy.
CHAPTER X
FROM THE MONGOL INVASION TO THE PRESENT DAY
[Sidenote: General characteristics of the period.]
Before proceeding to speak of the terrible catastrophe which filled the
whole of Western Asia with ruin and desolation, I may offer a few
preliminary remarks concerning the general character of the period which
we shall briefly survey in this final chapter. It forms, one must admit,
a melancholy conclusion to a glorious history. The Caliphate, which
symbolised the supremacy of the Prophet's people, is swept away.
Mongols, Turks, Persians, all in turn build up great Muḥammadan
empires, but the Arabs have lost even the shadow of a leading part and
appear only as subordinate actors on a provincial stage. The chief
centres of Arabian life, such as it is, are henceforth Syria and Egypt,
which were held by the Turkish Mamelukes until 1517 A.D., when they
passed under Ottoman rule. In North Africa the petty Berber dynasties
(Ḥafṣids, Ziyánids, and Marínids) gave place in the sixteenth
century to the Ottoman Turks. Only in Spain, where the Naṣrids of
Granada survived until 1492 A.D., in Morocco, where the Sharífs
(descendants of ‘Alí b. Abí Ṭálib) assumed the sovereignty in 1544
A.D., and to some extent in Arabia itself, did the Arabs preserve their
political independence. In such circumstances it would be vain to look
for any large developments of literature and culture worthy to rank with
those of the past. This is an age of imitation and compilation. Learned
men abound, whose erudition embraces every subject under the sun. The
mass of writing shows no visible diminution, and much of it is valuable
and meritorious work. But with one or two conspicuous exceptions--_e.g._
the historian Ibn Khaldún and the mystic Sha‘rání--we cannot point to
any new departure, any fruitful ideas, any trace of original and
illuminating thought. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries "witnessed
the rise and triumph of that wonderful movement known as the
Renaissance,... but no ripple of this great upheaval, which changed the
whole current of intellectual and moral life in the West, reached the
shores of Islam."[817] Until comparatively recent times, when Egypt and
Syria first became open to European civilisation, the Arab retained his
mediæval outlook and habit of mind, and was in no respect more
enlightened than his forefathers who lived under the ‘Abbásid Caliphate.
And since the Mongol Invasion I am afraid we must say that instead of
advancing farther along the old path he was being forced back by the
inevitable pressure of events. East of the Euphrates the Mongols did
their work of destruction so thoroughly that no seeds were left from
which a flourishing civilisation could arise; and, moreover, the Arabic
language was rapidly extinguished by the Persian. In Spain, as we have
seen, the power of the Arabs had already begun to decline; Africa was
dominated by the Berbers, a rude, unlettered race, Egypt and Syria by
the blighting military despotism of the Turks. Nowhere in the history of
this period can we discern either of the two elements which are most
productive of literary greatness: the quickening influence of a higher
culture or the inspiration of a free and vigorous national life.[818]
[Sidenote: The Mongol Invasion.]
Between the middle of the eleventh century and the end of the fourteenth
the nomad tribes dwelling beyond the Oxus burst over Western Asia in
three successive waves. First came the Seljúq Turks, then the Mongols
under Chingíz Khan and Húlágú, then the hordes, mainly Turkish, of
Tímúr. Regarding the Seljúqs all that is necessary for our purpose has
been said in a former chapter. The conquests of Tímúr are a frightful
episode which I may be pardoned for omitting from this history, inasmuch
as their permanent results (apart from the enormous damage which they
inflicted) were inconsiderable; and although the Indian empire of the
Great Moguls, which Bábur, a descendant of Tímúr, established in the
first half of the sixteenth century, ran a prosperous and brilliant
course, its culture was borrowed almost exclusively from Persian models
and does not come within the scope of the present work. We shall,
therefore, confine our view to the second wave of the vast Asiatic
migration, which bore the Mongols, led by Chingíz Khan and Húlágú, from
the steppes of China and Tartary to the Mediterranean.
[Sidenote: Chingíz Khan and Húlágú.]
In 1219 A.D. Chingíz Khan, having consolidated his power in the Far
East, turned his face westward and suddenly advanced into Transoxania,
which at that time formed a province of the wide dominions of the Sháhs
of Khwárizm (Khiva). The reigning monarch, ‘Alá’u ’l-Dín Muḥammad,
was unable to make an effective resistance; and notwithstanding that his
son, the gallant Jalálu ’l-Dín, carried on a desperate guerilla for
twelve years, the invaders swarmed over Khurásán and Persia, massacring
the panic-stricken inhabitants wholesale and leaving a wilderness behind
them. Hitherto Baghdád had not been seriously threatened, but on the
first day of January, 1256 A.D.--an epoch-marking date--Húlágú, the
grandson of Chingíz Khan, crossed the Oxus, with the intention of
occupying the ‘Abbásid capital. I translate the following narrative from
a manuscript in my possession of the _Ta’ríkh al-Khamís_ by Diyárbakrí
(† 1574 A.D.):--
[Sidenote: Húlágú before Baghdád (1258 A.D.).]
[Sidenote: Sack of Baghdád.]
In the year 654 (A.H. = 1256 A.D.) the stubborn tyrant, Húlágú, the
destroyer of the nations (_Mubídu ’l-Umam_), set forth and took the
castle of Alamút from the Ismá‘ílís[819] and slew them and laid
waste the lands of Rayy.... And in the year 655 there broke out at
Baghdád a fearful riot between the Sunnís and the Shí‘ites, which
led to great plunder and destruction of property. A number of
Shí‘ites were killed, and this so incensed and infuriated the Vizier
Ibnu ’l-‘Alqami that he encouraged the Tartars to invade ‘Iráq, by
which means he hoped to take ample vengeance on the Sunnís.[820] And
in the beginning of the year 656 the tyrant Húlágú b. Túlí b.
Chingíz Khán, the Moghul, arrived at Baghdád with his army,
including the Georgians (_al-Kurj_) and the troops of Mosul. The
Dawídár[821] marched out of the city and met Húlágú's vanguard,
which was commanded by Bájú.[822] The Moslems, being few, suffered
defeat; whereupon Bájú advanced and pitched his camp to the west of
Baghdád, while Húlágú took up a position on the eastern side. Then
the Vizier Ibnu ’l-‘Alqamí said to the Caliph Musta‘ṣim Billáh: "I
will go to the Supreme Khán to arrange peace." So the hound[823]
went and obtained security for himself, and on his return said to
the Caliph: "The Khán desires to marry his daughter to your son and
to render homage to you, like the Seljúq kings, and then to depart."
Musta‘ṣim set out, attended by the nobles of his court and the
grandees of his time, in order to witness the contract of marriage.
The whole party were beheaded except the Caliph, who was trampled to
death. The Tartars entered Baghdád and distributed themselves in
bands throughout the city. For thirty-four days the sword was never
sheathed. Few escaped. The slain amounted to 1,800,000 and more.
Then quarter was called.... Thus it is related in the _Duwalu
’l-Islám_.[824]... And on this wise did the Caliphate pass from
Baghdád. As the poet sings:--
"_Khalati ’l-manábiru wa-’l-asirralu minhumú
wa-‘alayhimú hatta ’l-mamáti salámú._"
"_The pulpits and the thrones are empty of them;
I bid them, till the hour of death, farewell!_"
[Sidenote: Battle of ‘Ayn Jálút (September, 1260 A.D.).]
[Sidenote: Arabic ceases to be the language of the whole Moslem world.]
It seemed as if all Muḥammadan Asia lay at the feet of the pagan
conqueror. Resuming his advance, Húlágú occupied Mesopotamia and sacked
Aleppo. He then returned to the East, leaving his lieutenant, Ketboghá,
to complete the reduction of Syria. Meanwhile, however, an Egyptian army
under the Mameluke Sultan Muẓaffar Quṭuz was hastening to oppose
the invaders. On Friday, the 25th of Ramaḍán, 658 A.H., a decisive
battle was fought at ‘Ayn Jálút (Goliath's Spring), west of the Jordan.
The Tartars were routed with immense slaughter, and their subsequent
attempts to wrest Syria from the Mamelukes met with no success. The
submission of Asia Minor was hardly more than nominal, but in Persia the
descendants of Húlágú, the Íl-Kháns, reigned over a great empire, which
the conversion of one of their number, Gházán (1295-1304 A.D.), restored
to Moslem rule. We are not concerned here with the further history of
the Mongols in Persia nor with that of the Persians themselves. Since
the days of Húlágú the lands east and west of the Tigris are separated
by an ever-widening gulf. The two races--Persians and Arabs--to whose
co-operation the mediæval world, from Samarcand to Seville, for a long
time owed its highest literary and scientific culture, have now finally
dissolved their partnership. It is true that the cleavage began many
centuries earlier, and before the fall of Baghdád the Persian genius had
already expressed itself in a splendid national literature. But from
this date onward the use of Arabic by Persians is practically limited to
theological and philosophical writings. The Persian language has driven
its rival out of the field. Accordingly Egypt and Syria will now demand
the principal share of our attention, more especially as the history of
the Arabs of Granada, which properly belongs to this period, has been
related in the preceding chapter.
[Sidenote: The Mamelukes of Egypt (1250-1517 A.D.).]
[Sidenote: Sultan Baybars (1260-1277 A.D.).]
[Sidenote: The ‘Abbásid Caliphs of Egypt.]
