Skip to main content

Full text of "A literary history of the Arabs"

See other formats


3>b^ 


'7MW 


'^J^^ 


R^^h^ 


K 


(All  rights  reserved.) 


Preface 

The   term  '  Literary    History '  may    be   interpreted    in    such 
different  ways  that  an  author  who  uses  it  is  bound  to  explain 
at    the   outset   what   particular  sense    he    has    attached    to  it. 
When  Mr,  Fisher  Unwin  asked  me  to  contribute  a  volume  on 
the  Arabs  to  this  Series,  1  accepted  his  proposal  with  alacrity, 
not    only    because    I    welcomed    the    opportunity    of   making 
myself  better  acquainted  with  Arabic  history  and  literature, 
but  also  and  more  especially  in  the  hope  that  I  might  be  able 
to  compile  a  work  which  should  serve  as  a  general  introduction 
to  the  subject,  and  which  should  neither  be  too  popular  for 
students    nor  too   scientific  for  ordinary   readers.     Its  precise 
character  was  determined  partly  by  my  own  predilections  and 
partly  by  the  conditions  of  time  and  space  under  which  it  had 
to    be    produced.     To    write    a    critical    account    of  Arabic 
literature  was  out  of  the  question.     Brockelmann's  invaluable 
work,  which  contains  over  a  thousand  closely-printed  pages,  is 
confined  to  biography  and  bibliography,  and  does  not  deal  with 
the  historical  development  of  ideas.     This,  however,  seems  to 
me  the  really  vital  aspect  of  literary  history.     It  has  been  my 
chief  aim  to  sketch  in  broad  outlines  what  the  Arabs  thought, 
and  to  indicate  as  far  as  possible  the  influences  which  moulded 
their   thought.     I   am    well    aware   that   the  picture  is  sadly 
incomplete,  that  it  is  full  of  gaps  and  blanks  admitting  of  no 
disguise  or  apology ;  but  I  hope  that,  taken  as  a  whole,  it  is  not 
unlike.     Experience  has  convinced  me  that  young  students  of 


181380 


X  PREFACE 

Arabic,  to  whom  this  volume  is  principally  addressed,  often 
find  great  difficulty  in  understanding  what  they  read,  since 
they  are  not  in  touch  with  the  political,  intellectual,  and 
religious  notions  which  are  presented  to  them.  The  pages  of 
almost  every  Arabic  book  abound  in  familiar  allusions  to  names, 
events,  movements,  and  ideas,  of  which  Moslems  require  no 
explanation,  but  which  puzzle  the  Western  reader  unless  he 
have  some  general  knowledge  of  Arabian  history  in  the  widest 
meaning  of  the  word.  Such  a  survey  is  not  to  be  found,  I 
believe,  in  any  single  European  book  ;  and  if  mine  supply  the 
want,  however  partially  and  inadequately,  I  shall  feel  that  my 
labour  has  been  amply  rewarded.  Professor  E.  G.  Browne's 
Literary  History  of  Persia  covers  to  a  certain  extent  the  same 
ground,  and  discusses  many  important  matters  belonging  to 
the  common  stock  of  Muhammadan  history  with  a  store  of 
learning  and  wealth  of  detail  which  it  would  be  impossible  for 
me  to  emulate.  The  present  volume,  written  from  a  different 
standpoint  and  on  a  far  smaller  scale,  does  not  in  any  way  clash 
with  that  admirable  work  ;  on  the  contrary,  numerous  instances 
occur  to  me  in  which  my  omissions  are  justified  by  the  fact 
that  Professor  Browne  has  already  said  all  that  is  necessary. 
If  I  have  sometimes  insufficiently  emphasised  the  distinction 
between  history  and  legend  on  the  one  hand,  and  between 
popular  legend  and  antiquarian  fiction  on  the  other,  and  if 
statements  are  made  positively  which  ought  to  have  been 
surrounded  with  a  ring-fence  of  qualifications,  the  reader  will 
perceive  that  a  purely  critical  and  exact  method  cannot  reason- 
ably be  expected  in  a  compilation  of  this  scope. 

As  regards  the  choice  of  topics,  I  agree  with  the  author  of  a 
famous  Arabic  anthology  who  declares  that  it  is  harder  to 
select  than  compose  [ikhtiydru  U-kaldm  as^abu  min  taWifihi). 
Perhaps  an  epitomist  may  be  excused  for  not  doing  equal 
justice  all  round.  To  me  the  literary  side  of  the  subject 
appeals  more  than  the  historical,  and  I  have  followed  my  bent 
without  hesitation  ;  for  in  order  to  interest  others  a  writer  must 


PREFACE  xi 

first  be  interested  himself.  In  the  verse-translations  I  have 
tried  to  represent  the  spirit  and  feeling  of  the  original  poems. 
This  aim  precludes  verbal  fidelity,  which  can  only  be  attained 
through  the  disenchanting  medium  of  prose,  but  scholars,  I 
think,  will  recognise  that  my  renderings  are  usually  as  faithful 
as  such  things  can  or  should  be.  To  reproduce  a  typical  Arabic 
ode,  e.g.^  one  of  the  Mu^allaqdt  ('Suspended  Poems'),  in  a 
shape  at  once  intelligible  and  attractive  to  English  readers  is 
probably  beyond  the  powers  of  any  translator.  Even  in  those 
passages  which  seem  best  suited  for  the  purpose  we  are  baffled 
again  and  again  by  the  intensely  national  stamp  of  the  ideas, 
the  strange  local  colour  of  the  imagery,  and  the  obstinately 
idiomatic  style.  Modern  culture  can  appreciate  Firdawsi, 
<Umar  Khayyam,  Sa'di,  and  Hafiz :  their  large  humanity 
touches  us  at  many  points  ;  but  the  old  Arabian  poetry  moves 
in  a  world  apart,  and  therefore,  notwithstanding  all  its  splendid 
qualities,  will  never  become  popular  in  ours.  Of  the  later 
poets  who  lived  under  the  'Abbasid  Caliphate  one  or  two 
might,  with  good  fortune,  extend  their  reputation  to  the 
West :  notably  the  wise  sceptic  and  pessimist,  Abu  'l-'Ala 
al-Ma'arr{.  The  following  versions  have  at  least  the  merit  of 
being  made  directly  from  the  original  language  and  with  a 
uniform  motive.  Considering  the  importance  of  Arabic  poetry 
as  (in  the  main)  a  true  mirror  of  Arabian  life,  I  do  not  think 
the  space  devoted  to  it  is  at  all  extravagant.  Other  branches 
of  literature  could  not  receive  the  same  attention.  Many  an 
eminent  writer  has  been  dismissed  in  a  few  lines,  many  well- 
known  names  have  been  passed  over.  But,  as  before  said,  this 
work  is  a  sketch  of  ideas  in  their  historical  environment  rather 
than  a  record  of  authors,  books,  and  dates. 

The  transliteration  of  Arabic  words,  though  superfluous  for 
scholars  and  for  persons  entirely  ignorant  of  the  language,  is  an 
almost  indispensable  aid  to  the  class  of  readers  whom  I  have 
especially  in  view.     My  system  is  that  recommended  by  the 


xii  PREFACE 

Royal  Asiatic  Society  and  adopted  by  Professor  Browne  in  his 
Literary  History  of  Persia  ;  but  I  use  z  for  the  letter  which  he 
denotes  by  dh.  The  definite  article  a/,  which  I  have  fre- 
quently omitted  at  the  beginning  of  proper  names,  has  been 
restored  in  the  Index.  It  may  save  trouble  if  I  mention  here 
the  abbreviations  *b.'  for  *  ibn '  (son  of);  J.R.A.S.  for 
yournal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society;  Z.D.M.G.  for  Zeitschrift 
der  Deutschen  Morgenlandischen  Gesellschaft ;  and  S.B.IV.A. 
for  Sitzungsberichte  der  Wiener  Akademie. 

Finally,  it  behoves  me  to  make  a  full  acknowledgment  or 
my  debt  to  the  learned  Orientalists  whose  works  I  have 
studied  and  freely  *  conveyed '  into  these  pages.  References 
could  not  be  given  in  every  case,  but  the  reader  will  see  for 
himself  how  much  is  derived  from  Von  Kremer,  Goldziher, 
Noldeke,  and  Wellhausen,  to  recall  only  a  few  of  the  leading 
authorities.  At  the  same  time  I  have  constantly  gone  back  to 
the  native  sources  of  information,  and  a  great  portion  of  the 
book  is  based  on  my  own  reading  and  judgment.  Although 
both  the  plan  and  the  execution  are  doubtless  open  to  censure, 
I  trust  that  serious  mistakes  have  been  avoided.  The  warmest 
thanks  are  due  to  my  friend  and  colleague,  Professor  A.  A. 
Bevan,  who  read  the  proofs  throughout  and  made  a  number  of 
valuable  remarks  which  will  be  found  in  the  footnotes.  Mr, 
A.  G.  Ellis  kindly  gave  me  the  benefit  of  his  advice  in 
selecting  the  frontispiece  as  well  as  other  help.  I  have  also  to 
thank  the  Editor  of  the  Athencsum  for  permission  to  reprint 
my  version  of  the  Song  of  Vengeance  by  Ta'abbata  Sharr"", 
which  was  originally  published  in  that  journal. 

REYNOLD  A.  NICHOLSON. 


Contents 


PAGE 

Preface        .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     ix 

Introduction  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    xv 

CHAPTER 

I.  Saba  and  Himyar  .  .  .  .  .  .      i 

II.  The  History  and  Legends  of  the  Pagan  Arabs  .    30 

III.  Pre-islamic  Poetry,  Manners,  and  Religion  .    71 

IV.  The  Prophet  and  the  Koran    .  .  .  .141 

V.  The     Orthodox     Caliphate     and    the     Umayyad 

Dynasty.  .  .  .  .  .  .181 

VI.  The  Caliphs  of  Baghdad  .  .  .  .254 

VII.  Poetry,  Literature,  and  Science  in  the  'Abbasid 

Period   .......  285 

VIII.  Orthodoxy,  Free-thought,  and  Mysticism     .  .  365 

IX.  The  Arabs  in  Europe      .  .  .  .  .405 

X.  From  the  Mongol  Invasion  to  the  Present  Day   .  442 

Bibliography  .  .  .  .  •  .  •  47^ 

Index  .....•••  4^^ 


Introduction 

The  Arabs  belong  to  the  great  family  of  nations  which  on 
account  of  their  supposed  descent  from  Shem,  the  son  of 
Noah,  are  commonly  known  as  the  *  Semites.' 
This  term  includes  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians, 
the  Hebrews,  the  Phoenicians,  the  Aramaeans,  the  Abyssinians, 
the  Sabaeans,  and  the  Arabs,  and  although  based  on  a  classifica- 
tion that  is  not  ethnologically  precise — the  Phoenicians  and 
Sabaeans,  for  example,  being  reckoned  in  Genesis,  chap,  x, 
among  the  descendants  of  Ham — it  was  well  chosen  by  Eich- 
horn  (t  1827)  to  comprehend  the  closely  allied  peoples  which 
have  been  named.  Whether  the  original  home  of  the  undivided 
Semitic  race  was  some  part  of  Asia  (Arabia,  Armenia,  or  the 
district  of  the  Lower  Euphrates),  or  whether,  according  to  a 
view  which  has  lately  found  favour,  the  Semites  crossed 
into  Asia  from  Africa,^  is  still  uncertain.  Long  before  the 
epoch  when  they  first  appear  in  history  they  had  branched 
off  from  the  parent  stock  and  formed  separate  nationalities. 
The  relation  of  the  Semitic  languages  to  each  other  cannot 
be  discussed  here,  but  we  may  arrange  them  in  the  chrono- 
logical order  of  the  extant  literature  as  follows : — 2 

'  H.  Grimme,  Weltgeschichte  in  Karakterbildern :  Mohammed  (Munich, 
1904),  p.  6  sqq. 

*  Cf.  Noldeke,  Die  Semitischen  Sprachen  (Leipzig,  1887),  or  the  same 
scholar's  article,  '  Semitic  Languages,'  in  the  Encyclopadia  Britannica, 
9th  edition.   Renan's  Histoire  generate  des  langues  semitiques  (1855)  is  now 

XV 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

1.  Babylonian  or  Assyrian  (3000-500  B.C.). 

2.  Hebrew  (from  1500  B.C.). 

3.  South   Arabic,  otherwise   called    Sabaean   or  Himyarite 
(inscriptions  from  800  B.C.). 

4.  Aramaic  (inscriptions  from  800  B.C.). 

5.  Phoenician  (inscriptions  from  700  B.C.). 

6.  ^thiopic  (inscriptions  from  350  a.d.). 

7.  Arabic  (from  500  a.d.). 

Notwithstanding  that  Arabic  is  thus,  in  a  sense,  the  youngest 
of  the  Semitic  languages,  it  is  generally  allowed  to  be  nearer 
akin    than    any    of    them    to    the    original    archetype,    the 
*  Ursemitisch,'    from    which    they   all    are    derived,   just    as 
the  Arabs,  by  reason  of  their  geographical  situation  and  the 
monotonous  uniformity  of  desert  life,  have  in  some  respects 
preserved  the  Semitic  character  more  purely  and  exhibited  it 
more  distinctly  than  any  people  of  the  same   family.     From 
the  period  of  the  great  Moslem  conquests  (700  a.d.)  to  the 
present  day  they  have  extended    their  language, 
^''resentatives    religion,  and  Culture  over  an  enormous  expanse 
SemUic^nice      ^^  territory,  tar  surpassing  that  of  all  the  ancient 
Semitic  empires  added  together.     It  is  true  that 
the  Arabs  are  no  longer  what  they  were  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
the  ruling   nation   of  the  world,  but   loss  of  temporal  power 
has  only   strengthened    their    spiritual  dominion.     Islam  still 
reigns  supreme  in   Western  Asia  ;    in  Africa  it  has  steadily 
advanced  ;  even    on   European    soil    it  has  found    in   Turkey 
compensation    for    its    banishment    from    Spain    and    Sicily. 
While  most  of  the  Semitic  peoples  have  vanished,  leaving  but 
a  meagre  and  ambiguous  record,  so  that  we  cannot  hope  to 
become  intimately  acquainted  with  them,  we  possess  in  the 

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  VOlker  und  Sprachen,  vol.  i  (Leipzig,  1883).  The  dates 
in  this  table  are  of  course  only  approximate. 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

case  of  the  Arabs  ample  materials  for  studying  almost  every 
phase  of  their  development  since  the  sixth  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  and  for  writing  the  v^^hole  history  of  their 
national  life  and  thought.  This  book,  I  need  hardly  say, 
makes  no  such  pretensions.  Even  vi^ere  the  space  at 
my  disposal  unlimited,  a  long  time  must  elapse  before 
the  vast  and  various  field  of  Arabic  literature  can  be 
thoroughly  explored  and  the  results  rendered  accessible  to 
the  historian. 

From  time  immemorial  Arabia  was  divided  into  North  and 

South,  not  only  by  the  trackless  desert  [al-Rub*'  a/-KhdIi,  the 

*  Solitary    Quarter')   which  stretches    across    the 

Arabs  of  the  •         ^  j     c  i     i  • 

North  and  South,  penmsula  and  forms  a  natural  barrier  to  inter- 
course, but  also  by  the  opposition  of  two  kindred 
races  widely  differing  in  their  character  and  way  of  life. 
Whilst  the  inhabitants  of  the  northern  province  (the  Hijaz 
and  the  great  central  highland  of  Najd)  were  rude  nomads 
sheltering  in  '  houses  of  hair,'  and  ever  shifting  to  and  fro 
in  search  of  pasture  for  their  camels,  the  people  of  Yemen 
or  Arabia  Felix  are  first  mentioned  in  history  as  the  inheritors 
of  an  ancient  civilisation  and  as  the  owners  of  fabulous  wealth 
— spices,  gold  and  precious  stones — which  ministered  to  the 
luxury  of  King  Solomon.  The  Bedouins  of  the  North  spoke 
Arabic — that  is  to  say,  the  language  of  the  Pre-islamic  poems 
and  of  the  Koran — whereas  the  southerners  used  a  dialect 
called  by  Muhammadans  '  Himyarite '  and  a  peculiar  script 
of  which  the  examples  known  to  us  have  been  discovered  and 
deciphered  in  comparatively  recent  times.  Of  these  Sabasans 
— to  adopt  the  designation  given  to  them  by  Greek  and 
Roman  geographers — more  will  be  said  presently.  The 
period  of  their  bloom  was  drawing  to  a  close  in  the  early 
centuries  of  our  era,  and  they  have  faded  out  of  history 
before  600  a.d.,  when  their  northern  neighbours  first  rise 
into  prominence. 

It  was,  no  doubt,  the  consciousness  of  this  racial  distinction 

I* 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

that  caused  the  view  to  prevail  among  Moslem  genealogists 
that    the  Arabs  followed    two  separate  lines  of  descent  from 

their  common  ancestor,  Sam  b.  Nuh  (Shem, 
^'X^tS"'*   the   son    of    Noah).     As    regards    those   of  the 

North,  their  derivation  from  'Adnan,  a  de- 
scendant of  Isma'fl  (Ishmael)  was  universally  recognised  ;  those 
of  the  South  were  traced  back  to  Qahtan,  whom  most 
genealogists  identified  with  Yoqtan  (Joktan),  the  son  of  'Abir 
(Eber).  Under  the  Yoqtanids,  who  are  the  elder  line,  we 
find,  together  with  the  Sabaeans  and  Himyarites,  several  large 
and  powerful  tribes — e.g.^  Tayyi',  Kinda,  and  Taniikh — 
which  had  settled  in  North  and  Central  Arabia  long  before 
Islam,  and  were  in  no  respect  distinguishable  from  the 
Bedouins  of  Ishmaelite  origin.  As  to  'Adnan,  his  exact 
genealogy  is  disputed,  but  all  agree  that  he  was  of  the 
posterity  of  Isma'fl  (Ishmael),  the  son  of  Ibrdhim  (Abraham) 
by  Hajar  (Hagar).  The  story  runs  that  on  the  birth  of 
Isma'fl  God  commanded  Abraham  to  journey  to  Mecca  with 
Hagar  and  her  son  and  to  leave  them  there.  They  were  seen 
by  some  Jurhumites,  descendants  of  Yoqjan,  who  took  pity 
on  them  and  resolved  to  settle  beside  them.  Isma'fl  grew  up 
with  the  sons  of  the  strangers,  learned  to  shoot  the  bow,  and 
spoke  their  tongue.  Then  he  asked  of  them  in  marriage, 
and  they  married  him  to  one  of  their  women.^  The  tables 
on  the  opposite  page  show  the  principal  branches  of  the 
younger  but  by  far  the  more  important  family  of  the  Arabs 
which  traced  its  pedigree  through  'Adnan  to  Isma'il.  A 
dotted  line  indicates  the  omission  oi  one  or  more  links  in 
the  genealogical  chain. ^ 

'  Ibn  Qutayba,  Kitdhu  1-Ma'drij,  ed.  by  Wiistenfeld,  p.  i8. 

'  Full  information  concerning  the  genealogy  of  the  Arabs  will  be  found 
in  Wiistenfeld's  Gencalogische  Tabcllen  der  Ayabischen  StiUnmc  und 
Familien  with  its  excellent  Register  {Gottingen,  1852-1853). 


INTRODUCTION 


XIX 


I. 

The  Descendants  of  Rabi'a. 

'Adnan, 

I 
Ma'add. 

Nizar. 

I 
Rabi'a. 


'Anaza. 


Bakr. 


Wa'il. 


Namir. 


Taghlib. 


n. 

The  Descendants  of  Mudar. 

'Adnan. 

I 
Ma'add. 

I, 
Nizar. 

I 
Mudar. 


Qays  'Aylan. 
Ghatafan. 


'Abs.     Dhu 


Dabba. 


Tamim. 


Sulaym.     Hawazin. 


Khuzayma. 


Asad.         Kinana. 


Hudhayl. 


byan. 


Fihr  (Quraysh)." 


'  The  tribes  Dabba,  Tamim,  Khuzayma,  Hudhayl,  Asad,  Kinana,  and  Quraysh 
together  formed  a  group  which  is  known  as  Khindif,  and  is  often  distinguished 
from  Qays  'Aylan. 


XX  INTRODUCTION 

It    is   undeniable  that    these    lineages    are    to  some  extent 
fictitious.     There   was  no   Pre-islamic  science  of  genealogy, 
so  that    the    first  Muhammadan   investigators  had  only  con- 
fused and  scanty  traditions  to   work  on.     They  were  biassed, 
moreover,  by  political,  religious,  and   other  con- 
Muhammadan    sidcrations.^      Thus    their    study  of  the    Koran 

genealogy.  ...  . 

and  of  Biblical  history  led  to  the  introduction 
of  the  patriarchs  who  stand  at  the  head  of  their  lists.  Nor 
can  we  accept  the  national  genealogy  beginning  with  'Adnan 
as  entirely  historical,  though  a  great  deal  of  it  was  actually 
stored  in  the  memories  of  the  Arabs  at  the  time  when  Islam 
arose,  and  is  corroborated  by  the  testimony  of  the  Pre-islamic 
poets.2  On  the  other  hand,  the  alleged  descent  of  every 
tribe  from  an  eponymous  ancestor  is  inconsistent  with  facts 
established  by  modern  research.3  It  is  probable  that  many 
names  represent  merely  a  local  or  accidental  union ;  and 
many  more,  e.g.^  Ma'add,  seem  originally  to  have  denoted 
large  groups  or  confederations  of  tribes.  The  theory  of 
a  radical  difference  between  the  Northern  Arabs  and  those 
of  the  South,  corresponding  to  the  fierce  hostility  which 
has  always  divided  them  since  the  earliest  days  of  Islam,4 
may  hold  good  if  we  restrict  the  term  *  Yemenite  ' 
(Southern)  to  the  civilised  Sabaeans,  Himyarites,  &c.,  who 
dwelt  in  Yemen  and  spoke  their  own  dialect,  but 
can  hardly  apply  to  the  Arabic-speaking  '  Yemenite  ' 
Bedouins  scattered  all  over  the  peninsula.  Such  criticism, 
however,  does  not  affect  the  value  of  the  genealogical 
documents  regarded  as  an  index  of  the  popular  mind.  From 
this  point  of  view  legend  is  often  superior  to  fact,  and  it 
must  be  our  aim  in  the  following  chapters  to  set  forth  what 


'  Goldziher,  Muhamincdanisclic  Studien,  Part  I,  p.  133  sqq.,  177  sqq. 
^  Noldeke  in  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  40,  p.  177. 
3  See  Margoliouth,  Mohaimned  and  the  Rise  0/  Islam,  p.  4. 
^  Concerning  the  nature  and  causes  of  this  antagonism  see  Goldziher, 
op.  cit..  Part  I,  p.  78  sqq. 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

the  Arabs   believed   rather   than   to  examine  whether  or  no 
they  were  justified  in  believing  it. 

'Arabic,'  in  its  widest  signification,  has  two  principal 
dialects: — 

1.  South  Arabic,  spoken  in,  Yemen  and  including  Sabaean, 
Himyarite,  Minasan,  with  the  kindred  dialects  of  Mahra 
and  Shihr. 

2.  Arabic  proper,  spoken  in  Arabia  generally,  exclusive 
of  Yemen. 

Of  the   former   language   we  possess  nothing    beyond    the 

numerous  inscriptions  which  have  been  collected  by  European 

travellers    and    which    it    will    be   convenient    to 

South  Arabic.  1 1       • 

discuss  in  the  next  chapter,  where  I  shall  give 
a  brief  sketch  of  the  legendary  history  of  the  Sabaeans  and 
Himyarites.  South  Arabic  resembles  Arabic  in  its  gram- 
matical forms,  e.g.^  the  broken  plural,  the  sign  of  the  dual,  and 
the  manner  of  denoting  indefiniteness  by  an  affixed  m  (for 
which  Arabic  substitutes  «)  as  well  as  in  its  vocabulary  ;  its 
alphabet,  which  consists  of  twenty-nine  letters,  ^in  and  Samech 
being  distinguished  as  in  Hebrew,  is  more  nearly  akin  to  the 
iEthiopic.  The  Himyarite  Empire  was  overthrown  by  the 
Abyssinians  in  the  sixth  century  after  Christ,  and  by  600  a.d. 
South  Arabic  had  become  a  dead  language.  From  this  time 
forward  the  dialect  of  the  North  established  an  almost 
universal  supremacy  and  won  for  itself  the  title  of  '  Arabic  ' 
par  excellence.^ 

The  oldest  monuments  of  written  Arabic  are  modern  in 

date  compared  with  the  Sabaean  inscriptions,  some  of  which 

take  us  back  2,500  years  or  thereabout.     Apart 

The  oldest  -  ,.  ..  -      f^..       .  ,  , 

specimens  of     from   the    msctiptions  or    Hijr  \n    the    northern 

Hijaz,  and  those  of  Safd  in  the  neighbourhood  of 

Damascus  (which,  although  written  by  northern  Arabs  before 

the  Christian  era,  exhibit  a  peculiar  character  not  unlike  the 

'  The   word     '  Arabic '    is   always    to    be   understood    in    this   sense 
wherever  it  occurs  in  the  following  pages. 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

Sabasan  and  cannot  be  called  Arabic  in  the  usual  acceptation 
of  the  term),  the  most  ancient  examples  of  Arabic  writing 
which  have  hitherto  been  discovered  appear  in  the  trilingual 
(Syriac,  Greek,  and  Arabic)  inscription  of  Zabad,^  south-east  of 
Aleppo,  dated  512  or  513  a.d.,  and  the  bilingual  (Greek  and 
Arabic)  of  Harran,^  dated  568  a.d.  With  these  documents  we 
need  not  concern  ourselves  further,  especially  as  their 
interpretation  presents  great  difficulties.  Very  few  among 
the  Pre-islamic  Arabs  were  able  to  read  or  write. 3  Those  who 
could  generally  owed  their  skill  to  Jewish  and  Christian 
teachers,  or  to  the  influence  of  foreign  culture  radiating 
from  Hira  and  Ghassdn.  But  although  the  Koran,  which 
was  first  collected  soon  after  the  battle  of  Yamdma  (633 
A.D.),  is  the  oldest  Arabic  book,  the  beginnings  of  literary 
composition  in  the  Arabic  language  can  be  traced  back  to 
an  earlier  period.  Probably  all  the  Pre-islamic  poems  which 
have  come  down  to  us  belong  to  the  century  preceding 
Islam  (500-622  A.D.),  but  their  elaborate  form  and  technical 
perfection  forbid  the  hypothesis  that  in  them  we  have  "the 
first  sprightly  runnings  "  of  Arabian  song.     It  may  be  said  of 

these  magnificent  odes,  as  of  the  Iliad  and 
^'"'polms'^'"   Odyssey,  that  «  they  are  works  of  highly  finished 

art,  which  could  not  possibly  have  been  produced 
until  the  poetical  art  had  been  practised  for  a  long  time." 
They  were  preserved  during  hundreds  of  years  by  oral  tradition, 
as  we  shall  explain  elsewhere,  and  were  committed  to  writing, 
for  the  most  part,  by  the  Moslem  scholars  of  the  early 
'Abbdsid  age,  i.e.^  between  750  and  900  a.d.  It  is  a  note- 
worthy fact  that  the  language  of  these  poems,  the  authors  of 
which   represent    many    different    tribes    and    districts    of  the 

'  First  published  by  Sachau  in  Monatsberichte  der  KSn.  Preuss.  Akad. 
der  Wissenschaften  zn  Berlin  (February,  1881),  p.  169  sqq. 

'^  See  De  Vogiie,  Sync  Centmle,  Inscriptions  Semitiqnes,  p.  117.  Other 
references  are  given  in  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  35,  p.  749. 

3  On  this  subject  the  reader  may  consult  Goldziher,  Miihammedanische 
Studien,  Part  I,  p.  no  sqq. 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 

peninsula,  is  one  and  the  same.  The  dialectical  variations 
are  too  trivial  to  be  taken  into  account.  We  might  conclude 
that  the  poets  used  an  artificial  dialect,  not  such  as  was 
commonly  spoken  but  resembling  the  epic  dialect  of  Ionia 
which  was  borrowed  by  Dorian  and  iEolian  bards.  When 
we  find,  however,  that  the  language  in  question  is  employed 
not  only  by  the  wandering  troubadours,  who  were  often  men 
of  some  culture,  and  the  Christian  Arabs  of  Hira  on  the 
Euphrates,  but  also  by  goat-herds,  brigands,  and  illiterate 
Bedouins  of  every  description,  there  can  be  no  room  for  doubt 
that  in  the  poetry  of  the  sixth  century  we  hear  the  Arabic 
language  as  it  was  then  spoken  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  Arabia.  The  success  of  Muhammad  and  the 
conquests  made  by  Islam  under  the  Orthodox  Caliphs  gave 
an  entirely  new  importance  to  this  classical  idiom.  Arabic 
became  the  sacred  language  of  the  whole  Moslem  world. 
This   was  certainly  due  to  the  Koran  :    but,  on 

The  Koran.  -^  -in 

the  other  hand,  to  regard  the  dialect  of  Mecca, 
in  which  the  Koran  is  written,  as  the  source  and  prototype 
of  the  Arabic  language,  and  to  call  Arabic  '  the  dialect  of 
Quraysh,'  is  utterly  to  reverse  the  true  facts  of  the  case. 
Muhammad,  as  Noldeke  has  observed,  took  the  ancient  poetry 
for  a  model ;  and  in  the  early  age  of  Islam  it  was  the  authority 
of  the  heathen  poets  (of  whom  Quraysh  had  singularly  few) 
that  determined  the  classical  usage  and  set  the  standard  of 
correct  speech.  Moslems,  who  held  the  Koran  to  be  the 
Word  of  God  and  inimitable  in  point  of  style,  naturally 
exalted  the  dialect  of  the  Prophet's  tribe  above  all  others,  even 
laying  down  the  rule  that  every  tribe  spoke  less  purely  in 
proportion  to  its  distance  from  Mecca,  but  this  view  will  not 
commend  itself  to  the  unprejudiced  student.  The  Koran, 
however,  exercised  a  unique  influence  on  the  history  of  the 
Arabic  language  and  literature.  We  shall  see  in  a  subsequent 
chapter  that  the  necessity  of  preserving  the  text  of  the  Holy 
Book  uncorrupted,  and  of  elucidating  its  obscurities,  caused 


xxiv  INTRODUCTION 

the  Moslems  to  invent  a  science  of  grammar  and  lexicography, 
and  to  collect  the  old  Pre-Muhammadan  poetry  and  traditions 
which  must  otherwise  have  perished.  When  the  Arabs 
settled  as  conquerors  in  Syria  and  Persia  and  mixed  with 
foreign  peoples,  the  purity  of  the  classical  language  could  no 
longer  be  maintained.  While  in  Arabia  itself,  especially 
among  the  nomads  of  the  desert,  little  difference  was  felt, 
in  the  provincial  garrison  towns  and  great  centres  of  industry 
like  Basra  and  Kufa,  where  the  population  largely  consisted 
of  aliens  who  had  embraced  Islam  and  were  rapidly  being 
Arabicised,  the  door  stood  open  for  all  sorts  of  depravation 
to    creep    in.     Against    this   vulear    Arabic   the 

Arabic  in  the  .  ^  °  .  ° 

Muhammadaii    philologists  Waged    Unrelenting   war,  and   it  was 

Empire.  .         °  °  .  . 

mainly  through  their  exertions  that  the  classical 
idiom  triumphed  over  the  dangers  to  which  it  was  exposed. 
Although  the  language  of  the  pagan  Bedouins  did  not  survive 
intact — or  survived,  at  any  rate,  only  in  the  mouths  of  pedants 
and  poets — it  became,  in  a  modified  form,  the  universal 
.medium  of  expression  among  the  upper  classes  of  Muham- 
^j^^  j  madan  society.  During  the  early  Middle  Ages  it  was  spoken 
]  and  written  by  all  cultivated  Moslems,  of  whatever  nationality 
they  might  be,  from  the  Indus  to  the  Atlantic  ;  it  was  the 
language  of  the  Court  and  the  Church,  of  Law  and 
Commerce,  of  Diplomacy  and  Literature  and  Science.  When 
the  Mongol  invasion  in  the  thirteenth  century  swept  away  the 
*Abbdsid  Caliphate,  and  therewith  the  last  vestige  of  political 
unity  in  Islam,  classical  Arabic  ceased  to  be  the  KOivi]  or 
*  common  dialect '  of  the  Moslem  world,  and  was  supplanted 
in  Arabia,  Syria,  Egypt,  and  other  Arabic-speaking  countries 
by  a  vulgar  colloquial  idiom.  In  these  countries,  however,  it 
is  still  the  language  of  business,  literature,  and  education,  and 
we  are  told  on  high  authority  that  even  now  it  "  is  undergoing 
a  renaissance,  and  there  is  every  likelihood  of  its  again 
becoming  a  great  literary  vehicle."  ^  And  if,  for  those 
'  Professor  Margoliouth  in  J.R.AJ^.  for  1905,  p.  418 


INTRODUCTION  xxv 

Moslems  who  are  not  Arabs,  it  occupies  relatively  much 
the  same  position  as  Latin  and  Greek  in  modern  European 
culture,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  Koran,  its  most 
renowned  masterpiece,  is  learned  by  every  Moslem  when 
he  first  goes  to  school,  is  repeated  in  his  daily  prayers,  and 
influences  the  whole  course  of  his  life  to  an  extent  which  the 
ordinary  Christian  can  hardly  realise. 

I  hope  that  I  may  be  excused  for  ignoring  in  a  work 
such  as  this  the  scanty  details  regarding  Ancient  Arabian 
history  which  it  is  possible  to  glean  from  the  Babylonian 
and  Assyrian  monuments,  especially  when  the  very  uncertain 
nature  of  the  evidence  is  taken  into  consideration.  Any 
sketch  that  might  be  drawn  of  the  Arabs,  say  from  2500  B.C. 
to  the  beginning  of  our  era,  would  resemble  a  map  of 
Cathay  delineated  by  Sir  John  Mandeville.  But  amongst 
the  shadowy  peoples  of  the  peninsula  one,  besides  Saba  and 
Himyar,  makes  something  more  than  a  transient  impression. 
The  Nabataeans  [Nabat^  pi.  Anbdt)  dwelt  in  towns,  drove  a 
flourishing  trade  long  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  founded 
the  kingdom    of    Petra,  which    attained    a    high 

The  Nabatceans.  >  o 

degree  of  prosperity  and  culture  until  it  was 
annexed  by  Trajan  in  105  a.d.  These  Nabataeans  were 
Arabs  and  spoke  Arabic,  although  in  default  of  a  script  of  their 
own  they  used  Aramaic  for  writing.^  Muhammadan  authors 
identify  them  with  the  Aramaeans,  but  careful  study  of  their 
inscriptions  has  shown  that  this  view,  which  was  accepted  by 
Quatremere,2  is  erroneous.  '  The  Book  of  Nabataean  Agri- 
culture '  {Kitdbu  'l-Falahat  al-Nabatjyya\  composed  in  904  a.d. 
by  the  Moslem  Ibnu  '1-Wahshiyya,  who  professed  to  have 
translated  it  from  the  Chaldaean,  is  now  known  to  be  a  forgery. 
I  only  mention  it  here  as  an  instance  of  the  way  in  which 
Moslems  apply  the  term  '  Nabataean  ' ;  for  the  title  in  question 
does  not,  of  course,  refer  to  Petra  but  to  Babylon. 

'  Noldeke,  Die Setnitischen  Sprachen,  p.  30  sqq.  and  p.  43. 
»  journal  Asiatique  (March,  1835),  p.  209  sqq. 


XXVI  INTRODUCTION 

From  what   has  been  said  the  reader  will   perceive  that  the 

history  of  the  Arabs,  so  far  as  our  knowledge  of  it 

Ara'bfanhu°to'ry°/  is   derived  from   Arabic  sources,  may   be  divided 

into  the  following  periods  : — 

I.  The    Sabaean    and   Himyarite    period,  from   8oo   B.C., 

the  date  of  the  oldest  South    Arabic  inscriptions,  to 

—^       -{  500  A.D. 

II.  The  Pre-islamic  period  (500-622  a.d.). 
III.  The  Muhammadan  period,  beginning  with  the  Flight 
(Hijra,  or  Hegira,  as  the  word  is  generally   written) 
of  the   Prophet  from  Mecca  to  Medina  in  622  a.d. 
and  extending  to  the  present  day. 
For  the  first  period,  which  is  confined  to  the  history  of  Yemen 
or  South   Arabia,   we  have  no  contemporary   Arabic   sources 
except  the  inscriptions.     The  vague  and  scanty 
Himyarites^"    information    which    these    supply    is   appreciably 
increased   by  the  traditions  preserved  in  the  Pre- 
islamic    poems,   in    the    Koran,  and  particularly   in    the    later 
Muhammadan  literature.     It  is  true  that  most  of  this  material 
is  legendary  and  would  justly  be  ignored  by  any  one  engaged 
in    historical    research,    but    I    shall    nevertheless    devote    a 
good  deal  of  space  to  it,  since  my  principal  object  is  to  make 
known  the  beliefs  and  opinions  of  the  Arabs  themselves. 

The  second  period  is  called  by  Muhammadan  writers  the 
ydhiliyya^   i.e.,    the    Age   of  Ignorance    or   Barbarism. ^      Its 
characteristics  are  faithfully  and  vividly  reflected 
^^Arlbs^''"      in  the  songs  and  odes  of  the  heathen  poets  which 
have  come    down    to    us.     There  was   no  prose 
literature  at  that  time  :  it  was  the  poet's  privilege  to  sing  the 
history  of  his  own  people,  to  record  their  genealogies,  to  cele- 
brate their  feats  of  arms,  and  to  extol  their  virtues.     Although 
an  immense  quantity  of  Pre-islamic  verse  has  been  lost  for  ever, 

'  Strictly   speaking,  the  Jdhiliyya    includes  the  whole  time   between 
Adam  and  Muhammad,  but  in  a  narrower  sense  it  may  be  used,  as  here 
to  denote  the  Pre-islamic  period  of  Arabic  Literature. 


INTRODUCTION  xxvii 

we  still  possess  a  considerable  remnant,  which,  together  with 
the  prose  narratives  compiled  by  Moslem  philologists  and 
antiquaries,  enables  us  to  picture  the  life  of  those  wild  days, 
in  its  larger  aspects,  accurately  enough. 

The  last  and  by  far  the  most  important  of  the  three  periods 

comprises  the  history    of  the   Arabs   under    Islam.     It   falls 

naturally  into  the  following  sections,  which  are 

The  Moslem  ,   •        ,  ■        ,  ■  , 

Arabs.         enumerated  m  this  place  in  order  that  the  reader 
may  see  at  a  glance  the  broad  political  outlines 
of  the  complex  and  difficult  epoch  which  lies  before  him. 

A.  The  Life  of  Muhammad. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  of  the  Christian 
era  a  man  named  Muhammad,  son   of  'Abdulldh,  of  the  tribe 
Quraysh,    appeared     in     Mecca    with    a    Divine 
Mu^Immad.      revelation    (Koran).      He    called    on   his    fellow- 
townsmen  to  renounce  idolatry  and   worship  the 
One  God.     In  spite  of  ridicule  and  persecution  he  continued 
for  several  years  to  preach  the  religion  of  Islam  in  Mecca,  but,  ' 
making  little  progress  there,  he  fled  in  622   a.d.  to  the  neigh-  \   N 
bouring  city  of  Medina.     From  this  date  his  cause   prospered 
exceedingly.     During  the  next   decade   the  whole  of  Arabia 
submitted  to  his  rule  and   did   lip-service  at  least  to  the  new 
Faith. 

B.  The  Orthodox  Caliphate  (632-661  a.d.). 

On  the  death  of  the   Prophet  the  Moslems  were  governed 

in  turn  by  four  of  the  most  eminent  among  his  Companions — 

Abii  Baler,  'Umar,  'Uthmdn,  and  'Ali — who  bore 

Caliphs.        the  title  of  Khalifa  (Caliph),  /.^.,  Vicegerent,  and 

are  commonly  described  as  the  Orthodox  Caliphs 

{al-Khulafd    al-Rdshidiin).     Under  their  guidance  Islam   was 

firmly  established   in  the  peninsula  and  was  spread  far  beyond 

its  borders.      Hosts  of  Bedouins  settled  as  military  colonists  in 

the  fertile  plains  of  Syria    and    Persia.     Soon,    however,   the 


xxviii  ,        INTRODUCTION 

recently  founded  empire  was  plunged  into  civil  war.  The 
murder  of  'Uthmdn  gave  the  signal  for  a  bloody  strife  between 
rival  claimants  of  the  Caliphate.  '  Ali,  the  son-in-law  of  the 
Prophet,  assumed  the  title,  but  his  election  was  contested  by 
the  powerful  governor  of  Syria,  Mu'dwiya  b.  Abl  Sufydn. 

C,  The  Umayyad  Dynasty  (661-750  a.d.). 

'All  fell  by  an  assassin's  dagger,  and  Mu'dwiya  succeeded  to 

the  Caliphate,  which  remained  in  his  family  for  ninety  years. 

The    Umayyads,  with  a  single  exception,   were 

dynasty^^  Arabs  first  and  Moslems  afterwards.  Religion 
sat  very  lightly  on  them,  but  they  produced  some 
able  and  energetic  princes,  worthy  leaders  of  an  imperial  race. 
By  732  A.D.  the  Moslem  conquests  had  reached  the  utmost 
limit  which  they  ever  attained.  The  Caliph  in  Damascus  had 
his  lieutenants  beyond  the  Oxusand  the  Pyrenees,  on  the  shores 
of  the  Caspian  and  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile.  Meantime  the 
strength  of  the  dynasty  was  being  sapped  by  political  and 
^---^  ,  religious  dissensions  nearer  home.  The  Shi'ites,  who  held  that 
/  the  Caliphate  belonged  by  Divine  right  to  'All  and  his  de- 
scendants, rose  in  revolt  again  and  again.  They  were  joined 
by  the  Persian  Moslems,  who  loathed  the  Arabs  and  the 
oppressive  Umayyad  government.  The  'Abbdsids,  a  family 
closely  related  to  the  Prophet,  put  themselves  at  the  head  of 
the  agitation.  It  ended  in  the  complete  overthrow  of  the 
reigning  house,  which  was  almost  exterminated. 


^  ^  D.  The  *Abbdsid  Dynasty  (750-1258  a.d.). 

^^       ^  Hitherto    the    Arabs    had   played  a    dominant  role  in    the 

f^  Moslem  community,  and  had  treated  the  non-Arab  Moslems 

rs  with  exasperating  contempt.    Now  the  tables  were 

dynast^*'       tumed.       We   pass  from    the   period  of  Arabian 

nationalism  to   one   of  Persian   ascendancy    and 

I     cosmopolitan    culture.      The    flower   of  the    'Abbasid   troops 

\    were     Persians    from    Khurdsan ;     Baghdad,    the    wonderful 


J5 


INTR  OD  UCTION  xxix 

'Abbasid  capital,  was  built  on  Persian  soil ;  and  Persian  nobles 
filled  the  highest  offices  of  state  at  the  *Abbasid  court.  The 
new  dynasty,  if  not  religious,  was  at  least  favourable  to 
religion,  and  took  care  to  live  in  the  odour  of  sanctity.  For  a 
time  Arabs  and  Persians  forgot  their  differences  and  worked 
together  as  good  Moslems  ought.  Piety  was  no  longer  its 
own  reward.  Learning  enjoyed  munificent  patronage.  This 
was  the  Golden  Age  of  Islam,  jwhich  culminated  in  the  glorious 
reign  of  Hariin  al-Rashid  (786-809  a.d.).  On  his  death 
peace  was  broken  once  more,  and  the  mighty  empire  began 
slowly  to  collapse.  As  province  after  province  cut  itself  loose 
from  the  Caliphate,  numerous  independent  dynasties  sprang  up, 
while  the  Caliphs  became  helpless  puppets  in  the  hands  of 
Turkish  mercenaries.  Their  authority  was  still  formally 
recognised  in  most  Muhammadan  countries,  but  since  the 
middle  of  the  ninth  century  they  had  little  or  no  real 
power. 

E.  From  the  Mongol  invasion  to  the  present  day  (1258 
A.D.  —  ). 

The   Mongol  hordes    under  Hulagii    captured  Baghdad  in 

1258    A.D.  and    made  an    end    of  the    Caliphate.     Sweeping 

onward,    they    were    checked    by    the    Egyptian 

The    Post-Mon-  Mamelukes  and  retired  into   Persia,  where,  some 

golian  penod.  '  ' 

fifty  years  afterwards,  they  embraced  Islam.  The 
successors  of  Hulagii,  the  Il-khans,  reigned  in  Persia  until  a 
second  wave  of  barbarians  under  Timur  spread  devastation  and 
anarchy  through  Western  Asia  (i  380-1405  a.d.).  The  unity 
of  Islam,  in  a  political  sense,  was  now  destroyed.  Out  of  the 
chaos  three  Muhammadan  empires  gradually  took  shape.  In 
1358  the  Ottoman  Turks  crossed  the  Hellespont,  in  1453 
they  entered  Constantinople,  and  in  15 17  Syria,  Egypt,  and 
Arabia  were  added  to  their  dominions.  Persia  became  an 
independent  kingdom  under  the  Safawids  (1502— 1736)  ;  while 
in  India  the  empire  of  the  Great  Moguls  was  founded  by  Babar, 


XXX  INTRODUCTION 

a    descendant  of  Timur,   and    gloriously    maintained    by    his 
successors,  Alcbar  and  Awrangzib  (1525-1707). 

Some  of  the  political  events  which  have   been  summarised 
above  vi'ill  be  treated   more  fully  in  the   body  of  this  work  ; 
others  will  receive  no  more  than  a  passing  notice. 
^^  hlstory^'^^'^   The    idcas    which    reveal   themselves    in    Arabic 
literature  are   so  intimately  connected  with  the 
history  of  the  people,  and  so   incomprehensible  apart  from  the 
external  circumstances  in  which  they  arose,  that  I  have  found 
myself  obliged    to    dwell    at    considerable   length    on    various 
matters  of  historical  interest,  in  order  to  bring  out  what  is  really 
characteristic  and  important   from  our  special  point  of  view. 
The  space  devoted  to  the  early  periods  (500-750  a.d.)  will  not 
appear  excessive  if   they  are  seen  in   their  true  light  as  the 
^       centre  and  heart  of  Arabian  history.     During  the  next  hundred 
— ^   I  years  Moslem  civilisation  reaches  its  zenith,  but  the    Arabs 
recede  more  and    more  into    the  background.     The  Mongol 
invasion    virtually   obliterated    their    national   life,  though    in 
Syria  and  Egypt  they  formed  an  intellectual  aristocracy  under 
Turkish  rule,  and  in  Spain  we  meet  them  struggling  despe- 
rately against  Christendom.     Many  centuries   earlier,   in  the 
palmy  days  of  the  *Abbdsid  Empire,  the  Arabs  pur  sang  con- 
tributed only  a  comparatively  small  share    to    the    literature 
which  bears  their  name.     I  have  not,  however,  enforced  the 
test  of  nationality  so  strictly  as  to  exclude  all  foreigners  or 
men  of  mixed  origin  who  wrote  in  Arabic.     It   may  be  said 
that  the  work  of  Persians  (who  even  nowadays 
Writers  who  are  ^j-g  accustomed  to  use  Arabic  when  writing  on 

wholly  or  partly  ° 

"^  teactfon  ^'^'  theological  and  philosophical  subjects)  cannot 
illustrate  the  history  of  Arabian  thought,  but 
only  the  influence  exerted  upon  Arabian  thought  by  Persian 
ideas,  and  that  consequently  it  must  stand  aside  unless  admitted 
for  this  definite  purpose.  But  what  shall  we  do  in  the  case  of 
those  numerous  and  celebrated  authors  who  are  neither  wholly 


INTRODUCTION  xxxi 

Arab  nor  wholly  Persian,  but  unite  the  blood  of  both  races  ? 
Must  we  scrutinise  their  genealogies  and  try  to  discover  which 
strain  preponderates  ?  That  would  be  a  tedious  and  unprofit- 
able task.  The  truth  is  that  after  the  Umayyad  period  no 
hard-and-fast  line  can  be  drawn  between  the  native  and  foreign 
elements  in  Arabic  literature.  Each  reacted  on  the  other,  and 
often  both  are  combined  indissolubly.  Although  they  must  be 
distinguished  as  far  as  possible,  we  should  be  taking  a  narrow 
and  pedantic  view  of  literary  history  if  we  insisted  on  regarding 
them  as  mutually  exclusive. 


CHAPTER   I 


SABA    AND    HIMYAR 


With  the  Sabaeans  Arabian  history  in  the  proper  sense  may 
be   said    to    begin,  but  as  a    preliminary  step  we  must    take 

account  of  certain  races  which  figure  more  or  less 
^"aces^^       prominently    in    legend,    and    are    considered    by 

Moslem  chroniclers  to  have  been  the  original 
inhabitants  of  the  country.  Among  these  are  the  peoples  of 
'Ad  and  Thamud,  which  are  constantly  held  up  in  the  Koran 
as  terrible  examples  of  the  pride  that  goeth  before  destruction. 
The  home  of  the  'Adites  was  in  Hadramawt,  the  province 
adjoining  Yemen,  on  the  borders  of  the  desert  named  Ahqafu 
U-Raml.  It  is  doubtful  whether  they  were  Semites,  possibly 
of  Aramaic  descent,  who  were  subdued  and  exterminated  by 
invaders    from    the    north,    or,  as    Hommel    maintains,^    the 

representatives    of    an    imposins     non  -  Semitic 

Legend  of  'Ad.  ^  .  .  . 

culture  which  survives  in  the  tradition  of 
'  Many-columned  Iram,'  2  the  Earthly  Paradise  built  by 
Shadddd,  one  of  their  kings.  The  story  of  their  destruction 
is  related  as  follows  :  3  They  were  a  people  of  gigantic 
strength   and  stature,   worshipping  idols  and   committing  all 

'  Die  Namen  der  ScUigethiere  bet  den  Sudsemitischen  Volkern,  p.  343  seq. 

*  Iramii  Dhdfu  'l-'Imdd  (Koran,  Ixxxix,  6).  The  sense  of  these  words  is 
much  disputed.  See  especially  Tabari's  explanation  in  his  great  com- 
mentary on  the  Koran  (O.  Loth  in  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  35,  p.  626  sqq.). 

3  I  have  abridged  Tabari,  Annals,  i,  231  sqq.  Cf.  also  chapters  vii,  xi, 
xxvi,  and  xlvi  of  the  Koran. 

-7  I 


2  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

manner  of  wrong  ;  and  when  God  sent  to  them  a  prophet, 
Hud  by  name,  who  should  warn  them  to  repent,  they 
answered  :  "  O  Hiid,  thou  hast  brought  us  no  evidence, 
and  we  will  not  abandon  our  gods  for  thy  saying,  nor  will  we 
believe  in  thee.  We  say  one  of  our  gods  hath  afflicted  thee 
with  madness."  ^  Then  a  fearful  drought  fell  upon  the  land 
of  'Ad,  so  that  they  sent  a  number  of  their  chief  men  to 
Mecca  to  pray  for  rain.  On  arriving  at  Mecca  the  envoys 
were  hospitably  received  by  the  Amalekite  prince,  Mu'awiya 
b.  Baler,  who  entertained  them  with  wine  and  music — for  he 
had  two  famous  singing-girls  known  as  al-Jarddatdn  ;  which 
induced  them  to  neglect  their  mission  for  the  space  of  a  whole 
month.  At  last,  however,  they  got  to  business,  and  their 
spokesman  had  scarce  finished  his  prayer  when  three  clouds 
appeared,  of  different  colours — white,  red,  and  black — and  a 
voice  cried  from  heaven,  "  Choose  for  thyself  and  for  thy 
people  !  "  He  chose  the  black  cloud,  deeming  that  it  had  the 
greatest  store  of  rain,  whereupon  the  voice  chanted — 

"Thou  hast  chosen  embers  dun  |  that  will  spare  of  *Ad  not  one  | 
that  will  leave  nor  father  nor  son  |  ere  him  to  death  they  shall  have 
done." 

Then  God  drove  the  cloud  until  it  stood  over  the  land  of  'Ad, 
and  there  issued  from  it  a  roaring  wind  that  consumed  the 
whole  people  except  a  few  who  had  taken  the  prophet's 
warning  to  heart  and  had  renounced  idolatry. 

From  these,  in  course  of  time,  a  new  people  arose,  who  are 
called  '  the  second  'Ad.'  They  had  their  settlements  in 
Yemen,  in  the  region  of  Saba.  The  building  of  the  great 
Dyke  of  Ma'rib  is  commonly  attributed  to  their  king, 
Luqman  b.  'Ad,  about  whom  many  fables  are  told.  He  was 
surnamed  '  The  Man  of  the  Vultures  '  [Dhu  '/-Nusur\ 
because  it  had  been  granted  to  him  that  he  should  live  as 
long  as  seven  vultures,  one  after*  the  other. 

•  Koran,  xi,  56-57. 


THE  LEGEND   OF  'AD  AND    THAMl^D      3 

In  North  Arabia,  between  the  Hijaz  and  Syria,  dwelt  the 

kindred  race  of  Thamud,  described  in  the  Koran  (vii,  72)  as 

inhabiting  houses  which  they  cut  for  themselves 

Thlmud°^  in  the  rocks.  Evidently  Muhammad  did  not 
know  the  true  nature  of  the  hewn  chambers 
which  are  still  to  be  seen  at  Hijr  (Madd'in  Sdlih),  a  week's 
journey  northward  from  Medina,  and  which  are  proved  by 
the  Nabataean  inscriptions  engraved  on  them  to  have  been 
sepulchral  monuments. ^  Thamud  sinned  in  the  same  way 
as  'Ad,  and  suffered  a  like  fate.  They  scouted  the  prophet 
Salih,  refusing  to  believe  in  him  unless  he  should  work  a 
miracle.  Sdlih  then  caused  a  she-camel  big  with  young  to  come 
forth  from  a  rock,  and  bade  them  do  her  no  hurt,  but  one  of 
the  miscreants,  Quddr  the  Red  (al-Ahmar),  hamstrung  and 
killed  her.  "Whereupon  a  great  earthquake  overtook  them 
with  a  noise  of  thunder,  and  in  the  morning  they  lay  dead  in 
their  houses,  flat  upon  their  breasts."  2  The  author  of  this 
catastrophe  became  a  byword  :  Arabs  say,  "  More  unlucky 
than  the  hamstringer  of  the  she-camel,"  or  "  than  Ahmar  of 
Thamud."  It  should  be  pointed  out  that,  unlike  the  'Adites, 
of  vj^hom  we  find  no  trace  in  historical  times,  the  Thamudites 
are  mentioned  as  still  existing  by  Diodorus  Siculus  and 
Ptolemy  ;  and  they  survived  down  to  the  fifth  century  a.d. 
in  the  corps  of  equites  Thamudeni  attached  to  the  army  of  the 
Byzantine  emperors. 

Besides  'Ad  and  Thamud,  the  list  of  primitive  races 
includes  the  'Amaliq  (Amalekites) — a  purely  fictitious  term 
under  which  the  Moslem  antiquaries  lumped 
together  several  peoples  of  an  age  long  past, 
e.g.y  the  Canaanites  and  the  Philistines.  We  hear  of  Amale- 
kite  settlements  in  the  Tihdma  (Netherland)  of  Mecca  and 
in    other    parts    of  the    peninsula.     Finally,   mention   should 

'  See  Doughty's  Documents  Epigraphiques  recucilUs  dans  le  nord  de 
I' Arable,  p.  12  sqq. 
-  Koran,  vii,  76. 


4  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

be  made  of  Tasm  and  Jadfs,  sister  tribes  of  which  nothing 

is   recorded    except    the    fact   of  their    destruction    and    the 

events   that   brought    it   about.     The    legendary 

Tasm  and  Jadis.  •         •  ,  •    u      u  u    J-    J    u 

narrative  in  vi^hich  these  are  embodied  has  some 
archaeological  interest  as  show^ing  the  existence  in  early 
Arabian  society  of  a  barbarous  feudal  custom,  '  le  droit  du 
seigneur,'  but  it  is  time  to  pass  on  to  the  main  subject  of 
this  chapter. 

The    Pre-islamic    history    of    the    Yoqtanids,  or    Southern 

Arabs,  on   which   we  now   enter,  is  virtually  the  history  of 

two    peoples,   the    Sabaeans  and   the  Himyarites, 

History  of  the    ^]^q    formed    the    successive    heads   of    a    South 

Voqtanids. 

Arabian  empire  extending  from  the  Red  Sea  to 
the  Persian  Gulf. 

Saba  I   (Sheba  of  the  Old   Testament)  is  often  incorrectly 
used  to  denote  the  whole  of  Arabia  Felix,  whereas  it  was  only 

one,    though    doubtless    the   first    in    power   and 

The  Sabxans  ?  o  i 

importance,  of  several  kingdoms,  the  names  and 
capitals  of  which  are  set  down  in  the  works  of  Greek 
and  Roman  geographers.  However  exaggerated  may  be  the 
glowing  accounts  that  we  find  there  of  Sabaean  wealth  and 
magnificence,  it  is  certain  that  Saba  was  a  flourishing  com- 
mercial state  many  centuries  before  the  birth  of  Christ.^ 
"  Sea-traffic  between  the  ports  of  East  Arabia  and  India  was 
very  early  established,  and  Indian  products,  especially  spices 
and  rare  animals  (apes  and  peacocks)  were  conveyed  to  the 
coast  of  'Uman.  Thence,  apparently  even  in  the  tenth  century 
B.C.,  they  went  overland   to  the  Arabian  Gulf,  where    they 

'  Properly  Saba'  with  hamza,  both  syllables  being  short. 

^  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  Sabcean — gold,  spices, 
slaves,  horses,  and  camels."  Ithamara  is  identical  with  Yatha'amar,  a 
name  borne  by  several  kings  of  Saba. 


THE  SAB^AN  EMPIRE  5 

were  shipped  to  Egypt  for  the  use  of  the  Pharaohs  and 
grandees.  .  .  .  The  difficulty  of  navigating  the  Red  Sea 
caused  the  land  route  to  be  preferred  for  the  traffic  between 
Yemen  and  Syria.  From  Shabwat  (Sabota)  in  Hadramawt 
the  caravan  road  went  to  Ma'rib  (Mariaba),  the  Sabasan 
capital,  then  northward  to  Macoraba  (the  later  Mecca),  and 
by  way  of  Petra  to  Gaza  on  the  Mediterranean."  ^  The 
prosperity  of  the  Sabaeans  lasted  until  the  Indian  trade, 
instead  of  going  overland,  began  to  go  by  sea  along  the  coast 
of  Hadramawt  and  throu2;h  the  straits  of  Bab  al-Mandab.  In 
consequence  of  this  change,  which  seems  to  have  taken  place 
in  the  first  century  a.d.,  their  power  gradually  declined,  a 
great  part  of  the  population  was  forced  to  seek  new  homes  in 
the  north,  their  cities  became  desolate,  and  their  massive 
aqueducts  crumbled  to  pieces.  We  shall  see  presently  that 
Arabian  legend  has  crystallised  the  results  of  a  long  period  of 
decay  into  a  single  fact — the  bursting  of  the  Dyke  of  Ma'rib. 
The  disappearance  of  the  Sabasans  left  the  way  open  for  a 
younger  branch  of  the  same  stock,  namely,  the  Himyarites, 
or,    as    they    are    called    by    classical     authors. 

The  Himyarites.     „  .  ^   ,  /      ,  C    u  J 

Homeritas,  whose  country  lay  between  baba  and 
the  sea.  Under  their  kings,  known  as  Tubba's,  they  soon 
became  the  dominant  power  in  South  Arabia  and  exercised 
sway,  at  least  ostensibly,  over  the  northern  tribes  down  to  the 
end  of  the  fifth  century  a.d,,  when  the  latter  revolted  and,  led 
by  Kulayb  b.  Rabi'a,  shook  off  the  suzerainty  of  Yemen  in  a 
great  battle  at  Khazaza.^  The  Himyarites  never  flourished  like 
the  Sabaeans.  Their  maritime  situation  exposed  them  more  to 
attack,  while  the  depopulation  of  the  country  had  seriously 
weakened  their  military  strength.  The  Abyssinians — originally 
colonists    from   Yemen — made   repeated   attempts   to    gain  a 

'  A.  Miiller,  Der  Islam  im  Morgen  und  Abendland,  vol.  i,  p.  24  seq. 

-  Noldeke,  however,  declares  the  traditions  which  represent  Kulayb  as 
leading  the  Rabi'a  clans  to  battle  against  the  combined  strength  of  Yemen 
to  be  entirely  unhistorical  (Funf  Mo'allaqdf,  i,  44). 


6  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

foothold,  and  frequently  managed  to  instal  governors  who 
were  in  turn  expelled  by  native  princes.  Of  these  Abyssinian 
viceroys  the  most  famous  is  Abraha,  whose  unfortunate  expedi- 
tion against  Mecca  will  be  related  in  due  course.  Ultimately 
the  Himyarite  Empire  was  reduced  to  a  Persian  dependency. 
It  had  ceased  to  exist  as  a  political  power  about  a  hundred 
years  before  the  rise  of  Islam. 

The  chief  Arabian  sources  of  information  concerning  Saba 

and  Himyar  are  (i)    the    so-called   'Himyarite'  inscriptions, 

and  (2)  the  traditions,  almost  entirely  of  a  legen- 

infomation      ^'^^^  kind,  which  are  preserved  in  Muhammadan 

literature. 

Although  the  South  Arabic  language  may  have  maintained 

itself  sporadically  in    certain    remote    districts    down    to    the 

Prophet's  time  or  even  later,  it  had  long  ago  been 

A^rabic^or  Superseded  as  a  medium  of  daily  intercourse  by 
inswSns.  ^he  language  of  the  North,  the  Arabic  par 
excellence^  which  henceforth  reigns  without  a  rival 
throughout  the  peninsula.  The  dead  language,  however,  did 
not  wholly  perish.  Already  in  the  sixth  century  a.d.  the 
Bedouin  rider  made  his  camel  kneel  down  while  he  stopped 
to  gaze  wonderingly  at  inscriptions  in  a  strange  character 
engraved  on  walls  of  rock  or  fragments  of  hewn  stone,  and 
compared  the  mysterious,  half-obliterated  markings  to  the 
almost  unrecognisable  traces  of  the  camping-ground  which 
for  him  was  fraught  with  tender  memories.  These  inscrip- 
tions are  often  mentioned  by  Muhammadan  authors,  who 
included  them  in  the  term  Musnad.  That  some  Moslems — 
probably  very  few — could  not  only  read  the  South  Arabic 
alphabet,  but  were  also  acquainted  with  the  elementary  rules 
of  orthography,  appears  from  a  passage  in  the  eighth  book  of 
Hamdani's  I  kill ;  but  though  they  might  decipher  proper 
names  and  make  out  the  sense  of  words  here  and  there,  they 
had  no  real  knowledge  of  the  language.  How  the  inscriptions 
were  discovered  anew  by  the  enterprise  of  European  travellers, 


SOUTH  ARABIC  INSCRIPTIONS  7 

gradually  deciphered  and  interpreted  until  they  became  capable 
of  serving  as  a  basis  for  historical  research,  and  what  results 
the  study  of  them  has  produced,  this  I  shall  now  set  forth  as 
briefly  as  possible.  Before  doing  so  it  is  necessary  to  explain 
why  instead  of  '  Himyarite  inscriptions'  and  '  Himyarite 
language  '  I  have  adopted  the  less  familiar  designations  '  South 
Arabic  '  or  '  Sabaean.'  '  Himyarite '  is  equally  misleading, 
whether  applied  to  the  language  of  the  inscriptions  or  to  the 
inscriptions  themselves.  As  regards  the  language,  it  was 
spoken    in    one    form    or    another    not    by    the 

Objections  to  .  ir>i 

the  term        Himvantes  alone,   but  also  by  the  Sabseans,  the 

'Himyarite.'        J^.  ._ 

Minasans,  and  all  the  different  peoples  of  Yemen. 

Muhammadans  gave  the  name  of  '  Himyarite '  to  the  ancient 

language  of  Yemen  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  Himyarites  j 

were  the  most  powerful  race  in  that  country  during  the  last 

centuries  preceding  Islam.     Had  all  the  inscriptions  belonged 

to  the  period  of  Himyarite  supremacy,  they  might  with  some 

justice  have  been  named  after  the  ruling  people  ;  but  the  fact 

is  that  many  date  from  a  far  earlier  age,  some  going  back  to 

the  eighth  century  B.C.,  perhaps  nearly  a  thousand  years  before 

the  Himyarite  Empire  was  established.     The  term  '  Sabaean ' 

is  less  open  to  objection,  for  it  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  a 

national  rather  than  a  political  denomination.     On  the  whole, 

however,  I  prefer  '  South  Arabic  '  to  either. 

Among  the  pioneers  of  exploration  in  Yemen  the  first  to 

interest  himself  in  the  discovery  of  inscriptions  was  Carsten 

Niebuhr,   whose    Beschreibung   von   Arahien^  pub- 
Discovery  and     I'll-  1  •T'  1 
decipherment    lishcd   m   1 772,   conveyed   to  Europe  the  report 

Arabic         that  inscriptions  which,  though  he  had  not  seen 

inscriptions.  .  j  i        /  tt-  •       j         •         i 

them,  he  conjectured  to  be  '  Himyarite,  existed 
in  the  ruins  of  the  once  famous  city  of  Zafdr.  On  one 
occasion  a  Dutchman  who  had  turned  Muhammadan  showed 
him  the  copy  of  an  inscription  in  a  completely  unknown 
alphabet,  but  "at  that  time  (he  says)  being  very  ill  with  a 
violent  fever,  I  had  more  reason  to  prepare  myself  for  death 


8  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

than  to  collect  old  inscriptions."  i  Thus  the  opportunity  was 
lost,  but  curiosity  had  been  awakened,  and  in  1810  Ulrich 
Jasper  Seetzen  discovered  and  copied  several  inscriptions  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Zafar.  Unfortunately  these  copies,  which 
had  to  be  made  hastily,  were  very  inexact.  He  also  purchased 
an  inscription,  which  he  took  away  with  him  and  copied  at 
leisure,  but  his  ignorance  of  the  character  led  him  to  mistake 
the  depressions  in  the  stone  for  letters,  so  that  the  conclusions 
he  came  to  were  naturally  of  no  value.^  The  first  serviceable 
copies  of  South  Arabic  inscriptions  were  brought  to  Europe  by 
English  officers  employed  on  the  survey  of  the  southern  and 
western  coasts  of  Arabia.  Lieutenant  J.  R.  Wellsted  published 
the  inscriptions  of  Hisn  Ghurab  and  Naqb  al-Hajar  in  his 
Travels  in  Arabia   (1838). 

Meanwhile  Emil  Rodiger,  Professor  of  Oriental  Languages 
at  Halle,  with  the  help  of  two  manuscripts  of  the  Berlin  Royal 
Library  containing  '  Himyarite '  alphabets,  took  the  first  step 
towards  a  correct  decipherment  by  refuting  the  idea,  for  which 
De  Sacy's  authority  had  gained  general  acceptance,  that  the 
South  Arabic  script  ran  from  left  to  rights;  he  showed,  moreover, 
that  the  end  of  every  word  was  marked  by  a  straight  perpendi- 
cular line.4  Wellsted's  inscriptions,  together  with  those  which 
Hulton  and  Cruttenden  brought  to  light  at  San'a,  were  de- 
ciphered by  Gesenius  and  Rodiger  working  independently 
(1841).       Hitherto    England   and    Germany    had   shared    the 

*  Op,  cit.,  p.  94  seq.  An  excellent  account  of  the  progress  made  in  dis- 
covering and  deciphering  the  South  Arabic  inscriptions  down  to  the  year 
1841  is  given  by  Rodiger,  Excurs  ucber  himjantisclte  Inschriftcn,  in  his 
German  translation  of   Wellsted's  Travels  in  Arabia,  vol.  ii,  p.  368  sqq. 

=  Seetzen's  inscriptions  were  published  in  Fundgruhen  dcs  Orients, 
vol.  ii  (Vienna,  181 1),  p.  282  sqq.  The  one  mentioned  above  was  after- 
wards deciphered  and  explained  by  Mordtmann  in  the  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  31, 
p.  89  seq. 

3  The  oldest  inscriptions,  however,  run  from  left  to  right  and  from  right 
to  left  alternately  (j3ovarpopt]S6v). 

*  Notiz  ueber  die  himjaritischc  Schrift  nebst  doppeltem  Alphabet  derselben 
in  Zeitschrift  fur  die  Kundc  des  Morgenlandes,  vol.  i  (Gottingen,  1837), 
p.  332  sqq. 


SOUTH  ARABIC  INSCRIPTIONS  9 

credit  of  discovery,  but  a  few  years  later  France  joined 
hands  with  them  and  was  soon  leading  the  way  with 
characteristic  brilliance.  In  1843  Th.  Arnaud,  starting  from 
San'a,  succeeded  in  discovering  the  ruins  of  Ma'rib,  the  ancient 
Sabaean  metropolis,  and  in  copying  at  the  risk  of  his  life 
.between  fifty  and  sixty  inscriptions,  which  were  afterwards 
published  in  the  JournalJsiatiqueznd  found  an  able  interpreter 
in  Osiander.i  Still  more  important  were  the  results  of  the 
expedition  undertaken  in  1870  by  Joseph  Haldvy,  who,  dis- 
guised as  a  Jew,  penetrated  into  the  Jawf,  or  country  lying 
east  of  San'a,  which  no  European  had  traversed  before  him 
since  24  B.C.,  when  ^Elius  Gallus  led  a  Roman  army  by  the  same 
route.  After  enduring  great  fatigues  and  meeting  with  many 
perilous  adventures,  Halevy  brought  back  copies  of  nearly  seven 
hundred  inscriptions.^  During  the  last  twenty-five  years  much 
fresh  material  has  been  collected  by  E.  Glaser  and  Julius 
Euting,  while  study  of  that  already  existing  by  Praetorius, 
Halevy,  D.  H.  Miiller,  Mordtmann,  and  other  scholars  has 
substantially  enlarged  our  knowledge  of  the  language,  history, 
and  religion  of  South  Arabia  in  the  Pre-islamic  age. 

Neither  the  names  of  the  Himyarite  monarchs,  as  they 
appear  in  the  lists  drawn  up  by  Muhammadan  historians,  nor 
the  order  in  which  these  names  are  arranged  can  pretend  to 
accuracy.  If  they  are  historical  persons  at  all  they  must  have 
reigned  in  fairly  recent  times,  perhaps  a  short  while  before  the 
rise  of  Islam,  and  probably  they  were  unimportant  princes 
whom  the  legend  has  thrown  back  into  the  ancient  epoch,  and 
has  invested  with  heroic  attributes.  Any  one  who  doubts  this 
has  only  to  compare  the  modern  lists  with  those  which  have 
been  made    from    the    material    in    the    inscriptions.3     D.  H. 

'  See  Arnaud's  Relation  d'un  voyage  a  March  (Saba)  dans  V Arabic 
mcridionalc  in  the  Journal  Asiatiquc,  4th  series,  vol.  v  (1845),  p.  211  sqq. 
and  p.  309  sqq. 

-  See  Rapport  sur  une  mission  archeologique  dans  le  Yemen  in  the 
Journal  Asiatiquc,  6th  series,  vol.  xix  (1872),  pp.  5-98,  129-266,  489-547. 

3  See  D.  H.  Miiller,  Die  Burgen  und  Schlosscr SUdarabicns  in  S.B.W.A., 
vol.  97,  p.  981  sqq. 


lo  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

Miiller  has  collected  the  names  of  thirty-three  Sabaean  kings. 

Certain  names  are  often  repeated — a  proof  of  the  existence  of 

rulin?    dynasties — and    ornamental    epithets    are 

The  historical  iT 

value  of        usually  attached  to  them.     Thus  we  find  Dhamar- 

the  inscriptions.  -^    .     ^ 

'all  Dhirrih  (Glorious),  Yatha'amar  Bayyin  (Dis- 
tinguished), Kariba'il  Watar  Yuhan'im  (Great,  Beneficent), 
Samah'all  Yanuf  (Exalted).  Moreover,  the  kings  bear 
different  titles  corresponding  to  three  distinct  periods  of 
Sabaean  history,  viz.,  'Prince  of  Saba'  {Mukarrib  Saba\'^ 
'  King  of  Saba '  {Malk  Saba),  and  '  King  of  Saba  and  Raydan.' 
In  this  way  it  is  possible  to  determine  approximately  the  age  of 
the  various  buildings  and  inscriptions,  and  to  show  that  they 
do  not  belong,  as  had  hitherto  been  generally  supposed,  to  the 
time  of  Christ,  but  that  in  some  cases  they  are  at  least  eight 
hundred  years  older. 
i^J        \  How  widely  the  peaceful,  commerce-loving  people  of  Saba 

i>)  I     and    Himyar    differed    in   character  from   the   wild    Arabs   to 
'    .  whom  Muhammad  was  sent  appears  most  strikingly 

jyv^  •  inscriptions.     '"   their   submissive  attitude  towards   their   gods, 

which  forms,  as  Goldziher  has  remarked,  the  key- 
note of  the  South  Arabian  monuments. ^  The  prince  erects 
a  thank-offering  to  the  gods  who  gave  him  victory  over  his 
enemies  ;  the  priest  dedicates  his  children  and  all  his  posses- 
sions ;  the  warrior  who  has  been  blessed  with  "  due  man- 
slayings,"  or  booty,  or  escape  from  death  records  his  gratitude, 
and  piously  hopes  for  a  continuance  of  favour.  The  dead  are 
conceived  as  living  happily  under  divine  protection  ;  they  are 
venerated  and  sometimes  deified. 3     The  following  inscription, 

'  The  name  Mukarrib  apparently  combines  the  significations  of  prince 
and  priest. 

^  Goldziher,  M uhammedanische  Studien,  Part  I,  p.  3. 

3  See  F.  Praetorius,  Unstcrblichkeitsglaube  und  Heiligenvcrehrung  bci 
den  Himyareii  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. 


SOUTH  ARABIC  INSCRIPTIONS  il 

translated  by  Lieut.-Col.  W.  F.  Prideaux,  is  a  typical  example 
of  its  class  : — 

"  Sa'd-ilah  and  his  sons,  Benu  Marthad™,  have  endowed  Il-Makah 
of  Hirran  with  this  tablet,  because  Il-Makah,  lord  of  Awwam  Dhu- 
'Iran  Alii,  has  favourably  heard  the  prayer  addressed  to  him,  and  has 
consequently  heard  the  Benii  Marthad™  when  they  offered  the  first- 
fruits  of  their  fertile  lands  of  Arhakim  in  the  presence  of  Il-Makah 
of  Hirran,  and  Il-Makah  of  Hirran  has  favourably  heard  the  prayer 
addressed  to  him  that  he  would  protect  the  plains  and  meadows  and 
this  tribe  in  their  habitations,  in  consideration  of  the  frequent  gifts 
throughout  the  year  ;  and  truly  his  (Sa'd-ilah's)  sons  will  descend  to 
Arhakim,  and  they  will  indeed  sacrifice  in  the  two  shrines  of  'Athtor 
and  Shams'",  and  there  shall  be  a  sacrifice  in  Hirran — both  in  order 
that  Il-Makah  may  afford  protection  to  those  fields  of  Bin  Marthad'" 
as  well  as  that  he  may  favourably  listen — and  in  the  sanctuary  of 
Il-Makah  of  Harvvat,  and  therefore  may  he  keep  them  in  safety 
according  to  the  sign  in  which  Sa'd-ilah  was  instructed,  the  sign 
which  he  saw  in  the  sanctuary  of  Il-Makah  of  Na'man  ;  and  as  for 
Il-Makah  of  Hirran,  he  has  protected  those  fertile  lands  of  Arhakim 
from  hail  and  from  all  misfortune  {or,  from  cold  and  from  all 
extreme  heat).' 

In  concluding  this  very  inadequate  account  of  the  South 
Arabic  inscriptions  I  must  claim  the  indulgence  of  my  readers, 
w^ho  are  aware  how  difficult  it  is  to  write  clearly  and  accurately 
upon  any  subject  without  first-hand  knowledge,  in  particular 
when  the  results  of  previous  research  are  continually  being 
transformed  by  new  workers  in  the  same  field. 

Fortunately  we  possess  a  considerable  literary  supplement  to 

these  somewhat  austere  and  meagre  remains.     Our  knowledge 

of    South    Arabian    geography,    antiquities,    and 

sources.        legendary    history    is    largely    derived    from    the 

works  of  two  natives  of  Yemen,  who  were  filled 

with  enthusiasm  for   its  ancient  glories,  and  whose  writings, 

though  different  as  fact  and  fable,  are  from  the  present  point 

of  vievvr  equally  instructive — Hasan  b.  Ahmad  al-Hamdani  and 

'  Transactions  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archcvolofly,  vol.  5,  p.  409. 


12  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

Nash  wan  b.  Sa'id  al-Himyari.     Besides  an  excellent  geography 

of  Arabia  {Sifatu  yazirat  al-^Arah)^  which  has  been  edited  by 

D.   H.  Miiller,  HamdanI  left   a   great   work   on 

(1945  A^D.).      the    history    and    antiquities    of  Yemen,  entitled 

al-Iklil    ('  The    Crown '),   and    divided    into    ten 

books  under  the  following  heads  : — ^ 

Book  I.  Compendium  of  the  beginning  and  origins  of  genealogy. 
Book  II.  Genealogy  of  the  descendants  of  al-Hamaysa'  b.  Himyar. 
Book  III.  Concerning  the  pre-eminent  qualities  of  Oahtdn. 
Book  IV.  Concerning  the  first  period  of  history  down  to  the  reign  of 

Tubba'  Abu  Karib. 
Book  V.  Concerning  the  middle  period  from  the  accession  of  As' ad 

Tubba'  to  the  reign  of  Dhn  Nuwds. 
Book  VI.  Concerning  the  last  period  down  to  the  rise  of  Islam. 
Book  VII.  Criticism  of  false  traditions  and  absurd  legends. 
Book  VIII.  Concerning  the  castles,  cities,  and  tombs  of  the  Hiniyarites  ; 

the  extant  poetry  of'Alqajtia,^  the  elegies,  the  inscriptions, 

and  other  matters. 
Book  IX.  Concerning  the  proverbs  and  wisdom  of  the  Himyarites  in  the 

Himyarite  language,  and  concerning  the  alphabet  of  the 

inscriptions. 
Book  X.  Concerning  the  genealogy  of  Hdshid  and  Bakil  (the   two 

principal  tribes  of  Hamdan). 

The  same  intense  patriotism  which  caused  Hamdani  to  devote 

himself  to  scientific   research  inspired  Nashwan  b.  Sa'id,  who 

descended  on   the  father's  side    from  one  of  the 

^'^^s^ixi" ''■     ancient  princely  families  of  Yemen,  to  recall  the 

(fiw'To").     legendary    past   and    become    the    laureate   of   a 

long   vanished    and    well-nigh    forgotten    empire. 

In  *The  Himyarite  Ode'  {al-QasJdatu  H-H'imyariyya)  he  sings 

the  might  and  grandeur  of  the  monarchs  who  ruled  over  his 

people,  and  moralises  in  true  Muhammadan  spirit  upon  the 

'  This  table  of  contents  is  quoted  by  D.  H.  Miiller  {Sudarabische 
Studicn,  p.  io8,  n.  2)  from  the  title-page  of  the  British  Museum  MS.  of  the 
eighth  book  of  the  Iklil.  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. 

*  The  poet  'Alqama  b.  Dhi  Jadan,  whose  verses  are  often  cited  in  the 
commentary  on  the  '  Himyarite  Ode." 


LITERARY  MATERIALS  l% 

fleetingness  of  life  and  the  futility  of  human  ambition. ^ 
Accompanying  the  Ode,  which  has  little  value  except  as  a 
comparatively  unfalsified  record  of  royal  names,^  is  a  copious 
historical  commentary  either  by  Nashvi^an  himself,  as  Von 
Kremer  thinks  highly  probable,  or  by  some  one  w^ho  lived 
about  the  same  time.  Those  for  w^hom  history  represents  an 
aggregate  of  naked  facts  v^^ould  find  nothing  to  the  purpose  in 
this  commentary,  where  threads  of  truth  are  almost  inextricably 
interwoven  with  fantastic  and  fabulous  embroideries.  A 
literary  form  was  first  given  to  such  legends  by  the  professional 
story-tellers  of  early  Islam.  One  of  these,  the  South  Arabian 
'Abid  b.  Sharya,  visited  Damascus  by  command  of  the  Caliph 
Mu'awiya    I,  who  questioned  him  "concerning 

'Abidb.  Sharya.       ,  /  '      .   .        ^     ,       ,  .  r     i        a       .  1 

the  ancient  traditions,  the  kings  or  the  Arabs  and 
other  races,  the  cause  of  the  confusion  of  tongues,  and  the 
history  of  the  dispersion  of  mankind  in  the  various  countries  of 
the  world,"  3  and  gave  orders  that  his  answers  should  be  put 
together  in  writing  and  published  under  his  name.  This  work, 
of  which  unfortunately  no  copy  has  come  down  to  us,  was 
entitled  'The  Book  of  the  Kings  and  the  History  of  the 
Ancients'  {Kitabu  U-Muluk  wa-akhbdru  U-Mddln).  Mas'udi 
(1956  A.D.)  speaks  of  it  as  a  well-known  book,  enjoying  a  wide 
circulation. 4  It  was  used  by  the  commentator  of  the  Himyarite 
Ode,  either  at  first  hand  or  through  the  medium  of  Hamdani's 
Iklil.  We  may  regard  it,  like  the  commentary  itself,  as  a 
historical  romance  in  which  most  of  the  characters  and  some  of 
the  events  are  real,  adorned  with  fairy-tales,  fictitious  verses, 

'  Die  Himjarische  Kasidch  herausgegeben  und  iibersetzt  von  Alfred  von 
Kremer  (Leipzig,  1865).  The  Lay  of  the  Himyarites,  by  W.  F.  Prideaux 
(Sehore,  1879). 

^  Nashwan  was  a  philologist  of  some  repute.  His  great  dictionary,  the 
Shamsu  'l-^Uluin,  is  a  valuable  aid  to  those  engaged  in  the  study  of  South 
Arabian  antiquities.  It  has  been  used  by  D.  H.  Miiiler  to  fix  the  correct 
spelling  of  proper  names  which  occur  in  the  Himyarite  Ode  (Z.D.M.G., 
vol.  29,  p.  620  sqq.  ;  Sildarabische  Studien,  p.  143  sqq.). 

3  Fihrist,  p.  89,  1.  26. 

*  Murtiju  'l-Dhahab,  ed.  by  Barbier  de  Meynard,  vol.  iv,  p.  89. 


14  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

and  such  entertaining  matter  as  a  man  of  learning  and  story- 
teller by  trade  might  naturally  be  expected  to  introduce. 
Among  the  few  remaining  Muhammadan  authors  who 
bestowed    special    attention    on    the    Pre-islamic    period    of 

South  Arabian  history,  I  shall  mention  here  only 
"iSn.^       Hamza   of  Isfahan,    the    eighth    book    of  whose 

Annals  (finished  in  961  a.d.)  provides  a  useful 
sketch,  with  brief  chronological  details,  of  the  Tubba's  or 
Himyarite  kings  of  Yemen. 

Qahtan,  the  ancestor  of  the  Southern  Arabs,  was  succeeded 

by  his  son  Ya'rub,  who  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  to  use  the 

Arabic  languap-e,  and  the  first  to  receive  the  salu- 

Ya'rub.  . 

tations  with  which  the  Arabs  were  accustomed 
to  address  their  kings,  viz.,  '•'■  InHm  labaJf^''''  ("Good  morn- 
ing!") and  ^^  Abayta  7-/fl'«fl  "  ("  Mayst  thou  avoid  maledic- 
tion!"). His  grandson,  'Abd  Shams  Saba,  is  named  as  the 
founder  of  Ma'rib  and  the  builder  of  the  famous  Dyke,  which, 
according  to  others,  was  constructed  by  Luqman  b.  'Ad. 
Saba  had  two  sons,  Himyar  and  Kahlan.  Before  his 
death  he  deputed  the  sovereign  authority  to  Himyar, 
and    the     task    of     protecting     the    frontiers    and     making 

war  upon  the  enemy  to  Kahlan.  Thus  Himyar 
"'KawL'!"'^     obtained    the    lordship,    assumed    the   title    Abii 

Ayman,  and  abode  in  the  capital  city  of  the 
realm,  while  Kahlan  took  over  the  defence  of  the  borders 
and  the  conduct  of  war.^  Omitting  the  long  series  of  mythical 
Sabasan  kings,  of  whom  the  legend  has  little  or  nothing  to 
relate,  we  now  come  to  an  event  which  fixed  itself  inefFaceably 
in  the  memory  of  the  Arabs,  and  which  is  known  in  their 
traditions  as  Saylu  U-'-Arim^  or  the  Flood  of  the  Dyke. 

'  Von  Kremer,  Die  Sildarabische  Sage,  p.  56.  Possibl}',  as  he  suggests 
(p.  115),  the  story  may  be  a  symbolical  expression  of  the  fact  that  the 
Sabseans  were  divided  into  two  great  tribes,  Himyar  and  Kahlan,  the 
former  of  which  held  the  chief  power. 


THE  DYKE   OF  MA' RIB  1$ 

Some  few  miles  south-west  of  Ma'rib  the  mountains  draw 
together  leaving  a  gap,  through  which  flows  the  River  Adana. 

During  the  summer  its  bed  is  often  dry,  but  in  the 
^'^Ma'ri'b.  °^     rainy   season  the  water    rushes  down    with  such 

violence  that  it  becomes  impassable.  In  order  to 
protect  the  city  from  floods,  and  partly  also  for  purposes  of 
irrigation,  the  inhabitants  built  a  dam  of  solid  masonry,  which, 
long  after  it  had  fallen  into  ruin,  struck  the  imagination  of 
Muhammad,  and  was  reckoned  by  Moslems  among  the  wonders 
of  the  world. I  That  their  historians  have  clothed  the  bare  fact 
of  its  destruction  in  ample  robes  of  legendary  circumstance  is 
not  surprising,  but  renders  abridgment  necessary .2 

Towards  the  end  of  the  third  century  of  our  era,  or  possibly 
at  an  earlier  epoch, 3  the   throne    of  Ma'rib  was  temporarily 

occupied    by  'Amr  b.  'Amir    Ma'   al-Sama,  sur- 
announced  by     named  Muzayqiya.4     His  wife,  Zarifa,  was  skilled 

in  the  art  of  divination.  She  dreamed  dreams  and 
saw  visions  which  announced  the  impending  calamity.  "  Go 
to  the  Dyke,"  she  said  to  her  husband,  who  doubted  her  clair- 
voyance, "  and  if  thou  see  a  rat  digging  holes  in  the  Dyke 
with  its  paws  and  moving  huge  boulders  with  its  hind-legs,  be 
assured  that  the  woe  hath  come  upon  us."     So  'Amr  went  to 

'  C/.  Koran  xxxiv,  14  sqq.  The  existing  ruins  have  been  described  by 
Arnaud  in  the  Journal  Asiatique,  7th  series,  vol.  3  (1874),  p.  3  sqq. 

-  I  follow  Mas'iidi,  Muriiju  'l-Dhahab  (ed.  by  Barbier  de  Meynard), 
vol.  iii,  p.  378  sqq.,  and  Nuwayri  in  Reiske's  Priince  lincce  Hisioricc  Rerum 
Arabicarum,  p.  166  sqq. 

3  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.  G\3LSQT,Zwei  Inschriftcn 
iiber  den  Dammbruch  von  Marib  (Mitteilungcn  dor  Vorderasiatischeji 
Gesellschaft,  1897,  6). 

"*  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. 


i6  SABA    AND   HIMYAR 

the  Dyke  and  looked  carefully,  and  lo,  there  was  a  rat  moving 
an  enormous  rock  which  fifty  men  could  not  have  rolled  from 
its  place.  Convinced  by  this  and  other  prodigies  that  the 
Dyke  would  soon  burst  and  the  land  be  laid  waste,  he  resolved 
to  sell  his  possessions  and  depart  with  his  family  ;  and,  lest 
conduct  so  extraordinary  should  arouse  suspicion,  he  had  re- 
course to  the  following  stratagem.  He  invited  the  chief  men 
of  the  city  to  a  splendid  feast,  which,  in  accordance  with  a 
preconcerted  plan,  was  interrupted  by  a  violent  altercation 
between  himself  and  his  son  (or,  as  others  relate,  an  orphan 
who  had  been  brought  up  in  his  house).  Blows  were  ex- 
changed, and  'Amr  cried  out,  "O  shame  !  on  the  day  of  my 
glory  a  stripling  has  insulted  me  and  struck  my  face."  He 
swore  that  he  would  put  his  son  to  death,  but  the  guests 
entreated  him  to  show  mercy,  until  at  last  he  gave  way. 
"But  by  God,"  he  exclaimed,  "I  will  no  longer  remain  in 
a  city  where  I  have  suffered  this  indignity.  I  will  sell  my 
lands  and  my  stock."  Having  successfully  got  rid  of  his 
encumbrances — for  there  was  no  lack  of  buyers  eager  to  take 
him  at  his  word — 'Amr  informed  the  people  of  the  danger  with 
which  they  were  threatened,  and  set  out  from  Ma'rib  at  the 
head  of  a  great  multitude.  Gradually  the  waters  made  a 
breach  in  the  Dyke  and  swept  over  the  country,  spreading 
devastation  far  and  wide.  Hence  the  proverb  Dhahabu  (or 
tafarraqu)  aydi  Saha^  "They  departed"  (or  "dispersed")  "like 
the  people  of  Saba."  ^ 

This  deluge  marks  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  South  Arabia. 

The  waters  subside,  the  land  returns  to  cultivation 
sabxan        and  prosperity,  but  Ma'rib  lies  desolate,  and  the 

Sabaeans  have    disappeared    for    ever,   except  "  to 
point  a  moral  or  adorn  a  tale."     Al-A'shd  sang  : — 

Metre  Mniaqarib  :(^-^ |--^ l^-' |  ^  — ). 


'  Freytag,  Arabum  Proverbia,  vol.  i,  p.  497. 


DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  DYKE  17 

"  Let  this  warn  whoever  a  warning  will  take — 
And  Ma' rib  withal,  which  the  Dam  fortified. 
Of  marble  did  Himyar  construct  it,  so  high, 
The  waters  recoiled  when  to  reach  it  they  tried. 
It  watered  their  acres  and  vineyards,  and  hour 
By  hour,  did  a  portion  among  them  divide. 
So  lived  they  in  fortune  and  plenty  until 
Therefrom  turned  away  by  a  ravaging  tide. 
Then  wandered  their  princes  and  noblemen  through 
Mirage-shrouded  deserts  that  baffle  the  guide."' 

The  poet's  reference  to  Himyar  is  not  historically  accurate. 
It  was  only  after  the  destruction  of  the  Dyke  and  the  dispersion 
of  the  Sabaans  who  built  it  2  that  the  Himyarites,  with  their 
capital  Zafar  (at  a  later  period,  San'd)  became  the  rulers  of  Yemen. 

The  first  Tubba',  by  which  name  the  Himyarite  kings  are 

known  to  Muhammadan  writers,  was  Hdrith,  called  al-Ra'ish, 

i.e..  the    Featherer,  because    he    '  feathered '    his 

TheXubba's.  ,    ,  •   ,        i         ,  i  •    i      i        i  i 

people  s  nest  with  the  booty  which  he  brought 
home  as  a  conqueror  from  India  and  Adharbayjan.3  Of  the 
Tubba's  who  come  after  him  some  obviously  owe  their  place 
in  the  line  of  Himyar  to  genealogists  whose  respect  for  the 
Koran  was  greater  than  their  critical  acumen.  Such  a  man  of 
straw  is  Sa'b  Dhu  '1-Oarnayn  (Sa'b  the  Two-horned). 

The    following:    verses   show   that  he    is  a    double    of  the 

mysterious    Dhu   '1-Oarnayn  of  Koranic  legend, 

Dhu  'l-Qarnayn.         ^  -^  ■'  °  .      , 

supposed  by  most  commentators  to  be  identical 
with  Alexander  the  Great  4  : — 

'  Hamddni,  Iklil,  bk.  viii,  edited  by  D.  H.  Miiller  in  S.B.W.A.  (Vienna, 
1881),  vol.  97,  p.  1037.  The  verses  are  quoted  with  some  textual  differences 
by  Yaqut,  Mu^jam  al-Bulddn,  ed.  by  Wiistenfeld,  vol.  iv,  387,  and  Ibn 
Hishara,  p.  9. 

'  The  following  inscription  is  engraved  on  one  of  the  stone  cylinders 
described  by  Arnaud  :  "  Yatha'amar  Bayyin,  son  of  Samah'ali  Yanuf, 
Prince  of  Saba,  caused  the  mountain  Balaq  to  be  pierced  and  erected  the 
flood-gates  (called)  Rahab  for  convenience  of  irrigation."  I  translate  after 
D.  H.  Miiller,  loc.  laud.,  p.  965. 

3  The  words  Himyar  and  Tubba''  do  not  occur  at  all  in  the  older  inscrip- 
tions, and  very  seldom  even  in  those  of  a  more  recent  date. 

*  See  Koran,  xviii,  82-98. 

3 


i8  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

"  Ours  the  realm  of  Dhu  '1-Qarnayn  the  glorious, 
Realm  like  his  was  never  won  by  mortal  king. 
Followed  he  the  Sun  to  view  its  setting 
When  it  sank  into  the  sombre  ocean-spring ; 
Up  he  clomb  to  see  it  rise  at  morning, 
From  within  its  mansion  when  the  East  it  fired  ; 
All  day  long  the  horizons  led  him  onward,' 
All  night  through  he  watched  the  stars  and  never  tired. 
Then  of  iron  and  of  liquid  metal 
He  prepared  a  rampart  not  to  be  o'erpassed, 
Gog  and  Magog  there  he  threw  in  prison 
Till  on  Judgment  Day  they  shall  awake  at  last."  = 

Similarly,  among  the  TubbaS  we  find  the  Queen  of  Sheba, 
whose  adventures  with   Solomon  are  related  in  the  twenty- 
seventh  chapter  of  the  Koran.     Although  Muh- 

Bilqis.  1      1  •  1  r      1  •  1  •  1 

ammad  himself  did  not  mention  her  name  or 
lineage,  his  interpreters  were  equal  to  the  occasion  and  revealed 
her  as  Bilqis,  the  daughter  of  Sharahil  (Sharahbfl). 

The  national  hero  of  South  Arabian  legend  is  the  Tubba' 

'  Dhu  '1-Qarnayn  is  described  as  "the  measurer  of  the  earth"  (Massahii 
7-arrf)  by  Hamdani,  Jaziratii-  'l-'Arab,  p.  46,  1.  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  '1-Qarnayn  is  a 
personification  of  the  Sabasan  divinity  'Athtar,  who  represents  "  sweet 
Hesper-Phosphor,  double  name"  (see  D.  H.  Miiller  in  S.B.W.A.,  vol.  97, 
p.  973  seq.)-  The  Minaean  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  Hamdani  is  the  name  of  Venus  [al-Zuhara],  was  identified  by 
Arabian  archseologists  with  Bilqis.  For  qarn  in  the  sense  of  '  ray '  or 
'beam'  see  Goldziher,  Abhand.  ziir  Arab.  Philolos^ic,  Part  I,  p.  114.  I 
think  there  is  little  doubt  that  Dhu  '1-Oarnayn  and  Bilqis  may  be  added  to 
the  examples  (ibid.,  p.  iii  sqq.)  of  that  peculiar  conversion  by  which  many 
heathen  deities  were  enabled  to  maintain  themselves  under  various  dis- 
guises within  the  pale  of  Islam. 

=  The  Arabic  text  will  be  found  in  Von  Kremer's  Altarabische  Gcdichie 
iicber  die  Volkssagc  von  Jemen,  p.  15  (No.  viii,  1.6  sqq.).  Hassan  b.  Thabit, 
the  author  of  these  lines,  was  contemporary  with  Muhammad,  to  whose 
cause  he  devoted  what  poetical  talent  he  possessed.  In  the  verses  imme- 
diately preceding  those  translated  above  he  claims  to  be  a  descendant  of 
Qahtan. 


THE   TUBBA'  AS'AD  KAMIL  19 

As'ad  Kdmil,  or,  as  he  is  sometimes  called,  Abii  Karib.  Even 
at  the  present  day,  says  Von  Kremer,  his  memory  is  kept  alive, 

and  still  haunts  the  ruins  of  his  palace  at  Zafar. 

"  No  one  who  reads  the  Ballad  of  his  Adven- 
tures or  the  words  of  exhortation  which  he  addressed  on  his 
death-bed  to  his  son  Hassan  can  escape  from  the  conviction  that 
here  we  have  to  do  with  genuine  folk-poetry — fragments  of  a 
South  Arabian  legendary  cycle,  the  beginnings  of  which  un- 
doubtedly reach  back  to  a  high  antiquity."  ^  I  translate  here 
the  former  of  these  pieces,  which  may  be  entitled 

THE   BALLAD   OF   THE  THREE   WITCHESr 

"  Time  brings  to  pass  full  many  a  wonder 
Whereof  the  lesson  thou  must  ponder. 
Whilst  all  to  thee  seems  ordered  fair, 
Lo,  Fate  hath  wrought  confusion  there. 
Against  a  thing  foredoomed  to  be 
Nor  cunning  nor  caution  helpeth  thee. 
Now  a  marvellous  tale  will  I  recite ; 
Trust  me  to  know  and  tell  it  aright ! 

Once  on  a  time  was  a  boy  of  Asd 
Who  became  the  king  of  the  land  at  last, 
Born  in  Hamdan,  a  villager  ; 
The  name  of  that  village  was  Khamir. 
This  lad  in  the  pride  of  youth  defied 
His  friends,  and  they  with  scorn  replied. 
None  guessed  his  worth  till  he  was  grown 
Ready  to  spring. 

'  Von  Kremer,  Die  Siidarabische  Sage,  p.  vii  of  the  Introduction. 

^  A  prose  translation  is  given  by  Von  Kremer,  ibid.,  p.  78  sqq.  The 
Arabic  text  which  he  published  afterwards  in  Altarabische  Gedichtc  ucber 
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  'Abid  b.  Sharya  (see  p.  13  supra), 
or  Yazid  b.  Rabi'a  b.  Mufarrigh  (f  688  a.d.),  who  is  said  to  have  invented 
the  poems  and  romances  of  the  Himyarite  kings  (Aghdni,  xvii,  52). 


20  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

One  morn,  alone 
On  Hinwam  hill  he  was  sore  afraid.' 
(His  people  knew  not  where  he  strayed  ; 
They  had  seen  him  only  yesternight, 
For  his  youth  and  wildncss  they  held  him  light. 
The  wretches  !     Him  they  never  missed 
Who  had  been  their  glory  had  they  wist). 

O  the  fear  that  fell  on  his  heart  when  he 

Saw  beside  him  the  witches  three  ! 

The  eldest  came  with  many  a  brew — 

In  some  was  blood,  blood-dark  their  hue. 

'  Give  me  the  cup  ! '  he  shouted  bold  ; 

'Hold,  hold!'  cried  she,  but  he  would  not  hold. 

She  gave  him  the  cup,  nor  he  did  shrink 

Tho'  he  reeled  as  he  drained  the  magic  drink. 

Then  the  second  yelled  at  him.     Her  he  faced 

Like  a  lion  with  anger  in  his  breast. 

'These  be  our  steeds,  come  mount,'  she  cried, 

'  For  asses  are  worst  of  steeds  to  ride.' 

'  'Tis  sooth,'  he  answered,  and  slipped  his  flank 

O'er  a  hyena  lean  and  lank. 

But  the  brute  so  fiercely  flung  him  away. 

With  deep,  deep  wounds  on  the  earth  he  lay. 

Then  came  the  youngest  and  tended  him 

On  a  soft  bed,  while  her  eyes  did  swim 

In  tears ;  but  he  averted  his  face 

And  sought  a  rougher  resting-place  : 

Such  paramour  he  deemed  too  base. 

And  himthought,  in  anguish  lying  there, 

That  needles  underneath  him  were.' 

Now  when  they  had  marked  his  mien  so  bold. 
Victory  in  all  things  they  foretold. 
'  The  wars,  O  As'ad,  waged  by  thee 
Shall  heal  mankind  of  misery. 


'  Instead  of  Hinwam  the  original  has  Hayyum,  for  which  Von  Kramer 
reads  Ahnum.  But  see  Hamdaiii,  Jaziratu  'l-'Arab,  p.  193,  last  line  and 
fol. 

*  I  read  al-jahdi  for  al-jahli. 


BALLAD   OF  THE   THREE    WITCHES      21 

Thy  sword  and  spear  the  foe  shall  rue 
When  his  gashes  let  the  daylight  through ; 
And  blood  shall  flow  on  every  hand 
What  time  thou  marchest  from  land  to  land. 
By  us  be  counselled  :  stay  not  within 
Khamir,  but  go  to  Zafdr  and  win  ! 
To  thee  shall  dalliance  ne'er  be  dear, 
Thy  foes  shall  see  thee  before  they  hear. 
Desire  moved  to  encounter  thee, 
Noble  prince,  us  witches  three. 
Not  jest,  but  earnest  on  thee  we  tried, 
And  well  didst  thou  the  proof  abide.' 

As'ad  went  home  and  told  his  folk 

What  he  had  seen,  but  no  heed  they  took. 

On  the  tenth  day  he  set  out  again 

And  fared  to  Zafdr  with  thoughts  in  his  brain. 

There  fortune  raised  him  to  high  renown  : 

None  swifter  to  strike  ever  wore  a  crown.' 


Thus  found  we  the  tale  in  memory  stored, 
And  Almighty  is  the  Lord. 
Praise  be  to  God  who  liveth  aye. 
The  Glorious  to  whom  all  men  pray  ! " 

Legend  makes  As'ad  the  hero  of  a  brilliant  expedition  to 
Persia,  where  he  defeated  the  general  sent  against  him  by  the 
Arsacids,  and  penetrated  to  the  Caspian  Sea.  On  his  way 
home  he  marched  through  the  Hijdz,  and  having  learned  that 
his  son,  whom  he  left  behind  in  Medina,  had  been  treacherously 
murdered,  he  resolved  to  take  a  terrible  vengeance  on  the 
people  of  that  city. 

"  Now  while  the  Tubba'  was  carrying  on  war  against  them,  there 
came  to  him  two  Jewish  Rabbins  of  the  Banu  Qurayza,  men  deep  in 
knowledge,   who  when  they  heard  that  he  wished  to  destroy  the 


'  I  omit  the  following  verses,  which  tell  how  an  old  woman  of  Medina 
came  to  King  As'ad,  imploring  him  to  avenge  her  wrongs,  and  how  he 
gathered  an  innumerable  army,  routed  his  enemies,  and  returned  to  Zafar 
in  triumph. 


22  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

city  and  its  people,  said  to  him  :  '  O  King,  forbear  1    Verily,  if  thou 

wilt  accept  nothing  save  that  which  thou  desirest,  an  intervention 

.  ,  ,„,    ..      will  be  made  betwixt  thee  and  the  city,  and  we  are 

As'adKamil  .  ■' 

and  the  not  sure  but  that  sudden  chastisement  may  befall 
^of°Medina"'  thee.'  '  Why  SO  ? '  he  asked.  They  answered  :  "Tis 
the  place  of  refuge  of  a  prophet  who  in  the  after 
time  shall  go  forth  from  the  sacred  territory  of  Quraysh  :  it  shall  be 
his  abode  and  his  home.'  So  the  king  refrained  himself,  for  he  saw 
that  those  two  had  a  particular  knowledge,  and  he  was  pleased  with 
what  they  told  him.  On  departing  from  Medina  he  followed  them 
in  their  religion.'  .  .  .  And  he  turned  his  face  towards  Mecca,  that 
being  his  way  to  Yemen,  and  when  he  was  between 
^at^Mecca".''  'Usfan  and  Amaj  some  Hudhalites  came  to  him  and 
said  :  '  O  King,  shall  we  not  guide  thee  to  a  house  of 
ancient  treasure  which  the  kings  before  thee  neglected,  wherein 
are  pearls  and  emeralds  and  chrysolites  and  gold  and  silver  ?'  He 
said,  '  Yea.'  They  said  :  '  It  is  a  temple  at  Mecca  which  those  who 
belong  to  it  worship  and  in  which  they  pray.'  Now  the  Hudhalites 
wished  to  destroy  him  thereby,  knowing  that  destruction  awaited 
the  king  who  should  seek  to  violate  its  precinct.  So  on  compre- 
hending what  they  proposed,  he  sent  to  the  two  Rabbins  to  ask 
them  about  the  affair.  They  replied  :  '  These  folk  intend  naught 
but  to  destroy  thee  and  thine  army  ;  we  wot  not  of  any  house  in  the 
world  that  God  hath  chosen  for  Himself,  save  this.  If  thou  do  that 
to  which  they  invite  thee,  thou  and  those  with  thee  will  surely 
perish  together.'  He  said  :  'What  then  is  it  ye  bid  me  do  when  I 
come  there  ? '  They  said  :  '  Thou  wilt  do  as  its  people  do — make 
the  circuit  thereof,  and  magnify  and  honour  it,  and  shave  thy  head, 
and  humble  thyself  before  it,  until  thou  go  forth  from  its  precinct.' 
He  said;  'And  what  hinders  you  from  doing  that  yourselves?' 
'  By  God,'  said  they,  '  it  is  the  temple  of  our  father  Abraham,  and 
verily  it  is  even  as  we  told  thee,  but  we  are  debarred  therefrom  by 
the  idols  which  its  people  have  set  up  around  it  and  by  the  blood- 
offerings  which  they  make  beside  it ;  for  they  are  vile  polytheists,' 
or  words  to  the  same  effect.  The  king  perceived  that  their  advice 
was  good  and  their  tale  true.  He  ordered  the  Hudhalites  to 
approach,  and  cut  off  their  hands  and  feet.  Then  he  continued  his 
march  to  Mecca,  where  he  made  the  circuit  of  the  temple,  sacrificed 
camels,  and  shaved  his  head.  According  to  what  is  told,  he  stayed 
six  days  at  Mecca,  feasting  the  inhabitants  with  the  flesh  of  camels 


Ibn  Hisham,  p.  13,  1.  14  sqq. 


