Mu'allaqat
Encyclopedia
The Mu‘allaqāt is the title of a group of seven long Arabic
poems or qasida (singular qaṣīda, plural qaṣā'id) that have come down from the time before Islam
. Each is considered the best work of these pre-Islamic poets. The name means The Suspended Odes or The Hanging Poems, the traditional explanation being that these poems were hung on or in the Ka'ba at Mecca
.
(Hammad the Rhapsodist) saw how little men cared for poetry, he collected these seven pieces, urged people to study them, and said to them: 'These are the [poems] of renown.'" This agrees with all our other information, firstly the recitation of poems was his profession. Hammad (who lived in the first three quarters of the 8th century) was perhaps of all men the one who knew most Arabic poetry by heart. To such a rhapsodist the task of selection is in every way appropriate; and it may be assumed that he is responsible also for the somewhat fantastic title of "the suspended".
There is another fact which seems to speak in favour of Hammad as the compiler of this work. He was a Persian by descent, but a client of the Arab tribe, Bakr ibn Wa'il. For this reason, we may suppose, he not only received into the collection a poem of the famous poet Tarafa
, of the tribe of Bakr, but also that of another Bakrite, Harith
, who, though not accounted a bard of the highest rank, had been a prominent chieftain; while his poem could serve as a counterpoise to another also received the celebrated verses of Harith's contemporary 'Amr
, chief of the Taghlib
, the rival brethren of the Bakr. 'Amr praises the Taghlib in glowing terms: Harith, in a similar vein, extols the Bakr ancestors of Hammad's patrons.
The collection of Hammad appears to have consisted of the same seven poems which are found in our modern editions, composed respectively by Imru' al-Qais
, Tarafa
, Zuhayr
, Labīd
, 'Antara Ibn Shaddad, 'Amr ibn Kulthum
, and Harith ibn Hilliza
. These are enumerated both by Ibn Abd Rabbih
(860–940 CE), and, on the authority of the older philologists, by Nahhas; and all subsequent commentators seem to follow them. We have, however, evidence of the existence, at a very early period, of a slightly different arrangement. Certainly we cannot now say, on the testimony of the Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab, that two of the most competent ancient authorities on Arabic poetry, al-Mufaddal
(d. c. 790) and Abu 'Ubaida
(d. 824 CE, at a great age), had already assigned to the "Seven" (i.e. "the seven Mu'allaqat") a poem each of al-Nabigha
and al-A'sha
in place of those of 'Antara and Harith. For meanwhile it has been discovered that the compiler of the above-mentioned work who, in order to deceive the reader, issued it under a false name is absolutely untrustworthy. However, the learned Ibn Qutaiba (9th century), in his book Of Poetry and Poets, mentions as belonging to the "Seven" not only the poem of 'Amr, which has invariably been reckoned among the Mu'allaqat (ed. de Goeje, p. 120), but also a poem of 'Abid ibn al-Abras (ibid. 144). In place of which poem he read this we do not know; and we are equally ignorant as to whether he counted other pieces than those indicated above among the seven.
Now Nabigha and A'sha enjoyed greater celebrity than any of the poets represented in the Mu'allaqat, with the exception of Imru' al-Qais, and it is therefore not surprising that scholars, of a somewhat later date, appended a poem by each of these to the Mu'allaqat, without intending by this to make them an integral part of that work. This is clear, for instance, from the introductory words of Tibrizi, Yahyá ibn Ali (d. 1109 C.E.) to his commentary on the Mu'allaqat. Appended to this he gives a commentary to a poem of Nabigha, to one of A'sha, and moreover one to that poem of 'Abid which, as we have just seen, Ibn Qutaiba had counted among the seven. It is a pure misunderstanding when Ibn Khaldun
(1332–1406 CE) in his Muqaddimah
speaks of nine Mu'allaqat; and we ought hardly to lay any stress on the fact that he mentions not only Nabigha and A'sha, but also 'Alqama ibn 'Abada
, as Mu'allaqa poets. He was probably led to this by a delusive recollection of the Collection of the "Six Poets", in which were included these three, together with the three Mu'allaqat poets, Imru' al-Qais, Zuhayr and Tarafa.
, regarded by many as the most illustrious of Arabian Mu'allaqa poets. His exact date cannot be determined; but probably the best part of his career fell within the midst of the 6th century. He was a scion of the royal house of the tribe Kindah
, which lost its power at the death of its king Harith ibn 'Amr in the year 529. The poet's royal father, Hojr, by some accounts a son of this Harith, was killed by a Bedouin
tribe, the Banu Asad
. The son led an adventurous life as a refugee, now with one tribe, now with another, and appears to have died young. The anecdotes related of him which, however, are very untrustworthy in detail as well as his poems, imply that the glorious memory of his house and the hatred it inspired were still comparatively fresh, and therefore recent. A contemporary of Imru' al-Qais was 'Abid ibn al-Abras, one poem of whose, as we have seen, is by some authorities reckoned among the collection. He belonged to the Banu Asad, and is fond of vaunting the heroic dead of his tribe the murder of Hojr in opposition to the victim's son, the great poet.
The Mu'allaqa of 'Amr hurls defiance against the king of Hira, 'Amr son of Mundhir, who reigned from the summer of 554 until 568 or 569, and was afterwards slain by our poet. This prince is also addressed by Harith in his Mu'allaqa. Of Tarafa
, who is said to have attained no great age, a few satirical
verses have been preserved, directed against this same king. This agrees with the fact that a grandson of the Qais ibn Khalid, mentioned as a rich and influential man in Tarafa's Mu'allaqa (v. 80 or 81), figured at the time of the battle of Dhu-Qar, in which the tribe Bakr routed a Persian army. This battle falls about 610 CE.