The dynasty of the Mameluke[825] Sultans of Egypt was founded in 1250
A.D. by Aybak, a Turkish slave, who commenced his career in the service
of the Ayyúbid, Malik Ṣáliḥ Najmu ’l-Dín. His successors[826] held
sway in Egypt and Syria until the conquest of these countries by the
Ottomans. The Mamelukes were rough soldiers, who seldom indulged in any
useless refinement, but they had a royal taste for architecture, as the
visitor to Cairo may still see. Their administration, though disturbed
by frequent mutinies and murders, was tolerably prosperous on the whole,
and their victories over the Mongol hosts, as well as the crushing blows
which they dealt to the Crusaders, gave Islam new prestige. The ablest
of them all was Baybars, who richly deserved his title Malik
al-Ẓáhir, _i.e._, the Victorious King. His name has passed into the
legends of the people, and his warlike exploits into romances written in
the vulgar dialect which are recited by story-tellers to this day.[827]
The violent and brutal acts which he sometimes committed--for he shrank
from no crime when he suspected danger--made him a terror to the
ambitious nobles around him, but did not harm his reputation as a just
ruler. Although he held the throne in virtue of having murdered the late
monarch with his own hand, he sought to give the appearance of
legitimacy to his usurpation. He therefore recognised as Caliph a
certain Abu ’l-Qásim Aḥmad, a pretended scion of the ‘Abbásid house,
invited him to Cairo, and took the oath of allegiance to him in due
form. The Caliph on his part invested the Sultan with sovereignty over
Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and all the provinces that he might obtain by
future conquests. This Aḥmad, entitled al-Mustanṣir, was the first
of a long series of mock Caliphs who were appointed by the Mameluke
Sultans and generally kept under close surveillance in the citadel of
Cairo. There is no authority for the statement, originally made by
Mouradgea d'Ohsson in 1787 and often repeated since, that the last of
the line bequeathed his rights of succession to the Ottoman Sultan Selím
I, thus enabling the Sultans of Turkey to claim the title and dignity of
Caliph.[828]
[Sidenote: Arabic poetry after the Mongol Invasion.]
[Sidenote: Ṣafiyyu ’l-Dín al-Ḥillí.]
The poets of this period are almost unknown in Europe, and until they
have been studied with due attention it would be premature to assert
that none of them rises above mediocrity. At the same time my own
impression (based, I confess, on a very desultory and imperfect
acquaintance with their work) is that the best among them are merely
elegant and accomplished artists, playing brilliantly with words and
phrases, but doing little else. No doubt extreme artificiality may
coexist with poetical genius of a high order, provided that it has
behind it Mutanabbí's power, Ma‘arrí's earnestness, or Ibnu
’l-Fáriḍ's enthusiasm. In the absence of these qualities we must be
content to admire the technical skill with which the old tunes are
varied and revived. Let us take, for example, Ṣafiyyu ’l-Dín
al-Ḥillí, who was born at Ḥilla, a large town on the Euphrates, in
1278 A.D., became laureate of the Urtuqid dynasty at Máridín, and died
in Baghdád about 1350. He is described as "the poet of his age
absolutely," and to judge from the extracts in Kutubí's _Fawátu
’l-Wafayát_[829] he combined subtlety of fancy with remarkable ease and
sweetness of versification. Many of his pieces, however, are _jeux
d'esprit_, like his ode to the Prophet, in which he employs 151
rhetorical figures, or like another poem where all the nouns are
diminutives.[830] The following specimen of his work is too brief to do
him justice:--
"How can I have patience, and thou, mine eye's delight,
All the livelong year not one moment in my sight?
And with what can I rejoice my heart, when thou that art a joy
Unto every human heart, from me hast taken flight?
I swear by Him who made thy form the envy of the sun
(So graciously He clad thee with lovely beams of light):
The day when I behold thy beauty doth appear to me
As tho' it gleamed on Time's dull brow a constellation bright.
O thou scorner of my passion, for whose sake I count as naught
All the woe that I endure, all the injury and despite,
Come, regard the ways of God! for never He at life's last gasp
Suffereth the weight to perish even of one mite!"[831]
[Sidenote: Popular poetry.]
We have already referred to the folk-songs (_muwashshaḥ_ and _zajal_)
which originated in Spain. These simple ballads, with their novel metres
and incorrect language, were despised by the classical school, that is
to say, by nearly all Moslems with any pretensions to learning; but
their popularity was such that even the court poets occasionally
condescended to write in this style. To the _zajal_ and _muwashshaḥ_
we may add the _dúbayt_, the _mawáliyyá_, the _kánwakán_, and the
_ḥimáq_, which together with verse of the regular form made up the
'seven kinds of poetry' (_al-funún al-sab‘a_). Ṣafiyyu ’l-Dín
al-Ḥillí, who wrote a special treatise on the Arabic folk-songs,
mentions two other varieties which, he says, were invented by the people
of Baghdád to be sung in the early dawn of Ramaḍán, the Moslem
Lent.[832] It is interesting to observe that some few literary men
attempted, though in a timid fashion, to free Arabic poetry from the
benumbing academic system by which it was governed and to pour fresh
life into its veins. A notable example of this tendency is the _Hazzu
’l-Quḥúf_[833] by Shirbíní, who wrote in 1687 A.D. Here we have a
poem in the vulgar dialect of Egypt, but what is still more curious, the
author, while satirising the uncouth manners and rude language of the
peasantry, makes a bitter attack on the learning and morals of the
Muḥammadan divines.[834] For this purpose he introduces a typical
Fellah named Abú Shádúf, whose rôle corresponds to that of Piers the
Plowman in Longland's _Vision_. Down to the end of the nineteenth
century, at any rate, such isolated offshoots had not gone far to found
a living school of popular poetry. Only the future can show whether the
Arabs are capable of producing a genius who will succeed in doing for
the national folk-songs what Burns did for the Scots ballads.
[Sidenote: Ibn Khallikán (1211-1282 A.D.).]
Biography and History were cultivated with ardour by the savants of
Egypt and Syria. Among the numerous compositions of this kind we can
have no hesitation in awarding the place of honour to the _Wafayátu
’l-A‘yán_, or 'Obituaries of Eminent Men,' by Shamsu ’l-Dín Ibn
Khallikán, a work which has often been quoted in the foregoing pages.
The author belonged to a distinguished family descending from Yaḥyá
b. Khálid the Barmecide (see p. 259 seq.), and was born at Arbela in
1211 A.D. He received his education at Aleppo and Damascus (1229-1238)
and then proceeded to Cairo, where he finished the first draft of his
Biographical Dictionary in 1256. Five years later he was appointed by
Sultan Baybars to be Chief Cadi of Syria. He retained this high office
(with a seven years' interval, which he devoted to literary and
biographical studies) until a short time before his death. In the
Preface to the _Wafayát_ Ibn Khallikán observes that he has adopted the
alphabetical order as more convenient than the chronological. As regards
the scope and character of his Dictionary, he says:--
[Sidenote: His Biographical Dictionary.]
"I have not limited my work to the history of any one particular
class of persons, as learned men, princes, emirs, viziers, or poets;
but I have spoken of all those whose names are familiar to the
public, and about whom questions are frequently asked; I have,
however, related the facts I could ascertain respecting them in a
concise manner, lest my work should become too voluminous; I have
fixed with all possible exactness the dates of their birth and
death; I have traced up their genealogy as high as I could; I have
marked the orthography of those names which are liable to be written
incorrectly; and I have cited the traits which may best serve to
characterise each individual, such as noble actions, singular
anecdotes, verses and letters, so that the reader may derive
amusement from my work, and find it not exclusively of such a
uniform cast as would prove tiresome; for the most effectual
inducement to reading a book arises from the variety of its
style."[835]
Ibn Khallikan might have added that he was the first Muḥammadan
writer to design a Dictionary of National Biography, since none of his
predecessors had thought of comprehending the lives of eminent Moslems
of every class in a single work.[836] The merits of the book have been
fully recognised by the author's countrymen as well as by European
scholars. It is composed in simple and elegant language, it is extremely
accurate, and it contains an astonishing quantity of miscellaneous
historical and literary information, not drily catalogued but conveyed
in the most pleasing fashion by anecdotes and excerpts which illustrate
every department of Moslem life. I am inclined to agree with the opinion
of Sir William Jones, that it is the best general biography ever
written; and allowing for the difference of scale and scope, I think it
will bear comparison with a celebrated English work which it resembles
in many ways--I mean Boswell's _Johnson_.[837]
[Sidenote: Historians of the Mameluke period.]
[Sidenote: Maqrízí.]
To give an adequate account of the numerous and talented historians of
the Mameluke period would require far more space than they can
reasonably claim in a review of this kind. Concerning Ibn Khaldún, who
held a professorship as well as the office of Cadi in Cairo under Sultan
Barqúq (1382-1398 A.D.), we have already spoken at some length. This
extraordinary genius discovered principles and methods which might have
been expected to revolutionise historical science, but neither was he
himself capable of carrying them into effect nor, as the event proved,
did they inspire his successors to abandon the path of tradition. I
cannot imagine any more decisive symptom of the intellectual lethargy in
which Islam was now sunk, or any clearer example of the rule that even
the greatest writers struggle in vain against the spirit of their own
times. There were plenty of learned men, however, who compiled local and
universal histories. Considering the precious materials which their
industry has preserved for us, we should rather admire these diligent
and erudite authors than complain of their inability to break away from
the established mode. Perhaps the most famous among them is Taqiyyu
’l-Dín al-Maqrízí (1364-1442 A.D.). A native of Cairo, he devoted
himself to Egyptian history and antiquities, on which subject he
composed several standard works, such as the _Khiṭaṭ_[838] and the
_Sulúk_.[839] Although he was both unconscientious and uncritical, too
often copying without acknowledgment or comment, and indulging in
wholesale plagiarism when it suited his purpose, these faults which are
characteristic of his age may easily be excused. "He has accumulated and
reduced to a certain amount of order a large quantity of information
that would but for him have passed into oblivion. He is generally
painstaking and accurate, and always resorts to contemporary evidence if
it is available. Also he has a pleasant and lucid style, and writes
without bias and apparently with distinguished impartiality."[840] Other
well-known works belonging to this epoch are the _Fakhrí_ of Ibnu
’l-Ṭiqṭaqá, a delightful manual of Muḥammadan politics[841]
which was written at Mosul in 1302 A.D.; the epitome of universal
history by Abu ’l-Fidá, Prince of Ḥamát († 1331); the voluminous
Chronicle of Islam by Dhahabí († 1348); the high-flown Biography of
Tímúr entitled _‘Ajá’ibu ’l-Maqdúr_, or 'Marvels of Destiny,' by Ibn
‘Arabsháh († 1450); and the _Nujúm al-Záhira_ ('Resplendent Stars') by
Abu ’l-Maḥásin b. Taghríbirdí († 1469), which contains the annals of
Egypt under the Moslems. The political and literary history of
Muḥammadan Spain by Maqqarí of Tilimsán († 1632) was mentioned in the
last chapter.[842]
[Sidenote: Jalálu ’l-Dín al-Suyúṭí (1445-1505 A.D.).]