AS'AB  KAMIL  and    THE  RABBINS       23 

and  letting  them  drink  honey.'  .  .  .  Then  he  moved  out  with  his 

troops  in  the  direction  of  Yemen,  the  two  Rabbins  accompanying 

him  ;  and  on  entering  Yemen  he  called  on  his  subjects 

^esUbHsh°      ^°  adopt  the  religion  which  he  himself  had  embraced, 

Judaism  in       but  they  refused  unless  the  question  were  submitted 

Yemen 

to  the  ordeal  of  fire  which  at  that  time  existed  in 
Yemen  ;  for  as  the  Yemenites  say,  there  was  in  their  country  a 
fire  that  gave  judgment  between  them  in  their  disputes  :  it  devoured 

the  wrong-doer  but  left  the  injured  person  unscathed. 
^''^  °ti^e  ^' °^     The  Yemenites   therefore   came   forward  with  their 

idols  and  whatever  else  they  used  as  a  means  of 
drawing  nigh  unto  God,  and  the  two  Rabbins  came  forward  with 
their  scriptures  hung  on  their  necks  like  necklaces,  and  both  parties 
seated  themselves  at  the  place  from  which  the  fire  was  wont  to 
issue.  And  the  fire  blazed  up,  and  the  Yemenites  shrank  back  from 
it  as  it  approached  them,  and  were  afraid,  but  the  bystanders  urged 
them  on  and  bade  them  take  courage.  So  they  held  out  until  the 
fire  enveloped  them  and  consumed  the  idols  and  images  and  the 
men  of  Himyar,  the  bearers  thereof  ;  but  the  Rabbins  came  forth 
safe  and  sound,  their  brows  moist  with  sweat,  and  the  scriptures 
were  still  hanging  on  their  necks.  Thereupon  the  Himyarites  con- 
sented to  adopt  the  king's  religion,  and  this  was  the  cause  of 
Judaism  being  estabhshed  in  Yemen."  " 

The  poem  addressed  to  his  son  and  successor,  Hassdn,  which 
tradition  has  put  into  his  mouth,  is  a  sort  of  last  will  and 
testament,    of   which    the    greater    part   is  taken 
^tohisToT^     up  with   an   account   of  his  conquests  and   with 
glorification   of  his  family  and  himself.3     Nearly- 
all  that  we  find  in  the  way  of  maxims  or  injunctions  suitable 
to  the  solemn  occasion  is  contained  in  the  following  verses  : — 

"  O  Hassan,  the  hour  of  thy  father's  death  has  arrived  at  last : 
Look  to  thyself  ere  yet  the  time  for  looking  is  past. 
Oft  indeed  are  the  mighty  abased,  and  often  likewise 
Are  the  base  exalted  :  such  is  Man  who  is  born  and  dies. 


'  Ibn  Hisham,  p.  15,  1.  i  sqq.  =  Ihid.,  p.  17,  1.  2  sqq. 

3  Arabic  text  in  Von  Kremer's  Alfarabische  Gedichte  ueber  die  Volkssage 
von  Jemen,  p.  20  seq.  ;  prose  translation  by  the  same  author  in  Die 
Sudarabische  Sage,  p.  84  sqq. 


24  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

Bid  ye  Himyar  know  that  standing  erect  would  I  buried  be, 
And  have   my  wine-skins   and   Yemen   robes  in  the  tomb  with 

me.' 
And  hearken  thou  to  my  Sibyl,  for  surely  can  she  foresay 
The  truth,  and  safe  in  her  keeping  is  castle  Ghayman  aye.^ 

In  connection  with  GhaymAn  a  few  words  may  be  added 
respecting  the  castles  in  Yemen,  of  which  the  ruined  skeletons 
rising  from  solitary  heights  seem  still   to  frown 
^fVm"r      defiance  upon  the  passing  traveller.     Two  thou- 
sand   years  ago,  and   probably   long  before,   they 
were  occupied  by  powerful  barons,  more  or  less  independent, 
who  in  later  times,  when  the  Himyarite  Empire  had  begun  to 
decline,  always  elected,  and  occasionally  deposed,  their  royal 
master.     Of  these  castles  the  geographer  Hamdani  has  given  a 
detailed  account  in  the  eighth  book  of  his  great  work  on  the 
history    and    antiquities    of    Yemen    entitled    the    Iklil^    or 
*  Crown.'  3     The  oldest  and  most  celebrated  was  Ghumddn, 
the    citadel    of  San'a.     It    is    described  as  a  huge  edifice   of 
twenty  stories,  each  story  ten  cubits  high.     The 
four    facades    were    built    with  stone  of  different 
colours,  white,  black,  green,  and  red.     On  the  top  story  was 
a  chamber  which  had  windows  of  marble  framed  with  ebony 
and   planewood.      Its  roof  was  a   slab   of  pellucid  marble,  so 
that  when  the  lord  of  Ghumddn  lay  on  his  couch  he  saw  the 
birds  fly  overhead,  and  could  distinguish  a  raven  from  a  kite. 
At  each  corner  stood  a  brazen  lion,  and  when  the  wind  blew 

'  The  second  half  of  this  verse  is  corrupt.  Von  Kramer  translates  (in 
his  notes  to  the  Arabic  text,  p.  26)  :  "  And  bury  with  me  the  camel 
stallions  (al-khihhi)  and  the  slaves  {al-niqqdn)."  Apart,  however,  from 
the  fact  that  ruqqdn  (plural  of  raqfq)  is  not  mentioned  by  the  lexico- 
graphers, it  seems  highly  improbable  that  the  king  would  have  com- 
manded such  a  barbarity.  I  therefore  take  khi'hin  (plural  of  kluil)  in  the 
meaning  of  '  soft  stuffs  of  Yemen,'  and  read  zuqqdn  (plural  of  ziqq). 

'  Ghayman  or  Miqlab,  a  castle  near  San'a,  in  which  the  Himyarite  kings 
were  buried. 

3  The  text  and  translation  of  this  section  of  the  Ikli'l  have  been  pub- 
lished by  D.  H.  Miiller  in  S.B.W.A.,  vols.  94  and  97  (Vienna,  1879-1880). 


ZARQA   of   VAMAMA  25 

it  entered  the  hollow  interior  of  the  effigies  and  made  a  sound 
like  the  roaring  of  lions. 

The  adventure  of  As'ad  Kdmil  with  the  three  witches  must 
have  recalled  to  every  reader  certain  scenes  in  Macbeth, 
Curiously  enough,  in  the  history  of  his  son  Hassdn  an  incident 
is  related  which  offers  a  striking  parallel  to  the  march  of 
Birnam  Wood.  Tasm  and  Jadis  have  already  been  men- 
tioned. On  the  massacre  of  the  former  tribe  by  the  latter,  a 
single  Tasmite  named  RibAh  b.  Murra  made  his  escape  and 
took  refuge  with  the  Tubba'  Hassdn,  whom  he  persuaded  to 
lead  an  expedition  against  the  murderers.     Now  Ribah's  sister 

had    married    a    man    of  Jadis.     Her   name   was 
'i-lamima.      ZarqA'u  '1-Yamdma — i.e.^  the  Blue-eyed  Woman 

of  Yamama — and  she  had  such  piercing  sight  that 
she  was  able  to  descry  an  army  thirty  miles  away.  Hassdn 
therefore  bade  his  horsemen  hold  in  front  of  them  leafy 
branches  which  they  tore  down  from  the  trees.  They 
advanced  thus  hidden,  and  towards  evening,  when  they  had 
come  within  a  day's  journey,  Zarqd  said  to  her  people  :  "  I 
see  trees  marching."  No  one  believed  her  until  it  was  too 
late.  Next  morning  Hassan  fell  upon  them  and  put  the  whole 
tribe  to  the  sword. 

The  warlike  expeditions  to  which  Hassdn  devoted  all  his 
energy   were    felt    as   an   intolerable  burden  by  the  chiefs  of 

Himyar,  who  formed  a  plot  to  slay  him  and  set 

Hassan  *.      /      '  V  ] 

murdered  by     his  brother  'Amr  on  the  throne.     'Amr  was  at 

his  brother. 

first  unwilling  to  lend  himself  to  their  designs, 
but  ultimately  his  scruples  were  overcome,  and  he 
stabbed  the  Tubba'  with  his  own  hand.  The  assassin 
suffered  a  terrible  punishment.  Sleep  deserted  him,  and  in  his 
remorse  he  began  to  execute  the  conspirators  one  after  another. 
There  was,  however,  a  single  chief  called  Dhii 
Ru'ayn,  who  had  remained  loyal  and  had  done  his 
best  to  save  'Amr  from  the  guilt  of  fratricide.  Finding  his 
efforts  fruitless,  he  requested  'Amr  to  take  charge  of  a  sealed 


26  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

paper  which  he  brought  with  him,  and  to  keep  it  in  a  safe 
place  until  he  should  ask  for  it.  'Amr  consented  and  thought 
no  more  of  the  matter.  Afterwards,  imagining  that  Dhu 
Ru'ayn  had  joined  in  the  fatal  plot,  he  gave  orders  for  his 
execution.  "  How  !  "  exclaimed  Dhu  Ru'ayn,  "  did  not  I  tell 
thee  what  the  crime  involved  ?  "  and  he  asked  for  the  sealed 
writing,  which  was  found  to  contain  these  verses — 

"  O  fool  to  barter  sleep  for  waking  !     Blest 
Is  he  alone  whose  eyelids  close  in  rest. 
Hath  Himyar  practised  treason,  yet  'tis  plain 
That  God  forgiveness  owes  to  Dhu  Ru'ayn.'" 

On  reading  this,  'Amr  recognised  that  Dhu  Ru'ayn  had 
spoken  the  truth,  and  he  spared  his  life. 

With  'Amr  the  Tubba'  dynasty  comes  to  an  end.  The 
succeeding  kings  were  elected  by  eight  of  the  most  powerful 
barons,  who  in  reality  were  independent  princes,  each  ruling  in 
his  strong  castle  over  as  many  vassals  and  retainers  as  he  could 
bring  into  subjection.  During  this  period  the  Abyssinians 
conquered  at  least  some  part  of  the  country,  and  Christian 
viceroys  were  sent  by  the  Najashi  (Negus)  to  govern  it  in  his 
name.  At  last  Dhu  Nuwas,  a  descendant  of  the  Tubba' 
As'ad  Kamil,  crushed  the  rebellious  barons  and  made  himself 
unquestioned  monarch  of  Yemen.  A  fanatical  adherent  of 
Judaism,  he  resolved  to  stamp  out  Christianity  in 

Dhii  Nuwas.       -vt    •    ^  l  •      •  ■  i  i  i  •  j  i 

JNajran,  where  it  is  said  to  have  been  introduced 
from  Syria  by  a  holy  man  called  Faymiyun  (Phemion).  The 
Himyarites  flocked  to  his  standard,  not  so  much  from  religious 
motives  as  from  hatred  of  the  Abyssinians.  The  pretended 
murder  of  two  Jewish  children  gave  Dhu  Nuwas  a  plausible 
casui  belli.     He  marched  against  Najran  with  an  overwhelming 

force,  entered  the  city,  and  bade  the  inhabitants 

Massacre  of  the        ,  ,  t     i    •  i        i         i  n  /r 

Christians  in     choose    bctwccn    Judaism    and    death.       Many 

Najran(523  A.D.).  •  u    j  t_        l  j         i  i 

perished  by  the  sword  ;  the  rest  were  thrown  into 
a  trench  which  the  king  ordered  to  be  dug  and  filled  with 

'  Aghdni,  XX,  8,  1.  14  seq. 


DHjy  NUWAS  27 

blazing  fire.  Nearly  a  hundred  years  later,  when  Muhammad 
was  being  sorely  persecuted,  he  consoled  and  encouraged  his 
followers  by  the  example  of  the  Christians  of  Najran,  who 
suffered  ^'^  for  no  other  reason  but  that  they  believed  in  the  mighty^ 
the  glorious  God."  ^  Dhu  Nuwas  paid  dearly  for  his  triumph. 
Daws  Dhu  Tha'laban,  one  of  those  who  escaped  from  the 
massacre,  fled  to  the  Byzantine  emperor  and  implored  him,  as 
the  head  of  Christendom,  to  assist  them  in  obtaining  vengeance. 
Justinus  accordingly  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Najashii,  desiring  him 
to  take  action,  and  ere  long  an  Abyssinian  army,  70,000 
strong,  under  the  command  of  Aryat,  disembarked  in  Yemen. 
Dhu  Nuwas  could  not  count  on  the  loyalty  of  the  Himyarite 

nobles  ;  his  troops  melted  away.     "  When  he  saw 
DhifNuwas.     the  fate  that  had  befallen  himself  and  his  people, 

he  turned  to  the  sea  and  setting  spurs  to  his  horse, 
rode  through  the  shallows  until  he  reached  the  deep  water. 
Then  he  plunged  into  the  waves  and  nothing  more  of  him 
was  seen."  2 

Thus  died,  or  thus  at  any  rate  should  have  died,  the  last 
representative  of  the  long  line  of  Himyarite  kings.  Hence- 
forth Yemen  appears  in  Pre-islamic  history  only  as  an  Abys- 
sinian dependency  or  as  a  Persian  protectorate.  The  events 
now  to  be  related  form  the  prologue  to  a  new  drama  in  which 
South  Arabia,  so  far  from  being  the  centre  of  interest,  plays  an 
almost  insignificant  role. 3 

On   the  death   of   Dhu   Nuwas,    the    Abyssinian   general  Aryat 

continued  his  march  through  Yemen.     He  slaughtered  a  third  part 

of  the  males,  laid  waste  a  third  part  of  the  land,  and 

AbySan^rtue.    ^ent^  a  third  part  of  the  women  and  children  to  the 

Najashi  as  slaves.     Having  reduced  the  Yemenites  to 

submission  and  re-established  order,  he  held  the  position  of  viceroy 


'  Koran,  Ixxxv,  4  sqq.  '  Tabari,  i,  927,  1.  19  sqq. 

3  The  following  narrative  is  abridged  from  Tabari,  i,  928,  1.  2  sqq. 
=  Noldeke,  Geschichte  der  Pcrser  and  Araber  zur  Zeit  der  Sasanidcn, 
p.  192  sqq. 


28  SABA   AND  HIMYAR 

for  several  years.  Then  mutiny  broke  out  in  the  Abyssinian  army 
of  occupation,  and  his  authority  was  disputed  by  an  officer,  named 
Abraha.  When  the  rivals  faced  each  other,  Abraha  said  to  Aryat : 
"  What  will  it  avail  you  to  engage  the  Abyssinians  in  a  civil  war  that 
will  leave  none  of  them  alive  ?  Fight  it  out  with  me,  and  let  the 
troops  follow  the  victor."  His  challenge  being  accepted,  Abraha 
stepped   forth.      He  was  a  short,  fleshy   man,  compactly   built,   a 

devout  Christian,  while  Aryat  was  big,  tall,  and  hand- 
^'^Arydf"'^      some.     When  the  duel  began,  Aryat  thrust  his  spear 

with  the  intention  of  piercing  Abraha's  brain,  but  it 
glanced  off  his  forehead,  slitting  his  eyelid,  nose,  and  lip — hence  the 
name,  al-Ashram,  by  which  Abraha  was  afterwards  known  ;  and  ere 
he  could  repeat  the  blow,  a  youth  in  Abraha's  service,  called 
'Atwada,  who  was  seated  on  a  hillock  behind  his  master,  sprang 
forward  and  dealt  him  a  mortal  wound.  Thus  Abraha  found 
himself  commander-in-chief  of  the  Abyssinian  army,  but  the  Najashi 
was  enraged  and  swore  not  to  rest  until  he  set  foot  on  the  soil  of 
Yemen  and  cut  off  the  rebel's  forelock.  On  hearing  this,  Abraha 
wrote  to  the  Najashi :  "O  King,  Aryat  was  thy  servant  even  as  I  am. 
We  quarrelled  over  thy  command,  both  of  us  owing  allegiance  to 
thee,  but  I  had  more  strength  than  he  to  command  the  Abyssinians 
and  keep  discipline  and  exert  authority.  When  I  heard  of  the 
king's  oath,  I  shore  my  head,  and  now  I  send  him  a  sack  of  the 
earth  of  Yemen  that  he  may  put  it  under  his  feet  and  fulfil  his  oath." 
The  Najashi  answered  this  act  of  submission  by  appointing  Abraha 

to  be  his  viceroy.  .  .  .  Then  Abraha  built  the  church 
Abraha^ceroy   {^al-Qalis)  at  San'd,  the  like  of  which  was  not  to  be  seen 

at  that  time  in  the  whole  world,  and  wrote  to  the 
Najashi  that  he  would  not  be  content  until  he  had  diverted  thither 
every  pilgrim  in  Arabia.  This  letter  made  much  talk,  and  a  man  of 
the  Banu  Fuqaym,  one  of  those  who  arranged  the  calendar,  was 
angered  by  what  he  learned  of  Abraha's  purpose  ;  so  he  went  into 
the  church  and  defiled  it.  When  Abraha  heard  that  the  author  of 
the  outrage  belonged  to  the  people  of  the  Temple  in  Mecca,  and 
that  he  meant  to  show  thereby  his  scorn  and  contempt  for  the  new 
foundation,  he  waxed  wroth  and  swore  that  he  would  march  against 
the  Temple  and  lay  it  in  ruins. 

The  disastrous  failure  of  this  expedition,  which  took  place 
in  the  year  of  the  Elephant  (570  a.d.),  did  not  at  once  free 
Yemen  from  the  Abyssinian  yoke.  The  sons  of  Abraha, 
Yaqsum  and  Masruq,  bore  heavily  on  the  Arabs.     Seeing  no 


THE  ABYSSINIANS  IN   YEMEN  29 

help  among  his  own  people,  a  noble  Himyarite  named  Sayf  b. 
Dhl   Yazan  resolved  to  seek  foreign  intervention.     His  choice 

lay  between  the  Byzantine  and  Persian  empires, 
^^vL^ai?'''      and  he    first    betook    himself  to  Constantinople. 

Disappointed  there,  he  induced  the  Arab  king  of 
Hfra,  who  was  under  Persian  suzerainty,  to  present  him  at  the 
court  of  Madd'in  (Ctesiphon).  How  he  won  audience  of  the 
Sdsanian  monarch,  Nushirwan,  surnamed  the  Just,  and  tempted 
him  by  an  ingenious  trick  to  raise  a  force  of  eight  hundred 
condemned  felons,  who  were  set  free  and  shipped  to  Yemen 
under  the  command  of  an  aged  general  ;  how  they  literally 
*burned  their  boats 'and,  drawing  courage  from  despair,  routed 

the  Abyssinian  host  and  made   Yemen   a  satrapy 

The  Persians  in       ^  r*        .  i  •      r  i 

Yemen  ot  Pcrsia  ^ — this  lorms  an  almost  epic  narrative, 
which  I  have  omitted  here  (apart  from  considera- 
tions of  space)  because  it  belongs  to  Persian  rather  than  to 
Arabian  literary  history,  being  probably  based,  as  Noldeke  has 
suggested,  on  traditions  handed  down  by  the  Persian  con- 
querors who  settled  in  Yemen  to  their  aristocratic  descendants 
whom  the  Arabs  called  al-Abna  (the  Sons)  or  Banu  U-Jhrar 
(Sons  of  the  Noble). 

Leaving  the  once  mighty  kingdom  of  Yemen  thus  pitiably 
and  for  ever  fallen  from  its  high  estate,  we  turn  northward 
into  the  main  stream  of  Arabian  history. 

'  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. 


--^ 


CHAPTER   II 

THE    HISTORY    AND    LEGENDS    OF    THE    PAGAN    ARABS 

MuHAMMADANs  iiiclude  the  whole  period  of  Arabian  history 

from  the  earhest  times  down  to  the  establishment  of  Islam 

in  the    term    al-Jdhiliyya.  which    was    used    by 

The  Ace  of         ,  ^    ,  ,    •       r  r     i        t^  j   • 

Barbarism      Muhammad  m  four  passages  of  the  Koran  and  is 

(al-Jahiiiyya).  *  i         j    i    u  r    •  » 

generally  translated  'the  state  of  ignorance  or 
simply  '  the  Ignorance.'  Goldziher,  however,  has  shown  con- 
clusively that  the  meaning  attached  to  yc/;/ (whence  'Jahiliyya 
is  derived)  by  the  Pre-islamic  poets  is  not  so  much  '  ignorance ' 
as  '  wildness,'  'savagery,'  and  that  its  true  antithesis  is  not 
^ilm  (knowledge),  but  rather  hilm^  which  denotes  the  moral 
reasonableness  of  a  civilised  man.  "  When  Muhammadans  say 
that  Islam  put  an  end  to  the  manners  and  customs  of  the 
Jahiliyya^  they  have  in  view  those  barbarous  practices,  that 
/  I  savage  temper,  by  which  Arabian  heathendom  is  distinguished 
^-  from  Islam  and  by  the  abolition  of  which  Muhammad  sought 
to  work  a  moral  reformation  in  his  countrymen  :  the  haughty 
spirit  of  the  Jahiliyya  [hamiyyatu  '/-Jahiliyya),  the  tribal  pride 
and  the  endless  tribal  feuds,  the  cult  of  revenge,  the  implaca- 
bility and  all  the  other  pagan  characteristics  which  Islam  was 
destined  to  overcome."  ^ 

Our  sources  of  information  regarding  this  period  may  be 
classified  as  follows  : — 

(i)  Poe?ns  and  fragments  of  verse^  which  though  not  written 

'  Goldziher,  Muhammcdanischc  Studiai,  Part  I,  p.  225. 

30 


SOURCES   OF  INFORMATION  31 

down  at  the  time  were  preserved  by  oral  tradition  and  com- 
mitted to  writing,  for  the  most  part,  two  or  three  hundred 

years  afterwards.  The  importance  of  this,  virtu- 
information  ^^^y  ^^^  5°^^  contemporary  record  of  Pre-islamic 
'^°jamiij"yi!'^^    history,  is  recognised  in  the  w^ell-known  saying, 

"  Poetry  is  the  public  register  of  the  Arabs  [al- 
shi^ru  dlwdnu  U-^Arab)  ;  thereby  genealogies  are  kept  in  mind 
and  famous  actions  are  made  familiar."  Some  account  of  the 
chief  collections  of  old  Arabian  poetry  will  be  given  in  the 
next  chapter. 

(2)  Proverbs.  These  are  of  less  value,  as  they  seldom 
explain  themselves,  while  the  commentary  attached  to  them  is 
the  work  of  scholars  bent  on  explaining  them  at  all  costs, 
though  in  many  cases  their  true  meaning  could  only  be  con- 
jectured and  the  circumstances  of  their  origin  had  been  entirely 
forgotten.  Notwithstanding  this  very  pardonable  excess  of 
zeal,  we  could  ill  afford  to  lose  the  celebrated  collections 
of  Mufaddal  al-Dabbi  (f  about  786  a.d.)  and  Maydani 
(f  1 1 24  A.D.),i  which  contain  so  much  curious  information 
throwing  light  on  every  aspect  of  Pre-islamic  life. 

(3)  Traditions  and  legends.  Since  the  art  of  writing  was 
neither  understood  nor  practised  by  the  heathen  Arabs  in 
general,  it  was  impossible  that  Prose,  as  a  literary  form,  should 
exist  among  them.  The  germs  of  Arabic  Prose,  however,  may 
be  traced  back  to  the  ydhiliyya.  Besides  the  proverb  [mathal)  and 
the  oration  [kjiutba)  we  find  elements  of  history  and  romance 
in  the  prose  narratives  used  by  the  rhapsodists  to  introduce  and 
set  forth  plainly  the  matter  of  their  songs,  and  in  the  legends 
which  recounted  the  glorious  deeds  of  tribes  and  individuals. 
A  vast  number  of  such  stories — some  unmistakably  genuine, 
others  bearing  the  stamp  of  fiction — are  preserved  in  various 
literary,  historical,  and  geographical  works  composed  under  the 
'Abbasid  Caliphate,  especially  in  the  Kitdbu  U-Aghdni  (Book 

'  Maydani's  collection  has  been  edited,  with  a  Latin  translation  by 
Freytag,  in  tliree  volumes  {Arahum  Proverbia,  Bonn,  1838-1843). 


32  THE  LEGENDS  OF  THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

of  Songs)  by  Abu  '1-Faraj  of  Isfahan  (f  967  a.d.),  an  invaluable 
compilation  based  on  the  researches  of  the  great  Humanists 
as  they  have  been  well  named  by  Sir  Charles  Lyall,  of  the 
second  and    third  centuries  after  the    Hijra.i     The   original 

writings  of  these  early  critics  and  scholars  have 
'^^\ont°^     perished  almost  without  exception,  and  beyond  the 

copious  citations  in  the  Aghinl  we  possess  hardly 
any  specimens  of  their  work.  " The  Book  of  Songs"  says  Ibn 
Khaldun,  "  is  the  Register  of  the  Arabs.  It  comprises  all  that 
they  had  achieved  in  the  past  of  excellence  in  every  kind  of 
poetry,  history,  music,  et  cetera.  So  far  as  I  am  aware,  no  other 
book  can  be  put  on  a  level  with  it  in  this  respect.  It  is  the 
final  resource  of  the  student  of  belles-lettres,  and  leaves  him 
nothing  further  to  desire."  2 

In  the  following  pages  I  shall  not  attempt  to  set  in  due 
order  and  connection  the  confused  mass  of  poetry  and  legend 

in  which  all  that  we  know  of  Pre-islamic  Arabia 
thfs^chapter      ^^^^  deeply  embedded.     This  task  has  already  been 

performed  with  admirable  skill  by  Caussin  de 
Perceval  in  his  Essai  sur  Phistoire  des  Arabes  avant  Plslamisme^S 
and  it  could  serve  no  useful  purpose  to  inflict  a  dry  summary 
of  that  famous  work  upon  the  reader.  The  better  course,  I 
think,  will  be  to  select  a  few  typical  and  outstanding  features 
of  the  time  and  to  present  them,  wherever  possible,  as  they 
have  been  drawn — largely  from  imagination — by  the  Arabs 
themselves.  If  the  Arabian  traditions  are  wanting  in  historical 
accuracy  they  are  nevertheless,  taken  as  a  whole,  true  in  spirit 
to  the  Dark  Age  which  they  call  up  from  the  dead  and 
reverently  unfold  beneath  our  eyes. 

•  The  Kitdbn  'l-Agluini  has  been  published  at  Bulaq  (1284-1285  a.h.)  in 
twenty  volumes.  A  volume  of  biographies  not  contained  in  the  Bulaq 
text  was  edited  by  R.  E.  Briinnow  (Leiden,  1888). 

'  Muqaddima  of  Ibn  Khaldun  (Beyrout,  1900),  p.  554,  11.  8-10  ;  Les  Pro- 
legomencs  d'  Ibn  Khaldoun  tradiuts  par  M.  dc  Slanc  (Paris,  1863-68) 
vol.  iii,  p.  331- 

3  Published  at  Paris,  1847-1S48,  in  three  volumes. 


ARAB  KINGDOMS  33 

About  the  middle  of  the  third  century  of  our  era  Arabia 
was  enclosed  on  the  north  and  north-east  by  the  rival  empires 
of  Rome  and  Persia,  to  which  the  Syrian  desert,  stretching 
right  across  the  peninsula,  formed  a  natural  termination.  In 
order  to  protect  themselves  from  Bedouin  raiders,  who  poured 
over  the  frontier-provinces,  and  after  laying  hands  on  all  the 
booty  within  reach  vanished  as  suddenly  as  they  came,  both 
Powers  found  it  necessary  to  plant  a  line  of  garrisons  along 
the  edge  of  the  wilderness.  Thus  the  tribesmen  were  partially 
held  in  check,  but  as  force  alone  seemed  an  expensive  and 
inefficient  remedy  it  was  decided,  in  accordance  with  the  well- 
proved  maxim,  divide  et  impera^  to  enlist  a  number  of  the 
offending  tribes  in  the  Imperial  service.  Regular  pay  and  the 
prospect  of  unlimited  plunder — for  in  those  days  Rome  and 
Persia  were  almost  perpetually  at  war — were  inducements  that 
no  true  Bedouin  could  resist.    They  fought,  how- 

TheArab  "'  ,-    r 

dynasties  of  Hira  cvcr,    as    tree   aiiics    uuder    their    own    chiers    or 

and  Ghassan.         ,      ,         ,  t  i  •  a       i  •  i 

phylarchs.  in  this  way  two  Arabian  dynasties 
sprang  up — the  Ghassanids  in  Syria  and  the  Lakhmites  at 
Hira,  west  of  the  Euphrates — military  buffer-states,  always 
ready  to  collide  even  when  they  were  not  urged  on  by  the 
suzerain  powers  behind  them.  The  Arabs  soon  showed  what 
they  were  capable  of  when  trained  and  disciplined  in  arms. 
On  the  defeat  of  Valerian  by  the  Chosroes  Sabiir  I,  an  Arab 
chieftain  in  Palmyra,  named  Udhayna  (Odenathus),  marched 
at  the  head  of  a  strong  force  against  the  conqueror,  drove  him 
out  of  Syria,  and  pursued  him  up  to  the  very  walls  of  Mada'in, 
the  Persian  capital  (265  a.d.).  His  brilliant  exploits  were 
duly  rewarded  by  the  Emperor  Gallienus,  who  bestowed  on 

him  the  title  of  Augustus.  He  was,  in  fact,  the 
°'^z"enoWa!"^''    acknowledged  master  of  the  Roman  legions  in  the 

East  when,  a  year  later,  he  was  treacherously 
murdered.  He  found  a  worthy  successor  in  his  wife,  the 
noble  and  ambitious  Zenobia,  who  set  herself  the  task  of 
building  up  a  great  Oriental  Empire.     She  fared,  however,  no 

4 


34  THE  LEGENDS   OF   THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

better  than  did  Cleopatra  in  a  like  enterprise.  For  a  moment 
the  issue  was  doubtful,  but  Aurelian  triumphed  and  the  proud 
*  Queen  of  the  East '  was  led  a  captive  before  his  chariot 
through  the  streets  of  Rome  (274  a.d.). 

These  events  were  not  forgotten  by  the  Arabs.  It  flattered 
their  national  pride  to  recall  that  once,  at  any  rate,  Roman 
armies  had  marched  under  the  flag  of  an  Arabian  princess 
But  the  legend,  as  told  in  their  traditions,  has  little  in  common 
with  reality.  Not  only  are  names  and  places  freely  altered — 
Zenobia  herself  being  confused  with  her  Syrian  general,  Zabdai 
— but  the  historical  setting,  though  dimly  visible  in  the  back- 
ground, has  been  distorted  almost  beyond  recognition  :  what 
remains  is  one  of  those  romantic  adventures  which  delighted 
the  Arabs  of  the  yahiliyya,  just  as  their  modern  descendants 
are  never  tired  of  listening  to  the  Story  of  '■Antar  or  to  the 
Thousand  Nights  and  a  Night. 

The  first  king  of  the  Arab  settlers    in   'Iraq   (Babylonia)  i 

is  said  to  have  been  Malik  the  Azdite,  who  was  accidentally 

shot  with  an  arrow  by  his  son,  Sulayma.     Before 

Malik  the  Azdite.    ,  .       ,    ,  ,  ,  •    ,      ,  i 

he  expired  he  uttered  a  verse  which  has  become 
proverbial : — 

U'allimiiliu  'l-rimdyata  kulla  yawim" 
falamma  'shtadda  sd'iduhn  ramdni. 

"  I  taught  him  every  day  the  bowman's  art, 
And  when  his  arm  grew  strong,  he  pierced  my 
heart." 

Malik's  kingdom,  if  it  can  properly  be  described  as  such,  was 
consolidated    and    organised    by  his    son,   Jadhima,   surnamed 

al-Abrash  (the  Speckled) — a  polite  euphemism  for 
J^Abrash.       al-Abras  (the  Leprous).     He  reigned  as  the  vassal 

of  Ardashir  Babakan,  the  founder  (226  a.d.)  of 
the  Sasanian  dynasty  in  Persia,  which  thereafter  continued  to 
dominate   the   Arabs   of  'Iraq    during    the  whole   Pre-islamic 

'  These  are  the  same  Bedouin  Arabs  of  Taniikh  who  afterwards  formed 
part  of  the  population  of  Hira.    See  p.  38  infra. 


JADHfMA    AL-ABRASH  35 

period.  Jadhima  is  the  hero  of  many  fables  and  proverbs. 
His  pride,  it  is  said,  was  so  overweening  that  he  would  suffer 
no  boon-companions  except  two  stars  called  al-Farqadan^  and 
when  he  drank  wine  he  used  to  pour  out  a  cup  for  each  of 
them.  He  had  a  page,  'Adi  b.  Nasr,  with  whom  his  sister  fell 
in  love ;  and  in  a  moment  of  intoxication  he  gave  his  consent 
to  their  marriage.  Next  morning,  furious  at  the  trick  which 
had  been  played  upon  him,  he  beheaded  the  unlucky  bride- 
groom and  reviled  his  sister  for  having  married  a  slave. 
Nevertheless,  when  a  son  was  born,  Jadhima  adopted  the  boy, 
and  as  he  grew  up  regarded  him  with  the  utmost  affection. 
One  day  the  youthful  *Amr  suddenly  disappeared.  For  a  long 
time  no  trace  of  him  could  be  found,  but  at  last  he  was  dis- 
covered, running  wild  and  naked,  by  two  brothers,  Malik  and 
*Aqil,  who  cared  for  him  and  clothed  him  and  presented  him 
to  the  king.  Overjoyed  at  the  sight,  Jadhima  promised  to 
grant  them  whatever  they  asked.  They  chose  the  honour, 
which  no  mortal  had  hitherto  obtained,  of  being  his  boon- 
companions,  and  by  this  title  [nadmana  Jadhima)  they  are 
known  to  fame. 

Jadhima  was  a  wise  and  warlike   prince.     In   one  of   his 
expeditions  he  defeated  and  slew  'Amr  b.  Zarib  b.  Hassan  b. 
Udhayna,  an  Arab  chieftain  who  had  brought  part  of  Eastern 
Syria  and  Mesopotamia  under  his  sway,  and  who,  as  the  name 
Udhayna  indicates,  is  probably  identical  with  Odenathus,  the 
husband  of  Zenobia.     This  opinion  is  confirmed  by  the  state- 
ment   of  Ibn    Qutayba   that    "Jadhima  sought    in    marriage 
Zabba,  the  daughter  of  the  King  of  Mesopotamia, 
'""'^labb?  °^     vf^o  became  queen  after  her  husband^  ^     Accord- 
ing to  the  view  generally  held  by  Muhammadan 
authors  Zabba  2  was  the  daughter  of  'Amr  b.  Zarib  and  was 

'  Ibn  Qutayba  in  Briinnow's  Chrestomathy,  p.  29. 

^  Properly  «/-Za66tf,  an  epithet  meaning 'hairy.'  According  to  Tabari 
(i,  757)  her  name  was  Na'ila.  It  is  odd  that  in  the  Arabic  version  of  the 
story  the  name  Zenobia  (Zaynab)  should  be  borne  by  the  heroine's  sister. 


36     THE  LEGENDS   OF   THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

elected  to  succeed  him  when  he  fell  in  battle.  However  this 
may  be,  she  proved  herself  a  woman  of  extraordinary  courage 
and  resolution.  As  a  safeguard  against  attack  she  built  two 
strong  castles  on  either  bank  of  the  Euphrates  and  connected 
them  by  a  subterranean  tunnel ;  she  made  one  fortress  her 
own  residence,  while  her  sister,  Zaynab,  occupied  the  other. 

Having  thus  secured  her  position  she  determined  to  take 
vengeance  on  Jadhima.  She  wrote  to  him  that  the  sceptre  was 
slipping  from  her  feeble  grasp,  that  she  found  no  man  worthy  of 
her  except  himself,  that  she  desired  to  unite  her  kingdom  with  his 
by  marriage,  and  begged  him  to  come  and  see  her.  Jadhima  needed 
no  urging.  Deaf  to  the  warnings  of  his  friend  and  counsellor, 
Qasir,  he  started  from  Baqqa,  a  castle  on  the  Euphrates.  When 
they  had  travelled  some  distance,  Qasir  implored  him  to  return. 
"No,"  said  Jadhima,  "the  affair  was  decided  at  Baqqa" — words 
which  passed  into  a  proverb.  On  approaching  their  destination  the 
king  saw  with  alarm  squadrons  of  cavalry  between  him  and  the  city, 
and  said  to  Qasir,  "What  is  the  prudent  course?"  "You  left 
prudence  at  Baqqa,"  he  replied  ;  "  if  the  cavalry  advance  and  salute 
you  as  king  and  then  retire  in  front  of  you,  the  woman  is  sincere, 
but  if  they  cover  your  flanks  and  encompass  you,  they  mean 
treachery.  Mount  al-'Asa" — Jadhima's  favourite  mare — "for  she 
cannot  be  overtaken  or  outpaced,  and  rejoin  your  troops  while 
there  is  yet  time."  Jadhima  refused  to  follow  this  advice.  Presently 
he  was  surrounded  by  the  cavalry  and  captured.  Qasir,  however, 
sprang  on  the  mare's  back  and  galloped  thirty  miles  without  drawing 
rein. 

When  Jadhima  was  brought  to  Zabba  she  seated  him  on  a  skin  of 
leather  and  ordered  her  maidens  to  open  the  veins  in  his  arm,  so 
that  his  blood  should  flow  into  a  golden  bowl.  "O  Jadhima,"  said 
she,  "  let  not  a  single  drop  be  lost.  I  want  it  as  a  cure  for  madness." 
The  dying  man  suddenly  moved  his  arm  and  sprinkled  with  his 
blood  one  of  the  marble  pillars  of  the  hall — an  evil  portent  for 
Zabba,  inasmuch  as  it  had  been  prophesied  by  a  certain  soothsayer 
that  unless  every  drop  of  the  king's  blood  entered  the  bowl,  his 
murder  would  be  avenged. 

Now  Qasir  cameto'Amr  b.  'Adi,  Jadhima's  nephew  and  son  by  adop- 
tion, who  has  been  mentioned  above,  and  engaged  to  win  over  the 
army  to  his  side  if  he  would  take  vengeance  on  Zabba.  "  But  how  ? " 
cried  'Amr ;  "  for  she  is  more  inaccessible  than  the  eagle  of  the  air." 
"Only  help  me,"  said  Qasir,  "and  you  will  be  clear  of  blame."     He 


THE  STORY  OF  ZABBA  37 

cut  off  his  nose  and  ears  and  betook  himself  to  Zabba,  pretending 
that  he  had  been  mutilated  by  'Amr.  The  queen  believed  what  she 
saw,  welcomed  him,  and  gave  him  money  to  trade  on  her  behalf. 
Qasir  hastened  to  the  palace  of  'Amr  at  Hira,  and,  having  obtained 
permission  to  ransack  the  royal  treasury,  he  returned  laden  with 
riches.  Thus  he  gradually  crept  into  the  confidence  of  Zabba,  until 
one  day  he  said  to  her  :  "  It  behoves  every  king  and  queen  to  pro- 
vide themselves  with  a  secret  passage  wherein  to  take  refuge  in 
case  of  danger."  Zabba  answered  :  "  I  have  already  done  so,"  and 
showed  him  the  tunnel  which  she  had  constructed  underneath  the 
Euphrates.  His  project  was  now  ripe  for  execution.  With  the 
help  of  'Amr  he  fitted  out  a  caravan  of  a  thousand  camels,  each 
carrying  two  armed  men  concealed  in  sacks.  When  they  drew  near 
the  city  of  Zabba,  Qasir  left  them  and  rode  forward  to  announce 
their  arrival  to  the  queen,  who  from  the  walls  of  her  capital  viewed 
the  long  train  of  heavily  burdened  camels  and  marvelled  at  the  slow 
pace  with  which  they  advanced.  As  the  last  camel  passed  through 
the  gates  of  the  city  the  janitor  pricked  one  of  the  sacks  with  an 
ox-goad  which  he  had  with  him,  and  hearing  a  cry  of  pain,  exclaimed, 
"  By  God,  there's  mischief  in  the  sacks  ! "  But  it  was  too  late. 
'Amr  and  his  men  threw  themselves  upon  the  garrison  and  put  them 
to  the  sword.  Zabba  sought  to  escape  by  the  tunnel,  but  Qasir  stood 
barring  the  exit  on  the  further  side  of  the  stream.  She  hurried  back, 
and  there  was  'Amr  facing  her.  Resolved  that  her  enemy  should 
not  taste  the  sweetness  of  vengeance,  she  sucked  her  seal-ring, 
which  contained  a  deadly  poison,  crying,  "  By  my  own  hand,  not 
by 'Amr's!"' 

In  the  kingdoms  of  Hira  and  Ghassan  Pre-islamic  culture 
attained  its  highest  development,  and  from  these  centres  it 
diffused  itself  and  made  its  influence  felt  throughout  Arabia. 
Some  account,  therefore,  of  their  history  and  of  the  circum- 
stances vs^hich  enabled  them  to  assume  a  civilising  role  will 
not  be  superfluous.2 

'  The  above  narrative  is  abridged  from  Aghdnt,  xiv,  73,  1.  20-75,  1.  25. 
Cf.  Tabari,  i,  757-766  ;  Mas'udi,  Muniju  'l-Dhahab  (ed.  by  Barbier  de 
Meynard),  vol.  iii,  pp.  189-199. 

*  Concerning  Hira  and  its  history  the  reader  may  consult  an  admirable 
monograph  by  Dr.  G.  Rothstein,  Die  Dynastie  der  Lahmiden  in  al-Hira 
(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 


38  THE  LEGENDS   OF  THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

About  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  after  Christ  a 
number  of  Bedouin  tribes,  wholly  or  partly  of  Yemenite  origin, 
who  had  formed  a  confederacy  and  called  them- 
^'''if°Hta"°°  selves  collectively  Taniikh,  took  advantage  of  the 
disorder  then  prevailing  in  the  Arsacid  Empire  to 
invade  'Iraq  (Babylonia)  and  plant  their  settlements  in  the 
fertile  country  west  of  the  Euphrates.  While  part  of  the 
intruders  continued  to  lead  a  nomad  life,  others  engaged  in 
agriculture,  and  in  course  of  time  villages  and  towns  grew  up. 
The  most  important  of  these  was  Hira  (properly,  al-Hira, 
i.e.^  the  Camp),  which  occupied  a  favourable  and  healthy 
situation  a  few  miles  to  the  south  of  Kufa,  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  ancient  Babylon. ^  According  to  Hisham  b. 
Muhammad  al-Kalbi  (fSig  or  821  a.d.),  an  excellent 
authority  for  the  history  of  the  Pre-islamic  period,  the 
inhabitants  of  Hira  during  the  reign  of  Ardashir  Babakdn, 
the  first  Sasanian  king  of  Persia  (226-241  a.d.),  consisted  of 
three  classes,  viz.  : — 

( 1 )  The  Taniikh^  who  dwelt  west  of  the  Euphrates  between 
Hira  and  Anbar  in  tents  of  camel's  hair. 

(2)  The  ^Ibddy  who  lived  in  houses  in  Hira. 

(3)  The  Ahlaf  (Clients),  who  did  not  belong  to  either  of 
the  above-mentioned  classes,  but  attached  themselves  to  the 
people  of  Hira  and  lived  among  them — blood-guilty  fugitives 

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.  Muhammadan  general  histories 
usually  contain  sections,  more  or  less  mythical  in  character,  "On  the 
Kings  of  Hira  and  Ghassan."  Attention  may  be  called  in  particular  to  the 
account  derived  from  Hisham  b.  Muhammad  al-Kalbi,  which  is  preserved 
by  Tabari  and  has  been  tranolated  with  a  masterly  commentary  by 
Noldeke  in  his  Geschichtc  dcr  Pcrser  unci  Arabcr  zur  Zeil  dcr  Sasaniden, 
Hisham  had  access  to  the  archives  kept  in  the  churches  of  Hira,  and 
claims  to  have  extracted  therefrom  many  genealogical  and  chronological 
details  relating  to  the  Lakhmite  dynasty  (Tabari,  i,  770,  7). 

*  Hira  is  the  Syriac  hertd  (sacred  enclosure,  monastery),  which  name 
was  apphed  to  the  originally  mobile  camp  of  the  Persian  Arabs  and 
retained  as  the  designation  of  the  garrison  town. 


HIRA   AND   ITS  INHABITANTS  39 

pursued  by  the  vengeance  of  their  own  kin,  or  needy  emigrants 
seeking  to  mend  their  fortunes. 

Naturally  the  townsmen   proper  formed   by  far  the   most 

influential  element  in  the  population.      Hisham,  as  we  have 

seen,   calls   them    '  the    'Ibad.'     His   use    of  this 

The  'Ibid.  ,  .  .      ,  t-., 

term,  however,  is  not  strictly  accurate.  i  ne 
'Ibad  are  exclusively  the  Christian  Arabs  of  Hira^  and  are 
so  called  in  virtue  of  their  Christianity  ;  the  pagan  Arabs, 
who  at  the  time  when  Hira  was  founded  and  for  long 
afterwards  constituted  the  bulk  of  the  citizens,  were  never 
comprised  in  a  designation  which  expresses  the  very  opposite 
of  paganism.  ^Ibdd  means  '  servants,'  i.e.^  those  who  serve 
God  or  Christ.  It  cannot  be  determined  at  what  epoch  the 
name  was  first  used  to  distinguish  the  religious  community, 
composed  of  members  of  different  tribes,  which  was  dominant 
in  Hira  during  the  sixth  century.  Dates  are  compara- 
tively of  little  importance  ;  what  is  really  remarkable  is  the 
existence  in  Pre-islamic  times  of  an  Arabian  community 
that  was  not  based  on  blood-relationship  or  descent  from  a 
common  ancestor,  but  on  a  spiritual  principle,  namely,  the 
profession  of  a  common  faith.  The  religion  and  culture  of 
the  'Ibad  were  conveyed  by  various  channels  to  the  inmost 
recesses  of  the  peninsula,  as  will  be  shown  more  fully  in  a 
subsequent  chapter.  They  were  the  schoolmasters  of  the 
heathen  Arabs,  who  could  seldom  read  or  write,  and  who,  it 
must  be  owned,  so  far  from  desiring  to  receive  instruction, 
rather  gloried  in  their  ignorance  of  accomplishments  which 
they  regarded  as  servile.  Nevertheless,  the  best  minds  among 
the  Bedouins  were  irresistibly  attracted  to  Hira.  Poets  in 
those  days  found  favour  with  princes.  A  great  number  of 
Pre-islamic  bards  visited  the  Lakhmite  court,  while  some, 
like  Nabigha  and  'Abld  b,  al-Abras,  made  it  their  permanent 
residence. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  the  vexed  question  as  to  the 
origin  and  rise  of  the  Lakhmite  dynasty  at  Hira.     According 


<- 


40     THE  LEGENDS   OF  THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

to  Hisham  b.  Muhammad  al-Kalbi,  who  gives  a  list  of  twenty- 
kings,  covering  a  period  of  522  years  and  eight  months,  the 
first  Lakhmite   ruler  was  'Amr  b.  'Adi  b.  Nasr 

The  Lakhmites.    ,      -r.    ,  ,,      ,       t     ,  ,  i  i  i  j 

b.  Rabi'a  b.  Lakhm,  the  same  who  was  adopted 
by  Jadhima,  and  afterwards  avenged  his  death  on  Queen 
Zabba.  Almost  nothing  is  known  of  his  successors  until  we 
come    to    Nu'man    I,   surnamed    al-A'war    (the     One-eyed), 

whose  reign  falls  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  fifth 
(aVca'^o^oV.D.).   century.     Nu'man  is  renowned  in  legend  as  the 

builder  of  Khawarnaq,  a  famous  castle  near  Hira. 
It  was  built  at  the  instance  of  the  Sasanian  king,  Yazdigird  I, 
who  desired  a  salubrious  residence  for  his  son,  Prince  Bahram 
Gor.  On  its  completion,  Nu'man  ordered  the  architect,  a 
'  Roman '  (i.^.,  Byzantine  subject)  named  Sinimmar,  to  be 
cast  headlong  from  the  battlements,  either  on  account  of  his 

boast  that  he  could  have  constructed  a  yet  more 
^Khaw^arnaq.^     wonderful   edifice     "which    should     turn    round 

with  the  sun,"  or  for  fear  that  he  might  reveal 
the  position  of  a  certain  stone,  the  removal  of  which  would 
cause  the  whole  building  to  collapse.  One  spring  day  (so  the 
story  is  told)  Nu'man  sat  with  his  Vizier  in  Khawarnaq,  which 
overlooked  the  Fen-land  (al-Najar),  with  its  neighbouring 
gardens  and  plantations  of  palm-trees  and  canals,  to  the  west, 
and  the  Euphrates  to  the  east.  Charmed  by  the  beauty  of  the 
prospect,   he  exclaimed,    "  Hast    thou    ever   seen    the  like  of 

this  ?  "  "  No,"  replied  the  Vizier,  "  if  it  would 
beconTe^san  but  last."  "And  what  is  lasting?"  asked 
Nu'mdn.  "  That  which  is  with  God  in  heaven." 
"  How  can  one  attain  to  it  ?  "  "By  renouncing  the  world 
and  serving  God,  and  striving  after  that  which  He  hath." 
Nu'mdn,  it  is  said,  immediately  resolved  to  abandon  his 
kingdom  ;  on  the  same  night  he  clad  himself  in  sack-cloth, 
stole  away  unperceived,  and  became  a  wandering  devotee 
(jfl'i^).  This  legend  seems  to  have  grown  out  of  the 
following  verses  by  'Adf  b.  Zayd,  the  'Ibddite  : — 


THE   LAKHMITE  DYNASTY  41 

"  Consider  thou  Khawarnaq's  lord — and  oft 
Of  heavenly  guidance  cometh  vision  clear — 
Who  once,  rejoicing  in  his  ample  realm, 
Surveyed  the  broad  Euphrates,  and  Sadir  ; ' 
Then  sudden  terror  struck  his  heart :  he  cried, 
'  Shall  Man,  who  deathward  goes,  find  pleasure  here  ? ' 
They  reigned,  they  prospered  ;  yet,  their  glory  past, 
In  yonder  tombs  they  lie  this  many  a  year. 
At  last  they  were  like  unto  withered  leaves 
Whirled  by  the  winds  away  in  wild  career. "' 

The  opinion  of  most  Arabian  authors,  that  Nu'min  embraced 
Christianity,  is  probably  unfounded,  but  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  he  was  well  disposed  towards  it,  and  that  his 
Christian  subjects — a  Bishop  of  Hira  is  mentioned  as  early  as 
410  A.D. — enjoyed  complete  religious  liberty. 

Nu'man's  place  was  filled  by  his  son  Mundhir,  an  able  and 

energetic  prince.     The  power  of  the  Lakhmites  at  this  time 

may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  on  the  death 

Mundhir  I.  "^  _     _ 

of  Yazdigird  I  Mundhir  forcibly  intervened  in 
the  dispute  as  to  the  Persian  succession  and  procured  the 
election  of  Bahram  Gor,  whose  claims  had  previously  been 
rejected  by  the  priesthood.3  In  the  war  which  broke  out 
shortly  afterwards  between  Persia  and  Rome,  Mundhir  proved 
himself  a  loyal  vassal,  but  was  defeated  by  the  Romans  with 
great  loss  (421  a.d.).  Passing  over  several  obscure  reigns,  we 
arrive  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century,  when  another 

Mundhir,  the  third  and  most  illustrious  of  his 
b.  Md'  ai-sama.    name,  ascended  the  throne.     This  is  he  whom  the 

Arabs  called  Mundhir  b.  Ma  al-sama.4  He  had 
a  long  and  brilliant  reign,  which,  however,  was  temporarily 

'  Sadir  was  a  castle  in  the  vicinity  of  Hira.         =  Tabari,  i,  853,  20  sqq. 

3  Bahram  was  educated  at  Hira  under  Nu'mdn  and  Mundhir.  The 
Persian  grandees  complained  that  he  had  the  manners  and  appearance  of 
the  Arabs  among  whom  he  had  grown  up  (Tabari,  i,  858,  7). 

*  Ma'  al-sama  (i.e.,  Water  of  the  sk>')  is  said  to  have  been  the  sobriquet 
of  Mundhir's  mother,  whose  proper  name  was  Mariya  or  Mawiyya. 


42  THE  LEGENDS   OF   THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

clouded  by  an  event  that  cannot  be  understood  without  some 
reference  to  the  general  history  of  the  period.  About  480  a.d. 
the  powerful  tribe  of  Kinda,  whose  princes  appear  to  have  held 
much  the  same  position  under  the  Tubba's  of  Yemen  as  the 
Lakhmites  under  the  Persian  monarchs,  had  extended  their 
sway  over  the  greater  part  of  Central  and  Northern  Arabia. 
The   moving;  spirit    in    this    conquest  was  Huir, 

Rise  of  Kinda.  ,        '  ,     ,         „    t\  /r        r  r"      "l 

surnamed  Akilu  1-Murar,  an  ancestor  of  the 
poet  Imru'u  '1-Qays.  On  his  death  the  Kindite  confederacy 
was  broken  up,  but  towards  the  year  500  it  was  re-established 
for  a  brief  space  by  his  grandson,  Harith  b.  'Amr,  and  became 
a  formidable  rival  to  the  kingdoms  of  Ghassdn  and  Hira. 
Meanwhile,  in  Persia,  the  communistic  doctrines  of  Mazdak 

had    obtained    wide    popularity   among  the  lower 

Mazdak.  r    r  j  & 

classes,  and  were  finally  adopted  by  King  Kawadh 
himself.!  Now,  it  is  certain  that  at  some  date  between  505 
and  529  Harith  b.  'Amr,  the  Kindite,  invaded  'Iraq,  and  drove 
Mundhir  out  of  his  kingdom  ;    and  it  seems  not   impossible 

that,  as  many  historians  assert,  the  latter's  down- 
ex^ued  from  ^^^^  was  duc  to  his  auti-Mazdakite  opinions,  which 
"'o'f  Kinda"'^    would    naturally    excite    the    displeasure    of    his 

suzerain.  At  any  rate,  whatever  the  causes  may 
have  been,  Mundhir  was  temporarily  supplanted  by  Harith, 
and  although  he  was  restored  after  a  short  interval,  before  the , 
accession  of  Anushirwan,  who,  as  Crown  Prince,  carried  out 
a  wholesale  massacre  of  the  followers  of  Mazdak  (528  a.d.), 
the  humiliation  which  he  had  suffered  and  cruelly  avenged  was 
not  soon  forgotten  ;  2  the  life  and  poems  of  Imru'u  '1-Qays 

'  For  an  account  of  Mazdak  and  his  doctrines  the  reader  may  consult 
Noldeke's  translation  of  Tabari,  pp.  140-144,  154,  and  455-467,  and 
Professor  Browne's  Literary  History  of  Persia,  vol.  i,  pp.  168-172. 

»  Mundhir  slaughtered  in  cold  blood  some  forty  or  fifty  members  of  the 
royal  house  of  Kinda  who  had  fallen  into  his  hands.  Harith  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  Hadramawt. 


MUNDHIR  III  43 

bear  witness  to  the  hereditary  hatred  subsisting  between 
Lakhm  and  Kinda.  Mundhir's  operations  against  the 
Romans  were  conducted  with  extraordinary  vigour  ;  he 
devastated  Syria  as  far  as  Antioch,  and  Justinian  saw  himself 
obHged  to  entrust  the  defence  of  these  provinces  to  the 
Ghassanid  Harith  b.  Jabala  (Harith  al-A'raj),  in  whom 
Mundhir  at  last  found  more  than  his  match.  From  this  time 
onward  the  kings  of  Hira  and  Ghassan  are  continually  raiding 
and  plundering  each  other's  territory.  In  one  of  his  expedi- 
tions Mundhir  captured  a  son  of  Harith,  and  "  immediately 
sacrificed  him  to  Aphrodite  "— /.^.,  to  the  Arabian  goddess 
al-'Uzza ;  I    but   on    taking    the   field    again   in    554  he   was 

surprised  and  slain  by  stratagem  in  a  battle  which 
MMdhh- ni.     is  known  proverbially  as  '  The  Day  of  Halima.'  2 

On  the  whole,  the  Lakhmites  were  a  heathen  and 
barbarous  race,  and  these  epithets  are  richly  deserved  by 
Mundhir  III.  It  is  related  in  the  Aghani  that  he  had  two 
boon-companions,  Khalid  b.  al-Mudallil  and  'Amr  b.  Mas'ud, 
with  whom  he  used  to  carouse  ;  and  once,  being  irritated  by 
words  spoken  in  wine,  he  gave  orders  that  they  should  be 
buried  alive.  Next  morning  he  did  not  recollect  what  had 
passed  and  inquired  as  usual  for  his  friends.  On  learning 
the    truth    he    was    filled    with    remorse.      He    caused    two 

obelisks  to  be  erected   over  their  graves,  and  two 

Mundhir's  .  ,  ,  j      •      i.      •  j 

"Good  Day  and  davs  m  cverv  vcar  he  would  come  and  sit  beside 
these  obelisks,  which  were  called  al-Ghar'tyydn 
— i.e.^  the  Blood-smeared.  One  day  was  the  Day  of  Good 
{yawmu  na^'im'")^  and  whoever  first  encountered  him  on  that 
day  received  a  hundred  black  camels.  The  other  day  was  the 
Day  of  Evil  [yawmu  bus"'),  on  which  he  would  present  the 
first-comer  with  the  head  of  a  black  polecat  [zaribdn),  then 
sacrifice  him  and   smear  the  obelisks  with  his  blood.3     The 

'  On  another  occasion  he  sacrificed  four  hundred  Christian  nuns  to 
the  same  goddess. 

^  See  p.  50  infra.  3  Aghdni,  xix,  86,  i.  16  sqq. 


44     THE  LEGENDS   OF  THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

poet  'Abid  b.  al-Abra|  is  said  to  have  fallen  a  victim  to  this 
horrible  rite.  It  continued  until  the  doom  fell  upon  a  certain 
Hanzala  of  Tayyi',  who  was  granted  a  year's  grace  in  order  to 
regulate  his  affairs,  on  condition  that  he  should  find  a  surety. 
He  appealed  to  one  of  Mundhir's  suite,  Shari'k  b.  'Amr,  who 

straightway  rose  and  said  to  the  king,  "  My  hand 
^^Sharfk^"'^     for  his  and  my  blood  for  his  if  he  fail  to  return 

at  the  time  appointed."  When  the  day  came 
Hanzala  did  not  appear,  and  Mundhir  was  about  to  sacrifice 
Sharik,  whose  mourning-woman  had  already  begun  to  chant 
the  dirge.  Suddenly  a  rider  was  seen  approaching,  wrapped 
in  a  shroud  and  perfumed  for  burial.  A  mourning-woman 
accompanied  him.  It  was  Hanzala.  Mundhir  marvelled  at 
their  loyalty,  dismissed  them  with  marks  of  honour,  and 
abolished  the   custom  which  he  had  instituted. ^ 

He    was   succeeded    by  his   son    'Amr,    who   is  known   to 
contemporary  poets  and  later  historians  as  'Amr,  son  of  Hind.^ 

During  his  reign  Hira  became  an  important  literary 
(5S4-569T.DO.    centre.     Most  of   the    famous  poets  then   living 

visited  his  court ;  we  shall  see  in  the  next  chap- 
ter what  relations  he  had  with  Tarafa,  'Amr  b.  Kulthum, 
and  Harith  b.  Hilliza.  He  was  a  morose,  passionate,  and 
tyrannical  man.  The  Arabs  stood  in  great  awe  of  him,  but 
vented  their  spite  none  the  less.  "  At  Hira,"  said  Dahab 
al-'IjH,  "there are  mosquitoes  and  fever  and  lions  and  'Amr  b. 
Hind,  who  acts  unjustly  and  wrongfully." 3  He  was  slain  by 
the  chief  of  Taghlib,  'Amr  b.  Kulthum,  in  vengeance  for  an 
insult  offered  to  his  mother,  Layla. 

It    is   sufficient    to    mention    the    names    of    Qdbiis    and 


'  Aghdtn,  xix,  87,  1.  18  sqq. 

^  Hind  was  a  princess  of  Kinda  (daughter  of  the  Harith  b.  'Amr  men- 
tioned above),  whom  Mundhir  probably  captured  in  one  of  his  marauding 
expeditions.  She  was  a  Christian,  and  founded  a  monastery  at  Hira. 
See  Noldeke's  translation  of  Tabari,  p.  172,  n,  i. 

3  Agluinf,  xxi,  194,  I.  22. 


NU'MAN  III  ABl)  QABI)S  45 

Mundhir  IV,  both  of  whom  were  sons  of  Hind,  and  occu- 
pied   the    throne    for  short  periods.     We    now  come  to    the 

last  Lakhmite  king  of  Hira,  and  by  far  the 
^"odblis^''"     iTiost  celebrated  in  tradition,  Nu'man  III,  son   of 

Mundhir  IV,  with  the  kunya  (name  of  honour)  Abu 
Qabiis,  who  reigned  from  580  to  602  or  from  585  to  607. 
He  was  brought  up  and  educated  by  a  noble  Christian  family 
in  Hira,  the  head  of  which  was  Zayd  b.  Hammad,  father  of  the 
poet  'Adi  b.  Zayd.  *Adi  is  such  an  interesting  figure,  and  his 
fortunes  were  so  closely  and  tragically  linked  with  those  of 
Nu'mdn,  that  some  account  of  his  life  and  character  will  be 
acceptable.  Both  his  father  and  grandfather  were  men  of 
unusual  culture,  who  held  high  posts  in  the  civil  administration 
under    Mundhir    III    and    his   successors.      Zayd,    moreover, 

through  the  good  offices  of  a  dlhqdn^  or  Persian 

'Adi  b.  Zayd.       ,  .  ^ 

landed  proprietor,  Farrukh-mahdn  by  name, 
obtained  from  Khusraw  Anushirwan  an  important  and  con- 
fidential appointment — that  of  Postmaster — ordinarily  reserved 
for  the  sons  of  satraps.^  When  'Adi  grew  up,  his  father  sent 
him  to  be  educated  with  the  son  of  the  dihqdn.  He  learned 
to  write  and  speak  Persian  with  complete  facility  and  Arabic 
with  the  utmost  elegance  ;  he  versified,  and  his  accomplish- 
ments included  archery,  horsemanship,  and  polo.  At  the 
Persian  court  his  personal  beauty,  wit,  and  readiness  in  reply 
so  impressed  Anushirwdn  that  he  took  him  into  his  service 
as  secretary  and  interpreter — Arabic  had  never  before  been 
written  in  the  Imperial  Chancery — and  accorded  him  all  the 
privileges  of  a  favourite.  He  was  entrusted  with  a  mission  to 
Constantinople,  where  he  was  honourably  received  ;  and  on  his 
departure  the  Qaysar,2  following  an  excellent  custom,  instructed 
the  officials  in  charge  of  the  post-routes  to  provide  horses  and 

'  Zayd  was  actually  Regent  of  Hira  after  the  death  of  Qdbus,  and  paved 
the  way  for  Mundhir  IV,  whose  violence  had  made  him  detested  by  the 
people  (Noldeke's  translation  of  Tabari,  p.  346,  n.  i). 

^  The  Arabs  called  the  Byzantine  emperor  '  Qaysar,'  i.e.,  Caesar,  and  the 
Persian  emperor  '  Kisrd,'  i.e.,  Chosroes. 


46  THE  LEGENDS   OF  THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

every  convenience  in  order  that  the  ambassador  might  see  for 
himself  the  extent  and  resources  of  the  Byzantine  Empire. 
*Adi  passed  some  time  in  Syria,  especially  at  Damascus,  where 
his  first  poem  is  said  to  have  appeared.  On  his  father's  death, 
which  happened  about  this  time,  he  renounced  the  splendid 
position  at  Hira  which  he  might  have  had  for  the  asking,  and 
gave  himself  up  to  hunting  and  to  all  kinds  of  amusement 
and  pleasure,  only  visiting  Mada'in  (Ctesiphon)  at  intervals  to 
perform  his  secretarial  duties.  While  staying  at  Hira  he  fell 
in  love  with  Nu'man's  daughter  Hind,  who  was  then  eleven 
years  old.  The  story  as  told  in  the  'Book  of  Songs  is  too  curious 
to  be  entirely  omitted,  though  want  of  space  prevents  me  from 
giving  it  in  full.^ 

It  is  related  that  Hind,  who  was  one  of  the  fairest  women  of  her 

time,  went  to  church  on  Thursday  of  Holy  Week,  three  days  after 

Palm  Sunday,  to   receive   the  sacrament.     'Adi   had 

'Adi  meets  the    entered  the  church  for  the  same  purpose.     He  espied 

7n  cliurch"  her — she  was  a  big,  tall  girl — while  she  was  off  her 
guard,  and  fixed  his  gaze  upon  her  before  she  became 
aware  of  him.  Her  maidens,  who  had  seen  him  approaching,  said 
nothing  to  their  mistress,  because  one  of  them  called  Mariya  was 
enamoured  of  'Adi  and  knew  no  other  way  of  making  his  acquaint- 
ance. When  Hind  saw  him  looking  at  herself,  she  was  highly 
displeased  and  scolded  her  handmaidens  and  beat  some  of  them. 
'Adi  had  fallen  in  love  with  her,  but  he  kept  the  matter  secret  for  a 
whole  year.  At  the  end  of  that  time  Mariya,  thinking  that  Hind  had 
forgotten  what  passed,  described  the  church  of  Thoma  (St.  Thomas) 
and  the  nuns  there  and  the  girls  who  frequented  it,  and  the  beauty 
of  the  building  and  of  the  lamps,  and  said  to  her,  "Ask  thy  mother's 
leave  to  go."  As  soon  as  leave  was  granted,  Mariya  conveyed  the 
intelligence  to  'Adi,  who  immediately  dressed  himself  in  a  magnifi- 


'  My  friend  and  colleague,  Professor  A.  A.  Bevan,  writes  to  me  that  "  the 
story  of  'Adi'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  (Aghdnf,  ii,  26,  1.  5),  and  partly  on  another  verse  in  which 
he  mentions 'the  home  of  Hind'  (ibid.,  ii,  32,  1.  1).  But  this  Hind  was 
evidently  a  Bedouin  woman,  not  the  king's  daughter." 


'ADf  THE   SON  OF  ZAYD  47 

cent  gold-embroidered  Persian  tunic  (yalmaq)  and  hastened  to  the 
rendezvous,  accompanied  by  several  young  men  of  Hira.  When 
Mdriya  perceived  him,  she  cried  to  Hind,  "Look  at  this  youth  :  by 
God,  he  is  fairer  than  the  lamps  and  all  things  else  that  thou  seest." 
"  Who  is  he  ?  "  she  asked.  "  'Adi,  son  of  Zayd."  "  Do  you  think," 
said  Hind,  "that  he  will  recognise  me  if  I  come  nearer?"  Then 
she  advanced  and  watched  him  as  he  conversed  with  his  friends, 
outshining  them  all  by  the  beauty  of  his  person,  the  elegance  of  his 
language,  and  the  splendour  of  his  dress.  "Speak  to  him,"  said 
Mariya  to  her  young  mistress,  whose  countenance  betrayed  her 
feelings.  After  exchanging  a  few  words  the  lovers  parted.  Mariya 
went  to  'Adi  and  promised,  if  he  would  first  gratify  her  wishes,  to 
bring  about  his  union  with  Hind.  She  lost  no  time  in  warning 
Nu'man  that  his  daughter  was  desperately  in  love  with  'Adi  and 
would  either  disgrace  herself  or  die  of  grief  unless  he  gave  her  to 
him.  Nu'man,  however,  was  too  proud  to  make  overtures  to  'Adi, 
who  on  his  part  feared  to  anger  the  prince  by  proposing  an  aUiance. 
The  ingenious  Mariya  found  a  way  out  of  the  difficulty.  She  sug- 
gested that  'Adi  should  invite  Nu'man  and  his  suite  to  a  banquet, 
and  having  well  pHed  him  with  wine  should  ask  for  the  hand  of  his 
daughter,  which  would  not  then  be  refused.  So  it 
'^  "p^nd^^^  °  came  to  pass.  Nu'man  gave  his  consent  to  the  mar- 
riage, and  after  three  days  Hind  was  brought  home 
to  her  husband.' 

On  the  death  of  Mundhir  IV  *Adi  warmly  supported  the 
claims  of  Nu'man,  who  had  formerly  been  his  pupil  and  was 
'Adi  secures  the  "^^  ^^^  father-in-law,  to  the  throne  of  Hira. 
Nu^mdnTsKing  ^^^  ^^^^  which  he  employed  on  this  occasion 
of  Hira.  ^^g  completely  successful,  but  it  cost  him  his 
life.2  The  partisans  of  Aswad  b.  Mundhir,  one  of  the  defeated 
candidates,  resolved  on  vengeance.     Their  intrigues  awakened 

^  Aghcini,  ii,  22,  1.  3  sqq. 

^  When  Hurmuz  summoned  the  sons  of  Mundhir  to  Ctesiphon  that  he 
might  choose  a  king  from  among  them,  'Adi  said  to  each  one  privately, 
"  If  the  Chosroes  demands  whether  you  can  keep  the  Arabs  in  order,  reply, 
'  All  except  Nu'man.' "  To  Nu'man,  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'mun. 


48  THE  LEGENDS   OF   THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

the  suspicions  of  Nu'man   against  the  *  King-maker.'     'Adi 
was  cast  into  prison,  where  he  languished  for  a 

He  is  imprisoned    ,  .  /-       n  i  i    i         xt    <■       » 

and  put  to  death  long  time  and  was  finally  murdered  by  IN  u  man 
when  the  Chosroes  (Parwez,  son  of  Hurmuz)  had 
already  intervened  to  procure  his  release. ^ 

'Adii  left  a  son  named  Zayd,  who,  on  the  recommendation 
of  Nu'mdn,  was  appointed  by  Khusraw  Parwez  to  succeed  his 
The  vengeance  father  as  Secretary  for  Arabian  Affairs  at  the  court 
ayd  b.  Adi.  ^^  Ctcsiphon.  Apparently  reconciled  to  Nu'man, 
he  was  none  the  less  bent  on  vengeance,  and  only  waited  for 
an  opportunity.  The  kings  of  Persia  were  connoisseurs  in 
female  beauty,  and  when  they  desired  to  replenish  their  harems 
they  used  to  circulate  an  advertisement  describing  with  extreme 
particularity  the  physical  and  moral  qualities  which  were  to  be 
sought  after  ;  2  but  hitherto  they  had  neglected  Arabia,  which, 
as  they  supposed,  could  not  furnish  any  woman  possessed  of 
these  perfections.  Zayd  therefore  approached  the  Chosroes 
and  said  :  "I  know  that  Nu'man  has  in  his  family  a  number 
of  women  answering  to  the  description.  Let  me  go  to  him, 
and  send  with  me  one  of  thy  guardsmen  who  understands 
Arabic."  The  Chosroes  complied,  and  Zayd  set  out  for  Hira. 
On  learning  the  object  of  his  mission,  Nu'man  exclaimed  with 
indignation  :  "  What  !  are  not  the  gazelles  of  Persia  sufficient 
for  your  needs  ?  "  The  comparison  of  a  beautiful  woman  to  a 
gazelle  is  a  commonplace  in  Arabian  poetry,  but  the  officer 
accompanying  Zayd  was  ill  acquainted  with  Arabic,  and  asked 
the  meaning  of  the  word  ('/«  or  mahd)  which  Nu'man  had 
employed.     "Cows,"  said  Zayd.     When  Parw6z  heard  from 

Death  of        ^is  guardsman  that  Nu'man  had  said,  "  Do  not  the 

Nu'man  III.     ^-Q^g  of  Persia  content  him  ? "  he  could  scarcely 

suppress   his   rage.     Soon    afterwards    he    sent   for    Nu'mdn, 

'  A  full  account  of  these  matters  is  given  by  Tabari,  i,  1016-1024  = 
Noldeke's  translation,  pp.  314-324. 

'  A  similar  description  occurs  in  Freytag's  Arabum  Proverbia,  vol.  ii. 
p.  589  sqq. 


DEATH  OF  NU'MAN  III  49 

threw  him  into  chains,  and  caused  him  to  be  trampled  to 
pieces  by  elephants.^ 

Nu'man  III  appears  in  tradition  as  a  tyrannical  prince, 
devoted  to  wine,  women,  and  song.  He  was  the  patron  of 
Character  of  many  celebrated  poets,  and  especially  of  Nabigha 
Nu  man  III.  Dhubydni,  who  was  driven  from  Hira  in  con- 
sequence of  a  false  accusation.  This  episode,  as  well  as 
another  in  which  the  poet  Munakhkhal  was  concerned,  gives 
us  a  glimpse  into  the  private  life  of  Nu'man.  He  had  married 
his  step-mother,  Mutajarrida,  a  great  beauty  in  her  time  ;  but 
though  he  loved  her  passionately,  she  bestowed  her  affections 
elsewhere.  Nabigha  was  suspected  on  account  of  a  poem  in 
which  he  described  the  charms  of  the  queen  with  the  utmost 
minuteness,  but  Munakhkhal  was  the  real  culprit.  The  lovers 
were  surprised  by  Nu'man,  and  from  that  day  Munakhkhal 
was  never  seen  again.  Hence  the  proverb,  "  Until  Munakh- 
khal shall  return,"  or,  as  we  might  say,  "  Until  the  coming  of 
the  Coqcigrues." 

Although  several  of  the  kings  of  Hira  are  said  to  have  been 

Christians,  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  any  except  Nu'man  III 

deserved  even  the  name  ;  the  Lakhmites,  unlike 

Nu'man's  .... 

conversion  to     the   ma  ority   of  their  subjects,  were  thorouehly 

Christianity.  J  J  j  •)  to      J 

pagan.  Nu'man's  education  would  naturally  pre- 
dispose him  to  Christianity,  and  his  conversion  may  have  been 
wrought,  as  the  legend  asserts,  by  his  mentor  'Adi  b.  Zayd. 

According  to  Muhammadan  genealogists,  the  Ghassanids, 
both  those  settled  in  Medina  and  those  to  whom  the  name 
The  Ghassanids    is  consecrated  by  popular  usage — the  Ghassanids 

orjafmtes.      ^^    gy,j.j^ — ^^^   descended    from    *Amr    b.   *Amir 

al-Muzayqiya,  who,  as  was  related  in  the  last  chapter,  sold  his 
possessions  in  Yemen  and  quitted  the  country,  taking  with  him 
a  great  number  of  its  inhabitants,  shortly  before  the  Bursting  of 

'  Tabari,    i,    1024-1029  =  Noldeke's    translation,    pp.    324-331.      Ibn 
Qutayba  in  Briinnow's  Chrcstotnathy,  pp.  32-33. 

5 


50  THE  LEGENDS  OF  THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

the  Dyke  of  Ma'rib.  His  son  Jafna  is  generally  regarded  as 
the  founder  of  the  dynasty.  Of  their  early  history  very  few 
authentic  facts  have  been  preserved.  At  first,  M^e  are  told, 
they  paid  tribute  to  the  Dajd'ima,  a  family  of  the  stock  of 
Salfh,  vi^ho  ruled  the  Syrian  borderlands  under  Roman  pro- 
tection. A  struggle  ensued,  from  which  the  Ghassanids 
emerged  victorious,  and  henceforth  we  find  them  established 
in  these  regions  as  the  representatives  of  Roman  authority 
with  the  official  titles  of  Patricius  and  Phylarch,  which  they 
and  the  Arabs  around  them  rendered  after  the  simple  Oriental 
fashion  by  'King'  {mal'iK). 

The  first  (says  Ibn  Qutayba)  that  reigned  in  Syria  of  the  family 

of  Jafna  was  Harith  b.  'Amr  Muharriq,  who  was  so  called  because 

he  burnt  {harraqa)  the  Arabs  in  their  houses.     He  is 

ibnQutayba's    Harith  the  Elder  {al-Akbar),?Lnd.  his  name  of  honour 

Ghassanids.     [kunyo)  is  Abii  Shamir.     After  him  reigned  Harith  b. 

Abi   Shamir,  known  as   Harith   the   Lame  {al-A'raj), 

whose  mother  was  Mariya  of  the  Ear-rings.     He  was  the  best  of 

their  kings,  and  the  most  fortunate,  and  the  craftiest ;  and  in  his 

raids  he  went  the  farthest  afield.      He  led  an  expedition  against 

Khaybar '  and  carried  off  a  number  of  prisoners,  but  set  them  free 

after  his  return  to  Syria.     When  Mundhir  b.  Ma'  al-sama  marched 

against  him  with  an  army  100,000  strong,  Harith  sent 

Harith  the  Lame.        .         j      j  ■  i.   i  •  i.i.  j.l  i. 

a  hundred  men  to  meet  him — among  them  the  poet 
Labid,  who  was  then  a  youth — ostensibly  to  make  peace.  They 
surrounded  Mundhir's  tent  and  slew  the  king  and  his  companions  ; 
then  they  took  horse,  and  some  escaped,  while  others  were  slain. 
The  Ghassanid  cavalry  attacked  the  army  of  Mundhir  and  put  them 
to  flight.  Harith  had  a  daughter  named  Halima,  who  perfumed  the 
hundred  champions  on  that  day  and  clad  them  in  shrouds  of  white 
linen  and  coats  of  mail.  She  is  the  heroine  of  the  proverb,  "  The 
day  of  Halima  is  no  secret."^  Harith  was  succeeded  by  his  son, 
Harith  the  Younger.  Among  his  other  sons  were  'Amr  b.  Harith 
(called  Abu  Shamir  the  Younger),  to  whom  Nabigha  came  on  leaving 
Nu'man  b.  Mundhir  ;  Mundhir  b.  Harith  ;  and  al-Ayham  b.  Harith. 
Jabala,  the  son  of  al-Ayham,  was  the  last  of  the  kings  of  Ghassan. 


A  town  in  Arabia,  some  distance  to  the  north  of  Medina. 
'  See  Freytag,  Arabiim  Provcrbia,  vol.  ii,  p.  611. 


THE  JAFNITE   DYNASTY  51 

He  was  twelve  spans  in  height,  and  his  feet  brushed  the  ground 
when  he  rode  on  horseback.  He  reached  the  Islamic  period  and  be- 
came a  Moslem  in  the  Caliphate  of  'Umar  b.  al-Khattab, 
^  Ajii^'am.'*''  but  afterwards  he  turned  Christian  and  went  to  live  in 
the  Byzantine  Empire.  The  occasion  of  his  turning 
Christian  was  this  :  In  passing  through  the  bazaar  of  Damascus  he 
let  his  horse  tread  upon  one  of  the  bystanders,  who  sprang  up  and 
struck  Jabala  a  blow  on  the  face.  The  Ghassdnis  seized  the  fellow 
and  brought  him  before  Abu  'Ubayda  b.  al-Jarrah,'  complaining  that 
he  had  struck  their  master.  Abu  'Ubayda  demanded  proof.  "  What 
use  wilt  thou  make  of  the  proof  ? "  said  Jabala.  He  answered  :  "  If 
he  has  struck  thee,  thou  wilt  strike  him  a  blow  in  return."  "  And 
shall  not  he  be  slain  ? "  "  No."  "  Shall  not  his  hand  be  cut  off  ? " 
"No,"  said  Abu  'Ubayda;  "God  has  ordained  retaUation  only- 
blow  for  blow."  Then  Jabala  went  forth  and  betook  himself  to 
Roman  territory  and  became  a  Christian  ;  and  he  stayed  there  all 
the  rest  of  his  life.= 

The  Arabian  traditions  respecting  the  dynasty  of  Ghassan 

are  hopelessly  confused  and  supply  hardly  any  material  even  for 

the  roup;h  historical  sketch  which  may  be  pieced 

Harith  the  Lame.  °  .  .       ti  • 

together  from  the  scattered  notices  in  Byzantme 
authors.3  It  vv^ould  seem  that  the  first  unquestionable  Ghas- 
sanid  prince  was  Harith  b.  Jabala  {'ApeOag  rov  FajSaXo),  who 
figures  in  Arabian  chronicles  as  '  Harith  the  Lame,'  and  who 
was  appointed  by  Justinian  (about  529  a.d.)  to  balance,  on  the 
Roman  side,  the  active  and  enterprising  King  of  Hira,  Mundhir 
b.  Ma'  al-sama.  During  the  greater  part  of  his  long  reign 
(529-569  A.D.)  he  was  engaged  in  war  with  this  dangerous 
rival,  to  whose  defeat  and  death  in  the  decisive  battle  of 
Halima  we  have  already  referred.  Like  all  his  line,  Harith 
was  a  Christian  of  the  Monophysite  Church,  which  he  defended 
with  equal  zeal  and  success  at  a  time  when  its  very  existence 

'  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. 

'  Ibn  Qutayba  in  Briinnow's  Clirestoinatliy,  pp.  26-28. 

3  The  following  details  are  extracted  from  Noldeke's  monograph  :  Die 
Ghassdnischen  Fiirstcn  aus  deni  Hausc  Gafna's,  in  Abhand.  d,  Koii.  Prcuss. 
Akad.  d.  Wisscnschaften  (Berlin,  1887). 


52  THE   LEGENDS   OF   THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

was  at  stake.  The  following  story  illustrates  his  formidable 
character.  Towards  the  end  of  his  life  he  visited  Constanti- 
nople to  arrange  with  the  Imperial  Government  which  of  his 
sons  should  succeed  him,  and  made  a  powerful  impression  on 
the  people  of  that  city,  especially  on  the  Emperor's  nephew, 
Justinus.  Many  years  afterwards,  when  Justinus  had  fallen 
into  dotage,  the  chamberlains  would  frighten  him,  when  he 
began  to  rave,  with  "  Hush  !  Arethas  will  come  and  take  you."  ^ 

Harith  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Mundhir,  who  vanquished 
the  new  King  of  Hira,  Qabus  b.  Hind,  on  Ascension  Day, 

Mundhir  b.  Sl'^  A.D.,  in  a  battle  which  is  perhaps  identical 
^'''"t*>-  with  that  celebrated  by  the  Arabs  as  the  Battle  of 
*Ayn  Ubagh.  The  refusal  of  the  Emperor  Justinus  to  furnish 
him  with  money  may  have  prevented  Mundhir  from  pursuing 
his  advantage,  and  was  the  beginning  of  open  hostility  between 
them,  which  culminated  about  eleven  years  later  in  his  being 
carried  off  to  Constantinople  and  forced  to  reside  in  Sicily. 

From  this  time  to  the  Persian  conquest  of  Palestine 
(614  A,D.)  anarchy  prevailed  throughout  the  Ghassanid 
kingdom.  The  various  tribes  elected  their  own  princes,  who 
sometimes,  no  doubt,  were  Jafnites  ;  but  the  dynasty  had 
virtually  broken  up.  Possibly  it  was  restored  by  Heraclius 
when  he  drove  the  Persians  out  of  Syria  (629  a.d.),  as  the 
Ghassanians  are  repeatedly  found  fighting  for  Rome  against 
the  Moslems,  and  according  to  the  unanimous  testimony  of 
Arabian  writers,  the  Jafnite  Jabala  b.  al-Ayham,  who  took  an 
active  part  in  the  struggle,  was  the  last  king  of  Ghassan. 
His  accession  may  be  placed  about  635  a.d.  The  poet 
Hassan  b.  Thabit,  who  as  a  native  of  Medina  could  claim 
kinship  with  the  Ghassanids,  and  visited  their  court  in  his 
youth,  gives  a  glowing  description  of  its  luxury  and  mag- 
nificence. 

^  Noldeke,  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 
bj-  R.  Payne  Smith,  p.  168. 


THE  JAFNITE  DYNASTY  53 

"  I  have  seen  ten  singing-girls,  five  of  them  Greeks,  singing  Greek 
songs  to  the  music  of  lutes,  and  five  from  Hira  who  had  been  pre- 
sented to  King  Jabala  by  lyas  b.  Qabisa,'  chanting 
Hassan  b.        Babylonian  airs.     Arab  singers  used  to  come  from 
^  oiihe  ""^^    Mecca  and  elsewhere  for  his  delight ;  and  when  he 
^coifrt""^       would  drink  wine  he  sat  on  a  couch  of  myrtle  and 
jasmine  and  all  sorts  of  sweet-smelling  flowers,  sur- 
rounded  by  gold  and  silver  vessels  full  of  ambergris  and  musk. 
During  winter  aloes-wood  was  burned  in  his  apartments,  while  in 
summer  he  cooled  himself  with  snow.     Both  he  and  his  courtiers 
wore  light  robes,  arranged  with  more  regard  to  comfort  than  cere- 
mony,^ in  the  hot  weather,  and  white  furs,  called  fanak,'^  or  the  like, 
in  the  cold  season  ;  and,  by  God,  I  was  never  in  his  company  but 
he  gave  me  the  robe  which  he  was  wearing  on  that  day,  and  many 
of  his  friends  were  thus  honoured.     He  treated  the  rude  with  for- 
bearance ;  he  laughed  without  reserve  and  lavished  his  gifts  before 
they  were  sought.     He  was  handsome,  and  agreeable  in  conversa- 
tion :  I  never  knew  him  offend  in  speech  or  act."  ^ 

Unlike  the  rival  dynasty  on  the  Euphrates,  the  Ghassanids 
had  no  fixed  residence.  They  ruled  the  country  round 
Damascus  and  Palmyra,  but  these  places  w^ere  never  in  their 
possession.  The  capital  of  their  nomad  kingdom  vi^as  the 
temporary  camp  (in  Aramaic,  herta)  which  followed  them  to 
and    fro,   but    was  generally  to    be    found   in  the  Gaulonitis 

'  lyas  b.  Oabisa  succeeded  Nu'man  III  as  ruler  of  Hira  (602-611  a.d.). 
He  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Tayyi'.     See  Rothstein,  Lahmideit,  p.  119. 

^  I  read  yatafaddaln  for  yanfasilu.  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  ex- 
tremity under  his  right  arm,  and  tying  the  two  extremities  together  in  a 
knot  upon  his  bosom." 

3  The  fanak  is  properly  a  kind  of  white  stoat  or  weasel  found  in 
Abyssinia  and  northern  Africa,  but  the  name  is  also  applied  by  Muham- 
madans  to  other  furs. 

4  Aghdni,  xvi,  15,  11.  22-30.  So  far  as  it  purports  to  proceed  from 
Hassan,  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  di'wdn  in  which  the  Ghassanids  are  often  spoken  of.  The  par- 
ticular reference  to  Jabala  b.  al-Ayham  is  a  mistake.  Hassan's  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Ghassanids  belongs  to  the  pagan  period  of  his  life,  and  he 
is  known  to  have  accepted  Islam  many  years  before  Jabala  began  to 


54  THE  LEGENDS   OF   THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

(al-Jawlan),  south  of  Damascus.     Thus  under  the  quickening 
impulse  of  Hellenistic  culture  the  Ghassanids  developed  a  civi- 
lisation far  superior  to  that  of  the  Lakhmites,  who, 
civfnsation.      just    because    of   their    half-barbarian    character, 
were    more  closely    in    touch  with   the   heathen 
Arabs,  and  exercised  a  deeper  influence  upon  them.     Some 
aspects  of  this  civilisation  have  been  indicated  in  the  descrip- 
tion  of  Jabala    b.  al-Ayham's  court,  attributed  to   the  poet 
Hassdn.     An  earlier  bard,  the  famous  Nabigha,  having  fallen 
out  of  favour  with   Nu'man  III  of  Hira,  fled  to  Syria,  where 
he  composed  a  splendid  eulogy  of  the  Ghassanids 
encomkim.       ^"  honour  of  his  patron.  King  'Amr,  son  of  Harith 
the    Lame.       After    celebrating    their    warlike 
prowess,  which  he  has  immortalised  in  the  oft-quoted  verse — 

"  One  fault  they  have  :  their  swords  are  blunt  of  edge 
Through  constant  beating  on  their  foemen's  mail," 

he  concludes  in  a  softer  strain  : 

"  Theirs  is  a  liberal  nature  that  God  gave 
To  no  men  else ;  their  virtues  never  fail. 
Their  home  the  Holy  Land  :  their  faith  upright  : 
They  hope  to  prosper  if  good  deeds  avail. 
Zoned  in  fair  wise  and  delicately  shod, 
They  keep  the  Feast  of  Palms,  when  maidens  pale, 
Whose  scarlet  silken  robes  on  trestles  hang. 
Greet  them  with  odorous  boughs  and  bid  them  hail. 
Long  lapped  in  ease  tho'  bred  to  war,  their  limbs 
Green-shouldered  vestments,  white-sleeved,  richly  veil." ' 

The  Pre-islamic  history  of  the  Bedouins  is  mainly  a  record 
of  wars,  or  rather  guerillas,  in  which  a  great  deal  of  raiding 
and  plundering  was  accomplished,  as  a  rule  without  serious 
bloodshed.     There  was  no  lack  of  shouting  ;  volleys  of  vaunts 

'  Nabigha,  ed.  by  Derenbourg,  p.  78  ;  Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  96.  The 
whole  poem  has  been  translated  by  Sh-  Charles  Lyall  in  his  Ancient 
Arabian  Poetry,  p.  95  sqq. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  BEDOUINS  55 

and  satires  were  exchanged  ;  camels  and  women  were  carried 
off;  many  skirmishes  took  place  but  few  pitched  battles  :  it 
was  an  Homeric  kind  of  warfare  that  called  forth  individual 
exertion  in  the  highest  degree,  and  gave  ample  opportunity  for 
single-handed  deeds  of  heroism.  "  To  write  a  true  history  of 
such  Bedouin  feuds  is  well-nigh  impossible.  As  compara- 
tively trustworthy  sources  of  information  we  have  only  the 
poems  and  fragments  of  verse  which  have  been  preserved. 
According  to  Suyilti,  the  Arabian  traditionists 
Bedouin        uscd  to  demand  from  any  Bedouin  who  related 

history.  ,  .  .      ,  .... 

an  historical  event  the  citation  of  some  verses  in 
its  support  ;  and,  in  effect,  all  such  stories  that  have  come 
down  to  us  are  crystallised  round  the  poems.  Unfortunately 
these  crystals  are  seldom  pure.  It  appears  only  too  often  that 
the  narratives  have  been  invented,  with  abundant  fancy  and 
with  more  or  less  skill,  to  suit  the  contents  of  the  verses."  ^ 
But  although  what  is  traditionally  related  concerning  the 
Battle-days  of  the  Arabs  [Ayydmu  U-^Arah)  is  to  a  large  extent 
legendary,  it  describes  with  sufficient  fidelity  how  tribal  hos- 
tilities generally  arose  and  the  way  in  which  they  were  con- 
ducted. The  following  account  of  the  War  of  Basus — the 
most  famous  of  those  waged  in  Pre-islamic  times — will  serve 
to  illustrate  this  important  phase  of  Bedouin  life.^ 

Towards  the  end  of  the  fifth  century  a.d.  Kulayb,  son  of  Rabi'a, 

was  chieftain  of  the  Banii  Taghlib,  a  powerful  tribe  which  divided 

with  their  kinsmen,  the  Banii  Bakr,  a  vast  tract  in 

afsiisf        north-eastern    Arabia,    extending    from    the    central 

highlands  to  the  Syrian  desert.      His  victory  at  the 

head  of  a  confederacy  formed  by  these  tribes  and  others  over  the 

Yemenite  Arabs  made  him  the  first  man  in  the  peninsula,  and  soon 

his  pride  became   no  less  proverbial  than  his  power.^     He  was 


'  Thorbecke,  ^Antarah,  ein  vorislamischer  Dichter,  p.  14. 

'  The  following  narrative  is  an  abridgment  of  the  history  of  the  War 
of  Basiis  as  related  in  Tibrizi's  commentary  on  the  Hamdsa  (ed.  by 
Freytag),  pp.  420-423  and  251-255.    Cf.  Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  39  sqq. 

'  See  p.  5  supra. 


$6     THE  LEGENDS  OF  THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

married  to  Halila,  daughter  of  Murra,  of  the  Banu  Bakr,  and  dwelt 
in  a  'preserve '  (hhnd),  where  he  claimed  the  sole  right  of  pasturage 
for  himself  and  the  sons  of  Murra.  His  brother-in-law,  Jassas,  had 
an  aunt  named  Basus.  While  living  under  her  nephew's  protection 
she  was  joined  by  a  certain  Sa'd,  a  chent  of  her  own  people,  who 
brought  with  him  a  she-camel  called  Sarabi, 

Now  it  happened  that  Kulayb,  seeing  a  lark's  nest  as  he  walked 

on  his  land,  said  to  the  bird,  which  was  screaming  and  fluttering 

distressfully  over  her  eggs,  "  Have  no  fear  I    I   will 

Kulayb  b        protect    thee."      But    a    short    time    afterwards    he 

Rabi'a  and        '^  ,  .         , 

Jassas  b.  Murra.  observed  m  that  place  the  track  of  a  strange  camel 
and  found  the  eggs  trodden  to  pieces.  Next  morning 
when  he  and  Jassas  visited  the  pasture  ground,  Kulayb  noticed  the 
she-camel  of  Sa'd  among  his  brother-in-law's  herd,  and  conjecturing 
that  she  had  destroyed  the  eggs,  cried  out  to  Jassas,  "  Take  heed 
thou  !  Take  heed  !  I  have  pondered  something,  and  were  I  sure, 
I  would  have  done  it  !  May  this  she-camel  never  come  here  again 
with  this  herd  ! "  "  By  God,"  exclaimed  Jassas,  "  but  she  shall 
come  ! "  and  when  Kulayb  threatened  to  pierce  her  udder  with  an 
arrow,  Jassas  retorted,  "  By  the  stones  of  Wa'il,'  fix  thine  arrow  in 
her  udder  and  I  will  fix  my  lance  in  thy  backbone  ! "  Then  he 
drove  his  camels  forth  from  the  himd.  Kulayb  went  home  in  a 
passion,  and  said  to  his  wife,  who  sought  to  discover  what  ailed 
him,  "  Knowest  thou  any  one  who  durst  defend  his  client  against 
me  ?  "  She  answered,  "  No  one  except  my  brother  Jassas,  if  he  has 
given  his  word."  She  did  what  she  could  to  prevent  the  quarrel 
going  further,  and  for  a  time  nothing  worse  than  taunts  passed 
between  them,  until  one  day  Kulayb  went  to  look  after  his  camels 
which  were  being  taken  to  water,  and  were  followed  by  those  of 
Jassas.  While  the  latter  were  waiting  their  turn  to 
The  wounding    drink,  Sa'd's  she-camel  broke  loose  and  ran  towards 

of  ba  d  s 

she-camel.  the  water.  Kulayb  imagined  that  Jassas  had  let  her 
go  deliberately,  and  resenting  the  supposed  insult,  he 
seized  his  bow  and  shot  her  through  the  udder.  The  beast  lay 
down,  moaning  loudly,  before  the  tent  of  Basus,  who  in  vehement 
indignation  at  the  wrong  suffered  by  her  friend,  Sa'd,  tore  the  veil 
from  her  head,  beating  her  face  and  crying,  "  O  shame,  shame  !  " 
Then,  addressing  Sa'd,  but  raising  her  voice  so  that  Jassas  might 


'  Wa'il  is  the  common  ancestor  of  Bakr  and  Taghlib.  For  the  use  of 
stones  {niisdb)  in  the  worship  of  the  Pagan  Arabs  see  Wellhausen,  Restc 
Arabischen  Heidentums  (2nd  ed.),  p.  loi  sqq.  Robertson  Smith,  Lectures 
on  the  Religion  of  the  Semites  (London,  1894),  p.  200  sqq. 


THE    WAR   OF  BASjyS  57 

hear,  she  spoke  these  verses,  which  are  known  as  '  The  Instigators  ' 
(al-Muwaihihibdi) :  — 

"  O  Sa'd,  be  not  deceived  !    Protect  thyself ! 
This  people  for  their  clients  have  no  care. 

Look  to  my  herds,  I  charge  thee,  for  I  doubt 
'^bTBasds.^"    Ex'e/i  my  little  daughters  ill  may  fare. 

By  thy  life,  had  I  been  in  Minqafs  house, 
Thou  would' st  not  have  been  wronged,  my  client,  there  ! 
But  now  such  folk  I  dwell  among  that  when 
The  wolf  comes,  'tis  my  sheep  he  comes  to  tear!"^ 

Jassas  was  stung  to  the  quick  by  the  imputation,  which  no  Arab 
can  endure,  that  injury  and  insult  might  be  inflicted  upon  his  guest- 
friend  with  impunity.     Some  days  afterwards,  having  ascertained 
that  Kulayb  had  gone  out  unarmed,  he  followed  and  slew  him,  and 
fled  in  haste  to  his  own  people.     Murra,  when  he  heard  the  news, 
said  to  his  son,  "  Thou  alone  must  answer  for  thy  deed  :  thou  shalt 
be  put  in  chains  that  his  kinsmen  may  slay  thee.     By  the  stones  of 
Wa'il,  never  will  Bakr  and  Taghlib  be  joined  together 
Kulayb         jn  welfare  after  the  death  of  Kulayb.     Verily,  an  evil 
Jassas.         thing  hast  thou  brought  upon  thy  people,  O  Jassas  ! 
Thou  hast  slain  their  chief  and  severed  their  union 
and  cast  vfar  into  their  midst."    So  he  put  Jassas  in  chains  and  con- 
fined him  in  a  tent ;  then  he  summoned  the  elders  of  the  families 
and  asked  them,  "  What  do  ye  say  concerning  Jassas  ?     Here  he  is, 
a  prisoner,  until  the  avengers  demand  him  and  we  dehver  him  unto 
them."     "  No,  by  God,"  cried  Sa'd  b.  MaUk  b,  Dubay'a  b.  Days,  "  we 
will  not  give  him  up,  but  will  fight  for  him  to  the  last  man  ! "     With 
these  words  he  called  for  a  camel  to  be  sacrificed,  and  when  its 
throat  was  cut  they  swore  to  one  another  over  the  blood.     There- 
upon Murra  said  to  Jassas  : — 

"  //  thou  hast  plucked  down  war  on  me. 
No  laggard  I  with  arms  outworn. 
Whale  er  befall,  I  make  to  flow 
^'Ihlflthir"^'       T^'^  baneful  cups  of  death  at  morn. 

of  Jassas. 

When  spear-points  clash,  my  wounded  man 
Is  forced  to  drag  the  spear  he  stained. 
Never  I  reck,  if  war  must  be, 
What  Destiny  hath  preordained. 


Hamdsa,  422,  14  sqq.    Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  39,  last  line  and  foil. 


58  THE  LEGENDS  OF  THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

Donning  war's  harness,  I  will  strive 

To  fend  from  me  the  shayne  that  sears. 

Already  I  thrill  and  eager  am 

For  the  shock  of  the  horsemen  against  the  spears!"^ 

Thus  began  the  War  of  Basus  between  Taghlib  on  the  one  side 
and  the  clan  of  Shayban,  to  which  Murra  belonged,  on  the  other  ; 

for  at  first  the  remaining  divisions  of  Bakr  held  aloof 
wa"  between  from  the  Struggle,  considering  Shayban  to  be  clearly 
Taghlib  and     j^j  ^\-yQ  wrong.     The  latter  were  reduced  to  dire  straits, 

when  an  event  occurred  which  caused  the  Bakrites 
to  rise  as  one  man  on  behalf  of  their  fellows.  Harith  b.  'Ubad, 
a  famous  knight  of  Bakr,  had  refused  to  take  part  in  the  contest, 
saying  in  words  which  became  proverbial,  "  I  have  neither  camel 
nor  she-camel  in  it,"  i.e.,  "it  is  no  affair  of  mine."  One  day  his 
nephew,  Bujayr,  encountered  Kulayb's  brother,  Muhalhil,  on  whom 
the  mantle  of  the  murdered  chief  had  fallen  ;  and  Muhalhil,  struck 
with  admiration  for  the  youth's  comeliness,  asked  him  who  he  was. 
"Bujayr,"  said  he,  "the  son  of  'Amr,  the  son  of  'Ubad."  "And 
who  is  thy  uncle  on  the  mother's  side  ? "  "  My  mother  is  a  cap- 
tive "  (for  he  would  not  name  an  uncle  of  whom  he  had  no  honour). 
Then  Muhalhil  slew  him,  crying,  "  Pay  for  Kulayb's  shoe-latchet !" 
On  hearing  this,  Harith  sent  a  message  to  Muhalhil  in  which  he 
declared  that  if  vengeance  were  satisfied  by  the  death  of  Bujayr, 
he  for  his  part  would  gladly  acquiesce.  But  Muhalhil  replied,  "  I 
have  taken  satisfaction  only  for  Kulayb's  shoe-latchet."  Thereupon 
Harith  sprang  up  in  wrath  and  cried  : — 

"  God  knows,  I  kindled  not  this  fire,  altho' 
I  am  burned  in  it  to-day, 
A   lord  for  a  shoe-latchet  is  too  dear  : 
To  horse!    To  horse!    Away!"'' 


And  al-Find,  of  the  Banii  Bakr,  said  on  this  occasion  : — 

We  spared  the  Bami  Hind  3  and  said, '  Our  brothers  they  remain 
It  may  be  Time  will  make  of  us  one  people  yet  again.' 


•  Hamdsa,  423,  ii  sqq.     Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  41,  1.  3  sqq. 
=  Hamdsa,  252,  8  seq.     Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  44,  1.  3  seq. 
3  Hind  is  the  mother  of  Bakr  and  Taghlib.     Here  the  Banu  Hind  (Sons 
of  Hind)  are  the  Taghlibites. 


THE    WAR   OF  BASCS  59 

But  when  the  wrong  grew  manifest,  and  naked  III  stood  plain, 

And  naught  was  left  hut  ruthless  hate,  we  paid  them 

As  lions  marched  we  forth  to  war  in  wrath  and  high 

disdain  : 
Our  sivords   brought  widowhood  and   tears  and  wailing  in   theit 

train, 
Our  spears   dealt   gashes   wide    whence   blood   like    water  spilled 

amain. 
No  way  but  Force  to  weaken  Force  and  mastery  obtain ; 
'Tis  wooing  contumely  to  meet  wild  actions  with  humane : 
By  evil  thou  may'st  win  to  peace  when  good  is  tried  in  vain."  ' 

The  Banu  Bakr  now  prepared  for  a  decisive  battle.  As  their 
enemy  had  the  advantage  in  numbers,  they  adopted  a  stratagem 
devised  by  Harith.  "Fight  them,"  said  he,  "with  your  women. 
Equip  every  woman  with  a  small  waterskin  and  give  her  a  club. 
Place  the  whole  body  of  them  behind  you — this  will  make  you  more 
resolved  in  battle — and  wear  some  distinguishing  mark  which  they 
will  recognise,  so  that  when  a  woman  passes  by  one  of  your 
wounded  she  may  know  him  by  his  mark  and  give  him  water  to 
drink,  and  raise  him  from  the  ground  ;  but  when  she  passes  by  one 
of  your  foes  she  will  smite  him  with  her  club  and  slay  him."  So  the 
Bakrites  shaved  their  heads,  devoting  themselves  to 

^Shearin«'^  death,  and  made  this  a  mark  of  recognition  between 
themselves  and  their  women,  and  this  day  was  called 
the  Day  of  Shearing.  Now  Jahdar  b.  Dubay'a  was  an  ill-favoured, 
dwarfish  man,  with  fair  flowing  love-locks,  and  he  said,  "O  my 
people,  if  ye  shave  my  head  ye  will  disfigure  me,  so  leave  my  locks 
for  the  first  horseman  of  Taghlib  that  shall  emerge  from  the  hill-pass 
on  the  morrow  "  (meaning  "  I  will  answer  for  him,  if  my  locks  are 
spared").     On  his  request  being  granted,  he  exclaimed  : — 

"  To  wife  and  daughter 
Henceforth  I  am  dead  : 
Dust  for  ointment 
On  my  hair  is  shed. 

Let  me  close  with  the  horsemen 
The  vow  of  lyjio  hither  ride, 

Jahdar  b.  _    ,  ,      ,       ^ 

Dubay'a.  Cut  my  locks  from  me 

If  I  stand  aside  ! 


Hamdsa,  9,  17  seq.    Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  45,  1.  10  sqq. 


6o  THE  LEGENDS  OF  THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

Well  wots  a  mother 

If  the  son  she  bore 
And  swaddled  in  her  bosom 

And  smelt  him  o'er, 

Whenever  warriors 

In  the  melt  ay  meet, 
Is  a  puny  weakling 

Or  a  man  complete!"  ' 

He  kept  his  promise  but  in  the  course  of  the  fight  he  fell,  severel)' 
wounded.  When  the  women  came  to  him,  they  saw  his  love-locks 
and  imagining  that  he  was  an  enemy  despatched  him  with  their 
clubs. 

The  presence  of  women  on  the  field  and  the  active  share  they 

took  in  the  combat  naturally  provoked  the   bitterest  feehngs.     If 

they  were  not  engaged  in  finishing  the  bloody  work  of 

cwnbatants  ^^^  men,  their  tongues  were  busy  inciting  them.  We 
are  told  that  a  daughter  of  al-Find  bared  herself 
recklessly  and  chanted  : — 

"  War  !  War  !  War  !  War  ! 
It  has  blazed  up  and  scorched  us  sore. 
The  highlands  are  filled  with  its  roar. 
Well  done,  ilie  morning  when  your  heads  ye  shore  !"^ 

The  mothers  were  accompanied  by  their  children,  whose  tender 
age  did  not  always  protect  them  from  an  exasperated  foe.  It  is 
related  that  a  horseman  of  the  Banu  Taghlib  transfixed  a  young  boy 
and  lifted  him  up  on  the  point  of  his  spear.  He  is  said  to  have  been 
urged  to  this  act  of  savagery  by  one  al-Bazbaz,  who  was  riding 
behind  him  on  the  crupper.  Their  triumph  was  short ;  al-Find  saw 
them,  and  with  a  single  spear-thrust  pinned  them  to  each  other — an 
exploit  which  his  own  verses  record. 

On  this  day  the  Banu  Bakr  gained  a  great  victory,  and  broke  the 
power  of  Taghlib.  It  was  the  last  battle  of  note  in  the  Forty 
Years'  War,  which  was  carried  on,  by  raiding  and  plundering,  until 
the  exhaustion  of  both  tribes  and  the  influence  of  King  Mundhir  III 
of  Hira  brought  it  to  an  end. 

Not  many  years    after   the    conclusion    of  peace    between 

'  Hamdsa,  252,  14  seq.     Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  46, 1.  16  sqq. 
=  Hamdsa,  254,  6  seq.    Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  47, 1.  2  seq. 