The Mu'allaqa of 'Antara and that of Zuhayr
contain allusions to the feuds of the kindred tribes 'Abs and Dhobyan. Famous as these contests were, their time cannot accurately be ascertained. But the date of the two poets can be approximately determined from other data. Ka'b
, son of Zuhayr, composed first a satire, and then, in the year 630, a eulogy on the Prophet; another son, Bujair, had begun, somewhat sooner, to celebrate Muhammad. 'Antara killed the grandfather of Al-Ahnaf Ibn Qays
, who died at an advanced age in 686 or 687; he outlived 'Abdallah ibn Simma, whose brother Duraid was a very old man when he fell in battle against the Prophet (early in 630 CE); and he had communications with Ward, whose son, the poet Urwah ibn al-Ward, may perhaps have survived the flight of Muhammad to Medina
. From all these indications we may place the productive period of both poets in the end of the 6th century. The historical background of 'Antara's Mu'allaqat lies somewhat earlier than that of Zuhayr's.
To the same period appears to belong the poem of 'Alqama ibn 'Abada
, which, as we have seen, Ibn Khaldun reckons amongst the Mu'allaqat. This too is certainly the date of Al-Nabigha
, who was one of the most distinguished of Arabic poets. For in the poem often reckoned as a Mu'allaqat, as in many others, he addresses himself to No'man, king of Hira, who reigned in the two last decades of the 6th century. The same king is mentioned as a contemporary in one of poems of 'Alqama.
The poem of al-A'sha
, sometimes added to the Mu'allaqat, contains an allusion to the battle of Dhu Qar (under the name "Battle of Hinw", v. 62). This poet, not less famous than Nabigha, lived to compose a poem in honour of Muhammad, and died not long before 630 CE.
Labīd
is the only one of these poets who embraced Islam
. His Mu'allaqat, however, like almost all his other poetical works, belongs to the pagan
period. He is said to have lived until 661, or even later; certainly it is true of him, what is asserted with less likelihood of several others of these poets, that he lived to a ripe old age.
and seek to realize the peculiar conditions of his life, together with the views and thoughts resulting from those conditions. In the Mu'allaqat of Tarafa we are repelled by the long, anatomically exact description of his camel
; but such a description had an extraordinary charm of its own for the Bedouins, every man of whom was a perfect connoisseur on this subject down to the minutest points; and the remaining parts of the poem, together with the other extant fragments of his songs, show that Tarafa had a real poetic gift. In the Mu'allaqat of 'Amr and Harith, for the preservation of which we are especially grateful to the compiler, we can read the haughty spirit of the powerful chieftains, boastfully celebrating the splendours of their tribe. These two poems have also a certain historical importance. The song of Zuhayr contains the practical wisdom of a sober man of the world. The other poems are fairly typical examples of the customary qasida
, the long poem of ancient Arabia, and bring before us the various phases of Bedouin life. But even here we have differences. In the Mu'allaqat of 'Antara, whose heroic temperament had overcome the scorn with which the son of a black slave-mother was regarded by the Bedouins, there predominates a warlike spirit, which plays practically no part in the song of Labid.
It is a phenomenon which deserves the fullest recognition, that the needy inhabitants of a barren country should thus have produced an artistic poetry distinguished by so high a degree of uniformity. Even the extraordinary strict metrical system, observed by poets who had no inkling of theory and no knowledge of an alphabet, excites surprise. In the most ancient poems the metrical form is as scrupulously regarded as in later compositions. The only poem which shows unusual metrical freedom is the above-mentioned song of 'Abid. It is, however, remarkable that 'Abid's contemporary Imru' al-Qais, in a poem which in other respects also exhibits certain coincidences with that of 'Abid, presents himself considerable licence in the use of the very same metre one which, moreover, is extremely rare in the ancient period. Presumably, the violent deviations from the schema in 'Abid are due simply to incorrect transmission by compilers who failed to grasp the meter.
The other poems ascribed to 'Abid, together with all the rest attributed to Imru' al-Qais, are constructed in precise accord with the metrical canons. It is necessary always to bear in mind that these ancient poems, which for a century or more were preserved by oral tradition alone, have reached us in a much mutilated condition. Fortunately, there was a class of men who made it their special business to learn by rote the works either of a single poet or of several. The poets themselves used the services of these rhapsodists (rawi).
The last representative of this class is Hammad
, to whom is attributed the collection of the Mu'allaqat; but he, at the same time, marks the transition of the rhapsodist to the critic and scholar. The most favourable opinion of these rhapsodists would require us to make allowance for occasional mistakes: expressions would be transposed, the order of verses disarranged, passages omitted, and probably portions of different poems pieced together. It is clear, however, that Hammad dealt in the most arbitrary fashion with the enormous quantity of poetry which he professed to know thoroughly. The seven Mu'allaqat are indeed free from the suspicion of forgery, but even in them the text is frequently altered and many verses are transposed. The loose structure of Arabic poems was extremely favorable to such alterations. Some of the Mu'allaqat have several preambles: so, especially, that of 'Amr, the first eight verses of which belong not to the poem, but to another poet. Elsewhere, also, we find spurious verses in the Mu'allaqat. Some of these poems, which have been handed down to us in other exemplars besides the collection itself, exhibit great divergences both in the order and number of the verses and in textual details. This is particularly the case with the oldest Mu'allaqat—that of Imru' al-Qais—the critical treatment of which is a problem of such extreme difficulty that only an approximate solution can ever be reached. The variations of the text, outside the Mu'allaqat collection, have here and there exercised an influence on the text of that collection. It would be well if our manuscripts at least gave the Mu'allaqat in the exact form of Hammad's day. The best text in fact, we may say, a really good text is that of the latest Mu'allaqat, the song of Labid.