If we were asked to select a single figure who should exhibit as
completely as possible in his own person the literary tendencies of the
Alexandrian age of Arabic civilisation, our choice would assuredly fall
on Jalálu ’l-Dín al-Suyúṭí, who was born at Suyúṭ (Usyúṭ) in
Upper Egypt in 1445 A.D. His family came originally from Persia, but,
like Dhahabí, Ibn Taghríbirdí, and many celebrated writers of this time,
he had, through his mother, an admixture of Turkish blood. At the age of
five years and seven months, when his father died, the precocious boy
had already reached the _Súratu ’l-Taḥrím_ (Súra of Forbidding),
which is the sixty-sixth chapter of the Koran, and he knew the whole
volume by heart before he was eight years old. He prosecuted his studies
under the most renowned masters in every branch of Moslem learning, and
on finishing his education held one Professorship after another at Cairo
until 1501, when he was deprived of his post in consequence of
malversation of the bursary monies in his charge. He died four years
later in the islet of Rawḍa on the Nile, whither he had retired under
the pretence of devoting the rest of his life to God. We possess the
titles of more than five hundred separate works which he composed. This
number would be incredible but for the fact that many of them are brief
pamphlets displaying the author's curious erudition on all sorts of
abstruse subjects--_e.g._, whether the Prophet wore trousers, whether
his turban had a point, and whether his parents are in Hell or Paradise.
Suyúṭí's indefatigable pen travelled over an immense field of
knowledge--Koran, Tradition, Law, Philosophy and History, Philology and
Rhetoric. Like some of the old Alexandrian scholars, he seems to have
taken pride in a reputation for polygraphy, and his enemies declared
that he made free with other men's books, which he used to alter
slightly and then give out as his own. Suyúṭí, on his part, laid
before the Shaykhu ’l-Islám a formal accusation of plagiarism against
Qasṭallání, an eminent contemporary divine. We are told that his
vanity and arrogance involved him in frequent quarrels, and that he was
'cut' by his learned brethren. Be this as it may, he saw what the public
wanted. His compendious and readable handbooks were famed throughout the
Moslem world, as he himself boasts, from India to Morocco, and did much
to popularise the scientific culture of the day. It will be enough to
mention here the _Itqán_ on Koranic exegesis; the _Tafsíru ’l-Jalálayn_,
or 'Commentary on the Koran by the two Jaláls,' which was begun by
Jalálu ’l-Dín al-Maḥallí and finished by his namesake, Suyúṭí; the
_Muzhir_ (_Mizhar_), a treatise on philology; the _Ḥusnu
’l-Muḥáḍara_, a history of Old and New Cairo; and the _Ta’ríkhu
’l-Khulafá_, or 'History of the Caliphs.'
[Sidenote: Other scholars of the period.]
To dwell longer on the literature of this period would only be to
emphasise its scholastic and unoriginal character. A passing mention,
however, is due to the encyclopædists Nuwayrí († 1332), author of the
_Niháyatu ’l-Arab_, and Ibnu ’l-Wardí († 1349). Ṣafadí († 1363)
compiled a gigantic biographical dictionary, the _Wáfí bi ’l-Wafayát_,
in twenty-six volumes, and the learned traditionist, Ibn Ḥajar of
Ascalon († 1449), has left a large number of writings, among which it
will be sufficient to name the _Iṣába fí tamyíz al-Ṣaḥába_, or
Lives of the Companions of the Prophet.[843] We shall conclude this part
of our subject by enumerating a few celebrated works which may be
described in modern terms as standard text-books for the Schools and
Universities of Islam. Amidst the host of manuals of Theology and
Jurisprudence, with their endless array of abridgments, commentaries,
and supercommentaries, possibly the best known to European students are
those by Abu ’l-Barakát al-Nasafí († 1310), ‘Aḍudu ’l-Dín al-Íjí (†
1355), Sídí Khalíl al-Jundí († 1365), Taftázání († 1389), Sharíf
al-Jurjání († 1413), and Muḥammad b. Yúsuf al-Sanúsí († 1486). For
Philology and Lexicography we have the _Alfiyya_, a versified grammar by
Ibn Málik of Jaen († 1273); the _Ájurrúmiyya_ on the rudiments of
grammar, an exceedingly popular compendium by Ṣanhájí († 1323); and
two famous Arabic dictionaries, the _Lisánu ’l-‘Arab_ by Jamálu ’l-Dín
Ibn Mukarram († 1311), and the _Qámús_ by Fírúzábádí († 1414). Nor,
although he was a Turk, should we leave unnoticed the great
bibliographer Ḥájjí Khalífa († 1658), whose _Kashfu ’l-Ẓunún_
contains the titles, arranged alphabetically, of all the Arabic,
Persian, and Turkish books of which the existence was known to him.
[Sidenote: The 'Thousand and One Nights.']
The Mameluke period gave final shape to the _Alf Layla wa-Layla_, or
'Thousand and One Nights,' a work which is far more popular in Europe
than the Koran or any other masterpiece of Arabic literature. The modern
title, 'Arabian Nights,' tells only a part of the truth. Mas‘údí († 956
A.D.) mentions an old Persian book, the _Hazár Afsána_ ('Thousand
Tales') which "is generally called the Thousand and One Nights; it is
the story of the King and his Vizier, and of the Vizier's daughter and
her slave-girl: Shírázád and Dínázád."[844] The author of the _Fihrist_,
writing in 988 A.D., begins his chapter "concerning the Story-Tellers
and the Fabulists and the names of the books which they composed" with
the following passage (p. 304):--
[Sidenote: Persian origin of the 'Thousand and One Nights.']
[Sidenote: The _Hazár Afsán_.]
"The first who composed fables and made books of them and put them
by in treasuries and sometimes introduced animals as speaking them
were the Ancient Persians. Afterwards the Parthian kings, who form
the third dynasty of the kings of Persia, showed the utmost zeal in
this matter. Then in the days of the Sásánian kings such books
became numerous and abundant, and the Arabs translated them into the
Arabic tongue, and they soon reached the hands of philologists and
rhetoricians, who corrected and embellished them and composed other
books in the same style. Now the first book ever made on this
subject was the Book of the Thousand Tales (_Hazár Afsán_), on the
following occasion: A certain king of Persia used to marry a woman
for one night and kill her the next morning. And he wedded a wise
and clever princess, called Shahrázád, who began to tell him stories
and brought the tale at daybreak to a point that induced the king to
spare her life and ask her on the second night to finish her tale.
So she continued until a thousand nights had passed, and she was
blessed with a son by him.... And the king had a stewardess
(_qahramána_) named Dínárzád, who was in league with the queen. It
is also said that this book was composed for Ḥumání, the daughter
of Bahman, and there are various traditions concerning it. The
truth, if God will, is that Alexander (the Great) was the first who
heard stories by night, and he had people to make him laugh and
divert him with tales; although he did not seek amusement therein,
but only to store and preserve them (in his memory). The kings who
came after him used the 'Thousand Tales' (_Hazár Afsán_) for this
purpose. It covers a space of one thousand nights, but contains less
than two hundred stories, because the telling of a single story
often takes several nights. I have seen the complete work more than
once, and it is indeed a vulgar, insipid book (_kitábun ghaththun
báridu ’l-hadíth_).[845]
Abu ‘Abdalláh Muḥammad b. ‘Abdús al-Jahshiyárí († 942-943 A.D.),
the author of the 'Book of Viziers,' began to compile a book in
which he selected one thousand stories of the Arabs, the Persians,
the Greeks, and other peoples, every piece being independent and
unconnected with the rest. He gathered the story-tellers round him
and took from them the best of what they knew and were able to tell,
and he chose out of the fable and story-books whatever pleased him.
He was a skilful craftsman, so he put together from this material
480 nights, each night an entire story of fifty pages, more or less,
but death surprised him before he completed the thousand tales as he
had intended."
[Sidenote: Different sources of the collection.]
Evidently, then, the _Hazár Afsán_ was the kernel of the 'Arabian
Nights,' and it is probable that this Persian archetype included the
most finely imaginative tales in the existing collection, _e.g._, the
'Fisherman and the Genie,' 'Camaralzamán and Budúr,' and the 'Enchanted
Horse.' As time went on, the original stock received large additions
which may be divided into two principal groups, both Semitic in
character: the one belonging to Baghdád and consisting mainly of
humorous anecdotes and love romances in which the famous Caliph 'Haroun
Alraschid' frequently comes on the scene; the other having its centre in
Cairo, and marked by a roguish, ironical pleasantry as well as by the
mechanic supernaturalism which is perfectly illustrated in 'Aladdin and
the Wonderful Lamp.' But, apart from these three sources, the 'Arabian
Nights' has in the course of centuries accumulated and absorbed an
immense number of Oriental folk-tales of every description, equally
various in origin and style. The oldest translation by Galland (Paris,
1704-1717) is a charming paraphrase, which in some respects is more true
to the spirit of the original than are the scholarly renderings of Lane
and Burton.
[Sidenote: The 'Romance of ‘Antar.']
The 'Romance of ‘Antar' (_Síratu ‘Antar_) is traditionally ascribed to
the great philologist, Aṣma‘í,[846] who flourished in the reign of
Hárún al-Rashíd, but this must be considered as an invention of the
professional reciters who sit in front of Oriental cafés and entertain
the public with their lively declamations.[847] According to
Brockelmann, the work in its present form apparently dates from the time
of the Crusades.[848] Its hero is the celebrated heathen poet and
warrior, ‘Antara b. Shaddád, of whom we have already given an account as
author of one of the seven _Mu‘allaqát_. Though the Romance exhibits all
the anachronisms and exaggerations of popular legend, it does
nevertheless portray the unchanging features of Bedouin life with
admirable fidelity and picturesqueness. Von Hammer, whose notice in the
_Mines de l'Orient_ (1802) was the means of introducing the _Síratu
‘Antar_ to European readers, justly remarks that it cannot be translated
in full owing to its portentous length. It exists in two recensions
called respectively the Arabian (_Ḥijáziyya_) and the Syrian
(_Shámiyya_), the latter being very much curtailed.[849]
[Sidenote: Orthodoxy and mysticism.]