THE    WAR   OF  DAHIS  AND   GHABRA     6i 

Bakr  and  Taghlib,  another  war,  hardly  less  famous  in  tradition 

than  the  War  of  Basus,  broke  out  in  Central  Arabia.     The 

combatants  were    the    tribes  of  'Abs   and    Dhu- 

Ddjyand^     byan,  the  principal  stocks  of  the  Banu  Ghatafan, 

Ghabra.        ^^^    ^^^  occasion   of  their   coming    to    blows    is 

related  as  follows  : — 

Qays,  son  of  Zuhayr,  was  chieftain  of  'Abs.  He  had  a  horse 
called  Dahis,  renowned  for  its  speed,  which  he  matched  against 
Ghabra,  a  mare  belonging  to  Hudhayfa  b.  Badr,  the  chief  of 
Dhubyan.  It  was  agreed  that  the  course  should  be  a  hundred 
bow-shots  in  length,  and  that  the  victor  should  receive  a  hundred 
camels.  When  the  race  began  Ghabra  took  the  lead,  but  as  they 
left  the  firm  ground  and  entered  upon  the  sand,  where  the  '  going  ' 
was  heavy,  Dahis  gradually  drew  level  and  passed  his  antagonist. 
He  was  nearing  the  goal  when  some  Dhubyanites  sprang  from  an 
ambuscade  prepared  beforehand,  and  drove  him  out  of  his  course, 
thus  enabling  Ghabra  to  defeat  him.  On  being  informed  of  this 
foul  play  Qays  naturally  claimed  that  he  had  won  the  wager,  but 
the  men  of  Dhubyan  refused  to  pay  even  a  single  camel.  Bitterly 
resenting  their  treachery,  he  vi^aylaid  and  slew  one  of  Hudhayfa's 
brothers.  Hudhayfa  sought  vengeance,  and  the  murder  of  Malik, 
a  brother  of  Qays,  by  his  horsemen  gave  the  signal  for  war.  In  the 
fighting  which  ensued  Dhubyan  more  than  held  their  own,  but 
neither  party  could  obtain  a  decisive  advantage.  Qays  slew  the 
brothers  Hudhayfa  and  Hamal — 

"Hamal  I  slew  and  eased  my  heart  thereby, 
Hudhayfa  glutted  my  avenging  brand; 
But  though  I  slaked  my  thirst  by  slaying  them, 
I  would  as  lief  have  lost  my  own  right  hand."  ' 

After  a  long  period — forty  years  according  to  the  traditional 
computation — 'Abs  and  Dhubyan  were  reconciled  by  the  exertions 
of  two  chieftains  of  the  latter  tribe,  Harith  b.  'Awf  and  Harim  b. 


'  Hamdsa,  g6.  Ibn  Nubata,  cited  by  Rasmussen,  Additamcnta  ad  His- 
toriam  Arabum  ante  Islamismuni,  p.  34,  remarks  that  before  Qays  no  one 
had  ever  lamented  a  foe  slain  by  himself  [wa-huwa  awwalu  man  rathd 
maqtiilalm). 


62     THE  LEGENDS   OF  THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

Sinan,  whose  generous  and  patriotic  intervention  the  poet  Zuhayr 
has  celebrated.  Qays  went  into  exile.  "  I  will  not  look,"  he  said, 
"  on  the  face  of  any  woman  of  Dhubyan  whose  father  or  brother  or 
husband  or  son  I  have  killed."  If  we  may  believe  the  legend,  he 
became  a  Christian  monk  and  ended  his  days  in  'Uman. 

Descending  westward  from  the  highlands  of  Najd  the 
traveller  gradually  approaches  the  Red  Sea,  which  is  separated 
from  the  mountains  running  parallel  to  it  by  a 
narrow  strip  of  coast-land,  called  the  Tihama 
(Netherland).  The  rugged  plateau  between  Najd  and  the 
coast  forms  the  Hijaz  (Barrier),  through  which  in  ancient 
times  the  Sabasan  caravans  laden  with  costly  merchandise 
passed  on  their  way  to  the  Mediterranean  ports.  Long  before 
the  beginning  of  our  era  two  considerable  trading  settlements 
had  sprung  up  in  this  region,  viz.,  Macoraba  (Mecca)  and, 
some  distance  farther  north,  Yathrippa  (Yathrib,  the  Pre- 
islamic  name  of  Medina).  Of  their  early  inhabitants  and 
history  we  know  nothing  except  what  is  related  by  Muham- 
madan  writers,  whose  information  reaches  back  to  the  days  of 
Adam  and  Abraham.  Mecca  was  the  cradle  of  Islam,  and 
Islam,  according  to  Muhammad,  is  the  religion  of  Abraham, 
which  was  corrupted  by  succeeding  generations  until  he  him- 
self was  sent  to  purify  it  and  to  preach  it  anew.  Consequently 
the  Pre-islamic  history  of  Mecca  has  all  been,  so  to  speak, 
'  Islamised.'  The  Holy  City  of  Islam  is  made  to  appear  in 
the  same  light  thousands  of  years  before  the  Prophet's  time  : 
here,  it  is  said,  the  Arabs  were  united  in  worship  of  Allah, 
hence  they  scattered  and  fell  into  idolatry,  hither  they  return 
annually  as  pilgrims  to  a  shrine  which  had  been  originally 
dedicated  to  the  One  Supreme  Being,  but  which  afterwards 
became  a  Pantheon  of  tribal  deities.  This  theory  lies  at  the 
root  of  the  Muhammadan  legend  which  I  shall  now  recount 
as  briefly  as  possible,  only  touching  on  the  salient  points  of 
interest. 

In  the  Meccan  valley — the  primitive  home  of  that  portion 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  MECCA  63 

of  the  Arab  race  which  claims  descent  from  Isma'il  (Ishmael), 
the  son  of  Ibrahim  (Abraham)  by  Hajar  (Hagar) — stands  an 
irregular,  cube-shaped  building  of  small  dimensions 


the  Ka'ba. 


Foundation  of    — ^j^g  Ka^ba.      Legend  attributes  its  foundation 


to  Adam,  who  built  it  by  Divine  command  after 
a  celestial  archetype.  At  the  Deluge  it  was  taken  up  into 
heaven,  but  was  rebuilt  on  its  former  site  by  Abraham  and 
Ishmael.  While  they  were  occupied  in  this  work  Gabriel 
brought  the  celebrated  Black  Stone,  which  is  set  in  the  south- 
east corner  of  the  building,  and  he  also  instructed  them  in  the 
ceremonies  of  the  Pilgrimage.  When  all  was  finished  Abraham 
stood  on  a  rock  known  to  later  ages  as  the  Maqdmu  Ibrahim^ 
and,  turning  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  sky,  made  proclama- 
tion :  "O  ye  people  !  The  Pilgrimage  to  the  Ancient  House 
is  prescribed  unto  you.  Hearken  to  your  Lord ! "  And 
from  every  part  of  the  world  came  the  answer:  ^^Labbayka 
Uldhumma^  labbayka  " — -ue.^  "  We  obey,  O  God,  we  obey." 

The  descendants  of  Ishmael  multiplied  exceedingly,  so  that 
the  barren  valley  could  no  longer  support  them,  and  a  great 
number  wandered  forth  to  other  lands.  They  were  succeeded 
as  rulers  of  the  sacred  territory  by  the  tribe  of  Jurhum,  who 
waxed  in  pride  and  evil-doing  until  the  vengeance  of  God  fell 
upon  them.  Mention  has  frequently  been  made  of  the  Burst- 
ing of  the  Dyke  of  Ma'rib,  which  caused  an  extensive  move- 
ment of  Yemenite  stocks  to  the  north.  The  invaders  halted 
in  the  Hijdz  and,  having  almost  exterminated  the  Jurhumites, 
resumed  their  journey.  One  group,  however — the  Banu 
Khuza'a,  led  by  their  chief  Luhayy — settled  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Mecca.  'Amr,  son  of  Luhayy,  was  renowned 
among  the  Arabs  for  his  wealth  and  generosity.  Ibn  Hisham 
says  :  'I  have  been  told  by  a  learned  man  that  'Amr  b.  Luhayy 
went    from    Mecca   to    Syria    on    some    business 

dSaTMecca.   ^nd    when    he    arrived    at    Ma'ab,    in    the    land 
of  al-Balqd,  he  found  the  inhabitants,  who  were 

'Amaliq,  worshipping  idols.     "  What  are  these  idols  ?  "  he  in- 


64  THE  LEGENDS   OF   THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

quired.  "  They  are  idols  that  send  us  rain  when  we  ask  them 
for  rain,  and  help  us  when  we  asic  them  for  help."  "  Will  ye 
not  give  me  one  of  them,"  said  'Amr,  "  that  I  may  take  it  to 
Arabia  to  be  worshipped  there?"  So  they  gave  him  an  idol 
called  Hubal,  which  he  brought  to  Mecca  and  set  it  up  and 
bade  the  people  worship  and  venerate  it.'  ^  Following  his 
example,  the  Arabs  brought  their  idols  and  installed  them 
round  the  sanctuary.  The  triumph  of  Paganism  was  com- 
plete. We  are  told  that  hundreds  of  idols  were  destroyed  by 
Muhammad  when  he  entered  Mecca  at  the  head  of  a  Moslem 
army  in  8  a.h.  =  629  a.d. 

To  return  to  the  posterity  of  Isma'il  through  *Adnan  :  the 

principal  of  their  descendants  who  remained  in  the  Hijaz  were 

the  Hudhayl,  the  Kinana,  and  the  Ouraysh.    The 

TheQuraysh.       ,  ,         •,  "^  .^       ..• 

last-named  tribe  must  now  engage  our  attention 
almost  exclusively.  During  the  century  before  Muhammad 
we  find  them  in  undisputed  possession  of  Mecca  and  acknow- 
ledged guardians  of  the  Ka'ba — an  office  which  they  adminis- 
tered with  a  shrewd  appreciation  of  its  commercial  value. 
Their  rise  to  power  is  related  as  follows  : — 

Kildb  b.  Murra,  a  man  of  Quraysh,  had  two  sons,  Zuhra  and  Zayd. 
The  latter  was  still  a  young  child  when  his  father  died,  and  soon 

afterwards  his  mother,  Fatima,  who  had  married  again, 
^  Qusayy  °^     left  Mecca,  taking  Zayd  with  her,  and  went  to  live  in 

her  new  husband's  home  beside  the  Syrian  borders. 
Zayd  grew  up  far  from  his  native  land,  and  for  this  reason  he  got 
the  name  of  Qusayy— z'.e.,  'Little  Far-away.'  When  he  reached 
man's  estate  and  discovered  his  true  origin  he  returned  to  Mecca, 
where  the  hegemony  was  wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  Khuza'ites 
under  their  chieftain,  Hulayl  b.  Hubshiyya,  with  the  determination 
to  procure  the  superintendence  of  the  Ka'ba  for  his  own  people,  the 
Ouraysh,  who  as  pure-blooded  descendants  of  Isma'il  had  the  best 
right  to  that  honour.  By  his  marriage  with  Hubba,  the  daughter  of 
Hulayl,  he  hoped  to  inherit  the  privileges  vested  in  his  father-in-law, 
but  Hulayl  on  his  death-bed  committed  the  keys  of  the  Ka'ba  to  a 


'  Ibn  Hisham,  p.  51,  1.  7  sqq. 


THE   QURAYSH  65 

kinsman  named  Abii  Ghubshan,  Not  to  be  baffled,  Qusayy  made 
the  keeper  drunk  and  persuaded  him  to  sell  the  keys  for  a  skin  of 
wine — hence  the  proverbs  "A  greater  fool  than  Abu  Ghubshan" 
and  "Abu  Ghubshan's  bargain,"  denoting  a  miserable  fraud. 
Naturally  the  Khuza'ites  did  not  acquiesce  in  the  results  of  this 
transaction  ;  they  took  up  arms,  but  Qusayy  was  prepared  for  the 
struggle  and  won  a  decisive  victory.  He  was  now  master  of  Temple 
and  Town  and  could  proceed  to  the  work  of  organisation.     His  first 

step  was  to   bring  together  the   Quraysh,   who   had 
^"of  Mecca*^"^    previously  been  dispersed  over  a  wide  area,  into  the 

Meccan  valley — this  earned  for  him  the  title  of  al- 
Mnjammi'  (the  Congregator) — so  that  each  family  had  its  allotted 
quarter.  He  built  a  House  of  Assembly  [Darn  'l-Nadwa),  where 
matters  affecting  the  common  weal  were  discussed  by  the  Elders  of 
the  tribe.  He  also  instituted  and  centred  in  himself  a  number  of 
dignities  in  connection  with  the  government  of  the  Ka'ba  and  the 
administration  of  the  Pilgrimage,  besides  others  of  a  political  and 
military  character.  Such  was  his  authority  that  after  his  death,  no 
less  than  during  his  life,  all  these  ordinances  were  regarded  by  the 
Quraysh  as  sacred  and  inviolable. 

The  death  of  Qusayy  may  be  placed  in  the  latter  half  of  the 

fifth  century.     His  descendant,  the  Prophet  Muhammad,  was 

born  about  a  hundred  years  afterwards,  in  570  or 

Mecca  in  the  ,  .  ' 

sixth  century     c?!    A.D.     With    onc    notable   cxception,    to    be 

after  Christ.  '         .  ,.         ,  ,  ,   • 

mentioned  immediately,  the  history  of  Mecca 
during  the  period  thus  defined  is  a  record  of  petty  factions 
unbroken  by  any  event  of  importance.  The  Prophet's 
ancestors  fill  the  stage  and  assume  a  commanding  position, 
which  in  all  likelihood  they  never  possessed  ;  the  historical 
rivalry  of  the  Umayyads  and  'Abbasids  appears  in  the  persons 
of  their  founders,  Umayya  and  Hashim — and  so  forth.  Mean- 
while the  influence  of  the  Quraysh  was  steadily  maintained 
and  extended.  The  Ka'ba  had  become  a  great  national 
rendezvous,  and  the  crowds  of  pilgrims  which  it  attracted 
from  almost  every  Arabian  clan  not  only  raised  the  credit  ot 
the  Quraysh,  but  also  materially  contributed  to  their  com- 
mercial prosperity.  It  has  already  been  related  how  Abraha, 
the  Abyssinian  viceroy  of  Yemen,  resolved  to  march  against 

6 


e^     THE  LEGENDS   OF  THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

Mecca  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  avenging  upon  the  Ka'ba 
a  sacrilege  committed  by  one  of  the  Quraysh  in  the  church 
at  San'^.  Something  of  that  kind  may  have  served  as  a 
pretext,  but  no  doubt  his  real  aim  was  to  conquer  Mecca  and 
to  gain  control  of  her  trade. 

This  memorable  expedition  ^  is  said  by  Moslem  historians 
to  have  taken  place  in  the  year  of  Muhammad's  birth  (about 

570    A.D.),  usually  known    as   the   Year  of   the 
theEkph^ant     Elephant — a  proof   that  the  Arabs  were  deeply 

impressed  by  the  extraordinary  spectacle  of  these 
huge  animals,  one  or  more  of  which  accompanied  the 
Abyssinian  force.  The  report  of  Abraha's  prepa'-^tions  filled 
the  tribesmen  with  dismay.  At  first  they  endeavoured  to 
oppose  his  march,  regarding  the  defence  of  the  Ka'ba  as  a 
sacred  duty,  but  they  soon  lost  heart,  and  Abraha,  after 
defeating  Dhu  Nafar,  a  Himyarite  chieftain,  encamped  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Mecca  without  further  resistance.     He  sent 

the  following  message  to  'Abdu  '1-Muttalib,  the 
^'^^fM^ecta'^"^  Prophet's  grandfather,  who  was  at  that  time  the 

most  influential  personage  in  Mecca  :  "I  have 
not  come  to  wage  war  on  you,  but  only  to  destroy  the 
Temple.  Unless  you  take  up  arms  in  its  defence,  I  have 
no  wish  to  shed  your  blood."  'Abdu  '1-Muttalib  replied  : 
"  By  God,  we  seek  not  war,  for  which  we  are  unable.  This 
is  God's  holy  House  and  the  House  of  Abraham,  His  Friend  ; 
it  is  for  Him  to  protect  His  House  and  Sanctuary  j  if  He 
abandons  it,  we  cannot  defend  it." 

Then    'Abdu   'I-Muttalib  was  conducted    by  the  envoy  to  the 

Abyssinian  camp,  as  Abraha  had  ordered.     There  he  inquired  after 

,  Dhii   Nafar,  who  was  his  friend,  and  found   him  a 

lib'slnierview    prisoner.     "O   Dhu   Nafar,"   said   he,   "can   you  do 

with  Abraha.     ^^^^^  -^^  ^^^^  ^j^j^^j^  j^^g  befallen  us?"     Dhu  Nafar 

answered,  "  What  can  a  man  do  who  is  a  captive  in  the  hands  of  a 


*  In  the  account  of  Abraha's  invasion  given  below  I  have  followed 
Tabari,  i,  936,  9  -  945,  19  =  Noldeke's  translation,  pp.  206-220. 


THE  ABYSSINIAN  INVASION  67 

king,  expecting  day  and  night  to  be  put  to  death  ?  I  can  do  nothing 
at  all  in  the  matter,  but  Unays,  the  elephant-driver,  is  my  friend  ;  I 
will  send  to  him  and  press  your  claims  on  his  consideration  and  ask 
him  to  procure  you  an  audience  with  the  king.  Tell  Unays  what 
you  wish  :  he  will  plead  with  the  king  in  your  favour  if  he  can." 
So  Dhu  Nafar  sent  for  Unays  and  said  to  him,  "O  Unays,  'Abdu 
1-Muttalib  is  lord  of  Quraysh  and  master  of  the  caravans  of  Mecca. 
He  feeds  the  people  in  the  plain  and  the  wild  creatures  on  the 
mountain-tops.  The  king  has  seized  two  hundred  of  his  camels. 
Now  get  him  admitted  to  the  king's  presence  and  help  him  to  the 
best  of  your  power."  Unays  consented,  and  soon  'Abdu  '1-Muttahb 
stood  before  the  king.  When  Abraha  saw  him  he  held  him  in  too 
high  respect  to  let  him  sit  in  an  inferior  place,  but  was  unwilling 
that  the  Abyssinians  should  see  the  Arab  chief,  who  was  a  large 
man  and  a  comely,  seated  on  a  level  with  himself  ;  he  therefore 
descended  from  his  throne  and  sat  on  his  carpet  and  bade  'Abdu 
'1-Muttalib  sit  beside  him.  Then  he  said  to  his  dragoman,  "Ask 
him  what  he  wants  of  me."  'Abdu  '1-Muttalib  replied,  "  I  want  the 
king  to  restore  to  me  two  hundred  camels  of  mine  which  he  has 
taken  away."  Abraha  said  to  the  dragoman,  "  Tell  him :  You 
pleased  me  when  I  first  saw  you,  but  now  that  you  have  spoken  to 
me  I  hold  you  cheap.  What !  do  you  speak  to  me  of  two  hundred 
camels  which  I  have  taken,  and  omit  to  speak  of  a  temple  venerated 
by  you  and  your  fathers  which  I  have  come  to  destroy  ? "  Then  said 
'Abdu  '1-Muttalib  :  "  The  camels  are  mine,  but  the  Temple  belongs 
to  another,  who  will  defend  it,"  and  on  the  king  exclaiming,  "  He 
cannot  defend  it  from  me,"  he  said,  "That  is  your  affair  ;  only  give 
me  back  my  camels." 

As  it  is  related  in  a  more  credible  version,  the  tribes  settled  round 
Mecca  sent  ambassadors,  of  whom  'Abdu  'l-Muttahb  was  one,  offer- 
ing to  surrender  a  third  part  of  their  possessions  to  Abraha  on  con- 
dition that  he  should  spare  the  Temple,  but  he  refused.  Having 
recovered  his  camels,  'Abdu  '1-Muttalib  returned  to  the  Quraysh, 
told  them  what  had  happened,  and  bade  them  leave  the  city  and 
take  shelter  in  the  mountains.  Then  he  went  to  the  Ka'ba,  accom- 
panied by  several  of  the  Quraysh,  to  pray  for  help  against  Abraha 
and  his  army.     Grasping  the  ring  of  the  door,  he  cried  :— 

"0   God,   defend  Thy  neighbouring  folk  even  as   a  man   his  gear^ 
defendeth ! 
Let  not  their  Cross   and    guileful   plans  defeat  the  plans  Thyself 

intendeth  ! 
But  if  Thou  make  it  so,  'tis  well:  according  to  Thy  will  it  endeth.''^ 

'  I  read  hildlak.    See  Glossary  to  Tabari.  '  Tabari,  i,  940,  13. 


68  THE  LEGENDS   OF   THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

Next  morning,  when  Abraha  prepared  to  enter  Mecca,  his 
elephant  knelt  down  and  would  not  budge,  though  they  beat  its 
head  with  an  axe  and  thrust  sharp  stakes  into  its  flanks  ;  but  when 
they  turned  it  in  the  direction  of  Yemen,  it  rose  up  and  trotted  with 
alacrity.     Then  God  sent  from  the  sea  a  flock  of  birds  like  swallows 

every  one  of  which  carried  three  stones  as  large  as  a 
Ab°ysskdans.     chick-pea  or  a  lentil,  one  in  its  bill  and  one  in  each 

claw,  and  all  who  were  struck  by  those  stones  perished.' 
The  rest  fled  in  disorder,  dropping  down  as  they  ran  or  wherever 
they  halted  to  quench  their  thirst.  Abraha  himself  was  smitten 
with  a  plague  so  that  his  limbs  rotted  off  piecemeal.^ 

These  details  are  founded  on  the  105th  chapter  of  the 
Koran,  entitled  '  The  Sura  of  the  Elephant,'  w^hich  may  be 
freely  rendered  as  follows  : — 

"  Hast  not  thou  seen  the  people  of  the  Elephant,  how  dealt  with 
them  the  Lord  ? 
Did  not  He  make  their  plot  to  end  in  ruin  abhorred  ? — 
When  He  sent  against  them  birds,  horde  on  horde, 
And  stones  of  baked  clay  upon  them  poured. 
And  made  them  as  leaves  of  corn  devoured." 

The  part  played  by  'Abdu  '1-Muttalib  in  the  story  is,  or 
course,  a  pious  fiction  designed  to  glorify  the  Holy  City  and 
to  claim  for  the  Prophet's  family  fifty  years  before  Islam  a 
predominance  which  they  did  not  obtain  until  long  afterwards  ; 
but  equally  of  course  the  legend  reflects  Muhammadan  belief, 
and  may  be  studied  with  advantage  as  a  characteristic  specimen 
of  its  class. 

"  When  God  repulsed  the  Abyssinians  from  Mecca  and 
smote  them  with  His  vengeance,  the  Arabs  held  the  Quraysh 

'  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  "  (Tabari,  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. 

=  There  is  trustworthy  evidence  that  Abraha  continued  to  rule  Yemen 
for  some  time  after  his  defeat. 


ROUT  OF   THE  ABYSSINIANS  69 

in  high  respect  and  said,  *  They  are  God's  people  :  God  hath 
fought  for  them  and  hath  defended  them  against  their  enemy  ;* 
and  made  poems  on  this  matter."  ^  The  following  verses, 
according  to  Ibn  Ishaq,  are  by  Abu  '1-Salt  b.  Abi  Rabl'a  of 
Thaqif;  others  more  reasonably  ascribe  them  to  his  son 
Umayya,  a  well-known  poet  and  monotheist  [Hanlf)  con- 
temporary with  Muhammad  : — 

"  Lo,  the  signs  of  our  Lord  are  everlasting, 
None  disputes  them  except  the  unbeliever. 
He  created  Day  and  Night  :  unto  all  men 
Is  their  Reckoning  ordained,  clear  and  certain. 
Gracious  Lord  !  He  illumines  the  daytime 
With  a  sun  v/idely  scattering  radiance. 
Verses  by       He  the  Elephant  stayed  at  Mughammas 

Umayya  b.  Abi    „      ^,     ^  -^    ,•  \  ^u  u    -^  u  4-         ^ 

'1-Sait.         So  that  sore  it  limped  as  though  it  were  hamstrung, 
Cleaving  close  to  its  halter,  and  down  dropped, 
As  one  falls  from  the  crag  of  a  mountain. 
Gathered  round  it  were  princes  of  Kinda, 
Noble  heroes,  fierce  hawks  in  the  mellay. 
There  they  left  it  :  they  all  fled  together. 
Every  man  with  his  shank-bone  broken. 
Vain  before  God  is  every  religion. 
When  the  dead  rise,  except  the  Hanifite.-" 

The  patriotic  feelings  aroused  in  the  Arabs  of  the  Hijaz 
by  the  Abyssinian  invasion — feehngs  which  must  have  been 
shared  to  some  extent  by  the  Bedouins  generally — received  a 
fresh  stimulus  through  events  which  occurred  about  forty  years 
after  this  time  on  the  other  side  of  the  peninsula.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  the  Lakhmite  dynasty  at  Hira  came  to  an 
end  with  Nu'man  III,  who  was  cruelly  executed  by  Khusraw 
Parwez  (6o2  or  607  a.d.).3  Before  his  death  he  had  deposited 
his  arms  and  other  property  with  Hani',  a  chieftain  of  the 
Banu  Bakr.  These  were  claimed  by  Khusraw,  and  as  Hani' 
refused  to  give  them  up,  a  Persian  army  was  sent  to  Dhu  Q^S 

'  Ibn  Hisham,  p.  38, 1.  14  sqq.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  40,  1.  12  sqq. 

3  See  pp.  48-49  supra. 


70  THE  LEGENDS   OF   THE  PAGAN  ARABS 

a  place  near  Kiifa  abounding  in  water  and  consequently  a 
favourite   resort  of  the   Bakrites    during  the  dry    season.     A 

desperate  conflict  ensued,  in  which  the  Persians 
Qir(circa6io     were  Completely   routed, ^      Although   the  forces 

engaged  were  comparatively  small,^  this  victory 
was  justly  regarded  by  the  Arabs  as  marking  the  com- 
mencement of  a  new  order  of  things  ;  e.g.^  it  is  related  that 
Muhammad  said  when  the  tidings  reached  him  :  "  This  is  the 
first  day  on  which  the  Arabs  have  obtained  satisfaction  from 
the  Persians."  The  desert  tribes,  hitherto  overshadowed  by 
the  Sasanian  Empire  and  held  in  check  by  the  powerful 
dynasty  of  Hira,  were  now  confident  and  aggressive.  They 
began  to  hate  and  despise  the  Colossus  which  they  no  longer 
feared,  and  which,  before  many  years  had  elapsed,  they  trampled 
in  the  dust. 

'  Full  details  are  given  by  Tabari,  i,  ioi6-io37=Noldeke's  translation, 

pp.  311-345-  ,  .  r,      • 

^  A  poet  speaks  of  three  thousand  Arabs  and  two  thousand  Persians 

Tabari,  i,  1036,  5-6). 


CHAPTER  III 

PRE-rSLAMIC    POETRY,    MANNERS,    AND    RELIGION 

"  When  there  appeared  a  poet  in  a  family  of  the  Arabs,  the 
other  tribes  round  about  would  gather  together  to  that  family 
and  wish  them  joy  of  their  good  luck.  Feasts  would  be  got 
ready,  the  women  of  the  tribe  would  join  together  in  bands, 
playing  upon  lutes,  as  they  were  wont  to  do  at  bridals,  and  the 
men  and  boys  would  congratulate  one  another  ;  for  a  poet  was 
a  defence  to  the  honour  of  them  all,  a  weapon  to  ward  off 
insult  from  their  good  name,  and  a  means  of  perpetuating  their 
glorious  deeds  and  of  establishing  their  fame  for  ever.  And 
they  used  not  to  wish  one  another  joy  but  for  three  things — 
the  birth  of  a  boy,  the  coming  to  light  of  a  poet,  and  the 
foaling  of  a  noble  mare."  ^ 

As  far  as  extant  literature  is  concerned — and  at  this  time 
there  was  only  a  spoken  literature,  which  was  preserved  by 
oral  tradition,  and  first  committed  to  writing  long  afterwards 
— the  ydhiliyya  or  Pre-islamic  Age  covers  scarcely  more  than 
a  century,  from  about  500  a.d.,  when  the  oldest  poems  of 
which  we  have  any  record  were  composed,  to  the  year  of 
Muhammad's  Flight  to  Medina  (622  a.d.),  which  is  the 
starting-point  of  a  new  era  in  Arabian  history.  The  influence 
of  these   hundred  and  twenty   years   was   great  and  lasting. 

'  Ibn  Rashiq  in  Suyiiti's  Muzhir  (Bulaq,  1282  A.H.),  Part  II,  p.  236,  1.  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. 

71 


72  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

They  saw  the  rise  and  incipient  decline  of  a  poetry  which 
most  Arabic-speaking  Moslems  have  always  regarded  as  a 
model  of  unapproachable  excellence  ;  a  poetry  rooted  in  the 
life  of  the  people,  that  insensibly  moulded  their  minds  and 
fixed  their  character  and  made  them  morally  and  spiritually  a 
nation  long  before  Muhammad  welded  the  various  conflicting 
groups  into  a  single  organism,  animated,  for  some  time  at 
least,  by  a  common  purpose.  In  those  days  poetry  was  no 
luxury  for  the  cultured  few,  but  the  sole  medium  of  literary 
expression.  Every  tribe  had  its  poets,  who  freely  uttered  what 
they  felt  and  thought.  Their  unwritten  words  "  flew  across 
the  desert  faster  than  arrows,"  and  came  home  to  the  hearts 
and  bosoms  of  all  who  heard  them.  Thus  in  the  midst  of 
outward  strife  and  disintegration  a  unifying  principle  was  at 
work.  Poetry  gave  life  and  currency  to  an  ideal  of  Arabian 
virtue  [muruwwa),  which,  though  based  on  tribal  community 
of  blood  and  insisting  that  only  ties  of  blood  were  sacred, 
nevertheless  became  an  invisible  bond  between  diverse  clans, 
and  formed,  whether  consciously  or  not,  the  basis  of  a  national 
community  of  sentiment. 

In  the    following    pages  I  propose  to  trace  the  origins  of 

Arabian    poetry,  to  describe  its   form,  contents,  and   general 

features,  to  give  some  account  of  the  most  cele- 

Origins  of       brated    Pre-islamic   poets  and  collections  of  Pre- 

Arabian  poetry  r 

islamic  verse,  and  finally  to  show  in  what  manner 
it  was  preserved  and  handed  down. 

By  the  ancient  Arabs  the  poet  {shd^ir^  plural  shu'ara),  as  his 
name  implies,  was  held  to  be  a  person  endowed  with  super- 
natural knowledge,  a  wizard  in  league  with  spirits  (Jinn)  or 
satans  (jhaydtin)  and  dependent  on  them  for  the  magical 
powers  which  he  displayed.  This  view  of  his.  personality, 
as  well  as  the  influential  position  which  he  occupied,  are  curi- 
ously indicated  by  the  story  of  a  certain  youth  who  was  refused 
the  hand  of  his  beloved  on  the  ground  that  he  was  neither  a  poet 


THE  POET  AS  A    WIZARD  73 

nor  a  soothsayer  nor  a  water-diviner.^  The  idea  of  poetry  as 
an  art  was  developed  afterwards  ;  the  pagan  sha^ir  is  the  oracle 
of  his  tribe,  their  guide  in  peace  and  their  champion  in  war. 
It  was  to  him  they  turned  for  counsel  when  they  sought  new 
pastures,  only  at  his  word  would  they  pitch  or  strike  their  'houses 
of  hair,'  and  when  the  tired  and  thirsty  wanderers  found  a  well 
and  drank  of  its  water  and  washed  themselves,  led  by  him  they 
may  have  raised  their  voices  together  and  sung,  like  Israel — 

"  Spring  up,  O  well,  sing  ye  unto  it." " 

Besides  fountain-songs,  war-songs,  and  hymns  to  idols, 
other  kinds  of  poetry  must  have  existed  in  the  earliest  times — 
e.g.^  the  love-song  and  the  dirge.  The  powers  of  the  shd^ir, 
however,  were  chiefly  exhibited  in  Satire  {hijd)^  which  in  the 
oldest  known  form  "  introduces  and  accompanies  the  tribal 
feud,  and  is  an  element  of  war  just  as  important 
as  the  actual  fighting."  3  The  menaces  which  he 
hurled  against  the  foe  were  believed  to  be  inevitably  fatal. 
His  rhymes,  often  compared  to  arrows,  had  all  the  eiFect  of  a 
solemn  curse  spoken  by  a  divinely  inspired  prophet  or  priest,4 
and  their  pronunciation  was  attended  with  peculiar  ceremonies 
of  a  symbolic  character,  such  as  anointing  the  hair  on  one  side 
of  the  head,  letting  the  mantle  hang  down  loosely,  and  wear- 
ing only  one  sandal.S  Satire  retained  something  of  these 
ominous  associations  at  a  much  later  period  when  the  magic 
utterance  of  the  shdHr  had  long  given  place  to  the  lampoon 

'  Freytag,  Arabutn  Proverbia,  vol.  ii,  p.  494. 

-  Numb,  xxi,  17.  Such  well-songs  are  still  sung  in  the  Syrian  desert 
(see  Enno  Littmann,  Ncuarabischc  Volkspoesic,  in  Abhand.  dcr  Koii.  Gesell- 
schaft  der  Wissenschafteii,  Phil.-Hist.  Klassc,  Gottingen,  1901),  p.  92.  In 
a  specimen  cited  at  p.  81  we  find  the  words  witlaya  dlewena — i.e.,  "  Rise, 
O  bucket  !  "  several  times  repeated. 

3  Goldziher,  Ucbcr  die  Vorgcschichte  der  Higd'-Poesie  in  his  Abhand.  zur 
Arab.  Philologie,  Part  I  (Leyden,  1896),  p.  26. 

*  Cf.  the  story  of  Balak  and  Balaam,  with  Goldziher's  remarks  thereon, 
ibid.,  p.  42  seq. 

s  Ibid.,  p.  46  seq. 


74  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

by  which  the  poet  reviles  his  enemies  and  holds  them  up  to 
shame. 

The  obscure  beginnings  of  Arabian  poetry,  presided  over 
by  the  magician  and  his  familiar  spirits,  have  left  not  a 
rack  behind  in  the  shape  of  literature,  but  the  task 
^*  of  reconstruction  is  comparatively  easy  vi^here  we 

are  dealing  with  a  people  so  conservative  and  tenacious  of 
antiquity  as  the  Arabs.  Thus  it  may  be  taken  for  certain 
that  the  oldest  form  of  poetical  speech  in  Arabia  was  rhyme 
without  metre  (i'rt/''),  or,  as  we  should  say,  'rhymed  prose,' 
although  the  fact  of  Muhammad's  adversaries  calling  him  a 
poet  because  he  used  it  in  the  Koran  shows  the  light  in  which 
it  was  regarded  even  after  the  invention  and  elaboration  of 
metre.  Later  on,  as  we  shall  see,  5fl/'  became  a  merely 
rhetorical  ornament,  the  distinguishing  mark  of  all  eloquence 
whether  spoken  or  written,  but  originally  it  had  a  deeper, 
almost  religious,  significance  as  the  special  form  adopted  by 
poets,  soothsayers,  and  the  like  in  their  supernatural  revelations 
and  for  conveying  to  the  vulgar  every  kind  of  mysterious  and 
esoteric  lore. 

Out  of  1S.2;'  was  evolved  the  most  ancient  of  the  Arabian 
metres,  which  is  known  by  the  name  of  RajazJ  This  is  an 
irregular  iambic  metre  usually  consisting  of  four 
^'^^'  or  six — an  Arab  would  write  '  two  or  three  ' — 
feet  to  the  line  ;  and  it  is  a  peculiarity  of  Rajaz^  marking  its 
affinity  to  Sa/,  that  all  the  lines  rhyme  with  each  other, 
whereas  in  the  more  artificial  metres  only  the  opening  verse  ^ 

'  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  interest- 
ing theory  that  the  Arabian  metres  arose  out  of  the  camel-driver's  song 
[hidd)  in  harmony  with  the  varying  paces  of  the  animal  which  he  rode 
(Studien  in  arabischcii  Dichtern,  Heft  III,  p.  179  sqq.). 

2  The  Arabic  verse  (bayt)  consists  of  two  halves  or  hemistichs  (misrd''). 
It  is  generally  convenient  to  use  the  word  '  line '  as  a  translation  of  misrd\ 
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. 


ARABIAN  METRES  75 

is  doubly  rhymed.  A  further  characteristic  of  Rajaz.  is  that 
it  should  be  uttered  extempore,  a  few  verses  at  a  time — com- 
monly verses  expressing  some  personal  feeling,  emotion,  or 
experience,  like  those  of  the  aged  vv^arrior  Durayd  b.  Zayd  b. 
Nahd  vv^hen  he  lay  dying  : — 

"  The  house  of  death '  is  builded  for  Durayd  to-day. 
Could  Time  be  worn  out,  sure  had  I  worn  Time  away. 
No  single  foe  but  I  had  faced  and  brought  to  bay. 
The  spoils  I  gathered  in,  how  excellent  were  they  ! 
The  women  that  I  loved,  how  fine  was  their  array  !"' 

Here  would  have  been  the  proper  place  to  give  an  account 

of  the  principal   Arabian  metres — the  '  Perfect '  (Kdmil),  the 

*  Ample'    {Wafir\    the    'Long'    [Tawll),    the 

other  metres,    c  ^jj^  ,     {Baslt),     the     'Light'     {Khafif),    and 

several  more — but  in  order  to  save  valuable  space  I  must 
content  myself  with  referring  the  reader  to  the  extremely 
lucid  treatment  of  this  subject  by  Sir  Charles  Lyall  in  the 
Introduction  to  his  Ancient  Arabian  Poetry^  pp.  xlv-lii.  All 
the  metres  are  quantitative,  as  in  Greek  and  Latin.  Their 
names  and  laws  were  unknown  to  the  Pre-islamic  bards  :  the 
rules  of  prosody  were  first  deduced  from  the  ancient  poems  and 
systematised  by  the  grammarian,  Khalil  b.  Ahmad  (t  791  a.d.), 
to  whom  the  idea  is  said  to  have  occurred  as  he  watched  a 
coppersmith  beating  time  on  the  anvil  with  his  hammer. 

We  have  now  to  consider  the  form  and  matter  of  the  oldest 
extant  poems  in  the  Arabic  language.     Between  these  highly 

developed  productions  and    the   rude  doggerel  of 
extant°poems.    Saj*"  OX  Rajaz  there  lies  an  interval,  the  length  of 

which  it  is  impossible  even  to  conjecture.  The 
first  poets  are  already  consummate  masters  of  the  craft.  "  The 
number  and  complexity  of  the  measures  which  they  use,  their 
established    laws    of  quantity   and    rhyme,    and    the    uniform 

'  In  Arabic  'al-bayt,'  the  tent,  which  is  here  used  figuratively  for  the 
grave. 
"  Ibn  Qutayba,  Kitabu  'l-Shi'r  wa-'l-Shu'atd,  p.  36,  1,  3  sqq. 


76  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

manner  in  which  they  introduce  the  subject  of  their  poems,i 
notwithstanding  the  distance  which  often  separated  one  com- 
poser from  another,  all  point  to  a  long  previous  study  and 
cultivation  of  the  art  of  expression  and  the  capacities  of  their 
language,  a  study  of  which  no  record  now  remains."  ^ 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  dawn  of  the  Golden  Age  of 
Arabian  Poetry  coincided  with  the  first  decade  of  the  sixth 
century  after  Christ.  About  that  time  the  War 
of  Basus,  the  chronicle  of  which  has  preserved  a 
considerable  amount  of  contemporary  verse,  was  in  full 
blaze  ;  and  the  first  Arabian  ode  was  composed,  according 
to  tradition,  by  Muhalhil  b.  Rabi'a  the  Taghlibite  on  the 
death  of  his  brother,  the  chieftain  Kulayb,  which  caused  war 
to  break  out  between  Baler  and  Taghlib.  At  any  rate,  during 
the  next  hundred  years  in  almost  every  part  of  the  peninsula 
we  meet  with  a  brilliant  succession  of  singers,  all  using  the 
same  poetical  dialect  and  strictly  adhering  to  the  same  rules  of 
composition.  The  fashion  which  they  set  maintained  itself 
virtually  unaltered  down  to  the  end  of  the  Umayyad  period 
(750  A.D.),  and  though  challenged  by  some  daring  spirits  under 
the  'Abbasid  Caliphate,  speedily  reasserted  its  supremacy,  which 
at  the  present  day  is  almost  as  absolute  as  ever. 

This  fashion  centres  in    the    QasJdayS    or    Ode,    the    only 
form,  or  rather  the  only  finished  type  of  poetry  that  existed 

'  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.  i). 

=  Ancient  Arabian  Poetry,  Introduction,  p.  xvi. 

3  Oasida  is  explained  by  Arabian  lexicographers  to  mean  a  poem  with 
an  artistic  purpose,  but  they  differ  as  to  the  precise  sense  in  which  '  pur- 
pose '  is  to  be  understood.  Modern  critics  are  equally  at  variance.  Jacob 
(Stud,  in  Arab.  Dichteni,  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  {Bcmcrkangcn  iiber  die  Aechtheit  deralten 
Arab.  Gedichte,  p.  24  seq.)  connects  it  with  qasada,  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  Rajas  verses,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  74  supra"),  there 
is  no  such  break. 


THE   QAStDA    OR    ODE  77 

in  what,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  may  be  called  the  classical 
period  of  Arabic  literature.  The  verses  [ahyat^  singular  bayt) 
of  which  it  is  built  vary  in  number,  but  are  seldom 
eyasi  a.  j^^^  than  twenty-five  or  more  than  a  hundred  ; 
and  the  arrangement  of  the  rhymes  is  such  that,  while  the  two 
halves  of  the  first  verse  rhyme  together,  the  same  rhyme  is 
repeated  once  in  the  second,  third,  and  every  following  verse 
to  the  end  of  the  poem.  Blank-verse  is  alien  to  the  Arabs, 
who  regard  rhyme  not  as  a  pleasing  ornament  or  a  "  trouble- 
some bondage,"  but  as  a  vital  organ  of  poetry.  The  rhymes 
are  usually  feminine,  e.g.^  sakhind,  tu//«^,  muhlnd  ,•  mukh//W/, 
yadlj  '■\ivfwadi ;  xydmuhd^  sxldmuhd^  hardmuhd.  To  surmount 
the  difficulties  of  the  monorhyme  demands  great  technical 
skill  even  in  a  language  of  which  the  peculiar  formation 
renders  the  supply  of  rhymes  extraordinarily  abundant.  The 
longest  of  the  Mu^allaqdt,  the  so-called  '  Long  Poems,'  is 
considerably  shorter  than  Gray's  Elegy.  An  Arabian  Homer 
or  Chaucer  must  have  condescended  to  prose.  With  respect 
to  metre  the  poet  may  choose  any  except  Rajaz^  which  is 
deemed  beneath  the  dignity  of  the  Ode,  but  his  liberty  does 
not  extend  either  to  the  choice  of  subjects  or  to  the  method  of 
handling  them  :  on  the  contrary,  the  course  of  his  ideas  is 
determined  by  rigid  conventions  which  he  durst  not  overstep. 

"  I  have  heard,"  says  Ibn  Qutayba,  "from  a  man  of  learning  that 
the  composer  of  Odes  began  by  mentioning  the  deserted  dwelling- 
places  and  the  relics  and  traces  of  habitation.     Then 
^'^c  uiu  oMhe    ^^  wept  and  complained  and  addressed  the  desolate 
contents  and     encampment,  and  begged  his  companion  to  make  a 
ivisions^o       e  ^^^^^^  .^  Order  that  he  might  have  occasion  to  speak 

of  those  who  had  once  lived  there  and  afterwards 
departed  ;  for  the  dwellers  in  tents  were  different  from  townsmen  or 
villagers  in  respect  of  coming  and  going,  because  they  moved  from 
one  water-spring  to  another,  seeking  pasture  and  searching  out  the 
places  where  rain  had  fallen.  Then  to  this  h  linked  the  erotic 
prelude  (nasib),  and  bewailed  the  violence  of  his  love  and  the 
anguish  of  separation  from  his  mistress  and  the  extremity  of  his 
passion  and  desire,  so  as  to  win  the  hearts  of  his  hearers  and  divert 


78  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

their  eyes  towards  him  and  invite  their  ears  to  Hsten  to  him,  since 
the  song  of  love  touches  men's  souls  and  takes  hold  of  their  hearts, 
God  having'put  it  in  the  constitution  of  His  creatures  to  love  dalliance 
and  the  society  of  women,  in  such  wise  that  we  find  very  few  but 
are  attached  thereto  by  some  tie  or  have  some  share  therein,  whether 
lawful  or  unpermitted.  Now,  when  the  poet  had  assured  himself  of 
an  attentive  hearing,  he  followed  up  his  advantage  and  set  forth  his 
claim  :  thus  he  went  on  to  complain  of  fatigue  and  want  of  sleep 
and  travelling  by  night  and  of  the  noonday  heat,  and  how  his  camel 
had  been  reduced  to  leanness.  And  when,  after  representing  all  the 
discomfort  and  danger  of  his  journey,  he  knew  that  he  had  fully 
justified  his  hope  and  expectation  of  receiving  his  due  meed  from 
the  person  to  whom  the  poem  was  addressed,  he  entered  upon  the 
panegyric  (madih),  and  incited  him  to  reward,  and  kindled  his 
generosity  by  exalting  him  above  his  peers  and  pronouncing  the 
greatest  dignity,  in  comparison  with  his,  to  be  little."  ' 

Hundreds  of  Odes  answer  exactly  to  this  description,  which 
must  not,  however,  be  regarded  as  the  invariable  model.  The 
erotic  prelude  is  often  omitted,  especially  in  elegies  ;  or  if  it 
does  not  lead  directly  to  the  main  subject,  it  may  be  followed 
by  a  faithful  and  minute  delineation  of  the  poet's  horse  or 
camel  which  bears  him  through  the  wilderness  with  a  speed 
like  that  of  the  antelope,  the  wild  ass,  or  the  ostrich  :  Bedouin 
poetry  abounds  in  fine  studies  of  animal  life.^  The  choice  of 
a  motive  is  left  open.  Panegyric,  no  doubt,  paid  better  than 
any  other,  and  was  therefore  the  favourite  ;  but  in  Pre- islamic 
times  the  poet  could  generally  please  himself.  The  qasida 
is  no  organic  whole  :  rather  its  unity  resembles  that  of  a  series 
of  pictures  by  the  same  hand  or,  to  employ  an  Eastern  trope, 
of  pearls  various  in  size  and  quality  threaded  on  a  necklace. 

The  ancient  poetry  may  be  defined  as  an  illustrative  criti- 

'  Kitdbu  'l-Shi'r  wa-'l-Shu'ard,  p.  14,  1.  10  sqq. 

^  Noldeke  (Filnf  Mo'allaqdt,  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. 


SHANFARA  79 

cism  of  Pre-islamic  life  and  thought.  Here  the  Arab  has 
drawn  himself  at  full  length  without  embellishment  or  ex- 
tenuation. 

It  is  not  mere  chance  that  Abu  Tammam's  famous 
anthology  is  called  the  Hamasa^  i.e.,  *  Fortitude,'  from  the 
title  of  its  first  chapter,  which  occupies  nearly  a  half  of  the 
book.  '  Hamasa  '  denotes  the  virtues  most  highly  prized  by 
the  Arabs — bravery  in  battle,  patience  in  misfortune,  persist- 
ence in  revenge,  protection  of  the  weak  and  defiance  of  the 
strong  ;  the  will,  as  Tennyson  has  said, 

"  To  strive,  to  seek,  to  find,  and  not  to  yield." 

As  types  of  the  ideal  Arab  hero  we  may  take  Shanfard  of 
Azd  and  his  comrade  in  foray,  Ta'abbata  Sharr^". 
^^^  htro.^'^^^    Both  were  brigands,  outlaws,  swift  runners,  and 
excellent  poets.     Of  the  former 

"  it  is  said  that  he  was  captured  when  a  child  from  his  tribe  by  the 
Banu  Saldman,  and  brought  up  among  them  :  he  did  not  learn  his 
origin  until  he  had  grown  up,  when  he  vowed  vengeance  against 
his  captors,  and  returned  to  his  own  tribe.  His  oath  was  that  he 
would  slay  a  hundred  men  of  Salaman  ;  he  slew  ninety-eight,  when 
an  ambush  of  his  enemies  succeeded  in  taking  him  prisoner.  In 
the  struggle  one  of  his  hands  was  hewn  off  by  a  sword 

Shanfara 

stroke,  and,  taking  it  in  the  other,  he  flung  it  in  the 
face  of  a  man  of  Salaman  and  killed  him,  thus  making  ninet3'-nine. 
Then  he  was  overpowered  and  slain,  with  one  still  wanting  to  make 
up  his  number.  As  his  skull  lay  bleaching  on  the  ground,  a  man 
of  his  enemies  passed  by  that  way  and  kicked  it  with  his  foot ;  a 
splinter  of  bone  entered  his  foot,  the  wound  mortified,  and  he  died, 
thus  completing  the  hundred." ' 

The  following  passage  is  translated  from  Shanfard's  splendid 
Ode  named  Lamiyyatu  U-^Arab  (the  poem  rhymed  in  /  of  the 

'  Ancient  Arabian  Poetry,  p.  83. 


8o  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

Arabs),  in  which  he  describes  his  own  heroic  character  and 
the  hardships  of  a  predatory  life: — ^ 

"  Somewhere  the  noble  find  a  refuge  afar  from  scathe, 
The  outlaw  a  lonely  spot  where  no  kin  with  hatred  burn. 
Oh,  never  a  prudent  man,  night-faring  in  hope  or  fear, 
Hard  pressed  on   the  face  of   earth,  but   still   he  hath  room  to 
turn. 

To  me  now,  in  your  default,  are  comrades  a  wolf  untired, 
A  sleek  leopard,  and  a  fell  hyena  with  shaggy  mane  :^ 
True  comrades,  who  yield  not  up  the  secret  consigned  to  them, 
Nor  basely  forsake  their  friend   because   that  he  brought  them 
bane. 

And  each  is  a  gallant  heart  and  ready  at  honour's  call, 
Yet  I,  when  the  foremost  charge,  am  bravest  of  all  the  brave  ; 
But  if  they  with  hands  outstretched  are  seizing  the  booty  won, 
The  slowest  am  I  whenas  most  quick  is  the  greedy  knave. 

By  naught  save  my  generous  will  I  reach  to  the  height  of  worth 
Above  them,  and  sure  the  best  is  he  with  the  will  to  give. 
Yea,  well  I  am  rid  of  those  who  pay  not  a  kindness  back. 
Of  whom  I  have  no  delight  though  neighbours  to  me  they  live. 

Enow  are  companions  three  at  last  :  an  intrepid  soul, 
A  glittering  trenchant  blade,  a  tough  bow  of  ample  size. 
Loud-twanging,  the  sides  thereof   smooth-polished,  a  handsome 

bow 
Hung  down  from  the  shoulder-belt  by  thongs  in  a  comely  wise, 
That  groans,  when  the  arrow  slips  away,  like  a  woman  crushed 
By  losses,  bereaved  of  all  her  children,  who  wails  and  cries." 


'  Verses  3-13.     I  have  attempted  to  imitate  the  '  Long'  (Tawil)  metre  of 
the  original,  viz.  : — 


The  Arabic  text  of  the  Ldmiyya,  with  prose  translation  and  commentary, 
is  printed  in  De  Sacy's  Chrestoinathie  Arabc  (2nd  ed.),  vol.  ii^,  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  Noldeke, 
Beitn'ige  ztir  Kcnntniss  d.  Pocsie  d.  altcn  Arabcr,  p.  200. 

=  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. 


TA'ABBATA    SHARR''^  8i 

On  quitting  his  tribe,  who  cast  him  out  when  they  were 
threatened  on  all  sides  by  enemies  seeking  vengeance  for  the 
blood  that  he  had  spilt,  Shanfara  said  : — 

"  Bury  me  not  !     Me  you  are  forbidden  to  bury, 
But  thou,  O  hyena,  soon  wilt  feast  and  make  merry. 
When  foes  bear  away  mine  head,  wherein  is  the  best  of  me, 
And  leave  on  the  battle-field  for  thee  all  the  rest  of  me. 
Here  nevermore  I  hope  to  live  glad — a  stranger 
Accurst,  whose  wild  deeds  have  brought  his  people  in  danger." ' 

Thabit  b.  Jabir  b.  Sufyan  of  Fahm  is  said  to  have  got  his 
nickname,  Ta'abbata  Sharr*",  because  one  day  his  mother,  who 

had  seen  him  go  forth  from  his  tent  with  a  sword 
^sh^a'rram        Under    his    arm,    on    being    asked,    "  Where    is 

Thabit  ?  "  replied,  "  I  know  not  :  he  put  a 
mischief  under  his  arm-pit  (ta'abbata  sharr"")  and  departed." 
According  to  another  version  of  the  story,  the  'mischief 
was  a  Ghoul  whom  he  vanquished  and  slew  and  carried  home 
in  this  manner.  The  following  lines,  which  he  addressed  to 
his  cousin.  Shams  b.  Malik,  may  be  applied  with  equal  justice 
to  the  poet  himself : — 

"  Little  he  complains  of  labour  that  befalls  him  ;  much  he  wills ; 

Diverse  ways  attempting,  mightily  his  purpose  he  fulfils. 

Through  one  desert  in  the  sun's  heat,  through  another  in  star- 
light, 

Lonely  as  the  wild  ass,  rides  he  bare-backed  Danger  noon  and 
night. 

He  the  foremost  wind  outpaceth,  while  in  broken  gusts  it  blows, 

Speeding  onward,  never  slackening,  never  staying  for  repose. 

Prompt  to  dash  upon  the  foeman,  every  minute  watching  well — 

Are  his  eyes  in  slumber  lightly  sealed,  his  heart  stands  sentinel. 

When  the  first  advancing  troopers  rise  to  sight,  he  sets  his 
hand 

From  the  scabbard  forth  to  draw  his  sharp-edged,  finely-mettled 
brand. 


'  Hanidsa,  242. 

7 


._>, 


82  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

When  he  shakes  it  in  the  breast-bone  of  a  champion  of  the  foe, 
How  the  grinning  Fates  in   open   glee  their  flashing  side-teeth 

show ! 
Solitude  his  chosen  comrade,  on  he  fares  while  overhead 
By  the  Mother  of  the  mazy  constellations  he  is  led."' 

These  verses  admirably  describe  the  rudimentary  Arabian 
virtues  of  courage,  hardness,  and  strength.  We  must  now 
take  a  wider  survey  of  the  moral  ideas  on  which  pagan  society 
was  built,  and  of  which  Pre-islamic  poetry  is  at  once  the  pro- 
mulgation and  the  record.  There  was  no  written  code,  no 
legal  or  religious  sanction — nothing,  in  effect,  save  the  binding 
force    of   traditional    sentiment  and   opinion,  i.e.^ 

The  old  Arabian    ,._  ttt-i  i  i  i-  •  r 

points  of       Honour.     What,  then,  are    the  salient   points  or 

honour.  .  i-it7-  i  it  /t  \ 

honour  in  which   Virtue    [Muruwwa)^  as  it  was 
understood  by  the  heathen  Arabs,  consists  ? 

Courage  has  been  already  mentioned.  Arab  courage  is  like 
that  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  "  dependent  upon  excitement  and 
vanishing  quickly  before  depression  and  delay." ^ 
Hence  the  Arab  hero  is  defiant  and  boastful,  as 
he  appears,  e.g.^  in  the  Mu'-allaqa  of  'Amr  b.  Kulthum. 
When  there  is  little  to  lose  by  flight  he  will  ride  off"  un- 
ashamed ;  but  he  will  fight  to  the  death  for  his  womenfolk, 
who  in  serious  warfare  often  accompanied  the  tribe  and 
were  stationed  behind  the  line  of  battle.  3 

"When  I  saw  the  hard  earth  hollowed 
By  our  women's  flying  footprints, 
And  Lamis  her  face  uncovered 
Like  the  full  moon  of  the  skies, 
Showing  forth  her  hidden  beauties — 
Then  the  matter  was  grim  earnest  : 
I  engaged  their  chief  in  combat, 
Seeing  help  no  other  wise."  ■• 


'  Hamdsa,  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. 

-  Mahaffy,  Social  Life  in  Greece,  p.  21.  ^  See  pp.  59-60  supra. 

■»  Hamdsa,  82-83.  The  poet  is  'Amr  b.  Ma'dikarib,  a  famous  heathen 
knight  who  accepted  Islam  and  afterwards  distinguished  himself  in  the 
Persian  wars. 


COURAGE  AND  LOYALTY  83 

The  tribal  constitution  was  a  democracy  guided  by  its  chief ' 
men,  who  derived    their   authority   from    noble    blood,  noble  •^<^ 
character,   wealth,  wisdom,  and    experience.     As   a    Bedouin    j 
poet  has  said  in  homely  language —  -^ 

"  A  folk  that  hath  no  chiefs  must  soon  decay, 
And  chiefs  it  hath  not  when  the  vulgar  sway. 
Only  with  poles  the  tent  is  reared  at  last, 
And  poles  it  hath  not  save  the  pegs  hold  fast. 
But  when  the  pegs  and  poles  are  once  combined, 
Then  stands  accomplished  that  which  was  designed." ' 

The  chiefs,  however,  durst  not  lay  commands  or  penalties  on 
their  fellow-tribesmen.  Every  man  ruled  himself,  and  was 
free  to  rebuke  presumption  in  others.  '•^  If  you  are  our  lord'''' 
{i.e.f  if  you  act  discreetly  as  a  sayyid  should),  "  you  will  lord 
over  uSy  but  if  you  are  a  prey  to  pride^  go  and  be  proud  !  "  (/.^.,  we 
will  have  nothing  to  do  with  you).^  Loyalty  in  the  mouth  of 
a  pagan  Arab  did  not  mean  allegiance  to  his  superiors,  but 
faithful  devotion  to  his  equals  ;  and  it  was  closely 
connected  with  the  idea  of  kinship.  The  family 
and  the  tribe,  which  included  strangers  living  in  the  tribe 
under  a  covenant  of  protection — to  defend  these,  individually 
and  collectively,  was  a  sacred  duty.  Honour  required  that 
a  man  should  stand  by  his  own  people  through  thick  and 
thin. 

"  I  am  of  Ghaziyya  :  if  she  be  in  error,  then  I  will  err  ; 
And  if  Ghaziyya  be  guided  right,  I  go  right  with  her  ! " 

sang  Durayd  b.  Simma,  who  had  followed  his  kin,  against  his 
better  judgment,  in  a  foray  which  cost  the  life  of  his  brother 
'Abdullah. 3  If  kinsmen  seek  help  it  should  be  given  promptly, 
without  respect  to  the  merits  of  the  case  ;  if  they  do  wrong 

'  Al-Afwah  al-Awdi  in  Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  4,  11.  8-10.    The  poles  and 
pegs  represent  lords  and  commons. 

'  Hamdsa,  122.  3  Ibid.,  378. 


^  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

it  should  be  suffered  as  long  as  possible  before  resorting  to 
violence. I  The  utilitarian  view  of  friendship  is  often  em- 
phasised, as  in  these  verses  : — 

"Take  for  thy  brother  whom  thou  wilt  in  the  days  of  peace, 
But  know  that  when  fighting  comes  thy  kinsman  alone  is  near. 
Thy  true  friend  thy  kinsman   is,  who   answers   thy  call  for  aid 
With  good  will,  when  deeply  drenched  in  bloodshed  are  sword 

and  spear. 
Oh,  never  forsake  thy  kinsman  e'en  tho'  he  do  thee  wrong. 
For  what   he   hath   marred    he    mends    thereafter  and    makes 

sincere."  - 

At  the  same  time,  notwithstanding  their  shrewd  common 
sense,  nothing  is  more  characteristic  of  the  Arabs — heathen 
and  Muhammadan  alike — than  the  chivalrous  devotion  and 
disinterested  self-sacrifice  of  which  they  are  capable  on  behalf 
of  their  friends.  In  particular,  the  ancient  poetry  affords 
proof  that  they  regarded  with  horror  any  breach  of  the  solemn 
covenant  plighted  between  patron  and  client  or  host  and  guest. 
This  topic  might  be  illustrated  by  many  striking  examples,  but 
one  will  suffice  : — 

The  Arabs  say:  '' Awfa  mina  'l-Samaw'ali"— "More  loyal  than 
al-Samaw'al  "  ;  or  Wafd""  ka-wafd'i  'l-Samaw'ali"—"  A  loyalty  like 

that     of    al-Samaw'al."      These    proverbs    refer    to 

'^^mf°Z  b       Samaw'al  b.  'Adiya,  an  Arab  of  Jewish  descent  and 

'Adiya.         J^^^  ^Y  religion,  who  lived  in  his  castle,  called  al-Ablaq 

(The  Piebald),  at  Tayma,  some  distance  north  of 
Medina.  There  he  dug  a  well  of  sweet  water,  and  would  entertain 
the  Arabs  who  used  to  alight  beside  it ;  and  they  supplied  them- 
selves with  provisions  from  his  castle  and  set  up  a  market.  It  is 
related  that  the  poet  Imru'u  '1-Qays,  while  fleeing,  hotly  pursued  by 
his  enemies,  towards  Syria,  took  refuge  with  Samaw'al,  and  before 
proceeding  on  his  way  left  in  charge  of  his  host  five  coats  of  mail 
which  had  been  handed  down  as  heirlooms  by  the  princes  of  his 
family.  Then  he  departed,  and  in  due  course  arrived  at  Constanti- 
nople, where  he  besought  the   Byzantine  emperor  to  help  him  to 


'  Cf.  the  verses  by  al-Find,  p.  58  supra.  =  Hamdsa,  327. 


SAMAW'AL   B.   'Al)/YA  85 

recover  his  lost  kingdom.  His  appeal  was  not  unsuccessful,  but  he 
died  on  the  way  home.  Meanwhile  his  old  enemy,  the  King  of  Hira, 
sent  an  army  under  Harith  b.  Zalim  against  Samaw'al,  demanding 
that  he  should  surrender  the  coats  of  mail.  Samaw'al  refused  to 
betray  the  trust  committed  to  him,  and  defended  himself  in  his 
castle.  The  besiegers,  however,  captured  his  son,  who  had  gone 
out  to  hunt.  Harith  asked  Samaw'al  :  "  Dost  thou  know  this 
lad?"  "Yes,  he  is  my  son."  "Then  wilt  thou  deliver  what  is 
in  thy  possession,  or  shall  I  slay  him  ? "  Samaw'al  answered  :  "  Do 
with  him  as  thou  wilt.  I  will  never  break  my  pledge  nor  give  up 
the  property  of  my  guest-friend."  So  Harith  smote  the  lad  with  his 
sword  and  clove  him  through  the  middle.  Then  he  raised  the  siege. 
And  Samaw'al  said  thereupon  : — 

"  /  was  true  with  the  mail-coats  of  the  Kindite,^ 
I  am  true  though  many  a  one  is  blamed  for  treason. 
Once  did  'Adiyd,  my  father,  exhort  me  : 
'  O  Samaw'al,  ne'er  destroy  what  I  have  buildedJ 
For  me  built  'Adiyd  a  strong-walled  castle 
With  a  well  where  I  draw  water  at  pleasure; 
So  high,  the  eagle  slipping  back  is  baffled. 
When  wrong  befalls  me  I  endure  not  tamely ^ 

The  Bedouin  ideal  of  generosity  and  hospitality  is  personified 
in  Hdtim  of  Tayyi',  of  whom  many  anecdotes  are  told.  We 
may  learn  from  the  following  one  hoyv  extravagant  are  an 
Arab's  notions  on  this  subject  : — 

When  Hatim's  mother  was  pregnant  she  dreamed  that  she  was 
asked,  "Which  dost  thou  prefer  ? — a  generous  son  called  Hatim,  or 

ten  Hke  those  of  other  folk,  lions  in  the  hour  of  battle, 
yatim  of  Tayyi'.  brave  lads  and  strong  of  limb  ?"  and  that  she  answered, 

"  Hatim."  Now,  when  Hatim  grew  up  he  was  wont 
to  take  out  his  food,  and  if  he  found  any  one  to  share  it  he 
would  eat,  otherwise  he  threw  it  away.     His  father,  seeing  that 


'  Imru'u  '1-Qays  was  one  of  the  princes  of  Kinda,  a  powerful  tribe  in 
Central  Arabia. 

^  Aghdni,  xix,  99.  The  last  two  lines  are  wanting  in  the  poem  as  there 
cited,  but  appear  in  the  Selection  from  the  Aghdni  published  at  Beyrout  in 
1888,  vol.  ii,  p.  18. 


86  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

he  wasted  his  food,  gave  him  a  slave-girl  and  a  mare  with  her 
foal  and  sent  him  to  herd  the  camels.  On  reaching  the  pasture, 
Hatim  began  to  search  for  his  fellows,  but  none  was  in  sight ; 
then  he  came  to  the  road,  but  found  no  one  there.  While  he 
was  thus  engaged  he  descried  a  party  of  riders  on  the  road  and 
went  to  meet  them.  "  O  youth,"  said  they,  "  hast  thou  aught  to 
entertain  us  withal  ? "  He  answered  :  "  Do  ye  ask  me  of  enter- 
tainment when  ye  see  the  camels  ? "  Now,  these  riders  were 
'Abid  b.  al-Abras  and  Bishr  b.  Abi  Khazim  and  Nabigha  al- 
Dhubyani,  and  they  were  on  their  way  to  King  Nu'man.'  Hatim 
slaughtered  three  camels  for  them,  whereupon  'Abid  said  :  "  We 
desired  no  entertainment  save  milk,  but  if  thou  must  needs  charge 
thyself  with  something  more,  a  single  young  she-camel  would  have 
sufficed  us."  Hatim  replied  :  "  That  I  know,  but  seeing  different 
faces  and  diverse  fashions  I  thought  ye  were  not  of  the  same 
country,  and  I  wished  that  each  of  you  should  mention  what  ye 
saw,  on  returning  home."  So  they  spoke  verses  in  praise  of  him 
and  celebrated  his  generosity,  and  Hatim  said  :  "  I  wished  to  bestow 
a  kindness  upon  you,  but  your  bounty  is  greater  than  mine.  I 
swear  to  God  that  I  will  hamstring  every  camel  in  the  herd  unless 
ye  come  forward  and  divide  them  among  yourselves."  The  poets 
did  as  he  desired,  and  each  man  received  ninety-nine  camels  ;  then 
they  proceeded  on  their  journey  to  Nu'man.  When  Hatim's  father 
heard  of  this  he  came  to  him  and  asked,  "Where  are  the  camels  ? " 
"  O  my  father,"  repHed  Hatim,  "  by  means  of  them  I  have  conferred 
on  thee  everlasting  fame  and  honour  that  will  cleave  to  thee  like  the 
ring  of  the  ringdove,  and  men  will  always  bear  in  mind  some  verse 
of  poetry  in  which  we  are  praised.  This  is  thy  recompense  for  the 
camels."  On  hearing  these  words  his  father  said,  "  Didst  thou  with 
my  camels  thus  ? "  "  Yes."  "  By  God,  I  will  never  dwell  with  thee 
again."  So  he  went  forth  with  his  family,  and  Hatim  was  left  alone 
with  his  slave-girl  and  his  mare  and  the  mare's  foal.* 

We  are  told  that  Hdtim's  daughter  was  led  as  a  captive 
before  the  Prophet  and  thus  addressed  him  :  " '  O  Muhammad, 
my  sire  is  dead,  and  he  who  would  have  come  to  plead  for  me 
is  gone.  Release  me,  if  it  seem  good  to  thee,  and  do  not  let  the 
Arabs  rejoice  at  my  misfortune  ;  for  I  am  the  daughter  of 
the  chieftain  of  my  people.  My  father  was  wont  to  free  the 
captive,  and  protect  those  near  and  dear  to  him,  and  entertain 

'  See  p.  45  sqq.  ==  Aghdni,  xvi,  98, 11.  5-22. 


liATIM  OF   TAYYF  87 

the  guest,  and  satisfy  the  hungry,  and  console  the  afflicted,  and 
give  food   and    greeting  to  all  ;   and  never  did  he  turn  away 

any   who  sought   a  boon.    1    am  Hatim's  daugh- 
daughter  before  tcr.'      The   Prophct  (on   whom    be   the    blessing 

and  peace  of  God)  answered  her:  'O  maiden, 
the  true  believer  is  such  as  thou  hast  described.  Had  thy 
father  been  an  Islamite,  verily  we  should  have  said,  "  God  have 
mercy  upon  him!"  Let  her  go,'  he  continued,  'for  her  sire 
loved  noble  manners,  and  God  loves  them  likewise.'  "  ^ 

Hatim  was  a  poet  of  some  repute.^    The  following  lines  are 
addressed  to  his  wife,  Mawiyya  : — 

"  O  daughter  of  'Abdullah  and  Malik  and  him  who  wore 
The  two  robes  of  Yemen  stuff — the  hero  that  rode  the  roan, 
When  thou  hast  prepared   the   meal,  entreat  to  partake  thereof 
A  guest — I  am  not  the  man  to  eat,  like  a  churl,  alone —  : 
Some    traveller    thro'    the    night,    or    house-neighbour  ;    for    in 

sooth 
I  fear  the  reproachful  talk  of  men  after  I  am  gone. 
The  guest's  slave  am  I,  'tis  true,  as   long  as  he  bides  with  me, 
Although  in  my  nature  else  no  trait   of  the  slave  is  shown."  3 

Here   it  will  be  convenient  to  make  a  short  digression  in 

order  that  the  reader  may  obtain,  if  not  a  complete  view,  at 

least  some  glimpses  of  the  position  and  influence 

^women.°^      of  womcn  in  Pre-islamic  society.     On  the  whole, 

their  position  was  high  and  their  influence  great. 

They  were  free  to  choose  their  husbands,  and  could  return,  if 

ill-treated  or  displeased,  to   their  own  people  ;  in  some  cases 

•  Aghdni,  xvi,  97,  1.  5  sqq. 

=  His  Diwdn  has  been  edited  with  translation  and  notes  by  F.  Schulthess 
(Leipzig,  1897). 

3  Hamdsa,  729.  The  hero  mentioned  in  the  first  verse  is  'Amir  b, 
Uhaymir  of  Bahdala.  On  a  certain  occasion,  when  envoys  from  the 
Arabian  tribes  were  assembled  at  Hira,  King  Mundhir  b.  Ma'  al-sama 
produced  two  pieces  of  cloth  of  Yemen  and  said,  "  Let  him  whose  tribe 
is  noblest  rise  up  and  take  them."  Thereupon  'Amir  stood  forth,  and 
wrapping  one  piece  round  fiis  waist  and  the  other  over  his  shoulders, 
carried  off  the  prize  unchallenged. 


88  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

they  even  offered  themselves  in  marriage  and  had  the  right  of 
divorce.  They  were  regarded  not  as  slaves  and  chattels,  but  as 
equals  and  companions.  They  inspired  the  poet  to  sing  and 
the  warrior  to  fight.  The  chivalry  of  the  Middle  Ages  is, 
perhaps,  ultimately  traceable  to  heathen  Arabia.  "  Knight- 
errantry,  the  riding  forth  on  horseback  in  search  of  adventures, 
the  rescue  of  captive  maidens,  the  succour  rendered  everywhere 
to  women  in  adversity — all  these  were  essentially  Arabian 
ideas,  as  was  the  very  name  of  chivalry^  the  connection  of 
honourable  conduct  with  the  horse-rider,  the  man  of  noble 
blood,  the  cavalier."  i  But  the  nobility  of  the  women  is  not 
only  reflected  in  the  heroism  and  devotion  of  the  men  ;  it 
stands  recorded  in  song,  in  legend,  and  in  history.  Fdtima, 
the  daughter  of  Khurshub,  was  one  of  three    noble  matrons 

who  bore  the  title  al-Munjibdt^  '  the  Mothers 
heroines.        ^^  Hcroes.'     She  had  seven  sons,  three  of  whom, 

viz.,  Rabi'  and  *■  Umara  and  Anas,  were  called 
*the  Perfect'  [al-Kamala).  One  day  Hamal  b.  Badr  the 
Fazdrite  raided  the  Banu  'Abs,  the  tribe  to  which  Fdtima 
belonged,  and  made  her  his  prisoner.  As  he  led  away  the 
camel  on  which  she  was  mounted  at  the  time,  she  cried  : 
"  Man,  thy  wits  are  wandering.  By  God,  if  thou  take  me 
captive,  and  if  we  leave   behind    us   this    hill  which  is   now 

in  front  of  us,  surely  there  will  never  be  peace 
daughter'of      between  thee  and  the  sons  of  Ziyad  "  (Ziydd  was 

Khurshub.  ^\     n  \  ^  mi 

the  name  of  her  husband),  "  because  people  will 
say  what  they  please,  and  the  mere  suspicion  of  evil  is 
enough."  "  I  will  carry  thee  off,"  said  he,  "  that  thou  mayest 
herd  my  camels."  When  Fatima  knew  that  she  was  certainly 
his  prisoner  she  threw  herself  headlong  from  her  camel  and 
died  ;  so  did  she  fear  to  bring  dishonour  on  her  sons.^  Among 
the  names  which  have  become  proverbial  for  loyalty  we  find 

'  Lady  Anne  and  Mr.  Wilfrid  Blunt,  The  Seven  Golden  Odes  of  Pagan 
Arabia,  Introduction,  p.  14. 
^  Aghdni  xvi,  22,  11.  10-16. 


WOMEN  OF   THE  HEROIC  AGE  89 

those  of  two  women,  Fukayha  and  Umm  Jamil.  As  to 
Fulcayha,  it  is  related  that  her  clansmen,  having  been  raided  by 
the  brigand  Sulayk  b.  Sulaka,  resolved  to  attack 
him  ;  but  since  he  was  a  famous  runner,  on  the 
advice  of  one  of  their  shaykhs  they  waited  until  he  had  gone 
down  to  the  water  and  quenched  his  thirst,  for  they  knew  that 
he  would  then  be  unable  to  run.  Sulayk,  however,  seeing 
himself  caught,  made  for  the  nearest  tents  and  sought  refuge 
with  Fukayha.  She  threw  her  smock  over  him,  and  stood 
with  drawn  sword  between  him  and  his  pursuers  ;  and  as  they 
still  pressed  on,  she  tore  the  veil  from  her  hair  and  shouted  for 
help.  Then  her  brothers  came  and  defended  Sulayk,  so  that 
his  life  was  saved. ^  Had  space  allowed,  it  would  have  been  a 
pleasant  task  to  make  some  further  extracts  from  the  long 
Legend  of  Noble  Women.  I  have  illustrated  their  keen 
sense  of  honour  and  loyalty,  but  I  might  equally  well  have 
chosen  examples  of  gracious  dignity  and  quick  intelligence  and 
passionate  affection.  Many  among  them  had  the  gift  of 
poetry,  which  they  bestowed  especially  on  the  dead  ;  it  is 
a  final  proof  of  the  high  character  and  position  of  women  in 
Pre-islamic  Arabia  that  the  hero's  mother  and  sisters  were 
deemed  most  worthy  to  mourn  and  praise  him.  The  praise  of 
living  women  by  their  lovers  necessarily  takes  a  different  tone  ; 
the  physical  charms  of  the  heroine  are  fully  described,  but  we 
seldom  find  any  appreciation  of  moral  beauty.  One  notable 
exception  to  this  rule  occurs  at  the  beginning  of  an  ode  by 
Shanfara.  The  passage  defies  translation.  It  is,  to  quote  Sir 
Charles  Lyall,  with  whose  faithful  and  sympathetic  rendering 
of  the  ancient  poetry  every  student  of  Arabic  literature  should 
be  acquainted,  "  the  most  lovely  picture  of  womanhood  which 
heathen  Arabia  has  left  us,  drawn  by  the  same  hand  that  has 
given  us,  in  the  unrivalled  Ldmiyah,  its  highest  ideal  of  heroic 
hardness  and  virile  strength."  2 

'  Aghdni,  xviii,  137,  11.  5-10.     Freytag,  Arabutn  Proverbia,  vol.  ii,  p.  834. 
"  Ancient  Arabian  Poetry,  p.  81. 


90  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

UMAYMA. 

"  She  charmed  me,  veiling  bashfully  her  face, 
Keeping  with  quiet  looks  an  even  pace  ; 
Some  lost  thing  seem  to  seek  her  downcast  eyes  : 
Aside  she  bends  not — softly  she  replies. 
Ere  dawn  she  carries  forth  her  meal — a  gift 
To  hungry  wives  in  days  of  dearth  and  thrift. 
No  breath  of  blame  up  to  her  tent  is  borne, 
While  many  a  neighbour's  is  the  house  of  scorn. 
Her  husband  fears  no  gossip  fraught  with  shame, 
For  pure  and  holy  is  Umayma's  name. 
Joy  of  his  heart,  to  her  he  need  not  say 
When  evening  brings  him  home — '  Where  passed  the  day  ? 
Slender  and  full  in  turn,  of  perfect  height, 
A  very  fay  were  she,  if  beauty  might 
Transform  a  child  of  earth  into  a  fairy  sprite  ! " ' 

Only  in  the  freedom  of  the  desert  could  the  character  thus 
exquisitely  delineated  bloom  and  ripen.  These  verses,  taken 
by  themselves,  are  a  sufficient  answer  to  any  one  who  would 
maintain  that  Islam  has  increased  the  social  influence  of 
Arabian  women,  although  in  some  respects  it  may  have  raised 
them  to  a  higher  level  of  civilisation. 2 

There   is,  of  course,   another  side    to  all   this.     In   a  land 
where  might  was  generally  right,  and  where 

"  the  simple  plan 
'  That  he  should  take  who  has  the  power 
And  he  should  keep  who  can," 

was  all  but  universally  adopted,  it  would  have  been  strange  it 
the  weaker  sex  had  not  often  gone  to  the  wall.  The  custom 
which  prevailed  in  the  ydhtliyya  of  burying  female  infants 
alive,  revolting  as  it  appears  to  us,  was  due  partly  to  the 
frequent  famines  with  which  Arabia  is  afflicted  through  lack 
of  rain,  and   partly  to  a  perverted  sense  of  honour.     Fathers 

'  Mufaddaliyydt,  ed.  Thorbecke,  p.  23. 
See  Goldziher,  Miihammedanische  Studien,  Part  II,  p.  295  sqq. 


THE   CUSTOM  OF  INFANTICIDE  91 

feared  lest  they  should  have   useless  mouths  to   feed,  or  lest 

they  should   incur  disgrace  in  consequence  of  their  daughters 

being;  made  prisoners  of  war.      Hence  the  birth  of 

Infanticide.  ,  ,  ,  ,         i         •  J 

a  daughter  was  reckoned  calamitous,  as  we  read 
in  the  Koran  :  "  They  attribute  daughters  unto  God— far  be 
it  from  Him  ! — and  for  themselves  they  desire  them  not.  When 
a  female  child  is  announced  to  one  of  them,  his  face  darkens 
wrathfully  :  he  hides  himself  from  his  people  because  of  the  bad 
news,  thinking — ^  Shall  I  keep  the  child  to  my  disgrace  or  cover 
it  away  in  the  dust  ? ''"''' '^  It  was  said  proverbially,  "The 
despatch  of  daughters  is  a  kindness"  and  "The  burial  of 
daughters  is  a  noble  deed,"  2  Islam  put  an  end  to  this 
barbarity,  which  is  expressly  forbidden  by  the  Koran  :  "  Kill 
not  your  children  in  fear  of  impoverishment :  we  will  provide  for 
them  and  for  you :  verily  their  killing  was  a  great  sin."  3  Perhaps 
the  most  touching  lines  in  Arabian  poetry  are  those  in  which  a 
father  struggling  with  poverty  wishes  that  his  daughter  may 
die  before  him  and  thus  be  saved  from  the  hard  mercies  of 
her  relatives  : — 


THE   POOR   MAN'S   DAUGHTER. 

"  But  for    Umayma's    sake    I    ne'er    had    grieved    to    want    nor 

braved 
Night's    blackest    horror   to   bring    home    the   morsel   that    she 

craved. 
Now  my  desire  is  length  of  days  because  I  know  too  well 
The  orphan  girl's  hard  lot,  with  kin  unkind  enforced  to  dwell. 
I  dread  that  some  day  poverty  will  overtake  my  child, 
And  shame  befall  her  when  exposed  to  every  passion  wild." 


'  Koran,  xvi,  59-61. 

^  Freytag,  Arabnm  Proverbia,  vol.  i,  p.  229. 

3  Koran,  xvii,  33.  Cf.  Ixxxi,  8-9  (a  description  of  the  Last  Judgment): 
"  When  the  girl  buried  alive  shall  be  asked  for  what  crime  she  was  killed." 

*  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. 


02  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

She  wishes  me  to  live,  but  I  must  wish  her  dead,  woe's  me  : 

Death  is  the  noblest  wooer  a  helpless  maid  can  see. 

I  fear  an  uncle  may  be  harsh,  a  brother  be  unkind, 

When  I  would  never  speak  a  word  that  rankled  in  her  mind."' 

And  another  says  : — 

"Were  not  my  little  daughters 
Like  soft  chicks  huddling  by  me, 
Through  earth  and  all  its  waters 
To  win  bread  would  I  roam  free. 

Our  children  among  us  going, 
Our  very  hearts  they  be ; 
The  wind  upon  them  blowing 
Would  banish  sleep  from  me."  * 

"  Odi  et  amo  "  :  these  words  of  the  poet  might  serve  as  an 

epitome  of  Bedouin  ethics.     For,  if  the  heathen  Arab  was,  as 

we  have  seen,  a  good  friend  to  his  friends,  he  had 

^"nem1es°*     ^^  ^^c  Same  degree  an  intense  and  deadly  feeling 

of  hatred  towards  his  enemies.     He  who  did  not 

strike   back    when    struck    was  regarded    as  a    coward.      No 

honourable    man   could    forgive    an   injury  or   fail  to   avenge 

it.     An  Arab,  smarting  under  the  loss  of  some  camels  driven 

off  by  raiders,  said  of  his  kin  who  refused  to  help  him  : — 

"  For  all  their  numbers,  they  are  good  for  naught, 
My  people,  against  harm  however  light : 
They  pardon  wrong  by  evildoers  wrought, 
Malice  with  lovingkindness  they  requite."  ^ 

The  last  verse,  which  would  have  been  high  praise  in  the 

'  Hamdsa,  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,  Ishaq  b.  Khalaf, 
lived  under  the  Caliph  Ma'mun  (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  Kdmil  of  al-Mubarrad,  p.  715,  1.  7  sqq.,  and  has 
been  translated,  together  with  the  verses  now  in  question,  by  Sir  Charles 
Lyall,  Ancient  Arabian  Poetry,  p.  26. 

'  Hamdsa,  142.     Lyall,  op.  cii.,  p.  28.  3  Hamdsa,  7. 


BLOOD-REVENGE  93 

mouth  of  a  Christian  or  Muhammadan  moralist,  conveyed 
to  those  who  heard  it  a  shameful  reproach.  The  approved 
method  of  dealing  with  an  enemy  is  set  forth  plainly  enough 
in  the  following  lines  : — 

"  Humble  him  who  humbles  thee,  close  the'  be  your  kindred- 
ship  : 

If  thou  canst  not  humble  him,  wait  till  he  is  in  thy  grip. 

Friend  him  while  thou  must ;  strike  hard  when  thou  hast  him 
on  the  hip." ' 

Above   all,    blood    called    for    blood.     This   obligation    lay 

heavy  on    the  conscience  of  the  pagan   Arabs.     Vengeance, 

with    them,    was    "almost   a    physical   necessity. 

Blood-revenge.  ...  .  .  . 

which  if  it  be  not  obeyed  will  deprive  its 
subject  of  sleep,  of  appetite,  of  health."  It  was  a  tormenting 
thirst  which  nothing  would  quench  except  blood,  a  disease 
of  honour  which  might  be  described  as  madness,  although 
it  rarely  prevented  the  sufferer  from  going  to  work  with 
coolness  and  circumspection.  Vengeance  was  taken  upon 
the  murderer,  if  possible,  or  else  upon  one  of  his  fellow- 
tribesmen.  Usually  this  ended  the  matter,  but  in  some  cases 
it  was  the  beginning  of  a  regular  blood-feud  in  which  the 
entire  kin  of  both  parties  were  involved  ;  as,  e.g.^  the  murder  of 
Kulayb  led  to  the  Forty  Years'  War  between  Bakr  and 
Taghlib.2  The  slain  man's  next  of  kin  might  accept  a 
blood-wit  {diya\  commonly  paid  in  camels — the  coin  of 
the  country — as  atonement  for  him.  If  they  did  so,  however, 
it  was  apt  to  be  cast  in  their  teeth  that  they  preferred  milk 
(/.(?.,  she-camels)  to  blood. 3  The  true  Arab  feeling  is 
expressed  in  verses  like  these  : — 

"  With  the  sword  will  I  wash  my  shame  away. 
Let  God's  doom  bring  on  me  what  it  may ! "  ■» 


'  Hamdsa,  321.  ^  See  p.  55  sqq. 

3  Cf.  Riickert's  Hamdsa,  vol.  i,  p.  61  seq.  ■*  Hamdsa,  30. 


94  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

It  was  believed  that  until  vengeance  had  been  taken  for 
the  dead  man,  his  spirit  appeared  above  his  tomb  in  the 
shape  of  an  owl  {hama  or  sadd),  crying  "  hquni "  ("  Give 
me  to  drink  ").  But  pagan  ideas  of  vengeance  were  bound  up 
with  the  Past  far  more  than  with  the  Future.  The  shadowy 
after-life  counted  for  little  or  nothing  beside  the  deeply-rooted 
memories  of  fatherly  affection,  filial  piety,  and  brotherhood 
in  arms. 

Though  liable  to  abuse,  the  rough-and-ready  justice  of 
the  vendetta  had  a  salutary  effect  in  restraining  those  who 
would  otherwise  have  indulged  their  lawless  instincts  without 
fear  of  punishment.  From  our  point  of  view,  however,  its 
interest  is  not  so  much  that  of  a  primitive  institution  as  of  a 
pervading  element  in  old  Arabian  life  and  literature.  Full,  or 
even  adequate,  illustration  of  this  topic  would  carry  me  far 
beyond  the  limits  of  my  plan.  I  have  therefore  selected  from 
the  copious  material  preserved  in  the  Book  of  Songs  a  character- 
istic story  which  tells  how  Qays  b.  al-Khatim  took  vengeance 
on  the  murderers  of  his  father  and  his  grandfather.^ 

It  is  related  on  the  authority  of  Abu  'Ubayda  that  'Adi  b.  'Amr, 
the  grandfather  of  Qays,  was  slain  by  a  man  named  Malik  belong- 
ing to  the  Banu  'Amr  b.  'Amir  b.  Rabi'a  b.  'Amir  b, 
^vengeSJicfof"^  Sa'sa'a  ;   and  his  father,   Khatim   b.  'Adi,  by  one   of 

Qaysb.  ai-  the  Banu  'Abd  al-Qays  who  were  settled  in  Hajar. 
Khatim  died  before  avenging  his  father,  'Adi,  when 
Qays  was  but  a  young  lad.  The  mother  of  Qays,  fearing  that  he 
would  sally  forth  to  seek  vengeance  for  the  blood  of  his  father  and 
his  grandfather  and  perish,  went  to  a  mound  of  dust  beside  the 
door  of  their  dwelling  and  laid  stones  on  it,  and  began  to  say  to 
Qays,  "  This  is  the  grave  of  thy  father  and  thy  grandfather  ;  "  and 
Qays  never  doubted  but  that  it  was  so.  He  grew  up  strong  in 
the  arms,  and  one  day  he  had  a  tussle  with  a  youth  of  the  Banu 
Zafar,  who  said  to  him  :  "  By  God,  thou  would'st  do  better  to 
turn  the  strength  of  thine  arms  against  the  slayers  of  thy  father  and 
grandfather  instead  of  putting  it  forth  upon  me."  "  And  who  are 
their   slayers  ? "     "  Ask  thy  mother,  she  will   tell   thee."     So  Qays 


»  Aghdni,  ii,  i6o,  1.  11-162,  1.  i  =  p.  13  sqq.  of  the  Beyrout  Selection. 


QAYS  IBN  AL-KHATtM  95 

took  his  sword  and  set  its  hilt  on  the  ground  and  its  edge  between 
his  two  breasts,  and  said  to  his  mother  :  "  Who  killed  my  father  and 
my  grandfather  ?  "  "  They  died  as  people  die,  and  these  are  their 
graves  in  the  camping-ground."  "  By  God,  verily  thou  wilt  tell  me 
who  slew  them  or  I  will  bear  with  my  whole  weight  upon  this  sword 
until  it  cleaves  through  my  back."  Then  she  told  him,  and  Qays 
swore  that  he  would  never  rest  until  he  had  slain  their  slayers.  "  O 
my  son,"  said  she,  "  Malik,  who  killed  thy  grandfather,  is  of  the 
same  folk  as  Khidash  b.  Zuhayr,  and  thy  father  once  bestowed 
a  kindness  on  Khidash,  for  which  he  is  grateful.  Go,  then,  to  him 
and  take  counsel  with  him  touching  thine  affair  and  ask  him  to  help 
thee."  So  Qays  set  out  immediately,  and  when  he  came  to  the 
garden  where  his  water-camel  was  watering  his  date-palms,  he 
smote  the  cord  (of  the  bucket)  with  his  sword  and  cut  it,  so  that  the 
bucket  dropped  into  the  well.  Then  he  took  hold  of  the  camel's 
head,  and  loaded  the  beast  with  two  sacks  of  dates,  and  said  : 
"Who  will  care  for  this  old  woman"  (meaning  his  mother)  "  in  my 
absence  ?  If  I  die,  let  him  pay  her  expenses  out  of  this  garden,  and 
on  her  death  it  shall  be  his  own  ;  but  if  I  live,  my  property  will 
return  to  mc,  and  he  shall  have  as  many  of  its  dates  as  he  wishes  to 
eat."  One  of  his  folk  cried,  "  I  am  for  it,"  so  Qays  gave  him  the 
garden  and  set  forth  to  inquire  concerning  Khidash.  He  was  told 
to  look  for  him  at  Marr  al-Zahran,  but  not  finding  him  in  his  tent,  he 
alighted  beneath  a  tree,  in  the  shade  of  which  the  guests  of  Khidash 
used  to  shelter,  and  called  to  the  wife  of  Khidash,  "  Is  there  any 
food  ? "  Now,  when  she  came  up  to  him,  she  admired  his  comeli- 
ness— for  he  was  exceeding  fair  of  countenance — and  said  :  "  By 
God,  we  have  no  fit  entertainment  for  thee,  but  only  dates."  He 
replied,  "  I  care  not,  bring  out  what  thou  hast."  So  she  sent  to  him 
dates  in  a  large  measure  (qubd'),  and  Qays  took  a  single  date  and 
ate  half  of  it  and  put  back  the  other  half  in  the  qubd',  and  gave 
orders  that  the  qubd'  should  be  brought  in  to  the  wife  of  Khidash  ; 
then  he  departed  on  some  business.  When  Khidash  returned  and 
his  wife  told  him  the  news  of  Qays,  he  said,  "  This  is  a  man  who 
would  render  his  person  sacred."'  While  he  sat  there  with  his  wife 
eating  fresh  ripe  dates,  Qays  returned  on  camel-back  ;  and  Khidash, 
when  he  saw  the  foot  of  the  approaching  rider,  said  to  his  wife,  "Is 
this  thy  guest  ?  "     "  Yes."     "  'Tis  as  though  his  foot  were  the  foot  of 


'  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  dakhil.  See  Burckhardt,  Notes  on  the  Bedouins  and 
Wahdbys  (London,  1831),  vol.  i,  p.  160  sqq.  and  329  sqq. 


96  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

my  good  friend,  Khatim  the  Yathribite."  Qays  drew  nigh,  and  struck 
the  tent-rope  with  the  point  of  his  spear,  and  begged  leave  to  come 
in.  Having  obtained  permission,  he  entered  to  Khidash  and  told 
his  lineage  and  informed  him  of  what  had  passed,  and  asked  him  to 
help  and  advise  him  in  his  affair.  Khidash  bade  him  welcome,  and 
recalled  the  kindness  which  he  had  of  his  father,  and  said,  "As  to 
this  affair,  truly  I  have  been  expecting  it  of  thee  for  some  time. 
The  slayer  of  thy  grandfather  is  a  cousin  of  mine,  and  I  will 
aid  thee  against  him.  When  we  are  assembled  in  our  meeting- 
place,  I  will  sit  beside  him  and  talk  with  him,  and  when  I  strike  his 
thigh,  do  thou  spring  on  him  and  slayihim."  Qays  himself  relates  : 
"  Accompanied  by  Khidash,  I  approached  him  until  I  stood  over  his 
head  when  Khidash  sat  with  him,  and  as  soon  as  he  struck  the  man's 
thigh  I  smote  his  head  with  a  sword  named  Dhu  'l-Khitrsayii"  (the 
Two-ringed).  "  His  folk  rushed  on  me  to  slay  me,  but  Khidash  came 
between  us,  crying,  '  Let  him  alone,  for,  by  God,  he  has  slain  none 
but  the  slayer  of  his  grandfather.'  "  Then  Khidash  called  for  one  of 
his  camels  and  mounted  it,  and  started  with  Qays  to  find  the 
'Abdite  who  killed  his  father.  And  when  they  were  near  Hajar 
Khidash  advised  him  to  go  and  inquire  after  this  man,  and  to  say  to 
him  when  he  discovered  him  :  "  I  encountered  a  brigand  of  thy 
people  who  robbed  me  of  some  articles,  and  on  asking  who  was  the 
chieftain  of  his  people  I  was  directed  to  thee.  Go  with  me,  then, 
that  thou  mayest  take  from  him  my  property.  If,"  Khidash 
continued,  "  he  follow  thee  unattended,  thou  wilt  gain  thy  desire  of 
him ;  but  should  he  bid  the  others  go  with  thee,  laugh,  and  if  he 
ask  why  thou  laughest,  say,  'With  us,  the  noble  does  not  as  thou 
dost,  but  when  he  is  called  to  a  brigand  of  his  people,  he  goes  forth 
alone  with  his  whip,  not  with  his  sword  ;  and  the  brigand  when  he 
sees  him  gives  him  everything  that  he  took,  in  awe  of  him.'  If  he 
shall  dismiss  his  friends,  thy  course  is  clear  ;  but  if  he  shall  refuse 
to  go  without  them,  bring  him  to  me  nevertheless,  for  I  hope  that 
thou  wilt  slay  both  him  and  them."  So  Khidash  stationed  himself 
under  the  shade  of  a  tree,  while  Qays  went  to  the  'Abdite  and 
addressed  him  as  Khidash  had  prompted  ;  and  the  man's  sense  of 
honour  was  touched  to  the  quick,  so  that  he  sent  away  his  friends 
and  went  with  Qays.  And  when  Qays  came  back  to  Khidash,  the 
latter  said  to  him,  "  Choose,  O  Qays  !  Shall  I  help  thee  or  shall  I 
take  thy  place?"  Qays  answered,  "I  desire  neither  of  these 
alternatives,  but  if  he  slay  me,  let  him  not  slay  thee  ! "  Then  he 
rushed  upon  him  and  wounded  him  in  the  flank  and  drove  his  lance 
through  the  other  side,  and  he  fell  dead  on  the  spot.  When  Qays 
had  finished  with  him,  Khidash  said,  "  If  we  flee  just  now,  his  folk 


SONGS  OF  REVENGE  97 

will  pursue  us  ;  but  let  us  go  somewhere  not  far  off,  for  they  will 
never  think  that  thou  hast  slain  him  and  stayed  in  the  neighbour- 
hood. No  ;  they  will  miss  him  and  follow  his  track,  and  when  they 
find  him  slain  they  will  start  to  pursue  us  in  every  direction,  and  will 
only  return  when  they  have  lost  hope."  So  those  two  entered  some 
hollows  of  the  sand,  and  after  staying  there  several  days  (for  it 
happened  exactly  as  Khidash  had  foretold),  they  came  forth  when 
the  pursuit  was  over,  and  did  not  exchange  a  word  until  they 
reached  the  abode  of  Khidash.  There  Qays  parted  from  him  and 
returned  to  his  own  people. 

The  poems  relating  to  blood-revenge  show  all  that  is  best  and 
much  that  is  less  admirable  in  the  heathen  Arab — on  the  one 
hand,  his  courage  and  resolution,  his  contempt  of  death  and 
fear  of  dishonour,  his  single-minded  devotion  to  the  dead  as  to 
the  living,  his  deep  regard  and  tender  affection  for  the  men  of 
his  own  flesh  and  blood  ;  on  the  other  hand,  his  implacable 
temper,  his  perfidious  cruelty  and  reckless  ferocity  in  hunting 
down  the  slayers,  and  his  savage,  well-nigh  inhuman  exultation 
over  the  slain.  The  famous  Song  or  Ballad  of  Vengeance  that 
I  shall  now  attempt  to  render  in  English  verse  is  usually  attri- 
buted to  Ta'abbata  Sharr^i  although  some  pro- 
vengeance       Houncc  it  to  be  a  forgcry  by  Khalaf  al-Ahmar, 

Sharran. '  the  reputed  author  of  Shanfard's  masterpiece,  and 
beyond  doubt  a  marvellously  skilful  imitator  of 
the  ancient  bards.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  ballad  is  utterly 
pagan  in  tone  and  feeling.  Its  extraordinary  merit  was  de- 
tected by  Goethe,  who,  after  reading  it  in  a  Latin  translation, 
,  published  a  German  rendering,  with  some  fine  criticism  of  the 
poetry,  in  his  West-oestlkher  Divan.^  I  have  endeavoured  to 
suggest  as  far  as  possible  the  metre  and  rhythm  of  the  original, 

'  See  p.  81  supra. 

*  Stuttgart,  1819,  p.  253  sqq.  The  other  renderings  in  verse  with 
which  I  am  acquainted  are  those  of  Ruckert  (Hamdsa,  vol.  i,  p.  299) 
and  Sir  Charles  Lyall  (/I ?/c:e«^  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. 

8 


98  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

since  to  these,  in  my  opinion,  its  peculiar  effect  is  largely  due. 
The  metre  is  that  known  as  the  *  Tall '  {Madld)^  viz. : — 


Thus  the  first  verse  runs  in  Arabic  : — 

Inna  bi'l-shi'  \  bi  'lladht  \  'inda  Sal''" 
la-qaiil""  |  damuhii  |  md  yntallu. 

Of  course,  Arabic  prosody  differs  radically  from  English, 
but  mutatis  mutandis  several  couplets  in  the  following  version 
[e.g.  the  third,  eighth,  and  ninth)  will  be  found  to  correspond 
exactly  with  their  model.  As  has  been  said,  however,  my 
object  was  merely  to  suggest  the  abrupt  metre  and  the  heavy, 
emphatic  cadences,  so  that  I  have  been  able  to  give  variety  to 
the  verse,  and  at  the  same  time  to  retain  that  artistic  freedom 
without  which  the  translator  of  poetry  cannot  hope  to  satisfy 
either  himself  or  any  one  else. 

The  poet  tells  how  he  was  summoned  to  avenge  his  uncle, 
slain  by  the  tribesmen  of  Hudhayl  :  he  describes  the  dead 
man's  heroic  character,  the  foray  in  which  he  fell,  his  former 
triumphs  over  the  same  enemy,  and  finally  the  terrible  ven- 
geance taken  for  him.^ 

"  In  the  glen  there  a  murdered  man  is  lying — 
Not  in  vain  for  vengeance  his  blood  is  crying. 
He  hath  left  me  the  load  to  bear  and  departed ; 
I  take  up  the  load  and  bear  it  true-hearted. 
I,  his  sister's  son,  the  bloodshed  inherit, 
I  whose  knot  none  looses,  stubborn  of  spirit ;  ^ 
Glowering  darkly,  shame's  deadly  out-wiper, 
Like  the  serpent  spitting  venom,  the  viper. 


'  The  Arabic  text  will  be  found  in  the  Hamdsa,  p.  382  sqq. 

"  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, 


POEM  BY  T A' ABB  ATA    SHARK'"''         99 

Hard  the  tidings  that  befell  us,  heart-breaking  ; 

Little  seemed  thereby  the  anguish  most  aching. 

Fate  hath  robbed  me — still  is  Fate  fierce  and  froward — 

Of  a  hero  whose  friend  ne'er  called  him  coward  : 

As  the  warm  sun  was  he  in  wintry  weather, 

'Neath  the  Dog-star  shade  and  coolness  together  : 

Spare  of  flank — yet  this  in  him  showed  not  meanness ; 

Open-handed,  full  of  boldness  and  keenness  : 

Firm  of  purpose,  cavalier  unaffrighted — 

Courage  rode  with  him  and  with  him  alighted  : 

In  his  bounty,  a  bursting  cloud  of  rain-water  ; 

Lion  grim  when  he  leaped  to  the  slaughter. 

Flowing  hair,  long  robe  his  folk  saw  aforetime. 

But  a  lean-haunched  wolf  was  he  in  war-time. 

Savours  two  he  had,  untasted  by  no  men  : 

Honey  to  his  friends  and  gall  to  his  foemen. 

Fear  he  rode  nor  recked  what  should  betide  him  : 

Save  his  deep-notched  Yemen  blade,  none  beside  him. 

Oh,  the  warriors  girt  with  swords  good  for  slashing. 
Like  the  levin,  when  they  drew  them,  outflashing  ! 
Through  the  noonday  heat  they  fared:  then,  benighted. 
Farther  fared,  till  at  dawning  they  alighted.' 
Breaths  of  sleep  they  sipped  ;  and  then,  while  they  nodded, 
Thou  didst  scare  them  :  lo,  they  scattered  and  scudded. 
Vengeance  wreaked  we  upon  them,  unforgiving  : 
Of  the  two  clans  scarce  was  left  a  soul  living.* 

Ay,  if  they  bruised  his  glaive's  edge  'twas  in  token 
That  by  him  many  a  time  their  own  was  broken. 
Oft  he  made  them  kneel  down  by  force  and  cunning — 
Kneel  on  jags  where  the  foot  is  torn  with  running. 
Many  a  morn  in  shelter  he  took  them  napping ; 
After  kilhng  was  the  rieving  and  rapine. 

They  have  gotten  of  me  a  roasting — I  tire  not 
Of  desiring  them  till  me  they  desire  not. 
First,  of  foemen's  blood  my  spear  deeply  drinketh. 
Then  a  second  time,  deep  in,  it  sinketh. 


'  In  the  original  this  and  the  preceding  verse  are  transposed. 

'  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. 


100  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

Lawful  now  to  me  is  wine,  long  forbidden  : 
Sore  my  struggle  ere  the  ban  was  o'erridden.' 
Pour  me  wine,  O  son  of  'Amr  !    I  would  taste  it, 
Since  with  grief  for  mine  uncle  I  am  wasted. 
O'er  the  fallen  of  Hudhayl  stands  screaming 
The  hyena ;  see  the  wolf's  teeth  gleaming  ! 
Dawn  will  hear  the  flap  of  wings,  will  discover 
Vultures  treading  corpses,  too  gorged  to  hover." 

All  the  virtues  which  enter  into  the  Arabian  conception 

of  Honour  were  regarded    not  as  personal  qualities  inherent 

or  acquired,  but  as  hereditary  possessions  which  a 

ferred  b "  man  derived  from  his  ancestors,  and  held  in  trust 
e  ances  y.  ^^^  j^^  might  transmit  them  untarnished  to  his 
descendants.  It  is  the  desire  to  uphold  and  emulate  the 
fame  of  his  forbears,  rather  than  the  hope  of  winning 
immortality  for  himself,  that  causes  the  Arab  "  to  say  the 
say  and  do  the  deeds  of  the  noble."  Far  from  sharing  the 
sentiment  of  the  Scots  peasant — "  a  man's  a  man  for  a'  that  '* 
— he  looks  askance  at  merit  and  renown  unconsecrated  by 
tradition. 

"The  glories  that  have  grown  up  with  the  grass 
Can  match  not  those  inherited  of  old."  = 

Ancestral  renown  (hasab)  is  sometimes  likened  to  a  strong 
castle  built  by  sires  for  their  sons,  or  to  a  lofty  mountain 
which  defies  attack.3  The  poets  are  full  of  boastings 
[mafakhir)  and  revilings  (mathaltb)  in  which  they  loudly  pro- 
claim the  nobility  of  their  own  ancestors,  and  try  to  blacken 
those  of  their  enemy  without  any  regard  to  decorum. 

It  was  my  intention  to  add  here  some  general  remarks  on 
Arabian  poetry  as  compared  with  that  of  the   Hebrews,  the 

*  It  was  customary   for  the  avenger  to   take  a  solemn  vow  that  he 
would  drink  no  wine  before  accomplishing  his  vengeance. 
'  Hamdsa,  679. 
3  Cf.  the  lines  translated  below  from  the  Mii'allaqa  of  Harith. 


THE  MU'ALLAQAT  ioi 

Persians,  and  our  own,  but  since  example  is  better  than  precept 
I  will  now  tuim  directly  to  those  celebrated  odes  which  are 
well  known  by  the  title  of  Mu^allaqdt^  or  '  Suspended  Poems,' 
to  all  who  take  the  slightest  interest  in  Arabic  literature.' 

Mu'allaqa  (plural,  Mu'-allaqat')  "is  most  likely  derived  from 
the  word  '/7^,  meaning  'a  precious  thing  or  a  thing  held  in 
high  estimation,'  either  because  one  '  hangs  on '  tenaciously  to 
it,  or  because  it  is  '  hung  up '  in  a  place  of  honour,  or  in  a 
conspicuous  place,  in  a  treasury  or  store-house."  2  In  course 
of  time  the  exact  signification  of  Mu'-allaqa  was  forgotten,  and 
it  became  necessary  to  find  a  plausible  explanation. 
or%uspended'  Hcnce  arose  the  legend,  which  frequent  repetition 
has  made  familiar,  that  the  *  Suspended  Poems ' 
were  so  called  from  having  been  hung  up  in  the  Ka'ba  on 
account  of  their  merit  ;  that  this  distinction  was  awarded 
by  the  judges  at  the  fair  of  'Ukaz,  near  Mecca,  where 
poets  met  in  rivalry  and  recited  their  choicest  productions ; 
and  that  the  successful  compositions,  before  being  affixed 
to  the  door  of  the  Ka'ba,  were  transcribed  in  letters  of 
gold  upon  pieces  of  fine  Egyptian  linen. 3     Were  these  state- 

'  The  best  edition  of  the  Mu'altaqdt  is  Sir  Charles  Lyall's  {A  Commentary 
on  Ten  Ancient  Arabic  Poems,  Calcutta,  1894),  which  contains  in  addition 
to  the  seven  Mu^allaqdt  three  odes  by  A'sha,  Nabigha,  and  'Abid  b.  al-Abras. 
Noldeke  has  translated  five  Mu'allaqas  (omitting  those  of  Imru'  u' 
1-Qays  and  Tarafa)  with  a  German  commentary,  Sitzungsberichtc  der 
Kais.  Akad.  der  Wissenschaftcn  in  Wicn,  Phil.-Histor.  Klassc,  vols.  140-144 
(1899-1901)  ;  this  is  by  far  the  best  translation  for  students.  No  satis- 
factory 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). 