The Mu'allaqat exist in many manuscripts, some with old commentaries, of which a few are valuable. They have also been several times printed. Special mention is due to the edition of Sir Charles James Lyall
with the commentary of Tibrizi (Calcutta, 1894). Attempts to translate these poems, verse for verse, in poetical form, could scarcely have a happy result. The strangeness, both of the expression and of the subjects, only admits of a paraphrastic version for large portions, unless the sense is to be entirely obliterated.
yturyotpoye][pyt[pty0[rphyolp[tyoro rpy[t]-oyrp[ou
ic linen folded up, and hung them up (allaqat) on the curtains which covered the Ka'ba. Hence we speak of 'the golden poem of Imru' al-Qais
,' 'the golden poem of Zuhayr.' The number of the golden poems is seven; they are also called 'the suspended' (al-Mu'allaqat)." Similar statements are found in later Arabic works. But against this we have the testimony of al-Nahhas, who says in his commentary on the Mu'allaqat: "As for the assertion that they were hung up in the Ka'ba, it is not known to any of those who have handed down ancient poems." This cautious scholar is unquestionably right in rejecting a story so utterly unauthenticated.
The customs of the Arabs before Prophet Muhammad
are pretty accurately known to us; we have also a mass of information about the affairs of Mecca
at the time when the Prophet arose; but no trace of this or anything like it is found in really good and ancient authorities. We hear, indeed, of a Meccan hanging up a spoil of battle on the Ka'ba (Ibn Hisham
, ed. Wiistenfeld, p. 431). Less credible is the story of an important document being deposited in that sanctuary (ibid. p. 230), for this looks like an instance of later usages being transferred to pre-Islamic times. But at all events this is quite a different thing from the hanging up of poetical manuscripts. To account for the disappearance of the Mu'allaqat from the Ka'ba we are told, in a passage of late origin (De Sacy, Chrestom. ii. 480), that they were taken down at the capture of Mecca by the Prophet. But in that case we should expect some hint of the occurrence in the circumstantial biographies of the Prophet, and in the works on the history of Mecca; and we find no such thing.
That a series of long poems was written at all at that remote period is improbable in the extreme. Up to a time when the art of writing had become far more general than it was before the spread of Islam, poems were never or very rarely written, with the exception, perhaps, of epistles in poetic form. The diffusion of poetry was exclusively committed to oral tradition. Moreover, it is quite inconceivable that there should have been either a guild or a private individual of such acknowledged taste, or of such influence, as to bring about a consensus of opinion in favour of certain poems. Think of the mortal offence which the canonization of one poet must have given to his rivals and their tribes. It was quite another thing for an individual to give his own private estimate of the respective merits of two poets who had appealed to him as umpire, or for a number of poets to appear at large gatherings, such as the fair of Oqaz as candidates for the place of honour in the estimation of the throng which listened to their recitations.
No better is the variant of the legend, which we find, at a much later period, in the Muqaddimah
of Ibn Khaldun
, who tells us that the poets themselves hung up their poems on the Ka'ba (ed. Paris iii. 357). In short, this legend, often related by Arabs, and still more by Europeans, has no historical basis: it is a fabrication based on the name suspended. The word was taken in its literal sense; and as these poems were prized by many above all others in after times, the same opinion was attributed to "the [ancient] Arabs," who were supposed to have given effect to their verdict in the way already described. A somewhat simpler version also given by Nahhas in the passage already cited is as follows: "Most of the Arabs were accustomed to meet at 'Oqaz and recite verses; then, if the king was pleased with any poem, he said, 'Hang it up, and preserve it among my treasures.'" But, not to mention other difficulties, there was no king of all the Arabs; and it is unlikely that any Arabian king attended the fair at Oqaz.
The story that the poems were written in gold has evidently originated in the name "the golden poems" (literally "the gilded"), a figurative expression for excellence. The designation "suspended" may be interpreted in the same way, referring to those (poems) which have been raised, on account of their value, to a specially honourable position. Another derivative of the same root is ilq, "precious thing." A clearer significance attaches to another name sometimes used for these poems assumut, "strings of pearls". The comparison of artificially elaborated poems to these strings is extremely apt. Hence it became popular, even in ordinary prose, to refer to speech in rhythmical form as nagm "to string pearls." The selection of these seven poems is unlikely to have been the work of the ancient Arabs, but rather some one writing at a later date.
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
poems or qasida (singular qaṣīda, plural qaṣā'id) that have come down from the time before Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Each is considered the best work of these pre-Islamic poets. The name means The Suspended Odes or The Hanging Poems, the traditional explanation being that these poems were hung on or in the Ka'ba at Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
.
The Mu'allaqat compiled by Ar-Rawiya
The grammarian Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Nahhas (d. 949 CE) says expressly in his commentary on the Mu'allaqat: "The true view of the matter is this: when Hammad Ar-RawiyaHammad Ar-Rawiya
Hammad Ar-Rawiya [Abu-l-Qasim Hammad ibn Abi Laila Sapur ] , Arab scholar, was of Dailamite descent, but was born in Kufa. The date of hisbirth is given by some as 694 AD, by others as 714....