While the decadent state of Arabic literature during all these centuries
was immediately caused by unfavourable social and political conditions,
the real source of the malady lay deeper, and must, I think, be referred
to the spiritual paralysis which had long been creeping over Islam and
which manifested itself by the complete victory of the Ash‘arites or
Scholastic Theologians about 1200 A.D. Philosophy and Rationalism were
henceforth as good as dead. Two parties remained in possession of the
field--the orthodox and the mystics. The former were naturally
intolerant of anything approaching to free-thought, and in their
principle of _ijmá‘_, _i.e._, the consensus of public opinion (which was
practically controlled by themselves), they found a potent weapon
against heresy. How ruthlessly they sometimes used it we may see from
the following passage in the _Yawáqít_ of Sha‘rání. After giving
instances of the persecution to which the Ṣúfís of old--Báyazíd, Dhú
’l-Nún, and others--were subjected by their implacable enemies, the
_‘Ulamá_, he goes on to speak of what had happened more recently[850]:--
[Sidenote: Persecution of heretics.]
"They brought the Imám Abú Bakr al-Nábulusí, notwithstanding his
merit and profound learning and rectitude in religion, from the
Maghrib to Egypt and testified that he was a heretic (_zindíq_). The
Sultan gave orders that he should be suspended by his feet and
flayed alive. While the sentence was being carried out, he began to
recite the Koran with such an attentive and humble demeanour that he
moved the hearts of the people, and they were near making a riot.
And likewise they caused Nasímí to be flayed at Aleppo.[851] When he
silenced them by his arguments, they devised a plan for his
destruction, thus: They wrote the _Súratu ’l-Ikhláṣ_[852] on a
piece of paper and bribed a cobbler of shoes, saying to him, 'It
contains only love and pleasantness, so place it inside the sole of
the shoe.' Then they took that shoe and sent it from a far distance
as a gift to the Shaykh (Nasímí), who put it on, for he knew not.
His adversaries went to the governor of Aleppo and said: 'We have
sure information that Nasímí has written, _Say, God is One_, and has
placed the writing in the sole of his shoe. If you do not believe
us, send for him and see!' The governor did as they wished. On the
production of the paper, the Shaykh resigned himself to the will of
God and made no answer to the charge, knowing well that he would be
killed on that pretext. I was told by one who studied under his
disciples that all the time when he was being flayed Nasímí was
reciting _muwashshaḥs_ in praise of the Unity of God, until he
composed five hundred verses, and that he was looking at his
executioners and smiling. And likewise they brought Shaykh Abu
’l-Ḥasan al-Shádhilí[853] from the West to Egypt and bore
witness that he was a heretic, but God delivered him from their
plots. And they accused Shaykh ‘Izzu ’l-Dín b. ‘Abd al-Salám[854] of
infidelity and sat in judgment over him on account of some
expressions in his _‘Aqída_ (Articles of Faith) and urged the Sultan
to punish him; afterwards, however, he was restored to favour. They
denounced Shaykh Táju ’l-Dín al-Subkí[855] on the same charge,
asserting that he held it lawful to drink wine and that he wore at
night the badge (_ghiyár_) of the unbelievers and the zone
(_zunnár_)[856]; and they brought him, manacled and in chains, from
Syria to Egypt."
This picture is too highly coloured. It must be admitted for the credit
of the _‘Ulamá_, that they seldom resorted to violence. Islam was
happily spared the horrors of an organised Inquisition. On the other
hand, their authority was now so firmly established that all progress
towards moral and intellectual liberty had apparently ceased, or at any
rate only betrayed itself in spasmodic outbursts. Ṣúfiism in some
degree represented such a movement, but the mystics shared the triumph
of Scholasticism and contributed to the reaction which ensued. No longer
an oppressed minority struggling for toleration, they found themselves
side by side with reverend doctors on a platform broad enough to
accommodate all parties, and they saw their own popular heroes turned
into Saints of the orthodox Church. The compromise did not always work
smoothly--in fact, there was continual friction--but on the whole it
seems to have borne the strain wonderfully well. If pious souls were
shocked by the lawlessness of the Dervishes, and if bigots would fain
have burned the books of Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí and Ibnu ’l-Fáriḍ, the
divines in general showed a disposition to suspend judgment in matters
touching holy men and to regard them as standing above human criticism.
As typical representatives of the religious life of this period we may
take two men belonging to widely opposite camps--Taqiyyu ’l-Dín Ibn
Taymiyya and ‘Abdu ’l-Wahháb al-Sha‘rání.
[Sidenote: Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328 A.D.).]
Ibn Taymiyya was born at Ḥarrán in 1263 A.D. A few years later his
father, fleeing before the Mongols, brought him to Damascus, where in
due course he received an excellent education. It is said that he never
forgot anything which he had once learned, and his knowledge of theology
and law was so extensive as almost to justify the saying, "A tradition
that Ibn Taymiyya does not recognise is no tradition." Himself a
Ḥanbalite of the deepest dye--holding, in other words, that the Koran
must be interpreted according to its letter and not by the light of
reason--he devoted his life with rare courage to the work of religious
reform. His aim, in short, was to restore the primitive monotheism
taught by the Prophet and to purge Islam of the heresies and corruptions
which threatened to destroy it. One may imagine what a hornet's nest he
was attacking. Mystics, philosophers, and scholastic theologians, all
fell alike under the lash of his denunciation. Bowing to no authority,
but drawing his arguments from the traditions and practice of the early
Church, he expressed his convictions in the most forcible terms, without
regard to consequences. Although several times thrown into prison, he
could not be muzzled for long. The climax was reached when he lifted up
his voice against the superstitions of the popular faith--saint-worship,
pilgrimage to holy shrines, vows, offerings, and invocations. These
things, which the zealous puritan condemned as sheer idolatry, were part
of a venerable cult that was hallowed by ancient custom, and had
engrafted itself in luxuriant overgrowth upon Islam. The mass of Moslems
believed, and still believe implicitly in the saints, accept their
miracles, adore their relics, visit their tombs, and pray for their
intercession. Ibn Taymiyya even declared that it was wrong to implore
the aid of the Prophet or to make a pilgrimage to his sepulchre. It was
a vain protest. He ended his days in captivity at Damascus. The vast
crowds who attended his funeral--we are told that there were present
200,000 men and 15,000 women--bore witness to the profound respect which
was universally felt for the intrepid reformer. Oddly enough, he was
buried in the Cemetery of the Ṣúfís, whose doctrines he had so
bitterly opposed, and the multitude revered his memory--as a saint! The
principles which inspired Ibn Taymiyya did not fall to the ground,
although their immediate effect was confined to a very small circle. We
shall see them reappearing victoriously in the Wahhábite movement of the
eighteenth century.
[Sidenote: Sha‘rání († 1565 A.D.).]
Notwithstanding the brilliant effort of Ghazálí to harmonise dogmatic
theology with mysticism, it soon became clear that the two parties were
in essence irreconcilable. The orthodox clergy who held fast by the
authority of the Koran and the Traditions saw a grave danger to
themselves in the esoteric revelation which the mystics claimed to
possess; while the latter, though externally conforming to the law of
Islam, looked down with contempt on the idea that true knowledge of God
could be derived from theology, or from any source except the inner
light of heavenly inspiration. Hence the antithesis of _faqíh_
(theologian) and _faqír_ (dervish), the one class forming a powerful
official hierarchy in close alliance with the Government, whereas the
Ṣúfís found their chief support among the people at large, and
especially among the poor. We need not dwell further on the natural
antagonism which has always existed between these rival corporations,
and which is a marked feature in the modern history of Islam. It will be
more instructive to spend a few moments with the last great
Muḥammadan theosophist, ‘Abdu ’l-Wahháb al-Sha‘rání, a man who, with
all his weaknesses, was an original thinker, and exerted an influence
strongly felt to this day, as is shown by the steady demand for his
books. He was born about the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Concerning his outward life we have little information beyond the facts
that he was a weaver by trade and resided in Cairo. At this time Egypt
was a province of the Ottoman Empire. Sha‘rání contrasts the miserable
lot of the peasantry under the new _régime_ with their comparative
prosperity under the Mamelukes. So terrible were the exactions of the
tax-gatherers that the fellah was forced to sell the whole produce of
his land, and sometimes even the ox which ploughed it, in order to save
himself and his family from imprisonment; and every lucrative business
was crushed by confiscation. It is not to be supposed, however, that
Sha‘rání gave serious attention to such sublunary matters. He lived in a
world of visions and wonderful experiences. He conversed with angels and
prophets, like his more famous predecessor, Muḥyi ’l-Dín Ibnu
’l-‘Arabí, whose _Meccan Revelations_ he studied and epitomised. His
autobiography entitled _Laṭá’ifu ’l-Minan_ displays the hierophant in
full dress. It is a record of the singular spiritual gifts and virtues
with which he was endowed, and would rank as a masterpiece of shameless
self-laudation, did not the author repeatedly assure us that all his
extraordinary qualities are Divine blessings and are gratefully set
forth by their recipient _ad majorem Dei gloriam_. We should be treating
Sha‘rání very unfairly if we judged him by this work alone. The arrogant
miracle-monger was one of the most learned men of his day, and could
beat the scholastic theologians with their own weapons. Indeed, he
regarded theology (_fiqh_) as the first step towards Ṣúfiism, and
endeavoured to show that in reality they are different aspects of the
same science. He also sought to harmonise the four great schools of law,
whose disagreement was consecrated by the well-known saying ascribed to
the Prophet: "The variance of my people is an act of Divine mercy"
(_ikhtiláfu ummatí raḥmatun_). Like the Arabian Ṣúfís generally,
Sha‘rání kept his mysticism within narrow bounds, and declared himself
an adherent of the moderate section which follows Junayd of Baghdád (†
909-910 A.D.). For all his extravagant pretensions and childish belief
in the supernatural, he never lost touch with the Muḥammadan Church.