*  Ancient  Arabian  Poetry,  Introduction,  p.  xHv.  Many  other  interpre- 
tations 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.  Miiller). 

3  The  belief  that  the  Mu'allaqut  were  written  in  letters  of  gold  seems 
to  have  arisen  from  a  misunderstanding  of  the  name  Mndhhabdt  or 
Mudhahhabdt  (i.e.,  the  Gilded  Poems)  which  is  sometimes  given  to  them 
in  token  of  their  excellence,  just  as  the  Greeks  gave  the  title  xp^(^««  t^v 


102  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

ments  true,  we  should  expect  them  to  be  confirmed  by  some 
allusion  in  the  early  literature.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  nothing 
of  the  kind  is  mentioned  in  the  Koran  or  in  religious  tradition, 
in  the  ancient  histories  of  Mecca,  or  in  such  works  as  the 
Kitdbu  U-Jghdnl^  which  draw  their  information  from  old  and 
trustworthy  sources.^  Almost  the  first  authority  who  refers  to 
the  legend  is  the  grammarian  Ahmad  al-Nahhds  (f  949  a.d.), 
and  by  him  it  is  stigmatised  as  entirely  groundless.  Moreover, 
although  it  was  accepted  by  scholars  like  Reiske,  Sir  W.  Jones, 
and  even  De  Sacy,  it  is  incredible  in  itself.  Hengstenberg,  in 
the  Prolegomena  to  his  edition  of  the  Mu'-allaqa  of  Imru'u 
'1-Qays  (Bonn,  1823)  asked  some  pertinent  questions  :  Who 
were  the  judges,  and  how  were  they  appointed  ?  Why  were 
only  these  seven  poems  thus  distinguished  ?  His  further 
objection,  that  the  art  of  writing  was  at  that  time  a  rare  accom- 
plishment, does  not  carry  so  much  weight  as  he  attached  to 
it,  but  the  story  is  sufficiently  refuted  by  what  we  know  of 
the  character  and  customs  of  the  Arabs  in  the  sixth  century 
and  afterwards.  Is  it  conceivable  that  the  proud  sons  of  the 
desert  could  have  submitted  a  matter  so  nearly  touching  their 
tribal  honour,  of  which  they  were  jealous  above  all  things,  to 
external  arbitration,  or  meekly  acquiesced  in  the  partial  verdict 
of  a  court  sitting  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Mecca,  which  would 
certainly  have  shown  scant  consideration  for  competitors 
belonging  to  distant  clans  ?  2 

However  Mu'-allaqa  is  to  be  explained,  the  name  is  not 
contemporary  with  the  poems  themselves.  In  all  probability 
they  were  so    entitled    by  the  person   who  first  chose  them 

to  a  poem  falsely  attributed  to  Pythagoras.  That  some  of  the  Mu'allaqdt 
were  recited  at  'Ukaz  is  probable  enough  and  is  definitely  affirmed  in  the 
case  of  'Amr  b.  Kulthiim  {Aghdni,  ix,  182). 

'  The  legend  first  appears  in  the  'Iqd  al-Farid  (ed.  of  Cairo,  1293  A.H., 
vol.  iii,  p.  116  seq.)  of  Ibn  'Abdi  Rabbihi,  who  died  in  940  A.D. 

"  See  the  Introduction  to  Noldeke's  Beitn'ige  zur  Kcnntniss  der  Poesie 
deralten  Arabcr  (Hannover,  1864),  p.  xvii  sqq.,and  his  article  'Mo'allakat ' 
in  the  Encyclopcvdia  Britannica. 


THE  MU'ALLAQAT  103 

out  of  innumerable  others  and  embodied  them  in  a  separate 

collection.     This  is  generally  allowed  to  have  been  Hammad 

al-Rawiya,  a  famous  rhapsodist  who  flourished  in 

°cliiection''     *^^   latter   days  of  the   Umayyad    dynasty,    and 

died  about  772  a.d.,  in  the  reign  of  the  *Abbasid 

Caliph  Mahdf.     What  principle  guided  Hammad  in  his  choice 

we  do  not  know.     Noldeke  conjectures  that  he  was  influenced 

by  the  fact  that  all  the  Mu'-allaqat  are  long  poems — they  are 

sometimes  called  *The  Seven  Long  Poems'  [al-Sab'-  al-Tiwdl) 

— for  in  Hammdd's  time  little  of  the   ancient  Arabian  poetry 

survived  in  a  state  even  of  relative  completeness. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  no  rendering  of  the  Mu''allaqat 

can  furnish  European  readers  with  a  just  idea  of  the  originals, 

a  literal  version  least  of  all.     They  contain  much 

t'rSatuig^  that  only  a  full  commentary  can  make  intelligible, 
the  Mu-aiiaqat.  ^^^^j^  ^j^^^  ^^  modem  tastc  is  absolutely  incon- 
gruous with  the  poetic  style.  Their  finest  pictures  of  Bedouin 
life  and  manners  often  appear  uncouth  or  grotesque,  because 
without  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  land  and  people  it  is 
impossible  for  us  to  see  what  the  poet  intended  to  convey,  or 
to  appreciate  the  truth  and  beauty  of  its  expression  ;  while  the 
artificial  framework,  the  narrow  range  of  subject  as  well  as 
treatment,  and  the  frank  realism  of  the  whole  strike  us  at 
once.  In  the  following  pages  I  shall  give  some  account  of 
the  Mu'-allaqat  and  their  authors,  and  endeavour  to  bring  out 
the  characteristic  qualities  of  each  poem  by  selecting  suitable 
passages  for  translation.^ 

The  oldest  and  most  famous  of  the  Mu'-allaqat  is  that  of 
Imru'u  '1-Qays,  who  was  descended  from  the  ancient  kings  of 
Yemen.  His  grandfather  was  King  Harith  of  Kinda,  the 
antagonist  of  Mundhir  III,  King  of  Hira,  by  whom  he  was 

'  It  is  well  known  that  the  order  of  the  verses  in  the  Mu'allaqdt,  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  Noldeke  in  his  German  translation. 


104  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

defeated    and    slain. ^      On    Harith's    death,    the    confederacy 
which  he  had  built  up  split  asunder,  and  his  sons  divided  among 

themselves  the   different  tribes  of  which  it   was 
'i^Tys.         composed.    Hujr,  the  poet's  father,  ruled  for  some 

time  over  the  Banii  Asad  in  Central  Arabia,  but 
finally  they  revolted  and  put  him  to  death.  "  The  duty  of 
avenging  his  murder  fell  upon  Imru'u  '1-Qays,  who  is  repre- 
sented as  the  only  capable  prince  of  his  family  ;  and  the 
few  historical  data  which  we  have  regarding  him  relate  to  his 
adventures  while  bent  upon  this  vengeance."  2  They  are  told 
at  considerable  length  in  the  Kitibu  U-Aghdnl^  but  need  not 
detain  us  here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  his  efforts  to  punish  the 
rebels,  who  were  aided  by  Mundhir,  the  hereditary  foe  of  his 
house,  met  with  little  success.  He  then  set  out  for  Constan- 
tinople, where  he  was  favourably  received  by  the  Emperor 
Justinian,  who  desired  to  see  the  power  of  Kinda  re-established 
as  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  his  Persian  rivals.  The  emperor 
appointed  him  Phylarch  of  Palestine,  but  on  his  way  thither  he 
died  at  Angora  (about  540  a.d.).  He  is  said  to  have  perished, 
like  Nessus,  from  putting  on  a  poisoned  robe  sent  to  him  as  a 
gift  by  Justinian,  with  whose  daughter  he  had  an  intrigue. 
Hence  he  is  sometimes  called  '  The  Man  of  the  Ulcers ' 
{Dim  U-Qurhh). 

Many  fabulous  traditions  surround  the  romantic  figure  of 
Imru'u  'l-Qays.3  According  to  one  story,  he  was  banished  by 
his  father,  who  despised  him  for  being  a  poet  and  was  enraged 
by  the  scandals  to  which  his  love  adventures  gave  rise. 
Imru'u  '1-Qays  left  his  home  and  wandered  from  tribe  to  tribe 
with  a  company  of  outcasts  like  himself,  leading  a  wild  life, 
which  caused  him  to  be  known  as  '  The  Vagabond  Prince ' 
{al-Malik  al-D'dlil).     When  the  news   of   his  father's  death 

'  See  p.  42  supra.  *  Ancient  Arabian  Poetry,  p.  105. 

3  See  the  account  of  his  life  (according  to  the  Kitdbu'  l-Aghdnt)  in 
Le  Diwan  d'Ainro'lkals,  edited  with  translation  and  notes  by  Baron 
MacGuckin  de  Slane  (Paris,  1837),  pp.  1-51  ;  and  in  Amrilkais,  der  Dichter 
und  Koiiig  by  Friedrich  Riickert  {Stuttgart  and  Tubingen,  1843). 


IMRU'U  'L-QAYS  105 

reached  him  he  cried,  "  My  father  wasted  my  youth,  and  now 
that  I  am  old  he  has  laid  upon  me  the  burden  of  blood-revenge. 
Wine  to-day,  business  to-morrow  ! "  Seven  nights  he  con- 
tinued the  carouse  ;  then  he  swore  not  to  eat  flesh,  nor  drink 
wine,  nor  use  ointment,  nor  touch  woman,  nor  wash  his 
head  until  his  vengeance  was  accomplished.  In  the  valley 
of  Tabala,  north  of  Najran,  there  was  an  idol  called  Dhu 
'1-Khalasa  much  reverenced  by  the  heathen  Arabs.  Imru'u 
'1-Qays  visited  this  oracle  and  consulted  it  in  the  ordinary  way, 
by  drawing  one  of  three  arrows  entitled  '  the  Commanding,' 
'the  Forbidding,'  and  'the  Waiting.'  He  drew  the  second, 
whereupon  he  broke  the  arrows  and  dashed  them  on  the  face 
of  the  idol,  exclaiming  with  a  gross  imprecation,  "If  thy 
father  had  been  slain,  thou  would'st  not  have  hindered  me  !  " 
Imru'u  'I-Qays  is  almost  universally  reckoned  the  greatest 
of  the  Pre-islamic  poets.  Muhammad  described  him  as  '  their 
leader  to  Hell-fire,'  while  the  Caliphs  'Umar  and  'All, 
odium  theologicum  notwithstanding,  extolled  his  genius  and  origin- 
ality.i  Coming  to  the  Mu^allaqa  itself,  European  critics  have 
vied  with  each  other  in  praising  its  exquisite  diction  and 
splendid  images,  the  sweet  flow  of  the  verse,  the  charm  and 
variety  of  the  painting,  and,  above  all,  the  feeling  by  which  it 
is  inspired  of  the  joy  and  glory  of  youth.  The  passage  trans- 
lated below  is  taken  from  the  first  half  of  the  poem,  in  which 
love  is  the  prevailing  theme  : —  2 

"  Once,  on  the  hill,  she  mocked  at  me  and  swore, 
'  This  hour  I  leave  thee  to  return  no  more,' 


'  That  he  was  not,  however,  the  inventor  of  the  Arabian  qasida  as 
described  above  (p.  76  sqq.)  appears  from  the  fact  that  he  mentions  in  one 
of  his  verses  a  certain  Ibn  Humam  or  Ibn  Khidham  who  introduced,  or  at 
least  made  fashionable,  the  prelude  with  which  almost  every  ode  begins  : 
a  lament  over  the  deserted  camping-ground  (Ibn  Qutayba,  A".  al-Shi'rwa- 
'l-Shii^ard,  p.  52). 

'  The  following  lines  are  translated  from  Arnold's  edition  of  the 
Mn'aUaqdt  (Leipsic,  1850),  p.  9  sqq.,  vv.   18-35. 


io6  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

Soft !  if  farewell  is  planted  in  thy  mind, 
Yet  spare  me,  Fatima,  disdain  unkind. 
Because  my  passion  slays  me,  wilt  thou  part  ? 
Because  thy  wish  is  law  unto  mine  heart  ? 
Nay,  if  thou  so  mislikest  aught  in  me. 
Shake  loose  my  robe  and  let  it  fall  down  free. 
But  ah,  the  deadly  pair,  thy  streaming  eyes  ! 
They  pierce  a  heart  that  all  in  ruin  lies. 

How  many  a  noble  tent  hath  oped  its  treasure 

To  me,  and  I  have  ta'en  my  fill  of  pleasure. 

Passing  the  warders  who  with  eager  speed 

Had  slain  me,  if  they  might  but  hush  the  deed. 

What  time  in  heaven  the  Pleiades  unfold 

A  belt  of  orient  gems  distinct  with  gold. 

I  entered.     By  the  curtain  there  stood  she, 

Clad  lightly  as  for  sleep,  and  looked  on  me. 

'  By  God,'  she  cried,  '  what  recks  thee  of  the  cost  ? 

I  see  thine  ancient  madness  is  not  lost.' 

I  led  her  forth — she  trailing  as  we  go 

Her  broidered  skirt,  lest  any  footprint  show — 

Until  beyond  the  tents  the  valley  sank 

With  curving  dunes  and  many  a  piled  bank. 

Then  with  both  hands  I  drew  her  head  to  mine. 

And  lovingly  the  damsel  did  incline 

Her  slender  waist  and  legs  more  plump  than  fine ; — 

A  graceful  figure,  a  complexion  bright, 

A  bosom  like  a  mirror  in  the  light  ; 

Her  face  a  pearl  where  pale  contends  with  rose  ; 

For  her,  clear  water  from  the  untrodden  fountain  flows. 

Now  she  bends  half  away  :  two  cheeks  appear. 

And  such  an  eye  as  marks  the  frighted  deer 

Beside  her  fawn  ;  and  lo,  the  antelope-neck 

Not  bare  of  ornament,  else  without  a  fleck  ; 

While  from  her  shoulders  in  profusion  fair. 

Like  clusters  on  the  palm,  hangs  down  her  jet-black  hair." 

In  strange  contrast  with  this  tender  and  delicate  idyll  are 
the  wild,  hard  verses  almost  immediately  following,  in  which 
the  poet  roaming  through  the  barren  waste  hears  the  howl  of  a 
starved  wolf  and  hails  him  as  a  comrade  : — 


IMRU'U  'L-QAVS  107 

"  Each  one  of  us  what  thing  he  finds  devours  : 
Lean  is  the  wretch  whose  living  is  like  ours."  ' 

The  noble  qualities  of  his  horse  and  its  prov^^ess  in  the 
chase  are  described,  and  the  poem  ends  vi'ith  a  magnificent 
picture  of  a  thunder-storm  among  the  hills  of  Najd. 

Tarafa  b.  al-'Abd  was  a  member  of  the  great  tribe  of  Bakr. 

The    particular    clan    to    which    he    belonged  was   settled  in 

Bahrayn  on  the  Persian  Gulf.    He  early  developed 

Tarafa.  *  . 

a  talent  for  satire,  which  he  exercised  upon  friend 
and  foe  indifferently  ;  and  after  he  had  squandered  his 
patrimony  in  dissolute  pleasures,  his  family  chased  him  away 
as  though  he  were  'a  mangy  camel.'  At  length  a  recon- 
ciliation was  effected.  He  promised  to  mend  his  ways,  re- 
turned to  his  people,  and  took  part,  it  is  said,  in^  the  War  of 
Basus.  In  a  little  while  his  means  were  dissipated  once  more 
and  he  was  reduced  to  tend  his  brother's  herds.  His  Mu^allaqa 
composed  at  this  time  won  for  him  the  favour  of  a  rich  kins- 
man and  restored  him  to  temporary  independence.  On  the 
conclusion  of  peace  between  Bakr  and  Taghlib  the  youthful 
poet  turned  his  eyes  in  the  direction  of  Hira,  where  'Amr  b. 
Hind  had  lately  succeeded  to  the  throne  (554  A.D.).  He  was 
well  received  by  the  king,  who  attached  him,  along  with  his 
uncle,  the  poet  Mutalammis,  to  the  service  of  the  heir-apparent. 
But  Tarafa's  bitter  tongue  was  destined  to  cost  him  dear. 
Fatigued  and  disgusted  by  the  rigid  ceremony  of  the  court,  he 
improvised  a  satire  in  which  he  said — 

"Would  that  we  had  instead  of  'Amr 
A  milch-ewe  bleating  round  our  tent  ! " 

Shortly  afterwards  he  happened  to  be  seated  at  table  opposite 
the  king's  sister.     Struck  with  her  beauty,  he  exclaimed — 

'  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'abbata  Sharr^*". 


io8  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

"Behold,  she  has  come  back  to  me, 
My  fair  gazelle  whose  ear-rings  shine  ; 
Had  not  the  king  been  sitting  here, 
I  would  have  pressed  her  hps  to  mine  !" 

'  Amr  b.  Hind  was  a  man  of  violent  and  implacable  temper. 
Tarafa's  satire  had  already  been  reported  to  him,  and  this  new 
impertinence  added  fuel  to  his  wrath.  Sending  for  Tarafa  and 
Mutalammis,  he  granted  them  leave  to  visit  their  homes,  and 
gave  to  each  of  them  a  sealed  letter  addressed  to  the  governor 
of  Bahrayn.  When  they  had  passed  outside  the  city  the 
suspicions  of  Mutalammis  were  aroused.  As  neither  he  nor 
his  companion  could  read,  he  handed  his  own  letter  to  a  boy 
of  Hira^  and  learned  that  it  contained  orders  to  bury  him 
alive.  Thereupon  he  flung  the  treacherous  missive  into  the 
stream  and  implored  Tarafa  to  do  likewise.  Tarafa  refused 
to  break  the  royal  seal.  He  continued  his  journey  to  Bahrayn, 
where  he  was  thrown  into  prison  and  executed. 

Thus  perished  miserably  in  the  flower  of  his  youth — accord- 
ing to  some  accounts  he  was  not  yet  twenty — the  passionate 
and  eloquent  Tarafa.  In  his  Mu'-allaqa  he  has  drawn  a 
spirited  portrait  of  himself.  The  most  striking  feature  of 
the  poem,  apart  from  a  long  and,  to  us  who  are  not  Bedouins, 
painfully  tedious  description  of  the  camel,  is  its  insistence  on 
sensual  enjoyment  as  the  sole  business  of  life  : — 

"  Canst  thou  make  me  immortal,  O  thou  that  blamest  me  so 
For  haunting  the  battle  and  loving  the  pleasures  that  fly  ? 
If  thou  kast  not  the  power  to  ward  mc  from  Death,  let  me  go 
To  meet  him  and  scatter  the  wealth  in  my  hand,  ere  I  die. 

Save  only  for  three  things  in  which  noble  youth  take  delight, 

I  care  not  how  soon  rises  o'er  me  the  coronach  loud  : 

Wine  that   bubbles  when    water   is   poured   on   it,    ruddy  and 

bright, 
Red  wine  that  I  quaff  stol'n  away  from  the  cavilling  crowd  ; 


'  We  have  already  (p.  39)  referred  to  the  culture  of  the  Christian  Arabs 
of  Hira. 


TARAFA  109 

"And  second,  my  charge  at  the  cry  of  distress  on  a  steed 
Bow-legged   Hke   the   wolf   you   have    startled  when    thirsty  he 

cowers  ; 
And  third,  on  a  wet  day — oh,  wet  days  are  pleasant  indeed  ! — 
'Neath  a  propped  leathern  tent  with  a  girl  to  beguile  the  slow 

hours." ' 

Keeping,  as  far  as  possible,  the  chronological  order,  we  have 
now  to  mention  two  Mu^allaqas  which,  though  not  directly 
related  to  each  other,  ^  are  of  the  same  period — the  reign  of 
'Amr  b.  Hind,  King  of  Hira  (554-568  a.d.).  Moreover, 
their  strong  mutual  resemblance  and  their  difference  from  the 
other  Mu^allaqas^  especially  from  typical  qasldas  like  those  of 
*Antara  and  Labid,  is  a  further  reason  for  linking  them 
together.  Their  distinguishing  mark  is  the  abnormal  space 
devoted  to  the  main  subject,  which  leaves  little  room  for 
the  subsidiary  motives. 

'Amr  b.  Kulthum  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Taghlib.     His 

mother  was  Layla,  a  daughter  of  the  famous  poet  and  warrior 

Muhalhil.     That   she    was   a    woman    of  heroic 

Kuithuni        mould  appears  from  the  following  anecdote,  which 
records  a  deed  of  prompt  vengeance  on  the  part 
of  'Amr  that  gave  rise  to  the  proverb,  "  Bolder  in  onset  than 
'Amr  b.  Kulthum  "  3  :— 

One  day  'Amr.  b.  Hind,  the  King  of  Hira,  said  to  his  boon-com- 
panions, "  Do  ye  know  any  Arab  whose  mother  would  disdain  to 
serve    mine  ? "    They  answered,   "  Yes,  the   mother    of  '  Amr   b. 


'  Vv.  54-59  (Lyall) ;  56-61  (Arnold). 

*  See  Noldeke,  Fiinf  Mu'allaqdf,  i,  p.  51  seq.  According  to  the 
traditional  version  (Aghdni,  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  Banu  Bakr.  Thereupon  Taghlib  appealed  to  King 
'Amr  to  enforce  payment  of  the  blood-money  which  they  claimed,  and 
chose  'Amr  b.  Kulthum  to  plead  their  cause  at  Hira.  So  'Amr  recited  his 
Mu'allaqa  before  the  king,  and  was  answered  by  Harith  on  behalf  of 
Bal^r. 

3  Freytag,  Arabum  Provcrbia,  vol.  ii,  p.  233, 


no  PRE'ISLAMIC  POETRY 

Kulthum."  "  Why  so  ? "  asked  the  king.  "  Because,"  said  they, "  her 
father  is  Muhalhil  b,  Rabi'a  and  her  uncle  is  Kulayb  b.  Wa'il,  the 
most  puissant  of  the  Arabs,  and  her  husband  is 
aveiJ^edTn  Kulthum  b.  Malik,  the  knightliest,  and  her  son  is  'Amr, 
insult  to  his  the  chieftain  of  his  tribe."  Then  the  king  sent  to  'Amr 
b.  Kulthum,  inviting  him  to  pay  a  visit  to  himself,  and 
asking  him  to  bring  his  mother,  Layla,  to  visit  his  own  mother, 
Hind.  So  'Amr  came  to  Hira  with  some  men  of  Taghlib,  and 
Layla  came  attended  by  a  number  of  their  women ;  and  while 
the  king  entertained  'Amr  and  his  friends  in  a  pavilion  which  he 
had  caused  to  be  erected  between  Hira  and  the  Euphrates,  Layla 
found  quarters  with  Hind  in  a  tent  adjoining.  Now,  the  king  had 
ordered  his  mother,  as  soon  as  he  should  call  for  dessert,  to  dismiss 
the  servants,  and  cause  Layla  to  wait  upon  her.  At  the  pre-arranged 
signal  she  desired  to  be  left  alone  with  her  guest,  and  said,  "  O  Layla, 
hand  me  that  dish,"  Layla  answered, "  Let  those  who  want  anything 
rise  up  and  serve  themselves."  Hind  repeated  her  demand,  and 
would  take  no  denial.  "  O  shame  ! "  cried  Layla.  "  Help  !  TaghUb, 
help  ! "  When  'Amr  heard  his  mother's  cry  the  blood  flew  to  his 
cheeks.  He  seized  a  sword  hanging  on  the  wall  of  the  pavilion — 
the  only  weapon  there — and  with  a  single  blow  smote  the  king 
dead, • 

*Amr's  Mu^allaqa  is  the  work  of  a  man  who  united  in 
himself  the  ideal  qualities  of  manhood  as  these  were  under- 
stood by  a  race  which  has  never  failed  to  value,  even  too 
highly,  the  display  of  self-reliant  action  and  decisive  energy. 
And  if  in  'Amr's  poem  these  virtues  are  displayed  with  an 
exaggerated  boastfulness  which  offends  our  sense  of  decency 
and  proper  reserve,  it  would  be  a  grave  error  to  conclude  that 
all  this  sound  and  fury  signifies  nothing.  The  Bedouin  poet 
deems  it  his  bounden  duty  to  glorify  to  the  utmost  himself,  his 
family,  and  his  tribe  ;  the  Bedouin  warrior  is  never  tired  of 
proclaiming  his  unshakable  valour  and  recounting  his  brilliant 
feats  of  arms  :  he  hurls  menaces  and  vaunts  in  the  same  breath, 
but  it  does  not  follow  that  he  is  a  Miles  Gloriosus.  'Amr 
certainly  was  not  :  his  Mu'-allaqa  leaves  a  vivid  impression  of 
conscious  and  exultant  strength.     The  first  eight  verses  seem 

'  Aghdni,  ix,  182. 


'AMR  IBM  KULTHOM  hi 

to  have  been  added  to  the  poem  at  a  very  early  date,  for  out  of 
them  arose  the  legend  that  *Amr  drank  himself  to  death  with 
unmixed  wine.  It  is  likely  that  they  were  included  in  the 
original  collection  of  the  Mu^allaqdt^  and  they  are  worth 
translating  for  their  own  sake  : — 

"  Up,  maiden  !    Fetch  the  morning-drink  and  spare  not 

The  wine  of  Andarin, 
Clear  wine  that  takes  a  saffron  hue  when  water 

Is  mingled  warm  therein. 
The  lover  tasting  it  forgets  his  passion, 

His  heart  is  eased  of  pain  ; 
The  stingy  miser,  as  he  lifts  the  goblet, 

Regardeth  not  his  gain. 

Pass  round  from  left  to  right !    Why  let'st  thou,  maiden. 

Me  and  my  comrades  thirst  ? 
Yet  am  I,  whom  thou  wilt  not  serve  this  morning, 

Of  us  three  not  the  worst  ! 
Many  a  cup  in  Baalbec  and  Damascus 

And  Qasirin  I  drained, 
Howbeit  we,  ordained  to  death,  shall  one  day 

Meet  death,  to  us  ordained." ' 

In  the  next  passage  he  describes  his  grief  at  the  departure 
of  his  beloved,  whom  he  sees  in  imagination  arriving  at  her 
journey's  end  in  distant  Yamdma  : — 

"And  oh,  my  love  and  yearning  when  at  nightfall 

I  saw  her  camels  haste. 
Until  sharp  peaks  uptowered  like  serried  sword-blades. 

And  me  Yamama  faced  ! 
Such  grief  no  mother-camel  feels,  bemoaning 

Her  young  one  lost,  nor  she. 
The  grey-haired  woman  whose  hard  fate  hath  left  her 

Of  nine  sons  graves  thrice  three."- 

Now   the   poet   turns   abruptly   to   his  main   theme.     He 

'  Vv.  1-8  (Arnold)  ;  in  Lyall's  edition  the  penultimate  verse  is  omitted, 
^  Vv.  15-18  (Lyall) ;  19-22  (Arnold). 


112  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

addresses  the  King  of  Hira,  'Amr  b.  Hind,  in  terms  of  defiance, 
and  warns  the  foes  of  Taghlib  that  they  will  meet  more  than 
their  match  : — 

"  Father  of  Hind/  take  heed  and  ere  thou  movest 

Rashly  against  us,  learn 
That  still  our  banners  go  down  white  to  battle 

And  home  blood-red  return. 
And  many  a  chief  bediademed,  the  champion 

Of  the  outlaws  of  the  land, 
Have  we  o'erthrown  and  stripped  him,  while  around  him 

Fast-reined  the  horses  stand. 
Our  neighbours  lopped  like  thorn-trees,  snarls  in  terror 

Of  us  the  demon-hound  ;  ^ 
Never  we  try  our  hand-mill  on  the  foemen 

But  surely  they  are  ground. 
We  are  the  heirs  of  gloiy,  all  Ma'add  knows,  ^ 

Our  lances  it  defend, 
And  when  the  tent-pole  tumbles  in  the  foray, 

Trust  us  to  save  our  friend  !  * 

O  'Amr,  what  mean'st  thou  ?    Are  we,  we  of  Taghlib, 

Thy  princeHng's  retinue  ? 
O  'Amr,  what  mean'st  thou,  rating  us  and  hearkening 

To  tale-bearers  untrue  ? 
O  'Amr,  ere  thee  full  many  a  time  our  spear-shaft 

Has  baffled  foes  to  bow  ;  s 
Nipped  in  the  vice  it  kicks  like  a  wild  camel 

That  will  no  touch  allow — 
Like  a  wild  camel,  so  it  creaks  in  bending 

And  splits  the  bender's  brow  !"^ 

The  Mu^allaqa  ends  with  a  eulogy,  superb  in  its  extravagance, 
of  the  poet's  tribe  : — 

•  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). 

=  I.e.,  even  ihe  jinn  (genies)  stand  in  awe  of  us. 
3  Here  Ma'add  signifies  the  Arabs  in  general. 

♦  Vv.  20-30  (Lyall),  omitting  vv.  22,  27,  28. 

5  This  is  a  figurative  way  of  saying  that  Taghlib  has  never  been  subdued 

6  Vv.  46-51  (Lyall),  omitting  v.  48. 


'AMR  IBN  KULTHtjM  113 

"Well  wot,  when  our  tents  rise  along  their  valleys, 

The  men  of  every  clan 
That  we  give  death  to  those  who  durst  attempt  us, 

To  friends  what  food  we  can  ; 
That  staunchly  we  maintain  a  cause  we  cherish. 

Camp  where  we  choose  to  ride, 
Nor  will  we  aught  of  peace,  when  we  are  angered, 

Till  we  are  satisfied. 
We  keep  our  vassals  safe  and  sound,  but  rebels 

We  soon  bring  to  their  knees  ; 
And  if  we  reach  a  well,  we  drink  pure  water. 

Others  the  muddy  lees. 
Ours  is  the  earth  and  all  thereon  :  when  we  strike, 

There  needs  no  second  blow  ; 
Kings  lay  before  the  new-weaned  boy  of  Taghlib 

Their  heads  in  homage  low. 
We  are  called  oppressors,  being  none,  but  shortly 

A  true  name  shall  it  be  ! ' 
We  have  so  filled  the  earth  'tis  narrow  for  us. 

And  with  our  ships  the  sea ! ' 


Less  interesting  is  the  Mu^allaqa  of  Harith  b.    Hilliza  of 

Bakr.     Its  inclusion  among  the  Mu'-allaqat  is  probably  due,  as 

Noldeke   suggested,    to   the  fact    that   Hammad, 

Hirithb.^iUiza.    ,  .  ,-  ?.°  r    xi    ,  •   ,       ,  n  ,  • 

himself  a  client  of  Bakr,  wished  to  flatter  his 
patrons  by  selecting  a  counterpart  to  the  Mu'-allaqa  of  'Amr 
b.  Kulthum,  which  immortalised  their  great  rivals,  the  Banu 
Taghlib.  Harith's  poem,  however,  has  some  historical  im- 
portance, as  it  throws  light  on  feuds  in  Northern  Arabia 
connected  with  the  antagonism  of  the  Roman  and  Persian 
Empires.  Its  purpose  is  to  complain  of  unjust  accusations 
made  against  the  Banu  Bakr  by  a  certain  group  of  the  Banii 
Taghlib  known  as  the  Araqim  : — 


'  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. 

»  Vv.  94-104  (Arnold),  omitting  vv.  100  and  loi.  If  the  last  words  are 
anything  more  than  a  poetic  fiction,  '  the  sea '  must  refer  to  the  River 
Euphrates. 

9 


114  PRE-ISLAMTC  POETRY 

"Our  brothers  the  Araqim  let  their  tongues 

Against  us  rail  unmeasuredly. 
The  innocent  with  the  guilty  they  confound  : 

Of  guilt  what  boots  it  to  be  free  ? 
They  brand  us  patrons  of  the  vilest  deed, 

Our  clients  in  each  miscreant  see.'' ' 

A  person  whom  Harith  does  not  name  was  '  blackening ' 
the  Banu  Bakr  before  the  King  of  Hira.  The  poet  tells  him 
not  to  imagine  that  his  calumnies  will  have  any  lasting  effect : 
often  had  Bakr  been  slandered  by  their  foes,  but  (he  finely 
adds)  : — 

"  Maugre  their  hate  we  stand,  by  firm-based  might 

Exalted  and  by  ancestry — 
Might  which  ere  now  hath  dazzled  men's  eyes  :  thence  scorn 

To  yield  and  haughty  spirit  have  we. 
On  us  the  Days  beat  as  on  mountain  dark 

That  soars  in  cloudless  majesty, 
Compact  against  the  hard  calamitous  shocks 

And  buffetings  of  Destiny."  = 

He  appeals  to  the  offenders  not  wantonly  to  break  the  peace 
which  ended  the  War  of  Basus  : — 

"  Leave  folly  and  error  1     If  ye  blind  yourselves, 

Just  therein  lies  the  malady. 
Recall  the  oaths  of  Dhu  'l-Majaz^  for  which 

Hostages  gave  security, 
Lest  force  or  guile  should  break  them  :  can  caprice 

Annul  the  parchments  utterly  ?  * 

'Antara   b.  Shaddad,  whose  father  belonged  to  the  tribe  of 
'Abs,  distinguished  himself  in  the  War  of  Dahis.S     In  modern 
times  it  is  not  as  a  poet  that  he  is  chiefly  remem- 
bered,  but  as  a  hero  of  romance — the  Bedouin 
Achilles.     Goddess-born,  however,  he  could  not  be  called  by 

'  Vv.  16-18.  -  Vv.  23-26. 

3  A  place  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Mecca. 
*  Vv.  40-42  (Lyall)  ;  65-67  (Arnold). 

s  See  'Antarah,  cin  vorislamischer  Dichter,  by  H.  Thorbecke  (Leipzig, 
1867). 


HARITH  AND  'ANTARA  115 

any  stretch  of  imagination.  His  mother  was  a  black  slave, 
and  he  must  often  have  been  taunted  with  his  African  blood, 
which  showed  itself  in  a  fiery  courage  that  gained  the  respect 
of  the  pure-bred  but  generally  less  valorous  Arabs.  'Antara 
loved  his  cousin  'Abla,  and  following  the  Arabian  custom  by 
which  cousins  have  the  first  right  to  a  girl's  hand,  he  asked 
her  in  marriage.  His  suit  was  vain — the  son  of  a  slave  mother 
being  regarded  as  a  slave  unless  acknowledged  by  his  father — 
until  on  one  occasion,  while  the  'Absitcs  were  hotly  engaged 
with  some  raiders  who  had  driven  off  their  camels,  *Antara 
refused  to  join  in  the  melee,  saying,  "  A  slave  does  not  under- 
stand how  to  fight ;  his  work  is  to  milk  the  camels  and  bind 
their  udders."  "  Charge  !  "  cried  his  father,  "  thou  art  free." 
Though  'Antara  uttered  no  idle  boast  when  he  sang — 

"  On  one  side  nobly  born  and  of  the  best 
Of  'Abs  am  I  :  my  sword  makes  good  the  rest  ! " 

his  contemptuous  references  to  'jabbering  barbarians,'  and  to 
'  slaves  with  their  ears  cut  off,  clad  in  sheepskins,'  are  charac- 
teristic of  the  man  who  had  risen  to  eminence  in  spite  of  the 
stain  on  his  scutcheon.  He  died  at  a  great  age  in  a  foray 
against  the  neighbouring  tribe  of  Tayyi'.  His  Mu^allaqa  is 
famous  for  its  stirring  battle-scenes,  one  of  which  is  translated 
here  : — ^ 

"  Learn,  Malik's  daughter,  how 
I  rush  into  the  fray, 
And  how  I  draw  back  only 
At  sharing  of  the  prey. 

I  never  quit  the  saddle, 

My  strong  steed  nimbly  bounds ; 

Warrior  after  warrior  / 

Have  covered  him  with  wounds. 


'  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. 


ii6  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

Full-armed  against  me  stood 
One  feared  of  fighting  men  : 

He  fled  not  oversoon 
Nor  let  himself  be  ta'en. 

With  straight  hard-shafted  spear 
I  dealt  him  in  his  side 

A  sudden  thrust  which  opened 
Two  streaming  gashes  wide, 

Two  gashes  whence  outgurgled 
His  life-blood  :  at  the  sound 

Night-roaming  ravenous  wolves 
Flock  eagerly  around. 

So  with  my  doughty  spear 
I  trussed  his  coat  of  mail — 

For  truly,  when  the  spear  strikes, 
The  noblest  man  is  frail — 

And  left  him  low  to  banquet 
The  wild  beasts  gathering  there  ; 

They  have  torn  off  his  fingers. 
His  wrist  and  fingers  fair  !  " 


While  *Antara's  poem  belongs  to  the  final  stages  of  the 
War  of  Dahis,  the  Mu'-allaqa  of  his  contemporary,  Zuhayr  b. 
Abf  Sulma,  of  the  tribe  of  Muzayna,  celebrates 
an  act  of  private  munificence  which  brought 
about  the  concludon  of  peace.  By  the  self-sacrificing  inter- 
vention of  two  chiefs  of  Dhubyan,  Harim  b.  Sindn  and 
Harith  b.  'Awf,  the  whole  sum  of  blood-money  to  which 
the  'Absites  were  entitled  on  account  of  the  greater  number 
of  those  who  had  fallen  on  their  side,  was  paid  over  to  them. 
Such  an  example  of  generous  and  disinterested  patriotism — for 
Harim  and  Hdrith  had  shed  no  blood  themselves — was  a  fit 
subject  for  one  of  whom  it  was  said  that  he  never  praised  men 
but  as  thev  deserved  : — 


ZUHAYR  117 

Noble  pair  of  Ghayz  ibn  Murra/  well  ye  laboured  to  restore 
Ties  of  kindred  hewn  asunder  by  the  bloody  strokes  of  war. 
Witness  now  mine  oath  the  ancient  House  in  Mecca's  hallowed 

bound,^ 
Which   its    builders    of   Quraysh    and   Jurhum    solemnly    went 

round,3 
That  in  hard  or  easy  issue  never  wanting  were  ye  found  ! 
Peace  ye  gave  to  'Abs  and  Dhubyan  when  each  fell  by  other's 

hand 
And   the  evil  fumes  they  pestled  up  between  them  filled  the 

land."  -• 

At  the  end  of  his  panegyric  the  poet,  turning  to  the  lately 
reconciled  tribesmen  and  their  confederates,  earnestly  warns 
them  against  nursing  thoughts  of  vengeance  : — 

"  Will   ye  hide  from  God  the  guilt  ye  dare  not  unto  Him  dis- 
close ? 
Verily,  what  thing  soever  ye  would  hide  from  God,  He  knows. 
Either  it  is  laid  up  meantime  in  a  scroll  and  treasured  there 
For  the  day  of  retribution,  or  avenged  all  unaware.^ 
War  ye  have  known  and  war  have  tasted :    not  by  hearsay  are 

ye  wise. 
Raise  no  more  the  hideous  monster  !     If  ye  let  her  raven,  she 

cries 
Ravenously  for  blood  and  crushes,  like  a  mill-stone,  all  below, 
And  from  her  twin-conceiving  womb  she  brings  forth  woe  on 
woe."  ® 

After  a  somewhat  obscure  passage  concerning  the  lawless 
deeds  of  a  certain  Husayn  b.  Damdam,  which  had  well-nigh 

'  Ghayz  b.  Murra  was  a  descendant  of  Dhubyan  and  the  ancestor  of 
Harim  and  Harith. 
="  The  Ka'ba. 
s  This  refers  to  the  religious  circumambulation  {tawdj). 

*  Vv.  16-19  (Lyall). 

5  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-ShVr  isja-'l-Shu'ard,  p.  58,  1.  12). 

*  Vv.  27-31. 


ii8  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

caused  a  fresh  outbreak  of  hostilities,  Zuhayr  proceeds,  with  a 
natural  and  touching  allusion  to  his  venerable  age,  to  en- 
force the  lessons  of  conduct  and  morality  suggested  by  the 
situation  : — 

"  I  am  weary  of  life's  burden  :  well  a  man  may  weary  be 
After  eighty  years,  and  this  much  now  is  manifest  to  me  : 
Death  is  like  a  night-blind   camel  stumbling  on  : — the  smitten 

die 
But  the  others  age  and  wax  in  weakness  whom  he  passes  by. 
He  that  often  deals  with  folk  in  unkind  fashion,  underneath 
They  will  trample  him   and   make   him   feel  the   sharpness  of 

their  teeth. 
He  that  hath  enough  and  over  and  is  niggard  with  his  pelf 
Will  be  hated  of  his  people  and  left  free  to  hug  himself. 
y  He  alone  who  with  fair  actions  ever  fortifies  his  fame 

Wins  it  fully  :   blame  will  find  him  out  unless  he  shrinks  from 

blame. 
He  that  for   his   cistern's  guarding  trusts   not  in  his  own  stout 

arm 
Sees  it  ruined :    he  must  harm  his  foe  or  he  must  suffer  harm. 
He  that  fears  the  bridge  of  Death  across  it  finally  is  driven, 
Though  he  bridges  with  a  ladder  all  the  space  'twixt  earth  and 

heaven. 
He  that  will  not  take   the   lance's    butt-end  while   he   has  the 

chance 
Must  thereafter  be  contented  with  the  spike-end  of  the  lance. 
He  that   keeps  his  word   is   blamed  not ;    he  whose   heart   re- 

paireth  straight 
To  the  sanctuary  of  duty  never  needs  to  hesitate. 
He  that  hies  abroad  to  strangers  doth  account  his  friends  his 

foes ; 
He  that  honours  not  himself  lacks  honour  wheresoe'er  he  goes. 
Be  a  man's  true  nature  what  it  will,  that  nature  is  revealed 
To    his   neighbours,   let   him   fancy  as   he   may   that  'tis  con- 
cealed." ' 

The    ripe   sententious   wisdom   and    moral    earnestness   of 
Zuhayr's    poetry  are    in    keeping  with  what    has    been   said 

*  The  order  of  these  verses  in  Lyall's  edition  is  as  follows :  56,  57,  54, 
50,  55,  53,  49,  47,  4^,  52,  58. 


ZUHAYR  119 

above  concerning  his  religious  ideas  and,  from  another  point 
of  view,  with  the  tradition  that  he  used  to  compose  a  qasida 
in  four  months,  correct  it  for  four  months,  submit  it  to  the 
poets  of  his  acquaintance  during  a  like  period,  and  not 
make  it  public  until  a  year  had  expired. 

Of  his  life  there  is  little  to  tell.  Probably  he  died  before 
Islam,  though  it  is  related  that  when  he  was  a  centenarian  he 
met  the  Prophet,  who  cried  out  on  seeing  him,  "O  God, 
preserve  me  from  his  demon  !  "  ^  The  poetical  gifts  which 
he  inherited  from  his  uncle  Bashama  he  bequeathed  to  his 
son  Ka'b,  author  of  the  famous  ode,  Bdnat  Su^dd. 

Labid  b.  Rabi'a,  of  the  Band  'Amir  b.  Sa'sa'a,  was  born  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  sixth  century,  and  is  said  to  have  died  soon 
after  Mu'awiya's  accession  to  the  Caliphate,  which 
took  place  in  a.d.  661.  He  is  thus  the  youngest 
of  the  Seven  Poets.  On  accepting  Islam  he  abjured  poetry, 
saying,  "God  has  given  me  the  Koran  in  exchange  for  it." 
Like  Zuhayr,  he  had,  even  in  his  heathen  days,  a  strong  vein 
of  religious  feeling,  as  is  shown  by  many  passages  in  his 
Diwan. 

Labid  was  a  true  Bedouin,  and  his  Mu^allaqa^  with  its 
charmingly  fresh  pictures  of  desert  life  and  scenery,  must  be 
considered  one  of  the  finest  examples  of  the  Pre-islamic  qastda 
that  have  come  down  to  us.  The  poet  owes  something  to  his 
predecessors,  but  the  greater  part  seems  to  be  drawn  from  his 
own  observation.  He  begins  in  the  conventional  manner  by 
describing  the  almost  unrecognisable  vestiges  of  the  camping- 
ground  of  the  clan  to  which  his  mistress  belonged  : — 

"Waste  lies  the  land  where  once  alighted  and  did  wone 
The  people  of  Mina  ;  Rijdm  and  Ghawl  are  lone. 


'  Reference  has  been  made  above  to  the  old  Arabian  belief  that  poets 
owed  their  inspiration  to  the  jinn  (genii),  who  are  sometimes  called 
shaydtin  (satans).  See  Goldziher,  Abhand.  ziir  arab.  Philologic,  Part  I, 
pp.  1-14. 


120  PRE'ISLAMIC  POETRY 

The  camp  in  Rayyan's  vale  is  marked  by  relics  dim 
Like  weather-beaten  script  engraved  on  ancient  stone. 
Over  this  ruined  scene,  since  it  was  desolate, 
Whole  years  with  secular  and  sacred  months  had  flown. 
In  spring  'twas  blest  by  showers  'neath  starry  influence  shed, 
And  thunder-clouds  bestowed  a  scant  or  copious  boon. 
Pale  herbs  had  shot  up,  ostriches  on  either  slope 
Their  chicks  had  gotten  and  gazelles  their  young  had  thrown  ; 
And  large-eyed  wild-cows  there  beside  the  new-born  calves 
Reclined,  while  round  them  formed  a  troop  the   calves  half- 
grown. 
Torrents  of  rain  had  swept  the  dusty  ruins  bare. 
Until,  as  writing  freshly  charactered,  they  shone. 
Or  like  to  curved  tattoo-lines  on  a  woman's  arm. 
With  soot  besprinkled  so  that  every  line  is  shown. 
I  stopped  and  asked,  but  what  avails  it  that  we  ask 
Dumb  changeless  things  that  speak  a  language  all  unknown?"' 

After  lamenting  the  departure  of  his  beloved  the  poet  bids 
himself  think  no  more  about  her  :  he  will  ride  swiftly  away 
from  the  spot.  Naturally,  he  must  praise  his  camel,  and  he 
introduces  by  way  of  comparison  two  wonderful  pictures  of 
animal  life.  In  the  former  the  onager  is  described  racing  at 
full  speed  over  the  backs  of  the  hills  when  thirst  and  hunger 
drive  him  with  his  mate  far  from  the  barren  solitudes  into 
which  they  usually  retire.  The  second  paints  a  wild-cow, 
whose  young  calf  has  been  devoured  by  wolves,  sleeping 
among  the  sand-dunes  through  a  night  of  incessant  rain.  At 
daybreak  "  her  feet  glide  over  the  firm  wet  soil."  For  a 
whole  week  she  runs  to  and  fro,  anxiously  seeking  her  calf, 
when  suddenly  she  hears  the  sound  of  hunters  approaching  and 
makes  off  in  alarm.  Being  unable  to  get  within  bowshot,  the 
hunters  loose  their  dogs,  but  she  turns  desperately  upon  them, 
wounding  one  with  her  needle-like  horn  and  killing  another. 

Then,  once  more  addressing  his  beloved,  the  poet  speaks 

complacently  of  his  share   in  the  feasting  and  revelling,  on 

which  a  noble  Arab  plumes  himself  hardly  less  than  on  his 

bravery  : — 

'  Vv.  i-io  (Lyallj,  omitting  v.  5. 


LABtD  121 

"  Know'st  thou  not,  O  Nawdr,  that  I  am  wont  to  tie 
The  cords  of  love,  yet  also  snap  them  without  fear  ? 
That  I  abandon  places  when  I  like  them  not, 
Unless  Death  chain  the  soul  and  straiten  her  career  ? 
Nay,  surely,  but  thou  know'st  not  I  have  passed  in  talk 
Many  a  cool  night  of  pleasure  and  convivial  cheer, 
And  often  to  a  booth,  above  which  hung  for  sign 
A  banner,  have  resorted  when  old  wine  was  dear. 
For  no  light  price  I  purchased  many  a  dusky  skin 
Or  black  clay  jar,  and  broached  it  that  the  juice  ran  clear  ; 
And  many  a  song  of  shrill-voiced  singing-girl  I  paid, 
And  her  whose  fingers  made  sweet  music  to  mine  ear." ' 

Continuing,  he  boasts  of  dangerous  service  as  a  spy  in  the 
enemy's  country,  when  he  watched  all  day  on  the  top  of 
a  steep  crag  ;  of  his  fearless  demeanour  and  dignified  assertion 
of  his  rights  in  an  assembly  at  Hira,  to  which  he  came  as 
a  delegate,  and  of  his  liberality  to  the  poor.  The  closing 
verses  are  devoted,  in  accordance  with  custom,  to  matters 
of  immediate  interest  and  to  a  panegyric  on  the  virtues  of  the 
poet's  kin. 

Besides  the  authors  of  the  Mu^allaqdt  three  poets  may  be 
mentioned,  of  whom  the  two  first-named  are  universally 
acknowledged  to  rank  with  the  greatest  that  Arabia  has 
produced — NAbigha,  A'shd,  and  *Alqama. 

Ndbigha  2 — his  proper  name  is  Ziydd  b.  Mu'dwiya,  ot  the 

tribe   Dhubydn — lived   at   the   courts   of  Ghassdn    and    Hfra 

during    the    latter    half    of    the   century    before 

Sbyln.^  Islam.  His  chief  patron  was  King  Nu'mdn  b. 
Mundhir  Abii  Qabus  of  Hira.  For  many  years 
he  basked  in  the  sunshine  of  royal  favour,  enjoying  every 
privilege  that  Nu'mdn  bestowed  on  his  most  intimate  friends. 
The  occasion  of  their  falling  out  is  differently  related. 
According  to   one    story,  the    poet    described  the  charms  of 

'  Vv.  55-60  (Lyall). 

"  The  term  ndbigha  is  applied  to  a  poet  whose  genius  is  slow  in  de- 
claring itself  but  at  last^"  jets  forth  vigorously  and  abundantly  "  (nabagha). 


122  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

Queen  Mutajarrida,  which  Nu*mdn  had  asked  him  to 
celebrate,  with  such  charm  and  liveliness  as  to  excite  her 
husband's  suspicion  ;  but  it  is  said — and  Ndbigha's  own  words 
make  it  probable — that  his  enemies  denounced  him  as  the 
author  of  a  scurrilous  satire  against  Nu'man  which  had  been 
forged  by  themselves.  At  any  rate  he  had  no  choice  but  to 
quit  Hi'ra  with  all  speed,  and  ere  long  we  find  him  in  Ghassan, 
welcomed  and  honoured,  as  the  panegyrist  of  King  'Amr  b. 
Hdrith  and  the  noble  house  of  Jafna.  But  his  heart  was  in 
Hira  still.  Deeply  wounded  by  the  calumnies  of  which  he 
was  the  victim,  he  never  ceased  to  affirm  his  innocence  and  to 
lament  the  misery  of  exile.  The  following  poem,  which  he 
addressed  to  Nu'man,  is  at  once  a  justification  and  an  appeal 
for  mercy  ^  : — 

"  They  brought  me  word,  O  King,  thou  blamedst  me  ; 
For  this  am  I  o'erwhelmed  with  grief  and  care. 
I  passed  a  sick  man's  night :  the  nurses  seemed, 
Spreading  my  couch,  to  have  heaped  up  briars  there. 
Now  (lest  thou  cherish  in  thy  mind  a  doubt) 
Invoking  our  last  refuge,  God,  I  swear 
That  he,  whoever  told  thee  I  was  false, 
Is  the  more  lying  and  faithless  of  the  pair. 
Exiled  perforce,  I  found  a  strip  of  land 
Where  I  could  live  and  safely  take  the  air  : 
Kings  made  me  arbiter  of  their  possessions. 
And  called  me  to  their  side  and  spoke  me  fair — 
Even  as  thou  dost  grace  thy  favourites 
Nor  deem'st  a  fault  the  gratitude  they  bear.^ 
O  leave  thine  anger  !  Else,  in  view  of  men 
A  mangy  camel,  smeared  with  pitch,  I  were. 
Seest  thou  not  God  hath  given  thee  eminence 
Before  which  monarchs  tremble  and  despair  ? 


'  Diwdn,  ed.  by  Derenbourg,  p.  83  ;  Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  96. 

^  He  means  to  say  that  Nu'mdn  has  no  reason  to  feel  aggrieved  because 
he  (Nabigha)  is  grateful  to  the  Ghassanids  for  their  munificent  patronage  ; 
since  Nu'man  does  not  consider  that  his  own  favourites,  in  showing  grati- 
tude to  himself,  are  thereby  guilty  of  treachery  towards  their  former 
patrons. 


NABIGHA    of  DHUBYAN  123 

All  other  kings  are  stars  and  thou  a  sun  : 
When  the  sun  rises,  lo,  the  heavens  are  bare  ! 
A  friend  in  trouble  thou  wilt  not  forsake ; 
I  may  have  sinned  :  in  sinning  all  men  share. 
If  I  am  wronged,  thou  hast  but  wronged  a  slave, 
And  if  thou  spar'st,  'tis  like  thyself  to  spare." 

It  is  pleasant  to  record  that  Ndbigha  was  finally  reconciled 
to  the  prince  whom  he  loved,  and  that  Hfra  again  became  his 
home.  The  date  of  his  death  is  unknown,  but  it  certainly 
took  place  before  Islam  was  promulgated.  Had  the  oppor- 
tunity been  granted  to  him  he  might  have  died  a  Moslem  :  he 
calls  himself  *  a  rehgious  man'  {dhu  wwotc/'"),  ^  and  although 
the  tradition  that  he  was  actually  a  Christian  lacks  authority, 
his  long  residence  in  Syria  and  'Iraq  must  have  made  him 
acquainted  with  the  externals  of  Christianity  and  with  some, 
at  least,  of  its  leading  ideas. 

The  grave  and  earnest  tone  characteristic  of  NAbigha's  poetry 
seldom  prevails  in  that  of  his  younger  contemporary,  Maymun 
b.  Days,  who  is  generally  known  by  his  surname, 
al-A'sha — that  is,  '  the  man  of  weak  sight.'  A 
professional  troubadour,  he  roamed  from  one  end  of  Arabia  to 
the  other,  harp  in  hand,  singing  the  praises  of  those  who 
rewarded  him;  and  such  was  his  fame  as  a  satirist  that  few 
ventured  to  withhold  the  bounty  which  he  asked.  By  common 
consent  he  stands  in  the  very  first  rank  of  Arabian  poets. 
Abu  '1-Faraj,  the  author  of  the  Kitdbu  H-Aghani^  declares  him 
to  be  superior  to  all  the  rest,  adding,  however,  "  this  opinion  is 
not  held  unanimously  as  regards  A'shd  or  any  other."     His 

'  Diwdn,  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  rabbi,  i.e.,  Allah,  but  see  Noldeke's  remarks  in  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  xli 
(1887),  p.  708. 


124  PRE'ISLAMIC  POETRY 

wandering  life  brought  him  into  contact  with  every  kind  of 
culture  then  existing  in  Arabia.  Although  he  was  not  an 
avowed  Christian,  his  poetry  shows  to  what  an  extent  he  was 
influenced  by  the  Bishops  of  Najrdn,  with  whom  he  was 
intimately  connected,  and  by  the  Christian  merchants  of 
Hfra  who  sold  him  their  wine.  He  did  not  rise  above 
the  pagan  level  of  morality. 

It  is  related  that  he  set  out  to  visit  Muhammad  for  the  purpose 
of  reciting  to  him  an  ode  which  he  had  composed  in  his  honour. 
When  the  Ouraysh  heard  of  this,  they  feared  lest  their  adversary's 
reputation  should  be  increased  by  the  panegyric  of  a  bard  so  famous 
and  popular.  Accordingly,  they  intercepted  him  on  his  way,  and 
asked  whither  he  was  bound.  "  To  your  kinsman,"  said  he,  "  that  I 
may  accept  Islam.''  "  He  will  forbid  and  make  unlawful  to  thee 
certain  practices  of  which  thou  art  fond."  "  What  are  these  ?"  said 
A'sha.  "Fornication,"  said  Abu  Sufyan.  "I  have  not  abandoned  it," 
he  replied,  "  but  it  has  abandoned  me.  What  else  ? "  "  Gambling." 
"  Perhaps  I  shall  obtain  from  him  something  to  compensate  me  for 
the  loss  of  gambling.  What  else  ? "  "  Usury."  "  I  have  never 
borrowed  nor  lent.  What  else  ?  "  "  Wine."  "  Oh,  in  that  case  I  will 
drink  the  water  I  have  left  stored  at  al-Mihras."  Seeing  that  A'shd 
was  not  to  be  deterred,  Abu  Sufyan  offered  him  a  hundred  camels 
on  condition  that  he  should  return  to  his  home  in  Yamama 
and  await  the  issue  of  the  struggle  between  Muhammad  and 
the  Quraysh.  "  I  agree,"  said  A'sha.  "  O  ye  Quraysh,"  cried  Abu 
Sufyan,  "  this  is  A'sha,  and  by  God,  if  he  becomes  a  follower  of 
Muhammad,  he  will  inflame  the  Arabs  against  you  by  his  poetry. 
Collect,  therefore,  a  hundred  camels  for  him. "  ' 

A*shd  excels  in  the  description  of  wine  and  wine-parties. 
One  who  visited  Manfuha  in  Yamama,  where  the  poet  was 
buried,  relates  that  revellers  used  to  meet  at  his  grave  and  pour 
out  beside  it  the  last  drops  that  remained  in  their  cups.  As  an 
example  of  his  style  in  this  genre  I  translate  a  few  lines  from 
the  most  celebrated  of  his  poems,  which  is  included  by  some 
critics  among  the  Muf-allaqit : — 

'  Aghdni,  viii,  85,  last  Iine-86, 1.  10. 


A'SHA  and  'ALQAMA  125 

"  Many  a  time  I  hastened  early  to  the  tavern — while  there  ran 

At  my  heels  a  ready  cook,  a  nimble,  active  serving-man — 

'Midst  a  gallant  troop,  like  Indian  scimitars,  of  mettle  high ; 

Well  they  know  that  every  mortal,  shod  and  bare  alike,  must 
die. 

Propped  at  ease  I  greet  them  gaily,  them  with  myrtle-boughs  I 
greet, 

Pass  among  them  wine  that  gushes  from  the  jar's  mouth  bitter- 
sweet. 

Emptying  goblet  after  goblet — but  the  source  may  no  man 
drain — 

Never  cease  they  from  carousing  save  to  cry,  '  Fill  up  again  ! ' 

Briskly  runs  the  page  to  serve  them  :  on  his  ears  hang  pearls  : 
below. 

Tight  the  girdle  draws  his  doublet  as  he  bustles  to  and  fro. 

'Twas  the  harp,  thou  mightest  fancy,  waked  the  lute's  respon- 
sive note. 

When  the  loose-robed  chantress  touched  it  and  sang  shrill  with 
quavering  throat. 

Here  and  there  among  the  party  damsels  fair  superbly  glide  : 

Each  her  long  white  skirt  lets  trail  and  swings  a  wine-skin  at 
her  side." ' 

Very  little  is  known  of  the  life  of  'Alqama  b.  'Abada,  who 

was  surnamed  al-Fahl  (the  Stallion).     His  most  famous  poem 

is  that  which  he  addressed  to  the  Ghassdnid  Harith 

'Alqama.  1     *        •      r  1       -r*        1 

al-A'raj  after  the  Battle  of  Halima,  imploring  him 
to  set  free  some  prisoners  of  Tamfm — the  poet's  tribe — 
among  whom  was  his  own  brother  or  nephew,  Shas.  The 
following  lines  have  almost  become  proverbial  : — 

"  Of  women  do  ye  ask  me  ?  I  can  spy 
Their  ailments  with  a  shrewd  physician's  eye. 
The  man  whose  head  is  grey  or  small  his  herds 
No  favour  wins  of  them  but  mocking  words. 
Are  riches  known,  to  riches  they  aspire. 
And  youthful  bloom  is  still  their  heart's  desire."  ' 


'  Lyall,  Ten  Ancient  Arabic  Poems,  p.  146  seq.,  vv.  25-31. 
•  Ahlwardt,  The  Divans,  p.  106,  w.  8-10. 


126  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

In  view  of  these  slighting  verses  it  is  proper  to  observe  that 
the  poetry  of  Arabian  vi^omen  of  the  Pre-islamic  period  is  dis- 
tinctly  masculine  in  character.     Their  songs  are 
legiacpoery.    ^^jj^^^    ^^  Love,    but    often    of    Death.      Elegy 

{ritha  or  marthiya)  vi^as  regarded  as  their  special  province. 
The  oldest  form  of  elegy  appears  in  the  verses  chanted  on 
the  death  of  Ta'abbata  Sharr*"   by  his  sister  : — 

"O  the  good  knight  ye  left  low  at  Rakhmdn, 
Thabit  son  of  Jabir  son  of  Sufyan  ! 
He  filled  the  cup  for  friends  and  ever  slew  his  man." ' 


u 


As  a  rule  the  Arabian  dirge  is  very  simple.  The  poetess 
begins  with  a  description  of  her  grief,  of  the  tears  that  she 
cannot  quench,  and  then  she  shows  how  worthy  to  be  deeply 
mourned  was  he  whom  death  has  taken  away.  He  is  described 
as  a  pattern  of  the  two  principal  Arabian  virtues,  bravery  and 
liberality,  and  the  question  is  anxiously  asked,  *  Who  will  now 
make  high  resolves,  overthrow  the  enemy,  and  in  time  of  want 
feed  the  poor  and  entertain  the  stranger  ?'  If  the  hero  of  the 
dirge  died  a  violent  death  we  find  in  addition  a  burning  lust  of 
revenge,  a  thirst  for  the  slayer's  blood,  expressed  with  an 
intensity  of  feeling  of  which  only  women  are  capable."^ 

Among  Arabian  women  who  have  excelled  in  poetry  the 
place  of  honour  is  due  to  Khansd — her  real  name  was 
Tumadir — who  flourished  in  the  last  years  before 
Islam.  By  far  the  most  famous  of  her  elegies 
are  those  in  which  she  bewailed  her  valiant  brothers,  Mu'dwiya 
and  Sakhr,  both  of  whom  were  struck  down  by  sword  or 
spear.  It  is  impossible  to  translate  the  poignant  and  vivid 
emotion,  the  energy  of  passion  and  noble  simplicity  of  style 
which  distinguish  the  poetry  of  Khansa,  but  here  are  a 
few  verses  : — 

'  Hamdsa,  p.  382, 1.  17. 

»  Noldeke,  Beitrilge  zur  Kenntniss  dcv  Poesie  dcraltcn  Arabcr,  p.  152. 


WOMEN  AS  ELEGISTS  127 

Death's  messenger  cried  aloud  the  loss  of  the  generous  one, 
So  loud  cried  he,  by  my  life,  that  far  he  was  heard  and  wide. 
Then  rose   I,   and   scarce    my   soul    could   follow    to   meet   the 

news. 
For  anguish  and  sore  dismay  and  horror  that  Sakhr  had  died. 
In  my  misery  and  despair  I  seemed  as  a  drunken  man, 
Upstanding  awhile— then  soon  his  tottering  limbs  subside." ' 

Yudhakkiriini  tuln'u  H-shamsi  Sakhr""" 
wa-adhkuruhu  likulli  ghun'ibi  shatnsi. 

"Sunrise  awakes  in  me  the  sad  remembrance 
Of  Sakhr,  and  I  recall  him  at  every  sunset." 

To  the  poets  who  have  been   enumerated  many  might   be 

added — e.g.^   Hassan   b.  Thabit,   -who  vi^as  '  retained '  by  the 

Prophet  and  did  useful  work  on  his  behalf ;  Ka*b 

The  last  poets 

born  in  the  Age  b.  Zuhayr,  author  of  the  famous  panegyric  on 
Muhammad  beginning  "  Banat  Su'-dd"  (Su'ad  has 
departed) ;  Mutammim  b.  Nuwayra,  who,  like  Khansa, 
mourned  the  loss  of  a  brother  ;  Abii  Mihjan,  the  singer  or 
wine,  whose  devotion  to  the  forbidden  beverage  was  punished 
by  the  Caliph  'Umar  with  imprisonment  and  exile ;  and 
al-Hutay'a  (the  Dwarf),  who  was  unrivalled  in  satire.  All 
these  belonged  to  the  class  of  Mukhadramuny  i.e.y  they  were 
born  in  the  Pagan  Age  but  died,  if  not  Moslems,  at  any  rate 
after  the  proclamation  of  Islam. 

The  grammarians  of  Basra  and  Kufa,  by  whom  the  remains 

of  ancient  Arabian  poetry  were  rescued  from  oblivion,  arranged 

and  collected  their  material  according  to  various 

Collections  of  ...  !->  •   i  i  r  •      i  •    •  i       i 

ancient  poetry,  principles.  iLither  the  poems  or  an  individual  or 
those  of  a  number  of  individuals  belonging  to  the 
same  tribe  or  class  were  brought  together — such  a  collection 
was  called  Dlwdrij  plural  Dawdw'tn  ;  or,  again,  the  compiler 
edited  a  certain  number  of  qasidas  chosen   for  their  fame  or 

'  Noldeke,  ibid.,  p.  175. 


128  PRE-tSLAMIC  POETRY 

excellence  or  on  other  grounds,  or  he  formed  an  anthology  of 
shorter  pieces  or  fragments,  which  were  arranged  under  dif- 
ferent heads  according  to  their  subject-matter. 

Among  Dlwdns  mention  may  be   made  of  The  Dtwans  oj 

the  Six  PoetSy  viz.  Ndbigha,  'Antara,  Tarafa,  Zuhayr,  'Alqama, 

,   ,  and  Imru'u  '1-Qays,  edited  with  a  full   commen- 

Diwans.  -Kj  J    ^  ,    ,       • 

tary  by  the  Spanish  philologist  al-A'lam 
(11083  A.D.)  and  published  in  1870  by  Ahlwardt ;  and  of 
The  Poems  of  the  Hudhaylites  {Ash^aru  U-Hudhaliyyin)  collected 
by  al-Sukkari  (t  888  a.d.),  which  have  been  published  by 
Kosegarten  and  Wellhausen. 

The  chief  Anthologies,  taken  in  the  order  of  their  composi- 
tion, are  : — 

1.  The  Mu^allaqat^  which  is  the  title  given  to  a  collection 
of  seven  odes   by    Imru'u  '1-Qays,   Tarafa,   Zuhayr,    Labid, 

'Antara,  'Amr  b.  Kulthiim,  and  Harith  b.  Hilliza  ; 
i.Vhe°KL-  to  these  two   odes   by    Nabigha   and    A'shd   are 
''*'■  sometimes   added.      The  compiler  was   probably 

Hammad  al-Rawiya,  a  famous  rhapsodist  of  Persian  descent, 
who  flourished  under  the  Umayyads  and  died  in  the  second 
half  of  the  eighth  century  of  our  era.  As  the  Mu'-allaqat  have 
been  discussed  above,  we  may  pass  on  directly  to  a  much 
larger,  though  less  celebrated,  collection  dating  from  the  same 
period,  viz.  : — 

2.  The  Mufaddaliyyat^^  by  which  title  it  is  generally  known 
after  its  compiler,  Mufaddal  al-Dabbl  (f  circa   786  a.d.),  who 

made  it  at  the  instance  of  the  Caliph  Mansur  for 
^■'^'^\lyyit^°"  the  instruction   of  his  son  and  successor,  Mahdl. 

It  comprises  128  odes  and  is  extant  in  two 
recensions,  that  of  Anbari  (f  916  a.d.),  which  derives  from 
Ibnu  '1-A'rdbi,  the  stepson  of  Mufat^dal,  and  that  of  Marzuq{ 
( 11030  A.D.).     About  a  third  of  the  Mufaddaliyydt  was  pub- 

%..'  The  original  title  is  al-Mukhtdrdt  (The  Selected  Odes)  or  al-lkhtiydrdt 
(The  Selections). 


THE  PRINCIPAL   COLLECTIONS         129 

lished  in   1885  by  Thorbecke,  and  Sir  Charles  Lyall  is  now 
preparing  a  complete  edition. ^ 

All  students  of  Arabian  poetry  are  familiar  with — 
3.  The  Hamdsa  of  Abu  Tammam  Habib  b.  Aws,  himself  a 
distinguished  poet,  who  flourished  under  the  Caliphs  Ma'mun 
and  Mu'tasim,  and  died  about  850  a. d.  Towards 
of  Jb^uTa^mm^n"!  the  end  of  his  life  he  visited  ^Abdullah  b.  Tdhir,  the 
powerful  governor  of  Khurasan,  who  was  virtually 
an  independent  sovereign.  It  was  on  this  journey,  as  Ibn 
Khallikan  relates,  that  Abu  Tammdm  composed  the  Hamasa  ; 
for  on  arriving  at  Hamadhan  (Ecbatana)  the  winter  had  set  in, 
and  as  the  cold  was  excessively  severe  in  that  country,  the 
snow  blocked  up  the  road  and  obliged  him  to  stop  and  await 
the  thaw.  During  his  stay  he  resided  with  one  of  the  most 
eminent  men  of  the  place,  who  possessed  a  library  in  which 
were  some  collections  of  poems  composed  by  the  Arabs  of  the 
desert  and  other  authors.  Having  then  sufficient  leisure,  he 
perused  those  works  and  selected  from  them  the  passages  out  of 
which  he  formed  his  Hamdsa.'^  The  work  is  divided  into  ten 
sections  of  unequal  length,  the  first,  from  which  it  received  its 
name,  occupying  (together  with  the  commentary)  360  pages 
in  Freytag's  edition,  while  the  seventh  and  eighth  require  only 
thirteen  pages  between  them.  These  sections  or  chapters 
bear  the  following  titles  : — 

I.  The  Chapter  of  Fortitude  {Bdbu  'l-Hamdsa). 
II.  The  Chapter  of  Dirges  {Bdbu  'l-Mardtht). 

III.  The  Chapter  of  Good  Manners  {Bdbu  H-Adab). 

IV.  The  Chapter  of  Love-songs  {Bdbu  'l-Nasib). 
V.  The  Chapter  of  Satire  {Bdbu  'l-Hijd). 

VI.  The  Chapter  of  Guests  (HospitaHty)  and  Panegyric  {Bdbu 
'l-Adydf  wa'-l-Madih). 


'  A  Projected  Edition  of  the  Mufaddaliydt,  by  Sir  Charles  Lyall. 
J.R.A.S.  for  1904,  p.  315  sqq. 

=  Ibn  Khallikan,  ed.  by  Wiistenfeld,  No.  350  =  De  Slane's  translation, 
vol.  ii,  p.  51. 

10 


130  PRE'ISLAMIC  POETRY 

VII.  The  Chapter  of  Descriptions  {Bdbu  'l-Sifdt). 
VIII.  The  Chapter  of  Travel   and    Repose  {Bdbu  'l-Sayr  wa- 
•l-Nu'ds). 
IX.  The  Chapter  of  Facetiae  {Bdbu  'l-Mulah). 
X.  The  Chapter  of  Vituperation  of  Women  {Bdbu  Madhammati 
'l-Nisd). 


The  contents  of  the  Hamdsa  include  short  poems  complete 
in  themselves  as  w^ell  as  passages  extracted  from  longer  poems; 
of  the  poets  represented,  some  of  vv^hom  belong  to  the  Pre- 
islamic  and  others  to  the  early  Islamic  period,  comparatively 
fevv^  are  celebrated,  while  many  are  anonymous  or  only  Icnow^n 
by  the  verses  attached  to  their  names.  If  the  high  level  of 
excellence  attained  by  these  obscure  singers  show^s,  on  the  one 
hand,  that  a  natural  genius  for  poetry  was  widely  diffused  and 
that  the  art  was  successfully  cultivated  among  all  ranks  of 
Arabian  society,  we  must  not  forget  how  much  is  due  to  the 
fine  taste  of  Abu  Tammam,  who,  as  the  commentator 
Tibrizi  has  remarked,  "is  a  better  poet  in  his  Hamdsa  than 
in  his  poetry." 

4.  The  Hamdsa   of  Buhturi  (f  897  a.d.),  a  younger  con- 
temporary of  Abu  Tammdm,  is  inferior  to  its  model. ^     How- 
ever convenient   from  a   practical  standpoint,  the 

'*'  of  Buiiturr''  division  into  a  great  number  of  sections,  each 
illustrating  a  narrowly  defined  topic,  seriously 
impairs  the  artistic  value  of  the  work  ;  moreover,  Buljturl 
seems  to  have  had  a  less  catholic  appreciation  of  the  beauties 
of  poetry — he  admired,  it  is  said,  only  what  was  in  harmony 
with  his  own  style  and  ideas. 

5.  The  Jamharatu  Ash^dri  U-^Arab^  a  collection  of  forty- 

nine     odes,  was    put     together    probably    about 
5-  '^)^J^"'-      1000  A.D.  by  Abu  Zayd  Muhammad  al-Qurashi, 
of  whom  we  find  no  mention  elsewhere. 


'  See  Nbldeke,  Bettriige,  p.  183  sqq.     There  would  seem  to  be  com- 
paratively few  poems  of  Pre-islamic  date  in  Buhturi's  anthology. 


ORAL    TRADITION  131 

Apart   from  the    Dlwdns  and   anthologies,   numerous  Pre- 

islamic  verses  are  cited  in  biographical,  philological,  and  other 

works,  <?.?-.,  the  Kitabu  '/-Js[hdnl  by  Abu  '1-Farai 

Prose  sources.  j      o  j  o  y  j 

of  Isfahan  (t  967  A.D.),  the  ^Iqd  al-Farld  by  Ibn 
*Abdi  Rabbihi  of  Cordova  (f  940  a.d.),  the  TTrtw/V  of  Mubarrad 
(t  898  A.D.),  and  the  Khizdnatu  U-Aclah  of 'Abdu  '1-Qadir  of 
Baghdad  (f   1682  A.D.). 

We  have  seen  that  the  oldest  existing  poems  date  from  the 

beginning  of  the  fifth  century  of  our  era,  whereas  the  art  of 

writing  did  not  come  into  general  use  among  the 

The  tradition         aim  111  r  1 

of  Pre-isiamic    Arabs  Until  somc  two  hundred  years  afterwards. 

poetry. 

Pre-islamic  poetry,  therefore,  was  preserved  by 
oral  tradition  alone,  and  the  question  arises.  How  was  this 
possible  ?  What  guarantee  have  we  that  songs  living  on 
men's  lips  for  so  long  a  period  have  retained  their  original 
form,  even  approximately  ?  No  doubt  many  verses,  e.g.^  those 
which  glorified  the  poet's  tribe  or  satirised  their  enemies, 
were  constantly  being  recited  by  his  kin,  and  in  this  way 
short  occasional  poems  or  fragments  of  longer  ones  might  be 
perpetuated.  Of  whole  qasldas  like  the  Mvl'aUaqdt^  however, 
none  or  very  few  would  have  reached  us  if  their  survival 
had  depended  solely  on  their  popularity.  What  actually  saved 
them  in  the  first  place  was  an  institution  resembling  that  of 

the  Rhapsodists  in  Greece.     Every  professed  poet 

Tlie  Rawis.  .    ^        ^  .  .  . 

had  his  Rdwi  (reciter),  who  accompanied  him 
everywhere,  committed  his  poems  to  memory,  and  handed 
them  down,  as  well  as  the  circumstances  connected  with 
them,  to  others.  The  characters  of  poet  and  rdwi  were 
often  combined  ;  thus  Zuhayr  was  the  rdwi  of  his  step- 
father, Aws  b.  Hajar,  while  his  own  rdwi  was  al-Hutay'a. 
If  the  tradition  of  poetry  was  at  first  a  labour  of  love,  it 
afterwards  became  a  lucrative  business,  and  the  Rdwls^ 
instead  of  being  attached  to  individual  poets,  began  to  form 
an  independent  class,  carrying  in  their  memories  a  prodigious 


132  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

stock  of  ancient  verse  and  miscellaneous  learning.  It  is 
related,  for  example,  that  Hammad  once  said  to  the  Caliph 
Walid  b.  Yazid  :  "  I  can  recite  to  you,  for  each  letter  of 
the  alphabet,  one  hundred  long  poems  rhyming  in  that 
letter,  without  talcing  into  count  the  short  pieces,  and  all 
that  composed  exclusively  by  poets  who  lived  before  the 
promulgation  of  Islamism."  He  commenced  and  continued 
until  the  Caliph,  having  grown  fatigued,  withdrew,  after 
leaving  a  person  in  his  place  to  verify  the  assertion  and 
hear  him  to  the  last.  In  that  sitting  he  recited  two 
thousand  nine  hundred  qasidas  by  poets  who  flourished 
before  Muhammad.  Walid,  on  being  informed  of  the  fact, 
ordered  him  a  present  of  one  hundred  thousand  dirhems.^ 
Thus,  towards  the  end  of  the  first  century  after  the  Flight, 
i.e.^  about  700  a.d.,  when  the  custom  of  writing  poetry 
began,  there  was  much  of  Pre-islamic  origin  still  in  circula- 
tion, although  it  is  probable  that  far  more  had  already  been 
irretrievably  lost.  Numbers  of  Rdwis  perished  in  the  wars, 
or  passed  away  in  the  course  of  nature,  without  leaving  any 
one  to  continue  their  tradition.  New  times  had  brought 
new  interests  and  other  ways  of  life.  The  great  majority 
of  Moslems  had  no  sympathy  whatever  with  the  ancient 
poetry,  which  represented  in  their  eyes  the  unregenerate 
spirit  of  heathendom.  They  wanted  nothing  beyond  the 
Koran  and  the  Hadith.  But  for  reasons  which  will  be 
stated  in  another  chapter  the  language  of  the  Koran  and 
the  Hadith  was  rapidly  becoming  obsolete  as  a  spoken 
idiom  outside  of  the  Arabian  peninsula :  the  *  perspicuous 
Arabic'  on  which  Muhammad  prided  himself  had  ceased 
to  be  fully  intelligible  to  the  Moslems  settled  in  'Iraq 
and  Khurdsan,  in  Syria,  and  in  Egypt.  It  was  essen- 
tial that  the  Sacred  Text  should  be  explained,  and  this 
necessity  gave  birth  to  the   sciences  of  Grammar  and  Lexi- 

'  Ibn  Khallikan,  ed.  by  Wiistenfeld,  No.  204  =  De  Slane's  translation, 
vol.  i,  p.  470. 


THE  rAwIs   or  RHAPSODISTS         133 

cography.     The    Philologists,    or,    as   they   have    been   aptly 

designated,  the   Humanists  of  Basra  and   Kufa,  where  these 

studies  were  prosecuted  with  peculiar  zeal,  natu- 

The  Humanists.  '^  ,  ,       t>        •  i        • 

rally  found  their  best  material  m  the  Fre-islamic 
poems — a  well  of  Arabic  undefiled.  At  first  the  ancient 
poetry  merely  formed  a  basis  for  philological  research,  but 
in  process  of  time  a  literary  enthusiasm  was  awakened.  The 
surviving  Rdwis  were  eagerly  sought  out  and  induced  to 
yield  up  their  stores,  the  compositions  of  famous  poets  were 
collected,  arranged,  and  committed  to  writing,  and  as  the 
demand  increased,  so  did  the  supply. ^ 

In  these  circumstances  a  certain  amount  of  error  was  in- 
evitable.    Apart  from  unconscious  failings  of  memory,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  in  many  cases  the  Rdwls 

Corrupt  ....  ,         .  ,-r->i 

tradition  of  tiie  actcd  With    mtent    to    deceive.      1  he  temptation 

old  poetry.  r  •    U 

to  father  their  own  verses,  or  centos  which 
they  pieced  together  from  sources  known  only  to  them- 
selves, upon  some  poet  of  antiquity  was  all  the  stronger 
because  they  ran  little  risk  of  detection.  In  knowledge  of 
poetry  and  in  poetical  talent  they  were  generally  far  more 
than  a  match  for  the  philologists,  who  seldom  possessed  any 
critical  ability,  but  readily  took  whatever  came  to  hand.     The 

stories  which  are  told  of  Hammad  al-Rawiya, 
aY.R4\'^t^.      clearly   show    how    unscrupulous    he    was  in  his 

methods,  and  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  he  was  an  exception  to  the  rule.  His  contemporary, 
Mufaddal  al-Dabbi,  is  reported  to  have  said  that  the  corrup- 
tion which  poetry  suffered  through  Hammad  could  never  be 
repaired,  "  for,"  he  added,  "  Hammdd  is  a  man  skilled  in  the 
language  and  poesy  of  the  Arabs  and  in  the  styles  and  ideas  of 
the  poets,  and  he  is  always  making  verses  in  imitation  of  some 

'  Many  interesting  details  concerning  the  tradition  of  Pre-islamic 
poeU^y  by  the  Rdwis  and  the  Philologists  will  be  found  in  Ahlwardt's 
Bemcrkungcn  ncbcr  die  Acchthcit  dcr  alien  Arabisclicn  Gcdiclitc  (Greifs- 
vvald,  1872),  which  has  supplied  materials  for  the  present  sketch. 


134  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

one  and  introducing  them  into  genuine  compositions  by  the 
same  author,  so  that  the  copy  passes  everywhere  for  part  of  the 
original,  and  cannot  be  distinguished  from  it  except  by  critical 
scholars — and    where   are    such    to    be    found  ? "  ^     This  art 

of  forgery  was  brought  to  perfection  by  Khalaf 
ai-Ah'm^.       al-Ahmar  (f  about  800  a.d.),  who  learned  it  in 

the  school  of  Hammdd.  If  he  really  composed 
the  famous  Ldmiyya  ascribed  to  Shanfara,  his  own  poetical 
endowments  must  have  been  of  the  highest  order.  In  his 
old  age  he  repented  and  confessed  that  he  was  the  author 
of  several  poems  which  the  scholars  of  Basra  and  Kiifa  had 
accepted  as  genuine,  but  they  laughed  him  to  scorn,  saying, 
"  What  you  said  then  seems  to  us  more  trustworthy  than 
your  present  assertion." 

Besides  the  corruptions  due  to  the  Rdwls^  others  have  been 
accumulated  by   the   philologists  themselves.     As  the  Koran 

and  the  Hadith  were,  of  course,  spoken  and 
^'rorrupton."^  afterwards  written  in  the  dialect  of  Quraysh,  to 
whom  Muhammad  belonged,  this  dialect  was 
regarded  as  the  classical  standard  ;  2  consequently  the  varia- 
tions therefrom  which  occurred  in  the  ancient  poems  were, 
for  the  most  part,  '  emended '  and  harmonised  with  it. 
Many  changes  were  made  under  the  influence  of  Islam, 
e.g.^  '  Allah '  was  probably  often  substituted  for  the  pagan 
goddess  'al-Ldt.'  Moreover,  the  structure  of  the  qasida^ 
its  disconnectedness  and  want  of  logical  cohesion,  favoured 
the  omission  and  transposition  of  whole  passages  or  single 
verses.  All  these  modes  of  depravation  might  be  illus- 
trated in  detail,  but  from  what  has  been  said  the  reader 
can  judge  for  himself  how  far  the  poems,  as  they  now 
stand,  are  likely  to  have  retained  the  form  in  which  they 
were  first  uttered  to  the  wild  Arabs  of  the  Pre-islamic  Age. 

'  Agluint,  V,  172,  1.  16  sqq. 

*  This  view,  however,  is  in  accordance  neither  with  the  historical  facts 
nor  with  the  public  opinion  of  the  1  Pre-islamic  Arabs  (see  Noldeke,  Die 
Seviitischen  Spracheii,  p.  47). 


INFLUENCE   OF  RELIGION  135 

Religion  had  so  little    influence  on  the  lives  of  the  Pre- 

islamic    Arabs   that  we   cannot    expect    to    find    much    trace 

of  it    in    their    poetry.     They    believed   vaguely 

Religion.  r  /  }  i    r    •     i 

in  a  supreme  God,  Allah,  and  more  dehnitely 
in  his  three  daughters — al-Lat,  Manat,  and  al-'Uzzd — who 
were  venerated  all  over  Arabia  and  whose  intercession  was 
graciously  accepted  by  Allah.  There  were  also  numerous 
idols  enjoying  high  favour  while  they  continued  to  bring 
good  luck  to  their  worshippers.  Of  real  piety  the  ordinary 
Bedouin  knew  nothing.  He  felt  no  call  to  pray  to  his 
gods,  although  he  often  found  them  convenient  to  swear 
by.  He  might  invoke  Allah  in  the  hour  of  need,  as  a 
drowning  man  will  clutch  at  a  straw  ;  but  his  faith  in 
superstitious  ceremonies  was  stronger.  He  did  not  take  his 
religion  too  seriously.  Its  practical  advantages  he  was  quick 
to  appreciate.  Not  to  mention  baser  pleasures,  it  gave  him 
rest  and  security  during  the  four  sacred  months,  in  which 
war  was  forbidden,  while  the  institution  of  the  Meccan 
Pilgrimage  enabled  him  to  take  part  in  a  national  fete. 
Commerce  went  hand  in  hand  with  religion. 
^'"'Uklz'^"^  Great  fairs  were  held,  the  most  famous  being 
that  of  'Ukdz,  which  lasted  for  twenty  days. 
These  fairs  were  in  some  sort  the  centre  of  old  Arabian 
social,  political,  and  literary  life.  It  was  the  only  occasion 
on  which  free  and  fearless  intercourse  was  possible  between 
the  members  of  different  clans.^ 

Plenty  of  excitement  was  provided  by  poetical  and  oratorical 
displays — not  by  athletic  sports,  as  in  ancient  Greece  and 
modern  England.  Here  rival  poets  declaimed  their  verses 
and  submitted  them  to  the  judgment  of  an  acknowledged 
master.  Nowhere  else  had  rising  talents  such  an  oppor- 
tunity of  gaining  wide  reputation  :  what  'Ukaz  said  to-day 
all  Arabia  would  repeat  to-morrow.  At  'Ukdz,  we  are  told, 
the  youthful  Muhammad  listened,  as  though  spellbound,  to 
'  See  Wellhausen,  Rate  Arab.  Heidcniitms  (2nd  ed.),  p.  88  seq. 


136  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

the  persuasive  eloquence  of  Ouss  b.  Sa'ida,  Bishop  of  Najran  ; 
and  he  may  have  contrasted  the  discourse  of  the  Christian 
preacher  with  the  brilliant  odes  chanted  by  heathen  bards. 

The  Bedouin  vievi^  of  life  was  thoroughly  hedonistic.  Love, 
wine,  gambling,  hunting,  the  pleasures  of  song  and  romance, 
the  brief,  pointed,  and  elegant  expression  of  wit  and  wisdom — 
these  things  he  knew  to  be  good.  Beyond  them  he  saw  only 
the  grave, 

"  Roast  meat  and  wine  :   the  swinging  ride 
On  a  camel  sure  and  tried, 
Which  her  master  speeds  amain 
O'er  low  dale  and  level  plain  :    > 
Women  marble-white  and  fair 
Trailing  gold-fringed  raiment  rare : 
Opulence,  luxurious  ease, 
With  the  lute's  soft  melodies — 
Such  delights  hath  our  brief  span ; 
Time  is  Change,  Time's  fool  is  Man. 
Wealth  or  want,  great  store  or  small. 
All  is  one  since  Death's  are  all." ' 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  these  men  always, 
or  even  generally,  passed  their  lives  in  the  aimless  pursuit 
of  pleasure.  Some  goal  they  had — earthly,  no  doubt — such  as 
the  accumulation  of  wealth  or  the  winning  of  glory  or  the  ful- 
filment of  blood-revenge.  "  God  forhid^''  says  one,  "  that  I 
should  die  while  a  grievous  longing^  as  it  were  a  mountain^ 
weighs  on  my  breast  / "  2  A  deeper  chord  is  touched  by 
Imru'u  '1-Qays  '.'"'•  If  I  strove  for  a  hare  livelihood^  scanty 
means  would  suffice  me  and  I  would  seek  no  more.  But  I 
strive  for  lasting  renown^  and  *tis  men  like  me  that  some- 
times attain  lasting  renown.  Never^  while  life  endures^  does 
a  man  reach  the  summit  of  his  ambition  or  cease  from  toil.'''' Z 

'  ^amdsa,  506.  =  Ibid.,  237. 

3  Diwdn  of  Imru'u  '1-Qays,  ed.  by  De  Slane,  p.  22  of  the  Arabic  text, 
1.  17  sqq-  =  N'^'  52)  11'  57-59  (P-  154)  '"  Ahlwardt's  Divans  of  the  Six  Poets. 


JUDAISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY  \Z7 

These  are  noble  sentiments  nobly  expressed.  Yet  one  hears 
the  sigh  of  weariness,  as  if  the  speaker  were  struggling  against 
the  conviction  that  his  cause  is  already  lost,  and  would  welcome 
the  final  stroke  of  destiny.  It  was  a  time  of  wild  uproar  and 
confusion.  Tribal  and  family  feuds  filled  the  land,  as  Zuhayr 
says,  with  evil  fumes.  No  wonder  that  earnest  and  thoughtful 
minds  asked  themselves — What  worth  has  our  life,  what  mean- 
ing ?  Whither  does  it  lead  ?  Such  questions  paganism  could 
not  answer,  but  Arabia  in  the  century  before  Muhammad  was 
not  wholly  abandoned  to  paganism.  Jewish  colonists  had  long 
been  settled  in  the  Hijaz.  Probably  the  earliest  settlements 
date  from  the  conquest  of  Palestine  by  Titus  or  Hadrian.  In 
their   new   home    the    refugees,  through   contact 

Judaism  and  i         ,  •  .  i  . 

Christianity  in    With  a  people  nearly  akm  to  themselves,  became 

Arabia.  ....  ^  . 

fully  Arabicised,  as  the  few  extant  specimens  of 
their  poetry  bear  witness.  They  remained  Jews,  however, 
not  only  in  their  cultivation  of  trade  and  various  industries,  but 
also  in  the  most  vital  particular — their  religion.  This,  and 
the  fact  that  they  lived  in  isolated  communities  among  the 
surrounding  population,  marked  them  out  as  the  salt  of  the 
desert.  In  the  Hijaz  their  spiritual  predominance  was  not 
seriously  challenged.  It  was  otherwise  in  Yemen.  We  may 
leave  out  of  account  the  legend  according  to  which  Judaism 
was  introduced  into  that  country  from  the  Hijaz  by  the 
Tubba'  As'ad  Kamil.  What  is  certain  is  that  towards  the 
beginning  of  the  sixth  century  it  was  firmly  planted  there 
side  by  side  with  Christianity,  and  that  in  the  person  of 
the  Himyarite  monarch  Dhu  Nuwas,  who  adopted  the  Jewish 
faith,  it  won  a  short-lived  but  sanguinary  triumph  over  its 
rival.  'But  in  Yemen,  except  among  the  highlanders  of 
Najran,  Christianity  does  not  appear  to  have  flourished  as  it 
did  in  the  extreme  north  and  north-east,  where  the  Roman  and 

With  the  last  line,  however,  cf.  the  words  of  Qays  b.  al-Khatim  on  accom- 
plishing his  vengeance  :  "  When  this  death  comes,  there  will  not  be  found  ■ 
any  need  of  my  soul  that  I  have  not  satisfied  "  (Hamdsa,  87). 


138  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

Persian  frontiers  were  guarded  by  the  Arab  levies  of  Ghassan 
and  Hfra.     We  have  seen  that  the  latter  city  contained  a  large 

Christian  population  who  were  called  distinctively 
'^of'nira!*       'Ibdd,  i.e.,  Servants   (of  God).      Through  them 

the  Aramaic  culture  of  Babylonia  was  transmitted 
to  all  parts  of  the  peninsula.  They  had  learned  the  art  of 
writing  long  before  it  was  generally  practised  in  Arabia,  as  is 
shown  by  the  story  of  Tarafa  and  Mutalammis,  and  they  pro- 
duced the  oldest  written  poetry  in  the  Arabic  language — a 
poetry  very  different  in  character  from  that  which  forms 
the  main  subject  of  this  chapter.  Unfortunately  the  bulk 
of  it  has  perished,  since  the  rhapsodists,  to  whom  we  owe 
the  preservation  of  so  much  Pre-islamic  verse,  were  devoted  to 
the  traditional  models  and  would  not  burden  their  memories 
with  anything  new-fashioned.  The  most  famous  of  the  'Ibadi 
poets  is  'Adi  b.  Zayd,  whose  adventurous  career  as  a  politician 
has  been  sketched  above.  He  is  not  reckoned  by  Muhamma- 
dan  critics  among  the  Fuhiil  or  poets  of  the  first  rank,  because 

he  was  a  townsman  (qarawl).     In  this  connec- 

'Adib.Zayd.        .  ,        r  u        ■  j  •      •  •  ^u 

tion  the  roilowmg  anecdote  is  mstructive.  1  ne 
poet  al-'Ajjaj  (f  about  709  a.d.)  said  of  his  contemporaries 
al-Tirimmah  and  al-Kumayt :  "They  used  to  ask  me  concern- 
ing rare  expressions  in  the  language  of  poetry,  and  I  informed 
them,  but  afterwards  I  found  the  same  expressions  wrongly 
applied  in  their  poems,  the  reason  being  that  they  were 
townsmen  who  described  what  they  had  not  seen  and  mis- 
applied it,  whereas  I  who  am  a  Bedouin  describe  what  I 
have  seen  and  apply  it  properly."  ^  'Adi  is  chiefly  remembered 
for  his  wine-songs.  Oriental  Christianity  has  always  been 
associated  with  the  drinking  and  selling  of  wine.  Christian 
ideas  were  carried  into  the  heart  of  Arabia  by  'Ibddl  wine 
merchants,  who  are  said  to  have  taught  their  religion  to  the 
celebrated  A'shd.  'Adl  drank  and  was  merry  like  the  rest,  but 
the  underlying  thought,  *  for  to-morrow  we  die,'  repeatedly 

'  Aghciiii,  ii,  18,  1.  23  sqq. 


RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  139 

makes   itself  heard.     He    walks    beside  a  cemetery,  and   the 
voices  of  the  dead  call  to  him —  ^ 

"  Thou  who  seest  us  unto  thyself  shalt  say, 
'  Soon  upon  me  comes  the  season  of  decay.' 
Can  the  soUd  mountains  evermore  sustain 
Time's  vicissitudes  and  all  they  bring  in  train  ? 
Many  a  traveller  lighted  near  us  and  abode, 
Quaffing  wine  wherein  the  purest  water  flowed — 
Strainers  on  each  flagon's  mouth  to  clear  the  wine, 
Noble  steeds  that  paw  the  earth  in  trappings  fine  ! 
For  a  while  they  lived  in  lap  of  luxury. 
Fearing  no  misfortune,  dallying  lazily. 
Then,  behold.  Time  swept  them  all,  Uke  chaff,  away  : 
Thus  it  is  men  fall  to  whirling  Time  a  prey. 
Thus  it  is  Time  keeps  the  bravest  and  the  best 
Night  and  day  still  plunged  in  Pleasure's  fatal  quest." 

It  is  said  that  the  recitation  of  these  verses  induced  Nu'man 
al-Akbar,  one  of  the  mythical  pagan  kings  of  Hira,  to  accept 
Christianity  and  become  an  anchorite.  Although  the  story 
involves  an  absurd  anachronism,  it  is  ben  trovato  in  so  far  as  it 
records  the  impression  which  the  graver  sort  of  Christian 
poetry  was  likely  to  make  on  heathen  minds. 

The  courts  of  Hira  and  Ghassdn  were  well  known  to  the 
wandering  minstrels  of  the  time  before  Muhammad,  who 
flocked  thither  in  eager  search  of  patronage  and  remuneration. 
We  may  be  sure  that  men  like  Ndbigha,  Labid,  and  A*sha  did 
not  remain  unaffected  by  the  culture  around  them,  even  if  it 
seldom  entered  very  deeply  into  their  lives.  That  considerable 
traces  of  religious  feeling  are  to  be  found  in  Pre-islamic  poetry 
admits  of  no  denial,  but  the  passages  in  question  were  formerly 
explained  as  due  to  interpolation.  This  view  no  longer  pre- 
vails. Thanks  mainly  to  the  arguments  of  Von 
poe?;yn^«-  Kremct,  Sir  Charles  Lyall,  and  Wellhausen,  it 
""irsenument!"  ^^^  come  to  be  recogniscd  (i)  that  in  many  cases 
the  above-mentioned  religious  feeling  is  not 
Islamic  in    tone ;  (2)   that    the    passages  in   which   it  occurs 

'  Aglidfii,  ii,  34,  1.  22  sqq. 


140  PRE-ISLAMIC  POETRY 

are  not  of  Islamic  origin  ;  and  (3)  that  it  is  the  natural  and 
necessary  result  of  the  widely  spread,  though  on  the  whole 
superficial,  influence  of  Judaism,  and  especially  of  Christianity. ^ 
It  shows  itself  not  only  in  frequent  allusions,  e.g.^  to  the  monk 
in  his  solitary  cell,  whose  lamp  serves  to  light  belated  travellers 
on  their  way,  and  in  more  significant  references,  such  as  that 
of  Zuhayr  already  quoted,  to  the  Heavenly  Book  in  which  evil 
actions  are  enscrolled  for  the  Day  of  Reckoning,  but  also  in 
the  tendency  to  moralise,  to  look  within,  to  meditate  on  death, 
and  to  value  the  life  of  the  individual  rather  than  the  continued 
existence  of  the  family.  These  things  are  not  characteristic 
of  old  Arabian  poetry,  but  the  fact  that  they  do  appear  at 
times  is  quite  in  accord  with  the  other  facts  which  have  been 
stated,  and  justifies  the  conclusion  that  during  the  sixth  century 
religion  and  culture  were  imperceptibly  extending  their  sphere 
of  influence  in  Arabia,  leavening  the  pagan  masses,  and 
gradually  preparing  the  way  for  Islam. 

'  See  Von  Kremer,  Ucbcr  die  Gedichtc  dcs  Labyd  in  S.B.W.A.^ 
Phil.-Hist.  Klassc  (Vienna,  1881),  vol.  98,  p.  555  sqq.  Sir  Charles  Lj'all, 
Ancient  Arabian  Poetry,  ■pp.  92  and  119.  VJ eWhdinsen,  Restc  Arabischcn 
Heidentums  (2nd  ed.),  p.  224  sqq. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    PROPHET    AND    THE    KORAN 

With  the  appearance  of  Muhammad  the  almost  impenetrable 
veil  thrown  over  the  preceding  age  is  suddenly  lifted  and  we 
find  ourselves  on  the  solid  ground  of  historical  tradition.  In 
order  that  the  reasons  for  this  change  may  be  understood,  it  is 
necessary  to  give  some  account  of  the  principal  sources  from 
which  our  knowledge  of  the  Prophet's  life  and  teaching  is 
derived. 

There  is  first,  of  course,  the  Koran,"  consisting  "  exclusively 
of  the  revelations  or  commands  which  Muhammad  professed, 
from  time  to  time,  to  receive  through  Gabriel  as 
matTon:°i'The'  a  message  direct  from  God  ;  and  which,  under  an 
^°"""  alleged  Divine  direction,  he  delivered  to  those 
about  him.  At  the  time  of  pretended  inspiration,  or  shortly 
after  each  passage  was  recited  by  Muhammad  before  the 
Companions  or  followers  who  happened  to  be  present,  and  was 
generally  committed  to  writing  by  some  one  amongst  them 
upon  palm-leaves,  leather,  stones,  or  such  other  rude  material 
as  conveniently  came  to  hand.  These  Divine  messages  con- 
tinued throughout  the  three-and-twenty  years  of  his  prophetical 
life  so  that  the  last  portion  did  not  appear  till  the  year  of  his 
death.     The  canon  was  then  closed  ;  but  the  contents  were 

'  I  prefer  to  retain  the  customary  spelling  instead  of  Qur'an,  as  it  is 
correctly  transliterated  by  scholars.  Arabic  words  naturalised  in  English, 
like  Koran,  Caliph,  Vizier,  &c.,  require  no  apology. 

141 


142       THE  PROPHET  AND   THE  KORAN 

never,  during  the  Prophet's  lifetime,  systematically  arranged, 

or  even  collected   together."  i      They  were  preserved,  hov^- 

ever,  in  fragmentary  copies  and,  especially,  by  oral 

How  it  was      recitation  until  the   sanguinary   wars  which  fol- 

presen'ed.  g  j 

lowed  Muhammad's  death  had  greatly  dimmished 
the  number  of  those  who  could  repeat  them  by  heart. 
Accordingly,  after  the  battle  of  Yamama  (633  a.d.)  'Umar 
b.  al-Khattdb  came  to  Abu  Bakr,  who  was  then  Caliph,  and 
said  :  "  I  fear  that  slaughter  may  wax  hot  among  the 
Reciters  on  other  battle-fields,  and  that  much  of  the  Koran 
may  be  lost ;  so  in  my  opinion  it  should  be  collected  without 
delay."  Abu  Bakr  agreed,  and  entrusted  the  task  to  Zayd 
b.  Thabit,  one  of  the  Prophet's  amanuenses,  who  collected 
the  fragments  with  great  difficulty  "  from  bits  of  parchment, 
thin  white  stones,  leafless  palm-branches,  and  the  bosoms  of 
men."  The  manuscript  thus  compiled  was  deposited  with 
Abii  Bakr  during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  then  with  'Umar, 
on  whose  death  it  passed  to  his  daughter  Hafsa.  Afterwards, 
in  the  Caliphate  of  'Uthman,  Hudhayfa  b.  aUYaman,  observ- 
ing that  the  Koran  as  read  in  Syria  was  seriously  at  variance 
with  the  text  current  in  'Irdq,  warned  the  Caliph  to  interfere, 
lest  the  Sacred  Book  of  the  Moslems  should  become  a  subject 
of  dispute,  like  the  Jewish  and  Christian  scriptures.  In  the 
year  651  a.d.  'Uthman  ordered  Zayd  b.  Thdbit  to  prepare  a 
Revised  Version  with  the  assistance  of  three  Qurayshites, 
saying  to  the  latter,  "If  ye  differ  from  Zayd  regarding  any 
word  of  the  Koran,  write  it  in  the  dialect  of  Quraysh  ;  for  it 
was  revealed  in  their  dialect."  2  This  has  ever  since  remained 
the  final  and  standard  recension  of  the  Koran.  "  Transcripts 
were  multiplied  and  forwarded  to  the  chief  cities  in  the  empire, 
and  all  previously  existing  copies  were,  by  the  Caliph's  com- 

»  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 
Muhammad  did  not  believe  himself  to  be  inspired. 

*  The  above  details  are  taken  from  the  FiJirisf,  ed.  by  G.  Fluegel,  p.  24, 
1,  14  sqq. 


HISTORICAL    VALUE   OF   THE  KORAN     143 

mand,  committed  to  the  flames."  ^     In  the  text  as  it  has  come 
down  to  us  the  various  readings  are  few  and  unimportant,  and 

its  genuineness  is  above  suspicion.  We  shall  see, 
Koran°asan  moreover,  that  the  Koran  is  an  exceedingly 
on  y.  j^uman  document,  reflecting  every  phase  of 
Muhammad's  personality  and  standing  in  close  relation  to  the 
ontward  events  of  his  life,  so  that  here  we  have  materials  of 
unique  and  incontestable  authority  for  tracing  the  origin  and  j 
early  development  of  Islam — such  materials  as  do  not  exist  in  I 
the  case  of  Buddhism  or  Christianity  or  any  other  ancient  \ 
religion.  Unfortunately  the  arrangement  of  the  Koran  can 
only  be  described  as  chaotic.  No  chronological  sequence  is 
observed  in  the  order  of  the  Suras  (chapters),  which  is  deter- 
mined simply  by  their  length,  the  longest  being  placed  first.^ 
Again,  the  chapters  themselves  are  sometimes  made  up  of 
disconnected  fragments  having  nothing  in  common  except  the 
rhyme  ;  whence  it  is  often  impossible  to  discover  the  original 
context  of  the  words  actually  spoken  by  the  Prophet,  the 
occasion  on  which  they  were  revealed,  or  the  period  to  which 
they  belong.  In  these  circumstances  the  Koran  must  be 
supplemented  by  reference  to  our  second  main  source  of  in- 
formation, namely,  Tradition. 

Already  in  the  last  years  of  Muhammad's  life  (writes  Dr. 
Sprenger)  it  was  a  pious  custom  that  when  two  Moslems  met,  \ 

one  should   ask  for  news  {hadlth)  and  the  other 
2-  Tradition     should  relate  a  saying  or  anecdote  of  the  Prophet. 

After  his  death  this  custom  continued,  and  the 
name  Hadlth  was  still  applied  to  sayings  and  stories  which 
were  no  longer  new.3  In  the  course  of  time  an  elaborate 
system  of  Tradition  was  built  up,  as  the  Koran — originally  the 
sole  criterion  by   which  Moslems  were    guided  alike  in  the 

'  Muir,  op.  cit.,  Introduction,  p.  14. 

'  With  the  exception  of  the  Opening  Sura  {al-Fdtiha),  which  is  a  short 
prayer. 