(Hammad the Rhapsodist) saw how little men cared for poetry, he collected these seven pieces, urged people to study them, and said to them: 'These are the [poems] of renown.'" This agrees with all our other information, firstly the recitation of poems was his profession. Hammad (who lived in the first three quarters of the 8th century) was perhaps of all men the one who knew most Arabic poetry by heart. To such a rhapsodist the task of selection is in every way appropriate; and it may be assumed that he is responsible also for the somewhat fantastic title of "the suspended".
There is another fact which seems to speak in favour of Hammad as the compiler of this work. He was a Persian by descent, but a client of the Arab tribe, Bakr ibn Wa'il. For this reason, we may suppose, he not only received into the collection a poem of the famous poet Tarafa
Tarafa
Tarafa , was a 6th century Arabian poet of the tribe of the Bakr.After a wild and dissipated youth spent in Bahrain, left his native land after peace had been established between the tribes of Bakr and Taghlib and went with his uncle Al-Mutalammis to the court of the king of Hira, 'Amr ibn-Hind ,...
, of the tribe of Bakr, but also that of another Bakrite, Harith
Harith Ibn Hilliza Ul-Yashkuri
Al-Harith Ibn Hillizah Al-Yashkuri, Arabic الحارث بن حلزة اليشكري pre-Islamic Arabian poet of the tribe of Bakr, from the 5th century. He was famous as the author of one of the poems generally received among the Mo'allakat. Nothing is known of the details of his life....
, who, though not accounted a bard of the highest rank, had been a prominent chieftain; while his poem could serve as a counterpoise to another also received the celebrated verses of Harith's contemporary 'Amr
Amr ibn Kulthum
Amr ibn Kulthum Ibn Malik Ibn A`tab Abu Al-Aswad al-Taghlibi , a knight and the leader of the Taghlab tribe which was in Al-Forat island and was famous for its glory, bravery and merciless behavior in battle...
, chief of the Taghlib
Taghlib
Banu Taghlib or Taghlib ibn Wa'il were a large and powerful Arabian tribe of Mesopotamia and northern Arabia. The tribe traces its lineage to the large branch of North Arabian tribes known as Rabi'ah, which also included Bakr, 'Anizzah, Banu Hanifa and Anz bin Wa'il .The tribe's ancestral...
, the rival brethren of the Bakr. 'Amr praises the Taghlib in glowing terms: Harith, in a similar vein, extols the Bakr ancestors of Hammad's patrons.
The collection of Hammad appears to have consisted of the same seven poems which are found in our modern editions, composed respectively by Imru' al-Qais
Imru' al-Qais
Imru` al-Qais bin Hujr al-Kindi was an Arabian poet in the 6th century AD, and also the son of one of the last Kindite kings. His qaseeda, or long poem, "Let us stop and weep" is one of the seven Mu'allaqat, poems prized as the best examples of pre-Islamic Arabian verse...
, Tarafa
Tarafa
Tarafa , was a 6th century Arabian poet of the tribe of the Bakr.After a wild and dissipated youth spent in Bahrain, left his native land after peace had been established between the tribes of Bakr and Taghlib and went with his uncle Al-Mutalammis to the court of the king of Hira, 'Amr ibn-Hind ,...
, Zuhayr
Zuhayr
Zuhayr , was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet who lived in the 6th century AD. He is considered one of the greatest writer of Arabic poetry in pre-Islamic times. Zuhayr belonged to the Muzaynah tribe. His father was a poet...
, Labīd
Labid
Labid can either refer to*Labīd, the Arabian poet*Labid, a brand name for theophylline...
, 'Antara Ibn Shaddad, 'Amr ibn Kulthum
Amr ibn Kulthum
Amr ibn Kulthum Ibn Malik Ibn A`tab Abu Al-Aswad al-Taghlibi , a knight and the leader of the Taghlab tribe which was in Al-Forat island and was famous for its glory, bravery and merciless behavior in battle...
, and Harith ibn Hilliza
Harith Ibn Hilliza Ul-Yashkuri
Al-Harith Ibn Hillizah Al-Yashkuri, Arabic الحارث بن حلزة اليشكري pre-Islamic Arabian poet of the tribe of Bakr, from the 5th century. He was famous as the author of one of the poems generally received among the Mo'allakat. Nothing is known of the details of his life....
. These are enumerated both by Ibn Abd Rabbih
Ibn Abd Rabbih
Ibn `Abd Rabbih or Ibn `Abd Rabbihi was a Moorish writer and poet. He was born in Cordova, now in Spain, and descended from a freed slave of Hisham I, the second Spanish Umayyad emir. He enjoyed a great reputation for learning and eloquence. Not much is known about his life...
(860–940 CE), and, on the authority of the older philologists, by Nahhas; and all subsequent commentators seem to follow them. We have, however, evidence of the existence, at a very early period, of a slightly different arrangement. Certainly we cannot now say, on the testimony of the Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab, that two of the most competent ancient authorities on Arabic poetry, al-Mufaddal
Al-Mufaddal
Al-Mufaddal, also Moufazzal ibn Abi l-Fazil, was a 14th century Egyptian historian. He was a Coptic Christian.Al-Mufaddal wrote a book about the history of the Bahriyya Mamluks, entitled al-Nahdj al-sadîd wa-l-durr al-farîd fimâ ba'd Ta'rîkh Ibn al'Amîd, covering the period from 1260 to 1340. He...