In the thirteenth century Ibn Taymiyya had tried to eradicate the abuses
which obscured the simple creed of Islam. He failed, but his work was
carried on by others and was crowned, after a long interval, by the
Wahhábite Reformation.[857]
[Sidenote: Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahháb and his successors.]
Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahháb,[858] from whom its name is derived, was
born about 1720 A.D. in Najd, the Highlands of Arabia. In his youth he
visited the principal cities of the East, "as is much the practice with
his countrymen even now,"[859] and what he observed in the course of his
travels convinced him that Islam was thoroughly corrupt. Fired by the
example of Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings he copied with his own
hand,[860] Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahháb determined to re-establish the pure
religion of Muḥammad in its primitive form. Accordingly he returned
home and retired with his family to Ḑira‘iyya at the time when
Muḥammad b. Sa‘úd was the chief personage of the town. This man
became his first convert and soon after married his daughter. But it was
not until the end of the eighteenth century that the Wahhábís, under
‘Abdu ’l-‘Azíz, son of Muḥammad b. Sa‘úd, gained their first great
successes. In 1801 they sacked Imám-Ḥusayn,[861] a town in the
vicinity of Baghdád, massacred five thousand persons, and destroyed the
cupola of Ḥusayn's tomb; the veneration paid by all Shí‘ites to that
shrine being, as Burckhardt says, a sufficient cause to attract the
Wahhábí fury against it. Two years later they made themselves masters of
the whole Ḥijáz, including Mecca and Medína. On the death of ‘Abdu
’l-‘Azíz, who was assassinated in the same year, his eldest son, Sa‘úd,
continued the work of conquest and brought the greater part of Arabia
under Wahhábite rule. At last, in 1811, Turkey despatched a fleet and
army to recover the Holy Cities. This task was accomplished by
Muḥammad ‘Alí, the Pasha of Egypt (1812-13), and after five years'
hard fighting the war ended in favour of the Turks, who in 1818
inflicted a severe defeat on the Wahhábís and took their capital,
Ḑira‘iyya, by storm. The sect, however, still maintains its power in
Central Arabia, and in recent times has acquired political importance.
[Sidenote: The Wahhábite Reformation.]
The Wahhábís were regarded by the Turks as infidels and authors of a new
religion. It was natural that they should appear in this light, for they
interrupted the pilgrim-caravans, demolished the domes and ornamented
tombs of the most venerable Saints (not excepting that of the Prophet
himself), and broke to pieces the Black Stone in the Ka‘ba. All this
they did not as innovators, but as reformers. They resembled the
Carmathians only in their acts. Burckhardt says very truly: "Not a
single new precept was to be found in the Wahaby code. Abd el Waháb took
as his sole guide the Koran and the Sunne (or the laws formed upon the
traditions of Mohammed); and the only difference between his sect and
the orthodox Turks, however improperly so termed, is, that the Wahabys
rigidly follow the same laws which the others neglect, or have ceased
altogether to observe."[862] "The Wahhábites," says Dozy, "attacked the
idolatrous worship of Mahomet; although he was in their eyes a Prophet
sent to declare the will of God, he was no less a man like others, and
his mortal shell, far from having mounted to heaven, rested in the tomb
at Medína. Saint-worship they combated just as strongly. They proclaimed
that all men are equal before God; that even the most virtuous and
devout cannot intercede with Him; and that, consequently, it is a sin to
invoke the Saints and to adore their relics."[863] In the same puritan
spirit they forbade the smoking of tobacco, the wearing of gaudy robes,
and praying over the rosary. "It has been stated that they likewise
prohibited the drinking of coffee; this, however, is not the fact: they
have always used it to an immoderate degree."[864]
[Sidenote: The Sanúsís in Africa.]
The Wahhábite movement has been compared with the Protestant Reformation
in Europe; but while the latter was followed by the English and French
Revolutions, the former has not yet produced any great political
results. It has borne fruit in a general religious revival throughout
the world of Islam and particularly in the mysterious Sanúsiyya
Brotherhood, whose influence is supreme in Tripoli, the Sahara, and the
whole North African Hinterland, and whose members are reckoned by
millions. Muḥammad b. ‘Alí b. Sanúsí, the founder of this vast and
formidable organisation, was born at Algiers in 1791, lived for many
years at Mecca, and died at Jaghbúb in the Libyan desert, midway between
Egypt and Tripoli, in 1859. Concerning the real aims of the Sanúsís I
must refer the reader to an interesting paper by the Rev. E. Sell
(_Essays on Islam_, p. 127 sqq.). There is no doubt that they are
utterly opposed to all Western and modern civilisation, and seek to
regenerate Islam by establishing an independent theocratic State on the
model of that which the Prophet and his successors called into being at
Medína in the seventh century after Christ.
[Sidenote: Islam and modern civilisation.]
Since Napoleon showed the way by his expedition to Egypt in 1798, the
Moslems in that country, as likewise in Syria and North Africa, have
come more and more under European influence.[865] The above-mentioned
Muḥammad ‘Alí, who founded the Khedivial dynasty, and his successors
were fully alive to the practical benefits which might be obtained from
the superior culture of the West, and although their policy in this
respect was marked by greater zeal than discretion, they did not exert
themselves altogether in vain. The introduction of the printing-press in
1821 was an epoch-making measure. If, on the one hand, the publication
of many classical works, which had well-nigh fallen into oblivion,
rekindled the enthusiasm of the Arabs for their national literature, the
cause of progress--I use the word without prejudice--has been furthered
by the numerous political, literary, and scientific journals which are
now regularly issued in every country where Arabic is spoken.[866]
Besides these ephemeral sheets, books of all sorts, old and new, have
been multiplied by the native and European presses of Cairo, Búláq, and
Beyrout. The science and culture of Europe have been rendered accessible
in translations and adaptations of which the complete list would form a
volume in itself. Thus, an Arab may read in his own language the
tragedies of Racine, the comedies of Molière,[867] the fables of La
Fontaine, 'Paul and Virginia,' the 'Talisman,' 'Monte Cristo' (not to
mention scores of minor romances), and even the Iliad of Homer.[868]
Parallel to this imitative activity, we see a vigorous and growing
movement away from the literary models of the past. "Neo-Arabic
literature is only to a limited extent the heir of the old 'classical'
Arabic literature, and even shows a tendency to repudiate its
inheritance entirely. Its leaders are for the most part men who have
drunk from other springs and look at the world with different eyes. Yet
the past still plays a part in their intellectual background, and there
is a section amongst them upon whom that past retains a hold scarcely
shaken by newer influences. For many decades the partisans of the 'old'
and the 'new' have engaged in a struggle for the soul of the Arabic
world, a struggle in which the victory of one side over the other is
even yet not assured. The protagonists are (to classify them roughly for
practical purposes) the European-educated classes of Egyptians and
Syrians on the one hand, and those in Egypt and the less advanced Arabic
lands whose education has followed traditional lines on the other.
Whatever the ultimate result may be, there can be no question that the
conflict has torn the Arabic world from its ancient moorings, and that
the contemporary literature of Egypt and Syria breathes in its more
recent developments a spirit foreign to the old traditions."[869]
Hitherto Western culture has only touched the surface of Islam. Whether
it will eventually strike deeper and penetrate the inmost barriers of
that scholastic discipline and literary tradition which are so firmly
rooted in the affections of the Moslem peoples, or whether it will
always remain an exotic and highly-prized accomplishment of the
enlightened and emancipated few, but an object of scorn and detestation
to Muḥammadans in general--these are questions that may not be fully
solved for centuries to come.
Meanwhile the Past affords an ample and splendid field of study.
"_Man lam ya‘i ’l-ta’ríkha fí ṣadrihí
Lam yadri ḥulwa ’l-‘ayshi min murrihi
Wa-man wa‘á akhbára man qad maḍá
Aḍáfa a‘máran ilá ‘umrihí._"
"He in whose heart no History is enscrolled
Cannot discern in life's alloy the gold.
But he that keeps the records of the Dead
Adds to his life new lives a hundredfold."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] H. Grimme, _Weltgeschichte in Karakterbildern: Mohammed_ (Munich,
1904), p. 6 sqq.
[2] _Cf._ Nöldeke, _Die Semitischen Sprachen_ (Leipzig, 1899), or the
same scholar's article, 'Semitic Languages,' in the _Encyclopædia
Britannica_, 11th edition. Renan's _Histoire générale des langues
sémitiques_ (1855) is now antiquated. An interesting essay on the
importance of the Semites in the history of civilisation was published
by F. Hommel as an introduction to his _Semitischen Völker und
Sprachen_, vol. i (Leipzig, 1883). The dates in this table are of course
only approximate.
[3] Ibn Qutayba, _Kitábu ’l-Ma‘árij_, ed. by Wüstenfeld, p. 18.
[4] Full information concerning the genealogy of the Arabs will be found
in Wüstenfeld's _Genealogische Tabellen der Arabischen Stämme und
Familien_ with its excellent _Register_ (Göttingen, 1852-1853).
[5] The tribes Ḑabba, Tamím, Khuzayma, Hudhayl, Asad, Kinána, and
Quraysh together formed a group which is known as Khindif, and is often
distinguished from Qays ‘Aylán.
[6] Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part I, p. 133 sqq., 177 sqq.
[7] Nöldeke in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 40, p. 177.
[8] See Margoliouth, _Mohammed and the Rise of Islam_, p. 4.
[9] Concerning the nature and causes of this antagonism see Goldziher,
_op. cit._, Part I, p. 78 sqq.
[10] The word 'Arabic' is always to be understood in this sense wherever
it occurs in the following pages.
[11] First published by Sachau in _Monatsberichte der Kön. Preuss. Akad.
der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_ (February, 1881), p. 169 sqq.
[12] See De Vogüé, _Syrie Centrale, Inscriptions Sémitiques_, p. 117.
Other references are given in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 35, p. 749.