3  Sprenger,  Uebcr  das  Traditionswesen  bet  den  Araberu,  Z,D.M.G., 
vol.  X,  p.  2. 


144       THE  PROPHET  AND    THE  KORAN 

greatest  and  smallest  matters  of  public  and  private  interest — 
was  found  insufficient  for  the  complicated  needs  of  a  rapidly 
extending  empire.  Appeal  was  made  to  the  sayings  and 
practice  (sunna)  of  Muhammad,  which  now  acquired  "the 
force  of  law  and  some  of  the  authority  of  inspiration."  The 
Prophet  had  no  Boswell,  but  almost  as  soon  as  he  began  to 
preach  he  was  a  marked  man  whose  obiter  dicta  could  not  fail 
to  be  treasured  by  his  Companions,  and  whose  actions  were 
attentively  watched.  Thus,  during  the  first  century  of  Islam 
there  was  a  multitude  of  living  witnesses  from  whom  traditions 
were  collected,  committed  to  memory,  and  orally  handed  down. 
Every  tradition  consists  of  two  parts  :  the  text  [?7iatn)  and  the 
authority  [sanad^  or  isnad)^  e.g.^  the  relater  says,  "  I  was  told 
by  yf,  who  was  informed  by  5,  who  had  it  from  C,  that  the 
Prophet  (God  bless  him  !)  and  Abii  Bakr  and  'Umar  used  to 
open  prayer  with  the  words  '  Praise  to  God,  the  Lord  of  all 
creatures.'  "  Written  records  and  compilations  were  com- 
paratively rare  in  the  early  period.  Ibn  Ishaq  (f  768  a.d.) 
composed  the  oldest  extant  Biography  of  the  Prophet,  which 
we  do  not  possess,  however,  in  its  original  shape 
Biographies  of    ^ut    oiilv     in     the     rcccusion     of    Ibn     Hishdm 

Muhammad.  -' 

(f  833  A.D.).  Two  important  and  excellent 
works  of  the  same  kind  are  the  Kitabu  U-Maghdzl  ('  Book  of 
the  Wars')  by  Waqidi  (f  822  a.d.)  and  the  Kitabu  U-Tabaqat 
al-Kahir  ('  The  Great  Book  of  the  Classes,'  z>.,  the  different 
classes  of  Muhammad's  Companions  and  those  who  came  after 
them)  by  Ibn  Sa'd  (t  844  a.d.).  Of  miscellaneous  traditions 
intended  to  serve  the  Faithful  as  a  model  and  rule  of  life  in 
every   particular,  and  arranged   in  chapters  according  to   the 

subject-matter,  the  most  ancient  and  authoritative 
General  cniiec-    collcctions  are  those  of  Bukhari  (t  870  A.D.)  and 

tions.  ^         [  ' 

Muslim  (t  874  A.D.),  both  of  which  bear  the 
same  title,  viz.,  al-SaJi'ih^  'The  Genuine.'  It  only  remains  to 
speak  of  Commentaries  on  the  Koran.  Some  passages  were 
explained    by    Muhammad  himself,   but    the    real   founder  of 


THE   TRADITIONS   OF  MUHAMMAD     145 

Koranic  Exegesis  was  'Abdullah  b.  'Abbas,  the  Prophet's 
cousin.  Although  the  writings  of  the  early  interpreters  have 
entirely  perished,  the  gist  of  their  researches  is 
on  UiTKcfran^  embodied  in  the  great  commentary  of  Tabari  (t  922 
A.D.),  a  man  of  encyclopaedic  learning  who 
absorbed  the  whole  mass  of  tradition  existing  in  his  time. 
Subsequent  commentaries  are  largely  based  on  this  colossal  . 
work,  which  has  recently  been  published  at  Cairo  in  thirty 
volumes.  That  of  Zamalchshari  (t  1143  a.d.),  which  is 
entitled  the  Kashshdf^  and  that  of  Baydawi  (t  1286  a.d.)  are 
the  best  known  and  most  highly  esteemed  in  the  Muhammadan 
East.  A  work  of  wider  scope  is  the  Itqdn  of  Suyiiti  (t  1505 
A.D.),  which  takes  a  general  survey  of  the  Koranic  sciences, 
and  may  be  regarded  as  an  introduction  to  the  critical  study 
of  the  Koran. 

While  every  impartial  student  will  admit  the  justice  of 
Ibn  Qutayba's  claim  that  no  religion  has  such  historical  attesta- 
tions as  Islam — laysa  /i-ummat'"  mina  ^l-umami 
Moslem  tra-  asudd""'  ka-asndclihim  ^ — he  must  at  the  same 
time  cordially  assent  to  the  observation  made  by 
another  Muhammadan  :  "  In  nothing  do  we  see  pious  men 
more  given  to  falsehood  than  in  Tradition  "  {lam  nara 
H-sdlihlna  ft  shay"'  akdhaba  minhum  fi  ' l-hadith).'^  Of  this 
severe  judgment  the  reader  will  find  ample  confirmation  in  the 
Second  ^diVtoi  Go\<i2A\\tx''s  Muhammedanische  Studien.2,  During 
the  first  century  of  Islam  the  forging  of  Traditions  became  a 
recognised  political  and  religious  weapon,  of  which  all  parties 
availed  themselves.  Even  men  of  the  strictest  piety  practised 
this  species  of  fraud  {tadlis)^  and  maintained  that  the  end 
justified  the  means.  Their  point  of  view  is  well  expressed  in 
the  following  words  which  are  supposed  to  have  been  spoken 
by  the  Prophet  :  "  You  must  compare  the  sayings  attributed 

'  Quoted  by  Sprenger,  loc.  cit.,  p.  I. 

^  Quoted  by  Noldeke  in  the  Introduction  to  his  Geschichte  des  Qordtis, 
p.  22.  3  See  especially  pp.  28-130. 

T  I 


146       THE  PROPHET  AND   THE  KORAN 

to  me  with  the  Koran  ;  what  agrees  therewith  is  from  me, 
whether  I  actually  said  it  or  no  ; "  and  again,  "  Whatever 
good  saying  has  been  said,  I  myself  have  said  it."  ^  As  the 
result  of  such  principles  every  new  doctrine  took  the  fotm  of 
an  Apostolic  Hadlth  ;  every  sect  and  every  system  defended 
itself  by  an  appeal  to  the  authority  of  Muhammad.  We  may 
see  how  enormous  was  the  number  of  false  Traditions  in  circu- 
lation from  the  fact  that  when  Bukhari  (t  870  a.d.)  drew  up 
his  collection  entitled  '  The  Genuine  '  {al-SahUi)^  he  limited 
it  to  some  7,000,  which  he  picked  out  of  600,000. 

The  credibility  of  Tradition,  so  far  as  it  concerns  the  life  of 
the  Prophet,  cannot  be  discussed  in  this  place. ^  The  oldest 
and  best  biography,  that  of  Ibn  Ishaq,  undoubtedly  contains  a 
great  deal  of  fabulous  matter,  but  his  narrative  appears  to  be 
honest  and  fairly  authentic  on  the  whole. 

If  we  accept  the  traditional  chronology,  Muhammad,  son  of 

^Abdullah  and  Amina,  of  the  tribe  of  Quraysh,  was  born  at 

Mecca  on  the   12th  of  Rabf  al-Awwal,  in  the 

u^S^nL.     Year    of    the    Elephant    (570-571    a.d.).       His 

descent  from  Qusayy  is  shown  by  the  following 

table  : — 

Qusayy. 

'Abd  Manaf.  v 


'Abd  Shams.  Hashim. 

I  I 

Umayya.  'Abdu  '1-Muttalib. 


'Abbas.       'Abdullah.       Abu  Tdlib. 

I 
Muhammad. 

'  Miihamm.  Stiulicn,  Part  IT,  p.  48  seq. 

-  The  reader  may  consult  Muir's  Introduction  to  his  Life  0/  Mahomet, 
pp.  28-87. 


MUHAMMAD'S  BIRTH  AND  CHILDHOOD    147 

Shortly  after  his  birth   he  was   handed   over  to  a  Bedouin 

nurse — Halima,  a  woman  of  the  Banu  Sa'd — so  that  until  he 

IT-    uMJu    .    was  five  years  old  he  breathed  the  pure  air  and 

Hia  childhood.  ■'  ^ 

learned  to  speak  the  unadulterated  language  of 
the  desert.  One  marvellous  event  which  is  said  to  have 
happened  to  him  at  this  time  may  perhaps  be  founded  on 
fact  : — 


"  He  and  his  foster-brother  "  (so  Halima  relates)  "  were  among  the 

cattle  behind  our  encampment  when  my  son  came  running  to  us 

Muhammad     ^"*^  Cried,  '  My  brother,  the  Qurayshite  !  two  men  clad 

and  the        in  white  took  him  and  laid  him  on  his  side  and  cleft 

wo  ange  s.  j^j^  belly  ;  and  they  were  stirring  their  hands  in  it.' 
When  my  husband  and  I  went  out  to  him  we  found  him  standing 
with  his  face  turned  pale,  and  on  our  asking, '  What  ails  thee,  child  ? ' 
he  answered,  '  Two  men  wearing  white  garments  came  to  me  and 
laid  me  on  my  side  and  cleft  my  belly  and  groped  for  something, 
I  know  not  what.'  We  brought  him  back  to  our  tent,  and  my 
husband  said  to  me,  '  O  Halima,  I  fear  this  lad  has  been  smitten 
(usiba) ;  so  take  him  home  to  his  family  before  it  becomes  evident.' 
When  we  restored  him  to  his  mother  she  said,  '  What  has  brought 
thee,  nurse  ?  Thou  wert  so  fond  of  him  and  anxioiJs  that  he  should 
stay  with  thee.'  I  said,  '  God  has  made  him  grow  up,  and  I  have 
done  my  part.  I  feared  that  some  mischance  would  befall  him,  so 
I  brought  him  back  to  thee  as  thou  wishest.'  '  Thy  case  is  not  thus,' 
said  she  ;  '  tell  me  the  truth,'  and  she  gave  me  no  peace  until  I  told 
her.  Then  she  said,  '  Art  thou  afraid  that  he  is  possessed  by  the 
Devil  ? '  I  said,  '  Yes.'  '  Nay,  by  God,'  she  repHed,  '  the  Devil 
cannot  reach  him ;  my  son  hath  a  high  destiny.' " ' 

Other  versions  of  the  story  are  more  explicit.  The  angels, 
it  is  said,  drew  forth  Muhammad's  heart,  cleansed  it,  and 
removed  the  black  clot — i.^.,  the  taint  of  original  sin.2  If 
these  inventions  have  any  basis  at  all  beyond  the  desire  to 
glorify  the  future  Prophet,  we   must  suppose  that  they  refer 

'  Ibn  Hisham,  p.  105,  1.  9  sqq. 

^  This  legend  seems  to  have  arisen  out  of  a  literal  interpretation  of 
Koran,  xciv,  i,  "Did  wc  not  open  thy  breast?" — /.e.,  give  thee  comfort 
or  enlightenment. 


148       THE  PROPHET  AND    THE  KORAN 

to  some  kind  of  epileptic  fit.  At  a  later  period  he  was 
subject  to  such  attacks,  which,  according  to  the  unanimous 
voice  of  Tradition,  often  coincided  with  the  revelations  sent 
down  from  heaven. 

'Abdullah  had  died  before  the  birth  of  his  son,  and  when,  in 
his  sixth  year,  Muhammad  lost  his  mother  also,  the  charge  of 
the  orphan  was  undertaken  first  by  his  grandfather,  the  aged 
'Abdu  '1-Muttalib,  and  then  by  his  uncle,  Abu  Talib,  a  poor 
but  honourable  man,  who  nobly  fulfilled  the  duties  of  a 
guardian  to  the  last  hour  of  his  life.  Muhammad's  small 
patrimony  was  soon  spent,  and  he  was  reduced  to  herding 
sheep — a  despised  employment  which  usually  fell  to  the  lot 
of  women  or  slaves.  In  his  twelfth  year  he  accompanied 
Abu  Talib  on  a  trading  expedition  to  Syria,  in  the  course  of 
which  he  is  said  to  have  encountered  a  Christian 

with  the        monk  called  Bahira,  who  discovered  the  Seal  of 

monk  Ba^iira.  *  »        i         i  i  j    u    •!    J 

Prophecy  between  the  boy  s  shoulders,  and  hailed 
him  as  the  promised  apostle.  Such  anticipations  deserve  no 
credit  whatever.  The  truth  is  that  until  Muhammad  assumed 
the  prophetic  role  he  was  merely  an  obscure  Qurayshite  ;  and 
scarcely  anything  related  of  him  anterior  to  that  event  can  be 
deemed  historical  except  his  marriage  to  Khadija,  an  elderly 
widow  of  considerable  fortune,  which  took  place  when  he  was 
about  twenty-five  years  of  age. 

During  the  next  fifteen  years  of  his  life  Muhammad  was 
externally  a  prosperous  citizen,  only  distinguished  from  those 
around  him  by  an  habitual  expression  of  thoughtful  melan- 
choly. What  was  passing  in  his  mind  may  be  conjectured 
with  some  probability  from  his  first  utterances  when  he  came 
forward  as  a  preacher.  It  is  certain,  and  he  himself  has 
acknowledged,  that  he  formerly  shared  the  idolatry  of  his 
countrymen.  "  Did  not  He  find  thee  astray  and  lead  thee 
aright  f^  (Kor.  xciii,  7).  When  and  how  did  the  process  of 
conversion  begin  ?  These  questions  cannot  be  answered,  but 
it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  the  all-important  result,  on  which 


THE  HANiFS  149 

Muhammad's  biographers  concentrate  their  attention,  was  pre- 
ceded by  a  long  period  of  ferment  and  immaturity.  The  idea 
of  monotheism  was  represented  in  Arabia  by  the  Jews,  who 
were  particularly  numerous  in  the  Hijdz,  and  by  several 
Christian  sects  of  an  ascetic  character — e.g.^  the  Sdbians^ 
and  the  Rakusians.  Furthermore,  "  Islamic  tradition  knows 
of  a  number  of  religious  thinkers  before  Muhammad  who  are 
described  as  Hanifs,"^  and  of  whom  the  best  known  are 
Waraqa  b.  Nawfal  of  Quraysh  ;  Zayd  b.  *Amr 
b.  Nufayl,  also  of  Quraysh  ;  and  Umayya  b.  Abi 
'1-Salt  of  Thaqif.  They  formed  no  sect,  as  Sprenger  imagined  ; 
and  more  recent  research  has  demonstrated  the  baselessness  of 
the  same  scholar's  theory  that  there  was  in  Pre-islamic  times  a 
widely-spread  religious  movement  which  Muhammad  organised, 
directed,  and  employed  for  his  own  ends.  His  Arabian  pre- 
cursors, if  they  may  be  so  called,  were  merely  a  few  isolated 
individuals.  We  are  told  by  Ibn  Ishdq  that  Waraqa  and 
Zayd,  together  with  two  other  Qurayshites,  rejected  idolatry 
and  left  their  homes  in  order  to  seek  the  true  religion  of 
Abraham,  but  whereas  Waraqa  is  said  to  have  become  a  Christian, 
Zayd  remained  a  pious  dissenter  unattached  either  to  Christianity 
or  to  Judaism  ;  he  abstained  from  idol-worship,  from  eating 
that  which  had  died  of  itself,  from  blood,  and  from  the  flesh 
of  animals  offered  in  sacrifice  to  idols  ;  he  condemned  the 
barbarous  custom  of  burying-  female   infants  alive,  and   said, 

'  This  name,  which  signifies  'Baptists,'  was  applied  by  the  heathen 
Arabs  to  Muhammad  and  his  followers,  probably  in  consequence  of  the 
ceremonial  ablutions  which  are  incumbent  upon  every  Moslem  before  the 
live  daily  prayers  (see  Wellhausen,  Rcstc  Arab.  Hcid.,  p.  237). 

"^  Sir  Charles  Lyall,  The  Words  '  Hanif  and  'Muslim,'  J.R.A.S.  for 
1903,  p.  772.  The  original  meaning  of  hajiif  is  no  longer  traceable,  but  it 
may  be  connected  with  the  Hebrew  l/ancf,  '  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 
Hanifs  will  be  found  in  Sir  Charles  Lyall's  article  cited  above  ;  Sprenger, 
Das  Leben  und  die  Lehre  des  Mohammed,  vol.  i,  pp.  45-134  ;  Wellhausen, 
Reste  Arab.  Heid.,  p.  238  sqq.  ;  Caetani,  Annali  dell'  Islam,  vol.  i, 
pp.  181-192. 


150  THE  PROPHET  AND   THE  KORAN 

"  I  worship  the  Lord  of  Abraham."  ^  As  regards  Umayya  b. 
Abi  '1-Salt,  according  to  the  notice  of  him  in  the  Aghan'i^  he 
had  inspected  and  read  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  he  wore  sack- 
cloth as  a  mark  of  devotion,  held  wine  to  be  unlawful,  was 
inclined  to  disbelieve  in  idols,  and  earnestly  sought  the  true 
religion.  It  is  said  that  he  hoped  to  be  sent  as  a  prophet  to 
the  Arabs,  and  therefore  when  Muhammad  appeared  he 
envied  and  bitterly  opposed  him.^  Umayya's  verses,  some 
of  which  have  been  translated  in  a  former  chapter,3  are 
chiefly  on  religious  topics,  and  show  many  points  of  resem- 
blance with  the  doctrines  set  forth  in  the  early  Suras  of  the 
Koran.  With  one  exception,  all  the  Hanifs  whose  names  are 
recorded  belonged  to  the  Hijaz  and  the  west  of  the  Arabian 
peninsula.  No  doubt  Muhammad,  with  whom  most  of  them 
were  contemporary,  came  under  their  influence,  and  he  may 
have  received  his  first  stimulus  from  this  quarter.4  While 
they,  however,  were  concerned  only  about  their  own  salvation, 
Muhammad,  starting  from  the  same  position,  advanced  far 
beyond  it.  His  greatness  lies  not  so  much  in  the  sublime  ideas 
by  which  he  was  animated  as  in  the  tremendous  force  and 
enthusiasm  of  his  appeal  to  the  universal  conscience  of  mankind. 

In  his  fortieth  year,  it  is  said,  Muhammad  began  to  dream 

dreams  and  see  visions,  and  desire  solitude  above  all  things  else. 

He  withdrew    to    a    cave   on   Mount    Hira,  near 

Muhammad's     Mccca,  and  engap-cd  in  religious  austerities  (/fi/2fl«- 

vision.  '  o   o  o  V.      • 

nuth).      One  night  in    the  month   of  Ramadan  5 
the  Angel  6  appeared  to  him  and  said,  "Read!"  {iqra).     He 

'  Ibn  Hisham,  p.  143,  1.  6  sqq. 

^  Aghdni,  iii,  187,  1.  17  sqq.  ^  See  p.  69  stipra. 

4  Tradition  associates  him  especially  with  Waraqa,  who  was  a  cousin 
of  his  first  wife,  Khadija,  and  is  said  to  have  hailed  him  as  a  prophet 
while  Muhammad  himself  was  still  hesitating  (Ibn  Hisham,  p.  153, 
1.   14  sqq.). 

s  This  is  the  celebrated  '  Night  of  Power '  (Laylahi  'l-Qadr)  mentioned 
in  the  Koran,  xcvii,  i. 

6  The  Holy  Ghost  {Rnhu'l-Quds],lov  whom  in  the  Medina  Suras  Gabriel 
(Jibril)  is  substituted, 


THE  FIRST  REVELATION  151 

answered,  "I  am  no  reader"  (wc  ana  bi-qari^'").'^  Then  the 
Angel  seized  him  with  a  strong  grasp,  saying,  "Read  !"  and, 
as  Muhammad  still  refused  to  obey,  gripped  him  once  more 
and  spoke  as  follows  : — 

THE  SURA  OF  COAGULATED  BLOOD  (XCVI). 

(i)  Read  in  the  name  of  thy  Lord^"  who  created, 

(2)  Who  created  Man  of  blood  coagulated. 

(3)  Read  !  Thy  Lord  is  the  most  beneficent, 

(4)  Who  taught  by  the  Pen,3 

(5)  Taught  that  which  they  knew  not  unto  men. 

On  hearing  these  words  Muhammad  returned,  trembling, 
to  Khadija  and  cried,  "Wrap  me  up!  wrap  me  up!"  and 
remained  covered  until  the  terror  passed  away  from  him. 4 
Another  tradition  relating  to  the  same  event  makes  it  clear 

'  But  another  version  (Ibn  Hisham,  p.  152, 1. 9  sqq.)  represents  Muhammad 
as  replying  to  the  Angel,  "What  am  I  to  read  ? "  (vui  aqra'n  or  vui  dhd 
aqra'n).  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  Noldeke  [Gcschichtc  dcs  Qoniiis,  p.  7  sqq.),  who 
leaves  it  undecided.  According  to  Noldeke  (loc.  cit.,  p.  10),  the 
epithet  itmmi,  which  is  applied  to  Muhammad  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  "  (Muhammad)  "  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,  xxi.x,  47). 

=  The  meaning  of  these  words  (iqra'  bismi  rabbika)  is  disputed.  Others 
translate,  "  Preach  in  the  name  of  thy  Lord  "  (Noldeke),  or  "  Proclaim  the 
name  of  thy  Lord  "  (Hirschfeld).  I  see  no  sufficient  grounds  for  abandon- 
ing the  traditional  interpretation  supported  by  verses  4  and  5.  Muhammad 
dreamed  that  he  was  commanded  to  read  the  Word  of  God  inscribed  in 
the  Heavenly  Book  which  is  the  source  of  all  Revelation. 

3  Others  render,  "who  taught  (the  use  of)  the  Pen." 

■»  This  account  of  Muhammad's  earliest  vision  (Bukhari,  ed.  by  Krehi, 
vol.  iii,  p.  380,  1.  2  sqq.)  is  derived  from  'A'isha,  his  favourite  wife,  whom 
he  married  after  the  death  of  Khadija. 


152       THE  PROPHET  AND    THE  KORAN 

that  the  revelation  occurred  in  a  dream. i  "I  awoke,"  said 
the  Prophet,  "  and  methought  it  was  written  in  my  heart." 
If  we  take  into  account  the  notions  prevalent  among  the 
Arabs  of  that  time  on  the  subject  of  inspiration,^  it  will  not 
appear  surprising  that  Muhammad  at  first  beheved  himself  to 
be  possessed,  like  a  poet  or  soothsayer,  by  one  of  the  spirits 
called  collectively  yinn.  Such  was  his  anguish  of  mind  that 
he  even  meditated  suicide,  but  Khadija  comforted  and 
reassured  him,  and  finally  he  gained  the  unalterable  convic- 
tion that  he  was  not  a  prey  to  demoniacal  influences,  but  a 
prophet  divinely  inspired.  For  some  time  he  received  no 
further  revelation.3  Then  suddenly,  as  he  afterwards  related, 
he  saw  the  Angel  seated  on  a  throne  between  earth  and 
heaven.  Awe-stricken,  he  ran  into  his  house  and  bade  them 
wrap  his  limbs  in  a  warm  garment  {dithar).  While  he  lay 
thus  the  following  verses  were  revealed  : — 

THE   SURA   OF  THE   ENWRAPPED   (LXXIV). 

(i)  O  thou  who  enwrapped  dost  lie  ! 

(2)  Arise  and  prophesy/ 

(3)  And  thy  Lord  magnify, 

(4)  And  thy  raiment  purify, 

(5)  And  the  abomination  fly  !  s 

Muhammad  no  longer  doubted  that  he  had  a  divinely 
ordained  mission  to  preach  in  public.  His  feelings  of  relief 
and  thankfulness  are  expressed  in  several  Suras  of  this  period, 

e.g.— 

THE   SURA  OF   THE    MORNING   (XCIII). 

(i)  By  the  Morning  bright 

(2)  And  the  softly  falling  Night, 

(3)  Thy   Lord   hath   not  forsaken  thee,  neither  art   thou   hateful 

in   His  sight. 


'  Ibn  Hisham,  p.  152,  1.  9  sqq.  "^  See  p.  72  supra. 

3  This  interval  is  known  as  the  Fatra.  ■»  Literally,  '  warn.' 

5  '  The  abomination  '  [al-rujz)  probably  refers  to  idolatry. 


EARLY  CONVERTS  153 

(4)  Verily,  the  Beginning  is  hard  unto  thee,  but  the  End  shall  be 

light.' 

(5)  Thou  shalt  be  satisfied,  the  Lord  shall  thee  requite. 

(6)  Did  not   He  shelter  thee  when   He  found  thee  in  orphan's 

plight  ? 

(7)  Did  not  He  find  thee  astray  and  lead  thee  aright? 

(8)  Did   not   He  find  thee  poor   and    make    thee   rich    by   His 

might  ? 

(9)  Wherefore,  the  orphan  betray  not, 

(10)  And  the  beggar  turn  away  not, 

(11)  And  tell  of  the  bounty  of  thy  Lord. 

According  to  his  biographers,  an  interval  of  three  years 
elapsed  between  the  sending  of  Muhammad  and  his  appearance 
as  a  public  preacher  of  the  faith  that  was  in  him.  Naturally, 
he  would  first  turn  to  his  own  family  and  friends,  but  it  is 
difficult  to  accept  the  statement  that  he  made  no  proselytes 
openly  during  so  long  a  period.  The  contrary  is  asserted  in  an 
ancient  tradition  related  by  al-Zuhri  (f  742  a.d.),  where 
we  read  that  the  Prophet  summoned  the  people  to  embrace 
Islam  2  both  in  private  and  public  ;  and  that  those  who 
responded  to  his  appeal  were,  for  the  most  part,  young  men 
belonging    to   the    poorer    class.3     He  found,  however,    some 

influential  adherents.  Besides  Khadija,  who  was 
Moslems.       ^^^  ^^^^  to    believe,  there   were  his  cousin  'Ali, 

his  adopted  son,  Zayd  b.  Haritha,  and,  most  im- 
portant of  all,  Abu  Baler  b.  Abi  Ouhafa,  a  leading  merchant  of 
the  Ouraysh,  universally  respected  and  beloved  for  his  integrity, 
wisdom,  and  kindly  disposition.  At  the  outset  Muhammad 
seems  to  have  avoided  everything  calculated  to  offend  the 
heathens,  confining  himself  to  moral  and  religious  generalities, 

»  Literally,  "  The  Last  State  shall  be  better  for  thee  than  the  First," 
referring  either  to  Muhammad's  recompense  in  the  next  world  or  to  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  his  cause  in  this  world. 

2  Islam  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  sur- 
renders himself. 

3  Sprenger,  Lcbcn  des  Mohammad,  vol.  i,  p.  356. 


1 54       THE  PROPHET  AND    THE  KORAN 

so  that  many  believed,  and  the  Meccan  aristocrats  themselves 
regarded  him  with  good-humoured  toleration  as  a  harmless 
oracle-monger.  "  Look  !  "  they  said  as  he  passed  by,  "  there 
goes  the  man  of  the  Banu  'Abd  al-Muttalib  who  tells  of 
heaven."     But  no  sooner  did  he  begin  to  emphasise  the  Unity 

of  God,  to  fulminate  against  idolatry,  and  to  preach 
"°Qu«ys°h.'^'  the  Resurrection   of  the  dead,  than  his  followers 

melted  away  in  face  of  the  bitter  antagonism 
which  these  doctrines  excited  amongst  the  Ouraysh,  who  saw 
in  the  Ka'ba  and  its  venerable  cult  the  mainspring  of  their 
commercial  prosperity,  and  were  irritated  by  the  Prophet's 
declaration  that  their  ancestors  were  burning  in  hell-fire. 
The  authority  of  Abu  Talib  secured  the  personal  safety  of 
Muhammad  ;  of  the  little  band  who  remained  faithful  some 
were  protected  by  the  strong  family  feeling  characteristic  of  old 
Arabian  society,  but  many  were  poor  and  friendless  ;  and  these, 
especially  the  slaves,  whom  the  levelling  ideas  of  Islam  had 
attracted  in  large  numbers,  were  subjected  to  cruel  persecution. ^ 
Nevertheless  Muhammad  continued  to  preach.  "I  will  not 
forsake  this  cause"  (thus  he  is  said  to  have  answered  Abu 
Talib,  who  informed  him  of  the  threatening  attitude  of  the 
Ouraysh  and  begged  him  not  to  lay  on  him  a  greater  burden 
than  he  could  bear)  "  until  God  shall  make  it  manifest  or  until 
I  shall  perish  therein — not  though  they  should  set  the  sun  on 
my  right   hand  and  the  moon  on  my  left  !  "  ^     But  progress 

'  It  must  be  remembered  that  this  branch  of  Muhammadan  tradition 
derives  from  the  pietists  of  the  first  century  after  the  FHght,  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  Muhammad  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.  Muhammad  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  Muhammad's  failure  to  make 
appreciable  headway  in  Mecca.  =  Ibn  Hisham,  p.  t68,  1.  9.  sqq. 


FAILURE   OF   THE  MISSION  AT  MECCA     155 

was  slow  and  painful  :  the  Meccans  stood  obstinately  aloof, 
deriding  both  his  prophetic  authority  and  the  Divine  chastise- 
ment with  which  he  sought  to  terrify  them.  Moreover,  they 
used  every  kind  of  pressure  short  of  actual  violence  in  order  to 
seduce  his  followers,  so  that  many  recanted,  and  in  the  fifth 
year  of  his  mission  he  saw  himself  driven  to  the  necessity  of 

commanding  a  general  emigration  to  the  Christian 
^Abfss'inia.*"    kingdom  of  Abyssinia,  where  the  Moslems  would 

be  received  with  open  arms  ^  and  would  be  with- 
drawn from  temptation.2  About  a  hundred  men  and  women 
went  into  exile,  leaving  their  Prophet  with  a  small  party  of 
staunch  and  devoted  comrades  to  persevere  in  a  struggle  that 
was  daily  becoming  more  difficult.     In  a  moment  of  weakness 

Muhammad    resolved    to    attempt   a  compromise 

Temporary  •  '■  ' 

'^'^wHh'the""  w'^h  ^'^  countrymen.  One  day,  it  is  said,  the 
Quraysh.  chief  men  of  Mecca,  assembled  in  a  group  beside 
the  Ka'ba,  discussed  as  was  their  wont  the  affairs  of  the  city, 
when  Muhammad  appeared  and,  seating  himself  by  them  in 
a  friendly  manner,  began  to  recite  in  their  hearing  the  53rd 
Sura  of  the  Koran.     When  he  came  to  the  verses  (19-20) — 

"  Do  ye  see  Al-Ldt  and  Al-'Uzza,  and  Manat,  the  third  and  last  ? " 

Satan  prompted  him  to  add  : — 

"These  are  the  most  exalted  Cranes  (or  Swans), 
And  verily  their  intercession  is  to  be  hoped  for." 

The  Ouraysh  were  surprised  and  delighted  with  this 
acknowledgment  of  their  deities  ;  and  as  Muhammad  wound 
up  the  Sura  with  the  closing  words — 

"Wherefore  bow  down  before  God  and  serve  Him," 


'  At  this  time  Muhammad  believed  the  doctrines  of  Islam  and 
Christianity  to  be  essentially  the  same. 

2  Tabari,  i,  1180,  8  sqq.  Cf.  Caetani,  Annali  ddV  Islam,  vol.  i, 
p.  267  sqq. 


156       THE  PROPHET  AND   THE  KORAN 

the  whole  assembly  prostrated  themselves  with  one  accord 
on  the  ground  and  worshipped. ^  But  scarcely  had  Muhammad 
returned  to  his  house  when  he  repented  of  the  sin  into 
which  he  had  fallen.  He  cancelled  the  idolatrous  verses 
and  revealed  in  their  place  those  which  now  stand  in  the 
Koran — 

"Shall  yours  be  the  male  and  his  the  female?' 
This  were  then  an  unjust  division  ! 
They  are  naught  but  names  which  ye  and  your  fathers 
have  named." 

We    can   easily    comprehend    why    Ibn    Hishim    omits   all 

mention  of  this  episode  from  his  Biography,  and  why  the  fact 

itself  is    denied    by   many    Moslem    theologians. 3 

Muhammnd's  T-»i»r  i  itil- 

concession  to    The     Frophct  s     friends     were     scandalised,    his 

the  idolaters.  ,  . 

enemies  laughed  him  to  scorn.  It  was  probably 
no  sudden  lapse,  as  tradition  represents,  but  a  calculated 
endeavour  to  come  to  terms  with  the  Ouraysh  ;  and  so  far 
from  being  immediately  annulled,  the  reconciliation  seems 
to  have  lasted  long  enough  for  the  news  of  it  to  reach  the 
emigrants  in  Abyssinia  and  induce  some  of  them  to  return  to 
Mecca.  While  putting  the  best  face  on  the  matter, 
Muhammad  felt  keenly  both  his  own  disgrace  and  the  public 
discredit.  It  speaks  well  for  his  sincerity  that,  as  soon  as 
he  perceived  any  compromise  with  idolatry  to  be  impossible — 
to  be,  in  fact,  a  surrender  of  the  great  principle  by  which  he 
was    inspired — he    frankly    confessed    his   error    and  delusion. 

'  Muir,  Life  of  Mahomet,  vol.  ii,  p.  151. 

*  We  have  seen  (p.  91  supra)  that  the  heathen  Arabs  disliked  female 
offspring,  yet  they  called  their  three  principal  deities  the  daughters  of 
Allah. 

3  It  is  related  by  Ibn  Ishaq  (Tabari,  i,  1192,  4  sqq.).  In  his  learned  work, 
Annali  delV  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." 


BACKSLIDING  AND  REPENTANCE      157 

Henceforth    he    "  wages    mortal    strife  with    images  in  every 
shape" — there  is  no  god  but  Allah. 

The  further  course  of  events  which  culminated  in 
Muhammad's  Flight  to  Medina  may  be  sketched  in  a  few 
words.  Persecution  now  waxed  hotter  than  ever,  as  the 
Prophet,  rising  from  his  temporary  vacillation  like  a  giant 
refreshed,  threw  his  whole  force  into  the  denunciation  of 
idolatry.  The  conversion  of  'Umar  b.  al-Khattab,  the  future 
Caliph,  a  man  of  *  blood  and  iron,'  gave  the  signal  for  open 
revolt.  "  The  Moslems  no  longer  concealed  their  worship 
within  their  own  dwellings,  but  with  conscious  strength  and 
defiant  attitude  assembled  in  companies  about  the  Ka'ba,  per- 
formed their  rites  of  prayer  and  compassed  the  Holy  House. 
Their  courage  rose.  Dread  and  uneasiness  seized  the 
Quraysh."  The  latter  retaliated  by  cutting  off  all  relations 
with  the  Hashimites,  who  were  pledged  to  defend  their  kins- 
man, whether  they  recognised  him  as  a  prophet  or  no.  This 
ban  or  boycott  secluded  them  in  an  outlying  quarter  of  the  city, 
where  for  more  than  two  years  they  endured  the  utmost 
privations,  but  it  only  cemented  their  loyalty  to  Muhammad, 
and  ultimately  dissensions  among  the  Quraysh  themselves  caused 
it  to  be  removed.  Shortly  afterwards  the  Prophet  suffered 
a  double  bereavement — the  death  of  his  wife, 
of  Khadija  and  Khadija,  was  foUowed  by  that  of  the  noble  Abu 
ITahb,  who,  though  he  never  accepted  Islam, 
stood  firm  to  the  last  in  defence  of  his  brother's  son.  Left 
alone  to  protect  himself,  Muljammad  realised  that  he  must  take 
some  decisive  step.  The  situation  was  critical.  Events  had 
shown  that  he  had  nothing  to  hope  and  everything  to  fear  from 
the  Meccan  aristocracy.  He  had  warned  them  again  and 
again  of  the  wrath  to  come,  yet  they  gave  no  heed.  He  was 
now  convinced  that  they  would  not  and  could  not  believe, 
since  God  in  His  inscrutable  wisdom  had  predestined  them  to 
eternal  damnation.  Consequently  he  resolved  on  a  bold  and, 
according  to    Arab  ways  of  thinking,  abominable   expedient, 


158       THE  PROPHET  AND   THE  KORAN 

namely,  to  abandon  his  fellow-tribesmen  and  seek  aid  from 
strangers.i  Having  vainly  appealed  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Ta'if,  he  turned  to  Medina,  where,  among  a  population 
largely  composed  of  Jews,  the  revolutionary  ideas  of  Islam 
might  more  readily  take  root  and  flourish  than  in  the 
Holy  City  of  Arabian  heathendom.  This  time  he  was  not 
disappointed.  A  strong  party  in  Medina  hailed  him  as  the 
true  Prophet,  eagerly  embraced  his  creed,  and  swore  to  defend 
him  at  all  hazards.  In  the  spring  of  the  year  622  a.d.  the 
Moslems  of  Mecca  quietly  left  their  homes  and  journeyed 
northward.  A  few  months  later  (September,  622)  Muhammad 
himself,  eluding  the  vigilance  of  the  Ouraysh,  entered  Medina 
in  triumph  amidst  the  crowds  and  acclamations  due  to  a 
conqueror. 

This   is  the  celebrated    Flight  or   Hegira  (properly  H'tjra) 

which  marks  the  end  of  the  Barbaric  Age  [al-ydhiliyya)  and 

the  beginning;  of  the  Muhammadan  Era.      It  also 

TheHijraov  ^  &  ,     •  u      r>         u      >     u-  i. 

Flight  to  Medina  marJcs  a  uew  epoch  in  the  r  rophet  s  history  :  but 
(622A.D.).  5  .     . 

before  attempting  to  indicate  the  nature  of  the 

change  it  will   be  convenient,  in  order  that    we    may    form 

a  juster  conception  of  his  character,  to  give  some  account  of 

his  early  teaching  and  preaching  as  set  forth  in  that  portion  of 

the  Koran  which  was  revealed  at  Mecca. 


'  The  Meccan  view  of  Muhammad's  action  may  be  gathered  from  the 
words  uttered  by  Abii  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  ! "  (Tabari,  i,  1322,  1.  8  seq.).  Alluding  to  the 
Moslems  who  abandoned  their  native  city  and  fled  with  the  Prophet  to 
Medina,  a  Meccan  poet  exclaims  (Ibn  Hisham,  p.  519, 11.  3-5) : — 

They  (the  Quraysh  slain  at  Badr)  fell  in  hoiionr.  They  did  not  sell  their 
kinsmen  for  strangers  living  in  a  far  land  and  of  remote  lineage  ; 

Unlike  yon,  who  have  made  friends  ofGhassdn  (the  people  of  Medina),  taking 
them  instead  of  us — 0,iuhat  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  under- 
standing. 


THE  FLIGHT  TO  MEDINA  159 

Koran    (Our'an)   is  derived   from  the  Arabic    root  qara'a^      > 
'  to    read,'    and  means  '  reading  aloud  '    or  *  chanting.'     This    I  \ 
term  may  be  applied  either  to  a  single  Revelation 

The  Koran.  ,  .       ,  ,  •      •  i 

or  to  several  recited  together  or,  m  its  usual  accep- 
tation, to  the  whole  body  of  Revelations  which  are  thought 
by  Moslems  to  be,  actually  and  literally,  the  Word  of  God  ;  so 
that  in  quoting  from  the  Koran  they  say  qala  Ulahu^  i.e., 
'  God  said.'  Each  Revelation  forms  a  separate  Sura 
(chapter)  ^  composed  of  verses  of  varying  length  which  have 
no  metre  but  are  generally  rhymed.  Thus,  as  regards  its 
external  features,  the  style  of  the  Koran  is  modelled  upon  the 
5(2/',2  or  rhymed  prose,  of  the  pagan  soothsayers,  but  with  such 
freedom  that  it  may  fairly  be  described  as  original.  Since  it 
was  not  in  Muhammad's  power  to  create  a  form  that  should 
be  absolutely  new,  his  choice  lay  between  SaJ^  and  poetry,  the 
only  forms  of  elevated  style  then  known  to  the  Arabs.  He 
himself  declared  that  he  was  no  poet,3  and  this  is  true  in  the 
sense  that  he  may  have  lacked  the  technical  accomplishment  of 

verse-making.     It   must,     however,    be   borne    in 
^^^^'^^poeT"'"^'^  mind  that  his  disavowal  does  not  refer  primarily 

to  the  poetic  art,  but  rather  to  the  person  and 
character  of  the  poets  themselves.  He,  the  divinely  inspired 
Prophet,  could  have  nothing  to  do  with  men  who  owed  their 
inspiration  to  demons  and  gloried  in  the  ideals  of  paganism 
which  he  was  striving  to  overthrow.  "  /ind  the  poets  do 
those  follow  who  go  astray !  Dost  thou  not  see  that  they 
wander  distraught  in  every  vale  F  and  that  they  say  that  which 
they  do  not?'''  (Kor.  xxvi,  224-226).  Muhammad  was  not 
of  these  ;  although  he  was  not  so  unlike  them  as  he  pretended. 
His  kinship  with  the  pagan  Shamir  is  clearly  shown,  for  example, 
in  the  113th  and  114th  Siiras,  which  are  charms  against  magic 
and  diablerie,  as  well  as  in  the  solemn  imprecation  calling  down 
destruction  upon  the  head  of  his  uncle,  'Abdu  'l-'Uzza,  nick- 
named Abu  Lahab  (Father  of  Flame). 

'  St'ira  is  properly  a  row  of  stones  or  bricks  in  a  wall. 

'  See  p.  74  supra,  3  Koran,  Ixix,  41. 


i6o  THE  PROPHET  AND   THE  KORAN 

THE   SURA  OF   ABU    LAHAB  (CXI). 

(i)  Perish  the  hands  of  Abu  Lahab  and  perish  he  ! 

(2)  His  wealth  shall  not  avail  him  nor  all   he   hath  gotten  in 

fee. 

(3)  Burned  in  blazing  fire  he  shall  be ! 

(4)  And  his  wife,  the  faggot-bearer,  also  she  : 

(5)  Upon  her  neck  a  cord  of  fibres  of  the  palm-tree. 

If,  then,  we  must  allow  that  Muhammad's  contemporaries  had 
some  justification  for  bestowing  upon  him  the  title  of  poet 
against  which  he  protested  so  vehemently,  still  less  can  his  plea 
be  accepted  by  the  modern  critic,  whose  verdict  will  be  that 
the  Koran  is  not  poetical  as  a  whole  ;  that  it  contains  many 
pages  of  rhetoric  and  much  undeniable  prose  ;  but  that, 
although  Muhammad  needed  "  heaven-sent  moments  for  this 
skill,"  in  the  early  Meccan  Suras  frequently,  and  fitfully  else- 
where, his  genius  proclaims  itself  by  grand  lyrical  outbursts 
which  could  never  have  been  the  work  of  a  mere  rhetorician. 

"  Muhammad's  single  aim  in  the  Meccan  Siiras,"  says  N61deke,"is  to 
convert  the  people,  by  means  of  persuasion,  from  their  false  gods  to 

the  One  God.  To  whatever  point  the  discourse  is 
^Suras!^^"     directed,  this  always  remains  the  ground-thought ;  but 

instead  of  seeking  to  convince  the  reason  of  his 
hearers  by  logical  proofs,  he  employs  the  arts  of  rhetoric  to 
work  upon  their  minds  through  the  imagination.  Thus  he  glorifies 
God,  describes  His  working  in  Nature  and  History,  and  ridicules 
on  the  other  hand  the  impotence  of  the  idols.  Especially 
important  are  the  descriptions  of  the  everlasting  bliss  of  the  pious 
and  the  torments  of  the  wicked  :  these,  particularly  the  latter,  must 
be  regarded  as  one  of  the  mightiest  factors  in  the  propagation  of 
Islam,  through  the  impression  which  they  make  on  the  imagination 
of  simple  men  who  have  not  been  hardened,  from  their  youth  up,  by 
similar  theological  ideas.  The  Prophet  often  attacks  his  heathen 
adversaries  personally  and  threatens  them  with  eternal  punishment ; 
but  while  he  is  living  among  heathens  alone,  he  seldom  assails  the 
Jews  who  stand  much  nearer  to  him,  and  the  Christians  scarcely 
ever." ' 


'  Noldeke,  Geschichte  des  Qordns,  p.  56. 


THE  MECCAN  StlRAS  i6i 

The  preposterous  arrangement  of  the  Koran,  to  which  I  have 
already  adverted,  is  mainly  responsible  for  the  opinion  almost 
unanimously  held  by  European  readers  that  it  is  obscure,  tire- 
some, uninteresting  ;  a  farrago  of  long-winded  narratives  and 
prosaic  exhortations,  quite  unworthy  to  be  named  in  the  same 
breath  with  the  Prophetical  Books  of  the  Old  Testament. 
One  may,  indeed,  peruse  the  greater  part  of  the  volume, 
beginning  with  the  first  chapter,  and  find  but  a  few  passages  of 
genuine  enthusiasm  to  relieve  the  prevailing  dulness.  It  is  in 
the  short  Suras  placed  at  the  end  of  the  Koran  that  we  must 
look  for  evidence  of  Muhammad's  prophetic  gift.  These  are  the 
earliest  of  all ;  in  these  the  flame  of  inspiration  burns  purely 
and  its  natural  force  is  not  abated.  The  following  versions, 
like  those  which  have  preceded,  imitate  the  original  form  as 
closely,  I  think,  as  is  possible  in  English.  They  cannot,  of 
course,  do  more  than  faintly  suggest  the  striking  effect  of  the 
sonorous  Arabic  when  read  aloud.  The  Koran  was  designed 
for  oral  recitation,  and  it  must  be  heard  in  order  to  be  justly 
appraised. 

THE   SURA   OF  THE   SEVERING  (LXXXH). 

(i)    When  the  Sky  shall  be  severed, 

(2)  And  when  the  Stars  shall  be  shivered, 

(3)  And  when  the  Seas  to  mingle  shall  be  suffered, 

(4)  And  when  the  Graves  shall  be  uncovered — 

(5)  A  soul  shall  know  that  which  it  hath  deferred  or  delivered.' 

(6)  O  Man,  what  beguiled  thee  against  thy  gracious  Master  to  rebel, 

(7)  Who  created  thee  and  fashioned  thee  right  and  thy  frame  did 

fairly  build  ? 

(8)  He  composed  thee  in  whatever  form  He  willed. 

(9)  Nay,  but  ye  disbelieve  in  the  Ordeal  !  ^ 
(10)  Verily  over  you  are  Recorders  honourable, 
(ii)  Your  deeds  inscribing  without  fail  :3 


*  I.e.,  what  it  has  done  or  left  undone. 
""  The  Last  Judgment. 

3  Moslems  believe  that  every  man  is  attended  by  two  Recording  Angels 
who  write  down  his  good  and  evil  actions. 

12 


i62       THE  PROPHET  AND    THE  KORAN 

(12)  What  ye  do  they  know  well. 

(13)  Surely  the  pious  in  delight  shall  dwell, 

(14)  And  surely  the  wicked  shall  be  in  Hell, 

(15)  Burning  there  on  the  Day  of  Ordeal ; 

(16)  And  evermore  Hell-fire  they  shall  feel ! 

(17)  What   shall    make   thee  to    understand   what   is  the   Day   of 

Ordeal  ? 

(18)  Again,  what  shall  make  thee  to  understand  what  is  the  Day 

of  Ordeal  ? — 

(19)  A  Day  when   one   soul  shall  not  obtain  anything  for  another 

soul,  but  the   command  on   that   Day  shall  be  with  God 
alone. 

THE   SURA  OF  THE  SIGNS  (LXXXV). 

(i)  By  the  Heaven  in  which  Signs  are  set, 

(2)  By  the  Day  that  is  promised, 

(3)  By  the  Witness  and  the  Witnessed  : — 

(4)  Cursed  be  the  Fellows  of  the  Pit,  they  that  spread 

(5)  The  fire  with  fuel  fed, 

(6)  When  they  sate  by  its  head 

(7)  And  saw  how  their  contrivance  against  the  Believers  sped ; ' 

(8)  And  they  punished  them  not  save  that  they  believed  on  God, 

the  Almighty,  the  Glorified, 

(9)  To   whom   is   the    Kingdom   of    Heaven   and   Earth,  and  He 

seeth  every  thing  beside. 

(10)  Verily,   for  those   who  afflict  believing  men  and  women  and 

repent   not,  the  torment  of  Gehenna  and  the  torment  of 
burning  is  prepared, 

(11)  Verily,   for   those   who   believe   and  work   righteousness    are 

Gardens  beneath   which   rivers   flow  :    this    is    the    great 
Reward. 

(12)  Stern  is  the  vengeance  of  thy  Lord. 

(13)  He  createth  the  living  and  reviveth  the  dead  : 

(14)  He  doth  pardon  and  kindly  entreat  : 

(15)  The  majestic  Throne  is  His  seat: 

(16)  That  he  wiUeth  He  doeth  indeed. 

(17)  Hath  not  word  come  to  thee  of  the  multitude 

(18)  Of  Pharaoh,  and  of  Thamiid?^ 


'  This  is  generally  supposed  to  refer  to  the  persecution  of  the  Christians 
of  Najran  by  Dhii  Nuwas  (see  p.  26  supra).  Geiger  takes  it  as  an  allusion 
to  the  three  men  who  were  cast  into  the  fiery  furnace  (Daniel,  ch.  iii). 

*  See  above,  p.  3. 


THE  MECCAN  SCRAS  163 

(19)  Nay,  the  infidels  cease  not  from  falsehood, 

(20)  But  God  encompasseth  them  about 

(21)  Surely,  it  is  a  Sublime  Koran  that  ye  read, 

(22)  On  a  Table  inviolate.' 

THE   SURA   OF  THE  SMITING   (CI). 

(i)  The  Smiting  !     What  is  the  Smiting  ? 

(2)  And   how    shalt    thou   be   made    to    understand    what   is   the 

Smiting  ? 

(3)  The  Day  when  Men  shall  be  as  flies  scattered, 

(4)  And  the  Mountains  shall  be  as  shreds  of  wool  tattered. 

(5)  One  whose  Scales  are  heavy,  a  pleasing  life  he  shall  spend, 

(6)  But  one  whose  Scales  are  light,  to  the  Abyss  he  shall  descend. 

(7)  What  that  is,  how  shalt  thou  be  made  to  comprehend  ? 

(8)  Scorching  Fire  without  end  ! 

THE   SURA   OF   THE   UNBELIEVERS  (CIX). 

(i)  Say  :  'O  Unbelievers, 

(2)  I  worship  not  that  which  ye  worship, 

(3)  And  ye  worship  not  that  which  I  worship. 

(4)  Neither  will  I  worship  that  which  ye  worship, 

(5)  Nor  will  ye  worship  that  which  I  worship. 

(6)  Ye  have  your  religion  and  I  have  my  religion.' 

To  summarise  the  cardinal  doctrines  preached  by  Muhammad 
during  the  Meccan  period  : — 

I.  There  is  no  god  but  God. 
Muijammad  at        2.  Muhammad  is  the  Apostle  of  God,  and  the 
Koran  is  the  Word  of  God  revealed  to  His  Apostle. 

3.  The  dead  shall  be  raised  to  life  at  the  Last  Judgment, 
when  every  one  shall  be  judged  by  his  actions  in  the  present  life. 

4.  The  pious  shall  enter  Paradise  and  the  wicked  shall  go 
down  to  Hell. 

Taking  these  doctrines  separately,  let  us  consider  a  little 
more  in  detail  how  each  of  them  is  stated  and  by  what  argu- 
ments it  is  enforced.     The  time  had  not  yet  come  for  drawing 

'  According  to  Muhammadan  belief,  the  archetype  of  the  Koran  and  of 
ail  other  Revelations  is  written  on  the  Guarded  Table  (al-Laivh  al-Mahfuz] 
in  heaven. 


i64       THE  PROPHET  AND   THE  KORAN 

the  sword  :  Muhammad  repeats  again  and  again  that  he  is  only 
a  Warner  [nadhir)  invested  with  no  authority  to  compel  where 
he  cannot  persuade. 

I.  The  Meccans  acknowledged  the  supreme  position  of 
Allah,  but  in  ordinary  circumstances  neglected  him  in  favour 

of  their  idols,  so  that,  as  Muhammad  complains. 
The  Unity  of     «  JVhen   danger    befalls  you    on    the    sea^    the   gods 

•whom  ye  invoke  are  forgotten  except  Him  alone ; 
yet  when  He  brought  you  safe  to  landy  ye  turned  your  hacks  on 
Him^  for  Man  is  ungrateful.''''  ^  They  were  strongly  attached 
to  the  cult  of  the  Ka'ba,  not  only  by  self-interest,  but  also  by 
the  more  respectable  motives  of  piety  towards  their  ancestors 
and  pride  in  their  traditions.  Muhammad  himself  regarded 
Allah  as  Lord  of  the  Ka'ba,  and  called  upon  the  Quraysh 
to  worship  him  as  such  (Kor.  cvi,  3).  When  they  refused  to 
do  so  on  the  ground  that  they  were  afraid  lest  the  Arabs  should 
rise  against  them  and  drive  them  forth  from  the  land,  he 
assured  them  that  Allah  was  the  author  of  all  their  prosperity 
(Kor.  xxviii,  57).  His  main  argument,  however,  is  drawn 
from  the  weakness  of  the  idols,  which  cannot  create  even  a 
fly,  contrasted  with  the  wondrous  manifestations  of  Divine 
power  and  providence  in  the  creation  of  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  and  all  living  things.^ 

It  was  probably  towards  the  close  of  the  Meccan  period  that 
Muhammad  summarised  his  Unitarian  ideas  in  the  following 
emphatic  formula  : — 

THE  SURA  OF  PURIFICATION  (CXII).3 

(i)  Say:  'God  is  One; 

(2)  God  who  liveth  on  ; 

(3)  Without  father  and  without  son  ; 

(4)  And  like  to  Him  there  is  none!' 


'  Koran,  xvii,  69. 

=  See,  for  example,  the  passages  translated  by  Lane  in  his  Selections 
from  the  Kur-dn  (London,  1843),  pp.   100-113. 

3  Ikhlds  means  '  purifying  one's  self  of  belief  in  any  god  except  Allah,' 


CARDINAL   DOCTRINES  165 

2.  We  have  seen  that  when  Muhammed  first  appeared  as 

a    prophet    he    was    thought    by   all    except   a    very    i&w    to 

be   majnun^   i.e.^    possessed    by   a  jinnl^   or  genie, 

Muhammad,  the    •/-   y  i        i  •    i  mi  i     i  i 

Apostle  of      ir  i  may  use  a  word  which  will  send  the  reader 
back  to  his  Arabian  Nights.     The  heathen  Arabs 
regarded  such  persons — soothsayers,  diviners,  and  poets — with 
a  certain  respect ;  and   if  Muhammad's  '  madness '  had  taken  a 
normal    course,  his  claim    to    inspiration    would   have    passed 
unchallenged.     What  moved  the  Quraysh  to  oppose  him  was 
not    disbelief  in   his   inspiration — it   mattered  little  to   them 
whether  he  was  under  the  spell  of  Allah  or  one  of  the  jfinn — 
but  the  fact  that  he  preached  doctrines  which  wounded  their 
sentiments,   threatened  their   institutions,   and    subverted    the 
most  cherished  traditions  of  old  Arabian  life.     But  in  order 
successfully  to  resist  the  propaganda  for  which  he  alleged  a 
Divine  warrant,  they  were  obliged   to  meet  him  on  his  own 
ground  and   to   maintain   that   he  was  no  prophet  at  all,  no 
Apostle  of  Allah,  as  he  asserted,  but  "  an  insolent  liar,"  "a 
schooled  madman,"  "  an  infatuated  poet,"  and  so  forth  ;  and 
that  his  Koran,  which  he  gave  out  to  be  the  Word  of  Allah, 
was  merely   "old   folks'  tales"   [asdtiru    U-aw'waUn)y    or    the 
invention  of  a  poet  or  a  sorcerer.     "  Is  not  he,"  they  cried,  "  a 
man  like   ourselves,  who  wishes  to  domineer  over  us  ?     Let 
him  show  us  a  miracle,  that  we  may  believe."     Muhammad 
could  only  reiterate  his  former  assertions  and  warn  the  infidels 
that  a  terrible  punishment  was  in  store  for  them  either  in  this 
world  or  the  next.     Time  after  time  he  compares  himself  to 
the   ancient    prophets — Noah,    Abraham,    Moses,    and    their 
successors — who   are    represented    as    employing    exactly    the 
same  arguments  and  receiving  the  same  answers  as  Muham- 
mad ;  and  bids   his  people  hearken  to  him  lest  they  utterly 
perish  like  the  ungodly  before  them.     The  truth  of  the  Koran 
is  proved,  he  says,  by  the  Pentateuch  and  the  Gospel,  allbeing 
Revelations   of  the    One    God,    and    therefore    identical    in 
substance.     He    is   no    mercenary    soothsayer,    he    seeks    no 


i66       THE  PROPHET  AND    THE  KORAN 

personal  advantage  :  his  mission  is  solely  to  preach.  The 
demand  for  a  miracle  he  could  not  satisfy  except  by  pointing 
to  his  visions  of  the  Angel  and  especially  to  the  Koran  itself, 
every  verse  of  which  was  a  distinct  sign  or  miracle  {^ayat^.'^  If 
he  has  forged  it,  why  are  his  adversaries  unable  to  produce  any- 
thing similar  ?  "  &ay  :  '  If  men  and  genies  united  to  bring  the 
like  of  this  Koran^  they  could  not  bring  the  like  although  they 
sho2ild  back  each  other  up''''''  (Kor.  xvii,  90). 

3.  Such  notions  of  a   future  life  as  were  current  in   Pre- 
islamic  Arabia  never  rose  beyond  vague  and  barbarous  super- 
stition, e.g.^  the  fancy  that  the  dead  man's  tomb 
Md  '        was    haunted    by    his   spirit    in     the    shape    of  a 
screeching   owl.^     No    wonder,    then,    that    the 
ideas  of  Resurrection  and  Retribution,  which  are  enforced  by 
threats  and  arguments  on  almost  every   page  of  the  Koran, 
appeared    to    the    Meccan   idolaters   absurdly    ridiculous    and 
incredible.     '■^  Does  Ibn  Kabsha  promise  us  that  we  shall  live  F" 
said  one  of  their  poets.     "  How  can  there  be  life  for  the  sadd 
and  the  hdma  ?     Dost  thou  omit  to  ward  me  from  deathy  and  wilt 
thou  revive  me  when  my  bones  are  rotten  ?  "  3     God  provided  His 
Apostle  with  a  ready  answer  to  these  gibes  :  "  Say  :  '  He  shall 
revive  them  who  produced  them   at  first^  for  He  knoweth  every 

'  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,  i),  though,  as  is  plain  from  the  context,  these  words  refer  to  one  of 
the  signs  of  the  Day  of  Judgment. 

=  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. 

3  Shaddad  b.  al-Aswad  al-Laythi,  quoted  in  the  Risdlatu  'l-Ghufrdn  of 
Abu  'l-'Ala  al-Ma'arri  (see  my  article  in  the  J.R.A.S.  for  1902,  pp.  94  and 
818)  ;  cf.  Ibn  Hisham,  p.  530,  last  line.  Ibn  (Abi)  Kabsha  was  a  nickname 
derisively  applied  to  Muhammad.  Sadd  and  hdma  refer  to  the  death-bird 
which  was  popularly  supposed  to  utter  its  shriek  from  the  skull  (hdma)  of 
the  dead,  and  both  words  may  be  rendered  by  '  soul '  or  '  wraith.' 


CONCEPTIONS   OF   THE  FUTURE  LIFE     167 

creation  "  (Kor.  xxxvi,  79).  This  topic  is  eloquently  illustrated, 
but  Muhammad's  hearers  were  probably  less  impressed  by  the 
creative  power  of  God  as  exhibited  in  Nature  and  in  Man 
than  by  the  awful  examples,  to  which  reference  has  been 
made,  of  His  destructive  power  as  manifested  in  History.  To 
Muhammad  himself,  at  the  outset  of  his  mission,  it  seemed  an 
appalling  certainty  that  he  must  one  day  stand  before  God  and 
render  an  account ;  the  overmastering  sense  of  his  own  re- 
sponsibility goaded  him  to  preach  in  the  hope  of  saving  his 
countrymen,  and  supplied  him,  weak  and  timorous  as  he  was, 
with  strength  to  endure  calumny  and  persecution.  As  Noldeke 
has  remarked,  the  grandest  Suras  of  the  whole  Koran  are  those 
in  which  Muhammad  describes  how  all  Nature  trembles  and 
quakes  at  the  approach  of  the  Last  Judgment.  "  It  is  as 
though  one  actually  saw  the  earth  heaving,  the  mountains 
crumbling  to  dust,  and  the  stars  hurled  hither  and  thither  in 
wild  confusion."  ^  Suras  Ixxxii  and  ci,  which  have  been 
translated  above,  are  specimens  of  the  true  prophetic  style. 2 

4.  There  is   nothing  spiritual  in   Muhammad's  pictures  of 
Heaven  and  Hell.     His  Paradise  is  simply  a  glorified  pleasure- 
garden,  where   the   pious   repose   in   cool  shades, 
Muhammadan    quaffing  spicy  winc  and  diverting  themselves  with 
the  Houris  [Hiir)^  lovely  dark-eyed  damsels  like 
pearls  hidden  in  their  shells,3     This  was  admirably  calculated 
to  allure  his  hearers  by  reminding  them  of  one  of  their  chief 
enjoyments — the    gay    drinking     parties    which    occasionally 
broke  the    monotony   of  Arabian    life,  and    which   are  often 
described  in  Pre-islamic  poetry  ;  indeed,  it  is  highly  probable 
that  Muhammad  drew  a  good  deal  of  his  Paradise  from  this 
source.     The  gross  and  sensual  character  of  the  Muhammadan 
Afterworld  is  commonly  thought  to  betray  a  particular  weak- 

'  Noldeke,  Geschichte  des  Oonhts,  p.  78. 

"  Cf.  also  Koran,  xviii,  45-47  ;  xx,  102  sqq.  ;  xxxix,  67  sqq.  ;  Ixix,  13-37. 

3  The  famous  freethinker,  Abu  'l-'Ala  al-Ma'arri,  has  cleverly  satirised 
Muhammadan  notions  on  this  subject  in  his  Risdlatu  'l-Ghiifrdn  {J.R.A.S. 
for  October,  1900,  p.  637  sqq.). 


1 68       THE  PROPHET  AND    THE  KORAN 

ness  of  the  Prophet  or  is  charged  to  the  Arabs  in  general,  but 
as  Professor  Bevan  has  pointed  out,  "the  real  explanation 
seems  to  be  that  at  first  the  idea  of  a  future  retribution  was 
absolutely  new  both  to  Muhammad  himself  and  to  the  public 
which  he  addressed.  Paradise  and  Hell  had  no  traditional 
associations,  and  the  Arabic  language  furnished  no  religious 
terminology  for  the  expression  of  such  ideas  ;  if  they  were  to 
be  made  comprehensible  at  all,  it  could  only  be  done  by  means 
of  precise  descriptions,  of  imagery  borrowed  from  earthly 
aflPairs."  i 

Muhammad  was   no    mere  visionary.     Ritual  observances, 

vigils,  and  other  austerities  entered  largely  into  his  religion, 

endowing  it  with  the  formal  and  ascetic  character 

Prsyer. 

which  it  retains  to  the  present  day.  Prayer  was 
introduced  soon  after  the  first  Revelations  :  in  one  of  the  oldest 
(Sura  Ixxxvii,  14-15)  we  read,  "  Prosperous  is  he  who  purines 
himself  (or  gives  alms)  and  repeats  the  name  of  his  Lord  and 
prays."  Although  the  five  daily  prayers  obligatory  upon  every 
true  believer  are  nowhere  mentioned  in  the  Koran,  the  opening 
chapter  (Suratu  U-Fdtiha\  which  answers  to  our  Lord's 
Prayer,  is  constantly  recited  on  these  occasions,  and  is  seldom 
omitted  from  any  act  of  public  or  private  devotion.  Since  the 
Fdtiha  probably  belongs  to  the  latest  Meccan  period,  it  may 
find  a  place  here. 

THE   OPENING   SURA  (I). 

(i)  In  the  name  of  God,  the  Merciful,  who  forgiveth  aye  ! 

(2)  Praise  to  God,  the  Lord  of  all  that  be, 

(3)  The  Merciful,  who  forgiveth  aye, 

(4)  The  King  of  Judgment  Day  ! 

(5)  Thee  we  worship  and  for  Thine  aid  we  pray. 

(6)  Lead  us  in  the  right  way, 

(7)  The  way  of  those  to  whom  thou  hast  been  gracious,  against 

whom  thou   hast    not   waxed   wroth,  and   who  go   not 
astray  ! 

'  Journal  of  Theological  Studies  for  October,  1904,  p.  22. 


MUHAMMAD'S  ASCENSION  169 

About  the  same  time,  shortly  before  the  Flight,  Muhammad 
dreamed  that  he  was  transported  from  the  Ka'ba  to  the  Temple 

at  Jerusalem,  and  thence  up  to  the  seventh  heaven. 

journey'lnd     The  former  part  of  the  vision  is  indicated  in  the 

ofMuraid.    Koran  (xvii,    i):  ''Glory   to   him    who    took    His 

servant  a  journey  by  night  from  the  Sacred  Mosque 
to  the  Farthest  Mosque^  the  precinct  whereof  we  have  blessed^ 
to  show  hitn  of  our  signs ! "  Tradition  has  wondrously  em- 
bellished the  Mi'raj,  by  which  name  the  Ascension  of  the 
Prophet  is  generally  known  throughout  the  East  ;  while  in 
Persia  and  Turkey  it  has  long  been  a  favourite  theme  for  the 
mystic  and  the  poet.  According  to  the  popular  belief,  which 
is  also  held  by  the  majority  of  Moslem  divines,  Muhammad 
was  transported  in  the  body  to  his  journey's  end,  but  he 
himself  never  countenanced  this  literal  interpretation,  though 
it  seems  to  have  been  current  in  Mecca,  and  we  are  told  that 
it  caused  some  of  his  incredulous  followers  to  abandon  their 
faith. 

Possessed  and  inspired  by  the  highest  idea  of  which  man 
is  capable,  fearlessly  preaching  the  truth  revealed  to  him, 
leading  almost  alone  what  long  seemed  to  be  a  forlorn  hope 
against  the  impregnable  stronghold  of  superstition,  yet  facing 
these  tremendous  odds  with  a  calm  resolution  which  yielded 
nothing  to  ridicule  or  danger,  but  defied  his  enemies  to  do  their 
worst — Muhammad  in  the  early  part  of  his  career  presents  a 
spectacle  of  grandeur  which  cannot  fail  to  win  our  sympathy 

and   admiration.    At   Medina,  whither  we   must 
^"Med^a!'^'    now  rctum,  he  appears  in   a  far  less  favourable 

light :  the  days  of  pure  religious  enthusiasm  have 
passed  away  for  ever,  and  the  Prophet  is  overshadowed  by  the 
Statesman.  The  Flight  was  undoubtedly  essential  to  the 
establishment  of  Islam.  It  was  necessary  that  Muhammad 
should  cut  himself  off  from  his  own  people  in  order  that  he 
might  found  a  community  in  which  not  blood  but  religion 
formed    the  sole    bond    that   was    recognised.     This    task  he 


I/O       THE  PROPHET  AND    THE   KORAN 

accomplished  with  consummate  sagacity  and  skill,  but  the 
unscrupulous  methods  in  which  he  indulged  have  left  a  dark 
stain  on  his  reputation.  As  the  supreme  head  of  the  Moslem 
theocracy  both  in  spiritual  and  temporal  matters — for  Islam 
allows  no  distinction  between  Church  and  State — he  exercised 
all  the  authority  of  a  mediaeval  Pope,  and  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  justify  by  Divine  mandate  acts  of  which  the  heathen  Arabs, 
cruel  and  treacherous  as  they  were,  would  have  been  ashamed 
to  be  guilty.  We  need  not  inquire  how  much  was  due  to 
self-deception  and  how  much  to  pious  fraud.  Although  his 
vices,  which  were  those  of  his  age  and  country,  may  be  con- 
doned or  at  least  palliated,  it  revolts  us  to  see  him  introducing 
God  Almighty  in  the  role  of  devil's  advocate. 

The  conditions  prevailing  at  Medina  were  singularly  adapted 

to  his  design.     Ever  since  the  famous  battle  of  Bu'ath  (about 

615  A.D.),  in  which  the  Band  Aws,  with  the  help 

predfsp'csed  to    ^^  their  Jewish  allies,  the  Banu  Qurayza  and  the 

Muhammad  as    Banu  Nadir,  inflicted  a  crushing  defeat  upon  the 

^Prophet"      Banu  Khazraj,  the  city  had  been  divided  into  two 

hostile  camps ;  and    if  peace    had    hitherto  been 

preserved,  it  was  only  because  both  factions  were  too  exhausted 

to  renew  the  struggle.      Wearied  and  distracted   by  earthly 

calamities,   men's    minds  willinp;lv  admit  the   consolations   of 

religion.     We  find  examples  of  this  tendency  at  Medina  even 

before  the  Flight.     Abu  'Amir,  whose  ascetic  life  gained  for 

him  the  title  of  '  The  Monk  '  [al-Rdhib)^  is  numbered  among 

the   Hanifs.^      He  fought  in  the    ranks  of  the   Quraysh    at 

Uhud,  and  finally  went  to  Syria,  where  he  died  an  outlaw. 

Another  Pre-islamic  monotheist  of  Medina,  Abu  Qays  b.  Abl 

Anas,  is  said  to  have  turned  Moslem  in  his  old  age.^ 

"  The  inhabitants  of  Medina  had  no  material  interest  in  idol- 
worship  and  no  sanctuary  to  guard.  Through  uninterrupted 
contact  with  the  Jews  of  the  city  and  neighbourhood,  as  also 
with  the  Christian  tribes  settled  in  the  extreme  north  of  Arabia  on 


'  Ibn  Hisham,  p.  411,  1.  6  sqq.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  347. 


FRIENDS  AND  FOES  AT  MEDINA      171 

the  confines  of  the  Byzantine  Empire,  they  had  learned,  as  it  were 
instinctively,  to  despise  their  inherited  belief  in  idols  and  to  respect 
the  far  nobler  and  purer  faith  in  a  single  God  ;  and  lastly,  they  had 
become  accustomed  to  the  idea  of  a  Divine  revelation  by  means  of  a 
special  scripture  of  supernatural  origin,  like  the  Pentateuch  and  the 
Gospel.  From  a  religious  standpoint  paganism  in  Medina  offered 
no  resistance  to  Islam  :  as  a  faith,  it  was  dead  before  it  was  attacked  ; 
none  defended  it,  none  mourned  its  disappearance.  The  pagan 
opposition  to  Muhammad's  work  as  a  reformer  was  entirely  political, 
and  proceeded  from  those  who  wished  to  preserve  the  anarchy  of 
the  old  heathen  life,  and  who  disliked  the  dictatorial  rule  of 
Muhammad." ' 

There  were  in  Medina  four  principal  parties,  consisting  of 

those  who  either  warmly  supported  or  actively  opposed  the 

Prophet,    or    who    adopted    a    relatively    neutral 

Partjesm       attitude,    viz.,     the    Refugees    [Muhajlrun\     the 

Helpers    (Jnsdr),    the    Hypocrites    [Munafiqiin)^ 

and  the  Jews  {Tahud). 

The   Refugees  were  those  Moslems  who  left  their  homes 
at  Mecca  and  accompanied  the  Prophet  in  his  Flight  [Hijra) 
— whence  their  name,  Muhdjirun — to  Medina  in 
the  year  622.     Inasmuch  as  they  had  lost  every- 
thing except  the   hope  of  victory   and  vengeance,   he  could 
count  upon  their  fanatical  devotion  to  himself. 

The   Helpers  were  those   inhabitants  of  Medina   who  had 

accepted  Islam  and  pledged  themselves  to  protect  Muhammad 

in  case  of  attack.     Together  with  the  Refugees 

The  Helpers.      ,  .  i  r  •  j    l  i  j 

they  constituted  a  formidable  and  ever-increasing 
body  of  true  believers,  the  first  champions  of  the  Church 
militant. 

"  Many  citizens  of  Medina,  however,  were  not  so  well  disposed 

towards  Muhammad,  and  neither  acknowledged  him  as  a  Prophet 

nor  would  submit  to  him  as  their  Ruler  ;  but  since 

ypocn  es.  ^^^^  durst  not  comc  forward  against  him  openly  on 

account  of  the  multitude  of  his  enthusiastic  adherents,  they  met  him 

with  a  passive  resistance  which  more  than  once  thwarted  his  plans  : 

*  L.  Caetani,  Annali  dell'  Islam,  vol.  i,  p.  389. 


172       THE  PROPHET  AND    THE  KORAN 

their  influence  was  so  great  that  he,  on  his  part,  did  not  venture  to 
take  decisive  measures  against  them,  and  sometimes  even  found  it 
necessary  to  give  way.'" 


'>  t 


These  are  the  Hypocrites  whom  Muhammad  describes  in 
the  follow^ing  verses  of  the  Koran  : — 

THE   SURA   OF  THE   HEIFER  (II). 

(7)  And  there  are  those  among  men  who  say,  '  We  beheve  in  God 

and  in  the  Last  Day ' ;  but  they  do  not  believe. 

(8)  They  would  deceive  God  and  those  who  do  believe  ;  but  they 

deceive  only  themselves  and  they  do  not  perceive. 

(9)  In  their  hearts  is  a  sickness,  and  God  has  made  them  still  more 

sick,  and  for  them  is  grievous  woe  because  they  lied.' 

Their  leader,  'Abdullah  b.  Ubayy,  an  able  man  but  of  w^eak 
character,  was  no  match  for  Muhammad,  whom  he  and  his 
partisans  only  irritated,  without  ever  becoming  really 
dangerous. 

The  Jews,  on  the  other  hand,   gave   the  Prophet  serious 

trouble.     At  first  he  cherished  high   hopes   that  they  would 

accept  the  new  Revelation  which  he  brought  to 

The  Jews.  ,  ,  •  •         .  •    •       1 

them,  and  which  he  maintained  to  be  the  ongmal 
Word  of  God  as  it  was  formerly  revealed  to  Abraham  and 
Moses  ;  but  when  the  Jews,  perceiving  the  absurdity  of  this 
idea,  plied  him  with  all  sorts  of  questions  and  made  merry 
over  his  ignorance,  Muhammad,  keenly  alive  to  the  damaging 
effect  of  the  criticism  to  which  he  had  exposed  himself,  turned 
upon  his  tormentors,  and  roundly  accused  them  of  having 
falsified  and  corrupted  their  Holy  Books.  Henceforth  he 
pursued  them  with  a  deadly  hatred  against  which  their 
political  disunion  rendered  them  helpless.  A  few  sought 
refuge  in  Islam  ;  the  rest  were  either  slaughtered  or  driven 
into  exile. 

It  is  impossible  to  detail  here  the  successive  steps  by  which 

'  Noldeke,  Geschichte  des  Qordns,  p.  122. 
«  Translated  by  E.  H.  Palmer. 


MUHAMMAD  AS  LEGISLATOR  173 

Muhammad  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  overcame  all 
opposition  and  established  the  supremacy  of  Islam  from 
one  end  of  Arabia  to  the  other.  I  shall  notice  the  out- 
standing events  very  briefly  in  order  to  make  room  for 
matters  which  are  more  nearly  connected  with  the  subject 
of  this  History. 

Muhammad's   first    care    was    to    reconcile    the  desperate 

factions    within    the   city   and    to    introduce   law   and    order 

among   the  heterogeneous  elements    which    have 

Beginnings  of      ,  ,  m      i         /c  tt  i 

the  Moslem      been    described.      "He    drew    up    m    writing    a 

state 

charter  between  the  Refugees  and  the  Helpers, 
in  which  charter  he  embodied  a  covenant  with  the  Jews, 
confirming  them  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion  and  in  the 
possession  of  their  properties,  imposing  upon  them  certain 
obligations,  and  granting  to  them  certain  rights."  ^  This 
remarkable  document  is  extant  in  Ibn  Hisham's  Biography  of 
Muhammad^  pp.  341-344.  Its  contents  have  been  analysed 
in  masterly  fashion  by  Wellhausen,^  who  observes  with  justice 
that  it  was  no  solemn  covenant,  accepted  and  duly  ratified  by 
representatives  of  the  parties  concerned,  but  merely  a  decree 
of  Muhammad  based  upon  conditions  already  existing  which 
had  developed  since  his  arrival  in  Medina.  At  the  same  time 
no  one  can  study  it  without  being  impressed  by  the  political 
genius  of  its  author.  Ostensibly  a  cautious  and  tactful  reform, 
it  was  in  reality  a  revolution.  Muhammad  durst  not  strike 
openly  at  the  independence  of  the  tribes,  but  he  destroyed  it, 
in  effect,  by  shifting  the  centre  of  power  from  the  tribe  to  the 
community  ;  and  although  the  community  included  Jews  and 
pagans  as  well  as  Moslems,  he  fully  recognised,  what  his 
opponents  failed  to  foresee,  that  the  Moslems  were  the  active, 
and  must  soon  be  the  predominant,  partners  in  the  newly 
founded  State. 

'  Ibn  Hisham,  p.  341,  1.  5. 

^  Muhainmad'sGemeiiideordimngvonMedinainSkizzen  und  Vorarbeiteii, 
Heft  IV,  p.  67  sqq. 


174       THE  PROPHET  AND    THE   KORAN 

All  was  now  ripe  for  the  inevitable  struggle  with  the 
Quraysh,  and  God  revealed  to  His  Apostle  several  verses  of 
the  Koran  in  which  the  Faithful  are  commanded  to  wage  a 
Holy  War  against  them  :  "  Permission  is  given  to  those  who 
fight  because  they  have  been  wronged^ — and  verily  God  to  help 
them  has  the  might, — who  have  been  driven  forth  from  their 
homes  undeservedly,  only  for  that  they  said,  '  Our  Lord  is 
God'"  (xxii,  40-41).  '■''Kill  them  wherever  ye  find  them, 
and  drive  them  out  from  whence  they  drive  you  out"  (ii,  187). 
"  Fight  them  that  there  be  no  sedition  and  that  the  religion 
may  he  God's''  (ii,  189).  In  January,  624  a.d.,  the  Moslems, 
some  three  hundred  strong,  won   a  glorious  victory  at  Badr 

over  a  greatly  superior  force  which  had  marched 
January,  624  A-i).  out   from   Mecca  to  relieve  a   rich  caravan  that 

Muhammad  threatened  to  cut  off.  The  Quraysh 
fought  bravely,  but  were  borne  down  by  the  irresistible  onset 
of  men  who  had  learned  discipline  in  the  mosque  and  looked 
upon  death  as  a  sure  passport  to  Paradise.  Of  the  Moslems 
only  fourteen  fell ;  the  Quraysh  lost  forty-nine  killed  and 
about  the  same  number  of  prisoners.  But  the  importance  of 
Muhammad's  success  cannot  be  measured  by  the  material 
damage  which  he  inflicted.  Considering  the  momentous  issues 
involved,  we  must  allow  that  Badr,  like  Marathon,  is  one  of 
the  greatest  and  most  memorable  battles  in  all  history.  Here, 
at  last,  was  the  miracle  which  the  Prophet's  enemies  demanded 
of  him  :  "  Te  have  had  a  sign  in  the  two  parties  who  met  ; 
one  party  fighting  in  the  way  of  God,  the  other  misbelieving ; 
these  saw  twice  the  same  number  as  themselves  to  the  eye- 
sight, for  God  aids  with  His  help  those  whom  He  pleases. 
Verily  in  that  is  a  lesson  for  those  who  have  perception " 
(Kor.  iii,  11).  And  again,  "  Te  slew  them  not,  but  God  slew 
them"  (Kor.  viii,  17).  The  victory  of  Badr  turned  all  eyes 
upon  Muhammad.  However  little  the  Arabs  cared  for  his 
religion,  they  could  not  but  respect  the  man  who  had  humbled 
the  lords  of  Mecca.     He   was  now    a  power   in   the   land — 


TRIUMPH  OF   THE  PROPHET  I75 

"  Muhammad,  King  of  the  HijAz."  ^  In  Medina  his  cause 
flourished  mightily.  The  zealots  were  confirmed  in  their 
faith,  the  waverers  convinced,  the  disaffected  overawed.  He 
sustained  a  serious,  though  temporary,  check  in  the  following 

year  at  Uhud,  where  a  Moslem  army  was  routed 
Batueofuhud,  by    the    Quraysh    under    Abu    Sufyan,    but    the 

victors  were  satisfied  with  having  taken  vengeance 
for  Badr  and  made  no  attempt  to  follow  up  their  advantage  ; 
while  Muhammad,  never  resting  on  his  laurels,  never  losing 
sight  of  the  goal,  proceeded  with  remorseless  calculation  to 
crush  his  adversaries  one  after  the  other,  until  in  January, 
630    A.D.,    the    Meccans    themselves,    seeing    the    futility    of 

further  resistance,  opened  their  gates  to  the 
Submission  of     Proohet  and    acknowledged    the  omnipotence  of 

Mecca,  630  a.d.  r  o  t 

Allah.     The  submission    of   the    Holy  City  left 
Muhammad  without  a  rival  in  Arabia.     His  work  was  almost 
done.     Deputations   from    the    Bedouin    tribes    poured    into 
Medina,  offering  allegiance  to  the  conqueror  of  the  Quraysh, 
and  reluctantly  subscribing  to  a  religion  in  which   they  saw 
nothing  so  agreeable  as  the  prospect  of  plundering  its  enemies. 
Muhammad  died,  after  a  brief  illness,  on  the  8th  of  June, 
632  A.D.     He  was  succeeded  as  head    of  the   Moslem  com- 
munity by  his  old  friend  and  ever-loyal  supporter, 
MSjtmmad,     Abu  Bakr,  who  thus  became  the  first  Khalifa^  or 
632 AD.        Caliph.     It  only  remains  to  take  up  our  survey  of 
the  Koran,  which  we  have  carried  down  to  the  close  of  the 
Meccan  period,  and  to  indicate  the  character  and  contents  of 
the  Revelation  during  the  subsequent  decade. 

The  Medina  Suras  faithfully  reflect  the  marvellous  change 
in  Muhammad's  fortunes,  which  began  with  his  flight  from 
Mecca.  He  was  now  recognised  as  the  Prophet  and  Apostle 
of  God,  but  this  recognition  made  him  an  earthly  potentate 
and  turned  his  religious  activity  into  secular  channels.     One 

■  Ibn  Hisham,  p.  763,  1.  12. 


176       THE  PROPHET  AND   THE  KORAN 

who  united  in  himself  the  parts  of  prince,  legislator,  politician, 
diplomatist,  and  general  may  be  excused  if  he  sometimes  neg- 
lected the  Divine  injunction  to  arise  and  preach, 
^'^Su«s^''^^  or  at  any  rate  interpreted  it  in  a  sense  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  he  formerly  attached  to  it. 
The  Revelations  of  this  time  deal,  to  a  large  extent,  with 
matters  of  legal,  social,  and  political  interest ;  they  promulgate 
religious  ordinances — e.g.^  fasting,  alms-giving,  and  pilgrimage — 
expound  the  laws  of  marriage  and  divorce,  and  comment  upon 
the  news  of  the  day  ;  often  they  serve  as  bulletins  or  mani- 
festoes in  which  Muhammad  justifies  what  he  has  done,  urges 
the  Moslems  to  fight  and  rebukes  the  laggards,  moralises  on  a 
victory  or  defeat,  proclaims  a  truce,  and  says,  in  short,  whatever 
the  occasion  seems  to  require.  Instead  of  the  Meccan  idolaters, 
his  opponents  in  Medina — the  Jews  and  Hypocrites — have 
become  the  great  rocks  of  offence  ;  the  Jews  especially  are 
denounced  in  long  passages  as  a  stiff-necked  generation  who 
never  hearkened  to  their  own  prophets  of  old.  However 
valuable  historically,  the  Medina  Suras  do  not  attract  the 
literary  reader.  In  their  flat  and  tedious  style  they  resemble 
those  of  the  later  Meccan  period.  Now  and  again  the  ashes 
burst  into  flame,  though  such  moments  of  splendour  are 
increasingly  rare,  as  in  the  famous  'Throne-verse'  [Ayatu 
U-Kursi)  :— 

"God,  there  is  no  god  but  He,  the  living,  the  self-subsistent. 
Slumber  takes  Him  not,  nor  sleep.     His  is  what  is  in  the  heavens 

and  what  is  in  the  earth.  Who  is  it  that  intercedes 
The  'Throne-     ^vith  Him  save  by  His  permission  ?     He  knows  what 

is  before  them  and  what  behind  them,  and  they  com- 
prehend not  aught  of  His  knowledge  but  of  what  He  pleases.  His 
throne  extends  over  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  it  tires  Him  not 
to  guard  them  both,  for  He  is  high  and  grand." ' 

The  Islam  which  Muhammad  brought  with  him  to  Medina 
was  almost  entirely  derived  by  oral  tradition  from  Christianity 
'  Koran,  ii,  256,  translated  by  E.  H.  Palmer. 


THE  MEDINA   SORAS  177 

and  Judaism,  and  just  for  this  reason  it  made  little  impression 
on  the  heathen  Arabs,  whose  religious  ideas  were  generally 
of  the  most  primitive  kind.  Notwithstanding  its  foreign 
character  and  the  absence  of  anything  which  appealed  to 
Arabian  national  sentiment,  it  spread  rapidly  in  Medina, 
where,  as  we  have  seen,  the  soil  was  already  prepared  for  it ; 
but  one  may  well  doubt  whether  it  could  have  extended  its 
sway  over  the  peninsula  unless  the  course  of  events  had  deter- 
mined Muhammad  to  associate  the  strange  doctrines  of  Islam 
with  the  ancient  heathen  sanctuary  at  Mecca,  the  Ka'ba, 
which  was  held  in  universal  veneration  by  the  Arabs  and 
formed  the  centre  of  a  worship  that  raised  no  difficulties  in 

their  minds.  Before  he  had  lived  many  months 
^"tionoSm.'    i"  Medina  the  Prophet  realised  that  his  hope  of 

converting  the  Jews  was  doomed  to  disappoint- 
ment. Accordingly  he  instructed  his  followers  that  they 
should  no  longer  turn  their  faces  in  prayer  towards  the 
Temple  at  Jerusalem,  as  they  had  been  accustomed  to  do 
since  the  Flight,  but  towards  the  Ka'ba  ;  while,  a  year  or  two 
later,  he  incorporated  in  Islam  the  superstitious  ceremonies  of 
the  pilgrimage,  which  were  represented  as  having  been  origi- 
nally prescribed  to  Abraham,  the  legendary  founder  of  the 
Ka'ba,  whose  religion  he  professed  to  restore. 

These   concessions,  however,   were    far    from    sufficient  to 

reconcile    the    free-living    and    free-thinking    people   of    the 

desert  to  a  religion   which  restrained    their  pleasures,  forced 

them  to  pay  taxes  and  perform  prayers,  and  stamped  with  the 

name  of  barbarism  all  the  virtues  they  held  most  dear.     The 

teaching   of    Islam    ran   directly    counter    to    the    ideals   and 

traditions  of  heathendom,  and,  as    Goldziher    has   remarked, 

its  originality  lies  not  in  its  doctrines,  which  are  Jewish  and 

!  Christian,  but  in  the  fact  that  it  was  Muhammad  who  first 

maintained  these  doctrines  with  persistent  energy  against  the 

Arabian  view  of  life.^     While  we  must  refer  the  reader  to  Dr. 

'  Muhamm.  Studieii,  Part  I,  p.  12. 

13 


'  See  Goldziher's  introductory  chapter  entitled  Muniwwa  und  Dm 
(ibid.,  pp.  1-39). 


178       THE  PROPHET  AND    THE  KORAN 

Goldziher's  illuminating  pages  for  a  full  discussion  of  the  con- 
flict between  the  new  Religion  {Din)  and  the  old  Virtue 
{Muruwwa)^  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  summarise  the 
isiamrc^s^d  chief  points  at  which  they  clashed  with  each 
other.i  In  the  first  place,  the  fundamental  idea  of 
Islam  was  foreign  and  unintelligible  to  the  Bedouins.  "  It 
was  not  the  destruction  of  their  idols  that  they  opposed  so 
much  as  the  spirit  of  devotion  which  it  was  sought  to  implant  I 
in  them  :  the  determination  of  their  whole  lives  by  the  ' 
thought  of  God  and  of  His  pre-ordaining  and  retributive 
omnipotence,  the  prayers  and  fasts,  the  renouncement  of 
coveted  pleasures,  and  the  sacrifice  of  money  and  property 
which  was  demanded  of  them  in  God's  name."  In  spite  of 
the  saying,  La  dlna  ilia  hi  U-muruwwati  ("There  is  no 
religion  without  virtue"),  the  Bedouin  who  accepted  Islam 
had  to  unlearn  the  greater  part  of  his  unwritten  moral  code. 
As  a  pious  Moslem  he  must  return  good  for  evil,  forgive  his 
enemy,  and  find  balm  for  his  wounded  feelings  in  the  assurance 
of  being  admitted  to  Paradise  (Kor.  iii,  128).  Again,  the 
social  organisation  of  the  heathen  Arabs  was  based  on  the 
tribe,  whereas  that  of  Islam  rested  on  the  equality  and 
fraternity  of  all  believers.  The  religious  bond  cancelled  all 
distinctions  of  rank  and  pedigree  ;  it  did  away,  theoretically, 
with  clannish  feuds,  contests  for  honour,  pride  of  race — things 
that  lay  at  the  very  root  of  Arabian  chivalry.  "  Zo,"  cried 
Muhammad,  "  the  noblest  of  you  in  the  sight  of  God  is  he  who 
most  doth  fear  Him"  (Kor.  xlix,  13).  Against  such  doctrine 
the  conservative  and  material  instincts  of  the  desert  people 
rose  in  revolt  ;  and  although  they  became  Moslems  en  masse^ 
the  majority  of  them  neither  believed  in  Islam  nor  knew  what 
it  meant.  Often  their  motives  were  frankly  utilitarian  :  they 
expected  that  Islam  would  bring  them  luck  ;  and  so  long  as 
they  were  sound  in  body,  and  their  mares  had  fine  foals,  and 


I 


THE  ARABS  AND  ISLAM  179 

their  wives  bore  well-formed  sons,  and  their  wealth  and  herds 
multiplied,  they  said,  "  We  have  been  blessed  ever  since  we 
adopted  this  religion,"  and  were  content ;  but  if  things 
went  ill  they  blamed  Islam  and  turned  their  backs  on  it.i 
That  these  men  were  capable  of  religious  zeal  is  amply 
proved  by  the  triumphs  which  they  won  a  short  time  after- 
wards over  the  disciplined  armies  of  two  mighty  empires  ;  but 
what  chiefly  inspired  them,  apart  from  love  of  booty,  was 
the  conviction,  born  of  success,  that  Allah  was  fighting  on 
their  side. 

We  have  sketched,  however  barely  and  imperfectly,  the 
progress  of  Islam  from  Muhammad's  first  appearance  as  a 
preacher  to  the  day  of  his  death.  In  these  twenty  years  the 
seeds  were  sown  of  almost  every  development  which  occurs 
in  the  political  and  intellectual  history  of  the  Arabs  during  the 
ages  to  come.  More  than  any  man  that  has  ever  lived, 
Muhammad  shaped  the  destinies  of  his  people  ;  and  though 
they  left  him  far  behind  as  they  moved  along  the  path  of  civi- 
lisation, they  still  looked  back  to  him  for  guidance  and  autho- 
rity at  each  step.  This  is  not  the  place  to  attempt  an  estimate 
of  his  character,  which  has  been  so  diversely  judged.  Per- 
sonally, I  feel  convinced  that  he  was  neither  a  shameless 
impostor  nor  a  neurotic  degenerate  nor  a  socialistic  reformer, 
but  in  the  beginning,  at  all  events,  a  sincere  religious  enthu- 
siast, as  truly  inspired  as  any  prophet  of  the  Old  Testament. 

"  We  find  in  him,"  writes  De  Goeje,  "  that  sober  understanding 
which  distinguished  his  fellow-tribesmen  :  dignity,  tact,  and  equi- 
librium ;  qualities  which  are  seldom  found  in  people 
Mu"amraa°d.     of    morbid    constitution  :    self-control    in    no    small 
degree.     Circumstances  changed  him  from  a  Prophet 
to  a  Legislator  and  a  Ruler,  but  for  himself  he  sought  nothing  beyond 
the  acknowledgment  that  he  was  Allah's  Apostle,  since  this  acknow- 


'  Baydawi  on  Koran,  xxii,  11. 


iSo      THE  PROPHET  AND   THE  KORAN 

ledgment  includes  the  whole  of  Islam.  He  was  excitable,  like 
every  true  Arab,  and  in  the  spiritual  struggle  which  preceded  his 
call  this  quality  was  stimulated  to  an  extent  that  alarmed  even  him- 
self ;  but  that  does  not  make  him  a  visionary.  He  defends  himself, 
by  the  most  solemn  asseveration,  against  the  charge  that  what 
he  had  seen  was  an  illusion  of  the  senses.  Why  should  not  we 
believe  him  ?  " ' 


'  Die  Berufung  Mohammed's,  by  M.  J.  de  Goeje  in  Noldeke-Festschrift 
(Giessen,  1906),  vol.  i,  p.  5. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE    ORTHODOX    CALIPHATE    AND    THE    UMAYYAD    DYNASTY 

The  Caliphate — /.^.,  the  period  of  the  Caliphs  or  Successors  of 
Muhammad — extends  over  six  centuries  and  a  quarter  (632— 
1258  A.D.),  and  falls  into  three  clearly-marked  divisions  of 
very  unequal  length  and  diverse  character. 

The  first  division  begins  with  the  election  of  Abu  Bakr,  the 
first  Caliph,  in  632,  and  comes  to  an  end  with  the  assassina- 
tion of  'All,  the  Prophet's  son-in-law  and  fourth 

The  Orthodox  •       /■  r  't->l  r  /^    i-    l  i 

Caliphate  (632-  succcssor,  m  001.  i  hcse  rour  Caliphs  are  known 
as  the  Orthodox  [al-Rdshidun]^  because  they  trod 
faithfully  in  the  footsteps  of  the  Prophet  and  ruled  after  his 
example  in  the  holy  city  of  Medina,  with  the  assistance  of  his 
leading  Companions,  who  constituted  an  informal  Senate. 

The  second  division  includes  the  Caliphs  of  the  family  of 
Umayya,  from  the  accession  of  Mu'awiya  in  66 1  to  the  great 
battle  of  the  Zdb  in  750,  when  Marwan  II,  the 
iCaiiphate^(66V  last  of  his  line,  was  defeated  by  the  'Abbasids, 
7ooA.D.).  •^\^Q  claimed  the  Caliphate  as  next  of  kin  to  the 
Prophet.  According  to  Moslem  notions  the  Umayyads  were 
kings  by  right.  Caliphs  only  by  courtesy.  They  had,  as  we 
shall  see,  no  spiritual  title,  and  little  enough  religion  of  any 
sort.  This  dynasty,  which  had  been  raised  and  was  upheld  by 
the  Syrian  Arabs,  transferred  the    seat   of  government   from 

Medina  to  Damascus. 

181 


i82  THE   ORTHODOX   CALIPHATE 

The  third  division  is  by  far  the  longest  and  most  important. 

Starting  in  750  with  the  accession  of  Abu  'l-'Abbas  al-SafFah, 

it    presents   an    unbroken   series   of    thirty-seven 

The  'Abbasid        /^i-iri  tt  ii-  r 

Caliphate  (750-  L.alipns  OF  the  same  Jrlouse,  and  culmmates,  arter 
the  lapse  of  half  a  millennium,  in  the  sack  of 
Baghddd,  their  magnificent  capital,  by  the  Mongol  Hiilagu 
(January,  1258).  The  'Abbdsids  were  no  less  despotic  than 
the  Umayyads,  but  in  a  more  enlightened  fashion  ;  for,  while 
the  latter  had  been  purely  Arab  in  feeling,  the  'Abbdsids 
owed  their  throne  to  the  Persian  nationalists,  and  were 
imbued  with  Persian  ideas,  which  introduced  a  new  and 
fruitful  element  into  Moslem  civilisation. 

From  our  special  point  of  view  the  Orthodox  and  Umayyad 
Caliphates,  which  form  the  subject  of  the  present  chapter,  are 
somewhat  barren.     The  simple  life  of  the  pagan  Arabs  found 
full  expression  in  their  poetry.      The   many-sided  life  of  the 
Moslems  under  'Abbasid    rule    may  be  studied  in  a  copious 
literature  which  exhibits  all  the  characteristics  of  the  age  ;  but 
of  contemporary  documents  illustrating  the  intel- 
^literito?"^     lectual  history  of  the  early  Islamic  period  com- 
paratively little  has  been  preserved,  and  that  little, 
being  for  the  most  part  anti-Islamic  in  tendency,  gives  only 
meagre  information  concerning  what  excites  interest  beyond 
anything  else — the  religious  movement,  the  rise  of  theology, 
and  the  origin  of  those  great  parties  and  sects  which  emerge, 
at  various  stages  of  development,  in  later  literature. 

Since  the  Moslem  Church  and  State  are  essentially  one, 
it  is  impossible  to  treat  of  politics  apart  from  religion,  nor  can 
religious  phenomena  be  understood  without  con- 
""andltalT'"'  tinual  reference  to  political  events.  The  follow- 
ing brief  sketch  of  the  Orthodox  Caliphate  will 
show  how  completely  this  unity  was  realised,  and  what  far- 
reaching  consequences  it  had. 

That  Muhammad  left  no  son  was  perhaps  of  less  moment 
than  his  neglect  or   refusal    to   nominate  a  successor.     The 


ABl)  BAKR  183 

Arabs  were  unfamiliar  with  the  hereditary  descent  of  kingly- 
power,  while  the  idea  had  not  yet  dawned  of  a  Divine  right 
resident  in  the  Prophet's  family.  It  was  thoroughly  in  accord 
with  Arabian  practice  that  the  Moslem  community  should 
elect  its  own  leader,  just  as  in  heathen  days  the  tribe  chose  its 
own  chief.  The  likeliest  men — all  three  belonged  to  Quraysh 
— were  Abii  Bakr,  whose  daughter  'A'isha  had  been  Muham- 
mad's favourite  wife,  'Umar  b.  al-Khattab,  and  All,  Abu 
Talib's  son  and  Fatima's  husband,  who  was  thus  connected 
with  the  Prophet  by  blood  as  well  as  by  marriage.  Abu  Bakr 
was  the  eldest,  he  was  supported  by  'Umar,  and 
elected  Caliph    on    him    the   choicc    ultimately  fell,   though   not 

(June,  632  A.D.).  .    ,  .  ,,,...  -r  A 

Without  an  ominous  ebullition  or  party  stnre.  A 
man  of  simple  tastes  and  unassuming  demeanour,  he  had  earned 
the  name  al-Siddlq^  i.e.^  the  True,  by  his  unquestioning  faith 
in  the  Prophet ;  naturally  gentle  and  merciful,  he  stood  firm 
when  the  cause  of  Islam  was  at  stake,  and  crushed  with  iron 
hand  the  revolt  which  on  the  news  of  Muhammad's  death 
spread  like  wildfire  through  Arabia.  False  prophets  arose,  and 
the  Bedouins  rallied  round  them,  eager  to  throw  off  the  burden 

of  tithes  and  prayers.  In  the  centre  of  the  penin- 
Musayiimathe    ^^^z,  the    Band    Hanlfa    were    led    to    battle    by 

Musaylima,  who  imitated  the  early  style  of  the 
Koran  with  ludicrous  effect,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  sayings 
ascribed  to  him,  e.g.^ "  The  elephant,  what  is  the  elephant,  and 
who  shall  tell  you  what  is  the  elephant  ?  He  has  a  poor  tail, 
and  a  long  trunk:  and  is  a  trifling  part  of  the  creations  of  thy 
God."  Moslem  tradition  calls  him  the  Liar  [al-Kadhdhdb)^  and 
represents  him  as  an  obscene  miracle-monger,  which  can  hardly 
be  the  whole  truth.  It  is  possible  that  he  got  some  of  his 
doctrines  from  Christianity,  as  Professor  Margoliouth  has  sug- 
gested,!  but  we  know  too  little  about  them  to  arrive  at  any 
conclusion.    After  a  desperate  struggle  Musaylima  was  defeated 

'  On  the  Origin  and  Import  of  the  Names  Muslim  and  Hanif\J.R.A.S. 
for  1903,  p.  491). 


1 84  THE   ORTHODOX   CALIPHATE 

and  slain  by  '  the  Sword  of  Allah,'  Khdlid  b.  Walid.  The 
Moslem  arms  were  everywhere  victorious.  Arabia  bowed 
in  sullen  submission. 

Although  Muir  and  other  biographers  of  Muhammad  have 
argued  that  Islam  was  originally  designed  for  the  Arabs  alone, 
and  made  no  claim  to  universal  acceptance,  their 
^^'rdigiM°'^''^    assertion  is  contradicted  by  the  unequivocal  testi- 
mony of  the  Koran  itself.     In  one  of  the  oldest 
Revelations  (Ixviii,  51-52),  we  read  :  "  It  wanteth  little  but  that 
the  unbelievers  dash  thee  to  the  ground  with  their  looks  (of  anger) 
when  they  hear  the  Warning  [i.e.y   the  Koran) ;   and  they  say^ 
*  He  is  assuredly  rnad^ :  but  it  (the  Koran)   is  no  other  than  a 
Warning  unto  all  creatures"  (dhikr""  li  'l-^alam{n)J    The 
time  had  now  come  when  this  splendid  dream  was  to  be,  in 
large    measure,    fulfilled.       The    great    wars   of 

Conquest  of  •  •        i      i  i  r>  i        »  • 

Persia  and  Syria    couqucst    Were    Hispircd    by    the    rrophet  s    mis- 

(633-643  A.D.).       .  1         J    •      .•£:   J    u      u-  1  o- 

sionary  zeal  and  justmed   by  his  example,     rious 

duty  coincided  with  reasons  of  state.  "It  was  certainly  good 
policy  to  turn  the  recently  subdued  tribes  of  the  wilderness 
towards  an  external  aim  in  which  they  might  at  once  satisfy 
their  lust  for  booty  on  a  grand  scale,  maintain  their  warlike 
feeling,  and  strengthen  themselves  in  their  attachment  to  the 
new  faith."  2  The  story  of  their  achievements  cannot  be  set 
down  here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  within  twelve  years  after 
the  Prophet's  death  the  Persian  Empire  had  been  reduced  to  a 
tributary  province,  and  Syria,  together  with  Egypt,  torn  away 
from  Byzantine  rule.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  fol- 
lowers of  Zoroaster  and  Christ  in  these  countries 
^^°^^u^n°^^"'  were  forcibly  converted  to  Islam.  Thousands 
embraced  it  of  free  will,  impelled  by  various 
motives  which  we  have  no  space  to  enumerate  ;  those  who 
clung  to  the   religion   in   which  they  had   been   brought  up 

'  See  T.  W.  Arnold's  The  Preaching  of  Islam,  p.  23  seq.,  where  several 
passages  of  like  import  are  collected. 
'  Noldeke,  Sketches  from  Eastern  History,  translated  by  J.  S.  Black, 

p.  73. 


MOSLEM  CONQUESTS  185 

secured  protection  and  toleration  by  payment  of  a  capitation- 
tax  (jizya)j 

The  tide  of  foreign  conquest,  which  had  scarce  begun   to 
flow    before  the   death   of    Abu   Bakr,  swept   with    amazing 

rapidity  over  Syria  and  Persia  in  the  Caliphate  of 
'Umar (634-644   'Umar  b.  al-Khattab  (634-644),  and  continued  to 

advance,  though  with  diminished  fury,  under  the 
Prophet's  third  successor,  'Uthmdn.  We  may  dwell  for  a  little 
on  the  noble  figure  of  'Umar,  who  was  regarded  by  good 
Moslems  in  after  times  as  an  embodiment  of  all  the  virtues 
which  a  Caliph  ought  to  possess.  Probably  his  character  has 
been  idealised,  but  in  any  case  the  anecdotes  related  of  him 
give  an  admirable  picture  of  the  man  and  his  age.  Here  are 
a  few,  taken  almost  at  random  from  the  pages  of  Tabari. 

One  said  :  "  I  saw  'Umar  coming  to  the  Festival.  He  walked 
with  bare  feet,  using  both  hands  (for  he  was  ambidextrous)  to  draw 
round  him  a  red  embroidered  cloth.  He  towered  above  the  people, 
as  though  he  were  on  horseback."  ^  A  client  of  (the  Caliph) 
'Uthman  b.  'Affan  relates  that  he  mounted  behind  his  patron  and 
they  rode  together  to  the  enclosure  for  the  beasts  which  were 
delivered   in    payment   of   the   poor-tax.      It   was  an 

His  simple      exceedingly   hot   day   and   the  simoom   was   blowing 

manners.  a  j  j  o 

fiercely.  They  saw  a  man  clad  only  in  a  loin-cloth 
and  a  short  cloak  (ridd),  in  which  he  had  wrapped  his  head, 
-driving  the  camels  into  the  enclosure.  'Uthman  said  to  his 
companion,  "  Who  is  this,  think  you  ? "  When  they  came  up 
to  him,  behold,  it  was  'Umar  b.  al-Khattab.  "  By  God,"  said 
'Uthman,  "  this  is  the  strong,  the  trusty."  3 — 'Umar  used  to  go 
round  the  markets  and  recite  the  Koran  and  judge  between 
disputants  wherever  he  found  them. — When  Ka'bu  '1-Aljbar,  a 
well-known  Rabbin  of  Medina,  asked  how  he  could  obtain  access 
to  the  Commander  of  the  Faithful,'*  he  received  this  answer  :  "  There 


'  See  Professor  Browne's  Literary  History  of  Persia^  vol.  i,  p.  200  sqq. 

=  Tabari,  i,  2729,  1.  15  sqq. 

3  Ibid.,  i,  2736, 1.  5  sqq.  The  words  in  italics  are  quoted  from  Koran, 
xxviii,  26,  where  they  are  applied  to  Moses. 

*  'Umar  wz^s  the  first  to  assume  this  title  (Atniru  'l-Mu'minin),  by  which 
the  Caliphs  after  him  were  generally  addressed. 


i86  THE   ORTHODOX  CALIPHATE 

is  no  door  nor  curtain  to  be  passed  ;  he  performs  the  rites  of  prayer, 
then  he  takes  his  seat,  and  any  one  that  wishes  may  speak  to  him." ' 
'Umar  said  in  one  of  his  public  orations  :  "  By  Him  who  sent 
His  sense  of  Muhammad  with  the  truth,  were  a  single  camel  to  die 
personal  of  neglcct  on  the  bank  of  the  Euphrates,  I  should  fear 
^'  lest  God  should  call  the  family  of  al-Khattab  "  (meaning 
himself)  "  to  account  therefor."  ^ — "  If  I  live,"  he  is  reported  to  have 
said  on  another  occasion,  "  please  God,  I  will  assuredly  spend  a 
whole  year  in  travelling  among  my  subjects,  for  I  know  they  have 
wants  which  are  cut  short  ere  they  reach  my  ears  :  the  governors 
do  not  bring  the  wants  of  the  people  before  me,  while  the 
people  themselves  do  not  attain  to  me.  So  I  will  journey 
to  Syria  and  remain  there  two  months,  then  to  Mesopotamia  and 
remain  there  two  months,  then  to  Egypt  and  remain  there  two 
months,  then  to  Bafcirayn  and  remain  there  two  months,  then  to 
Kufa  and  remain  there  two  months,  then  to  Basra  and  remain  there 
two  months;  and  by  God,  it  will  be  a  year  well  spent  l"^ — One 
night  he  came  to  the  house  of  'Abdu  '1-Rahmanb.  'Awf  and  knocked 
at  the  door,  which  was  opened  by  'Abdu  '1-Rahman's  wife.  "  Do 
not  enter,"  said  she,  "  until  I  go  back  and  sit  in  my  place  ;  "  so  he 
waited.  Then  she  bade  him  come  in,  and  on  his  asking,  "  Have 
you  anything  in  the  house  ?  "  she  fetched  him  some  food.  Mean- 
while 'Abdu  '1-Rahman  was  standing  by,  engaged  in  prayer.  "  Be 
quick,  man  ! "  cried  'Umar.  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  immediately  pro- 
nounced the  final  salaam,  and  turning  to  the  Caliph  said  :  "  O  Com- 
mander of  the  Faithful,  what  has  brought  you  here  at  this  hour  ? " 
'Umar  replied  :  "  A  party  of  travellers  who  alighted  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  market :  I  was  afraid  that  the  thieves 
^  poUceman*^  ^  °^  Medina  might  fall  upon  them.  Let  us  go  and  keep 
watch."  So  he  set  off  with  'Abdu  '1-Rahman,  and 
when  they  reached  the  market-place  they  seated  themselves  on 
some  high  ground  and  began  to  converse.  Presently  they  descried, 
far  away,  the  ilight  of  a  lamp.  "  Have  not  I  forbidden  lamps  after 
bedtime  ? "  "•  exclaimed  the  Caliph.  They  went  to  the  spot  and 
found  a  company  drinking  wine.  "  Begone,"  said  'Umar  to  'Abdu 
'1-Rahman ;  "  I  know  him,"  Next  morning  he  sent  for  the  culprit 
and  said,  addressing  him  by  name,  "  Last  night  you  were  drinking 
wine  with  your  friends."     "  O  Commander  of  the  Faithful,  how  did 


'  Tabari,  i,  2738,  7  sqq.      =  Ibid.,  i,  2739,  4  sqq.        3  /ft/rf.^  i^  2737,  4  sqq. 