(d. c. 790) and Abu 'Ubaida
Abu 'Ubaida
Abu ’Ubaida or Ubayda was a Muslim scholar.Born in Basra, he was a mawla of a family from the Arab tribe of Quraish, and said to have been Jewish.” In his youth, he was a pupil of Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala', and in 803 he was called to Baghdad by the Caliph Harun al-Rashid...
(d. 824 CE, at a great age), had already assigned to the "Seven" (i.e. "the seven Mu'allaqat") a poem each of al-Nabigha
Al-Nabigha
Al-Nabigha , was one of the last Arabian poets of pre-Islamic times. "Al-Nabigha" means "genius" in Arabic....
and al-A'sha
Al-A'sha
Al-A'sha or Maymun Ibn Qays Al-a'sha was an Arabic Jahiliyyah poet from Manfuha, Arabia.He was widely traveled and was nicknamed Al-A'sha which means "night-blind" after he lost his sight. One of his qasidah or odes is sometimes included in the Mu'allaqat, an early Arabic poetry collection....
in place of those of 'Antara and Harith. For meanwhile it has been discovered that the compiler of the above-mentioned work who, in order to deceive the reader, issued it under a false name is absolutely untrustworthy. However, the learned Ibn Qutaiba (9th century), in his book Of Poetry and Poets, mentions as belonging to the "Seven" not only the poem of 'Amr, which has invariably been reckoned among the Mu'allaqat (ed. de Goeje, p. 120), but also a poem of 'Abid ibn al-Abras (ibid. 144). In place of which poem he read this we do not know; and we are equally ignorant as to whether he counted other pieces than those indicated above among the seven.
Now Nabigha and A'sha enjoyed greater celebrity than any of the poets represented in the Mu'allaqat, with the exception of Imru' al-Qais, and it is therefore not surprising that scholars, of a somewhat later date, appended a poem by each of these to the Mu'allaqat, without intending by this to make them an integral part of that work. This is clear, for instance, from the introductory words of Tibrizi, Yahyá ibn Ali (d. 1109 C.E.) to his commentary on the Mu'allaqat. Appended to this he gives a commentary to a poem of Nabigha, to one of A'sha, and moreover one to that poem of 'Abid which, as we have just seen, Ibn Qutaiba had counted among the seven. It is a pure misunderstanding when Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...
(1332–1406 CE) in his Muqaddimah
Muqaddimah
The Muqaddimah , also known as the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun or the Prolegomena , is a book written by the Maghrebian Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun in 1377 which records an early view of universal history...
speaks of nine Mu'allaqat; and we ought hardly to lay any stress on the fact that he mentions not only Nabigha and A'sha, but also 'Alqama ibn 'Abada
'Alqama ibn 'Abada
'Alqama ibn 'Ubada , Arabic علقمة بن عبدة generally known as 'Alqama al-Fahl علقمة الفحل , an Arabian poet of the tribe Tamim, who flourished in the second half of the 6th century....
, as Mu'allaqa poets. He was probably led to this by a delusive recollection of the Collection of the "Six Poets", in which were included these three, together with the three Mu'allaqat poets, Imru' al-Qais, Zuhayr and Tarafa.
The seven renowned ones
The lives of these poets were spread over a period of more than a hundred years. The earliest of the seven was Imru' al-QaisImru' al-Qais
Imru` al-Qais bin Hujr al-Kindi was an Arabian poet in the 6th century AD, and also the son of one of the last Kindite kings. His qaseeda, or long poem, "Let us stop and weep" is one of the seven Mu'allaqat, poems prized as the best examples of pre-Islamic Arabian verse...
, regarded by many as the most illustrious of Arabian Mu'allaqa poets. His exact date cannot be determined; but probably the best part of his career fell within the midst of the 6th century. He was a scion of the royal house of the tribe Kindah
Kindah
The kingdom of Kindah was a vassal kingdom which ruled from Qaryah dhat Kahl in Nejd, Central Arabia . The kingdom controlled much of the northern Arabian peninsula in the 4th and 5th centuries AD.-Origin:...
, which lost its power at the death of its king Harith ibn 'Amr in the year 529. The poet's royal father, Hojr, by some accounts a son of this Harith, was killed by a Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
tribe, the Banu Asad
Banu Asad
The Bani Assad or Banu Assad is an Arab tribe in Iraq. They are Adnanite Arabs, powerful and one of the most famous tribes. They are widely respected by many Arab tribes, respected by Shia Muslims because they have buried the body of Imam Husayn, his family and companions with the help of Imam...
. The son led an adventurous life as a refugee, now with one tribe, now with another, and appears to have died young. The anecdotes related of him which, however, are very untrustworthy in detail as well as his poems, imply that the glorious memory of his house and the hatred it inspired were still comparatively fresh, and therefore recent. A contemporary of Imru' al-Qais was 'Abid ibn al-Abras, one poem of whose, as we have seen, is by some authorities reckoned among the collection. He belonged to the Banu Asad, and is fond of vaunting the heroic dead of his tribe the murder of Hojr in opposition to the victim's son, the great poet.
The Mu'allaqa of 'Amr hurls defiance against the king of Hira, 'Amr son of Mundhir, who reigned from the summer of 554 until 568 or 569, and was afterwards slain by our poet. This prince is also addressed by Harith in his Mu'allaqa. Of Tarafa
Tarafa
Tarafa , was a 6th century Arabian poet of the tribe of the Bakr.After a wild and dissipated youth spent in Bahrain, left his native land after peace had been established between the tribes of Bakr and Taghlib and went with his uncle Al-Mutalammis to the court of the king of Hira, 'Amr ibn-Hind ,...