[13] On this subject the reader may consult Goldziher. _Muhammedanische
Studien_, Part I, p. 110 sqq.
[14] Professor Margoliouth in _F.R.A.S._ for 1905, p. 418
[15] Nöldeke, _Die Semitischen Sprachen_, p. 36 sqq. and p. 51.
[16] _Journal Asiatique_ (March, 1835), p. 209 sqq.
[17] Strictly speaking, the _Jáhiliyya_ includes the whole time between
Adam and Muḥammad, but in a narrower sense it may be used, as here, to
denote the Pre-islamic period of Arabic Literature.
[18] _Die Namen der Säugethiere bei den Südsemitischen Völkern_, p. 343
seq.
[19] _Iramu Dhátu ’l-‘Imád_ (Koran, lxxxix, 6). The sense of these words
is much disputed. See especially Ṭabarí's explanation in his great
commentary on the Koran (O. Loth in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 35, p. 626 sqq.).
[20] I have abridged Ṭabarí, _Annals_, i, 231 sqq. _Cf._ also chapters
vii, xi, xxvi, and xlvi of the Koran.
[21] Koran, xi, 56-57.
[22] See Doughty's _Documents Epigraphiques recueillis dans le nord de
l'Arabie_, p. 12 sqq.
[23] Koran, vii, 76.
[24] Properly Saba’ with _hamza_, both syllables being short.
[25] The oldest record of Saba to which a date can be assigned is found
in the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions. We read in the Annals of King
Sargon (715 B.C.), "I received the tribute of Pharaoh, the King of
Egypt, of Shamsiyya, the Queen of Arabia, of Ithamara the Sabæan--gold,
spices, slaves, horses, and camels." Ithamara is identical with
Yatha‘amar, a name borne by several kings of Saba.
[26] A. Müller, _Der Islam im Morgen und Abendland_, vol. i, p. 24 seq.
[27] Nöldeke, however, declares the traditions which represent Kulayb as
leading the Rabí‘a clans to battle against the combined strength of
Yemen to be entirely unhistorical (_Fünf Mo‘allaqát_, i, 44).
[28] _Op. cit._, p. 94 seq. An excellent account of the progress made in
discovering and deciphering the South Arabic inscriptions down to the
year 1841 is given by Rödiger, _Excurs ueber himjaritische Inschriften_,
in his German translation of Wellsted's _Travels in Arabia_, vol. ii, p.
368 sqq.
[29] Seetzen's inscriptions were published in _Fundgruben des Orients_,
vol. ii (Vienna, 1811), p. 282 sqq. The one mentioned above was
afterwards deciphered and explained by Mordtmann in the _Z.D.M.G._, vol.
31, p. 89 seq.
[30] The oldest inscriptions, however, run from left to right and from
right to left alternately (βουστρορηδόν).
[31] _Notiz ueber die himjaritische Schrift nebst doppeltem Alphabet
derselben_ in _Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes_, vol. i
(Göttingen, 1837), p. 332 sqq.
[32] See Arnaud's _Relation d'un voyage à Mareb (Saba) dans l'Arabie
méridionale_ in the _Journal Asiatique_, 4th series, vol. v (1845), p.
211 sqq. and p. 309 sqq.
[33] See _Rapport sur une mission archéologique dans le Yémen_ in the
_Journal Asiatique_, 6th series, vol. xix (1872), pp. 5-98, 129-266,
489-547.
[34] See D. H. Müller, _Die Burgen und Schlösser Südarabiens_ in
_S.B.W.A._, vol. 97, p. 981 sqq.
[35] The title _Mukarrib_ combines the significations of prince and
priest.
[36] Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part I, p. 3.
[37] See F. Prætorius, _Unsterblichkeitsglaube und Heiligenverehrung bei
den Himyaren_ in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 27, p. 645. Hubert Grimme has given an
interesting sketch of the religious ideas and customs of the Southern
Arabs in _Weltgeschichte in Karakterbildern: Mohammed_ (Munich, 1904),
p. 29 sqq.
[38] _Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, vol. 5, p.
409.
[39] This table of contents is quoted by D. H. Müller (_Südarabische
Studien_, p. 108, n. 2) from the title-page of the British Museum MS. of
the eighth book of the _Iklíl_. No complete copy of the work is known to
exist, but considerable portions of it are preserved in the British
Museum and in the Berlin Royal Library.
[40] The poet ‘Alqama b. Dhí Jadan, whose verses are often cited in the
commentary on the 'Ḥimyarite Ode.'
[41] _Die Himjarische Kasideh_ herausgegeben 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 _Ḥimyar_ and _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
_qarn_ in 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
(† 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-jahdi_ for _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 _Iklíl_ have 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-Aghání_ has 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] _Muqaddima_ of Ibn Khaldún (Beyrout, 1900), p. 554, ll. 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 _yatafaḍḍalu_ for _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 _fanak_ is 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 _díwán_ in 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-Poesie_ in 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] _Rajaz_ primarily 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. _Rajaz_ is 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 _Rajaz_ verses, 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 (_Fünf 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. iiº, 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 _like_ the
animals mentioned. Prof. Bevan remarks, however, that this
interpretation is doubtful, since an Arab would scarcely compare his
_friend_ to 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 _Díwán_ has 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] _Aghání_ xvi, 22, ll. 10-16.
[176] _Aghání_, 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 _Kámil_ of 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‘allaqa_ of
Ḥárith.
[202] The best edition of the _Mu‘allaqát_ is Sir Charles Lyall's (_A
Commentary on Ten Ancient Arabic Poems_, Calcutta, 1894), which contains
in addition to the seven _Mu‘allaqát_ three 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‘allaqát_ were written in letters of gold
seems to have arisen from a misunderstanding of the name _Mudhhabát_ or
_Mudhahhabát_ (_i.e._, the Gilded Poems) which is sometimes given to
them in token of their excellence, just as the Greeks gave the title
χρύσεα ἔπη to a poem falsely attributed to Pythagoras. That some of
the _Mu‘allaqát_ were 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‘allaḳát' 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 König_ by 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 Sharran.
[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‘allaqa_ before 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 _kunya_ to 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).
[240] Vv. 27-31.
[241] The order of these verses in Lyall's edition is as follows: 56,
57, 54, 50, 55, 53, 49, 47, 48, 52, 58.
[242] Reference has been made above to the old Arabian belief that poets
owed their inspiration to the _jinn_ (genii), who are sometimes called
_shayátín_ (satans). See Goldziher, _Abhand. zur arab. Philologie_, Part
I, pp. 1-14.
[243] Vv. 1-10 (Lyall), omitting v. 5.
[244] Vv. 55-60 (Lyall).
[245] The term _nábigha_ is applied to a poet whose genius is slow in
declaring itself but at last "jets forth vigorously and abundantly"
(_nabagha_).
[246] _Díwán_, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 83; Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 96.
[247] He means to say that Nu‘mán has no reason to feel aggrieved
because he (Nábigha) is grateful to the Ghassánids for their munificent
patronage; since Nu‘mán does not consider that his own favourites, in
showing gratitude to himself, are thereby guilty of treachery towards
their former patrons.
[248] _Diwán_, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 76, ii, 21. In another place (p.
81, vi, 6) he says, addressing his beloved:--
"Wadd give thee greeting! for dalliance with women is lawful to me
no more,
Since Religion has become a serious matter."
Wadd was a god worshipped by the pagan Arabs. Derenbourg's text has
_rabbí_, _i.e._, Allah, but see Nöldeke's remarks in _Z.D.M.G._, vol.
xli (1887), p. 708.
[249] _Aghání_, viii, 85, last line-86, l. 10.
[250] Lyall, _Ten Ancient Arabic Poems_, p. 146 seq., vv. 25-31.
[251] Ahlwardt, _The Divans_, p. 106, vv. 8-10.
[252] _Ḥamása_, p. 382, l. 17.
[253] Nöldeke, _Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Poesie der alten Araber_, p.
152.
[254] Nöldeke, _ibid._, p. 175.
[255] The original title is _al-Mukhtárát_ (The Selected Odes) or
_al-Ikhtiyárát_ (The Selections).
[256] Oxford, 1918-21. The Indexes of personal and place-names, poetical
quotations, and selected words were prepared by Professor Bevan and
published in 1924 in the E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series.
[257] Ibn Khallikán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, No. 350 = De Slane's
translation, vol. ii, p. 51.
[258] See Nöldeke, _Beiträge_, p. 183 sqq. There would seem to be
comparatively few poems of Pre-islamic date in Buḥturí's anthology.
[259] Ibn Khallikán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, No. 204 = De Slane's
translation, vol. i, p. 470.
[260] Many interesting details concerning the tradition of Pre-islamic
poetry by the _Ráwís_ and the Philologists will be found in Ahlwardt's
_Bemerkungen ueber die Aechtheit der alten Arabischen Gedichte_
(Greifswald, 1872), which has supplied materials for the present sketch.
[261] _Aghání_, v, 172, l. 16 sqq.
[262] This view, however, is in accordance neither with the historical
facts nor with the public opinion of the Pre-islamic Arabs (see Nöldeke,
_Die Semitischen Sprachen_, p. 47).
[263] See Wellhausen, _Reste Arab. Heidentums_ (2nd ed.), p. 88 seq.
[264] _Ḥamása_, 506.
[265] _Ibid._, 237.
[266] _Díwán_ of Imru’u ’l-Qays, ed. by De Slane, p. 22 of the Arabic
text, l. 17 sqq. = No. 52, ll. 57-59 (p. 154) in Ahlwardt's _Divans of
the Six Poets_. With the last line, however, _cf._ the words of Qays b.
al-Khaṭím on accomplishing his vengeance: "_When this death comes,
there will not be found any need of my soul that I have not satisfied_"
(_Ḥamása_, 87).
[267] _Aghání_, ii, 18, l. 23 sqq.
[268] _Aghání_, ii, 34, l. 22 sqq.
[269] See Von Kremer, _Ueber die Gedichte des Labyd_ in _S.B.W.A._,
_Phil.-Hist. Klasse_ (Vienna, 1881), vol. 98, p. 555 sqq. Sir Charles
Lyall, _Ancient Arabian Poetry_, pp. 92 and 119. Wellhausen, _Reste
Arabischen Heidentums_ (2nd ed.), p. 224 sqq.