"*  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. 


'UMAR  IBNU  'L-KHATTAB  187 

you  ascertain  that  ? "  "I  saw  it  with  my  own  eyes."  "  Has  not  God 
forbidden  you  to  play  the  spy?"  'Umar  made  no  answer  and 
pardoned  his  offence.' — When  'Umar  ascended  the  pulpit  for  the 
purpose  of  warning  the  people  that  they  must  not  do  something,  he 
„.    ^ .  ,  gathered  his  family  and  said  to  them  :  "  I  have  for- 

towards  his  own  bidden  the  people  to  do  so-and-so.     Now,  the  people 
family.         j^q,,    ^j.  y^^   ^^    \m<X<,    look  at   flesh,    and   I   swear 

by  God  that   if  I  find  any    one    of  you  doing  this  thing,    I    will 

double   the   penalty    against   him."  ^—Whenever    he    appointed    a 

governor  he  used  to  draw  up  in  writing  a  certificate  of  investiture, 

which   he   caused  to   be   witnessed    by  some   of  the 

Instructions  to    Refugees  or    Helpers.     It    contained    the    following 

his  governors.  o  ^ 

instructions  :  That  he  must  not  ride  on  horseback,  nor 
eat  white  bread,  nor  wear  fine  clothes,  nor  set  up  a  door  between 
himself  and  those  who  had  aught  to  ask  of  him.  3— It  was  'Umar's 
custom  to  go  forth  with  his  governors,  on  their  appointment,  to  bid 
them  farewell.  "  I  have  not  appointed  you,"  he  would  say,  "  over 
the  people  of  Muhammad  (God  bless  him  and  grant  him  peace  !) 
that  you  may  drag  them  by  their  hair  and  scourge  their  skins,  but 
in  order  that  you  may  lead  them  in  prayer  and  judge  between  them 
with  right  and  divide  (the  public  money)  amongst  them  with  equity. 
I  have  not  made  you  lords  of  their  skin  and  hair.  Do  not  flog  the 
Arabs  lest  you  humiliate  them,  and  do  not  keep  them  long  on  foreign 
service  lest  you  tempt  them  to  sedition,  and  do  not  neglect  them 
lest  you  render  them  desperate.  Confine  yourselves  to  the  Koran, 
write  few  Traditions  of  Muhammad  (God  bless  him  and  grant  him 
peace  !),  and  I  am  your  ally."  He  used  to  permit  retahation  against 
his  governors.  On  receiving  a  complaint  about  any  one  of  them  he 
confronted  him  with  the  accuser,  and  punished  him  if  his  guilt  were 
proved.'' 

It  w^as  'Umar  who  first  made  a  Register  [Diwan)  of  the 
_^  „    . ,     ,   Arabs  in  Islam  and  entered  them  therein  accord- 

The  Register  of 

'Umar.  jj^g  ^-q  {.^eir  tribes  and  assigned  to  them  their 
stipends.  The  following  account  of  its  institution  is  extracted 
from  the  charming  history  entitled  al-Fakhri  : — 

In  the  fifteenth  year  of  the  Hijra  (636  a.d.)  'Umar,  who  was  then 
CaHph,  seeing  that  the  conquests  proceeded  without  interruption 


'  Tabari,  i,  2742,  13  sqq.  -  Ibid.,  i,  2745,  15  sqq. 

3  Ibid.,  i,  2747,  7  sqq.  •♦  Ibid.,  i,  2740,  last  line  and  foil. 


i88  THE   ORTHODOX  CALIPHATE 

and  that  the  treasures  of  the  Persian  monarchs  had  been  taken  as 
spoil,  and  that  load  after  load  was  being  accumulated  of  gold  and 
silver  and  precious  jewels  and  splendid  raiment,  resolved  to  enrich 
the  Moslems  by  distributing  all  this  wealth  amongst  them  ;  but  he 
did  not  know  how  he  should  manage  it.     Now  there  was  a  Persian 
satrap  {marzuhiin)  at  Medina  who,  when  he  saw  'Umar's  bewilder- 
ment, said  to  him,  "  O  Commander  of  the  Faithful,  the  Persian  kings 
have  a  thing  they  call  a  Diwdn,  in  which  is  kept  the  whole  of  their 
revenues  and  expenditures  without  exception  ;  and   therein  those 
who  receive  stipends  are  arranged  in  classes,  so  that  no  confusion 
occurs."     'Umar's  attention  was    aroused.     He    bade    the    satrap 
describe   it,   and  on   comprehending  its   nature,   he  drew  up  the 
registers  and  assigned  the  stipends,  appointing  a  specified  allow- 
ance for  every  Moslem  ;  and  he  allotted  fixed  sums  to  the  wives  of 
the  Apostle  (on  whom  be  God's  blessing  and  peace  !)  and  to  his 
concubines  and  next-of-kin,  until  he  exhausted  the  money  in  hand. 
He  did  not  lay  up  a  store  in  the  treasury.     Some  one  came  to  him 
and  said  :  "  O  Commander  of  the  Faithful,  you  should  have  left 
something  to  provide  for  contingencies."     'Umar  rebuked  him,  say- 
ing, "  The  devil  has  put  these  words  into  your  mouth.     May  God 
preserve  me  from  their  mischief  !  for  it  were  a  temptation  to  my 
successors.    Come  what  may,  I  will  provide  naught  except  obedience 
to  God  and  His  Apostle.     That  is  our  provision,  whereby  we  have 
gained   that   which   we   have  gained."     Then,    in    respect    of    the 
stipends,  he  deemed  it  right  that  precedence  should  be  according 
to  priority  of  conversion  to  Islam  and   of  service  rendered  to  the 
Apostle  on  his  fields  of  battle.' 

Affinity    to    Muhammad     was    also     considered.      "  By     God," 
exclaimed    'Umar,   "  we   have   not  won  superiority  in   this  world, 
nor  do  we  hope  for  recompense  for  our  works  from 
The^^aristocracy  Qq^j  hereafter,  save  through  Muhammad  (God  bless 
him   and  grant    him    peace !).     He    is    our  title   to 
nobility,  his  tribe  are  the   noblest  of   the   Arabs,  and  after  them 
those  are  the  nobler  that  are   nearer   to   him   in   blood.      Truly, 
the  Arabs  are   ennobled   by   God's   Apostle.      Peradventure  some 
of    them    have    many   ancestors    in    common   with   him,   and   we 
ourselves  are  only  removed   by  a  few    forbears  from  his  line   of 
descent,  in  which  we  accompany   him  back  to  Adam.     Notwith- 
standing this,  if  the  foreigners  bring  good  works  and 
"  k>l5e"eood°^'^  ^"^  bring  none,  by  God,  they  are  nearer  to  Muhammad 
on  the  day  of  Resurrection  than  we.     Therefore  let  no 
man  regard  affinity,  but  let  him  work  for  that  which  is  in  God's 

»  Al-Fakhri,  ed.  by  Derenbourg,  p.  ii6,  1.  i  to  p.  117, 1.  3- 


'UMAR  IBNU  'L-KHATTAB  189 

hands  to  bestow.     He  that  is  retarded  by  his  works  will  not  be  sped 
by  his  lineage."  ' 

It  may  be  said   of  'Umar,   not  less  appropriately   than    of 
Cromwell,  that  he 

"cast  the  kingdoms  old 
Into  another  mould  ;  " 

and  he  too  justified  the  poet's  maxim — 

"  The  same  arts  that  did  gain 
A  power,  must  it  maintain." 

Under  the  system  which  he  organised  Arabia,  purged  of 
infidels,  became  a  vast  recruiting-ground  for  the  standing 
armies  of  Islam  :  the  Arabs  in  the  conquered  territories  formed 
an  exclusive  military  class,  living  in  great  camps  and  supported 
by  revenues  derived  from  the  non-Mubammadan  population. 
Out  of  such  camps  arose  two  cities  destined  to  make  their 
mark  in  literary  history — Basra  (Bassora)  on  the 
Basra  and  Kiifa   delta   of  the   Tigris   and  Euphrates,    and    Kufa, 

'  (638  A.D.).  ,    .     ,  ^1,1  ,  •  1 

which  was  founded  about  the  same  time  on  the 
western  branch  of  the  latter  stream,  not  far  from  Hira. 

'Umar  was  murdered  by  a  Persian  slave  named  Firuz  while 
^^  ,^^^    leading  the  prayers  in  the  Great  Mosque.     With 

(644  A.D.)  Yns  death  the  military  theocracy  and  the  palmy 
days  of  the  Patriarchal  Caliphate  draw  to  a  close.  The  broad 
lines  of  his  character  appear  in  the  anecdotes  translated  above, 
though  many  details  might  be  added  to  complete  the  picture. 
Simple  and  frugal  ;  doing  his  duty  without  fear  or  favour  ; 
energetic  even  to  harshness,  yet  capable  of  tenderness  towards 
the  weak  ;  a  severe  judge  of  others  and  especially  of  himself, 
he  was  a  born  ruler  and  every  inch  a  man.     Looking  back  on 

»  Tabari,  i,  2751,  9  sqq. 


190  THE   ORTHODOX  CALIPHATE 

the  turmoils  which  followed  his  death  one  is  inclined  to  agree 
with  the  opinion  of  a  saintly  doctor  who  said,  five  centuries 
afterwards,  that  "  the  good  fortune  of  Islam  was  shrouded  in 
the  grave-clothes  of  'Umar  b.  al-Khattdb."  i 

When  the   Meccan  aristocrats  accepted  Islam,  they  only 
yielded  to  the  inevitable.     They  were  now  to   have  an  oppor- 
tunity   of    revenging    themselves.      'Uthmdn    b. 
'caUpM6  ^'a^d ?  *Affdn,  who  succeeded  'Umar  as  Caliph,  belonged 
to  a  distinguished  Meccan  family,  the  Umayyads  or 
descendants  of  Umayya,  which  had  always  taken  a  leading  part 
in  the  opposition  to  Muhammad,  though  'Uthman  himself  was 
among  the  Prophet's  first  disciples.     He  was  a  pious,   well- 
meaning  old   man — an  easy  tool  in  the  hands  of  his  ambitious 
kinsfolk.     They  soon  climbed   into  all  the  most  lucrative  and 
important  offices  and  lived  on  the  fat  of  the  land,  while  too 
often  their  ungodly  behaviour  gave  point  to  the  question  whether 
these  converts  of  the  eleventh  hour  were  not  still  heathens  at 
heart.    Other  causes  contributed  to  excite  a  general 
General  disaftec-  discontent.      The   rapid    growth    of  luxury    and 
immorality  in  the  Holy  Cities  as  well   as  in  the 
new  settlements  was  an  eyesore  to  devout   Moslems.     The 
true  Islamic  aristocracy,  the  Companions  of  the  Prophet,  headed 
by  'AH,  Talha,  and  Zubayr,  strove  to  undermine   the  rival 
nobility    which    threatened    them    with    destruction.      The 
factious  soldiery  were  ripe  for  revolt  against  Umayyad  arrogance 
'Uthman  mur-    ^^^  greed.     Rebellion  broke  out,  and  finally  the 
dered  (656  A.D.).  ^ggj  Caliph,   after    enduring   a   siege   of  several 
weeks,  was  murdered  in  his  own  house.     This  event  marks  an 
epoch  in  the  history  of  the  Arabs.     The  ensuing  civil    wars 
rent  the   unity  of  Islam  from  top  to  bottom,  and  the  wound 
has  never  healed. 

*AIi,  the  Prophet's  cousin  and  son-in-law,  who  had  hitherto 

'  Ibn  Khallikan  (ed.  by  Wustenfeld),  No.  68,  p.  96,  1.  3  ;  De  Slane's 
translation,  vol.  i,  p.  152. 


'UTHMAN  and  'ALf  191 

remained  in  the  background,  was  now  made  Caliph.  Al- 
though   the    suspicion    that    he    was    in    league    with     the 

murderers  may  be  put  aside,  he  showed  cul- 
CaiiphSseAl)).  P^ble  weakness  in    leaving  'Uthman  to  his  fate 

without  an  effort  to  save  him.  But  'Ali  had 
almost  every  virtue  except  those  of  the  ruler :  energy, 
decision,  and    foresight.     He   was   a  gallant   warrior,  a    wise 

counsellor,  a  true  friend,  and  a  generous  foe. 
Character  of     fjg    excelled    in    poetry    and    in    eloquence;    his 

verses  and  sayings  are  famous  throughout  the 
Muhammadan  East,  though  few  of  them  can  be  considered 
authentic.  A  fine  spirit  worthy  to  be  compared  with 
Montrose  and  Bayard,  he  had  no  talent  for  the  stern 
realities  of  statecraft,  and  was  overmatched  by  unscrupulous 
rivals  who  knew  that  "war  is  a  game  of  deceit."  Thus 
his  career  was  in  one  sense  a  failure :  his  authority  as 
Caliph  was  never  admitted,  while  he  lived,  by  the  whole 
community.     On   the  other  hand,  he   has  exerted,  down    to 

the  present  day,  a  posthumous  influence  only 
isapo   eosis.    g^^^j^j  ^^   ^^^  ^f  Muhammad  himself.     Within 

a  century  of  his  death  he  came  to  be  regarded  as  the 
Prophet's  successor  jure  divino ;  as  a  blessed  martyr,  sinless 
and  infallible  ;  and  by  some  even  as  an  incarnation  of  God. 
The  'All  of  Shi'ite  legend  is  not  an  historical  figure  glori- 
fied :  rather  does  he  symbolise,  in  purely  mythical  fashion, 
the  religious  aspirations  and  political  aims  of  a  large  section 
of  the  Moslem  world. 

To    return    to    our    narrative.     No   sooner   was    'Ali  pro- 
claimed Caliph   by   the  victorious    rebels   than    Mu'awiya  b. 
Abi    Sufyan,    the  governor    of  Syria,    raised    the 
•AH  against      cj-v  of  vcngeance    for  'Uthmdn   and    refused    to 

Muawiya.  •'  o 

take  the  oath  of  allegiance.  As  head  of  the 
Umayyad  family,  Mu'awiya  might  justly  demand  that  the 
murderers  of  his  kinsman  should   be  punished,  but  the  con- 


192  THE   ORTHODOX  CALIPHATE 

test  between  him  and  *Ali  was  virtually  for  the  Caliphate. 

A    great     battle    was    fought    at    Siffi'n,    a    village    on    the 

Euphrates.     'Ali   had   well-nigh   gained   the   day 

BaWeof§iffm    vv^hcn  Mu'awiya  bethought   him  of  a  stratagem. 

He   ordered   his    troops    to    fix    Korans   on    the 

points  of  their  lances  and   to  shout,   "  Here  is  the  Book  ot 

God  :    let    it    decide    between    us ! "     The    miserable   trick 

succeeded.     In  'All's  army  there   were    many  pious    fanatics 

to    whom    the    proposed    arbitration    by   the   Koran  appealed 

with      irresistible      force.       They      now      sprang      forward 

clamorously,    threatening    to    betray    their    leader    unless    he 

would    submit    his    cause    to    the    Book.     Vainly    did    'All 

remonstrate    with    the    mutineers,    and  warn    them    of    the 

trap    into   which    they    were    driving    him,  and    this   too   at 

the  moment   when    victory    was    within    their    grasp.      He 

had    no    choice   but  to    yield    and    name   as    his 

umpire   a   man    of  doubtful    loyalty,   Abu   Musd 

al-Ash'ari,   one    of  the   oldest  surviving   Companions   of  the 

Prophet.     Mu'dwiya   on    his    part    named    'Amr    b.    al-'As, 

whose     cunning     had     prompted     the    decisive    manoeuvre. 

When    the    umpires    came    forth    to    give    judgment,    Abu 

Musa  rose  and  in  accordance  with  what  had  been  arranged 

at    the    preliminary  conference    pronounced    that    both    'AH 

and   Mu'awiya  should    be  deposed  and   that   the 

people    should    elect    a    proper    Caliph    in    their 

stead.     "  Lo,"  said   he,  laying  down   his  sword,   "  even  thus 

do  I  depose  'All  b.  Abi  Talib."     Then  'Amr  advanced  and 

spoke  as  follows  :    "  O  people  !  ye  have  heard  the  judgment 

of  my    colleague.      He    has   called  you    to  witness   that    he 

deposes  'AH.     Now   I    call    you    to  witness    that  I  confirm 

Mu'dwiya,   even    as   I    make  fast  this  sword  of  mine,"  and 

suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  he  returned  it  to  its  sheath. 

It  is  characteristic  of  Arabian  notions  of  morality  that  this 

impudent    fraud    was    hailed    by    Mu'awiya's   adherents   as  a 

diplomatic    triumph    which    gave    him    a    colourable    pretext 


CIVIL    WAR  193 

for  assuming  the  title  of  Caliph.  Both  sides  prepared  to 
renew  the  struggle,  but  in  the  meanwhile  'AH  found  his 
hands  full  nearer  home.  A  numerous  party  among  his 
troops,  including  the  same  zealots  who  had  forced  arbitra- 
tion upon  him,  now  cast  him  off  because  he  had  accepted 
it,  fell  out  from  the  ranks,  and  raised  the 
revolt  against    Standard      of     revolt.      These     *  Outeoers,'     or 

'AIL  .   .  o  J 

Kharijites,  as  they  were  called,  maintained 
their  theocratic  principles  with  desperate  courage,  and 
though  often  defeated  took  the  field  again  and  again. 
*Ali's    plans    for    recovering    Syria    were    finally   abandoned 

in     660,     when      he      concluded     peace     with 
■  ^'(66iTdT^^  Mu'dwiya,  and  shortly  afterwards  he  was  struck 

down  in  the  Mosque  at  Kufa,  which  he  had 
made    his   capital,  by  Ibn  Muljam,  a  Kharijite  conspirator. 

With  'All's  fall  our  sketch  of  the  Orthodox  Caliphate 
may  fitly  end.  It  was  necessary  to  give  some  account  of 
these  years  so  vital  in  the  history  of  Islam,  even  at  the 
risk  of  wearying  the  reader,  who  will  perhaps  wish  that 
less  space  were  devoted  to  political  affairs. 


The  Umayyads  came  into  power,  but,  except  in  Syria  and 
Egypt,  they  ruled  solely  by  the  sword.  As  descendants  and 
representatives  of  the  pagan  aristocracy,  which 
''^\^^lil'^^  strove  with  all  its  might  to  defeat  Muhammad, 
they  were  usurpers  in  the  eyes  of  the  Moslem 
community  which  they  claimed  to  lead  as  his  successors.^ 
We  shall  see,  a  little  further  on,  how  this  opposition  ex- 
pressed itself  in  two  great  parties  :  the  Shi'ites  or  followers 
of  'AH,  and  the  radical  sect  of  the  Kharijites,  who  have 
been  mentioned  above ;  and  how  it  was  gradually  rein- 
forced by   the    non-Arabian    Moslems  until    it    overwhelmed 

'  Mu'awiya  himself  said  :  "  I  am  the  first  of  the  kings  "  (Ya'qubi,  ed.  by 
Houtsma,  vol.  ii,  p.  276,  1,  14). 

14 


£94  THE    UMAYYAD   DYNASTY 

the  Umayyad  Government  and  set  up  the  'Abbisids  in  their 

place.      In    estimating   the  character  of  the   Umayyads  one 

must  bear  in  mind  that  the  epitaph  on  the  fallen 

Moslem  tradi-       ,  j    l       ^l    •  •  j 

tion  hostile  to  dynasty  was  composed  by  their  enemies,  and  can 
may>a  .  ^^  niore  be  considered  historically  truthful  than 
the  lurid  picture  which  Tacitus  has  drawn  of  the  Emperor 
Tiberius.  Because  they  kept  the  revolutionary  forces  in 
check  with  ruthless  severity,  the  Umayyads  pass  for  blood- 
thirsty tyrants  ;  whereas  the  best  of  them  at  any  rate  were 
strong  and  singularly  capable  rulers,  bad  Moslems  and  good 
men  of  the  world,  seldom  cruel,  plain  livers  if  not  high 
thinkers ;  who  upon  the  whole  stand  as  much  above  the 
*Abbdsids  in  morality  as  below  them  in  culture  and  intel- 
lect. Mu'dwiya's  clemency  was  proverbial,  though  he  too 
could  be  stern  on  occasion.  When  members  of  the  house 
of  'All  came  to  visit  him  at  Damascus,  which  was  now 
the  capital  of  the  Muhammadan  Empire,  he  gave  them 
honourable  lodging  and    entertainment   and  was   anxious   to 

do  what  they  asked  ;    but  they  (relates  the  his- 
demency^      torian   approvingly)   used   to  address  him  in  the  i 

rudest  terms  and  affront  him  in  the  vilest 
manner  :  sometimes  he  would  answer  them  with  a  jest,  and 
another  time  he  would  feign  not  to  hear,  and  he  always 
dismissed  them  with  splendid  presents  and  ample  donations.^ 
"  I  do  not  employ  my  sword,"  he  said,  "  when  my  whip 
suffices  me,  nor  my  whip  when  my  tongue  suffices  me  ;  and 
were  there  but  a  single  hair  (of  friendship)  between  me  and 
my   subjects,  I   would   not  let    it  be  snapped."  2     After  the 

business  of  the  day  he  sought  relaxation  in  books. 
"'\tudy^  °^     "  ^^  consecrated  a  third  part  of  every  night  to 

the  history  of  the  Arabs  and  their  famous  battles  ; 
the  history  of  foreign  peoples,  their  kings,  and  their  govern- 
ment ;    the    biographies   of  monarchs,    including    their    wars 

'  Al-Fakhrl,  ed.  by  Derenbourg,  p,  145 
==  Ya'qiibi,  vol.  ii,  p,  283,  1.  8  seq. 


MU'AlVIYA  195 

and    stratagems    and    methods  of   rule ;    and    other    matters 
connected  with  Ancient  History."  i 

Mu'iwiya's  chief  henchman  was  Ziydd,  the  son  of  Sumayya 

(Sumayya  being  the  name  of  his  mother),  or,  as  he  is  generally 

called,   Ziydd  ibn  Abihi,  i.e.^  <Ziydd  his  father's 

^Shh"       SO"/   ^^^  "O"^   •^"ew   who  was  his  sire,  though 

rumour  pointed   to   Abu  Sufyin  ;  in  which   case 

Ziydd  would  have  been  Mu^awiya's  half-brother.     Mu'dwiya, 

instead  of  disavowing  the  scandalous  imputation,  acknowledged 

him  as  such,  and  made  him  governor  of  Basra,  where  he  ruled 

the  Eastern  provinces  with  a  rod  of  iron. 

Mu'awiya  was  a  crafty  diplomatist — he  has  been  well  com- 
pared to  Richelieu — whose    profound    knowledge    of    human 
Jiature  enabled  him  to  gain  over  men  of  moderate  opinions  in 
all  the  parties  opposed  to  him.     Events  were  soon  to  prove  the 
hollowness  of  this  outward  reconciliation.     Yazid,  who  suc- 
ceeded  his    father,    was    the    son    of  Maysun,  a 
(68oJ83"i.D.).    Bedouin  lady  whom  Mu'awiya  married  before  he 
rose  to  be  Caliph.     The  luxury  of  Damascus  had 
no  charm   for  her  wild  spirit,  and  she  gave  utterance  to  her 
feeling  of  homesickness  in  melancholy  verse : — 


"A  tent  with  rustling  breezes  cool 
Delights  me  more  than  palace  high, 
And  more  the  cloak  of  simple  wool 
Than  robes  in  which  I  learned  to  sigh. 

The  crust  I  ate  beside  my  tent 
Was  more  than  this  fine  bread  to  me  ; 
The  wind's  voice  where  the  hill-path  went 
Was  more  than  tambourine  can  be. 

And  more  than  purr  of  friendly  cat 
I  love  the  watch-dog's  bark  to  hear; 
And  more  than  a  barbarian  fat 
A  cousin  brave  and  gaunt  is  dear."' 


'  Mas'iidi,  Muruju  'l-Dliahab  (ed.  by  Barbier  de  Meynard),  vol.  v.  p.  77. 
'  Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  25, 1.  3  sqq.,  omitting  1.  8. 


b 


196  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

Mu'dwiya,  annoyed  by  the  contemptuous  allusion  to  him- 
self, took  the  dame  at  her  word.  She  returned  to  her  own 
family,  and  Yazld  grew  up  as  a  Bedouin,  with  the  instincts 
and  tastes  which  belong  to  the  Bedouins — love  of  pleasure, 
hatred  of  piety,  and  reckless  disregard  for  the  laws  of  religion. 
The  beginning  of  his  reign  was  marked  by  an  event  of 
which  even  now  few  Moslems  can  speak  without  a  thrill 
of  horror  and  dismay.  The  facts  are  briefly  these  :  In  the 
autumn  of  the  year  680  Husayn,  the  son  of  'AH,  claiming 
to  be  the  rightful  Caliph  in  virtue  of  his  descent  from  the 
Prophet,  quitted  Mecca  with  his  whole  family  and  a  number 
of  devoted  friends,  and  set  out  for  Kufa,  where  he  expected 
the  population,  which  was  almost  entirely  ShI'ite,  to  rally 
to  his  cause.  It  was  a  foolhardy  adventure. 
marcheson  The  poct  Farazdaq,  who  knew  the  fickle  tem- 
per of  his  fellow-townsmen,  told  Husayn  that  | 
although  their  hearts  were  with  him,  their  swords  would  be 
with  the  Umayyads  ;  but  his  warning  was  given  in  vain. 
Meanwhile  *Ubaydullah  b.  Ziydd,  the  governor  of  Kufa, 
having  overawed  the  insurgents  in  the  city  and  beheaded 
their  leader,  Muslim  b.  *Aqil,  who  was  a  cousin  of  Husayn, 
sent  a  force  of  cavalry  with  orders  to  bring  the  arch-rebel 
to  a  stand.  Retreat  was  still  open  to  him.  But  his  followers 
cried  out  that  the  blood  of  Muslim  must  be  avenged,  and 
Husayn  could  not  hesitate.  Turning  northward  along  the 
Euphrates,  he  encamped  at  Karbala  with  his  little  band, 
which,  including  the  women  and  children,  amounted  to 
some  two  hundred  souls.  In  this  hopeless  situation  he 
offered  terms  which  might  have  been  accepted  if  Shamir  b. 
Dhi  '1-Jawshan,  a  name  for  ever  infamous  and  accursed,  had 
not  persuaded  'Ubaydullah  to  insist  on  unconditional  sur- 
render. The  demand  was  refused,  and  Husayn  drew  up 
his  comrades — a  handful  of  men  and  boys — for  battle 
against  the  host  which  surrounded  them.  All  the  harrow- 
ing   details    invented    by    grief    and    passion    can    scarcely 


BATTLE   OF  KARBALA  197 

heighten  the  tragedy  of  the  closing  scene.     It  would  appear 

that    the    Umayyad    officers    themselves    shrank    from    the 

odium    of    a    general    massacre,    and    hoped    to 

5usayn"nd°his  take     the    Prophet's     grandson    alive.      Shamir, 

Karb^rfiot^h     however,    had    no    such    scruples.      Chafing    at 

61  A!H^=Toth     delay,  he  urged  his  soldiers  to  the  assault.     The 

'^A.Do'  unequal    struggle    was   soon  over.     Husayn  fell, 

pierced    by    an    arrow,    and    his    brave    followers 

were  cut  down  beside  him  to  the  last  man. 

Muhammadan   tradition,    which    with    rare    exceptions    is 
uniformly   hostile  to   the  Umayyad   dynasty,  regards  Husayn 
as  a   martyr  and   Yazfd   as  his   murderer  ;  while 
(rfMuhammaran  modem  histoHaus,  for  the  most  part,  agree  with 
^"'^wdteT^"    Sir    W.    Muir,   who    points    out    that    Husayn, 
"having  yielded  himself  to  a  treasonable,  though 
impotent    design     upon    the     throne,    was    committing    an 
offence  that  endangered  society  and  demanded  swift  suppres- 
sion."    This  was  naturally  the  view  of  the  party  in  power, 
and   the  reader    must    form    his  own    conclusion    as    to  how 
far  it  justifies   the  action  which    they  took.      For  Moslems 
the  question  is  decided  by  the  relation   of  the  Umayyads  to 
Islam.     Violators  of  its  laws  and  spurners  of  its 

The  Umayyads     •11,  i  1  .  t  •  1 

judged         ideals,  they  could  never  be  anythmg  but  tyrants; 
and    being    tyrants,    they    had    no    right    to   slay 
believers  who    rose  in   arms  against    their  usurped  authority. 
The  so-called  verdict  of  history,  when  we  come  to  examine 
:  it,   is   seen    to    be    the   verdict  of  religion,  the  judgment  of 
theocratic   Islam  on  Arabian    Imperialism.     On  this    ground 
the  Umayyads  are  justly  condemned,    but  it   is  well  to  re- 
member   that    in     Moslem    eyes     the     distinction    between 
Church  and   State  does  not  exist.    Yazid  was  a 
•'    Character  of     ^^j    Churchman  :    therefore    he    was   a    wicked 

Yazid. 

tyrant  ;  the  one  thing  involves  the  other. 
From  our  unprejudiced  standpoint,  he  was  an  amiable 
prince    who   inherited   his    mother's  poetic   talent,  and   infin- 


198  THE    UMAVYAD  DYNASTY 

itely  preferred  wine,  music,  and  sport  to  the  drudgery 
of  public  affairs.  The  Syrian  Arabs,  who  recognised  the 
Umayyads  as  legitimate,  thought  highly  of  him  :  "Jucun- 
dissimus,"  says  a  Christian  writer,  "  et  cunctis  nationibus 
regni  ejus  subditis  vir  gratissime  habitus,  qui  nullam  unquam, 
ut  omnibus  moris  est,  sibi  regalis  fastigii  causa  gloriam 
appetivit,  sed  communis  cum  omnibus  civiliter  vixit."  ^  He 
deplored  the  fate  of  the  women  and  children  of  Husayn's 
family,  treated  them  with  every  mark  of  respect,  and  sent 
them  to  Medina,  where  their  account  of  the  tragedy  added 
fresh  fuel  to  the  hatred  and  indignation  with  which  its 
authors  were   generally   regarded. 

The  Umayyads  had  indeed  ample  cause  to  rue  the  day 
of  Karbala.  It  gave  the  ShI'ite  faction  a  rallying-cry — 
"  Vengeance  for  Husayn  !  " — which  was  taken  up  on  all 
sides,  and  especially  by  the  Persian  Alawd/i,  or  Clients,  who 
longed  for  deliverance  from  the  Arab  yoke.  Their  amalga- 
mation with  the  Shi'a — a  few  years  later  they  flocked  in 
thousands  to  the  standard  of  Mukhtdr — was  an  event  of 
the  utmost  historical  importance,  which  will  be  discussed 
when  we  come   to  speak  of  the  Shi'ites  in  particular. 

The  slaughter  of  Husayn  does   not  complete  the  tale  of 
Yazfd's    enormities.      Medina,    the    Prophet's    city,   having 
expelled  its    Umayyad    governor,  was  sacked  by 
^^^ueccT^     a    Syrian    army,    while     Mecca     itself,    where 
eS^rS.      *Abdulldh  b.  Zubayr  had  set  up  as  rival  Caliph, 
was  besieged,  and  the  Ka'ba  laid  in  ruins.    These 
outrages,  shocking  to  Moslem  sentiment,  kindled  a  flame  of 
rebellion.      Husayn    was   avenged    by    Mukhtir, 
Mukhtdr'^      who  seized  Kufa  and  executed  some  three  hun- 
dred of  the   guilty   citizens,   including   the   mis- 
creant Shamir.     His  troops  defeated  and  slew  'UbayduUah  b. 
Ziyad,    but    he   himself  was  slain,   not    long   afterwards,   by 

'  The  Contimiatio  of  Isidore  of  Hispalis,  §  27,  quoted  by  Wellhausen, 
Das  Arabische  Reich  und  scin  Sturz,  p.  105. 


VAZtD  199 

Mus'ab,  the  brother  of  Ibn  Zubayr,  and  seven  thousand  of 
his  followers  were  massacred  in  cold  blood.  On  Yazld's 
death  (683)  the  Umayyad  Empire  threatened  to  fall  to 
pieces.     As  a  contemporary  poet  sang — 

"Now  loathed  of  all  men  is  the  Fury  blind 
Which  blazeth  as  a  fire  blown  by  the  wind. 
They  are  split  in  sects  :  each  province  hath  its  own 
Commander  of  the  Faithful,  each  its  throne."' 

Fierce  dissensions  broke  out  among  the  Syrian  Arabs,  the 
backbone  of  the  dynasty.    The  great  tribal  groups  of  Kalb  and 
Qays,  whose   coalition    had   hitherto   maintained 
?eJev^d'       the  Umayyads  in  power,  fought  on  opposite  sides 
at  Marj  Rahit  (684),  the  former  for  Marwan  and 
the  latter   for   Ibn  Zubayr.     Marwan's   victory  secured   the 
allegiance    of  Syria,    but    henceforth    Qays    and    Kalb    were 
always  at  daggers  drawn.2    This  was  essentially  a  feud  between 
the  Northern  and  the  Southern  Arabs— a  feud  which  rapidly 
extended   and    developed    into   a   permanent    racial    enmity. 
They  carried  it  with  them  to  the  farthest  ends 
Northern  and     of  the   world,    SO   that,  for   example,  after    the 
Southern  Arabs,   ^^j^^^^g^  of  gp^jn  precautions  had  to  be  taken 

against  civil  war  by  providing  that  Northerners  and  Southerners 
should  not  settle  in  the  same  districts.  The  literary  history  of 
this  antagonism  has  been  sketched  by  Dr.  Goldziher  with  his 
wonted  erudition  and   acumen.3     Satire  was,  of  course,  the 

'  Hamdsa,  226.  The  word  translated  'throne'  is  in  Arabic  miiibar, 
i.e.,  the  pulpit  from  which  the  Caliph  conducted  the  public  prayers  and 
addressed  the  congregation. 

^  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.  C/. 
Goldziher,  Muhammcdanische  Studien,  Part  I,  p.  83,  1.  3  sqq. 

3  Miihammedanische  Studicu,  i,  78  sqq. 


200  THE   UMAVYAD  DYNASTY 

principal  weapon  of  both    sides.     Here    is  a    fragment  by  a 
Northern  poet  which  belongs  to  the  Umayyad  period  : — 

"  Negroes  are  better,  when  they  name  their  sires, 
Than  Qahtan's  sons,'  the  uncircumcised  cowards : 
A  folk  whom  thou  mayst  see,  at  war's  outflame. 
More  abject  than  a  shoe  to  tread  in  baseness  ; 
Their  women  free  to  every  lecher's  lust, 
Their  clients  spoil  for  cavaliers  and  footmen."  ^ 

Thus  the  Arab  nation  was  again  torn  asunder  by  the  old 
tribal  pretensions  which  Muhammad  sought  to  abolish.  That 
they  ultimately  proved  fatal  to  the  Umayyads  is  no  matter  for 
surprise  ;  the  sorely  pressed  dynasty  was  already  tottering,  its 
enemies  were  at  its  gates.  By  good  fortune  it  produced  at 
this  crisis  an  exceptionally  able  and  vigorous  ruler,  'Abdu 
'1-Malik  b.  Marwan,  who  not  only  saved  his  house  from 
destruction,  but  re-established  its  supremacy  and  inaugurated 
a  more   brilliant  epoch   than  any  that  had  gone  before. 

'Abdu   '1-Malik  succeeded  his  father   in  685,  but  required 

seven  years  of  hard  fighting  to  make   good  his  claim  to  the 

Caliphate.     When  his  most  formidable  rival,  Ibn 

and  his        Zubayr,  had  fallen  in  battle  (692),   the    eastern 


successors. 


provinces  were  still  overrun  by  rebels,  who  offered 
a  desperate  resistance  to  the  governor  of  'Iraq,  the  iron- 
handed  Hajjaj.  But  enough  of  bloodshed.  Peace  also  had 
her  victories  during  the  troubled  reign  of  *Abdu  '1-Malik  and 
the  calmer  sway  of  his  successors.  Four  of  the  next  five 
Caliphs  were  his  own  sons — Walid  (705-715),  Sulayman 
(715-717),  Yazid  II  (720-724),  and  Hisham  (724-743)  ; 
the  fifth,  *Umar  II,  was  the  son  of  his  brother,  'Abdu  'l-'Aziz. 
For  the  greater  part  of  this  time  the  Moslem  lands  enjoyed  a 
well-earned  interval  of  repose  and  prosperity,  which  mitigated, 
though  it  could  not  undo,  the  frightful  devastation  wrought  by 

*  Qahtan  is  the  legendary  ancestor  of  the  Southern  Arabs. 
'  Aghdni,  xiii,  51,  cited  by  Goldziher,  ibid.,  p.  82. 


'ABDU  'L-MALIK  201 

twenty  years  of  almost  continuous  civil  war.  Many  reforms 
were  introduced,  some  wholly  political  in  character,  while 
others  inspired   by  the  same  motives   have,  none  the  less,  a 

direct  bearing  on  literary  history.  'Abdu  '1-Malik 
'Abdu°i!lia°ik     Organised  an  excellent  postal  service,  by  means  of 

relays  of  horses,  for  the  conveyance  of  despatches 
and  travellers  ;  he  substituted  for  the  Byzantine  and  Persian 
coins,  which  had  hitherto  been  in  general  use,  new  gold  and 
silver  pieces,  on  which  he  caused  sentences  from  the  Koran 
to  be  engraved  ;  and  he  made  Arabic,  instead  of  Greek  or 
Persian,  the  official  language  of  financial  administration. 
Steps  were  taken,  moreover,  to  improve  the  extremely 
defective  Arabic  script,  and  in  this  way  to  provide  a  sound 
basis  for  the  study  and  interpretation  of  the  Koran  as  well 
as  for  the  collection  of  hadlths  or  sayings  of  the  Prophet, 
which  form  an  indispensable  supplement  thereto.     The  Arabic 

alphabet,  as  it  was  then  written,  consisted  entirely 
^^'^ATabic.^  °^    °^  consonants,  so  that,  to  give  an  illustration  from 

English,  bnd  might  denote  band^  bend^  bind,  or 
bond  ;  crt  might  stand  for  cart,  carat,  curt,  and  so  on.  To 
an  Arab  this  ambiguity  mattered  little  ;  far  worse  confusion 
arose  from  the  circumstance  that  many  of  the  consonants 
themselves  were  exactly  alike  :  thus,  e.g.,  it  was  possible  to 
read  the  same  combination  of  three  letters  as  bnt,  nbt,  byt,  tnb, 
ntb,  nyb,  and  in  various  other  ways.  Considering  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  Arabic  language,  which  are  so  great  that  a  European 
aided  by  scientific  grammars  and  unequivocal  texts  will  often 
find  himself  puzzled  even  when  he  has  become  tolerably 
familiar  with  it,  one  may  imagine  that  the  Koran  was  virtually 
a  sealed  book  to  all  but  a  few  among  the  crowds  of  foreigners 
who  accepted  Islam  after  the  early  conquests.  'Abdu'l-Malik's 
viceroy  in  'Iraq,  the  famous  Hajjaj,  who  began  life  as  a  school- 
master, exerted  himself  to  promote  the  use  of  vowel-marks 
(borrowed  from  the  Syriac)  and  ot  the  diacritical  points  placed 
above  or  below  similar  consonants.     This  extraordinary  man 


202  THE    UMAVYAD  DYNASTY 

deserves  more  than  a  passing  mention.  A  stern  disciplinarian, 
who  could  be  counted  upon  to  do  his  duty  without  any  regard 

to  public  opinion,  he  was  chosen  by  'Abdu  '1-Malik 
■  (t 714  a.d")"    to  besiege  Mecca,  which  Ibn  Zubayr  was  holding 

as  anti-Caliph.  Hajjaj  bombarded  the  city,  defeated 
the  Pretender,  and  sent  his  head  to  Damascus.  Two  years 
afterwards  he  became  governor  of  'Iraq.  Entering  the 
Mosque  at  Kufa,  he  mounted  the  pulpit  and  introduced 
himself  to  the  assembled  townsmen  in  these  memorable 
words  : — 

"I  am  he  who  scattereth  the  darkness  and  climbeth  o'er  the 
summits. 
When  I  lift  the  turban  from  my  face,  ye  will  know  me.* 

O  people  of  Kiifa  !      I  see  heads  that  are  ripe  for  cutting, 
and  I  am  the  man  to  do  it ;  and  methinlcs,  I  see  blood  between 
the  turbans  and   beards."  2     The   rest  of  his  speech   was    in 
keeping  with  the  commencement.     He  used  no  idle  threats, 
as    the  malcontents  soon  found    out.     Rebellion,  which   had 
been    rampant  before    his   arrival,    was   rapidly   extinguished. 
"  He  restored  order  in  'Iraq  and  subdued  its  people."  3     For 
twenty  years  his   despotic  rule  gave   peace   and  security    to 
the   Eastern   world.     Cruel  he  may  have  been,  though  the 
tales  of  his  bloodthirstiness  are  beyond  doubt  grossly  exaggerated, 
but  it  should  be  put  to  his  credit  that  he  estab- 
"lfteratire.*°    Hshcd  and  maintained  the  settled  conditions  which 
afford    leisure    for    the   cultivation     of    learning. 
Under  his  protection  the  Koran  and  Traditions  were  diligently 
studied  both  in  Kiifa  and  Basra,  where  many  Companions  of 
the  Prophet  had  made  their  home  :  hence  arose  in  Basra  the 
science  of  Grammar,  with  which,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  subse- 
quent page,  the  name   of  that  city  is  peculiarly  associated. 

*  A  verse  of  the  poet  Suhaym  b.  Wathil. 

2  The  Kdmil  of  al-Mubarrad,  ed.  by  W.  Wright,  p.  215,  1.  14  sqq. 

3  Ibn  Qutayba,  Kihibu  'l-Ma'arif,  p.  202. 


HAJjAj  IBN   YlJrSUF  203 

Hajjaj  shared  the  literary  tastes  of  his  sovereign  ;  he  admired 
the  old  poets  and  patronised  the  new  ;  he  was  a  master  of 
terse  eloquence  and  plumed  himself  on  his  elegant  Arabic 
style.  The  most  hated  man  of  his  time,  he  lives  in  history  as 
the  savage  oppressor  and  butcher  of  God-fearing  Moslems. 
He  served  the  Umayyads  well  and  faithfully,  and  when  he 
died  in  714  a.d.  he  left  behind  him  nothing  but  his  Koran,  his 
arms,  and  a  few  hundred  pieces  of  silver. 

It  was  a  common  saying  at  Damascus  that  under  Walld 
people  talked  of  fine  buildings,    under  Sulayman  of  cookery 

and  the  fair  sex,  while  in  the  reign  of  'Umar  b. 
(yo^^^fj'^i,)    *Abd    al-'Aziz    the    Koran   and    religion    formed 

favourite  topics  of  conversation. ^  Of  Walid's 
passion  for  architecture  we  have  a  splendid  monument  in  the 
Great  Mosque  of  Damascus  (originally  the  Cathedral  of 
St.  John),  which  is  the  principal  sight  of  the  city  to  this 
day.  He  spoke  Arabic  very  incorrectly,  and  though  his 
father  rebuked  him,  observing  that  "  in  order  to  rule  the 
Arabs  one  must  be  proficient  in  their  language,"  he  could 
never  learn  to  express  himself  with  propriety.2  The  unbroken 
peace  which  now  prevailed  within  the  Empire  enabled  Walid 
to  resume  the  work  of  conquest.  In  the  East  his  armies 
invaded  Transoxania,  captured  Bokhdra  and  Samarcand,  and 

pushed  forward  to  the  Chinese  frontier.  Another 
conqueTts^in  the  force  crosscd  the  Indus  and  penetrated  as  far  as 
Multan,  a  renowned  centre  of  pilgrimage  in  the 
Southern  Punjaub,  which  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Moslems 
after  a  prolonged  siege.  But  the  most  brilliant  advance,  and 
the  richest  in  its  results,  was  that  in  the  extreme  West,  which 
decided  the  fate  of  Spain.  Although  the  Moslems  had  obtained 
a  footing  in  Northern  Africa  some  thirty  years  before  this 
time,  their  position  was  always  precarious,  until  in  709  Miisa 

«  Al-Fakhrt,  p.  173  ;  Ibnu  '1-Athir,  ed.  by  Tornberg,  v,S- 
'  Ibid.,  p.  174.    Cf,  Mas'iidi,  Mtirujii  l-Dhahab,  v,  412. 


204  THE   UMAYVAD  DYNASTY 

b.  Nusayr  completely  subjugated  the  Berbers,  and  extended  not 

only  the  dominion  but  also  the  faith  of  Islam  to  the  Atlantic 

Ocean.     Two    years   later    his    freedman    Tariq 

Conquest  of  ,        ,  •  i  i  ■  <-        i 

Spain  crossed  the  straits  and  took  possession  or  the 
commanding  height,  called  by  the  ancients  Calpe, 
but  henceforth  known  as  Jabal  Tariq  (Gibraltar).  Roderic, 
the  last  of  the  West  Gothic  dynasty,  gathered  an  army  in 
defence  of  his  kingdom,  but  there  were  traitors  in  the  camp, 
and,  though  he  himself  fought  valiantly,  their  defection  turned 
the  fortunes  of  the  day.  The  king  fled,  and  it  was  never 
ascertained  what  became  of  him.  Tdriq,  meeting  with  feeble 
resistance,  marched  rapidly  on  Toledo,  while  Musa,  whose 
jealousy  was  excited  by  the  triumphal  progress  of  his  lieu- 
tenant, now  joined  in  the  campaign,  and,  storming  city  after 
city,  reached  the  Pyrenees.  The  conquest  of  Spain,  which  is 
told  by  Moslem  historians  with  many  romantic  circumstances, 
marks  the  nearest  approach  that  the  Arabs  ever  made  to 
World-Empire.  Their  advance  on  French  soil  was  finally 
hurled  back  by  Charles  the  Hammer's  great  victory  at  Tours 
(732   A.D.). 

Before  taking  leave  of  the  Umayyads  we  must  not  forget  to 

mention  'Umar  b.  'Abd  al-'Aziz,  a  ruler  who  stands  out  in 

singular  contrast  with  his  predecessors,  and  whose 

ai-'Aziz         brief  reign  is  regarded  by  many  Moslems  as  the 

(717-720  A.D.).  I      ,     •     ,  •  r         Ji  J   Li       J 

sole  bright  spot  in  a  century  or  godless  and  blood- 
stained tyranny.  There  had  been  nothing  like  it  since  the 
days  of  his  illustrious  namesake  and  kinsman, ^  'Umar  b. 
al-Khattab,  and  we  shall  find  nothins  like  it  in  the  future 
history  of  the  Caliphate.  Plato  desired  that  every  king  should 
be  a  philosopher  :  according  to  Muhammadan  theory  every 
Caliph  ought  to  be  a  saint.  'Umar  satisfied  these  aspirations. 
When  he  came  to  the  throne  the  following  dialogue  is  said  to 
have  occurred  between  him  and  one  of  his  favourites,  Salim 
al-Suddi  : — 

'  His  mother,  Umm  'Asim,  was  a  granddaughter  of  'Umar  I. 


'UMAR   B.   'ABD  AL-'AZfZ  205 

'Umar :  "  Are  you  glad  on  account  of  my  accession,  or  sorry  ? " 
Sdlim  :  "  I  am  glad  for  the  people's  sake,  but  sorry  for  yours." 
'Umar  :  "  I  fear  that  I  have  brought  perdition  upon  my  soul," 
Salim  :  "  If  you  are  afraid,  very  good.    I  only  fear  that  you  may 

cease  to  be  afraid." 

'Umar  :  "  Give  me  a  word  of  counsel." 

Sdlim  :  "  Our  father  Adam  was  driven  forth  from  Paradise  because 

of  one  sin." ' 

Poets  and  orators  found  no  favour  at  his  court,  which  was 
thronged  by  divines  and  men  of  ascetic  life.2  He  warned  his 
governors  that  they  must  either  deal  justly  or  go.  He  would 
not  allow  political  considerations  to  interfere  with  his  ideal  of 
righteousness,  but,  as  Wellhausen  points  out,  he  had  practical 
ends  in  view  :  his  piety  made  him  anxious  for  the  common 
weal  no  less  than  for  his  own  salvation.  Whether  he 
administered  the  State  successfully  is  a  matter  of  dispute. 
It  has  been  generally  supposed  that  his  financial  reforms 
were  Utopian  in  character  and  disastrous  to  the  Exchequer.3 
However  this  may  be,  he  showed  wisdom  in  seeking  to  bridge 
the  menacing  chasm  between  Islam  and  the  Imperial  house. 
Thus,  e.g.^  he  did  away  with  the  custom  which  had  long 
prevailed  of  cursing  'All  from  the  pulpit  at  Friday  prayers. 
The  policy  of  conciliation  was  tried  too  late,  and  for  too  short 
a  space,  to  be  effective ;  but  it  was  not  entirely  fruitless. 
When,  on  the  overthrow  of  the  Umayyad  dynasty,  the  tombs 
of  the  hated  *  tyrants '  were  defiled  and  their  bodies  dis- 
interred,  'Umar's   grave   alone   was   respected,   and   Mas'iidi 

'  Mas'udi,  Mw-iljn  'l-Dhahab,  v,  419  seq. 

^  Ibnu  'l-Athi'r,  ed.  by  Tornberg,  v,  46.  Cf.  Aghdni,  xx,  p.  119, 1.  23. 
'Umar  made  an  exception,  as  Professor  Bevan  reminds  me,  in  favour  of 
the  poet  Jarir.    See  Brockelmann's  Gesch.  der  Arab.  Lifteratur,  vol.  i,  p.  57. 

3  The  exhaustive  researches  of  Wellhausen,  Das  Arabische  Reich  mid 
scin  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. 


2o6  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

(t956   A.D.)    tells   us    that    in    his  time    it   was   visited   by 
crowds  of  pilgrims. 

The  remaining  Umayyads  do  not  call  for  particular  notice. 
Hisham   ranks   as  a   statesman    with   Mu*dwiya    and  *Abdu 

'l-Mahk  :  the  great  'Abbasid  Caliph,  Mansur,  is 
"wSidiL^     said  to  have   admired  and  imitated  his  methods 

of  government.!  Walid  II  was  an  incorrigible 
libertine,  whose  songs  celebrating  the  forbidden  delights  of 
wine  have  much  merit.  The  eminent  poet  and  freethinker, 
Abu  'l-*Ala  al-Ma'arrf,  quotes  these  verses  by  him  2  : — 

"The  Imam  Walid  am  I  !     In  all  my  glory 
Of  trailing  robes  I  listen  to  soft  lays. 
Walid  II       When  proudly  I  sweep  on  towards  her  chamber, 
(743-4  A.D.).      J  ^^g  j^Q^  ^j^Q  inveighs. 

There's  no  true  joy  but  lending  ear  to  music, 
Or  wine  that  leaves  one  sunk  in  stupor  dense. 
Houris  in  Paradise  I  do  not  look  for  : 
Does  any  man  of  sense  ? " 

Let  us  now  turn  from  the  monarchs  to  their  subjects. 

In  the  first  place  we  shall  speak  of  the  political  and  religious 

parties,  whose    opposition    to   the  Umayyad  House  gradually 

undermined  its  influence  and  in  the  end  brought 

re^ig^us^movi-    ^^out  its  fall.     Some  account  will  be  given  of  the 

'"^period.*''^     ideas  for  which  these   parties  fought  and  of  the 

causes    of    their    discontent    with    the    existing 

regime.     Secondly,  a  few  words  must  be  said  of  the  theological 

and  more  purely  religious  sects — the  Mu'tazilites,  Murjites,  and 

Sufis  ;  and,  lastly,  of  the   extant   literature,  which   is  almost 

exclusively  poetical,  and  its  leading  representatives. 

'  Mas'iidi,  Murnjii  'l-Dhahab,  v,  479. 

^  The  Arabic  text  and  literal  translation  of  these  verses  will  be  found  in 
my  article  on  Abu  'l-'Ala's  Risdlatu  'l-Ghufrdn  (J.R.A.S.  for  1902,  pp.  829 
and  342). 


OPPOSITION  PARTIES  207 

The  opposition    to   the   Umayyads   was  at  first  mainly  a 
question   of   politics.      Mu'awiya's    accession   announced    the 
triumph    of    Syria    over    'Irdq,   and    Damascus, 
The  Arabs  of     instead    of    Kufa,    became    the   capital    of    the 
Empire.     As   Wellhausen    observes,    "the   most 
powerful    risings    against    the     Umayyads    proceeded    from 
*Iraq,  not  from  any  special  party,  but  from  the  whole  mass 
of  the  Arabs  settled  there,  who  were  united  in  resenting  the 
loss  of  their   independence    [Selbstherrlkhkeit)   and    in   hating 
those  into  whose  hands  it  had  passed."  ^     At  the  same  time 
these   feelings   took  a    religious   colour  and  identified  them- 
selves with  the  cause  of  Islam.     The  new  government  fell 
lamentably  short  of  the  theocratic  standard  by  which  it  was 
judged.      Therefore    it    was    evil,    and    (according    to   the 
Moslem's    conception    of    duty)    every    right-thinking    man 
must  work  for  its  destruction. 

Among  the  myriads  striving  for  this  consummation,  and  so 
far  making  common  cause  with  each  other,  we  can  distinguish 

four  principal  classes. 
totheVn^a'yyad       (i)  The    rcligious    Moslems,   or    Pietists,   in 
government     ^^^^^^^^  ^ho  formed  z  wing    of  the   Orthodox 

Party.2 

(2)  The  Khdrijites,  who  may  be  described  as  the  Puritans 
and  extreme  Radicals  of  theocracy. 

(3)  The  ShI'ites,  or  partisans  of 'All  and  his  House. 

(4)  The  Non- Arabian  Moslems,  who  were  called  Maw  All 
(Clients). 

It  is  clear  that  the  Pietists — including  divines  learned  in  the 
law,  reciters  of  the  Koran,  Companions  of  the  Prophet  and 

'  Wellhausen,  Das  Arabische  Reich  und  sein  Sturz,  p.  38. 

*  I.e.,  the  main  body  of  Moslems — S2(« Mi's,  followers  of  the  Sunna,  as 
they  were  afterwards  called — who  were  neither  Shi'ites  nor  Kharijites, 
but  held  (I)  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  'Ali  and  Mu'awiya,  and 
their  original  difference  turned  solely  on  the  question  of  the  Caliphate. 


208  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

their  descendants — could  not  but  abominate  the  secular  autho- 
rity which  they  were  now  compelled  to  obey.     The  convic- 
tion that  Might,  in  the  shape  of  the  tyrant  and 

The  Pietists.  .    .  ,     ,  r>  •    ,  ,  , 

his  mmions,  trampled  on  Right  as  represented  by 
the  Koran  and  the  Sunna  (custom  of  Muhammad)  drove  many 
into  active  rebellion  :  five  thousand  are  said  to  have  perished 
in  the  sack  of  Medina  alone.  Others  again,  like  Hasan  of 
Basra,  filled  with  profound  despair,  shut  their  eyes  on  the 
world,  and  gave  themselves  up  to  asceticism,  a  tendency 
which  had  important  consequences,  as  we  shall  see. 

When  'AH,  on  the  field  of  Siffin,  consented  that  the  claims 

of  Mu'awiya  and  himself  to  the  Caliphate  should   be  decided 

by  arbitration,  a  large  section  of  his  army  accused 

The  Kharijites.      ,  •;  ^   ,        .  ,  ,    ,  •  tt         1  ,1 

him  of  having  betrayed  his  trust.  He,  the  duly 
elected  Caliph — so  they  argued — should  have  maintained  the 
dignity  of  his  high  office  inviolate  at  all  costs.  On  the  home- 
ward march  the  malcontents,  some  twelve  thousand  in  number, 
broke  away  and  encamped  by  themselves  at  Hariird,  a  village 
near  Kufa.  Their  cry  was,  "God  alone  can  decide"  [Id 
hukma  ilia  lillahi)  :  in  these  terms  they  protested  against  the 
arbitration.  'AH  endeavoured  to  win  them  back,  but  without 
any  lasting  success.  They  elected  a  Caliph  from  among  them- 
selves, and  gathered  at  Nahrawdn,  four  thousand 
^win^6-8A^D)^  strong.  On  the  appearance  of  'All  with  a  vastly 
superior  force  many  of  the  rebels  dispersed,  but 
the  remainder — about  half — preferred  to  die  for  their  faith. 
Nahrawan  was  to  the  Khdrijites  what  Karbala  afterwards 
became  to  the  Shi'ites,  who  from  this  day  were  regarded  by 
the  former  as  their  chief  enemies.  Frequent  Khdrijite  risings 
took  place  during  the  early  Umayyad  period,  but 

Khdrijite  risings.      ,  1      i    •  •  1     •         1  r 

the  movement  reached  its  zenith  in  the  years  or 
confusion  which  followed  Yazid's  death.  The  Azraqites,  so 
called  after  their  leader,  Ndfi'  b.  al-Azraq,  overran  'Iraq  and 
Southern    Persia,  while   another   sect,    the    Najdites,  led    by 


THE  KHARIJITES  209 

T 

Najda  b.  'Amir,  reduced  the  greater  part  of  Arabia  to  sub- 
mission. The  insurgents  held  their  ground  for  a  long  time 
against  'Abdu  '1-Malik,  and  did  not  cease  from  troubling  until 
the  rebellion  headed  by  Shabi'b  was  at  last  stamped  out  by 
Hajjaj  in  697. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  name  Khariji  (plural,  Khawdrij) 
refers  to  a  passage  in  the  Koran  ( iv,  1 0 1 )  where  mention  is  made 
of"  those  who  go  forth  [yakhruj)  from  their  homes 
•Khirijfte.'      as  emigrants   {tnuhdjir"")  to   God  and   His   Mes- 
senger";  so   that  *Kharijite'  means  'one  who 
leaves  his  home  among  the  unbelievers  for  God's  sake,'  and 
corresponds  to  the  term  Muhdjir^  which  was  applied   to  the 
Meccan  converts  who  accompanied  the  Prophet  in  his  flight 
to  Medina. I     Another  name  by  which  they  are  often  desig- 
nated  is  likewise   Koranic  in   origin,  viz.,  Shurdt  (plural  of 
Shdr'")  :    literally    'Sellers' — that    is    to   say,    those    who   sell 
their  lives  and  goods  in  return  for  Paradise. 2     The  Kharijites 
were  mostly  drawn  from  the  Bedouin  soldiery  who  settled  in 
Basra  and  Kufa  after  the  Persian  wars.     Civil  life  wrought 
little  change  in  their  unruly  temper.     Far  from 
theoHes'.'^^     acknowledging      the     peculiar     sanctity     of      a 
Qurayshite,  they   desired    a    chief  of  their  own 
blood  whom  they  might  obey,  in   Bedouin   fashion,  as  long 
as  he   did   not  abuse  or  exceed   the   powers   conferred    upon 
him.3      The    mainspring    01    the   movement,    however,    was 
pietistic,  and    can    be    traced,  as    Wellhausen  has  shown,   to 
the    Koran-readers    who    made    it    a    matter    of    conscience 
that   'AH    should    avow    his    contrition    for    the    fatal    error 
which  their  own  temporary  and  deeply  regretted  infatuation 
had  forced  him  to  commit.     They  cast  off  'All  for  the  same 

'  Brxinnovv,  Die  Charidschiten  untcr  den  erstcn  Oinayyaden  (Leiden, 
1884),  p.  28.  It  is  by  no  means  certain,  however,  that  the  Kharijites 
called  themselves  by  this  name.  In  any  case,  the  term  implies  seces- 
sion (khurtij)  from  the  Moslem  community,  and  may  be  rendered  by 
'Seceder'  or  'Nonconformist.' 

'  Cf.  Koran,  ix,  112.  3  Brunnovv,  op.  cit,,  p.  8. 

15 


2IO  THE   UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

reason  which  led  them  to  strike  at  *Uthman  :  in  both  cases 
they  were  maintaining  the  cause  of  God  against  an  unjust 
Caliph. I  It  is  important  to  remember  these  facts  in  view  of 
the  cardinal  Kharijite  doctrines  (i)  that  every  free  Arab  was 
eligible  as  Caliph,^  and  (2)  that  an  evil-doing  Caliph  must  be 
deposed  and,  if  necessary,  put  to  death.  Mustawrid  b.  'Ullifa, 
the  Kharijite  '  Commander  of  the  Faithful,'  wrote  to  Simak 
b.  'Ubayd,  the  governor  of  Ctesiphon,  as  follows  :  "  We  call 
you  to  the  Book  of  God  Almighty  and  Glorious,  and  to  the 
Sunna  (custom)  of  the  Prophet — on  whom  be  peace  ! — and  to 
the  administration  of  Abu  Bakr  and  'Umar — may  God  be 
well  pleased  with  them  ! — and  to  renounce  'UthmAn  and 
*Ali  because  they  corrupted  the  true  religion  and  abandoned 
the  authority  of  the  Book."  3  From  this  it  appears  that  the 
Kharijite  programme  was  simply  the  old  Islam  of  equality  and 
fraternity,  which  had  never  been  fully  realised  and  was  now 
irretrievably  ruined.  Theoretically,  all  devout  Moslems  shared 
in  the  desire  for  its  restoration  and  condemned  the  existing 
Government  no  less  cordially  than  did  the  Khdrijites.  What 
distinguished  the  latter  party  was  the  remorseless  severity  with 
which  they  carried  their  principles  into  action.  To  them  it 
was   absolutely  vital   that    the    Imam,   or    head  of  the  com- 

'  Wellhausen,  Die  vcligids-polilischcu  Opfosilionsparteien  im  alien  Islam 
(Abhaiidlungen  der  Koiiigl.  GescUschaft  der  Wisscnschafteu  zii  Gottingen, 
Phil.-Hist.  Klasse,  1901),  p.  8  sqq.  The  writer  argues  against  Briinnovv 
that  the  oldest  Khaiijites  were  not  true  Bedouins  (A't'dbi),  and  were,  in 
fact,  even  further  removed  than  the  rest  of  the  military  colonists  of  Kufa 
and  Basra  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  Kharijites,  and  is 
described  in  similar  language.  Moreover,  among  the  oldest  Kharijites 
we  find  mention  made  of  a  company  clad  in  long  cloaks  (bardnis,  pi.  of 
burnus),  which  were  at  that  time  a  special  mark  of  asceticism.  Finally, 
the  earliest  authority  (Abu  Mikhnaf  in  Tabarl,  i,  3330,  1.  6  sqq.)  regards 
the  Kharijites  as  an  offshoot  from  the  Readers,  and  names  individual 
Readers  who  afterwards  became  rabid  Kharijites. 

'  Later,  when  many  non-Arab  Moslems  joined  the  Kharijite  ranks  the 
field  of  choice  was  extended  so  as  to  include  foreigners  and  even  slaves. 

3  Tabari,  ii,  40,  13  sqq. 


THE  KHARIJITES  211 

munity,  should  rule  in  the  name  and  according  to  the  will 
of  God  :  those  who  followed  any  other  sealed  their  doom  in 
the  next  world  :  eternal  salvation  hung  upon  the  choice  of 
a  successor  to  the  Prophet.  Moslems  who  refused  to  execrate 
'Uthman  and  'Ali  were  the  worst  of  infidels  ;  it  was  the  duty 
of  every  true  believer  to  take  part  in  the  Holy  War  against 
such,  and  to  kill  them,  together  with  their  wives  and  children. 
These  atrocities  recoiled  upon  the  insurgents,  who  soon  found 
themselves  in  danger  of  extermination.  Milder  counsels  began 
to  prevail.  Thus  the  Ibadites  (followers  of  'Abdullah  b.  Ibdd) 
held  it  lawful  to  live  amongst  the  Moslems  and  mix  with 
them  on  terms  of  mutual  tolerance.  But  compromise  was 
in  truth  incompatible  with  the  rahon  d'etre  of  the  Khdrijites, 
namely,  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  God  upon  the  earth. 
This  meant  virtual  anarchy  :  "  their  unbending  logic  shattered 
every  constitution  which  it  set  up."  As  'Ali  remarked,  "  they 
say,  'No  government'  [Id  imara)^  but  there  must  be  a  govern- 
ment, good  or  bad." I  Nevertheless,  it  was  a  noble  ideal  for 
which  they  fought  in  pure  devotion,  having,  unlike  the  other 
political  parties,  no  worldly  interests  to  serve. 

The  same  fierce  spirit  of  fanaticism  moulded  their  religious 

views,  which  were  gloomy  and  austere,  as  befitted  the  chosen 

few  in  an  ungodly  world.     Shahrastani,  speaking 

of    the    ori2:inal    twelve    thousand    who    rebelled 

O 

against  'All,  describes  them  as  '  people  of  fasting  and 
prayer '  {ahlu  sjydm'"  wa-saldf").'^  The  Koran  ruled  their 
lives  and  possessed  their  imaginations,  so  that  the  history 
of  the  early  Church,  the  persecutions,  martyrdoms,  and 
triumphs  of  the  Faith  became  a  veritable  drama  which  was 
being  enacted  by  themselves.  The  fear  of  hell  kindled  in 
them  an  inquisitorial  zeal  for  righteousness.  They  scrupu- 
lously examined  their  own  belief  as  well  as  that  of  their 
neighbours,  and   woe   to   him   that  was   found  wanting  !     A 

•  Shahrastani,  ed.  by  Cureton,  Part  I,  p.  88,  1.  12. 
"  Ibid.,  p.  86,  1.  3  from  foot. 


212  THE    UMAYVAD  DYNASTY 

single  false  step  involved  excommunication  from  the  pale  oi 
Islam,  and  though  the  slip  might  be  condoned  on  proof  of 
sincere  repentance,  any  Moslem  who  had  once  committed  a 
mortal  sin  {kabira)  was  held,  by  the  stricter  Kharijites  at 
least,  to  be  inevitably  damned  with  the  infidels  in  everlast- 
ing fire. 

Much  might  be  written,  if  space  allowed,  concerning  the 
wars  of  the  Kharijites,  their  most  famous  chiefs,  the  points  on 
which  they  quarrelled,  and  the  sects  into  which  they  split. 
Here  we  can  only  attempt  to  illustrate  the  general  character  of 
the  movement.  We  have  touched  on  its  political  and  religious 
aspects,  and  shall  now  conclude  with  some  reference  to  its 
literary  side.  The  Kharijites  did  not  produce  a  Milton  or 
a  Bunyan,  but  as  Arabs  of  Bedouin  stock  they  had  a  natural 

gift  of  song,  from  which  they  could  not  be 
^oc"ry.^       weaned  ;  although,  according  to  the  strict  letter 

of  the  Koran,  poetry  is  a  devilish  invention 
improper  for  the  pious  Moslem  to  meddle  with.  But  these 
are  poems  of  a  different  order  from  the  pagan  odes,  and 
breathe  a  stern  religious  enthusiasm  that  would  have 
gladdened  the  Prophet's  heart.  Take,  for  example,  the  follow- 
ing verses,  which  were  made  by  a  Kharijite  in  prison  : — ^ 

"  'Tis  time,  O  ye  Sellers,  for  one  who  hath  sold  himself 
To  God,  that  he  should  arise  and  saddle  amain. 
Fools  !  in  the  land  of  miscreants  will  ye  abide, 
To  be  hunted  down,  every  man  of  you,  and  to  be  slain  ? 
O  would  that  I  were  among  you,  armed  in  mail. 
On  the  back  of  my  stout-ribbed  galloping  war-horse  again  ! 
And  would  that  I  were  among  you,  fighting  your  foes. 
That  me,  first  of  all,  they  might  give  death's  beaker  to  drain  ! 
It  grieves  me  sore  that  ye  are  startled  and  chased 
Like  beasts,  while  I  cannot  draw  on  the  wretches  profane 
My  sword,  nor  see  them  scattered  by  noble  knights 
Who  never  yield  an  inch  of  the  ground  they  gain, 


'  Tabari,  ii,  36,  11.  7,  8,  Ii-l6. 


THE  KHARIJITES  213 

But  where  the  struggle  is  hottest,  with  keen  blades  hew 
Their  strenuous  way  and  deem  'twere  base  to  refrain. 
Ay,  it  grieves  me  sore  that  ye  are  oppressed  and  wronged, 
While  I  must  drag  in  anguish  a  captive's  chain." 

Qatari  b.  al-Fuja'a,  the  intrepid  Khirijite  leader  who  routed 

army  after  army  sent  against  him  by  Hajjaj,  sang  almost  as 

well  as  he  fought.     The  verses  rendered  below 

S-^Fu/a''a.       are  included  in  the  Hamasa^  and  cited   by  Ibn 

Khallikan,  who  declares  that    they  would  make 

a    brave    man    of    the    greatest    coward    in    the    world.     "  I 

know  of  nothing  on  the  subject  to  be  compared  with  them  ; 

they  could   only  have   proceeded   from   a  spirit   that  scorned 

disgrace  and  from  a  truly  Arabian  sentiment  of  valour."  2 

"  I  say  to  my  soul  dismayed — 
'  Courage  !  Thou  canst  not  achieve, 
With  praying,  an  hour  of  life 
Beyond  the  appointed  term. 
Then  courage  on  death's  dark  field, 
Courage  !  Impossible  'tis 
To  live  for  ever  and  aye. 
Life  is  no  hero's  robe 
Of  honour  :  the  dastard  vile 
Also  doffs  it  at  last.' " 

The  murder  of  'Uthmdn  broke  the  Moslem  community, 
which  had  hitherto  been  undivided,  into  two  shl^'as^  or  parties 
• — one  for  'Ali  and  the  other  for  Mu'awiya.  When 
the  latter  became  Caliph  he  was  no  longer  a  party 
leader,  but  head  of  the  State,  and  his  shi'-a  ceased  to  exist. 
Henceforth  '  the  Shi'a '  par  excellence  was  the  party  of  'All, 
which  regarded  the  House  of  the  Prophet  as  the  legitimate 
heirs  to  the  succession.     Not  content,  however,  with  uphold- 

•  Hamcisa,  44. 

'  Ibn  Khallikan,  ed.  by  Wustenfeld,  No.  555,  p.  55,  1.  4  seq.  ;  De  Slape's 
translation,  vol.  ii,  p,  523. 


The  Shi'ites. 


214  THE    UMAYVAD  DYNASTY 

ing  *Ali,  as  the  worthiest  of  the  Prophet's  Companions  and  the 
duly  elected  Caliph,  against   his  rival,  Mu'dwiya,  the   bolder 

spirits  took  up  an  idea,  which  emerged  about 
liviSht    this  time,  that   the   Caliphate   belonged   to  'AH 

and  his  descendants  by  Divine  right.  Such  is 
the  distinctive  doctrine  of  the  Shi'ites  to  the  present  day.  It 
is  generally  thought  to  have  originated  in  Persia,  where  the 
Sasdnian  kings  used  to  assume  the  title  of  'god'  (Pahiavi 
bagh)  and  were  looked  upon  as  successive  incarnations  of  the 
Divine  majesty. 


"Although  the  Shi'ites,"  says  Dozy,  "often  found  themselves 
under  the  direction  of  Arab  leaders,  who  utilised  them  in  order 

to  gain  some  personal  end,  they  were  nevertheless  a 
^ontloriekT*   Persian  sect  at  bottom;  and  it  is  precisely  here  that 

the  difference  most  clearly  showed  itself  between  the 
Arab  race,  which  loves  liberty,  and  the  Persian  race,  accustomed 
to  slavish  submission.  For  the  Persians,  the  principle  of  electing 
the  Prophet's  successor  was  something  unheard  of  and  incom- 
prehensible. The  only  principle  which  they  recognised  was  that  of 
inheritance,  and  since  Muhammad  left  no  sons,  they  thought  that 
his  son-in-law  'All  should  have  succeeded  him,  and  that  the 
sovereignty  was  hereditary  in  his  family.  Consequently,  all  the 
Caliphs  except  'Ali— i.e.,  Abu  Bakr,  'Umar,  and  'Uthman,  as  well 
as  the  Umayyads — were  in  their  eyes  usurpers  to  whom  no 
obedience  was  due.  The  hatred  which  they  felt  for  the  Govern- 
ment and  for  Arab  rule  confirmed  them  in  this  opinion  ;  at  the 
same  time  they  cast  covetous  looks  on  the  wealth  of  their  masters. 
Habituated,  moreover,  to  see  in  their  kings  the  descendants  of  the 
inferior  divinities,  they  transferred  this  idolatrous  veneration  to  'Ali 
andihis  posterity.  Absolute  obedience  to  the  Imam  of  'All's  House 
was  in  their  eyes  the  most  important  duty  ;  if  that  were  fulfilled  all 
the  rest  might  be  interpreted  allegorically  and  violated  without 
scruple.  For  them  the  Imam  was  everything;  he  was  God  made 
man.  A  servile  submission  accompanied  by  immorality  was  the 
basis  of  their  system."' 


•  Dozy,  Essai  stir  Vhistoire  de  Vlslamisme  (French  translation  by  Victor 
Chauvin),  p.  219  sqq. 


THE  SHPITES  215 

Now,  the   Shi'ite   theory  of  Divine    Right    certainly  har- 
monised   with    Persian    ideas,    but    was    it    also    of    Persian 
oriein  ?     On  the  contrary,  it  seems  first  to  have 

The  Saba'ites.  .°  ,  »       1  •  1 

arisen  among  an  obscure  Arabian  sect,  the 
Saba'ites,  whose  founder,  'Abdullah  b.  Sabd  (properly,  Saba'), 
was  a  native  of  San'd  in  Yemen,  and  is  said  to  have  been  a 
Jew.i  In  'UthmAn's  time  he  turned  Moslem  and  became, 
apparently,  a  travelling  missionary.  "  He  went  from  place  to 
place,"  says  the  historian,  "  seeking  to  lead  the  Moslems  into 
error." ^  Wehearof  him  in  the  Hijaz,  then  in  Basra  and  Kufa, 
then  in  Syria.  Finally  he  settled  in  Egypt,  where  he  preached 
the  doctrine  of  palingenesis  [raj^a).     "  It  is  strange  indeed,"  he 

exclaimed,  "  that  any  one  should  believe  in  the 
ibnsabi       return  of  Jesus  (as  Messias),  and  deny  the  return 

of  Muhammad,  which  God  has  announced 
(Kor.  xxviii,  85). 3  Furthermore,  there  are  a  thousand 
Prophets,  every  one  of  whom  has  an  executor  {wasl)^  and 
the  executor  of  Muhammad  is  'Ali.4  Muhammad  is  the  last 
of  the  Prophets,  and  'AH  is  the  last  of  the  executors."  Ibn 
Saba,  therefore,  regarded  Abu  Bakr,  'Umar,  and  'Uthman  as 
usurpers.  He  set  on  foot  a  widespread  conspiracy  in  favour 
of  'All,  and  carried  on  a  secret  correspondence  with  the 
disaffected  in  various  provinces  of  the  Empire. 5     According 

'  Wellhausen  thinks  that  the  dogmatics  of  the  Shi'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  ah-eady  referred,  Die 
religios-poUtischcn  Oppositionspartcicn  im  alien  Islam  (Abh.  dcr  Koiiig. 
Ges.  dcr  Wissenschaften  zu  Gottiiigcn,  Phil.-Hist.  Klasse,  1901),  p.  89  sqq. 

^  Tabari,  i,  2942,  2. 

3  "  Verily,  He  lolio  hath  ordained  the  Koran  for  thee  (i.e.,  for 
Muhammad)  laill  bring  thee  back  to  a  place  of  return  "  (i.e.,  to  Mecca). 
The  ambiguity  of  the  word  meaning  '  place  of  return  '  (nia'dd)  gave 
some  colour  to  Ibn  Saba's  contention  that  it  alluded  to  the  return  of 
Muhammad  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. 

■♦  This  is  a  Jewish  idea.  'Ali  stands  in  the  same  relation  to  Muhammad 
as  Aaron  to  Moses.  s  Tabari,  loc.  cit. 


2i6  THE   UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

to  Shahrastanf,  he  was  banished  by  *AH  for  saying,  "  Thou 
art  thou"  {anta  anta),  i.e.,  ^'^  Thou  art  God."  i  This  refers 
to  the  doctrine  taught  by  Ibn  Sabd  and  the  extreme  Shi'ites 
{Ghuldt)  who  derive  from  him,  that  the  Divine  Spirit  which 
dwells  in  every  prophet  and  passes  successively  from  one  to 
another  was  transfused,  at  Muhammad's  death,  into  'All,  and 
from  'All  into  his  descendants  who  succeeded  him  in  the 
Imamate.  The  Saba'ites  also  held  that  the  Imam  might  suffer 
a  temporary  occultation  {ghayba),  but  that  one  day  he  would 
return  and  fill  the  earth  with  justice.  They  believed  the 
millennium  to  be  near  at  hand,  so  that  the  number  of  Imams 
was  at  first  limited  to  four.  Thus  the  poet  Kuthayyir 
(f   723  A.D.)  says  : — 

"  Four  complete  are  the  Imams  of  Quraysh,  the  lords  of  Right : 

'All  and  his  three  good  sons,  each  of  them  a  shining  light. 

One  was  faithful  and  devout ;  Karbala  hid  one  from  sight ; 

One,  until  with  waving  flags  his   horsemen   he   shall   lead  to 

fight, 

Dwells  on  Mount  Radwa,  con-  honey    he    drinks    and    water 

cealed  :  bright."  ^ 

The  Messianic  idea  is  not  peculiar  to  the  ShI'ites,  but  was 
brought  into  Islam  at  an  early  period  by  Jewish  and  Christian 
converts,  and  soon  established  itself  as  a  part  of  Muhammadan 
belief.  Traditions  ascribed  to  the  Prophet  began  to  circulate, 
declaring  that  the  approach  of  the  Last  Judgment  would  be 
heralded   by  a  time  of  tumult  and  confusion,  by  the  return  of 

Jesus,  who  would  slay  the  Antichrist  [al-Dajjal), 
or  Messiah!      and    finally    by    the    coming  of  the  Mahdi,  i.e., 

'  the  God-guided  one,'  who  would  fill  the  earth 
with  justice  even  as  it  was  then  filled  with  violence  and 
iniquity.     This  expectation  of  a  Deliverer  descended  from  the 

'  Shahrastani,  ed.  by  Cureton,  p.  132, 1.  15. 

2  Aghdnt,  viii,  32, 1.  17  sqq.    The  three  sons  of  'All  are  Hasan,  Husayn, 

and  Muhammad  Ibnu  '1-Hanafiyya. 


THE  SHf'ITES  217 

Prophet  runs  through  the  whole  history  of  the  ShI'a.  As 
we  have  seen,  their  supreme  religious  chiefs  were  the  Imams  of 
'All's  House,  each  of  whom  transmitted  his  authority  to  his 
successor.  In  the  course  of  time  disputes  arose  as  to  the 
succession.  One  sect  acknowledged  only  seven  legitimate 
Imams,  while  another  carried  the  number  to  twelve.  The 
last  ImAm  of  the  '  Seveners '  {al-Sah''iyya)^  who  are  com- 
monly called  Isma'ilis,  was  Muhammad  b.  Ismd'il,  and  of  the 
*  Twelvers '  {al- Ithnd-^ashariyya)  Muhammad  b.  al-Hasan.i 
Both  those  personages  vanished  mysteriously  about  770  and 
870  A.D.,  and  their  respective  followers,  refusing  to  believe 
that  they  were  dead,  asserted  that  their  Imam  had  withdrawn 
himself  for  a  season  from  mortal  sight,  but  that  he  would 
surely  return  at  last  as  the  promised  Mahdi.  It  would  take  a 
long  while  to  enumerate  all  the  pretenders  and  fanatics  who 
have  claimed  this  title.2  Two  of  them  founded  the  Fdtimid 
and  Almohade  dynasties,  which  we  shall  mention  elsewhere, 
but  they  generally  died  on  the  gibbet  or  the  battle-field.  The 
ideal  which  they,  so  to  speak,  incarnated  did  not  perish  with 
them.  Mahdiism,  the  faith  in  a  divinely  appointed  revolution 
which  will  sweep  away  the  powers  of  evil  and  usher  in  a 
Golden  Age  of  justice  and  truth  such  as  the  world  has  never 
known,  is  a  present  and  inspiring  fact  which  deserves  to  be  well 
weighed  by  those  who  doubt  the  possibility  of  an  Islamic 
Reformation. 

The  Shi'a  began  as  a  political  faction,  but  it  could  not 
remain  so  for  any  length  of  time,  because  in  Islam  politics 
always  tend  to  take  religious  ground,  just  as  the  successful 
religious  reformer  invariably  becomes  a  ruler.  The  Saba'ites 
furnished  the  Shl'ite  movement  with  a  theological  basis  ;   and 

'  Concerning  the  origin  of  these  sects  see  Professor  Browne's  Lit.  Hist, 
of  Persia,  vol.  i,  p.  295  seq. 

'  See  Darmesteter's  interesting  essay,  Lc  Mahdi  depuis  les  origines  de 
I'Isiam  jusqu'h  nos  jours  (Paris,  1885).  The  subject  is  treated  more  scien- 
tifically by  Snouck  Hurgronje  in  his  paper  Der  Mahdi,  reprinted  from  the 
Revile  colonialc  Internationale  (1886). 


2i8  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

the  massacre  of  Husayn,  followed  by  Mukhtar's  rebellion, 
supplied  the  indispensable  element  of  enthusiasm.  Within  a 
few  years  after  the  death  of  Husayn  his  grave  at 
gatherings  at  Karbald  was  already  a  place  of  pilgrimage  for  the 
Shi'ites.  When  the  'Penitents'  {al-Tawwablin) 
revolted  in  684  they  repaired  thither  and  lifted  their  voices 
simultaneously  in  a  loud  wail,  and  wept,  and  prayed  God  that 
He  would  forgive  them  for  having  deserted  the  Prophet's 
grandson  in  his  hour  of  need.  "  O  God  1 "  exclaimed  their 
chief,  "have  mercy  on  Husayn,  the  Martyr  and  the  son  of  a 
Martyr,  the  Mahdi  and  the  son  of  a  Mahdi,  the  §iddiq  and 
the  son  of  a  Siddiq  !  ^  O  God  !  we  bear  witness  that  we  follow 
their  religion  and  their  path,  and  that  we  are  the  foes  of  their 
slayers  and  the  friends  of  those  who  love  them."  2  Here  is  the 
germ  of  the  ta^ziyas,  or  Passion  Plays,  which  are  acted  every 
year  on  the  loth  of  Muharram,  wherever  Shi'ites  are  to  be 
found. 

But  the  Moses  of  the  Sh{*a,  the  man  who  showed  them  the 
way  to  victory  although  he  did  not  lead  them  to  it,  is  un- 
doubtedly Mukhtdr.  He  came  forward  in  the 
name  of  'All's  son,  Muhammad,  generally  known 
as  Ibnu  '1-Hanafiyya  after  his  mother.  Thus  he  gained  the 
support  of  the  Arabian  ShiMtes,  properly  so  called,  who  were 
devoted  to  'AH  and  his  House,  and  laid  no  stress  upon  the 
circumstance  of  descent  from  the  Prophet,  whereas  the 
Persian  adherents  of  the  Shl'a  made  it  a  vital  matter,  and  held 
accordingly  that  only  the  sons  of  'All  by  his  wife  FAtima  were 
fully  qualified  Imams.  Raising  the  cry  of  vengeance  for 
Husayn,  Mukhtar  carried  this  party  also  along  with  him.  In 
686  he  found  himself  master  of  Kufa.  Neither  the  result  of 
his  triumph  nor  the  rapid  overthrow  of  his  power  concerns  us 

'  Siddiq  means  '  veracious.'  Professor  Bevan  remarks  that  in  this  root 
the  notion  of '  veracity '  easily  passes  into  that  of  '  endurance/  '  fortitude.' 

"  Tabari,  ii,  546.  These  '  Penitents  '  were  free  Arabs  of  Kufa,  a  fact 
which,  as  Wellhausen  has  noticed,  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the 
ta'ziya  is  Semitic  in  origin. 


THE  SHPITES  219 

here,  but  something  must  be  said  about  the  aims  and  character 
of  the  movement  which  he  headed. 

"  More  than  half  the  population  of  Kufa  was  composed  of  Mawdli 
(Clients),  who  monopolised  handicraft,  trade,  and  commerce.    They 

were  mostly  Persians  in  race  and  language ;  they 
The  ^?«g""     had  come  to  Kiifa  as  prisoners  of  war  and  had  there 

passed  over  to  Islam  :  then  they  were  manumitted  by 
their  owners  and  received  as  cHents  into  the  Arab  tribes,  so  that 
they  now  occupied  an  ambiguous  position  {Z-wiiterstelliing),  being 
no  longer  slaves,  but  still  very  dependent  on  their  patrons  ;  needing 
their  protection,  bound  to  their  service,  and  forming  their  retinue  in 
peace  and  war.  In  these  Mawdli,  who  were  entitled  by  virtue  of 
Islam  to  more  than  the  '  dominant  Arabism  '  allowed  them,  the  hope 
now  dawned  of  freeing  themselves  from  clientship  and  of  rising  to 
full  and  direct  participation  in  the  Moslem  state."  ' 

Muichtdr,  though  himself  an  Arab  of  noble  family,  trusted 
the  Mawdli  and  treated   them  as  equals,  a  proceeding  vi^hich 

was  bitterly  resented  by  the  privileged  class. 
the^'Sa^A     "You  have  taken  away  our  clients  who  are  the 

booty  which  God  bestowed  upon  us  together  with 
this  country.  We  emancipated  them,  hoping  to  receive  the 
Divine  recompense  and  reward,  but  you  would  not  rest  until 
you  made  them  sharers  in  our  booty."  ^  Mukhtar  was  only 
giving  the  Mawdli  their  due — they  were  Moslems  and  had 
the  right,  as  such,  to  a  share  in  the  revenues.  To  the  haughty 
Arabs,  however,  it  appeared  a  monstrous  thing  that  the 
despised  foreigners  should  be  placed  on  the  same  level  with 
themselves.     Thus  Mukhtar  was  thrown  into  the  arms  of  the 

Mawdli^  and  the  movement  now  became  not  so 
^onSth"^"."  much   anti-Umayyad    as  anti-Arabian.      Here  is 

the  turning-point  in  the  history  of  the  Shi'a.  Its 
ranks  were  swelled  by  thousands  of  Persians  imbued  with 
the   extreme    doctrines   of  the    Saba'ites    which    have    been 

'  Wellhausen,  Die  religids-politischen  Oppositionsfaiicien,  p.  79. 
=  Tabari,  ii,  650,  1.  7  sqq. 


220  THE   UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

sketched  above,  and  animated  by  the  intense  hatred  of  a  down- 
trodden people  towards  their  conquerors  and  oppressors. 
Consequently  the  Shl'a  assumed  a  religious  and  enthusiastic 
character,  and  struck  out  a  new  path  which  led  it  farther  and 
farther  from  the  orthodox  creed.  The  doctrine  of  *  Interpre- 
tation '  {Ta'wU')  opened  the  door  to  all  sorts  of  extravagant 
ideas.  One  of  the  principal  Shi'ite  sects,  the  Hashimiyya,  held 
that  "  there  is  an  esoteric  side  to  everything  external,  a  spirit 
to  every  form,  a  hidden  meaning  (^c'z^//)  to  every  revelation, 
and  to  every  similitude  in  this  world  a  corresponding  reality  in 
the  other  world ;  that  'AH  united  in  his  own  person  the 
knowledge  of  all  mysteries  and  communicated  it  to  his  son 
Muhammad  Ibnu  '1-Hanafiyya,  who  passed  it  on  to  his  son 
Abu  Hashim  ;  and  that  the  possessor  of  this  universal  know- 
ledge is  the  true  Imdm."  ^  So,  without  ceasing  to  be  Moslems 
in  name,  the  Shi'ites  transmuted  Islam  into  whatever  shape 
they  pleased  by  virtue  of  a  mystical  interpretation  based  on  the 
infallible  authority  of  the  House  of  Muhammad,  and  out  of  the 
ruins  of  a  political  party  there  gradually  arose  a  great  religious 
organisation  in  which  men  of  the  most  diverse  opinions  could 
work  together  for  deliverance  from  the  Umayyad  yoke.  The 
first  step  towards  this  development  was  made  by  Mukhtar,  a 
versatile  genius  who  seems  to  have  combined  the  parts  of 
political  adventurer,  social  reformer,  prophet,  and  charlatan. 
He  was  crushed  and  his  Persian  allies  were  decimated,  but  the 
seed  which  he  had  sown  bore  an  abundant  harvest  when,  sixty 
years  later,  Abu  Muslim  unfurled  the  black  standard  of  the 
*Abbasids  in  Khurasan. 

Concerning  the  origin  of  the  oldest  theological  sects  in 
Islam,  the  Murjites  and  the  Mu'tazilites,  we  possess  too  little 
contemporary  evidence  to  make  a  positive  statement.  It  is 
probable  that  the  latter  at  any  rate  arose,  as  Von  Kremer 
has  suggested,  under  the  influence  of  Greek  theologians, 
'  Shahrastdni,  Haarbriicker's  translation,  Part  I,  p.  169. 


THE  MURJITES  221 

especially  John  of  Damascus  and  his  pupil,  Theodore  Abucara 
(Abu  Qurra),  the  Bishop  of  Harran.i     Christians  were  freely 

admitted  to  the  Umayyad  court.      The  Christian 
theoiogrcailects.  al-Akhtal  was  poet-laureate,  while  many  of  his 

co-religionists  held  high  offices  in  the  Government. 
Moslems  and  Christians  exchanged  ideas  in  friendly  discussion 
or  controversially.  Armed  with  the  hair-splitting  weapons  of 
Byzantine  theology,  which  they  soon  learned  to  use  only  too 
well,  the  Arabs  proceeded  to  try  their  edge  on  the  dogmas  of 
Islam. 

The  leading  article  of  the  Murjite  creed  was  this,  that  no 
one     who    professed    to    believe  in    the   One    God    could    be 

declared  an  infidel,  whatever  sins  he  might 
TheMurjites.  ^qj^j^j^,  until  God  Himself  had  given  judgment 
against  him.2  The  Murjites  were  so  called  because  they 
deferred  {arja'a  =  to  defer)  their  decision  in  such  cases  and 
left  the  sinner's  fate  in  suspense,  so  long  as  it  was  doubtful.3 
This  principle  they  applied  in  different  ways.  For  example, 
they  refused  to  condemn  *Ali  and  'Uthman  outright,  as  the 
Kharijites  did.  "Both  'All  and  'Uthman,"  they  said,  "were 
servants  of  God,  and  by  God  alone  must  they  be  judged  ;  it  is 
not  for  us  to  pronounce  either  of  them  an  infidel,  notwith- 
standing that  they  rent  the  Moslem  people  asunder."  4  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Murjites  equally  rejected  the  pretensions 

'  Von  Kremer,  Culturgcschichf.  Strcifziige,  p.  2  sqq. 

=  The  best  account  of  the  early  Murjites  that  has  hitherto  appeared  is 
contained  in  a  paper  by  Van  Vloten,  entitled  Irdjd  (Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  45, 
p.  161  sqq.).  The  reader  may  also  consult  Shahrastani,  Haarbriicker's 
trans.,  Part  I,  p.  156  sqq.  ;  Goldziher,  M nhammcdanischc  Studien,  Part  II, 
p.  89  sqq.  ;  Van  Vloten,  La  doviination  Avabc,  p.  31  seq. 

3  Van  Vloten  thinks  that  in  the  name  '  Murjite '  (murji')  there  is  an 
allusion  to  Koran,  ix,  107  :  "And  others  are  remanded  (murjawna)  until 
God  shall  decree ;  whether  He  shall  punish  them  or  take  fity  on  them— for 
God  is  knowing  and  wise." 

4  Cf.  the  poem  of  Thabit  Qutna  {Z.D.M.G.,  loc.  cit.,  p.  162),  which  states 
the  whole  Murjite  doctrine  in  popular  form.  The  author,  who  was 
himself  a  Murjite,  lived  in  Khurasan  during  the  latter  half  of  the  first 
century  .■\.H. 


222  THE   UMAVYAD  DYNASTY 

made  by  the  Shi'ites  on  behalf  of  'All  and  by  the  Umayyads 
on  behalf  of  Mu'awiya.  For  the  most  part  they  maintained 
a  neutral  attitude  towards  the  Umayyad  Government :  they 
were  passive  resisters,  content,  as  Wellhausen  puts  it,  "  to 
stand  up  for  the  impersonal  Law."  Sometimes,  however,  they 
turned  the  principle  of  toleration  against  their  rulers.  Thus 
Harith  b.  Surayj  and  other  Arabian  Murjites  joined  the 
oppressed  Mawdll  of  KhurasAn  to  whom  the  Government 
denied  those  rights  which  they  had  acquired  by  con- 
version.^  According  to  the  Murjite  view,  these  Persians, 
having  professed  Islam,  should  no  longer  be  treated  as  tax- 
paying  infidels.  The  Murjites  brought  the  same  tolerant 
spirit  into  religion.  They  set  faith  above  works,  emphasised 
the  love  and  goodness  of  God,  and  held  that  no  Moslem  would 
be  damned  everlastingly.  Some,  like  Jahm  b.  Safwdn,  went  so 
far  as  to  declare  that  faith  [imdn)  was  merely  an  inward  con- 
viction :  a  man  might  openly  profess  Christianity  or  Judaism 
or  any  form  of  unbelief  without  ceasing  to  be  a  good  Moslem, 
provided  only  that  he  acknowledged  Allah  with  his  heart.^ 
The  moderate  school  found  their  most  illustrious  representative 
in  Abu  Hanifa  (f  767  a.d.),  and  through  this  great  divine — 
vv^hose  followers  to-day  are  counted  by  millions — their  liberal 
doctrines  were  diffused  and  perpetuated. 

During  the  Umayyad  period  Basra  was  the  intellectual 
capital  of  Islam,  and  in  that  city  we  find  the  first  traces  of  a 
sect  which  maintained  the  principle  that  thought 
must  be  free  in  the  search  for  truth.  The  origin 
of  the  Mu'tazilites  {al-MuHazila)^  as  they  are  generally  called, 
takes  us  back  to  the  famous  divine  and  ascetic,  Hasan  of 
Basra  (1728  a.d.).  One  day  he  was  asked  to  give  his  opinion 
on  a  point  regarding  which  the  Murjites  and  the  Kharijites 
held  opposite  views,  namely,  whether  those  who  had  committed 

'  Van  Vloten,  La  domination  Arabc,  p.  29  sqq. 

»  Ibn  Hazm,  cited  in  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  45,  p.  169,  n.  7.  Jahm  (t  about 
747  A.D.)  was  a  Persian,  as  might  be  inferred  from  the  boldness  of  his 
speculations. 


THE  MU'TAZILITES  223 

a  great  sin  should  be  deemed  believers  or  unbelievers.     While 
Hasan  was  considering  the  question,  one  of  his  pupils,  Wasil  b. 
'Ata  (according  to  another  tradition,  *Amr  b.  'Ubayd)  replied 
that  such  persons  were  neither  believers  nor  unbelievers,  but 
should  be  ranked   in  an  intermediate  state.     He  then  turned 
aside  and  began   to  explain  the  grounds  of  his  assertion  to  a 
group  which  gathered    about  him  in  a  different   part  of  the 
mosque.     Hasan  said  :  "  Wasil  has  separated  himself  from  us  " 
{jHaxala  ^annd) ;  and  on  this  account  the  followers  of  Wasil 
were  named  '  Mu'tazilites,'    i.e,^  Schismatics.     Although   the 
story  may  not  be  literally  true,  it  is  probably  safe   to  assume 
that  the  new  sect  originated  in  Basra  among   the  pupils   of 
Hasan,!  who  was  the  life  and  soul  of  the  religious  movement 
of  the   first    century   a.h.      The    Mu'tazilite   heresy,  in    its 
earliest  form,  is  connected  with  the  doctrine  of  Predestination. 
On  this  subject  the  Koran  speaks  with  two  voices.     Muham- 
mad was  anything  but  a  logically  exact  and  consistent  thinker. 
He  was  guided  by  the  impulse  of  the  moment,  and  neither  he 
nor  his  hearers  perceived,  as   later  Moslems  did,  that  the  lan- 
guage   of  the    Koran   is    often    contradictory.     Thus  in  the 
present  instance  texts  which  imply  the  moral  responsibility  of 
man     for    his    actions — e.g.y    "  Every  soul  is    in  pledge  (with 
God)    for     what    it    hath     wrought "  2 ;    "  IVhoso    does    good 
benefits  himself  and  whoso  does  evil  does  it  against  himself"  3 — 
stand  side  by  side  with  others  which  declare  that  God  leads  men 
aright  or  astray,  as  He  pleases  ;  that  the  hearts  of  the  wicked 
are  sealed  and  their  ears   made   deaf  to  the  truth  ;    and   that 
they  are  certainly  doomed  to  perdition.     This  fatalistic  view 
prevailed  in  the  first  century  of  Islam,  and  the  dogma  of  Pre- 
destination was  almost  universally    accepted.     Ibn    Qutayba, 

'  Hasan  himself  inclined  for  a  time  to  the  doctrine  of  free-will,  but  after- 
wards gave  it  up  (Ibn  Qutayba,  Kitdbii  'l-Ma'drif,  p.  225).  He  is  said  to 
have  held  that  everything  happens  by  fate,  except  sin  (Al-Mn'fazilah,  ed. 
by  T.  W.  Arnold,  p.  12,  1.  3  from  foot).  See,  however,  Shahrastani,  Haar- 
briicker's  trans.,  Part  I,  p.  46. 

=  Koran,  Ixxiv,  41.  3  Ibid.,  xli,  46. 


224  THE   UMAYYAD  DYNASTY  \ 

however,  mentions  the  names  of  twenty-seven  persons  who  held 
the  opinion  that  men's  actions  are  free.i  Two  among  them,  j 
Ma'bad  al-Juhani  and  Abii  Marwan  Ghaylan,  who  were  put  to  | 
death  by  *Abdu  '1-Malik  and  his  son  Hisham,  do  not  appear  to  | 
have  been  condemned  as  heretics,  but  rather  as  enemies  of  the 
Umayyad  Government.^  The  real  founder  of  the  Mu'tazilites 
was  Wdsil  b.  'Atd  (j  748  a.d.),3  who  added  a  second  cardinal 
doctrine  to  that  of  free-will.  He  denied  the  existence  of  the 
Divine  attributes — Power,  Wisdom,  Life,  &c. — on  the  ground 
that  such  qualities,  if  conceived  as  eternal,  would  destroy  the 
Unity  of  God.  Hence  the  Mu'tazilites  called  themselves 
'  the  partisans  of  Unity  and  Justice  '  ( Ahlu  l-tawhld  wa-  l-^adl) : 
of  Unity  for  the  reason  which  has  been  explained,  and  of 
Justice,  because  they  held  that  God  was  not  the  author  of  evil 
and  that  He  would  not  punish  His  creatures  except  for  actions 
within  their  control.  The  further  development  of  these 
Rationalistic  ideas  belongs  to  the  *Abbasid  period  and  will  be 
discussed  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

The  founder  of  Islam    had  too   much  human   nature   and 

common  sense  to  demand  of  his  countrymen  such  mortifying 

austerities  as  were  practised  by  the  Jewish  Essenes 

?sc°eTidsm.      ^"^  ^^^  Christian  monks.     His  religion  was  not 

without  ascetic  features,  e.g.^  the  Fast  of  Ramaddn, 

the  prohibition  of  wine,  and  the  ordinance  of  the  pilgrimage, 

but  these  can  scarcely  be  called  unreasonable.     On  the  other 

hand  Muhammad  condemned  celibacy  not  only  by  his  personal 

■  Kitdhu  'l-MaUinf,  p.  301.  Those  who  held  the  doctrine  of  free-will 
were  called  the  Qadarites  (al-Qadariyya),  from  qadar  (power),  which  may 
denote  (i)  the  power  of  God  to  determine  human  actions,  and  (2)  the 
power  of  man  to  determine  his  own  actions.  Their  opponents  asserted 
that  men  act  under  compulsion  {jabr)  ;  hence  they  were  called  the 
Jabarites  (al-Jabariyya). 

'  As  regards  Ghaylan  see  Al-Mu'tazilah,  ed.  by  T.  W.  Arnold,  p.  15, 
I.  l6  sqq. 

3  Ibn  Khallikan,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  iii,  p.  642  ;  Shahrastdni, 
trans,  by  Haarbriicker,  Part  I,  p.  44. 


THE  ASCETIC  MOVEMENT  225 

example  but  also  by  precept.  "There  is  no  monkery  in 
Islam,"  he  is  reported  to  have  said,  and  there  was  in  fact 
nothing  of  the  kind  for  more  than  a  century  after  his  death. 
During  this  time,  however,  asceticism  made  great  strides.  It 
was  the  inevitable  outcome  of  the  Muhammadan  conception 
of  Allah,  in  which  the  attributes  of  mercy  and  love  are  over- 
shadowed by  those  of  majesty,  awe,  and  vengeance.  The 
terrors  of  Judgment  Day  so  powerfully  described  in  the  Koran 
were  realised  with  an  intensity  of  conviction  which  it  is 
difficult  for  us  to  imagine.  As  Goldziher  has  observed,  an 
exaggerated  consciousness  of  sin  and  the  dread  of  Divine  punish- 
ment gave  the  first  impulse  to  Moslem  asceticism.  Thus  we 
read  that  Tamlm  al-Dari,  one  of  the  Prophet's  Companions, 
who  was  formerly  a  Christian,  passed  the  whole  night  until 
daybreak,  repeating  a  single  verse  of  the  Koran  (xlv,  20) — 
"  Do  those  who  work  evil  think  that  We  shall  make  them  even 
as  those  who  believe  and  do  good^  so  that  their  life  and  death 
shall  be  equal?  Ill  do  they  judge  !''  i  Abu  '1-Darda,  another 
of  the  Companions,  used  to  say  :  "  If  ye  knew  what  ye  shall 
see  after  death,  ye  would  not  eat  food  nor  drink  water  from 
appetite,  and  I  wish  that  I  were  a  tree  which  is  lopped  and 
then  devoured."  2  There  were  many  who  shared  these  views, 
and  their  determination  to  renounce  the  world  and  to  live 
solely  for  God  was  strengthened  by  their  disgust  with  a 
tyrannical  and  impious  Government,  and  by  the  almost  unin- 
terrupted spectacle  of  bloodshed,  rapine,  and  civil  war.  Hasan 
of  Basra   (1728) — we   have  already  met  him    in 

Hasan  of  Basra.  .  .,  ,  -^  ir    t        •^■  ^  •  .. 

connection  with  the  Mu'tazilites — is  an  out- 
standing figure  in  this  early  ascetic  movement,  which 
proceeded  on  orthodox  lines.3  Fear  of  God  seized  on  him 
so  mightily  that,  in  the  words  of  his  biographer,  "  it  seemed 

'  Sha'rani,  Lawdqihu  'l-Anwdr  (Cairo,  1299  a.h.),  p.  31.  '  Ibid. 

3  See  Von  Kremer,  Hcrrschende  Ideen,  p.  52  sqq.  ;  Goldziher,  Materialien 
zur  Entwickelungsgesch.  des  Sufismus  {Vienna  Oriental  Journal,  vol.  13, 
P-  35  sqq.). 

16 


226  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

as  though  Hell-fire  had  been  created  for  him  alone."  ^  All  who 
looked  on  his  face  thought  that  he  must  have  been  recently 
overtaken  by  some  great  calamity .^  One  day  a  friend  saw  him 
weeping  and  asked  him  the  cause.  "  I  weep,"  he  replied,  1| 
"  for  fear  that  I  have  done  something  unwittingly  and 
unintentionally,  or  committed  some  fault,  or  spoken  some 
word  which  is  unpleasing  to  God  :  then  He  may  have  said, 
'  Begone,  for  now  thou  hast  no  more  honour  in  My  court, 
and  henceforth  I  will  not  receive  anything  from  thee.' "  3  j 
Al-Mubarrad  relates  that  two  monks,  coming  from  Syria, 
entered  Basra  and  looked  at  Hasan,  whereupon  one  said  to  the 
other,  "  Let  us  turn  aside  to  visit  this  man,  whose  way  of  life 
appears  like  that  of  the  Messiah."  So  they  went,  and  they 
found  him  supporting  his  chin  on  the  palm  of  his  hand,  while 
he  was  saying — "  How  I  marvel  at  those  who  have  been 
ordered  to  lay  in  a  stock  of  provisions  and  have  been 
summoned  to  set  out  on  a  journey,  and  yet  the  foremost  of 
them  stays  for  the  hindermost  !  Would  that  I  knew  what 
they  are  waiting  for  ! "  4  The  following  utterances  are 
characteristic  : — 


"  God  hath  made  fasting  a  hippodrome  (place  or  time  of  training) 
for  His  servants,  that  they  may  race  towards  obedience  to  Him.s 
Some  come  in  first  and  win  the  prize,  while  others  are  left  behind 
and  return  disappointed  ;  and  by  my  life,  if  the  lid  were  removed, 
the  well-doer  would  be  diverted  by  his  well-doing,  and  the  evil- 
doer by  his  evil-doing,  from  wearing  new  garments  or  from  anoint- 
ing his  hair."* 


'  Sha'rani,  Lawdqih,  p.  38. 