, who is said to have attained no great age, a few satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
verses have been preserved, directed against this same king. This agrees with the fact that a grandson of the Qais ibn Khalid, mentioned as a rich and influential man in Tarafa's Mu'allaqa (v. 80 or 81), figured at the time of the battle of Dhu-Qar, in which the tribe Bakr routed a Persian army. This battle falls about 610 CE.
The Mu'allaqa of 'Antara and that of Zuhayr
Zuhayr
Zuhayr , was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet who lived in the 6th century AD. He is considered one of the greatest writer of Arabic poetry in pre-Islamic times. Zuhayr belonged to the Muzaynah tribe. His father was a poet...
contain allusions to the feuds of the kindred tribes 'Abs and Dhobyan. Famous as these contests were, their time cannot accurately be ascertained. But the date of the two poets can be approximately determined from other data. Ka'b
Ka'b bin Zuhayr
Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr was a pagan in the time of Muḥammad, the eldest son of Zuhayr ibn Abî Sûlmâ, and one of six men who refused the prophet's attempts to convert them....
, son of Zuhayr, composed first a satire, and then, in the year 630, a eulogy on the Prophet; another son, Bujair, had begun, somewhat sooner, to celebrate Muhammad. 'Antara killed the grandfather of Al-Ahnaf Ibn Qays
Al-Ahnaf Ibn Qays
Al-Ahnaf Ibn Qays was a Muslim general who lived during the time of Muhammad. He hailed from the Arab tribe of Banu Tamim and was born of two noble parents. His father named him ad-Dhahhak, but everybody called him al-Ahnaf , because of a defect in his feet.-Early life:In the early years of Islam,...
, who died at an advanced age in 686 or 687; he outlived 'Abdallah ibn Simma, whose brother Duraid was a very old man when he fell in battle against the Prophet (early in 630 CE); and he had communications with Ward, whose son, the poet Urwah ibn al-Ward, may perhaps have survived the flight of Muhammad to Medina
Medina
Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...
. From all these indications we may place the productive period of both poets in the end of the 6th century. The historical background of 'Antara's Mu'allaqat lies somewhat earlier than that of Zuhayr's.
To the same period appears to belong the poem of 'Alqama ibn 'Abada
'Alqama ibn 'Abada
'Alqama ibn 'Ubada , Arabic علقمة بن عبدة generally known as 'Alqama al-Fahl علقمة الفحل , an Arabian poet of the tribe Tamim, who flourished in the second half of the 6th century....
, which, as we have seen, Ibn Khaldun reckons amongst the Mu'allaqat. This too is certainly the date of Al-Nabigha
Al-Nabigha
Al-Nabigha , was one of the last Arabian poets of pre-Islamic times. "Al-Nabigha" means "genius" in Arabic....
, who was one of the most distinguished of Arabic poets. For in the poem often reckoned as a Mu'allaqat, as in many others, he addresses himself to No'man, king of Hira, who reigned in the two last decades of the 6th century. The same king is mentioned as a contemporary in one of poems of 'Alqama.
The poem of al-A'sha
Al-A'sha
Al-A'sha or Maymun Ibn Qays Al-a'sha was an Arabic Jahiliyyah poet from Manfuha, Arabia.He was widely traveled and was nicknamed Al-A'sha which means "night-blind" after he lost his sight. One of his qasidah or odes is sometimes included in the Mu'allaqat, an early Arabic poetry collection....
, sometimes added to the Mu'allaqat, contains an allusion to the battle of Dhu Qar (under the name "Battle of Hinw", v. 62). This poet, not less famous than Nabigha, lived to compose a poem in honour of Muhammad, and died not long before 630 CE.
Labīd
Labid
Labid can either refer to*Labīd, the Arabian poet*Labid, a brand name for theophylline...
is the only one of these poets who embraced Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. His Mu'allaqat, however, like almost all his other poetical works, belongs to the pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
period. He is said to have lived until 661, or even later; certainly it is true of him, what is asserted with less likelihood of several others of these poets, that he lived to a ripe old age.
The poems
The seven Mu'allaqat, and also the poems appended to them, represent almost every type of ancient Arabian poetry in its excellences and its weaknesses. In order rightly to appreciate these, we must translate ourselves into the world of the BedouinBedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
and seek to realize the peculiar conditions of his life, together with the views and thoughts resulting from those conditions. In the Mu'allaqat of Tarafa we are repelled by the long, anatomically exact description of his camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
; but such a description had an extraordinary charm of its own for the Bedouins, every man of whom was a perfect connoisseur on this subject down to the minutest points; and the remaining parts of the poem, together with the other extant fragments of his songs, show that Tarafa had a real poetic gift. In the Mu'allaqat of 'Amr and Harith, for the preservation of which we are especially grateful to the compiler, we can read the haughty spirit of the powerful chieftains, boastfully celebrating the splendours of their tribe. These two poems have also a certain historical importance. The song of Zuhayr contains the practical wisdom of a sober man of the world. The other poems are fairly typical examples of the customary qasida
Qasida
The qaṣīdaᵗ , in Arabic: قصيدة, plural qasā'id, قــصــائـد; in Persian: قصیده , is a form of lyric poetry that originated in preIslamic Arabia...
, the long poem of ancient Arabia, and bring before us the various phases of Bedouin life. But even here we have differences. In the Mu'allaqat of 'Antara, whose heroic temperament had overcome the scorn with which the son of a black slave-mother was regarded by the Bedouins, there predominates a warlike spirit, which plays practically no part in the song of Labid.
