Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/423

Rh down to that of Abu Temmam himself (the latest ascertainable date being ), but chiefly of the poets of the Ants-Islamic time (JaMliyydn), those of the early days of El-Islam (Mukhadrim&n), and those who flourished during the reigns of the Umawi caliphs, – (fsldmiyy&n). Perhaps the oldest in the collection are those relating to the war of Basils, a famous legendary strife which arose out of the murder of Kuleyb, chief of the com bined clans of Bekr and Teghlib, and lasted for forty years, ending with the peace of Dhu-1-Mejaz, about Of the period of the *Abbasi caliphs, under whom Abu Temmam himself lived, there are probably not more than sixteen fragments. Most of the poems belong to the class of extempore or occasional utterances, as distinguished from qasidehs, or elaborately finished odes. While the latter abound with comparisons and long descriptions, in which the skill of the poat is exhibited with much art and ingenuity, the poems of the Hamdteh are short, direct, and for the most part free from comparisons ;. the transitions are easy, the metaphors simple, and the purpose of the poem clearly indicated. It is due probably to the fact that this style of composition was chiefly sought by Abu Temmam in com piling his collection that he has chosen hardly anything from the works of the most famous poets of antiquity. Not a single piece from Imra el-Qeys occurs in the Hamaseh, nor are there any from Alqameh, Zaheyr, or El-A sha ; En- Nabighah is represented only by two pieces (pp. 403 and 742 of Freytag s edition) of four and three verses respectively, Antarah by two pieces of four verses each (Id., pp. 206, 209), Tarafeh by one piece of five verses (Id., p. 632), Lebid by one piece of three verses (Id., p. 468), and Amr son of Kulthum by one piece of four verses (Id,, p. 236). The compilation is thus essentially an anthology of minor posts, and exhibits (so far at least as the more ancient poems are concerned) the general average of poetic utterance at a time when to speak in verse was the daily habit of every warrior of the desert. To this description, however, there is an important excep tion in the book entitled En-Nesib, containing verses relat ing to women and love. In the classical age of Arab poetry it was the established rule that all qasidehs, or finished odes, must begin with the mention of women and their charms (teshblb], in order, as the old critics said, that the hearts of the heirers might be softened and inclined to regard kindly the theme which the poet proposed to unfold. The fragments included in this part of the work are there fore generally taken from the opening verses of qasidehs ; where this is not the case, they are chiefly compositions of the early Islamic period, when the school of exclusively erotic poetry (of which the greatest representative was Omar son of Abu Rabfah) arose. The compiler was himself a distinguished poet in the style of his day, and wandered through many provinces of the Muslim empire earning money and fame by his skill in panegyric. About he betook himself to Khurasan, then ruled by Abd-alluh son of Tcihir, whom he praised and by whom he was rewarded ; on his journey home to El-Iraq he passed through Hamadan, and was there detained for many months a guest of Abu-1-Wafa son of Selemeh, the road onward being blocked by heavy falls of snow. Daring his residence at Hamadan Abu Temmam is said to have compiled or composed, from the materials which he found in Abu-1-Wafl s library, five poeti cal works, of which one was the Hamdseh. This collection remained as a precious heirloom in the family of Abu-1- Wafa until their fortunes decayed, when it fell into the hands of a man of Dinawar named Abu-l- AwMhil, who carried it to Isfahan and made it known to the learned of that city. The worth of the Hamaseh as a store-house of ancient legend, of faithful detail regarding the usages of the pagan time and early simplicity of the Arab race, can hardly be exaggerated. The high level of excellence which is found in its selections, both as to form and matter, is re markable, and caused it to be said that Abu Temmam dis played higher qualities as a poet in his choice of extracts from the ancients than in his own compositions. What strikes us chiefly in the class of poetry of which the Ilamdseh is a specimen, is its exceeding truth and reality, its freedom from artificiality and hearsay, the evident first hand experience which the singers possessed of all of which they sang. For historical purposes the value of the collec tion is not small ; but most of all there shines forth from it a complete portraiture of the hardy and manful nature, the strenuous life of passion and battle, the lofty contempt of cowardice, niggardliness, and servility, which marked the valiant stock who bore El-Islam abroad in a flood of new life over the out-worn civilizations of Persia, Egypt, and Byzantium. It has the true stamp of the heroic time, of its weaknesses and crime as of its strength and beauty.

1em 1em 1em  HAMBATO, a form of the.  HAMBURG, a state of the German empire, which consists of the city of Hamburg with its incorporated suburbs of St George s and St Paul s, the surrounding district with the sixteen suburban hamlets (Vororte), several islands in the Elbe, the five enclaves of Volksdorf, Hansdorf, &c., in Holstein, the communes of Moorburg in Liineburg and Cuxhaven-Ritzebiittel in the north-west of the duchy of Bremen at the mouth of the Elbe, the island of Ncuwerk 