[270] I prefer to retain the customary spelling instead of Qur’án, as it
is correctly transliterated by scholars. Arabic words naturalised in
English, like Koran, Caliph, Vizier, &c., require no apology.
[271] Muir's _Life of Mahomet_, Introduction, p. 2 seq. I may as well
say at once that I entirely disagree with the view suggested in this
passage that Muḥammad did not believe himself to be inspired.
[272] The above details are taken from the _Fihrist_, ed. by G. Fluegel,
p. 24, l. 14 sqq.
[273] Muir, _op. cit._, Introduction, p. 14.
[274] With the exception of the Opening Súra (_al-Fátiḥa_), which is
a short prayer.
[275] Sprenger, _Ueber das Traditionswesen bei den Arabern_, _Z.D.M.G._,
vol. x, p. 2.
[276] Quoted by Sprenger, _loc. cit._, p. 1.
[277] Quoted by Nöldeke in the Introduction to his _Geschichte des
Qorâns_, p 22.
[278] See especially pp. 28-130.
[279] _Muhamm. Studien_, Part II, p. 48 seq.
[280] The reader may consult Muir's Introduction to his _Life of
Mahomet_, pp. 28-87.
[281] Ibn Hishám, p. 105, l. 9 sqq.
[282] This legend seems to have arisen out of a literal interpretation
of Koran, xciv, 1, "_Did we not open thy breast?_"--_i.e._, give thee
comfort or enlightenment.
[283] This name, which may signify 'Baptists,' was applied by the
heathen Arabs to Muḥammad and his followers, probably in consequence
of the ceremonial ablutions which are incumbent upon every Moslem before
the five daily prayers (see Wellhausen, _Reste Arab. Heid._, p. 237).
[284] Sir Charles Lyall, _The Words 'Ḥaníf' and 'Muslim,'_ _J.R.A.S._
for 1903, p. 772. The original meaning of _ḥaníf_ is no longer
traceable, but it may be connected with the Hebrew _ḥánéf_,
'profane.' In the Koran it generally refers to the religion of Abraham,
and sometimes appears to be nearly synonymous with _Muslim_. Further
information concerning the Ḥanífs will be found in Sir Charles
Lyall's article cited above; Sprenger, _Das Leben und die Lehre des
Moḥammed_, vol. i, pp. 45-134; Wellhausen, _Reste Arab. Heid._, p.
238 sqq.; Caetani, _Annali dell' Islam_, vol. i, pp. 181-192.
[285] Ibn Hishám, p. 143, l. 6 sqq.
[286] _Aghání_, iii, 187, l. 17 sqq.
[287] See p. 69 _supra_.
[288] Tradition associates him especially with Waraqa, who was a cousin
of his first wife, Khadíja, and is said to have hailed him as a prophet
while Muḥammad himself was still hesitating (Ibn Hishám, p. 153, l.
14 sqq.).
[289] This is the celebrated 'Night of Power' (_Laylatu ’l-Qadr_)
mentioned in the Koran, xcvii, 1.
[290] The Holy Ghost (_Rúḥu’l-Quds_), for whom in the Medína Súras
Gabriel (Jibríl) is substituted.
[291] But another version (Ibn Hishám, p. 152, l. 9 sqq.) represents
Muḥammad as replying to the Angel, "What am I to read?" (_má aqra’u_
or _má dhá aqra’u_). Professor Bevan has pointed out to me that the
tradition in this form bears a curious resemblance, which can hardly be
accidental, to the words of Isaiah xl. 6: "The voice said, Cry. And he
said, What shall I cry?" The question whether the Prophet could read and
write is discussed by Nöldeke (_Geschichte des Qorâns_, p. 7 sqq.), who
leaves it undecided. According to Nöldeke (_loc. cit._, p. 10), the
epithet _ummí_, which is applied to Muḥammad in the Koran, and is
commonly rendered by 'illiterate,' does not signify that he was ignorant
of reading and writing, but only that he was unacquainted with the
ancient Scriptures; _cf._ 'Gentile.' However this may be, it appears
that he wished to pass for illiterate, with the object of confirming the
belief in his inspiration: "_Thou_" (Muḥammad) "_didst not use to
read any book before this_" (the Koran) "_nor to write it with thy right
hand; else the liars would have doubted_" (Koran, xxix, 47).
[292] The meaning of these words (_iqra’ bismi rabbika_) is disputed.
Others translate, "Preach in the name of thy Lord" (Nöldeke), or
"Proclaim the name of thy Lord" (Hirschfeld). I see no sufficient
grounds for abandoning the traditional interpretation supported by
verses 4 and 5. Muḥammad dreamed that he was commanded to read the
Word of God inscribed in the Heavenly Book which is the source of all
Revelation.
[293] Others render, "who taught (the use of) the Pen."
[294] This account of Muḥammad's earliest vision (Bukhárí, ed. by
Krehl, vol. iii, p. 380, l. 2 sqq.) is derived from ‘A’isha, his
favourite wife, whom he married after the death of Khadíja.
[295] Ibn Hishám, p. 152, l. 9 sqq.
[296] See p. 72 _supra_.
[297] This interval is known as the Fatra.
[298] Literally, 'warn.'
[299] 'The abomination' (_al-rujz_) probably refers to idolatry.
[300] Literally, "The Last State shall be better for thee than the
First," referring either to Muḥammad's recompense in the next world
or to the ultimate triumph of his cause in this world.
[301] _Islám_ is a verbal noun formed from _Aslama_, which means 'to
surrender' and, in a religious sense, 'to surrender one's self to the
will of God.' The participle, _Muslim_ (Moslem), denotes one who thus
surrenders himself.
[302] Sprenger, _Leben des Mohammad_, vol. i, p. 356.
[303] It must be remembered that this branch of Muḥammadan tradition
derives from the pietists of the first century after the Flight, who
were profoundly dissatisfied with the reigning dynasty (the Umayyads),
and revenged themselves by painting the behaviour of the Meccan
ancestors of the Umayyads towards Muḥammad in the blackest colours
possible. The facts tell another story. It is significant that hardly
any case of real persecution is mentioned in the Koran. Muḥammad was
allowed to remain at Mecca and to carry on, during many years, a
religious propaganda which his fellow-citizens, with few exceptions,
regarded as detestable and dangerous. We may well wonder at the
moderation of the Quraysh, which, however, was not so much deliberate
policy as the result of their indifference to religion and of
Muḥammad's failure to make appreciable headway in Mecca.
[304] Ibn Hishám, p. 168, l. 9. sqq.
[305] At this time Muḥammad believed the doctrines of Islam and
Christianity to be essentially the same.
[306] Ṭabarí, i, 1180, 8 sqq. _Cf._ Caetani, _Annali dell' Islam_,
vol. i, p. 267 sqq.
[307] Muir, _Life of Mahomet_, vol. ii, p. 151.
[308] We have seen (p. 91 _supra_) that the heathen Arabs disliked
female offspring, yet they called their three principal deities the
daughters of Allah.
[309] It is related by Ibn Isḥáq (Ṭabarí, i, 1192, 4 sqq.). In his
learned work, _Annali dell' Islam_, of which the first volume appeared
in 1905, Prince Caetani impugns the authenticity of the tradition and
criticises the narrative in detail (p. 279 sqq.), but his arguments do
not touch the main question. As Muir says, "it is hardly possible to
conceive how the tale, if not founded in truth, could ever have been
invented."
[310] The Meccan view of Muḥammad's action may be gathered from the
words uttered by Abú Jahl on the field of Badr--"O God, bring woe upon
him who more than any of us hath severed the ties of kinship and dealt
dishonourably!" (Ṭabarí, i, 1322, l. 8 seq.). Alluding to the Moslems
who abandoned their native city and fled with the Prophet to Medína, a
Meccan poet exclaims (Ibn Hishám, p. 519, ll. 3-5):--
_They_ (the Quraysh slain at Badr) _fell in honour. They
did not sell their kinsmen for strangers living in a far
land and of remote lineage;_
_Unlike you, who have made friends of Ghassán_ (the people
of Medína), _taking them instead of us--O, what a shameful
deed!_
_Tis an impiety and a manifest crime and a cutting of all
ties of blood: your iniquity therein is discerned by men of
judgment and understanding._
[311] _Súra_ is properly a row of stones or bricks in a wall.
[312] See p. 74 _supra_.
[313] Koran, lxix, 41.
[314] Nöldeke, _Geschichte des Qorâns_, p. 56.
[315] _I.e._, what it has done or left undone.
[316] The Last Judgment.
[317] Moslems believe that every man is attended by two Recording Angels
who write down his good and evil actions.
[318] This is generally supposed to refer to the persecution of the
Christians of Najrán by Dhú Nuwás (see p. 26 _supra_). Geiger takes it
as an allusion to the three men who were cast into the fiery furnace
(Daniel, ch. iii).
[319] See above, p. 3.
[320] According to Muḥammadan belief, the archetype of the Koran and
of all other Revelations is written on the Guarded Table (_al-Lawḥ
al-Maḥfúẓ_) in heaven.
[321] Koran, xvii, 69.
[322] See, for example, the passages translated by Lane in his
_Selections from the Kur-án_ (London, 1843), pp. 100-113.
[323] _Ikhláṣ_ means 'purifying one's self of belief in any god
except Allah.'
[324] The Prophet's confession of his inability to perform miracles did
not deter his followers from inventing them after his death. Thus it
was said that he caused the infidels to see "the moon cloven asunder"
(Koran, liv, 1), though, as is plain from the context, these words refer
to one of the signs of the Day of Judgment.
[325] I take this opportunity of calling the reader's attention to a
most interesting article by my friend and colleague, Professor A. A.
Bevan, entitled _The Beliefs of Early Mohammedans respecting a Future
Existence_ (_Journal of Theological Studies_, October, 1904, p. 20
sqq.), where the whole subject is fully discussed.
