Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/563

Rh MO ALLAKlT 537 himself correctly, they also called this modified collection MoallaMt. Mofaddal employs, besides, the names &quot;the seven long [poems] &quot; and &quot; the necklaces.&quot; This last be came afterwards a common title for the seven poems. The comparison of songs to strings of pearls is a very apt one, from the nature of the Arabic poem, composed as it is of separate loosely-connected parts. Hence it became so popular that even in ordinary prose to speak in rhyth mical form is called simply nazm, &quot;to string pearls.&quot; Mofaddal expressly opposes the view of those who did not acknowledge the pre-eminence of the seven poets selected by him. This appears to be an attack on Hammad for including in his collection the works of two men who for poetic fame could certainly never enter the lists with Nabigha and A sha. It is prima facie more likely that a later writer should have replaced the less famous poets by those who were universally placed in the first rank, than vice versa. Perhaps another fact is of some importance here. Hammad, a Persian by descent, was a client of the Arab tribe, Bakr ibn Wail. In the heathen period this tribe was much at war with the closely - related tribe Taghlib. Now of all Arabic poems none was more famous than that in which Amr ibn Kolthiim celebrates in glowing terms the praises of his tribe Taghlib. If, therefore, Hammad s collection embraced this poem, it was very natural for him to gratify his patrons the Bakrites by placing alongside of it that of Harith a Bakrite and contemporary of Amr where he extols his own tribe and assails the Taghlibites with bitter scorn. Such considera tions did not affect Abu Obaida and Mofaddal. The authority of these men has so far prevailed that the poems of their favourites Nabigha and A sha often appear in the manuscripts, not indeed instead of those of Antara and Harith, but after the other seven. Thus we sometimes read of nine Mo allakAt. The first author in whom the writer has observed this is the great philosophic historian Ibn Khaldun (A.D. 1332-1406); he mentions instead of Harith the far more celebrated Alkama ; whether relying on ancient authority, or by an oversight, we cannot tell. In an excellent collection of forty-nine long poems by Abu Zaid al-Korashf (date unknown) MofaddaPs seven poets appear in the first class, &quot;the necklaces;&quot; but Nabigha and A sha are each represented by a different piece from that usually reckoned among the Mo allakdt. By this editor the name &quot;golden poems,&quot; which, as we have seen, sometimes occurs as a synonym of &quot; Mo allakdt,&quot; is applied to seven quite distinct songs. 1 This uncertainty as to the selection and the titles may serve as an additional proof that the &quot; suspension,&quot; on the Ka ba or anywhere else, is a fable. The lives of these seven (or nine) poets were spread over a period of more than a hundred years. The earliest of them, according to the common and probably correct opinion, was AMRAALKAIS (pronounced also Imroolkais, Imraalkais, &c.), regarded by many as the most illustrious of Arabian poets. His exact date cannot be determined ; but probably the best part of his career fell within the first half of the 6th century. He was a scion of the royal house of the tribe Kinda, which lost all its power at the death of King Harith ibn Amr in the year 529. 2 The poet s royal father, Hojr, by some accounts a son of this Harith, was killed by Bedouins. The son led an adven turous 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 1 See Noldeke, Beitriicje, p. xxi., and the catalogue of the Arabic codd. in the British Museum, p. 480 sqq. 2 See Tabar i s Geschichte der Perser und Araber. . . Ubersetzt von Th. Noldeke (Leyden, 1879), p. 171. memory of his house and the hatred it inspired were still comparatively fresh, and therefore recent. The Mo allaka of AMR hurls defiance against the king of Hira, Amr son of Mundhir, who reigned from the summer of 554 till 568 or 569, and was afterwards slain by our poet. 3 This prince is also addressed by HARITH in his Mo allaka. 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 Kais ibn KhAlid, mentioned as a rich and influential man in Tarafa s Mo allaka (v. 80 or 81), figured at the time of the battle of Dhii Kdr, in which the tribe Bakr routed a Persian army. This battle falls between A.D. 604 and 610 (Noldeke s Talari, p. 311). The Mo allaka of ANTARA and that of ZOHAIR contain allusions to the feuds of the kindred tribes Abs and Dhobyan. Famous as these contests were, their time cannct be ascertained. But the date of the two poets can be approxi mately determined from other data. Ka b, son of Zohair, composed first a satire, and then, in the year 630, a eulogy on the Prophet ; another son, Bojair, had begun, some what sooner, to celebrate Mohammed. Antara killed the grandfather of the Ahnaf ibn Kais who died at an advanced age in A.D. 686 or 687 ; he outlived Abdall&h ibn Simma, whose brother Doraid was a very old man when he fell in battle against the Prophet (early in A.D. 630) ; and he had communications with Ward, Avhose son, the poet Orwa, may perhaps have survived the flight of Mohammed to Medina. From all these indications we may place the productive period of both poets in the end of the 6th century. 4 The historical background of Antara s Mo allaka seems to lie somewhat earlier than that of Zohair s. To the same period appears to belong the poem of ALKAMA, which, as we have seen, Ibn Khaldun reckons amongst the Mo allakat. This too is certainly the date of NABIGHA, who was one of the most distinguished of Arabic poets. For in the poem often reckoned as a Mo allaka, as in many others, he addresses himself to the above-named No m&n, 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 Alkama s poems. The poem of A SHA, which Mofaddal placed among the Mo allakat, contains an allusion to the battle of Dhu Kar (under the name &quot;Battle of Hinw,&quot; v. 62). This poet, not less famous than Nabiglm, lived to compose a poem in honour of Mohammed, and died not long before A.D. 630. LABI D is the only one of these poets who embraced Islam. His Mo allaka, however, like almost all his other poetical works, belongs to the pagan period. He is said to have lived till 661 or even lattr; 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. We have already mentioned that the old Arabic poetry was transmitted not by manuscripts but simply through oral tradition. Many pieces, especially the shorter ones, may have owed their preservation to their hold on the popular memory. But, fortunately, there was a class of men who made it their special business to learn by rote, and repeat, the works either of a single poet or of several. The poets themselves used the services of such rhapso- dists (rCiwis). The last representative of this class is Hammad, the man who formed the collection of Mo alla- kdt ; but he, at the same time, marks the transition from 3 See Noldeke s Tabari, pp. 170, 172. 4 This evidence might be supplemented from a poem in Zohair s name, whose author describes himself as a man of ninety years, and in which the downfall of King No man of Hira (A.D. 601, see falar i, p. 347) is spoken of as a not very recent event. But the genuineness of this poem is more than doubtful (see Ahlwardt, op. cit. p. 64, and C. J. Lyall iii the Academy, March 13, 18SO, p. 192). XVL 68