'  Qushayri's  Risdla  (1287  a.h.),  p.  77,  1.  10. 

3  Tadhkiratu  'l-Awliyd  of  Faridu'ddin  'Attar,  Part  I,  p.  37,  1.  8  of  my 
edition. 

4  Kdmil  (ed.  by  Wright),  p.  57,  1.  16. 

5  The  point  of  this  metaphor  lies  in  the  fact  that  Arab  horses  were  put 
on  short  commons  during  the  period  of  training,  which  usually  began 
forty  days  before  the  race. 

*  Kdmil,  p.  57,  last  line. 


HASAN  OF  BASRA  227 

"  You  meet  one  of  them  with  white  skin  and  delicate  complexion, 
speeding  along  the  path  of  vanity  :  he  shaketh  his  hips  and  clappeth 
his  sides  and  saith,  '  Here  am  I,  recognise  me  ! '  Yes,  we  recognise 
thee,  and  thou  art  hateful  to  God  and  hateful  to  good  men." ' 

"The  bounties  of  God  are  too  numerous  to  be  acknowledged 
unless  with  His  help,  and  the  sins  of  Man  are  too  numerous  for  him 
to  escape  therefrom  unless  God  pardon  them."  ' 

"  The  wonder  is  not  how  the  lost  were  lost,  but  how  the  saved 
were  saved."  ^ 

"  Cleanse  ye  these  hearts  (by  meditation  and  remembrance  of 
God),  for  they  are  quick  to  rust ;  and  restrain  ye  these  souls,  for 
they  desire  eagerly,  and  if  ye  restrain  them  not,  they  will  drag  you 
to  an  evil  end,"  •* 

The  Sufis,   concerning   whom  we  shall   say  a  few   words 

presently,  claim  Hasan  as  one  of  themselves,  and  with  justice 

in  so  far  as  he  attached  importance   to  spiritual 

^asan  of  Basra       .  .    ~  .  . 

not  a  genuine     riffhtcousness,  and  was   not  satisfied  with   merely 

§u£i.  °  '  .  .  .    -^ 

external  acts  of  devotion.  "A  grain  of  genuine 
piety,"  he  declared,  "  is  better  than  a  thousandfold  weight  of 
fasting  and  prayer."  5  But  although  some  of  his  sayings  which 
are  recorded  in  the  later  biographies  lend  colour  to  the  fiction 
that  he  was  a  full-blown  Siifi,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  his 
mysticism — if  it  deserves  that  name — was  of  the  most  moderate 
type,  entirely  lacking  the  glow  and  exaltation  which  we  find 
in  the  saintly  woman,  Rabi'a  al-*Adawiyya,  with  whom  legend 
associates  him.^ 

The  origin  of  the  name  *  Siifi '  is  explained  by  the  Sufis 
themselves  in   many    different    ways,    but    of  the  derivations 

'  Kdmil,  p.  58,  1.  14.  ^  Ihid.,  p.  67,  1.  9. 

3  Ihid.,  p.  91,  1.  14.  *  Ihid.,  p.  120,  1.  4. 

5  Qushayri's  Risdla,  p.  63,  last  line. 

^  It  is  noteworthy  that  Qushayri  (t  1073  A.D.),  one  of  the  oldest  authori- 
ties on  Siifiism,  does  not  include  Hasan  among  the  Sufi  Shaykhs  whose 
biographies  are  given  in  the  Risala  (pp.  8-35),  and  hardly  mentions  him 
above  half  a  dozen  times  in  the  course  of  his  work.  The  sayings  of 
Hasan  which  he  cites  are  of  the  same  character  as  those  preserved  in  the 
Kcimil. 


228  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

which  have  been  proposed  only  three  possess  any  claim  to  con- 
sideration, viz.,  those  which  connect  it  with  o-o^oc  (wise)  or 

with    \afa    (purity)    or   with    mf  (wool).i     The 
^^or^sdf1;°'^    first  two  are  inadmissible  on  linguistic  grounds, 

into  which  we  need  not  enter,  though  it  may  be 
remarked  that  the  derivation  from  safa  is  consecrated   by  the 
authority  of  the  Sufi  Saints,  and  is  generally  accepted  in  the 
East.2     The  reason  for  this  preference  appears  in  such  defini- 
tions as  "  The  Sufi  is  he  who  keeps  his  heart  pure  [safi)  with 
God,"  3    "Sufiism   is  'the  being  chosen   for  purity'    {istifd)  : 
whoever  is  thus  chosen  and  made  pure  from  all  except  God 
is  the  true  Sufi."  4     Understood  in  this  sense,  the  word  had  a    . 
lofty  significance  which  commended   it  to  the   elect.     Never-    * 
theless   it  can  be  tracked  to  a  quite  humble  source.     Woollen 
garments  were   frequently  worn   by  men  of  ascetic  life  in  the 
early  times  of  Islam  in  order  (as  Ibn  Khaldun  says)  that  they 
might  distinguish  themselves  from  those  who  affected  a  more 
luxurious  fashion  of  dress.      Hence    the  name   '  Siifi,'   which 
denotes  in  the  first  instance  an  ascetic  clad  in  wool  (suf),  just 
as  the  Capuchins  owed  their  designation  to  the  hood  (cappuccio) 
which  they  wore.     According  to  Qushayri,  the  term    came 
into  common  use  before  the  end  of  the  second  century  of  the 
Hijra  (  =  815  a.d.).     By  this  time,  however,  the  ascetic  move- 
ment in  Islam  had  to  some  extent  assumed  a   new  character, 
and  the  meaning  of  '  Sufi,'  if  the  word  already  existed,  must 
have  undergone  a  corresponding  change.     It  seems  to  me  not 
unlikely  that    the    epithet    in    question    marks    the    point  of 

'  See  Noldeke's  article,  '  Sufi,'  in  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  48,  p.  45. 

'  An  allusion  to  safd  occurs  in  thirteen  out  of  the  seventy  definitions  of 
Siifi  and  Sufiism  (Tasawwiif)  which  are  contained  in  the  Tadhkiratu 
'l-Awliyd,  or  '  Memoirs  of  the  Saints,'  of  the  well-known  Persian  mystic, 
Faridu'ddin  'Attar  (t  circa  1230  a.d.),  whereas  siif  is  mentioned  only 
twice. 

3  Said  by  Bishr  al-Hafi  (the  bare-footed),  who  died  in  841-842  a.d. 

*  Said  by  Junaydof  Baghdad  (t  909-910  A.D.),  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
Siifi  Shaykhs. 


EARLY  SiypIISM  229 

departure  from  orthodox  asceticism  and  that,  as  J^mf  states, 
it  was  first  applied  to  Abii  Hdshim  of  Kufa  {ob.  before  800  a.d.), 
who,  in  defiance  of  the  Prophet's  injunction, 
of  Sufiism"^^  founded  a  monastery  [Khdnaqdh)  for  Sufis  at  Ramla 
in  Palestine.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  distinction 
between  asceticism  {zuhd)  and  Sufiism — a  distinction  which 
answers,  broadly  speaking,  to  the  via  purgativa  and  the  via 
illuminativa  of  Western  mediaeval  mysticism — begins  to  show 
itself  before  the  close  of  the  Umayyad  period,  and  rapidly 
develops  in  the  early  'Abbasid  age  under  the  influence  of 
foreign  ideas  and,  in  particular,  of  Greek  philosophy.  Leaving 
this  later  development  to  be  discussed  in  a  subsequent  chapter, 
we  shall  now  briefly  consider  the  origin  of  Sufiism  properly  so 
called  and  the  first  manifestation  of  the  peculiar  tendencies  on 
which  it  is  based. 

As  regards  its  origin,  we  cannot  do  better  than  quote  the 
observations  with  which  Ibn  Khaldun  (t  1406  a.d.)  intro- 
duces the  chapter  on  Sufiism  in  the  Prolegomena  to  his  great 
historical  work  : — 

"This  is  one  of  the  religious  sciences  which  were  born  in  Islam. 

The  way  of  the  Sufis  was  regarded  by  the  ancient  Moslems  and 

Ibn  Khaidiin's    their  iUustrious  men — the  Companions  of  the  Prophet 

account  of  the    (al-Sahdba),    the    Successors     (al-Tdbi'un),    and    the 

origin  of  Sufiism.  ,.  ,  .    ,  -x         j.i_  iu  c 

generation  which  came  alter  them — as  the  way  of 
Truth  and  Salvation.  To  be  assiduous  in  piety,  to  give  up  all  else 
for  God's  sake,  to  turn  away  from  worldly  gauds  and  vanities,  to 
renounce  pleasure,  wealth,  and  power,  which  are  the  general 
objects  of  human  ambition,  to  abandon  society  and  to  lead  in 
seclusion  a  life  devoted  solely  to  the  service  of  God  —these  were  the 
fundamental  principles  of  §ufiism  which  prevailed  among  the 
Companions  and  the  Moslems  of  old  time.  When,  however,  in 
the  second  generation  and  afterwards  worldly  tastes  became  widely 
spread,  and  men  no  longer  shrank  from  such  contamination,  those 
who  made  piety  their  aim  were  distinguished  by  the  title  of  Sufis 
or  Mutasawwifa  (aspirants  to  Sufiism).' 

•  Ibn  Khaldun's  Muqaddima  (Beyrout,  1900),  p.  467  =  vol.  iii,  p.  85  seq. 
of  tiie  French  translation  by  De  Slane.    The  same  things  are  said  at  greater 


230  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

From  this  it  is  clear  that  Sufiism,  if  not  originally  identical 

with   the   ascetic  revolt  of  which,  as  we  have  seen,  Hasan  of 

Basra  was   the  most   conspicuous    representative, 

The  earliest  form  r     ,  t 

ofsdflism.  at  any  rate  arose  out  or  that  movement.  It  was 
not  a  speculative  system,  like  the  Mu'tazilite 
heresy,  but  a  practical  religion  and  rule  of  life.  "  We  derived 
Sufiism,"  said  Junayd,  "  from  fasting  and  taking  leave  of  the 
world  and  breaking  familiar  ties  and  renouncing  what  men 
deem  good  ;  not  from  disputation  "  {^qil  wa-qal).^  The  oldest 
Sufis  were  ascetics  and  hermits,  but  they  were  also  something 
more.  They  brought  out  the  spiritual  and  mystical  element  in 
Islam,  or  brought  it  in,  if  they  did  not  find  it  there  already. 

"  Sufiism,"  says   Suhrawardi,^  "  is  neither  '  poverty '  [faqr) 
nor  asceticism  {%uhd)^  but  a  term  which  comprehends  the  ideas 
of  both,  together  with  something  besides.     With- 
^'^between"'^^    out  thcsc  Superadded  qualities  a  man  is  not  a  Sufi, 
ands^fifsm.     though  he  may  be  an  ascetic  {zdhid)  or  a  fakir 
{faqtr).     It  is  said  that,  notwithstanding  the  ex- 
cellence of  '  poverty,'  the  end  thereof  is  only  the  beginning 
of  Sufiism."     A  little    further  on  he  explains  the  difference 
thus: — 

"  The  fakir  holds  fast  to  his  '  poverty '  and  is  profoundly  con- 
vinced of  its  superior  merit.  He  prefers  it  to  riches  because  he 
longs  for  the  Divine  recompense  of  which  his  faith  assures  him  .  .  . 
and  whenever  he  contemplates  the  everlasting  reward,  he  abstains 
from  the  fleeting  joys  of  this  world  and  embraces  poverty  and 
indigence  and  fears  that  if  he  should  cease  to  be  'poor'  he  will  lose 
both  the  merit  and  the  prize.  Now  this  is  absolutely  unsound 
according  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Siifis,  because  he  hopes  for  recom- 
pense and  renounces  the  world  on  that  account, whereas  the  Sufi  does 
not  renounce  it  for  the  sake  of  promised  rewards  but,  on  the  contrary, 


length  by  Suhrawardi  in  his  'Awdiifu  'l-Ma'drif  (printed  on  the  margin 
of  Ghazali's  Ihyd,  Cairo,  1289  a.h.),  vol.  i,  p.  172  et  seqq.  Cf.  also  the 
passage  from  Qushayri  translated  by  Professor  E.  G.  Browne  on 
pp.  2^7-298  of  vol.  i.  of  his  Literary  History  of  Persia. 

'  Suhrawardi,  loc.  cit.,  p.  136  seq.  '  Loc.  cit.,  p.  145. 


EARLY  Sl)FIISM  231 

for  the  sake  of  present  'states,'  for  he  is  the '  son  of  his  time.'  .  .  . ' 
The  theory  that  '  poverty  '  is  the  foundation  of  Sufiism  signifies  that 
the  diverse  stages  of  Sufiism  are  reached  by  the  road  of  'poverty'  ; 
it  does  not  imply  that  the  Sufi  is  essentially  a  fakir." 

The  keynote  of  Sufiism  is  disinterested,  selfless  devotion, 
in   a  word,  Love.      Though    not   wholly    strange,    this   idea 
was  very   far    from  being  familiar    to   pious    Muhammadans, 
who  were    more  deeply    impressed  by    the    power   and   ven- 
geance   of    God    than    by    His    goodness   and    mercy.      The 
Koran    generally    represents    Allah    as   a    stern,    unapproach- 
able despot,  requiring  utter  submission  to   His  arbitrary  will, 
but  infinitely  unconcerned  with   human  feelings    and    aspira- 
tions.    Such  a   Being  could  not  satisfy  the  religious  instinct, 
and    the    whole    history   of  Sufiism    is   a   protest  against    the 
unnatural  divorce  between  God  and  Man  which  this  concep- 
tion involves.     Accordingly,  I  do  not  think  that  we  need  look 
•beyond  Islam  for  the  origin  of  the  Sufi  doctrines,  although  it 
would  be  a  mistake  not  to  recognise  the  part  which  Christian 
influence  may  have  had  in  shaping  their   early  development. 
The  pantheistic   tendency  with  which  they  gradually  became 
imbued,  and  which  in  the  course  of  time  completely  transformed 
them,  was  more  or  less  latent  during  the  Umayyad  period  and 
for    nearly   a    century   after    the  accession  of  the    House    of 
'Abbas.     The  early  Sufi's  are  still  on  orthodox  ground  :  their 
relation    to    Islam    is    not    unlike    that    of    the 
The  early  .u  IS.    j^^^jj^g^^^  Spanish  mystics  to  the  Roman  Catholic 

Church.  They  attach  extraordinary  value  to  certain  points 
in  Muhammad's  teaching  and  emphasise  them  so  as  to  leave 
the  others  almost  a  dead  letter.  They  do  not  indulge  in 
extravagant  speculation,  but  confine  themselves  to  matters 
bearing  on  practical  theology.  Self-abandonment,  rigorous 
self-mortification,  fervid  piety,  and  quietism  carried  to  the 
verge  of  apathy  form  the  main  features  of  their  creed. 

'  I.e.,  he  yields  himself  unreservedly  to  the  spiritual  '  states '  (ahwdl) 
which  pass  over  him,  according  as  God  wills. 


232  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

A  full  and  vivid  picture  of  early  Sufiism  might  be  drawn 

from  the  numerous  biographies  in  Arabic  and  Persian,  w^hich 

supply   abundant   details  concerning   the   manner 

Ibrahim  b.      of  Jifg  of  thcse   Muhammadan  Saints,  and  faith- 

Adham.  •  '  . 

fully  record  their  austerities,  visions,  miracles, 
and  sayings.  Here  we  have  only  space  to  add  a  few  lines 
about  the  most  important  members  of  the  group — Ibrdhim 
b.  Adham,  Abu  'Ali  Shaqiq,  Fudayl  b.  'lyad,  and  Rabi'a— 
all  of  whom  died  between  the  middle  and  end  of  the  second 
century  after  the  Flight  (767-815  a.d.).  Ibrahim  belonged 
to  the  royal  family  of  Balkh.  Forty  scimitars  of  gold  and 
forty  maces  of  gold  were  borne  in  front  of  him  and  behind. 
One  day,  while  hunting,  he  heard  a  voice  which  cried, 
"  Awake !  wert  thou  created  for  this  ?  "  He  exchanged 
his  splendid  robes  for  the  humble  garb  and  felt  cap  of  a 
shepherd,  bade  farewell  to  his  kingdom,  and  lived  for  ninej 
years  in  a  cave  near  Naysabur.i  His  customary  prayer  J 
was,  "  O  God,  uplift  me  from  the  shame  of  disobedience 
to  the  glory  of  submission  Unto  Thee  !  " 

"O  God  !"  he  said,  "Thou  knowest  that  the  Eight  Paradises  are 
little  beside  the  honour  which  Thou  hast  done  unto  me,  and  beside 
Thy  love,  and  beside  Thy  giving  me  intimacy  with  the  praise  of  Thy 
name,  and  beside  the  peace  of  mind  which  Thou  hast  given  me 
when  I  meditate  on  Thy  majesty."  And  again:  "You  will  not 
attain  to  righteousness  until  you  traverse  six  passes  {'aqabdi) :  the 
first  is  that  you  shut  the  door  of  pleasure  and  open  the  door  of 
hardship  ;  the  second,  that  you  shut  the  door  of  eminence  and  open 
the  door  of  abasement ;  the  third,  that  you  shut  the  door  of  ease  and 
open  the  door  of  affliction  ;  the  fourth,  that  you  shut  the  door  of 
sleep  and  open  the  door  of  wakefulness  ;  the  fifth,  that  you  shut  the 
door  of  riches  and  open  the  door  of  poverty ;  and  the  sixth,  that 
you  shut  the  door  of  expectation  and  open  the  door  of  making  your- 
self ready  for  death." 


•  Possibly  Ibrahim  was  one  of  the  Shikaftiyya  or  '  Cave-dwellers '  of 
Khurasan  [shikaft  means  '  cave '  in  Persian),  whom  the  people  of  Syria 
called  al-Ju'iyya,  i.e.,  '  the  Pasters.'    See  Suhrawardi,  loc.  cit.,  p.  171. 


THE   OLDEST  SUF/S  233 

Shaqfq,  also  of  Balkh,  laid    particular   stress  on  the    duty 

of  leaving  one's  self  entirely  in    God's    hands   [tawakkul)^  a 

term    which     is     practically    synonymous    with 

^^B^Si^^       passivity ;    e.g.,   the   mutawakkil   must    make   no 

effort    to   obtain    even    the    barest    livelihood,  he 

must  not  ask  for  anything,  nor    engage    in    any   trade :    his 

business  is  with   God  alone.     One  of  Shaqfq's  sayings   was, 

"  Nine-tenths   of  devotion    consist    in    flight    from   mankind, 

the    remaining     tenth    in    silence."      Similarly, 

Fudayl  b.  'lyad.  °  .  ■' / 

Fudayl  b.  'lyad,  a  converted  captain  of  banditti, 
declared  that  "to  abstain  for  men's  sake  from  doing  any- 
thing is  hypocrisy,  while  to  do  anything  for  men's  sake 
is  idolatry."  It  may  be  noticed  as  an  argument  against 
the  Indian  origin  of  Sufiism  that  although  the  three 
Siifls  who  have  been  mentioned  were  natives  of  Khurasdn 
or  Transoxania,  and  therefore  presumably  in  touch  with 
Buddhistic  ideas,  no  trace  can  be  found  in  their  sayings  of 
the  doctrine  of  self-annihilation  [fand),  which  plays  a  great 
part  in  subsequent  Sufiism,  and  which  Von  Kremer  and 
others  have  identified  with  Nirvana.  We  now  come  to  a 
more  interesting  personality,  in  whom  the  ascetic  and 
quietistic  type  of  Sufiism  is  transfigured  by  emotion  and 
begins  clearly  to  reveal  its  pantheistic  sympathies.  Every 
one  knows  that  women  have  borne  a  distinguished  part  in 
the  annals  of  European  mysticism :  St.  Teresa,  Madame 
Guyon,  Catharine  of  Siena,  and  Juliana  of  Norwich,  to  men- 
tion but  a  few  names  at  random.  And  notwithstanding 
the  intellectual  death  to  which  the  majority  of  Moslem 
women  are  condemned  by  their  Prophet's  ordinance,  the 
Sufis,  like  the  Roman  Catholics,  can  boast  a  goodly  number 

of  female  saints.  The  oldest  of  these,  and  by 
ai-'Adawfyya     ^^^  ^^^  most  renowned,  is  Rdbi'a,  who  belonged 

to  the  tribe  of  'Adi,  whence  she  is  generally 
called  Rabi'a  al-'Adawiyya.  She  was  a  native  of  Basra 
and    died    at   Jerusalem,    probably    towards    the    end    of  the 


234  THE    UMAYYAD   DYNASTY 

second  century  of  Islam :  her  tomb  was  an  object  of 
pilgrimage  in  the  Middle  Ages,  as  we  learn  from  Ibn 
Khallikdn  (t  1282  a.d.).  Although  the  sayings  and  verses 
attributed  to  her  by  Sufi  writers  may  be  of  doubtful 
authenticity,  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  they 
fairly  represent  the  actual  character  of  her  devotion,  which 
resembled  that  of  all  feminine  mystics  in  being  inspired  by 
tender  and  ardent  feeling.  She  was  asked  :  "  Do  you  love 
God  Almighty  ?  "  "  Yes."  "  Do  you  hate  the  Devil  ? " 
"My  love  of  God,"  she  replied,  "leaves  me  no  leisure  to 
hate  the  Devil.  I  saw  the  Prophet  in  a  dream.  He  said, 
'O  Rabi'a,  do  you  love  me?'  I  said,  'O  Apostle  of  God, 
who  does  not  love  thee  ? — but  love  of  God  hath  so  absorbed 
me  that  neither  love  nor  hate  of  any  other  thing  remains 
in  my  heart.'  "  Rdbi'a  is  said  to  have  spoken  the  following 
verses  : — 

"  Two  ways  I  love  Thee  ;  selfishly, 
And  next,  as  worthy  is  of  Thee. 
'Tis  selfish  love  that  I  do  naught 
Save  think  on  Thee  with  every  thought ; 
'Tis  purest  love  when  Thou  dost  raise 
The  veil  to  my  adoring  gaze. 
Not  mine  the  praise  in  that  or  this, 
Thine  is  the  praise  in  both,  I  wis."' 

Whether  genuine  or  not,  these  lines,  with  their  mixture 
of  devotion  and  speculation — the  author  distinguishes  the 
illuminative  from  the  contemplative  life  and  manifestly 
regards  the  latter  as  the  more  excellent  way — serve  to 
mark  the  end  of  orthodox  Sufiism  and  the  rise  of  a  new 
theosophical  system  which,  under  the  same  name  and  still 
professing  to  be  in  full  accord  with  the  Koran  and  the 
Sunna^  was  really  founded  upon  pantheistic  ideas  of 
extraneous    origin — ideas    irreconcilable    with    any    revealed 

'  Ghazali,  Ihyd  (Cairo,  1289  A.H.),  vol.  iv,  p.  298. 


MUHAMMADAN  POETRY  235 

religion,    and    directly   opposed    to    the    severe    and    majestic 
simplicity  of  the  Muhammadan  articles  of  faith. 

The  opening  century  of  Islam  was  not  favourable  to  litera- 
ture.    At   first    conquest,    expansion,   and    organisation,  then 

civil  strife  absorbed  the  nation's  energies ;  then, 
litTra^f^       under    the    Umayyads,    the     old     pagan    spirit 

asserted  itself  once  more.  Consequently  the 
literature  of  this  period  consists  almost  exclusively  of  poetry, 
which  bears  few  marks  of  Islamic  influence.  I  need  scarcely 
refer  to  the  view  which  long  prevailed  in  Europe  that 
Muhammad  corrupted  the  taste  of  his  countrymen  by  setting 
up  the  Koran  as  an  incomparable  model  of  poetic  style, 
and  by  condemning  the  admired  productions  of  the  heathen 
bards  and  the  art  of  poetry  itself ;  nor  remind  my  readers 
that  in  the  first  place  the  Koran  is  not  poetical  in  form  (so 

that     it    could    not    serve    as    a    model    of    this 

A«bfa*n'poet^    kind),  and  secondly,  according  to  Muhammadan 

Muhamma°d.     belief,  is  the  actual  Word  of  God,  therefore  %m 

generis  and  beyond  imitation.  Again,  the  poets 
whom  the  Prophet  condemned  were  his  most  dangerous 
opponents  :  he  hated  them  not  as  poets  but  as  propagators 
and  defenders  of  false  ideals,  and  because  they  ridiculed  his 
teaching,  while  on  the  contrary  he  honoured  and  rewarded 
those  who  employed  their  talents  in  the  right  way.  If  the 
nomad  minstrels  and  cavaliers  who  lived,  as  they  sang,  the 
free  life  of  the  desert  were  never  equalled  by  the  brilliant 
laureates  of  imperial  Damascus  and  Baghdad,  the  causes  of 
the  decline  cannot  be  traced  to  Muhammad's  personal  atti- 
tude, but  are  due  to  various  circumstances  for  which  he  is 
only  responsible  in  so  far  as  he  founded  a  religious  and 
political  system  that  revolutionised  Arabian  society.  The 
poets  of  the  period  with  which  we  are  now  dealing  follow 
slavishly  in  the  footsteps  of  the  ancients,  as  though  Islam 
had  never  been.     Instead  of  celebrating  the  splendid  victories 


236  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

and  heroic  deeds  of  Moslem  warriors,  the  bard  living  in  a 
great  city  still  weeps  over  the  relics  of  his  beloved's  encamp- 
ment in  the  wilderness,  still  rides  away  through 
^'^^  p^ets.^^^'^  the  sandy  waste  on  the  peerless  camel,  whose 
fine  points  he  particularly  describes  ;  and  if  he 
should  happen  to  be  addressing  the  Caliph,  it  is  ten  to 
one  that  he  will  credit  that  august  personage  with  all  the 
virtues  of  a  Bedoui->  'ihaykh.  "  Fortunately  the  imitation 
of  the  antique  qasida^  at  any  rate  with  the  greatest  Umay- 
yad  poets,  is  to  some  extent  only  accessory  another  form 
of  art  that  excites  our  historical  interest  in  a  high  degree  : 
namely,  the  occasional  poems  (very  numerous  in  almost 
all  these  writers),  which  are  suggested  by  the  mood  of 
the  moment  and  can  shed  a  vivid  light  on  contemporary 
history."  i 

The    conquests    made    by    the    successors   of  the    Prophet 

brought    enormous    wealth    into    Mecca    and     Medina,    and 

when    the     Umayyad     aristocracy     gained    the 

Music  and  song  ,         ,.       -ttl       '>/^i-i  l 

in  the         upper  hand  m  'Uthmans  Caliphate,  these  towns 

Holy  Cities.         ,         ,  .  ,  ,      ,•        ,  ,-r  ,  •    . 

developed  a  voluptuous  and  dissolute  life  which 
broke  through  every  restriction  that  Islam  had  imposed. 
The  increase  of  luxury  produced  a  corresponding  refine- 
ment of  the  poetic  art.  Although  music  was  not  unknown 
to  the  pagan  Arabs,  it  had  hitherto  been  cultivated  chiefly 
by  foreigners,  especially  Greek  and  Persian  singing-girls. 
But  in  the  first  century  after  the  Flight  we  hear  of  several 
Arab  singers,^  natives  of  Mecca  and  Medina,  who  set  favourite 
passages  to  music  :  henceforth  the  words  and  the  melody 
are  inseparably  united,  as  we  learn  from  the  Kitabu  'l-Aghdni 
or  '  Book  of  Songs,'  where  hundreds  of  examples  are  to  be 
found.  Amidst  the  gay  throng  of  pleasure-seekers  women 
naturally    played    a    prominent    part,    and    love,    which    had 

'  Brockelmann,  Gesch.  d.  Arab.  Littetatur,  vol.  i,  p.  45. 

'  E.g.,  Ma'bad,  Gharid,  Ibn  Surayj,  Tuways,  and  Ibn  'A'isha. 


'UMAR  IBN  ABI  RABPA  237 

hitherto  formed  in  most  cases  merely  the  conventional  pre- 
lude to  an  ode,  now  began  to  be  sung  for  its  own  sake. 
In  this  Peninsular  school,  as  it  may  be  named  in  contrast 
with  the  bold  and  masculine  strain  of  the  great  Provincial 
poets  w^hom  we  are  about  to  mention,  the  palm  unquestion- 
ably belongs  to  'Umar  b.  Abi  Rabi'a  (t  719  a.d.), 
'Umar  b.  Abi     (-j^g  son  of  a  rich  Meccan  merchant.     He  passed 

Rabi'a.  _  ^ 

the  best  part  of  his  life  in  the  pursuit  of  noble 
dames,  who  alone  inspired  him  to  sing.  His  poetry  was  so 
seductive  that  it  was  regarded  by  devout  Moslems  as  "  the 
grp^test  crime  8ver  committed  against  God,"  and  so  charm- 
ing withal  that  'Abdullah  b.  'Abbas,  the  Prophet's  cousin  and 
a  famous  authority  on  the  Koran  and  the  Traditions,  could 
not  refrain  from  getting  by  heart  some  erotic  verses  which 
*Umar  recited  to  him.i  The  Arabs  said,  with  truth,  that 
the  tribe  of  Quraysh  had  won  distinction  in  every  field 
save  poetry,  but  we  must  allow  that  'Umar  b.  Abi  Rabi'a 
is  a  clear  exception  to  this  rule.  His  diction,  like  that  of 
Catullus,  has  all  the  unaffected  ease  of  refined  conversation. 
Here  are  a   few  lines  : — 

"  Blame  me  no  more,  O  comrades  !  but  to-day 
Quietly  with  me  beside  the  howdahs  stay. 
Blame  not  my  love  for  Zaynab,  for  to  her 
And  hers  my  heart  is  pledged  a  prisoner. 
Ah,  can  I  ever  think  of  how  we  met 
Once  at  al-Khayf,  and  feel  no  fond  regret  ? 
My  song  of  other  women  was  but  jest : 
She  reigns  alone,  eclipsing  all  the  rest. 
Hers  is  my  love  sincere,  'tis  she  the  flame 
Of  passion  kindles — so,  a  truce  to  blame  !  "  ^ 

We  have  no  space  to  dwell  on  the  minor  poets  of  the  same 
school,  al-'Arji  (a  kinsman  of  the  Umayyads),  al-Ahwas,  and 
many  others.     It  has  been  pointed  out  by  Dr.  C.  Brockelmann 

'  Kdmil  of  Mubarrad,  p.  570  sqq. 

'  Aghdnf,  i,  43,  1.  15  sqq.  ;  Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  17,  last  line  and  foil. 


( 


238  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

that  the  love-poetry  of  this  epoch  is  largely  of  popular  origin  ; 
e.g.^  the  songs  attributed  to  Jamil,  in  which  Buthayna  is 
addressed,  and  to  Majnun — the  hero  of  countless 
Persian  and  Turkish  romances  which  celebrate 
his  love  for  Layld — are  true  folk-songs  such  as  occur  in  the 
Arabian  Nights^  and  may  be  heard  in  the  streets  of  Beyrout 
or  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris  at  the  present  day.  Many 
of  them  are  extremely  beautiful.  I  take  the  following 
verses  from  a  poem  which  is  said  to  have  been  composed 
by  Jamil  : — 

"  Oh,  might  it  flower  anew,  that  youthful  prime, 
And  restore  to  us,  Buthayna,  the  bygone  time  ! 
And  might  we  again  be  blest  as  we  wont  to  be, 
When  thy  folk  were  nigh  and  grudged  what  thou  gavest  me  ! 

Shall  I  ever  meet  Buthayna  alone  again, 
Each  of  us  full  of  love  as  a  cloud  of  rain  ? 
Fast  in  her  net  was  I  when  a  lad,  and  till 
This  day  my  love  is  growing  and  waxing  still. 

I  have  spent  my  lifetime,  waiting  for  her  to  speak, 
And  the  bloom  of  youth  is  faded  from  off  my  cheek  ; 
But  I  will  not  suffer  that  she  my  suit  deny. 
My  love  remains  undying,  though  all  things  die  ! " ' 

The  names  of  al-Akhtal,  al-Farazdaq,  and  Jarir  stand  out 
pre-eminently  in  the  list  of  Umayyad  poets.     They  were  men 
of  a   very   different  stamp    from  the  languishing 
^°rov^nc  '^^^     Minnesingers  and  carpet-knights  who,  like  Jamil, 
refused  to  battle  except  on  the  field  of  love.     It  is 
noteworthy  that  all  three  were  born  and  bred  in  Mesopotamia. 
The   motherland   was   exhausted  ;     her   ambitious  and   enter- 
prising youth  poured  into   the  provinces,  which  now   become 
the  main  centres  of  intellectual  activity. 

Farazdaq  and  Jarir  are  intimately  connected  by  a  peculiar 
rivalry — "  Arcades  amho — id  est^  blackguards  both."     For  many 
years  they  engaged  in  a  public  scolding-match  {muhajdt)^  and 
'  Noldeke's  Delectus,  p.  9,  1.  n  sqq.,  omitting  1.  13. 


THE  NAQAID  239 

as  neither  had  any  scruples  on  the  score  of  decency,  the  foulest 
abuse  was  bandied  to  and  fro  between  them — abuse,  however, 
which   is  redeemed   from  vulgarity  by  its  literary  excellence, 

1  and    by  the    marvellous   skill    which    the   satirists    display   in 

manipulating    all    the    vituperative    resources   of  the    Arabic 

language.       Soon     these     'Fly  tings'     {Naqaid) 

%ril^rnd  °     were    recited    everywhere,    and    each    poet    had 

i;        ^"^  ^'^'       thousands    of  enthusiastic    partisans    who    main- 
tained    that    he    was     superior     to    his     rival. ^       One    day 

I  Muhallab    b.    Abi    Sufra,    the   governor   of    Khurasan,    who 

I  was  marching  against  the  Azariqa,  a  sect  of  the  Kharijites, 
heard  a  great  clamour  and  tumult  in  the  camp.  On 
inquiring  its  cause,  he  found  that  the  soldiers  had  been 
fiercely  disputing  as  to  the  comparative  merits  of  Jarir  and 
Farazdaq,  and  desired  to  submit  the  question  to  his  decision. 
"  Would  you  expose  me,"  said  Muhallab,  "  to  be  torn  in 
pieces  by  these  two  dogs  ?  I  will  not  decide  between  them, 
but  I  will  point  out  to  you  those  who  care  not  a  whit  for 
either  of  them.  Go  to  the  Azariqa !  They  are  Arabs 
who  understand  poetry  and  judge  it  aright." 
General  interest  Next    dav,  when    the    armies    faced    each  other, 

in   poetry.  J  '  ' 

an  Azraqite  named  'Abida  b.  Hilal  stepped 
forth  from  the  ranks  and  offered  single  combat.  One  of 
Muhallab's  men  accepted  the  challenge,  but  before  fighting 
he  begged  his  adversary  to  inform  him  which  was  the 
better  poet — Farazdaq  or  Jarir  ?  "  God  confound  you  !  " 
cried  'Abida,  "  do  you  ask  me  about  poetry  instead  of 
studying  the  Koran  and  the  Sacred  Law  ? "  Then  he 
quoted  a  verse  by  Jarfr  and  gave  judgment  in  his  favour.^ 
This  incident  affords  a  striking  proof  that  the  taste  for 
poetry,  far  from  being  confined  to  literary  circles,  was 
diffused    throughout    the    whole    nation,    and    was   cultivated 

•  An  edition  of  the  Naqd'id  by  Professor  A.  A.  Bevan  is  now  being 
published  at  Leyden. 

'  Aghdiit,  vii,  55,  1.  12  sqq. 


240  THE   UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

even  amidst  the  fatigues  and  dangers  of  war.  Parallel 
instances  occur  in  the  history  of  the  Athenians,  the  most 
gifted  people  of  the  West,  and  possibly  elsewhere,  but 
imagine  British  soldiers  discussing  Tennyson  and  Browning 
over  the  camp-fires  ! 

Akhtal  joined  in  the  fray.  His  sympathies  were  with 
Farazdaq,  and  the  naqaid  which  he  and  Jarfr  composed 
against  each  other  have  come  down  to  us.  All  these  poets, 
like  their  Post-islamic  brethren  generally,  were  professional 
encomiasts,  greedy,  venal,  and  ready  to  revile  any  one  who 
would  not  purchase  their  praise.  Some  further  account  of 
them  may  be  interesting  to  the  reader,  especially  as  the 
anecdotes  related  by  their  biographers  throw  many  curious 
sidelights  on  the  manners  of  the  time. 

The  oldest    of  the   trio,  Akhtal  (Ghiyath  b.   Ghawth)   of 

Taghlib,  was  a   Christian,  like  most  of  his  tribe — they   had 

long  been  settled  in  Mesopotamia — and  remained 

Akhtal.  .       °  .  ^         .        . 

in  that  faith  to  the  end  of  his  life,  though  the 
Caliph  'Abdu  '1-Malik  is  said  to  have  offered  him  a  pension 
and  10,000  dirhems  in  cash  if  he  would  turn  Moslem.  His 
religion,  however,  was  less  a  matter  of  principle  than  of 
convenience,  and  to  him  the  supreme  virtue  of  Christianity 
lay  in  the  licence  which  it  gave  him  to  drink  wine  as  often 
as  he  pleased.  The  stories  told  of  him  suggest  grovelling 
devoutness  combined  with  very  easy  morals,  a  phenomenon 
familiar  to  the  student  of  mediaeval  Catholicism.  It  is 
related  by  one  who  was  touring  in  Syria  that  he  found 
Akhtal  confined  in  a  church  at  Damascus,  and  pleaded  his 
cause  with  the  priest.  The  latter  stopped  beside  Akhtal  and 
raising  the  staff  on  which  he  leaned — for  he  was  an  aged  man 
— exclaimed  :  "  O  enemy  of  God,  will  you  again  defame 
people  and  satirise  them  and  caluminate  chaste  women  ? " 
while  the  poet  humbled  himself  and  promised  never  to  repeat 
the  offence.  When  asked  how  it  was  that  he,  who  was 
honoured     by    the    Caliph    and    feared     by    all,    behaved    so 


AKHTAL  241 

submissively  to  this  priest,  he  answered,  "It  is  religion,  it 
is  religion."  ^  On  another  occasion,  seeing  the  Bishop  pass, 
he  cried  to  his  wife  who  was  then  pregnant,  "  Run  after 
him  and  touch  his  robe."  The  poor  woman  only  succeeded 
in  touching  the  tail  of  the  Bishop's  ass,  but  Alchtal  consoled 
her  with  the  remark,  "  He  and  the  tail  of  his  ass,  there's 
no  difference ! "  2  It  is  characteristic  of  the  anti-Islamic 
spirit  which  appears  so  strongly  in  the  Umayyads  that  their 
chosen  laureate  and  champion  should  have  been  a  Christian 
who  was  in  truth  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  pagan  bards. 
Pious  Moslems  might  well  be  scandalised  when  he  burst 
unannounced  into  the  Caliph's  presence,  sumptuously  attired 
in  silk  and  wearing  a  cross  of  gold  which  was  suspended 
from  his  neck  by  a  golden  chain,  while  drops  of 
wine  trickled  from  his  beard,3  but  their  protests  went 
unheeded  at  the  court  of  Damascus,  where  nobody  cared 
whether  the  author  of  a  fine  verse  was  a  Moslem  or  a 
Christian,  and  where  a  poet  was  doubly  welcome  whose 
religion  enabled  him  to  serve  his  masters  without  any 
regard  to  Muhammadan  sentiment  ;  so  that,  for  example, 
when  Yazi'd  I  wished  to  take  revenge  on  the  people  of 
Medina  because  one  of  their  poets  had  addressed  amatory 
verses  to  his  sister,  he  turned  to  Akhtal,  who  branded  the 
Ansar^  the  men  who  had  brought  about  the  triumph  of 
Islam,  in  the  famous  lines — 


"  Quraysh  have  borne  away  all  the  honour  and  glory, 
And  baseness  alone  is  beneath  the  turbans  of  the  Ansar."'' 


We  must  remember  that  the  poets  were  leaders  of  public 
opinion  ;  their  utterances  took  the  place  of  political  pamphlets 
or  of  party  oratory  for  or  against  the  Government  of  the  day. 

'  Aghdni,  vii,  182,  1.  25  sqq.  =  Ibid.,  vii,  183,  1.  6  sqq. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  178,  1.  I  seq,  "  Ibid.,  xiii,  148,  1.  23. 

17 


242  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

On  hearing  Akhtal's  ode  in  praise  of  the  Umayyad  dynasty,^ 
'Abdu  '1-Malik  ordered  one  of  his  clients  to  conduct  the 
author  through  the  streets  of  Damascus  and  to  cry  out, 
"  Here  is  the  poet  of  the  Commander  of  the  Faithful  !  Here 
is  the  best  poet  of  the  Arabs  !  "  2  No  wonder  that  he  was 
a  favourite  at  court  and  such  an  eminent  personage  that 
the  great  tribe  of  Bakr  used  to  invite  him  to  act  as  arbitrator 
whenever  any  controversy  arose  among  them. 3  Despite  the 
luxury  in  which  he  lived,  his  wild  Bedouin  nature  pined 
for  freedom,  and  he  frequently  left  the  capital  to  visit  his 
home  in  the  desert,  where  he  not  only  married  and  divorced 
several  wives,  but  also  threw  himself  with  ardour  into  the 
feuds  of  his  clan.  We  have  already  noticed  the  part  which 
he  played  in  the  literary  duel  between  Jarfr  and  Farazdaq. 
From  his  deathbed  he  sent  a  final  injunction  to  Farazdaq 
not  to  spare  their  common  enemy. 

Akhtal  is  commended  by  Arabian  critics  for  the  number  and 
excellence  of  his  long  poems,  as  well  as  for  the  purity,  polish, 
and  correctness  of  his  style.  Abii  'Ubayda  put  him  first  among 
the  poets  of  Islam,  while  the  celebrated  collector  of  Pre- 
islamic  poetry,  Abu  'Amr  b,  al-'Ala,  declared  that  if  Akhtal 
had  lived  a  single  day  in  the  Pagan  Age  he  would  not  have 
preferred  any  one  to  him.  His  supremacy  in  panegyric  was 
acknowledged  by  Farazdaq,  and  he  himself  claims  to  have 
surpassed  all  competitors  in  three  styles,  viz.,  panegyric, 
satire,  and  erotic  poetry  ;  but  there  is  more  justification  for 
the  boast  that  his  satires  might  be  recited  virginibus — he 
does  not  add  puerisque — without  causing  a  blush.4 

Hammdm  b.  Ghdlib,  generally  known  as  Farazdaq,  belonged 
to  the  tribe  of  Tamlm,  and  was  born  at  Basra  towards  the  end 
of  'Umar's  Caliphate.     His  grandfather,  Sa*sa'a,  won  renown 

»  Encomium  Omayadanim,  ed.  by  Houtsma  (Leyden,  1878). 

'  Aghdni,  vii,  172,  1.  27  sqq.  3  Ibid.,  p.  179,  1.  25  sqq. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  178, 1.  26  seq. 


FARAZDAQ  243 

in  Pre-islamic  times  by  ransoming  the  lives  of  female  infants 
whom  their  parents  had  condemned  to  die  (on  account  of 
which  he  received  the  title,  Muhiyyu  ''l-Mavfiidat^ 
'He  who  brings  the  buried  girls  to  life'),  and 
his  father  was  likewise  imbued  with  the  old  Bedouin  traditions 
of  liberality  and  honour,  which  were  rapidly  growing  obsolete 
among  the  demoralised  populace  of  'Iraq.  Farazdaq  was  a 
mauva'is  sujet  of  the  type  represented  by  Francois  Villon, 
reckless,  dissolute,  and  thoroughly  unprincipled  :  apart  from 
his  gift  of  vituperation,  we  find  nothing  in  him  to  admire 
save  his  respect  for  his  father's  memory  and  his  constant 
devotion  to  the  House  of  'Ali,  a  devotion  which  he  scorned 
to  conceal ;  so  that  he  was  cast  into  prison  by  the  Caliph 
Hisham  for  reciting  in  his  presence  a  glowing  panegyric  on 
'All's  grandson,  Zaynu  'l-'Abidin.  The  tragic  fate  of  Husayn 
at  Karbala  affected  him  deeply,  and  he  called  on  his  com- 
patriots to  acquit  themselves  like  men — 

"  If  ye  avenge  not  him,  the  son  of  the  best  of  you, 
Then  fling,  fling  the  sword  away  and   naught  but  the  spindle 

ply-'" 

While  still  a  young  man,  he  was  expelled  from  his  native 
city  in  consequence  of  the  lampoons  which  he  directed  against 
a  noble  family  of  Basra,  the  Band  Nahshal.  Thereupon  he 
fled  to  Medfna,  where  he  plunged  into  gallantry  and  dissipa- 
tion until  a  shameless  description  of  one  of  his  intrigues 
again  drew  upon  him  the  sentence  of  banishment.  His 
poems  contain  many  references  to  his  cousin  Nawar,  whom, 
by  means  of  a  discreditable  trick,  he  forced  to  marry  him 
when  she  was  on  the  point  of  giving  her  hand  to  another. 
The  pair  were  ever  quarrelling,  and  at  last  Farazdaq  con- 
sented to  an  irrevocable  divorce,  which  was  witnessed  by 
Hasan    of    Basra,    the   famous    theologian.     No   sooner    was 

»  Aghdni,  xix,  34,  1. 18. 


244  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

the  act  complete  than  Farazdaq  began  to  wish  it  undone, 
and  he  spoke  the  following  verses  : — ^ 

"  I  feel  repentance  like  al-Kusa'i,* 
Now  that  Nawar  has  been  divorced  by  me. 
She  was  my  Paradise  which  I  have  lost, 
Like  Adam  when  the  Lord's  command  he  crossed. 
I  am  one  who  wilfully  puts  out  his  eyes, 
Then  dark  to  him  the  shining  day  doth  rise  ! " 

'The  repentance  or  Farazdaq,'  signifying  bitter  regret  or 
disappointment,  passed  into  a  proverb.  He  died  a  few 
months  before  Jarlr  in  728  a.d.,  a  year  also  made  notable 
by  the  deaths  of  two  illustrious  divines,  Hasan  of  Basra  and 
Ibn  Sirln. 

Jarir  b.  'Atiyya  belonged  to  Kulayb,  a  i  branch  of  the  same 
tribe,  Tamim,  which  produced  Farazdaq.  He  was  the  court- 
poet  of  Hajjaj,  the  dreaded  governor  of  'Irdq,  and 
eulogised  his  patron  in  such  extravagant  terms  as 
to  arouse  the  jealousy  of  the  Caliph  'Abdu  'l-Malilc,  who 
consequently  received  him,  on  his  appearance  at  Damascus, 
with  marked  coldness  and  hauteur.  But  when,  after  several 
repulses,  he  at  length  obtained  permission  to  recite  a  poem 
which  he  had  composed  in  honour  of  the  prince,  and  came 
to  the  verse — 

"Are  not  ye  the  best  of  those  who  on  camel  ride, 
More  open-handed  than  all  in  the  world  beside?" — 

the  Caliph  sat  up  erect  on  his  throne  and  exclaimed  :  "  Let 

'  Kdmil  of  Mubarrad,  p.  70, 1.  17  sqq. 

=  Al-Kusa'i  broke  an  excellent  bow  which  he  had  made  for  himself. 
See  The  Assemblies  of  Hariri,  trans,  by  Chenery,  p.  351.  Professor  Bevan 
remarks  that  this  half-verse  is  an  almost  verbal  citation  from  a  verse 
ascribed  to  'Adi  b.  Marina  of  Hira,  an  enemy  of  'Adi  b.  Zayd  the  poet 
(Aghdni,  ii,  24, 1.  5). 


JARlR 


245 


us  be  praised  like  this  or  in  silence  !  "  ^  Jarfr's  fame  as  a 
satirist  stood  so  high  that  to  be  worsted  by  him  was  reckoned 
a  greater  distinction  than  to  vanquish  any  one  else.  The 
blind  poet,  Bashshdr  b.  Burd  (t  783  a.d.),  said  :  "I  satirised 
Jarir,  but  he  considered  me  too  young  for  him  to  notice. 
Had  he  answered  me,  I  should  have  been  the  finest  poet 
in  the  world."  2  The  following  anecdote  shows  that 
vituperation  launched  by  a  master  like  Jarir  was  a  deadly 
and  far-reaching  weapon  which  degraded  its  victim  in  the 
eyes  of  his  contemporaries,  however  he  might  deserve  their 
esteem,  and  covered  his  family  and  tribe  with  lasting 
disgrace. 


There  was  a  poet  of  repute,  well  known  by  the  name  of  Ra'i  '1-ibiI 
(Camel-herd),  who  loudly  published  his  opinion  that  Farazdaq  was 
superior  to  Jarir,  although  the  latter  had  lauded  his  tribe,  the  Banii 
Numayr,  whereas  Farazdaq  had  made  verses  against  them.  One 
day  Jarir  met  him  and  expostulated  with  him  but  got  no  reply. 
Ra'i  was  riding  a  mule  and  was  accompanied  by  his  son,  Jandal, 
who  said  to  his  father :  "  Why  do  you  halt  before  this  dog  of  the 
Banu  Kulayb,  as  though  you  had  anything  to  hope  or  fear  from 
him?"  At  the  same  time  he  gave  the  mule  a  lash  with  his  whip. 
The  animal  started  violently  and  kicked  Jarir,  who  was  standing  by, 
so  that  his  cap  fell  to  the  ground.  Ra'i  took  no  heed  and  went  on 
his  way.  Jarir  picked  up  the  cap,  brushed  it,  and  replaced  it  on  his 
head.    Then  he  exclaimed  in  verse  : — 

"  0  Jandal !  what  will  say  Numayr  of  you 
When  my  dishonouring  shaft  has  pierced  thy  sire?" 

He  returned  home  full  of  indignation,  and  after  the  evening  prayer, 
having  called  for  a  jar  of  date- wine  and  a  lamp,  he  set  about  his 
work.  An  old  woman  in  the  house  heard  him  muttering,  and 
mounted  the  stairs  to  see  what  ailed  him.  She  found  him  crawling 
naked  on  his  bed,  by  reason  of  that  which  was  within  him  ;  so  she 
ran  down,  crying  "  He  is  mad,"  and  described  what  she  had  seen  to 
the  people  of  the  house.    "  Get  thee  gone,"  they  said,  "  we  know 


'  Ibn  Khallikdn  (ed.  by  Wiistenfeld),  No.  129  ;  De  Slane's  translation 
vol.  i,  p.  298. 

*  Aghdm,  iii,  23,  1.  13. 


246  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

what  he  is  at."  By  daybreak  Jarir  had  composed  a  satire  of  eighty 
verses  against  the  Banii  Numayr.  When  he  finished  the  poem,  he 
shouted  triumphantly,  "Allah  Akbar!"  and  rode  away  to  the  place 
where  he  expected  to  find  Ra'i  '1-ibil  and  Farazdaq  and  their  friends. 
He  did  not  salute  Ra'i  but  immediately  began  to  recite.  While  he 
was  speaking  Farazdaq  and  Ra'i  bowed  their  heads,  and  the  rest  of 
the  company  sat  listening  in  silent  mortification.  When  Jarir  uttered 
the  final  words — 

"  Cast  down  thine  eyes  for  shame  !  for  thou  art  of 
Numayr — no  peer  of  Ka'b  nor  yet  Kildb  " — 

Ra'i  rose  and  hastened  to  his  lodging  as  fast  as  his  mule  could  carry 
him.  "Saddle!  Saddle!"  he  cried  to  his  comrades;  "you  cannot 
stay  here  longer,  Jarir  has  disgraced  you  all."  They  left  Basra  with- 
out delay  to  rejoin  their  tribe,  who  bitterly  reproached  Ra'i  for  the 
ignominy  which  he  had  brought  upon  Numayr  ;  and  hundreds  of 
years  afterwards  his  name  was  still  a  byword  among  his  people.' 

Next,  but  next  at  a  long  interval,  to  the  three  great  poets  of 

this  epoch  conies  Dhu  '1-Rumma  (Ghaylan  b.   'Uqba),  who 

imitated  the  odes  of  the  desert  Arabs  with  tire- 

Dhu'i-Rumma.   ^^^^   ^^^    ridiculous    fidelity.     The    philologists 

of  the  following  age  delighted  in  his  antique  and  difficult 
style,  and  praised  him  far  above  his  merits.  It  was  said 
that  poetry  began  with  Imru'u  '1-Qays  land  ended  with 
Dhu  '1-Rumma  ;  which  is  true  in  the  sense  that  he  is  the 
last  important  representative  of  the  pure  Bedouin  school. 

Concerning  the  prose  writers  of  the  period  we  can  make 
only  a  few  general  observations,  inasmuch  as  their  works 
have  almost  entirely  perished.^  In  this  branch 
^thfu^ai^ad"  of  literature  the  same  secular,  non-Muhammadan 
^^"°  '  spirit  prevailed  which  has  been  mentioned  as 
characteristic  of  the  poets  who  flourished  under  the  Umay- 
yad    dynasty,   and    of  the    dynasty  itself.     Historical   studies 

'  Aghdni,  vii,  49,  1.  8  sqq. 

'  The  following  account  is  mainly  derived  from  Goldziher's  Muhamm. 
Studien,  Part  II,  p.  203  sqq. 


PROSE    WRITERS  247 

were  encouraged  and  promoted  by  the  court  of  Damascus. 
We  have  referred  elsewhere  to  'Abid  b.  Sharya,  a  native  of 
Yemen,  whose  business  it  was  to  dress  up  the  old  legends 
and  purvey  them  in  a  readable  form  to  the  public.  Another 
Yemenite  of  Persian  descent,  Wahb  b.  Munabbih,  is  respon- 
sible for  a  great  deal  of  the  fabulous  lore  belonging  to  the 
domain  of  Awail  (Origins)  which  Moslem  chroniclers 
commonly  prefix  to  their  historical  works.  There  seems  to 
have  been  an  eager  demand  for  narratives  of  the  Early 
Wars  of  Islam  (maghdzi).  It  is  related  that  the  Caliph 
*Abdu  'l-Malik,  seeing  one  of  these  books  in  the  hands  of 
his  son,  ordered  it  to  be  burnt,  and  enjoined  him  to  study 
the  Koran  instead.  This  anecdote  shows  on  the  part  of 
'Abdu  'l-Malik  a  pious  feeling  with  which  he  is  seldom 
credited, I  but  it  shows  also  that  histories  of  a  legendary 
and  popular  character  preceded  those  which  were  based, 
like  the  Maghdzi  of  Miisa  b.  'Uqba  (t  758  A.D.)  and  Ibn 
Ishaq's  'Biography  of  the  Prophet^  upon  religious  tradition. 
No  work  of  the  former  class  has  been  preserved.  The 
strong  theological  influence  which  asserted  itself  in  the 
second  century  of  the  Hijra  was  unfavourable  to  the  develop- 
ment of  an  Arabian  prose  literature  on  national  lines.  In 
the  meantime,  however,  learned  doctors  of  divinity  began 
to  collect  and  write  down  the  Hadiths.  We  have  a  solitary 
relic  of  this  sort  in  the  Kitdbu  U-Zuhd  (Book  of  Asceticism) 
by  Asad  b.  Miisa  (t  749  a.d.).  The  most  renowned 
traditionist  of  the  Umayyad  age  is  Muhammad  b.  Muslim 
b.  Shihab  al-Zuhri  (t  742  a.d.),  who  distinguished  himself  by 
accepting  judicial  office  under  the  tyrants  ;  an  act  of  com- 
plaisance to  which  his  more  stiflF-necked  and  conscientious 
brethren  declined  to  stoop. 

It  was  the  lust  of  conquest  even  more  than  missionary  zeal 
that  caused  the  Arabs  to  invade  Syria  and  Persia  and  to  settle 
'  Cf.  Browne's  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  i,  p.  230. 


248  THE    UMAYYAD  DYNASTY 

on  foreign  soil,  where  they  lived  as  soldiers  at  the  expense  of 
the  native  population  whom  they  inevitably  regarded  as 
an  inferior  race.  If  the  latter  thought  to  win 
^^^Mosiems*^'^"  tcspect  by  embracing  the  religion  of  their  con- 
querors, they  found  themselves  sadly  mistaken. 
The  new  converts  were  attached  as  clients  {Mawali^  sing. 
Maivla)  to  an  Arab  tribe  :  they  could  not  become  Moslems 
on  any  other  footing.  Far  from  obtaining  the  equal  rights 
which  they  coveted,  and  which,  according  to  the  principles 
of  Islam,  they  should  have  enjoyed,  the  Maw  alt  were  treated 
by  their  aristocratic  patrons  with  contempt,  and  had  to  submit 
to  every  kind  of  social  degradation,  while  instead  of  being 
exempted  from  the  capitation-tax  paid  by  non-Moslems, 
they  still  remained  liable  to  the  ever-increasing  exactions  of 
Government  officials.  And  these  '  Clients,'  be  it  remem- 
bered, were  not  ignorant  serfs,  but  men  whose  culture  was 
acknowledged  by  the  Arabs  themselves — men  who  formed 
the  backbone  of  the  influential  learned  class  and  ardently 
prosecuted  those  studies.  Divinity  and  Jurisprudence,  which 
were  then  held  in  highest  esteem.  Here  was  a  situation 
full  of  danger.  Against  Shi'ites  and  Kharijites  the  Umayyads 
might  claim  with  some  show  of  reason  to  represent  the  cause 
of  law  and  order,  if  not  of  Islam  ;  against  the  bitter  cry  of  the 
oppressed  Mawdlt  they  had  no  argument  save  the  sword. 

We  have  referred  above  to  the  universal  belief  of  Moslems 
in  a  Messiah  and  to  the  extraordinary  influence  of  that  belief 

on  their  religious  and  political  history.  No 
^Revllution.'^*    wonder  that    in    this    unhappy  epoch    thousands 

of  people,  utterly  disgusted  with  life  as  they 
found  it,  should  have  indulged  in  visions  of  'a  good  time 
coming,'  which  was  expected  to  coincide  with  the  end  of 
the  first  century  of  the  Hijra.  Mysterious  predictions,  dark 
sayings  attributed  to  Muhammad  himself,  prophecies  of  war 
and  deliverance  floated  to  and  fro.     Men  pored  over  apocry- 


THE  MAWALI  or  'CLIENTS'  249 

phal  books,  and  asked  whether  the  days  of  confusion  and 
slaughter  {al-harj\  which,  it  is  known,  shall  herald  the 
appearance  of  the  Mahdf,  had  not  actually  begun. 

The  final  struggle  was  short  and  decisive.  When  it  closed, 
the  Umayyads  and  with  them  the  dominion  of  the  Arabs 
had  passed  away.  Alike  in  politics  and  literature,  the  Persian 
race  asserted  its  supremacy.  We  shall  now  relate  the  story 
of  this  Revolution  as  briefly  as  possible,  leaving  the  results 
to  be  considered  in  a  new  chapter. 

While    the    ShlMte    missionaries    {du^'at^   sing,    da^t)    were 
actively  engaged  in  canvassing  for  their  party,  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  recognised  in  'AH  and  his  descendants 
^'   '    the    only    legitimate    successors   to    Muhammad, 
another  branch  of  the   Prophet's  family — the  'Abbasids — had 
entered   the    field  with   the  secret   intention    of  turning  the 
labours  of  the  'Alids   to   their   own  advantage.     From  their 
ancestor,  'Abbas,   the    Prophet's    uncle,  they   inherited   those 
qualities    of  caution,    duplicity,    and   worldly    wisdom    which 
ensure    success    in    political   intrigue.     'Abdullah,  the  son  of 
'Abbas,   devoted    his    talents    to    theology    and   interpretation 
of  the  Koran.      He  "  passes  for  one  of  the  strongest  pillars 
of    religious    tradition  ;     but,    in    the    eyes    of    unprejudiced 
European    research,  he  is   only  a   crafty  liar."     His    descen- 
dants "  lived  in   deep   retirement  in  Humayma,  a  little  place 
to   the   south    of    the    Dead    Sea,   seemingly    far   withdrawn 
from  the   world,   but  which,  on  account  of  its  proximity  to 
the  route  by  which  Syrian  pilgrims  went  to  Mecca,  afforded 
opportunities    for    communication   with    the    remotest    lands 
of    Islam.     From    this    centre    they   carried    on 
propaganda  in    the    propaganda   in    their   own    behalf  with    the 
urasan.       ^j-j^Qgj.  gj^jj^^     They   had  genius  enough    to  see 

that  the  best  soil  for  their  efforts  was  the  distant  Khurasan 

— that   is,   the  extensive  north-eastern  provinces   of  the    old 

Persian    Empire."  ^     These    countries    were    inhabited    by   a 

'  Noldeke,  Sketches  from  Eastern  History,  tr.  by  J.  S.  Black,  p.  108  seq. 


250  THE    UMAYYAD   DYNASTY 

brave  and  high-spirited  people  who  in  consequence  of  their 
intolerable  sufferings  under  the  Umayyad  tyranny,  the 
devastation  of  their  homes  and  the  almost  servile  condition 
to  v^^hich  they  had  been  reduced,  vs^ere  eager  to  join  in  any 
desperate  enterprise  that  gave  them  hope  of  relief.  More- 
over, the  Arabs  in  Khurasan  w^ere  already  to  a  large  extent 
Persianised  :  they  had  Persian  wives,  wore  trousers,  drank 
wine,  and  kept  the  festivals  of  Nawriiz  and  Mihrgan  ; 
while  the  Persian  language  was  generally  understood  and 
even  spoken  among  them.^  Many  interesting  details  as  to 
the  methods  of  the  'Abbasid  emissaries  will  be  found  in 
Van  Vloten's  admirable  work.^  Starting  from  Kiifa,  the 
residence  of  the  Grand  Master  who  directed  the  whole 
agitation,  they  went  to  and  fro  in  the  guise  of  merchants 
or  pilgrims,  cunningly  adapting  their  doctrine  to  the  intelli- 
gence of  those  whom  they  sought  to  enlist.  Like  the 
Shi'ites,  they  canvassed  for  '  the  House  of  the  Prophet,'  an 
ambiguous  expression  which  might  equally  well  be  applied 
to  the  descendants  of  'AH  or  of  'Abbas,  as  is  shown  by  the 
following  table  : — 

Hashim. 

'Abdu  '1-Muttalib. 


I  I  I   , 

'Abdullah.  Abii  Talib.  'Abbas. 

Muhammad  (the  Prophet).  'Ali  (married  to  Fatima,  daughter  of 

the  Prophet). 

It  was,  of  course,  absolutely  essential  to  the  'Abbdsids  that 
they  should  be  able  to  count  on  the  support  of  the  powerful 

Shi'ite  organisation,  which,  ever  since  the  abortive 
join  hands  with  rebellion  headed   by   Mukhtdr  (see  p.  2i8  supra) 

had  drawn  vast  numbers  of  Persian  Mawdll 
into  its  ranks.     Now,  of  the  two  main   parties  of  the  Shf'a, 

'  Wellhausen,  Das  Arabische  Reich,  p.  307. 

'  Kecherchcs  sur  la  domination  Arabc,  p.  46  sqq. 


THE  'ABB  A  SID  PROPAGANDA  251 

viz.,  the  Hdshimites  or  followers  of  Muhammad  Ibnu 
'1-Hanafiyya,  and  the  Imamites,  who  pinned  their  faith  to 
the  descendants  of  the  Prophet  through  his  daughter  Fatima, 
the  former  had  virtually  identified  themselves  with  the 
'Abbasids,  inasmuch  as  the  Imdm  Abu  Hashim,  who  died 
in  716  A.D.,  bequeathed  his  hereditary  rights  to  Muhammad 
b.  'All,  the  head  of  the  House  of  'Abbas.  It  only  remained 
to  hoodwink  the  Imamites.  Accordingly  the  'Abbasid 
emissaries  were  instructed  to  carry  on  their  propaganda  in 
the  name  of  Hashim,  the  common  ancestor  of  'Abbas  and 
'All.  By  means  of  this  ruse  they  obtained  a  free  hand  in 
Khurasan,  and  made  such  progress  that  the  governor  of  that 
province,  Nasr  b.  Sayyar,  wrote  to  the  Umayyad  Caliph, 
Marwan,  asking  for  reinforcements,  and  informing  him  that 
two  hundred  thousand  men  had  sworn  allegiance  to  Abu 
Muslim,  the  principal  'Abbasid  agent.  At  the  foot  of  his 
letter  he  added  these  lines  : — 

"  I  see  the  coal's  red  glow  beneath  the  embers, 

And  'tis  about  to  blaze  ! 
The  rubbing  of  two  sticks  enkindles  fire, 

And  out  of  words  come  frays. 
'Oh!  is  Umayya's  House  awake  or  sleeping?' 

I  cry  in  sore  amaze."  ' 

We  have  other  verses  by  this  gallant  and  loyal  officer  in 
which  he  implores  the  Arab  troops  stationed  in  Khurdsan,  who 
were  paralysed  by  tribal  dissensions,  to  turn  their  swords 
against  "  a  mixed  rabble  without  religion  or  nobility  "  : — 

"'Death  to  the  Arabs'— that  is  all  their  creed."  = 

These  warnings,  however,  were  of  no  avail,  and  on 
June  9th,  A.D.  747,  Abu  Muslim  displayed  the  black  banner 

'  Dinawari,  ed.  by  Guirgass,  p.  356. 

'  Ihid.,  p.  360,  1.  15.    The  whole  poem  has  been  translated  by  Professor 
Browne  in  his  Literary  History  of  Persia,  vol.  i,  p.  242. 


252  THE    UMAYVAD  DYNASTY 

of  the  'Abbdsids  at  Siqadanj,  near  Merv,  which  city  he 
occupied    a    few    months    later.      The    triumphant    advance 

of  the  armies  of  the  Revolution  towards 
Declaration  of    Qamascus    recalls    the    celebrated    campaign    of 

Caesar,  when  after  crossing  the  Rubicon  he 
marched  on  Rome.  Nor  is  Abii  Muslim,  though  a  freed- 
man  of  obscure  parentage — he  was  certainly  no  Arab — 
unworthy  to  be  compared  with  the  great  patrician.  "  He 
united,"  says  Noldeke,  "  with  an  agitator's  adroitness  and 
perfect   unscrupulosity    in    the    choice   of  means   the    energy 

and    clear  outlook  of  a   general    and    statesman, 

Abii  Muslim.  ,  ^  \    ti  t^    •  l  i 

and  even  or  a  monarch.  ^  Urim,  ruthless, 
disdaining  the  pleasures  of  ordinary  men,  he  possessed  the 
faculty  in  which  Caesar  excelled  of  inspiring  blind  obedience 
and  enthusiastic  devotion.  To  complete  the  parallel,  we  may 
mention  here  that  Abii  Muslim  was  treacherously  murdered 
by  Mansiir,  the  second  Caliph  of  the  House  which  he  had 
raised  to  the  throne,  from  motives  exactly  resembling  those 
which  Shakespeare  has  put  in  the  mouth  of  Brutus — 

"  So  Cssar  may  : 
Then,  lest  he  may,  prevent.     And  since  the  quarrel 
Will  bear  no  colour  for  the  thing  he  is, 
Fashion  it  thus :  that  what  he  is,  augmented, 
Would  run  to  these  and  these  extremities ; 
And  therefore  think  him  as  a  serpent's  egg 
Which,  hatched,  would  as  his  kind  grow  mischievous, 
And  kill  him  in  the  shell." 

The  downfall  of  the  Umayyads  was  hastened  by  the  perfidy 
and  selfishness  of  the  Arabs  on  whom  they  relied  :  the  old 
feud  between  Mudar  and  Yemen  broke  out  afresh,  and  while 
the  Northern  group  remained  loyal  to  the  dynasty,  those  of 
Yemenite  stock  more  or  less  openly  threw  in  their  lot  with 
the  Revolution.     We  need  not  attempt  to  trace  the  course 

'  Sketches  from  Eastern  History,  p.  iii. 


ABlJ  MUSLIM  253 

of  the  unequal  contest.  Everywhere  the  Arabs,  disheartened 
and  divided,  fell  an  easy  prey  to  their  adversaries,  and  all  w^as 
lost  when  Marwan,  the  last  Umayyad  Caliph,  sustained  a 
crushing  defeat  on  the  River  Zab  in  Babylonia  (January, 
A.D.  750).  Meanwhile  Abu  'l-'Abbds,  the  head  of  the 
rival  House,  had  already  received  homage  as  Caliph 
(November,  749  a.d.).  In  the  inaugural  address  which  he 
delivered  in  the  great  Mosque  of  Kufa,  he  called 

Accession  of 

Abu  'i-'Abbas     himself  al-Saffah.   i.e..  '■  the   Blood-shedder  '  ^  and 

al-Saffah.  ,  •         •  i        ,  ,  „  , 

this  title  has  deservedly  stuck  to  him,  though 
it  might  have  been  assumed  with  no  less  justice  by  his 
brother  Mansur  and  other  members  of  his  family.  All 
Umayyads  were  remorselessly  hunted  down  and  massacred 
in  cold  blood — even  those  who  surrendered  only  on  the 
strength  of  the  most  solemn  pledges  that  they  had  nothing 
to  fear.  A  small  remnant  made  their  escape,  or  managed 
to  find  shelter  until  the  storm  of  fury  and  vengeance, 
which  spared  neither  the  dead  nor  the  living,^  had  blown 
over.  One  stripling,  named  'Abdu  '1-Rahman,  fled  to  North 
Africa,  and  after  meeting  with  many  perilous  adventures 
founded  a  new  Umayyad  dynasty  in  Spain. 

'  Professor  Bevan,  to  whose  kindness  I  owe  the  following  observations, 
points  out  that  this  translation  of  al-Sajfdh,  although  it  has  been  generally 
adopted  by  European  scholars,  is  very  doubtful.  According  to  Professor 
De  Goeje,  al-Saffdh  means  '  the  munificent '  (literally,  '  pouring  out '  gifts, 
&c.).  In  any  case  it  is  important  to  notice  that  the  name  was  given  to 
certain  Pre-islamic  chieftains.  Thus  Salama  b.  Khalid,  who  commanded 
the  Banu  Taghlib  at  the  first  battle  of  al-Kulab  (Ibnu  'l-Athi'r,  ed.  by 
Tornberg,  vol.  i,  p.  406,  last  line),  is  said  to  have  been  called  al-Saffdh 
because  he  '  emptied  out '  the  skin  bottles  (mazdd)  of  his  army  before  a 
battle  (Ibn  Durayd,  ed.  by  Wiistenfeld,  p.  203, 1.  i§)  ;  and  we  find  mention 
of  a  poet  named  al-Saffah  b.  'Abd  Manat  (ibid.,  p.  277,  penult,  line). 

'  See  p.  205. 


CHAPTER    VI 


THE    CALIPHS   OF    BAGHDAD 


The  annals  of  the  'Abbdsid  dynasty  from  the  accession  of 
Saffdh  (a.d.  749)  to  the  death  of  Musta'sim,  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  Baghdad  by  the  Mongols  (a.d.  1258)  make  a  round 
sum  of  five  centuries.  I  propose  to  sketch  the  history  of  this 
long  period  in  three  chapters,  of  which  the  first  will  offer  a 
general  view  of  the  more  important  literary  and  political 
developments  so  far  as  is  possible  in  the  limited  space  at  my 
command  ;  the  second  will  be  devoted  to  the  great  poets, 
scholars,  historians,  philosophers,  and  scientists  who  flourished 
in  this,  the  Golden  Age  of  Muhammadan  literature  ;  while  in 
the  third  some  account  will  be  given  of  the  chief  religious 
movements  and  of  the  trend  of  religious  thought. 

The  empire  founded  by  the  Caliph  *Umar  and  administered 
by  the  Umayyads  was  essentially,  as  the  reader  will  have 
gathered,  a  military  organisation  for  the  benefit  of  the 
paramount  race.  In  theory,  no  doubt,  all  Moslems  were 
equal,  but  in  fact  the  Arabs  alone  ruled — a  privilege  which 
national  pride  conspired  with  personal  interest  to  maintain. 
We  have  seen  how  the  Persian  Moslems  asserted  their  right 
to  a  share  in  the  government.     The  Revolution 

Political  results  i      i        ^  a  i  i   r    •  i  i  i        i 

of  the         which  enthroned  the  'Abbasids  marks  the  begin- 

Revolution.  .  r  n  /r      i  i  a       i  • 

ning  or  a  Moslem,  as  opposed  to  an  Arabian, 
Empire.  The  new  dynasty,  owing  its  rise  to  the  people  of 
Persia,    and    especially    of    Khurdsdn,    could    exist    only    by 

254 


'ABbAsid  policy  255 

establishing  a  balance  of  power  between  Persians  and  Arabs. 
That  this  policy  was  not  permanently  successful  will  surprise 
no  one  who  considers  the  widely  diverse  characteristics  of  the 
two  races,  but    for    the  next    fifty   years    the   rivals  worked 

\  together  in  tolerable  harmony,  thanks  to  the  genius  of 
Mansur   and    the    conciliatory  influence  of  the   Barmecides, 

I  by  whose  overthrow  the  alliance  was  virtually  dissolved.  In 
the  ensuing  civil  war  between  the  sons  of  Harun  al-Rashid 
the  Arabs  fought  on  the  side  of  Amin  while  the  Persians 
supported  Ma'mun,  and  henceforth  each  race  began  to  follow 
an  independent  path.  The  process  of  separation,  however, 
was  very  gradual,  and  long  before  it  was  completed  the 
religious  and  intellectual  life  of  both  nationalities  had 
become    inseparably  mingled   in   the  full   stream  of  Moslem 

I     civilisation. 

The  centre  of  this  civilisation  was  the  province  of  'Irdq 
(Babylonia),  with    its    renowned    metropolis,    Baghdad,   'the 

City  of  Peace  '  {Madinatu  'l-Saldm).  Only  here 
^n^ewStai/   ^ould    the    'Abbasids    feel    themselves    at    home. 

"  Damascus,  peopled  by  the  dependants  of  the 
Omayyads,  was  out  of  the  question.  On  the  one  hand  it 
was  too  far  from  Persia,  whence  the  power  of  the  Abbasids 
was  chiefly  derived  ;  on  the  other  hand  it  was  dangerously 
near  the  Greek  frontier,  and  from  here,  during  the  troublous 
reigns  of  the  last  Omayyads,  hostile  incursions  on  the  part  of 
the  Christians  had  begun  to  avenge  former  defeats.  It  was 
also  beginning  to  be  evident  that  the  conquests  of  Islam 
would,  in  the  future,  lie  to  the  eastward  towards  Central 
Asia,  rather  than  to  the  westward  at  the  further  expense  of 
the  Byzantines.  Damascus,  on  the  highland  of  Syria,  lay,  so 
to  speak,  dominating  the  Mediterranean  and  looking  west- 
ward, but  the  new  capital  that  was  to  supplant  it  must  face 
east,  be  near  Persia,  and  for  the  needs  of  commerce  have  water 
communication  with  the  sea.     Hence  everything  pointed  to  a 


256  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

site  on  either  the  Euphrates  or  the  Tigris,  and  the  Abbasids 
were  not  slow  to  make  their  choice."  ^  After  carefully 
examining  various  sites,  the  Caliph  Mansur  fixed  on  a  little 
Persian    village,    on     the    west    bank    of    the    Tigris,    called 

Baghdad,  which,  being  interpreted,  means 
^°Baghi2r'     'given      (or     <  founded ')     by      God';    and     in 

A.D.  762  the  walls  of  the  new  city  began  to 
rise.  Mansur  laid  the  first  brick  with  his  own  hand,  and 
the  work  was  pushed  forward  with  astonishing  rapidity  under 
his  personal  direction  by  masons,  architects,  and  surveyors, 
whom  he  gathered  out  of  different  countries,  so  that  '  the 
Round  City,'  as  he  planned  it,  was  actually  finished  within 
the  short  space  of  four  years. 

The  same  circumstances  which  caused  the  seat  of  empire 
to  be  transferred  to  Baghddd  brought  about  a  corresponding 
change  in  the  whole  system  of  government.  Whereas  the 
Umayyads  had  been  little  more  than  heads  of  a  turbulent 
Arabian  aristocracy,  their  successors  reverted  to  the  old  type 
of  Oriental  despotism  with  which  the  Persians  had  been 
familiar  since  the  days  of  Darius  and  Xerxes.  Surrounded 
by  a  strong  bodyguard  of  troops  from  Khurdsan,  on  whose 
devotion  they  could  rely,  the  'Abbasids  ruled 
character  of      with   absolutc   authority  over  the  lives  and   pro- 

* Ahh^sid  rule 

perties  of  their  subjects,  even  as  the  Sdsaniaii 
monarchs  had  ruled  before  them.  Persian  fashions  were 
imitated  at  the  court,  which  was  thronged  with  the  Caliph's 
relatives  and  freedmen  (not  to  mention  his  womenfolk),  besides 
a  vast  array  of  uniformed  and  decorated  officials.  Chief  amongst 
these  latter  stood  two  personages  who  figure  prominently  in 
the  Arabian  Nights — the  Vizier  and  the  Executioner.  The 
office  of  Vizier  is  probably  of  Persian  origin,  although  in  Pro- 
fessor De  Goeje's  opinion  the  word  itself  is  Arabic.^     The  first 

'  G.  Le  Strange,  Baghdad  under  the  Abbasid  Caliphate,  p.  4  seq. 
^  Professor  De  Goeje  has  kindly  given  me  the  following  references  : — 
Tabari,  ii,  78,  1.  10,  where  Ziyad  is  called  the  Wazir  of  Mu'awiya  ;  Ibn 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  257 

who  bore  this  title  in  'Abbasid   times  was  Abii  Salama,  the 

minister  of  Saffah  :  he  was  called   Wa-Liru  Alt  Muhammad"\ 

'the     Vizier     of     Muhammad's     Family.'       It 

The  Vizier.  "      .    .  •' 

was  the  duty  of  the  Vizier  to  act  as  inter- 
mediary between  the  omnipotent  sovereign  and  his  people, 
to  counsel  him  in  affairs  of  State,  and,  above  all,  to  keep  His 
Majesty  in  good  humour.  He  wielded  enormous  power,  but 
was  exposed  to  every  sort  of  intrigue,  and  never  knew  when 
he  might  be  interned  in  a  dungeon  or  despatched  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye  by  the  grim  functionary  presiding  over 
the  ««/',  or  circular  carpet  of  leather,  which  lay  beside  the 
throne  and  served  as  a  scaffold. 


We    can    distinguish    two    periods    in    the    history    of    the 

*Abbasid   House  :  one  of  brilliant   prosperity  inaugurated   by 

Mansur   and    including     the    reigns    of    Mahdi, 

Two  periods        Tt  t     i  iT-»iri  n/r»^  ii  ir    r 

of'Abbdsid      Harun      al-Kashid,      Ma  mun,     Mu'tasim,     and 

history.  ti?-'    u-  i  • 

Wathiq — that  is  to  say,  nearly  a  hundred  years 
in  all  (754-847  A.D.)  ;  the  other,  more  than  four  times 
as  long,  commencing  with  Mutawakkil  (847-861  a.d.) 
— a  period  of  decline  rapidly  sinking,  after  a  brief  interval 
which  gave  promise  of  better  things,  into  irremediable 
decay.i 


Sa'd,  iii,  121,  1.  6  (Abu  Bakr  the  Wazir  of  the  Prophet).  The  word  occurs 
in  Pre-islamic  poetry  (Ibn  Qutayba,  K.  al-Shi'r  wa-l-Shu'ard,  p.  414,  1.  i). 
Professor  De  Goeje  adds  that  the  'Abbasid  CaHphs  gave  the  name  Wazir 
as  title  to  the  minister  who  was  formerly  called  Kdtib  (Secretary).  Thus 
it  would  seem  that  the  Arabic  Wazir  (literally  '  burden-bearer '),  who  was 
at  first  merely  a  'helper'  or  'henchman,'  afterwards  became  the  repre- 
sentative and  successor  of  the  Dapir  (official  scribe  or  secretary)  of  the 
Sasanian  kings. 

'  This  division  is  convenient,  and  may  be  justified  on  general  grounds. 
In  a  strictly  political  sense,  the  period  of  decline  begins  thirty  years 
earlier  with  the  Caliphate  of  Ma'miin  (813-833  a.d.).  The  historian 
Abu  '1-Mahasin  (f  1469  a.d.)  dates  the  decline  of  the  Caliphate  from  the 
accession  of  Muktafi  in  902  a.d.  {al-Nujiim  al-Zdhira,  ed.  by  Juynboll, 
vol.  ii,  p.  134). 

18 


258  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

Cruel  and  treacherous,  like  most  of  his  family,  Abu  Ja'far 
Mansur  was  perhaps  the  greatest  ruler  whom  the  *Abbasids 
produced. I     He  had  to  fight  hard  for  his  throne. 
^(ts™!^.?  The   'Alids,    who    deemed    themselves    the    true 
heirs  of  the  Prophet  in  virtue  of  their  descent 
from  Fatima,  rose  in  rebellion  against  the  usurper,  surprised 
him  in  an  unguarded  moment,  and  drove  him  to  such  straits 
that  during  seven  weeks  he  never  changed  his  dress  except  for 
public  prayers.     But  once  more   the  'Alids  proved  incapable 
of  grasping  their  opportunity.     The  leaders,  Muhammad  and 
his    brother   Ibrahim,  who  was  known  as  *  The   Pure    Soul ' 
{al-Nafs  al-zakiyya)^  fell    on    the    battlefield.      Under    Mahdf 
and    Harun    members   of    the    House   of  'All   continued    to 
'come  out,'   but  with  no  better  success.     In  Eastern  Persia, 
where   strong   national    feelings    interwove    themselves   with 
Pre-Muhammadan    religious    ideas,    those    of    Mazdak    and 
Zoroaster    in    particular,    the    'Abbasids   encountered    a    for- 
midable opposition  which   proclaimed  its  vigour 
°"persia^'"     ^^^  tenacity  by  the  successive  revolts  of  Sinbadh 
the    Magian    (755-756    a.d.),    Ustadhsis    (766- 
768),  Muqanna',  the  'Veiled  Prophet  of  Khurasan'  (780- 
786),  and  Babak  the  Khurramite  (8i6-838).2 

Mansur  said  to  his  son  Mahdi,  "O  Abu  'Abdalldh,  when 

you  sit  in  company,  always  have  divines  to  converse  with  you  ; 

for    Muhammad    b.  Shihab  al-Zuhri  said,   '  The 

^^''tlMah^^'"  ^oxd  hadtth  (Apostolic  Tradition)  is  masculine  : 

only  virile  men  love  it,  and  only  effeminate  men 

dislike  it '  5  and  he  spoke  the  truth."  3 

On  one  occasion  a  poet    came  to   Mahdf,  who  was   then 
heir-apparent,  at  Rayy,  and  recited  a  panegyric  in  his  honour. 


'  See  Noldeke's  essay,  Caliph  Man^ilr,  in  his  Sketches  from  Eastern 
History,  trans,  by  J.  S.  Black,  p.  107  sqq. 

"^  Professor  Browne  has  given  an  interesting  account  of  these  ultra- 
Shi'ite  insurgents  in  his  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  i,  ch.  ix. 

3  Tabari,  iii,  404,  1.  5  sqq. 


MANSI^R  259 

The  prince  gave  him  20,000  dirhems.  Thereupon  the 
postmaster  of  Rayy  informed  Mansur,  who  wrote  to  his  son 
reproaching  him  for  such  extravagance.  "  What 
^^IfeToet"^  you  should  have  done,"  he  said,  "  was  to  let  him 
wait  a  year  at  your  door,  and  after  that  time 
bestow  on  him  4,000  dirhems."  He  then  caused  the  poet 
to  be  arrested  and  brought  into  his  presence.  "You  went 
to  a  heedless  youth  and  cajoled  him?"  "Yes,  God  save 
the  Commander  of  the  Faithful,  I  went  to  a  heedless, 
generous  youth  and  cajoled  him,  and  he  suffered  himself  to 
be  cajoled."  "  Recite  your  eulogy  of  him."  The  poet 
obeyed,  not  forgetting  to  conclude  his  verses  with  a  com- 
pliment to  Mansur,  "  Bravo  !  "  cried  the  Caliph,  "  but  they 
are  not  worth  20,000  dirhems.  Where  is  the  money  ?  "  On 
its  being  produced  he  made  him  a  gift  of  4,000  dirhems  and 
confiscated  the  remainder."  ^ 

Notwithstanding     irreconcilable     parties — 'Alids,     Persian 

extremists,    and    (we    may    add)    Kharijites — the    policy    of 

rapprochement  was    on    the  whole    extraordinarily 

The  Barmecides.        ■*  •"     .  .  _  ■' 

effective.  In  carrying  it  out  the  Caliphs  re- 
ceived powerful  assistance  from  a  noble  and  ancient  Persian 
family,  the  celebrated  Barmakites  or  Barmecides.  According 
to  Mas'udi,2  Barmak  was  originally  a  title  borne  by  the  High 
Priest  {sddin)  of  the  great  Magian  fire- temple  at  Balkh. 
Khalid,  the  son  of  one  of  these  dignitaries — whence  he  an<d 
his  descendants  were  called  Barmakites  {Bardmtka) — held  the 
most  important  offices  of  state  under  Saffah  and  Man§ur. 
Yahya,  the  son  of  Khalid,  was  entrusted  with  the  educa- 
tion of  Harun  al-Rashid,  and  on  the  accession  of  the  young 

prince  he  was   appointed    Grand   Vizier.     "Mv 

Yahya  b.  Khalid.  ,  ^ 

dear  father !  "  said  the  Caliph,  "  it  is  through 
the  blessings  and  the  good  fortune  which  attend  you,  and 
through  your  excellent  management,  that  I  am  seated  on  the 

'  Tabari,  iii,  406,  1.  i  sqq. 

=  Miiruju  'l-DIiahab,  ed.  by  Barbier  de  Meynard,  vol.  iv,  p.  47  seq. 


26o  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

throne ;  ^  so  I  commit  to  you  the  direction  of  affairs."  He  then 
handed  to  him  his  signet-ring.  Yahya  was  distinguished  (says 
the  biographer)  for  wisdom,  nobleness  of  mind,  and  elegance  of 
language.2  Although  he  took  a  truly  Persian  delight  in  philo- 
sophical discussion,  for  which  purpose  free-thinking  scholars 
and  eminent  heretics  used  often  to  meet  in  his  house,  he  was 
careful  to  observe  the  outward  forms  of  piety.  It  may  be  said 
of  the  *Abbdsids  generally  that,  whatever  they  might  do  or 
think  in  private,  they  wore  the  official  badge  of  Islam  osten- 
tatiously on  their  sleeves.  The  following  verses  which  Yahy^ 
addressed  to  his  son  Fadl  are  very  characteristic  : —  3 

■  "  Seek  glory  while  'tis  day,  no  effort  spare, 
And  patiently  the  loved  one's  absence  bear ; 
But  when  the  shades  of  night  advancing  slow 
O'er  every  vice  a  veil  of  darkness  throw. 
Beguile  the  hours  with  all  thy  heart's  delight : 
The  day  of  prudent  men  begins  at  night. 
Many  there  be,  esteemed  of  life  austere. 
Who  nightly  enter  on  a  strange  career. 
Night  o'er  them  keeps  her  sable  curtain  drawn. 
And  merrily  they  pass  from  eve  to  dawn. 
Who  but  a  fool  his  pleasures  would  expose 
To  spying  rivals  and  censorious  foes  ? " 

For  seventeen    years  Yahyd   and    his   two  sons,  Fadl  and 

Ja'far,  remained  deep  in  Hdrun's  confidence  and  virtual  rulers 

of  the  State  until,  from  motives  which  have  been 

Barmecides      variously   explained,  the    Caliph    resolved    to    rid 

(803A.D.).       j^jjj^self  of  the  whole  family.     The  story  is   too 

well    known    to    need    repetition.4     Ja^far   alone  was   put    to 

death  :   we    may    conclude,    therefore,  that    he    had    specially 

'  When  the  Caliph  Had!  wished  to  proclaim  his  son  Ja'far  heir-apparent 
instead  of  Harun,  Yahya  pointed  out  the  danger  of  this  course  and  dis- 
suaded him  (al-Fakhri,  ed.  by  Derenbourg,  p.  281). 

=  Ibn  Khallikan,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  iv,  p.  105. 

3  Mas'udi,  Mun'iju  'l-Dhahab,  vol.  vi,  p.  364. 

■*  See,  for  example,  Haroun  Alraschid,  by  E.  H.  Palmer,  in  the  New 
Plutarch  Series,  p.  81  sqq. 


HARUN  and    the  BARMECIDES        261 

excited  the  Caliph's  anger ;  and  those  who  ascribe  the 
catastrophe  to  his  romantic  love-affair  with  Harun's  sister, 
'Abbdsa,  are  probably  in  the  right.i  Harun  himself  seems 
to  have  recognised,  when  it  was  too  late,  how  much  he 
owed  to  these  great  Persian  barons  whose  tactful  adminis- 
tration, unbounded  generosity,  and  munificent  patronage  of 
literature  have  shed  immortal  lustre  on  his  reign.  Afterwards, 
if  any  persons  spoke  ill  of  the  Barmecides  in  his  presence,  he 
would  say  (quoting  the  verse  of  Hutay'a)  : — 2 

"  O  slanderers,  be  your  sire  of  sire  bereft  !  3 
Give  o'er,  or  fill  the  gap  which  they  have  left." 

Hdrun's  orthodoxy,  his  liberality,  his  victories  over  the 
Byzantine  Emperor  Nicephorus,  and  last  but  not  least  the 
literary  brilliance  of  his  reign  have  raised  him  in  popular 
estimation  far  above  all  the  other  Caliphs  :  he  is  the  Charle- 
magne of  the  East,  while  the  entrancing  pages  of  the  Thousand 
and  One  Nights  have  made  his  name  a  household  word  in  every 
country  of  Europe.      Students  of  Moslem   history  will  soon  ^ 

discover  that  "  the  good  Haroun  Alraschid  "  was  | 
"786^8^" a^dV"^  i"   ^^^^  ^  perfidious  and   irascible    tyrant,  whose  • 

fitful  amiability  and  real  taste  for  music  and 
letters  hardly  entitle  him  to  be  described  either  as  a  great 
monarch  or  a  good  man.  We  must  grant,  however,  that  he 
thoroughly  understood  the  noble  art  of  patronage.  The 
poets  Abu  Nuwds,  Abu  'l-'Atdhiya,  Di'bil,  Muslim  b.  Walld, 
and  'Abbds  b.  Ahnaf;  the  musician  Ibrahim  of  Mosul  and 
his  son  Ishdq  ;  the  philologists  Abu  'Ubayda,  Asma'l,  and 
Kisd'i ;  the  preacher  Ibnu  '1-Sammdk  ;  and  the  historian 
Waqidi — these  are  but  a  few  names  in  the  galaxy  of  talent 
which  he  gathered  around  him  at  Baghddd. 

■  Cf.  A.  Miiller,  Der  Islam,  vol.  i,  p.  481  seq. 

=  Ibn  Khallikan,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  iv,  p.  112. 

3  Literally,  "  No  father  to  your  father  !  "  a  common  form  of  imprecation. 


262  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

The    fall    of  the    Barmecides   revived    the   spirit   of  racial 

antagonism  vi^hich  they  had   done   their   best  to  lay,  and   an 

open    rupture    was    rendered    inevitable    by    the 

lAmin  and  •    i  i  ^•  r      rt ■-    ^ 

Mamiin        short-si2:hted    policy    of    Harun    with    regard    to 

(809-833  A.D.).  .  -^  , 

the  succession.  He  had  two  grown-up  sons, 
Amin,  by  his  wife  and  cousin  Zubayda,  and  Ma'mun,  whose 
mother  was  a  Persian  slave.  It  was  arranged  that  the 
Caliphate  should  pass  to  Amln  and  after  him  to  his  brother, 
but  that  the  Empire  should  be  divided  between  them.  Amin 
was  to  receive  *Iraq  and  Syria,  Ma'mun  the  eastern  pro- 
vinces, where  the  people  would  gladly  welcome  a  ruler  of 
their  own  blood.  The  struggle  for  supremacy  which  began 
almost  immediately  on  the  death  of  Hariin  was  in  the  main 
one  of  Persians  against  Arabs,  and  by  Ma'mun's  triumph  the 
Barmecides  were  amply  avenged. 

The  new  Caliph  was  anything  but  orthodox.     He  favoured 

the  Shi'ite  party  to  such  an  extent   that  he  even   nominated 

the  'Alid,  'AH  b.  Musa  b.  Ja'far  al-Rida,  as  heir- 

*her^?"s.^  apparent — a  step  which  alienated  the  members  of 
his  own  family  and  led  to  his  being  temporarily 
deposed.  He  also  adopted  the  opinions  of  the  Mu'tazilite  sect 
and  established  an  Inquisition  to  enforce  them.  Hence  the 
Sunnite  historian,  Abu  '1-Mahdsin,  enumerates  three  principal 
heresies  of  which  Ma'mun  was  guilty  :  ( i )  His  wearing  of  the 
Green  {Jabsu  U-Khudra)  ^  and  courting  the  'Alidsand  repulsing 
the  'Abbasids  ;  (2)  his  affirming  that  the  Koran  was  created 
[al-qawl  bi-Khalqi  U-Qur''dn)  ;  and  (3)  his  legalisation  of  the 
mufa^  a  loose  form  of  marriage  prevailing  amongst  the 
Shl'ites.2  We  shall  see  in  due  course  how  keenly  and  with 
what  fruitful  results  Ma'mun  interested  himself  in  literature 
and  science.  Nevertheless,  it  cannot  escape  our  attention 
that  in  this  splendid  reign  there  appear  ominous  signs  of  political 
decay.     In  822   a.d.  Tdhir,  one  of  Ma'mun's  generals,  who 

'  Green  was  the  party  colour  of  the  'Alids,  black  of  the  'Abbasids. 
==  Al-Nujt'im  al-Zdhira,  ed.  by  Juynboll,  vol.  i,  p.  631. 


MA'Ml)N  263 

\    had    been    appointed    governor    of    Khurasin,    omitted    the 
customary   mention   of  the   Caliph's    name   from   the   Friday- 
sermon     (khutba),     thus     founding    the    Tahirid 
independent     dynasty,   which,  though    professing  allegiance  to 
ynasies.       ^^^  Caliphs,  was  practically  independent.     Tahir 
was  only  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  ambitious  governors  and 
bold  adventurers  who  profited  by  the  weakening  authority  of 
the  Caliphs  to  carve  out  kingdoms  for  themselves.     Moreover, 
the  Moslems  of  'Iraq  had  lost  their  old  warlike  spirit :   they 
were   fine  scholars  and   merchants,  but  poor  soldiers.     So    it 
came  about    that   Ma'mun's  successor,  the  Caliph   Mu'tasim 
(833-842  A.D.),  took  the  fatal  step  of  surround- 
mercenaries     ing    himsclf    with    z    Practorian    Guard    chiefly 
composed  of  Turkish  recruits  from  Transoxania. 
At  the  same  time  he  removed  his  court  from  Baghdad  sixty 
miles  further  up  the  Tigris  to  Samarra,  which  suddenly  grew 
into  a  superb  city  of  palaces  and  barracks — an  Oriental  Ver- 
sailles.i     Here  we  may  close  our  brief  review  of  the  first  and 
flourishing    period    of  the    'Abbdsid    Caliphate.     During    the 
next    four    centuries    the    Caliphs   come    and    go    faster  than 
ever,  but  for   the  most  part  their  authority  is  precarious,   if 
not    purely   nominal.      Meanwhile,  in    the    provinces  of   the 
Empire    petty   dynasties    arise,  only    to    eke    out 
^caifplate*^^     an   obscure   and    troubled    existence,  or  powerful 
states  are  formed,  which  carry  on  the  traditions 
of  Muhammadan  culture,  it  may  be  through  many  genera- 
tions, and  in  some  measure  restore  the  blessings  of  peace  and 
settled    government    to    an    age    surfeited    with    anarchy    and 
bloodshed.     Of  these  provincial  empires  we  have  now  princi- 
pally to  speak,  confining  our  view,  for  the  most  part,  to  the 
political    outlines,    and    reserving    the    literary    and    religious 
aspects  of  the  period  for  fuller  consideration  elsewhere. 

'  The  court  remained  at  Samarra  for  fifty-six  years  (836-892  a.d.).  The 
official  spelling  of  Samarra  was  Surra-man-ra'd,  which  may  be  freely 
rendered  '  The  Spectator's  Joy.' 


i64  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

The  reigns  of  Mutawakkil  (847-861  a.d.)  and  his  immediate 

successors  exhibit  all  the  well-known  features  of  Praetorian  rule. 

Enormous  sums  were  lavished    on    the    Turkish 

The  Second 

'Abbasid Period  Soldiery,  who  elected  and  deposed  the  Caliph  just 
as  they  pleased,  and  enforced  their  insatiable 
demands  by  mutiny  and  assassination.  For  a  short  time 
(869-907  A.D.)  matters  improved  under  the  able  and  energetic 
MuhtadI  and  the  four  Caliphs  who  followed  him  ;  but  the 
Turks  soon  regained  the  upper  hand.  From  this  date  every 
vestige  of  real  power  is  centred  in  the  Generalissimo  [Jmiru 
U~Umara)  who  stands  at  the  head  of  the  army,  while  the 
once  omnipotent  Caliph  must  needs  be  satisfied  with  the 
empty  honour  of  having  his  name  stamped  on  the  coinage 
and  celebrated  in  the  public  prayers.  The  terrorism  of  the 
Turkish  bodyguard  was  broken  by  the  Buwayhids,  a  Persian 
dynasty,  who  ruled  in  Baghdad  from  945  to  1055  a.d.  Then 
the  Seljuq  supremacy  began  with  Tughril  Beg's  entry  into  the 
capital  and  lasted  a  full  century  until  the  death  of  Sanjar 
(1157  A.D.).  The  Mongols  who  captured  Baghdad  in 
1258  A.D.  brought  the  pitiable  farce  of  the  Caliphate  to 
an  end. 

"  The  empire  of  the  Caliphs  at  its  widest,"  as  Stanley  Lane-Poole 
observes  in  his  excellent  account  of  the  Muhammadan  dynasties, 
"  extended  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Indus,  and  from 
early  'Abbasid    the  Caspian  to  the  cataracts  of  the  Nile.     So  vast  a 
^^^'  dominion  could  not  long  be  held  together.     The  first 

step  towards  its  disintegration  began  in  Spain,  where  'Abdu  '1-Rah- 
man,  a  member  of  the  suppressed  Umayyad  family,  was  acknow- 
ledged as  an  independent  sovereign  in  a.d.  755,  and  the  'Abbasid 
Caliphate  was  renounced  for  ever.  Thirty  years  later  Idris,  a 
great-grandson  of  the  Caliph  *Ali,  and  therefore  equally  at  variance 
with  'Abbasids  and  Umayyads,  founded  an  'Alid  dynasty  in 
Morocco.  The  rest  of  the  North  African  coast  was  practically  lost 
to  the  Caliphate  when  the  Aghlabid  governor  established  his 
authority  at  Qayrawan  in  a.d.  800." 

Amongst  the  innumerable  kingdoms  which   supplanted  the 


DYNASTIES   OF   THE  PERIOD  265 

decaying  Caliphate  only  a  few  of  the  most  important  can  be 
singled  out  for  special  notice  on  account  of  their  literary  or 

religious  interest. ^  To  begin  with  Persia  :  in 
^condPedod.'  872   A.D.  KhurAsdn,  which  was  then  held  by  the 

Tahirids,  fell  into  the  hands  of  Ya'qub  b.  Layth 
the  Coppersmith  [al-Saffar)^  founder  of  the  Saffarids,  who  for 
thirty  years  stretched   their  sway  over  a  great  part  of  Persia, 

»  until   they  were    dispossessed   by    the    Samanids. 

?874-^A"iff  T"he  latter  dynasty  had  the  seat  of  its  power  in 
Transoxania,  but  during  the  first  half  of  the 
tenth  century  practically  the  whole  of  Persia  submitted  to  the 
authority  of  Isma'il  and  his  famous  successors,  Nasr  II  and 
Niih  I.  Not  only  did  these  princes  warmly  encourage  and 
foster  the  development,  which  had  already  begun,  of  a  national 
literature  in  the  Persian  language — it  is  enough  to  recall  here 
the  names  of  Rudagi,  the  blind  minstrel  and  poet  ;  Daqiqi, 
whose  fragment  of  a  Persian  Epic  was  afterwards  incorporated 
by  Firdawsi  in  his  Shahnama ;  and  Bal'ami,  the  Vizier  of 
Mansur  I,  who  composed  an  abridgment  of  Tabari's  great 
history,  which  is  one  of  the  oldest  prose  works  in  Persian  that 
have  come  down  to  us — but  they  extended  the  same  favour  to 
poets  and  men  of  learning  who  (though,  for  the  most  part,  of 
Persian  extraction)  preferred  to  use  the  Arabic  language. 
Thus  the  celebrated  Rhazes  (Abu  Baler  al-Rdzi)  dedicated  to 
the  Samanid  prince  Abu  Salih  Mansur  b.  Ishdq  a  treatise  on 
medicine,  which  he  entitled  al-Kitab  al-Mansurl  (the  Book  of 
Mansur)  in  honour  of  his  patron.  The  great  physician  and 
philosopher,  Abu  ^Ali  b.  Sina  (Avicenna)  relates  that,  having 
been  summoned  to  BukhArd  by  King  Nuh,  the  second  of  that 
name    (976-997    a.d.),   be   obtained   permission    to    visit   the 


'  My  account  of  these  dynasties  is  necessarily  of  the  briefest  and  barest 
character.  The  reader  will  find  copious  details  concerning  most  of  them 
in  Professor  Browne's  Literary  History  of  Persia  :  Saffarids  and  Samanids 
in  vol.  i,  p.  346  sqq.  ;  Fatimids  in  vol.  i,  pp.  391-400  and  vol.  ii,  p.  196 
sqq. ;  Ghaznevids  in  vol.  ii,  chap,  ii  ;  and  Seljuqs,  ibid.,  chaps,  iii  to  v. 


O 


266  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

royal  library.  "  I  found  there,"  he  says,  "  many  rooms  filled 
with  books  which  were  arranged  in  cases  row  upon  row.  One 
room  was  allotted  to  works  on  Arabic  philology  and  poetry  ; 
another  to  jurisprudence,  and  so  forth,  the  books  on  each  par- 
ticular science  having  a  room  to  themselves.  I  inspected  the 
catalogue  of  ancient  Greek  authors  and  looked  for  the  books 
which  I  required  :  I  saw  in  this  collection  books  of  which  few 
people  have  heard  even  the  names,  and  which  I  myself  have 
never  seen  either  before  or  since."  ^ 

The  power  of  the  Sdmanids  quickly  reached  its  zenith,  and 
about  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century  they  were  confined  to 
Khurdsin  and    Transoxania,    while    in    Western 
(S^^ioss^a^dS    Persia  their  place  was  taken   by  the   Buwayhids. 
Abu  Shujd'  Buwayh,  a  chieftain  of  Daylam,  the 
mountainous  province  lying  along  the  southern  shores  of  the 
Caspian   Sea,  was  one  of  those  soldiers  of  fortune  whom  we 
meet  with  so  frequently  in  the  history  of  this  period.     His  three 
sons,  'AU,  Ahmad,  and  Hasan,  embarked  on   the  same  adven- 
turous career  with  such  energy  and  success,  that  in  the  course 
of  thirteen  years  they  not  only  subdued  the   provinces  of  Fdrs 
and  Khuzistdn,  but   in  945  a.d.  entered  Baghdad  at  the  head 
of  their  Daylamite  troops  and  assumed  the  supreme  command, 
receiving    from    the  Caliph  Mustakfi    the  honorary  titles   of 
'Imddu   '1-Dawla,  Mu'izzu    '1-Dawla,  and   Ruknu    '1-Dawla. 
Among  the  princes  of  this  House,  who  reigned  over  Persia  and 
*Irdq  during  the  next  hundred  years,  the  most   eminent   was 
*Adudu   '1-Dawla,  of  whom  it   is  said  by  Ibn  Khallikdn  that 
none    of  the  Buwayhids,  notwithstanding   their  great  power 
and  authority,  possessed  so  extensive  an  empire   and  held  sway 
over  so   many  kings  and  kingdoms  as  he.     The  chief  poets 
of  the   day,  including  Mutanabbi,  visited  his  court  at   Shfrdz 
and  celebrated  his  praises  in  magnificent  odes.     He  also  built 
a  great  hospital  in  Baghddd,  the  Bimdristin  al-'Adudi,  which 

'  Ibn  Abi  Usaybi'a,  Tabaqdtu  'l-Atibbd,  ed.  by  A.  Miiller,  vol.  ii,  p.  4, 
1.  4  sqq.    Avicenna  was  at  this  time  scarcely  eighteen  years  of  age. 

» 
{ 


THE  BUWAYHIDS  267 

was  long  famous  as  a  school  ot  medicine.     The  Viziers  of  the 
Buwayhid   family  contributed  in  a  quite  unusual  degree  to  its 
literary  renown.     Ibnu  'l-'Amid,  the  Vizier  of  Ruknu'l-Dawla, 
surpassed    in    philology   and    epistolary    composition    all    his 
contemporaries  ;  hence  he  was  called  '  the  second  Jdhiz,'  and 
it  was  a  common  saying  that  "  the  art  of  letter-writing  began 
with    'Abdu     '1-Hamid  and     ended    with     Ibnu  VAmid."  ^ 
His  friend,  the  Sahib  Isma'il   b.  'Abbad,  Vizier  to  Mu'ayyidu 
'1-Dawla   and    Fakhru  '1-Dawla,   was  a  distinguished  savant, 
whose    learning    was    only    eclipsed    by   the    liberality  of  his 
patronage.     In  the  latter  respect  Sabiir  b.  Ardashir,  the  prime 
minister  of  Abii  Nasr  Baha'u  '1-Dawla,  vied  with  the  illustrious 
Sahib.     He  had  so  many  encomiasts  that  Tha'alibl  devotes  to 
!?•  them  a  whole  chapter  of  the  Tatima.     The   Academy  which 
he  founded  at  Baghdad,  in  the  Karkh  quarter,  and   generously 
endowed,    was  a    favourite    haunt    of    literary    men,   and    its 
members  seem  to  have   enjoyed   pretty  much  the  same   privi- 
leges as  belong  to  the   Fellows  of  an   Oxford   or  Cambridge 
College.2 

Like  most  of  their  countrymen,  the  Buwayhids  were 
Shi'ites  in  religion.  We  read  in  the  Annals  of  Abu  '1-Mahasin 
under  the  year  341  a.h.  =  952  a.d.  : — 

"  In  this  year  the  Vizier  al-Muhallabi  arrested  some  persons 
who  held  the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis  [tandsukh).  Among 
1  of  the  them  were  a  youth  who  declared  that  the  spirit  of 
Buwayhids  for  'All  b.  Abi  Talib  had  passed  into  his  body,  and  a 
Shi'ite  principles.  ^^^^^  who"  claimed  that  the  spirit  of  Fatima  was 
dwelling  in  her  ;  while  another  man  pretended  to  be  Gabriel.  On 
being  flogged,  they  excused  themselves  by  alleging  their  relationship 
to  the  Family  of  the  Prophet,  whereupon  Mu'izzu  '1-Dawla  ordered 
them  to  be  set  free.     This  he   did   because  of  his  attachment  to 


'  'Abdu  '1-Hamid  flourished  in  the  latter  days  of  the  Umayyad  dynasty. 
See  Ibn  Khallikan,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  ii,  p.  173  ;  Mas'udi,  Muriiju 
'l-Dhahab,  vol.  vi,  p.  81. 