[326] Shaddád b. al-Aswad al-Laythí, quoted in the _Risálatu ’l-Ghufrán_
of Abu ’l-‘Alá al-Ma‘arrí (see my article in the _J.R.A.S._ for 1902,
pp. 94 and 818); _cf._ Ibn Hishám, p. 530, last line. Ibn (Abí) Kabsha
was a nickname derisively applied to Muḥammad. _Ṣadá_ and _háma_
refer to the death-bird which was popularly supposed to utter its shriek
from the skull (_háma_) of the dead, and both words may be rendered by
'soul' or 'wraith.'
[327] Nöldeke, _Geschichte des Qorâns_, p. 78.
[328] _Cf._ also Koran, xviii, 45-47; xx, 102 sqq.; xxxix, 67 sqq.;
lxix, 13-37.
[329] The famous freethinker, Abu ’l-‘Alá al-Ma‘arrí, has cleverly
satirised Muḥammadan notions on this subject in his _Risálatu
’l-Ghufrán_ (_J.R.A.S._ for October, 1900, p. 637 sqq.).
[330] _Journal of Theological Studies_ for October, 1904, p. 22.
[331] Ibn Hishám, p. 411, l. 6 sqq.
[332] _Ibid._, p. 347.
[333] L. Caetani, _Annali dell' Islam_, vol. i, p. 389.
[334] Nöldeke, _Geschichte des Qorâns_, p. 122.
[335] Translated by E. H. Palmer.
[336] Ibn Hishám, p. 341, l. 5.
[337] _Muḥammad's Gemeindeordnung von Medina in Skizzen und
Vorarbeiten_, Heft IV, p. 67 sqq.
[338] Ibn Hishám, p. 763, l. 12.
[339] Koran, ii, 256, translated by E. H. Palmer.
[340] _Muhamm. Studien_, Part I, p. 12.
[341] See Goldziher's introductory chapter entitled _Muruwwa und Dîn_
(_ibid._, pp. 1-39).
[342] Bayḍáwí on Koran, xxii, 11.
[343] _Die Berufung Mohammed's_, by M. J. de Goeje in
_Nöldeke-Festschrift_ (Giessen, 1906), vol. i, p. 5.
[344] _On the _Origin and Import of the Names Muslim and Ḥaníf_
(_J.R.A.S._ for 1903, p. 491)
[345] See T. W. Arnold's _The Preaching of Islam_, p. 23 seq., where
several passages of like import are collected.
[346] Nöldeke, _Sketches from Eastern History_, translated by J. S.
Black, p. 73.
[347] See Professor Browne's _Literary History of Persia_, vol. i, p.
200 sqq.
[348] Ṭabarí, i, 2729, l. 15 sqq.
[349] _Ibid._, i, 2736, l. 5 sqq. The words in italics are quoted from
Koran, xxviii, 26, where they are applied to Moses.
[350] ‘Umar was the first to assume this title (_Amíru ’l-Mu’minín_), by
which the Caliphs after him were generally addressed.
[351] Ṭabarí, i, 2738, 7 sqq.
[352] _Ibid._, i, 2739, 4 sqq.
[353] _Ibid._, i, 2737, 4 sqq.
[354] It is explained that ‘Umar prohibited lamps because rats used to
take the lighted wick and set fire to the house-roofs, which at that
time were made of palm-branches.
[355] Ṭabarí, i, 2742, 13 sqq.
[356] _Ibid._, i, 2745, 15 sqq.
[357] _Ibid._, i, 2747, 7 sqq.
[358] _Ibid._, i, 2740, last line and foll.
[359] _Al-Fakhrí_, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 116, l. 1 to p. 117, l. 3.
[360] Ṭabarí, i, 2751, 9 sqq.
[361] Ibn Khallikán (ed. by Wüstenfeld), No. 68, p. 96, l. 3; De Slane's
translation, vol. i, p. 152.
[362] Mu‘áwiya himself said: "I am the first of the kings" (Ya‘qúbí, ed.
by Houtsma, vol. ii, p. 276, l. 14).
[363] _Al-Fakhrí_, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 145.
[364] Ya‘qúbí, vol. ii, p. 283, l. 8 seq.
[365] Mas‘údí, _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_ (ed. by Barbier de Meynard), vol. v.
p. 77.
[366] Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 25, l. 3 sqq., omitting l. 8.
[367] The _Continuatio_ of Isidore of Hispalis, § 27, quoted by
Wellhausen, _Das Arabische Reich und sein Sturz_, p. 105.
[368] Ḥamása, 226. The word translated 'throne' is in Arabic _mínbar_,
_i.e._, the pulpit from which the Caliph conducted the public prayers
and addressed the congregation.
[369] Kalb was properly one of the Northern tribes (see Robertson
Smith's _Kinship and Marriage_, 2nd ed., p. 8 seq.--a reference which I
owe to Professor Bevan), but there is evidence that the Kalbites were
regarded as 'Yemenite' or 'Southern' Arabs at an early period of Islam.
_Cf._ Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part I, p. 83, l. 3 sqq.
[370] _Muhammedanische Studien_, i, 78 sqq.
[371] Qaḥṭán is the legendary ancestor of the Southern Arabs.
[372] _Aghání_, xiii, 51, cited by Goldziher, _ibid._, p. 82.
[373] A verse of the poet Suḥaym b. Wathíl.
[374] The _Kámil_ of al-Mubarrad, ed. by W. Wright, p. 215, l. 14 sqq.
[375] Ibn Qutayba, _Kitábu ’l-Ma‘árif_, p. 202.
[376] _Al-Fakhrí_, p. 173; Ibnu ’l-Athír, ed. by Tornberg, v, 5.
[377] _Ibid._, p. 174. _Cf._ Mas‘údi, _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, v, 412.
[378] His mother, Umm ‘Áṣim, was a granddaughter of ‘Umar I.
[379] Mas‘údí, _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, v, 419 seq.
[380] Ibnu ’l-Athír, ed. by Tornberg, v, 46. _Cf._ _Agání_, xx, p. 119,
l. 23. ‘Umar made an exception, as Professor Bevan reminds me, in favour
of the poet Jarír. See Brockelmann's _Gesch. der Arab. Litteratur_, vol.
i, p. 57.
[381] The exhaustive researches of Wellhausen, _Das Arabische Reich und
sein Sturz_ (pp. 169-192) have set this complicated subject in a new
light. He contends that ‘Umar's reform was not based on purely ideal
grounds, but was demanded by the necessities of the case, and that, so
far from introducing disorder into the finances, his measures were
designed to remedy the confusion which already existed.
[382] Mas‘údí, _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, v, 479.
[383] The Arabic text and literal translation of these verses will be
found in my article on Abu ’l-‘Alá's _Risálatu ’l-Ghufrán_ (_J.R.A.S._
for 1902, pp. 829 and 342).
[384] Wellhausen, _Das Arabische Reich und sein Sturz_, p. 38.
[385] _I.e._, the main body of Moslems--_Sunnís_, followers of the
_Sunna_, as they were afterwards called--who were neither Shí‘ites nor
Khárijites, but held (1) that the Caliph must be elected by the Moslem
community, and (2) that he must be a member of Quraysh, the Prophet's
tribe. All these parties arose out of the struggle between ‘Alí and
Mu‘áwiya, and their original difference turned solely on the question of
the Caliphate.
[386] Brünnow, _Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Omayyaden_ (Leiden,
1884), p. 28. It is by no means certain, however, that the Khárijites
called themselves by this name. In any case, the term implies
_secession_ (_khurúj_) from the Moslem community, and may be rendered by
'Seceder' or 'Nonconformist.'
[387] _Cf._ Koran, ix, 112.
[388] Brünnow, _op. cit._, p. 8.
[389] Wellhausen, _Die religiös-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten
Islam_ (_Abhandlungen der Königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu
Göttingen_, _Phil.-Hist. Klasse_, 1901), p. 8 sqq. The writer argues
against Brünnow that the oldest Khárijites were not true Bedouins
(_A‘rábí_), and were, in fact, even further removed than the rest of the
military colonists of Kúfa and Baṣra from their Bedouin traditions.
He points out that the extreme piety of the Readers--their constant
prayers, vigils, and repetitions of the Koran--exactly agrees with what
is related of the Khárijites, and is described in similar language.
Moreover, among the oldest Khárijites we find mention made of a company
clad in long cloaks (_baránis_, pl. of _burnus_), which were at that
time a special mark of asceticism. Finally, the earliest authority (Abú
Mikhnaf in Ṭabarí, i, 3330, l. 6 sqq.) regards the Khárijites as an
offshoot from the Readers, and names individual Readers who afterwards
became rabid Khárijites.
[390] Later, when many non-Arab Moslems joined the Khárijite ranks the
field of choice was extended so as to include foreigners and even
slaves.
[391] Ṭabarí, ii, 40, 13 sqq.
[392] Shahrastání, ed. by Cureton, Part I, p. 88. l. 12.
[393] _Ibid._, p. 86, l. 3 from foot.
[394] Ṭabarí, ii, 36, ll. 7, 8, 11-16.
[395] _Ḥamása_, 44.
[396] Ibn Khallikán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, No. 555, p. 55, l. 4 seq.; De
Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 523.
[397] Dozy, _Essai sur l'histoire de l'Islamisme_ (French translation by
Victor Chauvin), p. 219 sqq.
[398] Wellhausen thinks that the dogmatics of the Shí‘ites are derived
from Jewish rather than from Persian sources. See his account of the
Saba’ites in his most instructive paper, to which I have already
referred, _Die religiös-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam_
(_Abh. der König. Ges. der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen_, _Phil.-Hist.
Klasse_, 1901), p. 89 sqq.
[399] Ṭabarí, i, 2942, 2.
[400] "_Verily, He who hath ordained the Koran for thee_ (_i.e._, for
Muḥammad) _will bring thee back to a place of return_" (_i.e._, to
Mecca). The ambiguity of the word meaning 'place of return' (_ma‘ád_)
gave some colour to Ibn Sabá's contention that it alluded to the return
of Muḥammad at the end of the world. The descent of Jesus on earth is
reckoned by Moslems among the greater signs which will precede the
Resurrection.