It is a phenomenon which deserves the fullest recognition, that the needy inhabitants of a barren country should thus have produced an artistic poetry distinguished by so high a degree of uniformity. Even the extraordinary strict metrical system, observed by poets who had no inkling of theory and no knowledge of an alphabet, excites surprise. In the most ancient poems the metrical form is as scrupulously regarded as in later compositions. The only poem which shows unusual metrical freedom is the above-mentioned song of 'Abid. It is, however, remarkable that 'Abid's contemporary Imru' al-Qais, in a poem which in other respects also exhibits certain coincidences with that of 'Abid, presents himself considerable licence in the use of the very same metre one which, moreover, is extremely rare in the ancient period. Presumably, the violent deviations from the schema in 'Abid are due simply to incorrect transmission by compilers who failed to grasp the meter.
The other poems ascribed to 'Abid, together with all the rest attributed to Imru' al-Qais, are constructed in precise accord with the metrical canons. It is necessary always to bear in mind that these ancient poems, which for a century or more were preserved by oral tradition alone, have reached us in a much mutilated condition. Fortunately, there was a class of men who made it their special business to learn by rote the works either of a single poet or of several. The poets themselves used the services of these rhapsodists (rawi).
The last representative of this class is Hammad
Hammad Ar-Rawiya
Hammad Ar-Rawiya [Abu-l-Qasim Hammad ibn Abi Laila Sapur ] , Arab scholar, was of Dailamite descent, but was born in Kufa. The date of hisbirth is given by some as 694 AD, by others as 714....
, to whom is attributed the collection of the Mu'allaqat; but he, at the same time, marks the transition of the rhapsodist to the critic and scholar. The most favourable opinion of these rhapsodists would require us to make allowance for occasional mistakes: expressions would be transposed, the order of verses disarranged, passages omitted, and probably portions of different poems pieced together. It is clear, however, that Hammad dealt in the most arbitrary fashion with the enormous quantity of poetry which he professed to know thoroughly. The seven Mu'allaqat are indeed free from the suspicion of forgery, but even in them the text is frequently altered and many verses are transposed. The loose structure of Arabic poems was extremely favorable to such alterations. Some of the Mu'allaqat have several preambles: so, especially, that of 'Amr, the first eight verses of which belong not to the poem, but to another poet. Elsewhere, also, we find spurious verses in the Mu'allaqat. Some of these poems, which have been handed down to us in other exemplars besides the collection itself, exhibit great divergences both in the order and number of the verses and in textual details. This is particularly the case with the oldest Mu'allaqat—that of Imru' al-Qais—the critical treatment of which is a problem of such extreme difficulty that only an approximate solution can ever be reached. The variations of the text, outside the Mu'allaqat collection, have here and there exercised an influence on the text of that collection. It would be well if our manuscripts at least gave the Mu'allaqat in the exact form of Hammad's day. The best text in fact, we may say, a really good text is that of the latest Mu'allaqat, the song of Labid.
The Mu'allaqat exist in many manuscripts, some with old commentaries, of which a few are valuable. They have also been several times printed. Special mention is due to the edition of Sir Charles James Lyall
Charles James Lyall
Sir Charles James Lyall, KCSI, CIE, FBA was an English civil servant working in India during the period of the British Raj, and also an Arabic scholar.-Life:...
with the commentary of Tibrizi (Calcutta, 1894). Attempts to translate these poems, verse for verse, in poetical form, could scarcely have a happy result. The strangeness, both of the expression and of the subjects, only admits of a paraphrastic version for large portions, unless the sense is to be entirely obliterated.
yturyotpoye][pyt[pty0[rphyolp[tyoro rpy[t]-oyrp[ou
The hanging of the poems
Perhaps the oldest passage where this is stated that the poems were hung up occurs in the Iqd al-Farid (The Precious Necklace) of the Spanish Arab, Ibn Abd Rabbih. We read there: "The Arabs had such an interest in poetry, and valued it so highly, that they took seven long pieces selected from the ancient poetry, wrote them in gold on pieces of CoptCopt
The Copts are the native Egyptian Christians , a major ethnoreligious group in Egypt....
ic linen folded up, and hung them up (allaqat) on the curtains which covered the Ka'ba. Hence we speak of 'the golden poem of Imru' al-Qais
Imru' al-Qais
Imru` al-Qais bin Hujr al-Kindi was an Arabian poet in the 6th century AD, and also the son of one of the last Kindite kings. His qaseeda, or long poem, "Let us stop and weep" is one of the seven Mu'allaqat, poems prized as the best examples of pre-Islamic Arabian verse...
,' 'the golden poem of Zuhayr.' The number of the golden poems is seven; they are also called 'the suspended' (al-Mu'allaqat)." Similar statements are found in later Arabic works. But against this we have the testimony of al-Nahhas, who says in his commentary on the Mu'allaqat: "As for the assertion that they were hung up in the Ka'ba, it is not known to any of those who have handed down ancient poems." This cautious scholar is unquestionably right in rejecting a story so utterly unauthenticated.
The customs of the Arabs before Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
are pretty accurately known to us; we have also a mass of information about the affairs of Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
at the time when the Prophet arose; but no trace of this or anything like it is found in really good and ancient authorities. We hear, indeed, of a Meccan hanging up a spoil of battle on the Ka'ba (Ibn Hisham
Ibn Hisham
Abu Muhammad 'Abd al-Malik bin Hisham , or Ibn Hisham edited the biography of Muhammad written by Ibn Ishaq. Ibn Ishaq's work is lost and is now only known in the recensions of Ibn Hisham and al-Tabari. Ibn Hisham grew up in Basra, Iraq, but moved afterwards to Egypt, where he gained a name...
, ed. Wiistenfeld, p. 431). Less credible is the story of an important document being deposited in that sanctuary (ibid. p. 230), for this looks like an instance of later usages being transferred to pre-Islamic times. But at all events this is quite a different thing from the hanging up of poetical manuscripts. To account for the disappearance of the Mu'allaqat from the Ka'ba we are told, in a passage of late origin (De Sacy, Chrestom. ii. 480), that they were taken down at the capture of Mecca by the Prophet. But in that case we should expect some hint of the occurrence in the circumstantial biographies of the Prophet, and in the works on the history of Mecca; and we find no such thing.
That a series of long poems was written at all at that remote period is improbable in the extreme. Up to a time when the art of writing had become far more general than it was before the spread of Islam, poems were never or very rarely written, with the exception, perhaps, of epistles in poetic form. The diffusion of poetry was exclusively committed to oral tradition. Moreover, it is quite inconceivable that there should have been either a guild or a private individual of such acknowledged taste, or of such influence, as to bring about a consensus of opinion in favour of certain poems. Think of the mortal offence which the canonization of one poet must have given to his rivals and their tribes. It was quite another thing for an individual to give his own private estimate of the respective merits of two poets who had appealed to him as umpire, or for a number of poets to appear at large gatherings, such as the fair of Oqaz as candidates for the place of honour in the estimation of the throng which listened to their recitations.
No better is the variant of the legend, which we find, at a much later period, in the Muqaddimah
Muqaddimah
The Muqaddimah , also known as the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun or the Prolegomena , is a book written by the Maghrebian Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun in 1377 which records an early view of universal history...
of Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...
, who tells us that the poets themselves hung up their poems on the Ka'ba (ed. Paris iii. 357). In short, this legend, often related by Arabs, and still more by Europeans, has no historical basis: it is a fabrication based on the name suspended. The word was taken in its literal sense; and as these poems were prized by many above all others in after times, the same opinion was attributed to "the [ancient] Arabs," who were supposed to have given effect to their verdict in the way already described. A somewhat simpler version also given by Nahhas in the passage already cited is as follows: "Most of the Arabs were accustomed to meet at 'Oqaz and recite verses; then, if the king was pleased with any poem, he said, 'Hang it up, and preserve it among my treasures.'" But, not to mention other difficulties, there was no king of all the Arabs; and it is unlikely that any Arabian king attended the fair at Oqaz.
The story that the poems were written in gold has evidently originated in the name "the golden poems" (literally "the gilded"), a figurative expression for excellence. The designation "suspended" may be interpreted in the same way, referring to those (poems) which have been raised, on account of their value, to a specially honourable position. Another derivative of the same root is ilq, "precious thing." A clearer significance attaches to another name sometimes used for these poems assumut, "strings of pearls". The comparison of artificially elaborated poems to these strings is extremely apt. Hence it became popular, even in ordinary prose, to refer to speech in rhythmical form as nagm "to string pearls." The selection of these seven poems is unlikely to have been the work of the ancient Arabs, but rather some one writing at a later date.
Hammad Ar-Rawiya's seven poets
- Imru' al-QaisImru' al-QaisImru` al-Qais bin Hujr al-Kindi was an Arabian poet in the 6th century AD, and also the son of one of the last Kindite kings. His qaseeda, or long poem, "Let us stop and weep" is one of the seven Mu'allaqat, poems prized as the best examples of pre-Islamic Arabian verse...
- LabīdLabidLabid can either refer to*Labīd, the Arabian poet*Labid, a brand name for theophylline...
- TarafaTarafaTarafa , was a 6th century Arabian poet of the tribe of the Bakr.After a wild and dissipated youth spent in Bahrain, left his native land after peace had been established between the tribes of Bakr and Taghlib and went with his uncle Al-Mutalammis to the court of the king of Hira, 'Amr ibn-Hind ,...
- ZuhayrZuhayrZuhayr , was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet who lived in the 6th century AD. He is considered one of the greatest writer of Arabic poetry in pre-Islamic times. Zuhayr belonged to the Muzaynah tribe. His father was a poet...
- Antara Ibn Shaddad
- Amr ibn KulthumAmr ibn KulthumAmr ibn Kulthum Ibn Malik Ibn A`tab Abu Al-Aswad al-Taghlibi , a knight and the leader of the Taghlab tribe which was in Al-Forat island and was famous for its glory, bravery and merciless behavior in battle...
- Harith ibn Hilliza
External links
- Atlas of Almuallaqat
- Introduction to The Hanged Poems and Full Text of three of them
- The Arabic text of ten Muallawqat, with excellent audio tracks of their recitations
Translations
- A. J. Arberry, The Seven Odes: London, 1957
- Lady Anne Blunt and W. S. Blunt, The Seven Golden Odes of Pagan Arabia: London, 1903
- Sir William Jones, The Mo'allakat or Seven Arabian Poems: Calcutta, 1877
- F. E. Johnson, The Seven Poems Suspended in the Temple at Mecca: Bombay, 1893
- Michael Sells, Desert Tracings: Wesleyan University Press 1989
See also
- Charles J. Lyall, Ancient Arabian Poetry
- Charles J. Lyall, The Diwans of 'Abid ibn al-Abras and 'Amir ibn at-Tufail: London, 1913
- W. A. Clouston, Arabian Poetry for English Readers: Edinburgh
- Robert Irwin, Night and Horses and the Desert