'  See  Professor  Margoliouth's  Introduction  to  the  Letters  of  Abu  'l-'Ald 
al-Ma^arri,  p.  xxiv. 


268  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

Shi'ism.    Itis  well  known,"  says  the  author  in  conclusion,  "that  the 
Buwayhids  were  Shi'ites  and  Rafidites."  ' 

Three  dynasties  contemporary  with  the  Buwayhids  have 
still  to  be  mentioned  :  the    Ghaznevids  in  Afghanistan,  the 

Hamdanids  in  Syria,  and  the  Fatimids  in  Egypt. 
^76-^186^0!?  Sabuktagin,     the      founder    of     the    first-named 

dynasty,  was  a  Turkish  slave.  His  son,  Mahmud, 
who  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  Ghazna  in  998  A.D.,  made 
short  work  of  the  already  tottering  Samdnids,  and  then  sweep- 
ing far  and  wide  over  Northern  India,  began  a  series  of  con- 
quests which,  before  his  death  in  1030  a.d.,  reached  from 
Lahore  to  Samarcand  and  Isfahdn.  Although  the  Persian  and 
Transoxanian  provinces  of  his  huge  empire  were  soon  torn 
away  by  the  Seljiiqs,  Mahmud's  invasion  of  India,  which  was 
undertaken  with  the  object  of  winning  that  country  for  Islam, 
permanently  established  Muhammadan  influence,  at  any  rate 
in  the  Panjdb.  As  regards  their  religious  views,  the  Turkish 
Ghaznevids  stand  in  sharp  contrast  with  the  Persian  houses  of 
Saman  and  Buwayh.  It  has  been  well  said  that  the  true 
genius  of  the  Turks  lies  in  action,  not  in  speculation.  When 
Islam  came  across  their  path,  they  saw  that  it  was  a  simple 
and  practical  creed  such  as  the  soldier  requires ;  so  they 
accepted  it  without  further  parley.  The  Turks  have  always 
remained  loyal  to  Islam,  the  Islam  of  Abii  Bakr  and  'Umar, 
which  is  a  very  different  thing  from  the  Islam  of  Shi'ite 
Persia.  Mahmud  proved  his  orthodoxy  by  banishing  the 
Mu'tazilites  of  Rayy  and  burning  their  books  together  with 
the  philosophical  and  astronomical  works  that  fell  into  his 
hands  ;  but  on  the  same  occasion  he  carried  off  a  hundred 
camel-loads  of  presumably  harmless  literature  to  his  capital. 
That  he  had  no  deep  enthusiasm  for    letters   is   shown,    for 

'  Abu  '1-Mahasin,  al-Niijt'im  al-Zdhira,  ed.  by  Juynboll,  vol.  ii,  p.  333. 
The  original  Rafidites  were  those  schismatics  who  rejected  (rafada)  the 
Caliphs  Abu  Bakr  and  'Umar,  but  the  term  is  generally  used  as  synony- 
mous with  Shi'ite. 


GHAZNEVIDS  AND  HAMDANIDS        269 

example,  by  his  shabby  treatment  of  the  poet  Firdawsi. 
Nevertheless,  he  ardently  desired  the  glory  and  prestige 
accruing  to  a  sovereign  v/hose  court  formed  the  rallying-point 
of  all  that  was  best  in  the  literary  and  scientific  culture  of  the 
day,  and  such  was  Ghazna  in  the  eleventh  century.  Besides 
the  brilliant  group  of  Persian  poets,  with  Firdawsi  at  their 
head,  we  may  mention  among  the  Arabic-writing  authors 
who  flourished  under  this  dynasty  the  historians  al-'Utbi  and 
al-Blruni. 

While  the  Eastern  Empire  of  Islam  was  passing  into   the 

hands  of  Persians  and  Turks,  we  find  the  Arabs  still  holding 

their  own   in   Syria   and   Mesopotamia    down   to 

^(?2^i^j^S  ^*^^  ^"'^  ^'^  ^^^  ^^"^^  century.  These  Arab  and 
generally  nomadic  dynasties  were  seldom  of  much 
account.  The  Hamddnids  of  Aleppo  alone  deserve  to  be 
noticed  here,  and  that  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  the  peerless 
Sayfu  '1-Dawla,  a  worthy  descendant  of  the  tribe  of  Taghlib, 
which  in  the  days  of  heathendom  produced  the  poet-warrior, 
'Amr  b.  Kulthum.  'Abdullah  b.  Hamdan  was  appointed 
governor  of  Mosul  and  its  dependencies  by  the  Caliph 
Muktafi  in  905  a.d.,  and  in  942  his  sons  Hasan  and  'AH 
received  the  complimentary  titles  of  Nasiru  '1-Dawla  (Defender 
of  the  State)  and  Sayfu  '1-Dawla  (Sword  of  the  State). 
Two  years  later  Sayfu  '1-Dawla  captured  Aleppo  and  brought 
the  whole  of  Northern  Syria  under  his  dominion.  During  a 
reign  of  twenty-three  years  he  was  continuously  engaged  in 
harrying  the  Byzantines  on  the  frontiers  of  Asia  Minor,  but 
although  he  gained  some  glorious  victories,  which  his  laureate 
Mutanabbi  has  immortalised,  the  fortune  of  war  went  in  the 
long  run  steadily  against  him,  and  his  successors  were  unable 
to  preserve  their  little  kingdom  from  being  crushed  between  the 
Byzantines  in  the  north  and  the  Fatimids  in  the  south.  The 
Hamdanids  have  an  especial  claim  on  our  sympathy,  because 
they  revived  for  a  time  the  fast-decaying  and  already  almost 
broken  spirit  of  Arabian  nationalism.     It  is    this  spirit    that 


270  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

speaks  with  a  powerful  voice  in  Mutanabbi  and  declares  itself, 
for  example,  in  such  verses  as  these  : —  ^ 

"  Men  from  their  kings  alone  their  worth  derive, 
But  Arabs  ruled  by  aliens  cannot  thrive  : 
Boors  without  culture,  without  noble  fame, 
Who  know  not  loyalty  and  honour's  name. 
Go  where  thou  wilt,  thou  seest  in  every  land 
Folk  driven  like  cattle  by  a  servile  band." 

The  reputation  which  Sayfu  '1-Dawla's  martial  exploits  and 

his  repeated  triumphs  over  the  enemies  of  Islam  richly  earned 

for   him  in   the   eyes  of  his  contemporaries   was 

The  circle  of  ,  i   i        ,i  ■  j  •  c. 

Sayfu  '1-Dawia.  enhanced  by  the  conspicuous  energy  and  munm- 
cence  with  which  he  cultivated  the  arts  of  peace. 
Considering  the  brevity  of  his  reign  and  the  relatively  small 
extent  of  his  resources,  we  may  well  be  astonished  to  con- 
template the  unique  assemblage  of  literary  talent  then 
mustered  in  Aleppo.  There  was,  first  of  all,  Mutanabbi,  in 
the  opinion  of  his  countrymen  the  greatest  of  Moslem  poets  ; 
there  was  Sayfu  '1-Dawla's  cousin,  the  chivalrous  Abu  Firas, 
whose  war-songs  are  relieved  by  many  a  touch  of  tender  and 
true  feeling  ;  there  was  Abu  '1-Faraj  of  Isfahan,  who  on 
presenting  to  Sayfu  '1-Dawla  his  Kitdhu  U-Aghani^  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  and  important  works  in  all  Arabic  literature, 
received  one  thousand  pieces  of  gold  accompanied  with  an 
expression  of  regret  that  the  prince  was  obliged  to  remunerate 
him  so  inadequately  ;  there  was  also  the  great  philosopher, 
Abu  Nasr  al-Farabl,  whose  modest  wants  were  satisfied  by  a 
daily  pension  of  four  dirhems  (about  two  shillings)  from  the 
public  treasury.  Surely  this  is  a  record  not  easily  surpassed 
even  in  the  heyday  of  'Abbasid  patronage.  As  for  the  writers 
of  less  note  whom  Sayfu  '1-Dawla  attracted  to  Aleppo,  their 
name  is  legion.  Space  must  be  found  for  the  poets  Sari  al- 
RaflFa,  Abu  'l-'Abbas  al-Nami,  and  Abu  '1-Faraj  al-Babbagha  j 

'  Mutanabbi,  ed.  by  Dieterici,  p.  148,  last  line  and  foil. 


SAYFU  'L-BAWLA  '  271 

for  the  preacher  {khatlb)  Ibn  Nubata,  who  would  often  rouse 
the  enthusiasm  of  his  audience  while  he  urged  the  duty  of 
zealously  prosecuting  the  Holy  War  against  Christian  Byzan- 
tium; and  for  the  philologist  Ibn  Khalawayh,  whose  lectures 
were  attended  by  students  from  all  parts  of  the  Muhammadan 
world.  The  literary  renaissance  which  began  at  this  time 
in  Syria  was  still  making  its  influence  felt  when  Tha'alibi 
wrote  his  Tatimay  about  thirty  years  after  the  death  of  Sayfu 
'1-Dawla,  and  it  produced  in  Abu  'l-'Ala  al-Ma'arri  (born 
973  A.D.)  an  original  and  highly  interesting  personality,  to 
whom  we  shall  return  on  another  occasion. 

The  dynasties   hitherto  described    were    political    in   their 
origin,  having  generally  been  founded  by  ambitious  governors 

or  vassals.     These  upstarts  made  no   pretensions 
(909-1  i7i"a!do.    to  spiritual   authority,    which    they    left    in    the 

hands  of  the  Caliph  even  while  they  forced 
him  at  the  sword's  point  to  recognise  their  political  independ- 
ence. The  Sdmdnids  and  Buwayhids,  Shi'ites  as  they  were, 
paid  the  same  homage  to  the  Pontiff  in  Baghdad  as  did  the 
Sunnite  Ghaznevids.  But  in  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
century  there  arose  in  Africa  a  great  Shi'ite  power,  that 
of  the  Fatimids,  who  took  for  themselves  the  title  and 
spiritual  prerogatives  of  the  Caliphate,  which  they  asserted 
to  be  theirs  by  right  Divine.  This  event  was  only  the 
climax  of  a  deep-laid  and  skilfully  organised  plot — one  of 
the  most  extraordinary  in  all  history.  It  had  been  put  in 
train  half  a  century  earlier  by  a  certain  'Abdullah  the  son 
of  Maymun,  a  Persian  oculist  [qaddah)  belonging  to  Ahwaz. 
Filled  with  a  fierce  hatred  of  the  Arabs  and  with  a  free- 
thinker's contempt  for  Islam,  'Abdullah  b.  Maymun  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  a  vast  secret  society  which  should  be  all 
things  to  all  men,  and  which,  by  playing  on  the  strongest 
passions  and  tempting  the  inmost  weaknesses  of  human 
nature,  should  unite  malcontents  of  every    description    in  a 


272  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

conspiracy  to  overthrow  the  existing  regime.  Mode  rn 
readers  may  find  a  parallel  for  this  romantic  project  in  the 
pages  of  Dumas,  although  the  Aramis  of  Twenty  Years  After 
is  a  simpleton  beside  'Abdulldh.  He  saw  that  the  movement, 
in  order  to  succeed,  must  be  started  on  a  religious  basis,  and 
he  therefore  identified  himself  with  an  obscure 
proplgaVdL^  Shi'ite  sect,  the  Isma'ilis,  who  were  so  called 
because  they  regarded  Muhammad,  son  of  Isma'il, 
son  of  Ja'far  al-§adiq,  as  the  Seventh  Imdm.  Under  'Abdullah 
the  Isma'ilis  developed  their  mystical  and  antinomian  doc- 
trines, of  which  an  excellent  account  has  been  given  by 
Professor  Browne  in  the  first  volume  of  his  Literary  History  of 
Persia  (p.  405  sqq.).  Here  we  can  only  refer  to  the  ingenious 
and  fatally  insidious  methods  which  he  devised  for  gaining 
proselytes  on  a  gigantic  scale,  and  with  such  amazing  success 
that  from  this  time  until  the  Mongol  invasion — a  period  of 
almost  four  centuries — the  Isma'ilites  (Fatimids,  Carmathians, 
and  Assassins)  either  ruled  or  ravaged  a  great  part  of  the 
Muhammadan  Empire.  It  is  unnecessary  to  discuss  the 
question  whether  'Abdulldh  b.  Maymun  was,  as  Professor 
Browne  thinks,  primarily  a  religious  enthusiast,  or  whether, 
according  to  the  view  commonly  held,  his  real  motives  were 
patriotism  and  personal  ambition.  The  history  of  Islam 
shows  clearly  enough  that  the  revolutionist  is  nearly  always 
disguised  as  a  religious  leader,  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
every  founder  of  a  militant  sect  is  potentially  the  head  of  a 
state.  'Abdullah  may  have  been  a  fanatic  first  and  a  politician 
afterwards ;  more  probably  he  was  both  at  once  from  the 
beginning.     His  plan  of  operations  was  briefly  as  follows  : — 

The  dd'i  or  missionary  charged  with  the  task  of  gaining  adherents 
for  the  Hidden  Imam  (see  p.  216  seq.),  in  whose  name  allegiance  was 
demanded,  would  settle  in  some  place,  representing  himself  to  be  a 
merchant,  Sufi,  or  the  like.  By  renouncing  worldly  pleasures, 
making  a  show  of  strict  piety,  and  performing  apparent  miracles,  it 
was  easy  for  him  to  pass  as  a  saint  with  the  common  folk.    As  soon 


THE  ISMA'lLfS  273 

as  he  was  assured  of  his  neighbours'  confidence  and  respect,  he 
began  to  raise  doubts  in  their  minds.  He  would  suggest  difficult 
problems  of  theology  or  dwell  on  the  mysterious  significance 
of  certain  passages  of  the  Koran.  May  there  not  be  (he  would  ask) 
in  religion  itself  a  deeper  meaning  than  appears  on  the  surface  ? 
Then,  having  excited  the  curiosity  of  his  hearers,  he  suddenly  breaks 
off.  When  pressed  to  continue  his  explanation,  he  declares  that 
such  mysteries  cannot  be  communicated  save  to  those  who  take  a 
binding  oath  of  secrecy  and  obedience  and  consent  to  pay  a  fixed 
sum  of  money  in  token  of  their  good  faith.  If  these  conditions 
were  accepted,  the  neophyte  entered  upon  the  second  of  the  nine 
degrees  of  initiation.  He  was  taught  that  mere  observance  of  the 
laws  of  Islam  is  not  pleasing  to  God,  unless  the  true  doctrine  be 
received  through  the  Imams  who  have  it  in  keeping.  These  Imams 
(as  he  next  learned)  are  seven  in  number,  beginning  with  'All ;  the 
seventh  and  last  is  Muhammad,  son  of  Isma'il.  On  reaching  the 
fourth  degree  he  definitely  ceased  to  be  a  Moslem,  for  here  he  was 
taught  the  Isma'ilite  system  of  theology  in  which  Muhammad  b. 
Isma'il  supersedes  the  founder  of  Islam  as  the  greatest  and  last  of 
all  the  Prophets.  Comparatively  few  initiates  advanced  beyond 
this  grade  to  a  point  where  every  form  of  positive  religion  was 
allegorised  away,  and  only  philosophy  was  left.  "  It  is  clear  what 
a  tremendous  weapon,  or  rather  machine,  was  thus  created.  Each 
man  was  given  the  amount  of  light  which  he  could  bear  and  which 
was  suited  to  his  prejudices,  and  he  was  made  to  believe  that  the 
end  of  the  whole  work  would  be  the  attaining  of  what  he  regarded 
as  most  desirable." '  Moreover,  the  Imam  Muhammad  b.  Isma'il 
having  disappeared  long  ago,  the  veneration  which  sought  a  visible 
object  was  naturally  transferred  to  his  successor  and  representative 
on  earth,  viz.,  'Abdullah  b.  Maymun,  who  filled  the  same  office  in 
relation  to  him  as  Aaron  to  Moses  and  'Ali  to  Muhammad. 

About  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  the  state  or  the 
Moslem  Empire  was  worse,  if  possible,  than  it  had  been  in  the 
latter  days  of  Umayyad  rule.  The  peasantry  of  'Iraq  were 
impoverished  by  the  desolation  into  which  that  flourishing 
province  was  beginning  to  fall  in  consequence  of  the  frequent 
and  prolonged  civil  wars.  In  869  a.d.  the  negro  slaves  {Zanj) 
employed  in  the  saltpetre  industry,  for  which  Basra  was 
famous,  took  up  arms  at  the  call  of  an  *AHd  Messiah,  and 

'  D.  B.  Macdonald,  Muslim  Theology,  p.  43  seq. 

19 


274  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

during  fourteen  years  carried  fire  and  sword  through  Khuzistan 
and  the  adjacent  territory.  We  can  imagine  that  all  this 
misery  and  discontent  was  a  godsend  to  the  Isma'ilites.  The 
old  cry,  "A  deliverer  of  the  Prophet's  House,"  which  served 
the  'Abbdsids  so  well  against  the  Umayyads,  was  now  raised 
with  no  less  effect  against  the  'Abbasids  themselves. 

'Abdullah  b.  Maymun  died  in  875  A.D.,  but  the  agitation 
went  on,  and  rapidly  gathered  force.  One  of  the  leading 
spirits  was  Hamdan  Qarmat,  who  gave  his  name  to  the  Car- 
mathian  branch  of  the  Ismd'ilis,  These  Carmathians  ( Qaram'ita^ 
sing.  Qirm'iti)  spread  over  Southern  Persia  and  Yemen,  and 
in  the  tenth  century  they  threatened  Baghdad,  repeatedly 
waylaid  the  pilgrim-caravans,  sacked  Mecca  and  bore  away 
the  Black  Stone  as  a  trophy  ;  in  short,  established  a  veritable 
reign  of  terror.  We  must  return,  however,  to  the  main 
Ismd'ilite  faction  headed  by  the  descendants  of  'Abdullah  b. 
Maymun.  Their  emissaries  discovered  a  promising  field  of 
work  in  North  Africa  among  the  credulous  and  fanatical 
Berbers.  When  all  was  ripe,  Sa'i'd  b.  Husayn,  the  grandson  of 
'Abdulldh  b.  Maymun,  left  Salamiyya  in  Syria,  the  centre 
from  which  the  wires  had  hitherto  been  pulled,  and 
crossing  over  to  Africa  appeared  as  the  long-expected 
Mahdi  under    the    name    of  'Ubaydu'llah.       He 

The  Fatimid  ,  .  ,  .  , 

dynasty  founded  ravc  himself  out   to  be  a  ^reat-p-randson  of  the 

by  the  Mahdi      °  . 

'Ubaydu'llah     Imam  Muhammad  b.  Isma'il  and  therefore  in  the 

(909  A.D.). 

direct  line  of  descent  from  'AH  b.  Abi  Tdlib  and 
Fdtima  the  daughter  of  the  Prophet.  We  need  not  stop  to 
discuss  this  highly  questionable  genealogy  from  which  the 
Fdjimid  dynasty  derives  its  name.  In  910  a.d.  'Ubaydu'Ildh 
entered  Raqqdda  in  triumph  and  assumed  the  title  of  Com- 
mander of  the  Faithful.  Tunis,  where  the  Aghlabites  had 
ruled  since  800  a.d.,  was  the  cradle  of  Fdtimid  power,  and 
here  they  built  their  capital,  Mahdiyya,  near  the  ancient 
Thapsus.  Gradually  advancing  eastward,  they  conquered 
Egypt  and  Syria  as  far  as  Damascus  (969-970  a.d.).   'At  this 


THE  FA  TIMID S  AND    THE  SELJiyQS    275 

time  the  seat  of  government  was  removed  to  the  nev^^ly-founded 
city  of  Cairo  (a/-Qdhira),  which  remained  for  two  centuries 
the  metropoh's  of  the  Fatimid  Empire.^ 

The  Shi'ite  Anti-Caliphs  maintained  themselves  in  Egypt 

until    1171   A.D.,  when   the  famous  Saladin   (Salahu  '1-Din  b. 

Ayyub)    took     possession    of    that    country    and 

{ii7^i^i?so  A.a).  '■^stored  the  Sunnite  faith.     He  soon  added  Syria 

to  his  dominions,  and  "the  fall  of  Jerusalem  (in 

1 187)  roused  Europe  to  undertake  the  Third  Crusade."     The 

Ayyubids  were  strictly  orthodox,  as  behoved  the  champions  of 

Islam  against  Christianity.     They  built  and   endowed   many 

theological  colleges.    The  Sufi  pantheist,  Shihabu  '1-Din  Yahya 

al-Suhrawardi,  was  executed  at  Aleppo  by  order  of  Saladin's 

son,  Malik  al-Zahir,  in   1191   a.d. 

The  two  centuries  preceding  the  extinction  of  the  'Abbasid 
Caliphate  by  the  Mongols  witnessed  the  rise  and  decline  of 
the  Seljuq  Turks,  who  "once  more  re-united 
(io37-i3ooA^D.).  Muhammadan  Asia  from  the  western  frontier 
of  Afghanistan  to  the  Mediterranean  under  one 
sovereign."  Seljuq  b.  Tuqaq  was  a  Turcoman  chief. 
Entering  Transoxania,  he  settled  near  Bukhara  and  went 
over  with  his  whole  people  to  Islam.  His  descendants 
Tughril  Beg  and  Chagar  Beg,  invaded  Khurasan,  annexed 
the  western  provinces  of  the  Ghaznevid  Empire,  and  finally 
absorbed  the  remaining  dominions  of  the  Buwayhids. 
Baghdad  was  occupied  by  Tughril  Beg  in  1055  a.d.  It 
has  been  said  that  the  Seljuqs  contributed  almost  nothing  to 
culture,  but  this  perhaps  needs  some  qualification.  Althouo-h 
Alp  Arslan,  who  succeeded  Tughril,  and  his  son  Malik  Shah 
devoted  their  energies  in  the  first  place  to  military  affairs,  the 

'  I  regret  that  lack  of  space  compels  me  to  omit  the  further  history  of 
the  Fatimids.  Readers  who  desire  information  on  this  subject  may 
consult  Stanley  Lane- Poole's  History  of  Egypt  in  the  Middle  Ages; 
Wiistenfeld's  Geschichte  dcr  Fatimiden-Chalifen  (Gottingen,  1881)  ;  and 
Professor  Browne's  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  p.   196  sqq. 


276  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

latter  at  least  was  an  accomplished  and  enlightened  monarch. 
*'  He  exerted  himself  to  spread  the  benefits  of  civilisation  :  he 
dug  numerous  canals,  walled  a  great  number  of  cities,  built 
bridges,  and  constructed  ribap  in  the  desert  places."  ^  He 
was  deeply  interested  in  astronomy,  and  scientific  as  well  as 
theological  studies  received  his  patronage.  Any  shortcomings 
of  Alp  Arslan  and  Malik  Shah  in  this  respect  were  amply 
repaired  by  their  famous  minister,  Hasan  b.  *Ali,  the  Nizamu 
'l-Mulic  or  *  Constable  of  the  Empire,'  to  give  him  the  title 
which  he  has  made  his  own.  Like  so  many  great  Viziers,  he 
was  a  Persian,  and  his  achievements  must  not  detain  us  here, 
but  it  may  be  mentioned  that  he  founded  in  Baghdad  and 
Naysabur  the  two  celebrated  academies  which  were  called  in 
his  honour  al-Nizamiyya. 

We  have  now  taken  a  general,  though  perforce  an  extremely 
curtailed  and  disconnected,  view    of  the    political  conditions 

which  existed  during  the  'Abbasid  period  in  most 
^'^SpLln^"^      parts  of  the  Muhammadan  Empire  except  Arabia 

and  Spain.  The  motherland  of  Islam  had  long 
sunk  to  the  level  of  a  minor  province  :  leaving  the  Holy 
Cities  out  of  consideration,  one  might  compare  its  inglorious 
destiny  under  the  Caliphate  to  that  of  Macedonia  in  the 
empire  which  Alexander  bequeathed  to  his  successors,  the 
Ptolemies  and  Seleucids.  As  regards  the  political  history  of 
Spain  a  few  words  will  conveniently  be  said  in  a  subsequent 
chapter,  where  the  literature  produced  by  Spanish  Moslems 
will  demand  our  attention.  In  the  meantime  we  shall  pass  on 
to  the  characteristic  literary  developments  of  this  period,  which 
correspond  more  or  less  closely  to  the  historical  outlines. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  the  student  of  mediaeval  Arabic 
literature  is  the  fact  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  leading 
writers  are  non-Arabs,  or  at  best  semi-Arabs,  men  whose  fathers 

'  Ibn  Khallikan,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  iv,  p.  441. 


FOREIGNERS    WHO    WROTE  IN  ARABIC    277 

or  mothers  were  of  foreign,  and  especially  Persian,  race.    They 
wrote    in    Arabic,    because    down    to    about    looo    a.d.    that 
language  was  the  sole  medium  of  literary  expression  in  the 
Muhammadan    world,    a    monopoly    which    it    retained    in 
scientific    compositions    until    the    M^iigol    Invasion    of  the 
thirteenth  century.     I  have  already  referred  to  the  question 
whether  such   men  as  Bashshar   b.    Burd,  Abu   Nuwas,   Ibn 
Qutayba,  Tabari,  Ghazali,  and  hundreds  of  others  should  be 
included  in  a  literary  history  of    the  Arabs,  and  have  given 
reasons,  which  I  need  not  repeat  in  this  place,  for  considering 
their  admission  to  be  not  only  desirable  but  fully  justified  on 
logical  grounds. I    The  absurdity  of  treating  them  as  Persians — 
and  there  is  no  alternative,  if  they  are  not  to  be  reckoned  as 
Arabs — appears  to  me  self-evident. 

"It  is  strange,"  says  Ibn  Khaldun,  "that  most  of  the  learned 
among  the  Moslems  who  have  excelled  in  the  religious  or 
intellectual  sciences  are  non- Arabs  [^Ajam)  with  rare  excep- 
tions ;  and  even  those  savants  who  claimed  Arabian  descent 
spoke  a  foreign  language,  grew  up  in  foreign  lands,  and 
studied  under  foreign  masters,  notwithstanding  that  the  com- 
munity to  which  they  belonged  was  Arabian  and  the  author 
of  its  religion  an  Arab."  The  historian  proceeds  to  explain 
the  cause  of  this  singular  circumstance  in  an  interesting 
passage  which  may  be  summarised  as  follows  : — 

The  first  Moslems  were  entirely  ignorant  of  art  and  science,  all 

their  attention  being  devoted  to  the  ordinances  of  the  Koran,  which 

they   "carried  in  their  breasts,"  and  to  the   practice 

lx"iMaaoi"of    {sunna)  of  the  Prophet.     At  that  time  the  Arabs  knew 

the  fact  that      nothing  of  the  way  by  which  learning  is  taught,  of  the 

chiefl^cufti^afed  art  of  Composing  books,  and  of  the  means  whereby 

^^MosTeins^"    knowledge    is    enregistered.      Those,    however,   who 

could  repeat  the  Koran  and  relate  the  Traditions  of 

Muhammad  were   called  Readers  {qurni).     This  oral  transmission 

continued  until  the  reign  of   Harun  al-Rashid,  when  the  need  of 


'  See  the  Introduction. 


278  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

securing  the  Traditions  against  corruption  or  of  preventing  their 
total  loss  caused  them  to  be  set  down  in  writing ;  and  in  order  to 
distinguish  the  genuine  Traditions  from  the  spurious,  every  isndd 
(chain  of  witnesses)  was  carefully  scrutinised.  Meanwhile  the 
purity  of  the  Arabic  tongue  had  gradually  become  impaired  :  hence 
arose  the  science  of  grammar ;  and  the  rapid  development  of  Law 
and  Divinity  brought  it  about  that  other  sciences,  e.g.,  logic  and 
dialectic,  were  professionally  cultivated  in  the  great  cities  of  the 
Muhammadan  Empire.  The  inhabitants  of  these  cities  were  chiefly 
Persians,  freedmen  and  tradesmen,  who  had  been  long  accustomed 
to  the  arts  of  civilisation.  Accordingly  the  most  eminent  of  the 
early  grammarians,  traditionists,  and  scholastic  theologians,  as 
well  as  of  those  learned  in  the  principles  of  Law  and  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  Koran,  were  Persians  by  race  or  education,  and  the 
saying  of  the  Prophet  was  verified — "  If  Knowledge  were  attached  to 
the  ends  of  the  sky,  some  amongst  the  Persians  would  have  reached  it." 
Amidst  all  this  intellectual  activity  the  Arabs,  who  had  recently 
emerged  from  a  nomadic  life,  found  the  exercise  of  military  and 
administrative  command  too  engrossing  to  give  them  leisure  for 
literary  avocations  which  have  always  been  disdained  by  a  ruling 
caste.  They  left  such  studies  to  the  Persians  and  the  mixed  race 
{al-muwalladi'in),  which  sprang  from  intermarriage  of  the  con- 
querors with  the  conquered.  They  did  not  entirely  look  down 
upon  the  men  of  learning  but  recognised  their  services — since  after 
all  it  was  Islam  and  the  sciences  connected  with  Islam  that  profited 
thereby/ 

Even  in  the  Umayyad  period,  as  we  have  seen,  the  maxim 
that  Knowledge  is  Power  was  strikingly  illustrated  by  the 
immense  social  influence  which  Persian  divines  exerted  in  the 
Muhammadan  community .2  Nevertheless,  true  Arabs  of  the 
old  type  regarded  these  Mawdlt  and  their  learning  with 
undisguised  contempt.  To  the  great  majority  of  Arabs,  who 
prided  themselves  on  their  noble  lineage  and  were  content  to 
know  nothing  beyond  the  glorious  traditions  of  heathendom 
and  the  virtues  practised  by  their  sires,  all  literary  culture 
seemed    petty    and    degrading.      Their    overbearing    attitude 

'  Ibn  Khaldun,  Muqaddima  (Beyrout,  1900),  p.  543  seq.  =  De  Slane, 
Prolegomena,  vol  iii,  p.  296  sqq. 
^  Cf.  Goldziher,  Muhatmn.  Studien,  Part  I,  p.  114  seq. 


ARABS  AND  NON-ARABS  279 

towards  the  Mawalt^  which  is  admirably  depicted  in  the  first 
part  of  Goldziher's  Muhammedanische  Studien^  met  with  a 
vigorous  response.  Non-Arabs  and  Moslem  pietists  alike 
appealed  to  the  highest  authority — the  Koran  ;  and  since  they 
required  a  more  definite  and  emphatic  pronouncement  than 
was  forthcoming  from  that  source,  they  put  in  the  mouth  of 
the  Prophet  sayings  like  these  :  "  He  that  speaks  Arabic  is 
thereby  an  Arab  "  ;  "  whoever  of  the  people  of  Persia  accepts 
Islam  is  (as  much  an  Arab  as)  one  of  Quraysh."  This 
doctrine  made  no  impression  upon  the  Arabian  aristocracy,  but 
with  the  downfall  of  the  Umayyads  the  political  and  social 
equality  of  the  Mawali  became  an  accomplished  fact.  Not 
that  the  Arabs  were  at  all  disposed  to  abate  their  pretensions. 
They  bitterly  resented  the  favour  which  the  foreigners  enjoyed 
and  the  influence  which  they  exercised.  The  national  in- 
dignation finds  a  voice  in  many  poems  of  the  early  'Abbasid 
period,  e.g.  : — 

"  See  how  the  asses  which  they  used  to  ride 
They  have  unsaddled,  and  sleek  mules  bestride  ! 
No  longer  kitchen-herbs  they  buy  and  sell, ' 
But  in  the  palace  and  the  court  they  dwell ; 
Against  us  Arabs  full  of  rage  and  spleen, 
Hating  the  Prophet  and  the  Moslem's  din.'^ 

The  side  of  the  non-Arabs  in  this  literary  quarrel  was 
vehemently  espoused  by  a  party  who  called  themselves  the 
Shu'ubites  {al-Shu'-ubiyya)^2   while  their  opponents  gave  them 

*  Read  mashdrdti  'l-buqtU  (beds  of  vegetables),  not  mushdnit  as  my 
rendering  implies.  The  change  makes  little  difference  to  the  sense,  but 
mashdrat,  being  an  Aramaic  word,  is  peculiarly  appropriate  here. 

^  Agluini,  xii,  177,  1.  5  sqq  ;  Von  Kremer,  Ciilturgcsch.  Streifziigc,  p.  32. 
These  lines  are  aimed,  as  has  been  remarked  by  S.  Khuda  Bukhsh 
[Contributions  to  the  History  0/  Islamic  Civilisation,  Calcutta,  1905,  p.  92), 
against  Nabatieans  who  falsely  claimed  to  be  Persians. 

3  The  name  is  derived  from  Koran,  xlix,  13  :  "0  Men,  We  have  created 
you  of  a  male  and  a  female  and  have  made  you  into  peoples  (shu'ubs^) 
and  tribes,  that  ye  might  know  one  another.     Verily  the  noblest  of  you  in 


28o  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

the  name  of  Levellers  {Ahlu  ^l-Taswiya)^  because  they  contended 

for  the  equality  of  all  Moslems  without  regard  to  distinctions 

of  race.     I  must  refer  the  reader  who  seeks  inform- 

The  Shu'iibites.  .  .  ,         ,  .  ^     , 

ation  concernmg  the  history  or  the  movement  to 
Goldziher's  masterly  study,  ^  where  the  controversial  methods 
adopted  by  the  Shu'iibites  are  set  forth  in  ample  detail.  He 
shows  how  the  bolder  spirits  among  them,  not  satisfied  with 
claiming  an  equal  position,  argued  that  the  Arabs  were  abso- 
lutely inferior  to  the  Persians  and  other  peoples.  The  question 
was  hotly  debated,  and  many  eminent  writers  took  part  in  the 
fray.  On  the  Shu'ubite  side  Abii  'Ubayda,  Biruni,  and 
Hamza  of  Isfahan  deserve  mention,  Jahiz  and  Ibn  Durayd 
were  the  most  notable  defenders  of  their  own  Arabian 
nationality,  but  the  'pro-Arabs'  also  included  several  men 
of  Persian  origin,  such  as  Ibn  Qutayba,  Baladhuri,  and 
Zamakhshari.  The  Shu'iibites  directed  their  attacks  princi- 
pally against  the  racial  pride  of  the  Arabs,  who  were  fond  of 
boasting  that  they  were  the  noblest  of  all  mankind  and  spoke 
the  purest  and  richest  language  in  the  world.  Consequently 
the  Persian  genealogists  and  philologists  lost  no  opportunity  ot 
;  bringing  to  light  scandalous  and  discreditable  circumstances 
I  connected  with  the  history  of  the  Arab  tribes  or  of  particular 
'  families.  Arabian  poetry,  especially  the  vituperative  pieces 
(mathd/ib),  furnished  abundant  matter  of  this  sort,  which  was 
adduced  by  the  Shu'iibites  as  convincing  evidence  that  the 
claims  of  the  Arabs  to  superior  nobility  were  absurd.  At  the 
same  time  the  national  view  as  to  the  unique  and  incomparable 
excellence  of  the  Arabic  language  received  some  rude  criticism. 
So  acute  and  irreconcilable  were  the  racial  differences 
between  Arabs  and  Persians  that  one  is  astonished  to  see  how 
thoroughly   the  latter  became  Arabicised  in  the  course  of  a 

s 

the  sight  of  God  are  they  that  do  most  fear  Him."    Thus  the  designation 
'  Shu'ubite '  emphasises  the  fact  that  according  to  Muhammad's  teaching 
the  Arab  Moslems  are  no  better  than  their  non-Arab  brethren. 
'  Miihamm.  Siudien,  Part  I,  p.  147  sqq. 


^ 


THE   SHU'U BITES  281 

tew  generations.  As  clients  affiliated  to  an  Arab  tribe,  they 
assumed  Arabic  names  and  sought  to  disguise  their  foreign  ex- 
traction by  fair  means  or  foul.  Many  provided 
Aobs^and  °  themselves  w^ith  fictitious  pedigrees,  on  the  strength 
of  w^hich  they  passed  for  Arabs.  Such  a  pretence 
could  have  deceived  nobody  if  it  had  not  been  supported  by  a 
complete  assimilation  in  language,  manners,  and  even  to  some 
extent  in  character.  On  the  neutral  ground  of  Muhammadan 
science  animosities  were  laid  aside,  and  men  of  both  races 
laboured  enthusiastically  for  the  common  cause.  When  at 
length,  after  a  century  of  bloody  strife  and  engrossing  political 
agitation,  the  great  majority  of  Moslems  found  themselves 
debarred  from  taking  part  in  public  affairs,  it  was  only  natural 
that  thousands  of  ardent  and  ambitious  souls  should  throw 
their  pent-up  energies  into  the  pursuit  of  wealth  or  learning. 
We  are  not  concerned  here  with  the  marvellous  development 
of  trade  under  the  first  'Abbasid  Caliphs,  of  which  Von 
Kremer  has  given  a  full  and  entertaining  description  in  his 
Culturgeschichte  des  Orients.  It  may  be  recalled,  however,  that 
many  commercial  terms,  e.g.^  tariff,  names  of  fabrics  (muslin, 
tabby,  &c.),  occurring  in  English  as  well  as  in  most  European 
languages  are  of  Arabic  origin  and  were  brought  to  Europe 
by  merchants  from  Baghdad,  Mosul,  Basra,  and  other  cities  of 
Western  Asia.  This  material  expansion  was  accompanied  by 
an  outburst  of  intellectual  activity  such  as  the  East 
Enthusiasm  for   j^^  never  witnessed  before.     It  seemed  as  if  all 

learning  in  the 

^"'period.^'''^  the  world  from  the  Caliph  down  to  the  humblest 
citizen  suddenly  became  students,  or  at  least 
patrons,  of  literature.  In  quest  of  knowledge  men  travelled 
over  three  continents  and  returned  home,  like  bees  laden  with 
honey,  to  impart  the  precious  stores  which  they  had  accumu- 
lated to  crowds  of  eager  disciples,  and  to  compile  with 
incredible  industry  those  works  of  encyclopaedic  range  and 
erudition  from  which  modern  Science,  in  the  widest  sense  of 
the  word,  has  derived  far  more  than  is  generally  supposed. 


282  THE   CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

The  Revolution  which  made  the  fortune  of  the  'Abbasid 

House   was  a  triumph   for    Islam    and  the  party  of  religious 

reform.     While  under  the  worldly  Umayyads  the 

Development  of  ,_,,..  .   ,  ,  ,. 

the  Moslem      studies  of  Law  and  Tradition  met  with  no  public 

sciences 

encouragement  and  were  only  kept  alive  by  the 
pious  zeal  of  oppressed  theologians,  the  new  dynasty  drew  its 
strength  from  the  Muhammadan  ideas  which  it  professed  to 
establish,  and  skilfully  adapted  its  policy  to  satisfying  the  ever- 
increasing  claims  of  the  Church.  Accordingly  the  Moslem 
sciences  which  arose  at  this  time  proceeded  in  the  first  instance 
from  the  Koran  and  the  Hadi'th.  The  sacred  books  offered 
many  difficulties  both  to  provincial  Arabs  and  especially  to 
Persians  and  other  Moslems  of  foreign  extraction.  For  their 
right  understanding  a  knowledge  of  Arabic  grammar  and 
philology  was  essential,  and  this  involved  the  study  of  the 
ancient  Pre-islamic  poems  which  supplied  the  most  authentic 
models  of  Arabian  speech  in  its  original  purity.  The  study  of 
these  poems  entailed  researches  into  genealogy  and  history, 
which  in  the  course  of  time  became  independent  branches  of 
learning.  Similarly  the  science  of  Tradition  was  systemati- 
cally developed  in  order  to  provide  Moslems  with  practical 
rules  for  the  conduct  of  life  in  every  conceivable  particular, 
and  various  schools  of  Law  sprang  into  existence. 

Muhammadan  writers  usually  distinguish  the  sciences  which 

are  connected  with  the   Koran  and   those  which  the  Arabs 

learned    from    foreign     peoples.      In    the    former 

ciassTficition      ^^^^^   ^^^7   include    the  Traditional  or  Religious 

Sciences   [al-^Ulum    al-Naqliyya    awi  U-Shar^iyya) 

and  the  Linguistic   Sciences   {'■Ulumu  U-Li$dni  ^I-^Jrabt) ;  in 

the  latter  the  Intellectual  or  Philosophical  Sciences  [al-^Uliim 

al-^Aqliyya  awi  ^l-Hikmiyya\  which  are  sometimes  called  '  The 

Sciences  of  the  Foreigners'  {^  Ulumu  'I-^Jjam)  or  'The  Ancient 

Sciences'  (a/-^U/um  al-Qadhna). 

The  general  scope  of  this  division  may  be  illustrated  by  the 
following  table : — 


J 


THE   SCIENTIFIC  MOVEMENT  283 

I.  The  Native  Sciences. 

1.  Koranic  Exegesis  {'Ilmu  'l-Tafsir). 

2.  Koranic  Criticism  {'limit  ' l-Qird' at). 
The  Science  of  Apostolic  Tradition  {'Ilmu  'l-Hadith). 

4.  Jurisprudence  {Fiqh). 

5.  Scholastic  Theology  {'Ilmu  'l-Kaldm). 

6.  Grammar  {Nahw). 

7.  Lexicography  {Lugha). 

8.  Rhetoric  {Baydn). 

9.  Literature  {Adab). 

IL  The  Foreign  Sciences. 

1.  Philosophy  {Falsafa).^ 

2.  Geometry  {Handasa).- 

3.  Astronomy  {'Ilmu  'l-Nujum). 

4.  Music  {Miisiqi). 

5.  Medicine  {Tibb). 

6.  Magic  and  Alchemy  {al-Sihr  wa-l-Kimiya). 

The  religious  phenomena  of  the  Period  will  be  discussed  in 
I  separate  chapter,  and  here  I  can  only  allude  cursorily  to  their 

general  character.     We  have  seen  that  during  the 

'Abb:bid  period    wholc  Umayyad  epoch,  except  in  the  brief  reign  of 

fithought     'Umar  b.  'Abd  al-'Aziz,  the  professors  of  religion 

w^ere  out  of  sympathy  with  the  court,  and  that 
nany  of  them  withdrew  from  all  participation  in  public  affairs. 
[t  was  otherwise  when  the  *Abbasids  established  themselves  in 
Dower.  Theology  now  dwelt  in  the  shadow  of  the  throne 
md  directed  the  policy  of  the  Government.  Honours  were 
>howered  on  eminent  jurists  and  divines,  who  frequently  held 
Dfficial  posts  of  high  importance  and  stood  in  the  most  confi- 
dential and  intimate  relations  to  the  Caliph  ;  a  classical  example 
s  the  friendship  of  the  Cadi  Abu  Yusuf  and  Hariin  al-Rashid. 
The  century  after  the  Revolution  gave  birth  to  the  four  great 
>chools  of  Muhammadan  Law,  which  are  still  called  by  the 

'  The  term  Falsafa  properly  includes  Logic,  Metaphysics,  Mathematics 
Medicine,  and  the  Natural  Sciences. 

=*  Here  we  might  add  the  various  branches  of  Mathematics,  such  as 
i^rithmetic,  Algebra,  Mechanics,  &c. 


284  THE    CALIPHS   OF  BAGHDAD 

names  of  their  founders — Mdlik  b.  Anas,  Abu  Hanifa,  Shafi'i, 
and  Ahmad  b.  Hanbal.  At  this  time  the  scientific  and  intellec- 
tual movement  had  free  play.  The  earlier  Caliphs  usually  en- 
couraged speculation  so  long  as  it  threatened  no  danger  to  the 
existing  regime.  Under  Ma'mun  and  his  successors  the 
Mu'tazilite  Rationalism  became  the  State  religion,  and  Islam 
seemed  to  have  entered  upon  an  era  of  enlightenment.  Thus 
the  first  'Abbasid  period  (750-847  a. d.)  with  its  new  learning 
and  liberal  theology  may  well  be  compared  to  the  European 
Renaissance  ;  but  in  the  words  of  a  celebrated  Persian  poet — 

Kliil'aii  has  fdkhir  dmad  'umr  'aybash  kilfakist.' 
*'  Life  is  a  very  splendid  robe  :  its  fault  is  brevity." 

The    Caliph    Mutawakkil    (847-861    a.d.)    signalised    his 

accession  by  declaring  the  Mu'tazilite  doctrines  to  be  heretical 

and   by  returning   to  the  traditional  faith.     Stern 

The  triumph  of    nieasures  were  taken  against   dissenters.     Hence- 

orthodoxy.  ° 

forth  there  was  little  room  in  Islam  for  indepen- 
dent thought.  The  populace  regarded  philosophy  and  natural 
science  as  a  species  of  infidelity.  Authors  of  works  on  these 
subjects  ran  a  serious  risk  unless  they  disguised  their  true 
opinions  and  brought  the  results  of  their  investigations  into 
apparent  conformity  with  the  text  of  the  Koran.  About  the 
middle  of  the  tenth  century  the  reactionary  spirit  assumed  a 
dogmatic  shape  in  the  system  of  Abu  '1-Hasan  al-Ash'arf,  the 
father  of  Muhammadan  Scholasticism,  which  is  essentially 
opposed  to  intellectual  freedom  and  has  maintained  its  petrify- 
ing influence  almost  unimpaired  down  to  the  present  time. 

I  could  wish  that  this  chapter  were  more  worthy  of  the 
title  which  I  have  chosen  for  it,  but  the  foregoing  pages  will 
have  served  their  purpose  if  they  have  enabled  my  readers  to 
form  some  idea  of  the  politics  of  the  Period  and  of  the  broad 
features  marking  the  course  of  its  literary  and  religious  history. 
'  'Abdu  '1-Ratiman  Jami  (t  1492  a.d.). 


CHAPTER    VII 

POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND    SCIENCE    IN    THE    'aBbAsID  PERIOD 

Pre-islamic  poetry  was  the  natural  expression  of  nomad  life. 

We  might  therefore   have  expected  that  the  new  conditions 

and  ideas  introduced  by  Islam  would  rapidly  work  a 

poets^egaiXd    Corresponding  revolution  in  the  poetical  literature 

as  classical  ,-       i         r  1 1         •  ,  oil 

of  the  following  century,  auch,  however,  was 
far  from  being  the  case.  The  Umayyad  poets  clung  tena- 
ciously to  the  great  models  of  the  Heroic  Age  and  even  took 
credit  for  their  skilful  imitation  of  the  antique  odes.  The 
early  Muhammadan  critics,  who  were  philologists  by  profession, 
held  fast  to  the  principle  that  Poetry  in  Pre-islamic  times  had 
reached  a  perfection  which  no  modern  bard  could  hope  to 
emulate,  and  which  only  the  lost  ideals  of  chivalry  could 
inspire.!  To  have  been  born  after  Islam  was  in  itself  a  proof 
of  poetical  inferiority.^  Linguistic  considerations,  of  course, 
entered  largely  into  this  prejudice.  The  old  poems  were 
studied  as  repositories  of  the  pure  classical  tongue  and  were 
estimated  mainly  from  a  grammarian's  standpoint. 

These  ideas  gained  wide  acceptance  in  literary  circles 
and  gradually  biassed  the  popular  taste  to  such  an  extent 
that   learned    pedants    could    boast,    like    Khalil    b.    Ahmad, 

*  I  am  deeply  indebted  in  the  following  pages  to  Goldziher's  essay 
entitled  Altc  unci  Nenc  Poesic  im  Urthcilc  der  Arabischen  Kritiker  in  his 
Abhand.  znr  Arab.  Pliilologie,  Part  I,  pp.  122-174. 

*  Cf.  the  remark  made  by  Abu  'Amr  b.  al-'Ala  about  the  poet  Akhtal 

(p.  242  supra). 

285 


286    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

the  inventor  of  Arabic  prosody,  that  it  lay  in  their 
power  to  make  or  mar  the  reputation  of  a  rising  poet 
as  they  deemed  fit.  Originality  being  condemned  in 
advance,  those  who  desired  the  approval  of  this  self-consti- 
tuted Academy  were  obliged  to  waste  their  time  and  talents 
upon  elaborate  reproduction  of  the  ancient  masterpieces,  and 
to  entertain  courtiers  and  citizens  with  borrowed  pictures  of 
Bedouin  life  in  which  neither  they  nor  their  audience  took  the 
slightest  interest.  Some,  it  is  true,  recognised  the  absurdity  of 
the  thing.  Abii  Nuwas  (f  circa  8io  a.d.)  often 
Abii  Nuwas  as  a  ridicules    the    custom,    to     which    reference    has 

critic,  ' 

been  made  elsewhere,  of  apostrophising  the 
deserted  encampment  [atlal  or  tulul)  in  the  opening  lines 
of  an  ode,  and  pours  contempt  on  the  fashionable  glorifica- 
tion of  antiquity.  In  the  passage  translated  below  he  gives 
a  description  of  the  desert  and  its  people  which  recalls  some 
of  Dr.  Johnson's  sallies  at  the  expense  of  Scotland  and 
Scotsmen  : — 


"  Let  the  south-wind  moisten  with  rain  the  desolate  scene 
And  Time  efface  what  once  was  so  fresh  and  green  ! 
Make  the  camel-rider  free  of  a  desert  space 
Where  high-bred  camels  trot  with  unwearied  pace  ; 
Where  only  mimosas  and  thistles  flourish,  and  where, 
For  hunting,  wolves  and  hyenas  are  nowise  rare  ! 
Amongst  the  Bedouins  seek  not  enjoyment  out : 
What  do  they  enjoy  ?     They  live  in  hunger  and  drought.  . 
Let  them  drink  their  bowls  of  milk  and  leave  them  alone, 
To  whom  life's  finer  pleasures  are  all  unknown."  ' 

Ibn  Qutayba,  who  died  towards  the  end  of  the  ninth 
century  a.d.,  was  the  first  critic  of  importance  to  declare  that 
ancients  and  moderns  should  be  judged  on  their  merits  without 
regard  to  their  age.     He  writesj  as  follows  in  the  Introduction 

»  Diwan  des  Abu  Nowas,  Die  iWeinlieder,  ed.  by  Ahlwardt,   No.  lo, 
vv.  1-5. 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  POETS        287 

to  his  'Book    of  Poetry  and    Poets'  {Kltabu  'I-Shi^r  wa-l- 
Shu^ara)  : —  ^ 

"In  citing  extracts  from  the  works  of  the  poets  I  have  been 
guided  by  my  own  choice  and  have  refused  to  admire  anything 
merely  because  others  thought  it  admirable.  I  have 
ancien?and'"  not  regarded  any  ancient  with  veneration  on  account 
modern  poets,  ^j  j^j^  antiquity  nor  any  modern  with  contempt  on 
account  of  his  being  modern,  but  I  have  taken  an  impartial  view 
of  both  sides,  giving  every  one  his  due  and  amply  acknowledging 
his  merit.  Some  of  our  scholars,  as  I  am  aware,  pronounce  a  feeble 
poem  to  be  good,  because  its  author  was  an  ancient,  and  include 
it  among  their  chosen  pieces,  while  they  call  a  sterling  poem  bad 
though  its  only  fault  is  that  it  was  composed  in  their  own  time  or 
that  they  have  seen  its  author.  God,  however,  did  not  restrict 
learning  and  poetry  and  rhetoric  to  a  particular  age  nor  appropriate 
them  to  a  particular  class,  but  has  always  distributed  them  in 
common  amongst  His  servants,  and  has  caused  everything  old  to  be 
new  in  its  own  day  and  every  classic  work  to  be  an  upstart  on  its 
first  appearance," 

The  inevitable  reaction  in  favour  of  the  new^  poetry  and  of 
contemporary  literature   in    general  was  hastened   by  various 

circumstances  which  combined  to  overthrow^  the 
^clalsiclm"^'    prevalent   theory   that   Arabian   heathendom   and 

the  characteristic  pagan  virtues — honour,  courage, 
liberality,  &c. — were  alone  capable  of  producing  poetical 
genius.  Among  the  chief  currents  of  thought  tending  in 
this  direction,  which  are  lucidly  set  forth  in  Goldziher's 
essay,  pp.  148  sqq.,  we  may  note  [a]  the  pietistic  and  theo- 
logical spirit  fostered  by  the  'Abbasid  Government,  and  {b)  the 
influence  of  foreign,  pre-eminently  Persian,  culture.  As  to 
the  former,  it  is  manifest  that  devout  Moslems  would  not  be 
at  all  disposed  to  admit  the  exclusive  pretensions  made  on 
behalf  of  the  Jdhi/iyya  or  to  agree  with  those  who  exalted 
chivalry  [mUruwiva)  above  religion  [din).  Were  not  the 
language  and  style  of  the  Koran  incomparably  excellent  ? 
Surely  the  Holy  Book  was  a  more  proper  subject  for  study 
'  Ed.  by  De  Goeje,  p.  5,  11.  5-15. 


288     POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

than  heathen  verses.  But  if  Moslems  began  to  call  Pre- 
islamic  ideals  in  question,  it  was  especially  the  Persian 
ascendancy  resulting  from  the  triumph  of  the  'Abbasid 
House  that  shook  the  old  arrogant  belief  of  the  Arabs  in 
the  intellectual  supremacy  of  their  race.  So  far  from  glory- 
ing in  the  traditions  of  paganism,  many  people  thought  it 
grossly  insulting  to  mention  an  'Abbasid  Caliph  in  the  same 
breath  with  heroes  of  the  past  like  Hatim  of  Tayyi'  and 
Harim  b.  Sindn.  The  philosopher  al-Kind{  (f  about 
850  A.D.)  rebuked  a  poet  for  venturing  on  such  odious 
comparisons.  "Who  are  these  Arabian  vagabonds"  [sa^aliku 
U~^Jrab\  he  asked,  "  and  what  worth  have  they  ?  "  ^ 

While  Ibn  Qutayba  was  content  to  urge  that  the  modern 

poets   should   get  a   fair   hearing,  and  should   be  judged   not 

chronologically     or    philologically,     but    astheti- 

Critics  in  favour         ,,  r      1  i-  •   •  1 

of  the         callyy  some    or    the  greatest   literary  critics  who 

modern  school.  r  1  •  1  1        1     •  •    • 

came  arter  him  do  not  conceal  their  opinion 
that  the  new  poetry  is  superior  to  the  old.  Tha'alibl 
(t  1038  A.D.)  asserts  that  in  tenderness  and  elegance  the 
Pre-islamic  bards  are  surpassed  by  their  successors,  and  that 
both  alike  have  been  eclipsed  by  his  contemporaries.  Ibn 
Rashiq  (f  circa  1070  a.d.),  whose  ^Umda  on  the  Art  of 
Poetry  is  described  by  Ibn  Khaldun  as  an  epoch-making 
work,  thought  that  the  superiority  of  the  moderns  would 
be  acknowledged  if  they  discarded  the  obsolete  conventions 
of  the  Ode.  European  readers  cannot  but  sympathise  with 
him  when  he  bids  the  poets  draw  inspiration  from  nature  and 
truth  instead  of  relating  imaginary  journeys  on  a  camel  which 
they  never  owned,  through  deserts  which  they  never  saw,  to  a 
patron  residing  in  the  same  city  as  themselves.  This  seems 
to  us  a  very  reasonable  and  necessary  protest,  but  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  Bedouin  qasida  was  not  easily  adaptable 
to  the  conditions  of  urban  life,  and  needed  complete  remould- 
ing rather  than  modification  in  detail. 2 

'  Cf.  the  story  told  of  Abu  Tammam  by  Ibn  Khallikdn  (De  Slane's 
translation,  vol.  i,  p.  350  seq.).  '  See  Noldeke,  Beitrdge,  p.  4. 


THE  CLASSICS   OUT  OF  FAVOUR       289 

"In  the  fifth  century,"  says  Goldziher — i.e.^  from  about 
1000    A.D. — "the    dogma    of   the   unattainable  perfection   of 

the  heathen  poets  may  be  regarded  as  utterly 
^Zdernpoets'!^  demolished."      Henceforth     popular     taste      ran 

strongly  in  the  other  direction,  as  is  shown  by 
the  immense  preponderance  of  modern  pieces  in  the  antho- 
logies— a  favourite  and  characteristic  branch  of  Arabic 
literature — which  were  compiled  during  the  'Abbasid  period 
and  afterwards,  and  by  frequent  complaints  of  the  neglect 
into  which  the  ancient  poetry  had  fallen.  But  although,  for 
Moslems  generally,  Imru'u  '1-Qays  and  his  fellows  came  to 
be  more  or  less  what  Chaucer  is  to  the  average  Englishman, 
the  views  first  enunciated  by  Ibn  Qutayba  met  with  bitter 
opposition  from  the  learned  class,  many  of  whom  clung 
obstinately  to  the  old  philological  principles  of  criticism, 
and  even  declined  to  recognise  the  writings  of  Mutanabbi 
and  Abu  'l-'Ala  al-Ma'arri  as  poetry,  on  the  ground  that 
those  authors  did  not  observe  the  classical  'types'  [asdlib).^ 
The  result  of  such  pedantry  may  be  seen  at  the  present  day 
in  thousands  of  qasidas^  abounding  in  archaisms  and  allusions 
to  forgotten  far-oflF  things  of  merely  antiquarian  interest, 
but  possessing  no  more  claim  to  consideration  here  than  the 
Greek  and  Latin  verses  of  British  scholars  in  a  literary  history 
of  the  Victorian  Age. 

Passing  now  to  the  characteristics  of  the  new  poetry  which 

followed   the  accession  01  the  'Abbasids,  we  have  to  bear   in 

mind  that  from  first  to  last  (with  very  few  excep- 

^''oithe  '"    tions)   it   flourished   under    the   patronage  of  the 

new  poetry.      (,Qm.j.^      There  was  no  organised  book  trade,  no 

wealthy  publishers,  so  that  poets  were  usually  dependent  for 

their  livelihood  on  the  capricious  bounty  ot  the  Caliphs  and 

his  favourites  whom  they  belauded.     Huge  sums  were   paid 

'  Ibn  Khaldiin,  Muqaddima  (Beyrout,  1900),  p.  573,  1.  21  seq.  ;  Prolego- 
mena of  Ibn  K.,  translated  by  De  Slane,  vol.  iii,  p.  380. 

20 


290    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

for   a   successful    panegyric,   and    the    bards   vied    with    each 
other  in  flattery  of  the  most  extravagant  description.     Even 
in  writers  of  real  genius  this  prostitution  of  their  art  gave  rise 
to  a  great  deal  of  the  false  glitter  and  empty  bombast  which 
are  often  erroneously  attributed  to  Oriental  poetry  as  a  whole.i 
These  qualities,  however,  are   absolutely  foreign  to  Arabian 
poetry  of  the  best  period.     The  old  Bedouins  who  praised  a 
man  only  for  that  which  was  in  him,  and  drew  their  images 
directly  from  nature,  stand  at  the  opposite  pole  to  Tha'alibi's 
contemporaries.     Under  the  Umayyads,  as  we  have  seen,  little 
change  took  place.     It  is  not  until  after  the  enthronement  of 
the  ^Abbasids,  when  Persians  filled  the  chief  offices  at  court, 
and  when   a  goodly  number  oi   poets   and   eminent   men   of 
learning  had   Persian    blood    in    their  veins,   that  an   unmis- 
takably   new    note    makes    itself    heard.       One    might    be 
tempted    to    surmise    that    the    high-flown,    bombastic,    and 
ornate    style    of  which    Mutanabbi    is    the    most    illustrious 
exponent,    and    which    is     so    marked    a    teature    in    later 
Muhammadan  poetry,  was  first  introduced  by  the  Persians  and 
Perso-Arabs  who  gathered  round  the  Caliph  in  Baghdad  and 
celebrated  the  triumph  of  their  own  race  in  the  person  of  a 
noble    Barmecide ;  but    this    would    scarcely    be    true.      The 
style  in  question  is  not  specially  Persian  ;  the  earliest  Arabic- 
writing  poets  of  Iranian  descent,  like  Bashshdr  b.  Burd  and 
Abu  Nuwas,  are  (so  far  as  I  can  see)  without  a  trace  of  it. 
What  the   Persians  brought   into  Arabian  poetry  was  not  a 
grandiose  style,  but  a  lively  and   graceful  fancy,  elegance  of 
diction,   depth    and    tenderness  of  feeling,  and    a    rich    store 
of  ideas.  ,  -M 

The  process  oi  transformation  was  aided  by  other  causes 
besides  the  influx  of  Persian  and  Hellenistic  culture  :  for 
example,  by  the  growing  importance  of  Islam  in  public  life 
and  the  diffusion  of  a  strong  religious  spirit  among  the  com- 
munity at  large — a   spirit   which   attained    its    most    perfect 

'  See  Professor  Browne's  Literary  History  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  p.  14  sqq. 


THE  NEW  POETRY  291 

expression  in  the  reflective  and  didactic  poetry  of  Abu 
'l-'Atahiya.  Every  change  of  many-coloured  life  is  depicted 
in  the  brilliant  pages  of  these  modern  poets,  where  the  reader 
may  find,  according  to  his  mood,  the  maddest  gaiety  and  the 
shamefullest  frivolity ;  strains  of  lofty  meditation  mingled 
with  a  world-weary  pessimism  ;  delicate  sentiment,  unforced 
pathos,  and  glowing  rhetoric  ;  but  seldom  the  manly  self- 
reliance,  the  wild,  invigorating  freedom  and  inimitable 
freshness  of  Bedouin  song. 

It  is  of  course  impossible  to  do  justice  even  to  the  principal 
*Abbasid  poets  within  the  limits  of  this  chapter,  but  the  fol- 
lowing five  may  be  taken  as  fairly  representative  : 

polts^of'the      Mud'  b.    lyas,    Abu    Nuwds,    Abu    'l-'Atahiya, 
Abbasid  period,  ^yj^^^^^^^j^.^    ^^^    ^^^  ^l.c^^   al-Ma'arri.      The 

first  three  were  in  close  touch  with  the  court  of  Baghdad, 
while  Mutanabbl  and  Abu  'l-'Ala  flourished  under  the 
Hamddnid  dynasty  which  ruled  in  Aleppo. 

Mud'  b.  lyds  only  deserves  notice  here  as  the  earliest  poet 

of  the  New  School.     His  father  was  a  native  of  Palestine,  but 

he  himself  was  born  and  educated  at  Kufa.     He 

Muti' b.  lyas.  i  i        tt 

began  his  career  under  the  Umayyads,  and  was 
devoted  to  the  Caliph  Walid  b.  Yazid,  who  found  in  him  a 
fellow  after  his  own  heart,  "accomplished,  dissolute,  an  agree- 
able companion  and  excellent  wit,  reckless  in  his  effrontery 
and  suspected  in  his  religion."  ^  When  the  'Abbdsids  came 
into  power  Mud'  attached  himself  to  the  Caliph  Mansur. 
Many  stories  are  told  of  the  debauched  life  which  he  led 
in  the  company  of  zindlqs^  or  free-thinkers,  a  class  of  men 
whose  opinions  we  shall  sketch  in  another  chapter.  His 
songs  of  love  and  wine  are  distinguished  by  their  lightness 
and  elegance.  The  best  known  is  that  in  which  he  laments 
his  separation  from  the  daughter  of  a  Dihqan  (Persian  landed 

'  Aghdni,  xii,  80,  1.  3. 


292     POETRY,   LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

proprietor),  and  invokes  the  two  palm-trees  of  Hulwan,  a 
town  situated  on  the  borders  of  the  Jibdl  province  between 
Hamadhdn  and  Baghdad.  From  this  poem  arose  the 
proverb,  "  Faster  friends  than  the  two  palm-trees  of 
Hulwan."  i 

THE    YEOMAN'S    DAUGHTER. 

"O  ye  two  palms,  palms  of  Hulwan, 
Help  me  weep  Time's  bitter  dole  ! 
Know  that  Time  for  ever  parteth 
Life  from  every  living  soul. 

Had  ye  tasted  parting's  anguish, 
Ye  would  weep  as  I,  forlorn. 
Help  me !     Soon  must  ye  asunder 
By  the  same  hard  fate  be  torn. 

Many  are  the  friends  and  loved  ones 

Whom  I  lost  in  days  before. 

Fare  thee  well,  O  yeoman's  daughter  ! — 

Never  grief  like  this  I  bore. 

Her,  alas,  mine  eyes  behold  not, 

And  on  me  she  looks  no  more  ! " 

By  Europeans  who  know  him  only  through  the  Thousand 
and  One  Nights  Abu  Nuwas  is  remembered  as  the  boon-com- 
panion and  court  jester  of  "the  good  Haroun 
(+ drca ^iT^D)  Alraschid,"  and  as  the  hero  of  countless  droll 
adventures  and  facetious  anecdotes — an  Oriental 
Howleglass  or  Joe  Miller.  It  is  often  forgotten  that  he  was 
a  great  poet  who,  in  the  opinion  of  those  most  competent  to 
iudo-e,  takes  rank  above  all  his  contemporaries  and  successors, 
including  even  Mutanabbl,  and  is  not  surpassed  in  poetical 
genius  by  any  ancient  bard. 

"  Freytag,  Arabuin  Proverbia,  vol.  i,  p.  46  seq.,  where  the  reader  will 
find  the  Arabic  text  of  the  verses  translated  here.  Riickert  has  given  a 
German  rendering  of  the  same  verses  in  his  Hamiisa,  vol.  i,  p.  311.  A 
fuller  text  of  the  poem  occurs  in  Aghdni,  xii,  107  seq. 


ABU  NUWAS  293 

Hasan  b.  Hani'  gained  the  familiar  title  of  Abu  Nuwas 
(Father  of  the  lock  of  hair)  from  two  locks  which  hung 
down  on  his  shoulders.  He  was  born  of  humble  parents, 
about  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century,  in  Ahwaz,  the 
capital  of  Khuzistan.  That  he  was  not  a  pure  Arab  the 
name  of  his  mother,  Jallaban,  clearly  indicates,  while  the  fol- 
lowing verse  affords  sufficient  proof  that  he  was  not  ashamed 
of  his  Persian  blood  ; — 

"  Who  are  Tamim  and  Qays  and  all  their  kin  ? 
The  Arabs  in  God's  sight  are  nobody."  ' 

He  received  his  education  at  Basra,  of  which  city  he  calls 
himself  a  native,2  and  at  Kufa,  where  he  studied  poetry  and 
philology  under  the  learned  Khalaf  al-Ahmar.  After  passing 
a  *  Wanderjahr '  among  the  Arabs  of  the  desert,  as  was  the 
custom  of  scholars  at  that  time,  he  made  his  way  to  Baghdad 
and  soon  eclipsed  every  competitor  at  the  court  of  Hariin  the 
Orthodox.  A  man  of  the  most  abandoned  character,  which 
he  took  no  pains  to  conceal,  Abu  Nuwas,  by  his  flagrant 
immorality,  drunkenness,  and  blasphemy,  excited  the  Caliph's 
anger  to  such  a  pitch  that  he  often  threatened  the  culprit  with 
death,  and  actually  imprisoned  him  on  several  occasions  ;  but 
these  fits  of  severity  were  brief.  The  poet  survived  both 
Harun  and  his  son,  Amin,  who  succeeded  him  in  the 
Caliphate.  Age  brought  repentance — "  the  Devil  was  sick, 
the  Devil  a  monk  would  be."  He  addressed  the  following 
lines  from  prison  to  Fadl  b.  al-RabI',  whom  Hdriin  appointed 
Grand  Vizier  after  the  fall  ot  the  Barmecides  : — 

"  Fadl,  who  hast  taught  and  trained  me  up  to  goodness 
(And  goodness  is  but  habit),  thee  I  praise. 
Now  hath  vice  fled  and  virtue  me  revisits, 
And  I  have  turned  to  chaste  and  pious  ways. 


Diwdn,  ed.  by  Ahlwardt,  Die  Weinlieder,  No.  26,  v,  4. 
Ibn  Qutayba,  K.  al-Shrr  wa-'l-Shu'ard,  p.  502, 1.  13. 


294    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

To  see  me,  thou  would'st  think  the  saintly  Basrite, 

Hasan,  or  else  Qatada,  met  thy  gaze,' 

So  do  I  deck  humiUty  with  leanness, 

While  yellow,  locust-like,  my  cheek  o'erlays. 

Beads  on  my  arm  ;  and  on  my  breast  the  Scripture, 

Where  hung  a  chain  of  gold  in  other  days."^ 

The  Dfwan  of  Abu  Nuwas  contains  poems  in  many  dif- 
ferent styles — e.g.^  panegyric  [niadih)^  satire  {hijd),  songs  or 
the  chase  {tardiyydt),  elegies  [?nardth{)y  and  religious  poems 
{zuhdiyydt) ;  but  love  and  wine  were  the  two  motives  by 
which  his  genius  was  most  brilliantly  inspired.  His  wine- 
songs  {khamriyydt)  are  generally  acknowledged  to  be  incom- 
parable.    Here  is  one  of  the  shortest : — 

"Thou  scolder  of  the  grape  and  me, 
I  ne'er  shall  win  thy  smile  ! 
Because  against  thee  I  rebel, 
'Tis  churlish  to  revile. 

Ah,  breathe  no  more  the  name  of  wine 

Until  thou  cease  to  blame. 
For  fear  that  thy  foul  tongue  should  smirch 

Its  fair  and  lovely  name  ! 

Come,  pour  it  out,  ye  gentle  boys, 

A  vintage  ten  years  old. 
That  seems  as  though  'twere  in  the  cup 

A  lake  of  liquid  gold. 

And  when  the  water  mingles  there. 

To  fancy's  eye  are  set 
Pearls  over  shining  pearls  close  strung 

As  in  a  carcanet."3 


'  For  the  famous  ascetic,  Hasan  of  Basra,  see  pp.  225-227.  Qatada  was 
a  learned  divine,  also  of  Basra  and  contemporary  with  Hasan.  He  died 
in  735  A.D. 

'  These  verses  are  quoted  by  Ibn  Qutayba,  op.  at.,  p.  507  seq.  '  The 
Scripture  '  (al-mashaf)  is  of  course  the  Koran. 

3  Die  Weinlieder,  ed.  by  Ahlwardt,  No.  47. 


ABl)  NUWAS  295 

Another  poem  begins — 

"  Ho  !  a  cup,  and  fill  it  up,  and  tell  me  it  is  wine, 
For  I  will  never  drink  in  shade  if  I  can  drink  in  shine  ! 
Curst  and  poor  is  every  hour  that  sober  I  must  go. 
But  rich  am  I  whene'er  well  drunk  I  stagger  to  and  fro. 
Speak,  for  shame,  the  loved  one's  name,  let  vain  disguise 

alone  : 
No  good  there  is  in  pleasures  o'er  which  a  veil  is  thrown."  ' 

Abu  Nuwas  practised  vv^hat  he  preached,  and  hypocrisy  at 
any  rate  cannot  be  laid  to  his  charge.  The  moral  and 
religious  sentiments  which  appear  in  some  of  his  poems  are 
not  mere  cant,  but  should  rather  be  regarded  as  the  utterance 
of  sincere  though  transient  emotion.  Usually  he  felt  and 
avowed  that  pleasure  vi^as  the  supreme  business  of  his  life, 
and  that  religious  scruples  could  not  be  permitted  to  stand 
in  the  way.  He  even  urges  others  not  to  shrink  from  any 
excess,  inasmuch  as  the  Divine  mercy  is  greater  than  all  the 
sins  of  which  a  man  is  capable  : — 

"  Accumulate  as  many  sins  thou  canst : 
The  Lord  is  ready  to  relax  His  ire. 
When  the  day  comes,  forgiveness  thou  wilt  find 
Before  a  mighty  King  and  gracious  Sire, 
And  gnaw  thy  fingers,  all  that  joy  regretting 
Which  thou  didst  leave  thro'  terror  of  Hell-fire  ! "  = 

We  must  now  bid  farewell  to  Abu  Nuwas  and  the 
licentious  poets  [al-shu^ard  al-mujjan)  who  reflect  so  admir- 
ably the  ideas  and  manners  prevailing  in  court  circles  and 
in  the  upper  classes  of  society  which  were  chiefly  influenced 
by  the  court.  The  scenes  of  luxurious  dissipation  and  refined 
debauchery  which  they  describe  show  us,  indeed,  that  Persian 
culture  was  not  an  unalloyed  blessing  to  the  Arabs  any  more 

'  Ibid.,  No.  29,  vv.  1-3. 

=  Ibn  Khallikan,  ed.  by  Wiistenfeld,  No.  169,  p.  100  ;  De  Slane's 
translation,  vol.  i,  p.  393. 


296    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

than  were  the  arts  of  Greece  to  the  Romans ;  but  this  is  only 
the  darker  side  of  the  picture.  The  works  of  a  contempo- 
rary poet  furnish  evidence  of  the  indignation  which  the 
libertinism  fashionable  in  high  places  called  forth  among 
the  mass  of  Moslems  who  had  not  lost  faith  in  morality  and 
religion. 

Abu  'l-'Atahiya,  unlike  his  great  rival,  came  of  Arab  stock. 
He   was  bred  in  Kiifa,  and  gained  his  livelihood  as  a  young 

man  by  selling  earthenware.  His  poetical  talent, 
(748-828  A.D^X    however,    promised   so  well  that   he   set   out    to 

present  himself  before  the  Caliph  Mahdi,  who 
richly  rewarded  him ;  and  Harun  al-Rashid  afterwards  be- 
stowed on  him  a  yearly  pension  of  50,000  dirhems  (about 
j^2,ooo),  in  addition  to  numerous  extraordinary  gifts.  At 
Baghdad  he  fell  in  love  with  'Utba,  a  slave-girl  belonging  to 
Mahdi,  but  she  did  not  return  his  passion  or  take  any  notice  of 
the  poems  in  which  he  celebrated  her  charms  and  bewailed  the 
sufferings  that  she  made  him  endure.  Despair  of  winning  her 
affection  caused  him,  it  is  said,  to  assume  the  woollen  garb  of 
Muhammadan  ascetics,^  and  henceforth,  instead  of  writing  vain 
and  amatorious  verses,  he  devoted  his  powers  exclusively  to 
those  joyless  meditations  on  mortality  which  have  struck  a  deep 
chord  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen.  Like  Abu  'l-'Ala 
al-Ma'arri  and  others  who  neglected  the  positive  precepts  of 
Islam  in  favour  of  a  moral  philosophy  based  on  experience  and 
reflection,  Abu  'l-'Atahiya  was  accused  of  being  a  freethinker 
{zindiq).^     It  was  alleged  that  in  his  poems  he  often  spoke  of 

'  Cf.  Diwdn  (ed.  of  Beyrout,  1886),  p.  279, 1.  9,  where  he  reproaches  one 
of  his  former  friends  who  deserted  him  because,  in  his  own  words,  "  I 
adopted  the  garb  of  a  dervish  "  {sirtu  fi  ziyyi  miskini).  Others  attribute 
his  conversion  to  disgust  with  the  immorality  and  profanity  of  the  court- 
poets  amongst  whom  he  lived. 

=  Possibly  he  alludes  to  these  aspersions  in  the  verse  (ibid.,  p.  153, 1. 10): 
^^  Men  have  become  corrupted,  and  if  they  see  any  one  who  is  sound  in 
his  religion,  they  call  him  a  heretic"  (mubtadi'). 


ABU  'L-'ATAHIYA  297 

death  but  never  of  the  Resurrection  and  the  Judgment — 
a  calumny  which  is  refuted  by  many  passages  in  his  Dlwdn. 
According  to  the  literary  historian  al-Siili  (t  946  A.D.),  Abu 
'l-'Atihiya  believed  in  One  God  who  formed  the  universe  out  of 
two  opposite  elements  which  He  created  from  nothing  ;  and 
held,  further,  that  everything  would  be  reduced  to  these  same 
elements  before  the  final  destruction  of  all  phenomena.  Know- 
ledge, he  thought,  was  acquired  naturally  {i.e.^  without  Divine 
Revelation)  by  means  of  reflection,  deduction,  and  research,^ 
He  believed  in  the  threatened  retribution  {al-wa''ld)  and  in  the 
command  to  abstain  from  commerce  with  the  world  {tahrlmu 
^ l-makjinb)."^  He  professed  the  opinions  or  the  Butrites,3  a 
subdivision  of  the  Zaydites,  as  that  sect  of  the  Shi*a  was  named 
which  followed  Zayd  b.  All  b.  Husayn  b.  'All  b.  Abl  TOib. 
He  spoke  evil  or  none,  and  did  not  approve  of  revolt  against  the 
Government.  He  held  the  doctrine  of  predestination  {jabr)A 
Abu  'l-'Atahiya  may  have  secretly  cherished  the  Manichasan 
views  ascribed  to  him  in  this  passage,  but  his  poems  contain 
little  or  nothinp;  that  could  offend  the  most  orthodox  Moslem. 
The  following  verse,  in  which  Goldziher  finds  an  allusion  to 
Buddha,S  is  capable   of  a  different  interpretation.     It  rather 

•  Abu  'l-'Atahiya  declares  that  knowledge  is  derived  from  three  sources, 
logical  reasoning  [qiyds),  examination  {^iyar),  and  oral  tradition  {sanuV). 
See  his  Diwdn,  p.  158,  1.  11. 

^  Cf.  Mdni,  seine  Lehre  und  seine  Schriftcn,  by  G.  Fliigel,  p.  281, 1.  3  sqq. 
Abu  'l-'Atahiya  did  not  take  this  extreme  view  {Diwdn,  p.  270,  1.  3  seq.). 

3  See  Shahrastani,  Haarbriicker's  translation,  Part  I,  p.  181  sqq.  It 
appears  highly  improbable  that  Abu  'l-'Atahiya  was  a  Shi'ite.  Cf.  the 
verses  (JDiwdn,  p.  104,  1.  13  seq.),  where,  speaking  of  the  prophets  and  the 
holy  men  of  ancient  Islam,  he  says  : — 

"  Reckon  first  among  them  Abii  Bakt,  the  veracious, 
And  exclaim  'O  ^Umar !'  in  the  second  place  of  honour. 
And  reckon  the  father  of  Hasan  after  'Uthmdn, 
For  the  merit  of  them  both  is  recited  and  celebrated," 

*  Aghdni,  iii,  128,  1.  6  sqq. 

s  Tramactions  of  the  Ninth  Congress  0*  Orientalists,  vol,  ii.  p.  114. 


298    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

seems  to  me  to  exalt  the  man  of  ascetic  life,  without  particular 
reference  to  any  individual,  above  all  others  : — 

"  If  thou  would' st  see  the  noblest  of  mankind, 
Behold  a  monarch  in  a  beggar's  garb." ' 

But  while  the  poet  avoids  positive  heresy,  it  is  none  the  less 
true  that  much  of  his  Diwan  is  not  strictly  religious  in  the 
Muhammadan  sense  and  may  fairly  be  called  'philosophical.' 
This  was  enough  to  convict  him  of  infidelity  and  atheism  in 
the  eyes  of  devout  theologians  who  looked  askance  on  moral 
teaching,  however  pure,  that  was  not  cast  in  the  dogmatic 
mould.  The  pretended  cause  of  his  imprisonment  by  Harun 
al-Rashid — namely,  that  he  refused  to  make  any  more  love- 
songs — is  probably,  as  Goldziher  has  suggested,  a  popular  version 
of  the  fact  that  he  persisted  in  writing  religious  poems  which 
were  supposed  to  have  a  dangerous  bias  in  the  direction  of 
free-thought. 

His  poetry  breathes  a  spirit  of  profound  melancholy  and  hope- 
less pessimism.  Death  and  what  comes  after  death,  the  frailty 
and  misery  of  man,  the  vanity  of  worldly  pleasures  and  the  duty 
of  renouncing  them — these  are  the  subjects  on  which  he 
dwells  with  monotonous  reiteration,  exhorting  his  readers  to  live 
the  ascetic  life  and  fear  God  and  lay  up  a  store  of  good 
works  against  the  Day  of  Reckoning.  The  simplicity,  ease, 
and   naturalness   of  his  style   are  justly    admired.     Religious 

'  Diwdn,  p.  274,  1.  10.    Cf.  the  verse  (p.  199,  penultimate  line) : — 

"  When  I  gained  contentment,  I  did  not  cease  {thereafter) 
To  be  a  king,  regarding  riches  as  poverty." 

The  ascetic  "  lives  the  life  of  a  king"  {ibid.,  p.  187,  1.  5).  Contented  men 
are  the  noblest  of  all  (p,  148,  1.  2).  So  the  great  Persian  mystic,  Jalalu 
'1-Din  Rumi,  says  in  reference  to  the  perfect  Sufi  (Divdn-i  Shatns-i  Tabriz, 
No.  viii,  v.  3  in  my  edition)  :  Mard-i  khudd  shdh  buvad  zir-i  dalq,  "  the 
man  of  God  is  a  king  'neath  dervish-cloak  ; "  and  eminent  spiritualists 
are  frequently  described  as  "  kings  of  the  (mystic)  path."  I  do  not  deny, 
however,  that  this  metaphor  may  have  been  originally  suggested  by  the 
story  of  Buddha. 


ABU  'L-'ATANIVA  299 

poetry,  as  he  himself  confesses,  was  not  read  at  court  or  by- 
scholars  who  demanded  rare  and  obscure  expressions,  but  only 
by  pious  folk,  traditionists  and  divines,  and  especially  by  the 
vulgar,  "  who  like  best  what  they  can  understand."  ^ 
Abu  'l-*Atahiya  wrote  for  'the  man  in  the  street.'  Discarding 
conventional  themes  tricked  out  with  threadbare  artifices,  he 
appealed  to  common  feelings  and  matters  of  universal  ex- 
perience. He  showed  for  the  first  and  perhaps  for  the  last 
time  in  the  history  of  Arabic  literature  that  it  was  possible  to 
use  perfectly  plain  and  ordinary  language  without  ceasing  to 
be  a  poet. 

Although,  as  has  been  said,  the  bulk  of  Abu  'l-'Atahiya's 
poetry  is  philosophical  in  character,  there  remains  much 
specifically  Islamic  doctrine,  in  particular  as  regards  the 
Resurrection  and  the  Future  Life.  This  combination  may 
be  illustrated  by  the  following  ode,  which  is  considered  one 
of  the  best  that  have  been  written  on  the  subject  of  religion, 
or,  more  accurately,  of  asceticism  [zuhd)  : — 

"  Get  sons  for  death,  build  houses  for  decay  ! 
All,  all,  ye  wend  annihilation's  way. 
For  whom  build  we,  who  must  ourselves  return 
Into  our  native  element  of  clay  ? 

0  Death,  nor  violence  nor  flattery  thou 

Dost  use,  but  when  thou  com'st,  escape  none  may. 
Methinks,  thou  art  ready  to  surprise  mine  age. 
As  age  surprised  and  made  my  youth  his  prey. 
What  ails  me,  World,  that  every  place  perforce 

1  lodge  thee  in,  it  galleth  me  to  stay  ? 
And,  O  Time,  how  do  I  behold  thee  run 

To  spoil  me  ?  Thine  own  gift  thou  tak'st  away  ! 
O  Time  !  inconstant,  mutable  art  thou. 
And  o'er  the  realm  of  ruin  is  thy  sway. 


'  Diwdn,  p.  25,  1.  3  sqq.  Abu  'l-'Atahiya  took  credit  to  himself  for 
introducing  'the  language  of  the  market-place'  into  his  poetry  (ibid., 
p.  12,  1.  3  seq.). 


300    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

What  ails  me  that  no  glad  result  it  brings 

Whene'er,  O  World,  to  milk  thee  I  essay? 

And  when  I  court  thee,  why  dost  thou  raise  up 

On  all  sides  only  trouble  and  dismay  ? 

Men  seek  thee  every  wise,  but  thou  art  like 

A  dream  ;  the  shadow  of  a  cloud  ;  the  day 

Which  hath  but  now  departed,  nevermore 

To  dawn  again  ;  a  glittering  vapour  gay. 

This  people  thou  hast  paid  in  full  :  their  feet 

Are  on  the  stirrup — let  them  not  delay  ! 

But  those  that  do  good  works  and  labour  well 

Hereafter  shall  receive  the  promised  pay. 

As  if  no  punishment  I  had  to  fear, 

A  load  of  sin  upon  my  neck  I  lay; 

And  while  the  world  I  love,  from  Truth,  alas. 

Still  my  besotted  senses  go  astray. 

I  shall  be  asked  of  all  my   business  here  : 

What  can  I  plead  then  ?  What  can  I  gainsay  ? 

What  argument  allege,  when  I  am  called 

To  render  an  account  on  Reckoning-Day  ? 

Dooms  twain  in  that  dread  hour  shall  be  revealed, 

When  I  the  scroll  of  these  mine  acts  survey  : 

Either  to  dwell  in  everlasting  bliss, 

Or  suffer  torments  of  the  damned  for  aye  ! "  ' 

I  w^ill  novvr  add  a  few^  verses  culled  from  the  Diwan  which 
bring  the  poet's  pessimistic  view  of  life  into  clearer  outline, 
and  also  some  examples  of  those  moral  precepts  and  sententious 
criticisms  which  crowd  his  pages  and  have  contributed  in  no 
small  degree  to  his  popularity. 

"The  world  is  like  a  viper  soft  to  touch  that  venom  spits. ^" 

"Men  sit  like  revellers  o'er  their  cups  and  drink. 
From  the  world's  hand,  the  circling  wine  of  death."  ^ 

"  Call  no  man  living  blest  for  aught  you  see 
But  that  for  which  you  blessed  call  the  dead."  < 


*  Dtwdn  (Beyrout,  1886),  p.  23,  1.  13  et  seqq. 

"  Ibid.,  p.  51,  1.  2.  3  Ibid.,  p.  132,  I.  3. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  46,  1.  16. 


ABU  'L-'ATAHIYA  301 

FALSE    FRIENDS. 

'"Tis  not  the  Age  that  moves  my  scorn, 
But  those  who  in  the  Age  are  born, 
I  cannot  count  the  friends  that  broke 
Their  faith,  tho'  honied  words  they  spoke  ; 
In  whom  no  aid  I  found,  and  made 
The  Devil  welcome  to  their  aid. 
May  I — so  best  we  shall  agree — 
Ne'er  look  on  them  nor  they  on  me  ! " ' 


"If  men   should   see   a  prophet  begging,    they  would  turn    and 
scout  him. 
Thy  friend  is  ever  thine  as  long  as  thou  canst  do  without  him ; 
But  he  will  spew  thee  forth,  if  in   thy  need  thou  come  about 
him."  ^ 

THE   WICKED   WORLD. 

"'Tis  only  on  the  culprit  sin  recoils, 
The  ignorant  fool  against  himself  is  armed. 
Humanity  are  sunk  in  wickedness  ; 
The  best  is  he  that  leaveth  us  unharmed.  "  3 

"'Twas  my  despair  of  Man  that  gave  me  hope 
God's  grace  would  find  me  soon,  I  know  not  how. "  ^ 

LIFE   AND   DEATH. 

"  Man's  life  is  his  fair  name,  and  not  his  length  of  years ; 
Man's  death  is  his  ill-fame,  and  not  the  day  that  nears. 
Then  life  to  thy  fair  name  by  deeds  of  goodness  give  : 
So  in  this  world  two  lives,  O  mortal,  thou  shalt  live.  "  s 

',  MAXIMS   AND   RULES  OF   LIFE. 

"  Mere  falsehood  by  its  face  is  recognised, 
But  Truth  by  parables  and  admonitions,"* 


•  Diwdn,  p.  260,  1.  II  et  scqq.  "^  Ibid.,  p.  295,  1.  14  et  scqq. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  287, 1.  10  seq.  "  Ibid.,  p.  119,  1.  11. 

5  Ibid.,  p.  259,  penultimate  line  etscq.  *  Ibid.,  p.  115,  I.  4. 


302    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND  SCIENCE 

"  I  keep  the  bond  of  love  inviolate 
Towards  all  humankind,  for  I  betray 
Myself,  if  I  am  false  to  any  man."' 

"  Far  from  the  safe  path,  hop'st  thou  to  be  saved  ? 
Ships  make  no  speedy  voyage  on  dry  land. "  * 

"Strip  off  the  world  from  thee  and  naked  live,  j 

For  naked  thou  didst  fall  into  the  world. "  3 

"  Man  guards  his  own  and  grasps  his  neighbours'  pelf. 
And  he  is  angered  when  they  him  prevent ; 
But  he  that  makes  the  earth  his  couch  will  sleep 
No  worse,  if  lacking  silk  he  have  content. " " 

"Men  vaunt  their  noble  blood,  but  I  behold 
No  lineage  that  can  vie  with  righteous  deeds.  "^ 

"  If  knowledge  lies  in  long  experience. 
Less  than  what  I  have  borne  suffices  me.  "  * 

"  Faith  is  the  medicine  of  every  grief. 
Doubt  only  raises  up  a  host  of  cares. "  ? 

"  Blame  me  or  no,  'tis  my  predestined  state  : 
If  I  have  erred,  infallible  is  Fate.  "^ 

Abu  'l-'Atdhiya  found  little  favour  w^ith  his  contemporaries, 
who  seem  to  have  regarded  him  as  a  miserly  hypocrite.  He 
died,   an   aged    man,    in    the    Caliphate  of    Ma'mun.9     Von 

»  Diwdn,  p.  51,  1.  10.  =  Ibid.,  p.  133,  1.  5. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  74,  1.  4.  "  Ibid.,  p.  149,  1.  12  seq. 

s  Ibid.,  p.  195,  1.  9.     Cf.  p.  243,  1.  4  seq. 

6  Ibid.,  p.  274,  1.  6.  7  ihid.,  p.  262,  1.  4. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  346,  1.  II.    Cf.  p.  102,  1.  II  ;  p.  262,  1.  I  seq.  ;  p.  267,1.  7.    This 
verse  is  taken  from  Abu  'l-'Atahiya's  famous  didactic  poem  composed  in 
rhyming  couplets,  which  is  said  to  have  contained  4,000  sentences  of 
morality.    Several  of  these  have  been  translated  by  Von  Kremer  in  his  ■ 
Cnltnrgcschichtc  des  Orients,  vol.  ii,  p.  374  sqq. 

9  In  one  of  his  poems  (Diwdn,  p.  160,  1.  11),  he  says  that  he  has  lived  : 
ninety  years,  but  if  this  is  not  a  mere   exaggeration,  it   needs  to  be 
corrected.    The  words  for  '  seventy '  and  '  ninety' are  easily  confused  in 
Arabic  writing.  ^ 


ABU  'L-'ATAHIYA  303 

Kremer  thinks  that  he  had  a  truer  genius  for  poetry  than 
Abii  Nuwas,  an  opinion  in  which  I  am  unable  to  concur. 
Both,  however,  as  he  points  out,  are  distinctive  types  of  their 
time.  If  Abu  Nuwas  presents  an  appalling  picture  of  a  corrupt 
and  frivolous  society  devoted  to  pleasure,  we  learn  from  Abu 
'l-'Atahiya  something  of  the  religious  feelings  and  beliefs  which 
pervaded  the  middle  and  lower  classes,  and  which  led  them  to 
take  a  more  earnest  and  elevated  view  of  life. 

With  the  rapid  decline  and  disintegration  of  the  'Abbasid 
Empire  which  set  in  towards  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century, 
numerous  petty  dynasties  arose,  and  the  hitherto  unrivalled 
splendour  of  Baghdad  was  challenged  by  more  than  one  pro- 
vincial court.  These  independent  or  semi-independent  princes 
were  sometimes  zealous  patrons  of  learning — it  is  well  known, 
for  example,  that  a  national  Persian  literature  first  came  into 
being  under  the  auspices  of  the  Samanids  in  Khurasan  and  the 
Buwayhids  in  'Iraq — but  as  a  rule  the  anxious  task  of  main- 
taining, or  the  ambition  of  extending,  their  power  left  them 
small  leisure  to  cultivate  letters,  even  if  they  wished  to  do  so. 
None  combined  the  arts  of  war  and  peace  more  brilliantly 
than  the  Hamdanid  Sayfu  '1-Dawla,  who  in  944  a.d.  made 
himself  master  of  Aleppo,  and  founded  an  independent  king- 
dom in  Northern  Syria. 

"The    Hamdanids,"    says   Tha'alibi,   "were   kings  and  princes, 

comely   of    countenance  and   eloquent  of   tongue,  endowed  with 

open-handedness  and  gravity  of  mind.     Sayfu  '1-DawIa 

Tha'aiibi's  js  famed  as  the  chief  amongst  them  all  and  the  centre- 
Sayfu  '1-Dawia.  pearl  of  their  necklace.  He  was — may  God  be  pleased 
with  him  and  grant  his  desires  and  make  Paradise  his 
abode  ! — the  brightest  star  of  his  age  and  the  pillar  of  Islam  :  by 
hira  the  frontiers  were  guarded  and  the  State  well  governed.  His 
attacks  on  the  rebellious  Arabs  checked  their  fury  and  blunted 
their  teeth  and  tamed  their  stubbornness  and  secured  his  subjects 
against  their  barbarity.  His  campaigns  exacted  vengeance  from 
the  Emperor  of  the  Greeks,  decisively  broke  their  hostile  onset, 


304    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

and  had  an  excellent  effect  on  Islam.  His  court  was  the  goal  of 
ambassadors,  the  dayspring  of  liberality,  the  horizon-point  of  hope, 
the  end  of  journeys,  a  place  where  savants  assembled  and  poets 
competed  for  the  palm.  It  is  said  that  after  the  Caliphs  no  prince 
gathered  around  him  so  many  masters  of  poetry  and  men  illustrious 
in  literature  as  he  did  ;  and  to  a  monarch's  hall,  as  to  a  market, 
people  bring  only  what  is  in  demand.  He  was  an  accomplished 
scholar,  a  poet  himself  and  a  lover  of  fine  poetry  ;  keenly  sus- 
ceptible to  words  of  praise." ' 

Sayfu   '1-Dawla's    cousin,    Abii     Firas    al-Hamdani,    was   a 
gallant  soldier  and  a  poet  of  some   mark,  who  if  space  per- 
mitted   would    receive    fuller    notice    here.^     He,    however,  I 
though    superior    to    the    common    herd    of    court     poets,    is  , 
overshadowed  by  one  who  with  all  his  faults — and  they  are  i 
not    inconsiderable — made    an    extraordinary  impression  upon 
his  contemporaries,  and  by  the  commanding  influence  of  his 
reputation  decided  what  should  henceforth  be  the  standard  of  j 
poetical  taste  in  the  Muhammadan  world. 

Abu    '1-Tayyib    Ahmad    b.    Husayn,    known    to    fame   as 
al-Mutanabbi,  was  born  and  bred  at  Kufa,  where  his  father 

is  said  to  have  been  a  water-carrier.     Following 
(9is^^65\.D.).    the    admirable  custom    by  which  young  men  of 

promise  were  sent  abroad  to  complete  their 
education,  he  studied  at  Damascus  and  visited  other  towns 
in  Syria,  but  also  passed  much  of  his  time  among  the 
Bedouins,  to  whom  he  owed  the  singular  knowledge 
and  mastery  of  Arabic  displayed  in  his  poems.  Here  he 
came  forward  as  a  prophet  (from  which  circumstance  he 
was  afterwards  entitled  al-Mutanabbi,  i.e.^  '  the  pretender  to 
prophecy '),  and  induced  a  great  multitude  to  believe  in  him  ; 
but  ere  long  he  was  captured  by  Lulu,  the  governor  of  Hims 
(Emessa),    and    thrown    into    prison.     After    his    release    he 

'  Tha'alibi,  Yatiniatu  'l-Dahr  (Damascus,  1304  a.h.),  vol.  i,  p.  8  seq. 

'  See  Von  Kramer's  Culturgcschichtc,  vol.  ii,  p.  381  sqq.  ;  Ahlwardt, 
Poesie  unci  Poctik  der  Araber,  p.  37  sqq.  ;  R.  Dvorak,  Abu  Finis,  cin 
arabischer  Dichter  nnd  Held  (Leyden,  1895). 


MUTANABBI  305 

wandered  to  and  fro  chanting  the  praises  of  all  and  sundry, 
until  fortune  guided  him  to  the  court  of  Sayfu  '1-Dawla  at 
Aleppo.  For  nine  years  (948-957  a.d.)  he  stood  high  in 
the  favour  of  that  cultured  prince,  whose  virtues  he  celebrated 
in  a  series  of  splendid  eulogies,  and  with  whom  he  lived  as  an 
intimate  friend  and  comrade  in  arms.  The  liberality  of  Sayfu 
'1-Dawla  and  the  ingenious  impudence  of  the  poet  are  well 
brought  out  by  the  following  anecdote  : — 

Mutanabbi  on  one  occasion  handed  to  his  patron  the  copy  of  an 
ode  which  he  had  recently  composed  in  his  honour,  and  retired, 
leaving  Sayfu  '1-Dawla  to  peruse  it  at  leisure.  The  prince  began  to 
read,  and  came  to  these  lines — 

Aqil  anil  aqti'  ihmil  'alii  salli  a'id 

zid  haslishi  bashshi  tafad^al  adni  surra  sili,^ 

"Pardon,  bestow,  endow,  mount,  raise,  console,  restore. 
Add,  laugh,  rejoice,  bring  nigh,  show  favour,  gladden,  give!" 

Far  from  being  displeased  by  the  poet's  arrogance,  Sayfu  '1-Dawla 
was  so  charmed  with  his  artful  collocation  of  fourteen  imperatives 
in  a  single  verse  that  he  granted  every  request.  Under  pardon  he 
wrote  '  we  pardon  thee '  ;  under  bestow,  '  let  him  receive  such  and 
such  a  sum  of  money '  ;  under  endow,  '  we  endow  thee  with  an 
estate,'  which  he  named  (it  was  beside  the  gate  of  Aleppo) ;  under 
mount,  '  let  such  and  such  a  horse  be  led  to  him  '  ;  under  raise,  '  we 
do  so ' ;  under  console,  'we  do  so,  be  at  ease';  under  restore,  'we 
restore  thee  to  thy  former  place  in  our  esteem' ;  under  add,  'let  him 
have  such  and  such  in  addition  '  ;  under  bring  nigh, '  we  admit  thee 
to  our  intimacy '  ;  under  show  favour,  '  we  have  done  so ' ;  under 
gladden,  '  we  have  made  thee  glad '  = ;  under  give,  '  this  we  have 
already  done.'  Mutanabbi's  rivals  envied  his  good  fortune,  and 
one  of  them  said  to  Sayfu  '1-Dawla — "Sire,  you  have  done  all  that 
he  asked,  but  when  he  uttered  the  words  laugh,  rejoice,  why  did  not 
you  answer,  '  Ha,  ha,  ha '  ? "  Sayfu  '1-Dawla  laughed,  and  said,  "  You 
too,  shall  have  your  wish,"  and  ordered  him  a  donation. 

'  Mutanabbi,  ed.  by  Dieterici,  p.  493.  Wahidi  gives  the  whole  story  in 
his  commentary  on  this  verse. 

=  Mutanabbi,  it  is  said,  explained  to  Sayfu  '1-Dawla  that  by  surra 
(gladden)  he  meant  surriyya ;  whereupon  the  good-humoured  prince 
presented  him  with  a  slave -girl. 

21 


3o6    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

Mutanabbi  was  sincerely  attached  to  his  generous  master, 
and  this  feeling  inspired  a  purer  and  loftier  strain  than  we 
find  in  the  fulsome  panegyrics  which  he  afterwards  addressed 
to  the  negro  Kafiir.  He  seems  to  have  been  occasionally  in 
disgrace,  but  Sayfu  '1-Dawla  could  deny  nothing  to  a  poet 
who  paid  him  such  magnificent  compliments.  Nor  was  he 
deterred  by  any  false  modesty  from  praising  himself :  he  was 
fully  conscious  of  his  power  and,  like  Arabian  bards  in 
general,  he  bragged  about  it.  Although  the  verbal  leger- 
demain which  is  so  conspicuous  in  his  poetry  cannot  be 
reproduced  in  another  language,  the  lines  translated  below 
may  be  taken  as  a  favourable  and  sufficiently  characteristic 
specimen  of  his  style. 

"  How  glows  mine  heart  for  him  whose  heart  to  me  is  cold, 
Who  liketh  ill  my  case  and  me  in  fault  doth  hold  ! 
Why  should  I  hide  a  love  that  hath  worn  thin  my  frame  ? 
To  Sayfu  '1-Dawla  all  the  world  avows  the  same. 
Tho'  love  of  his  high  star  unites  us,  would  that  we 
According  to  our  love  might  so  divide  the  fee  ! 
Him  have  I  visited  when  sword  in  sheath  was  laid. 
And  I  have  seen  him  when  in  blood  swam  every  blade  : 
Him,  both  in  peace  and  war  the  best  of  all  mankind, 
Whose  crown  of  excellence  was  still  his  noble  mind. 

Do  foes  by  flight  escape  thine  onset,  thou  dost  gain 
A  chequered  victory,  half  of  pleasure,  half  of  pain. 
So  puissant  the  fear  thou  strik'st  them  with,  it  stands 
Instead  of  thee,  and  works  more  than  thy  warriors'  hands. 
Unfought  the  field  is  thine  :  thou  need'st  not  further  strain 
To  chase  them  from  their  holes  in  mountain  or  in  plain. 
What  !  'fore  thy  fierce  attack  whene'er  an  army  reels. 
Must  thy  ambitious  soul  press  hot  upon  their  heels  ? 
Thy  task  it  is  to  rout  them  on  the  battle-ground  : 
No  shame  to  thee  if  they  in  flight  have  safety  found. 
Or  thinkest  thou  perchance  that  victory  is  sweet 
Only  when  scimitars  and  necks  each  other  greet  ? 

O  justest  of  the  just  save  in  thy  deeds  to  me  ! 

Thou,  art  accused  and  thou,  O  Sire,  must  judge  the  plea. 


MUTANABBt  307 

Look,  I  implore  thee,  well  !     Let  not  thine  eye  cajoled 
See  fat  in  empty  froth,  in  all  that  glisters  gold  ! ' 
What  use  and  profit  reaps  a  mortal  of  his  sight, 
If  darkness  unto  him  be  indistinct  from  light  ? 

My  deep  poetic  art  the  blind  have  eyes  to  see, 

My  verses  ring  in  ears  as  deaf  as  deaf  can  be. 

They  wander  far  abroad  while  I  am  unaware. 

But  men  collect  them  watchfully  with  toil  and  care. 

Oft  hath  my  laughing  mien  prolonged  the  insulter's  sport, 

Until  with  claw  and  mouth  I  cut  his  rudeness  short. 

Ah,  when  the  lion  bares  his  teeth,  suspect  his  guile, 

Nor  fancy  that  the  lion  shows  to  you  a  smile. 

I    have    slain   the  man   that  sought   my  heart's   blood    many  a 

time. 
Riding  a  noble  mare  whose  back  none  else  may  climb, 
Whose  hind  and  fore-legs  seem  in  galloping  as  one  \ 
Nor  hand  nor  foot  requireth  she  to  urge  her  on. 
And  O  the  days  when  I  have  swung  my  fine-edged  glaive 
Amidst  a  sea  of  death  where  wave  was  dashed  on  wave  ! 
The  cavaliers,  the  night,  the  desert  know  me ;  then. 
The  battle  and  the  sword,  the  paper  and  the  pen  ! "  ^ 

Finally  an  estrangement  arose  between  Mutanabbi  and 
Sayfu  '1-Dawla,  in  consequence  of  which  he  fled  to  Egypt 
and  attached  himself  to  the  Ikhshidite  Kafur.  Disappointed 
in  his  new  patron,  a  negro  who  had  formerly  been  a  slave,  the 
poet  set  off  for  Baghdad,  and  afterwards  visited  the  court  of 
the  Buwayhid  'Adudu  '1-Dawla  at  Shiraz.  While  travelling 
through  Babylonia  he  was  attacked  and  slain  by  brigands  in 
965    A.D. 

The  popularity  of  Mutanabbi  is  shown  by  the  numerous 
commentaries  3  and  critical  treatises  on  his  Diwdn.  By  his 
countrymen  he  is  generally  regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest  of 
Arabian  poets,  while  not  a  few  would  maintain  that  he  ranks 

'  Literally,  "  Do  not  imagine  fat  in  one  whose  (apparent)  fat  is  (really)  a 
tumour." 

^  Diwdn,  ed.  by  Dieterici,  pp.  481-484. 

3  The  most  esteemed  commentary  is  that  of  Wahidi  (f  1075  A.D.),  which 
has  been  published  by  Fr.  Dieterici  in  his  edition  of  Mutanabbi  (Berlin, 
1858-1861). 


3o8     POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

absolutely  first.  Abu  'l-'Ala  al-Ma'arri,  himself  an  illustrious 
poet  and  man  of  letters,  confessed  that  he  had  sometimes 
wished  to  alter  a  word  here  and  there  in  Mutanabbi's  verses, 
but  had  never  been  able  to  think  of  any  improvement.  "  As 
to  his  poetry,"  says  Ibn  Khalliican,  "  it  is  perfection." 
European  scholars,  with  the  exception  of  Von  Hammer,^ 
have  been  far  from  sharing  this  enthusiasm,  as  may  be  seen  by 
referring  to  what  has  been  said  on  the  subject  by  Reiske,^  De 
Sacy,3  Bohlen,4  Brockelmann,5  and  others.  No  doubt,  accord- 
ing to  our  canons  of  taste,  Mutanabbi  stands  immeasurably 
below  the  famous  Pre-islamic  bards,  and  in  a  later  age  must 
yield  the  palm  to  Abu  Nuwas  and  Abu  'l-'Atahiya.  Lovers 
of  poetry,  as  the  term  is  understood  in  Europe,  cannot  derive 
much  aesthetic  pleasure  from  his  writings,  but,  on  the  contrary,  : 
will  be  disgusted  by  the  beauties  hardly  less  than  by  the  faults  I 
which  Arabian  critics  attribute  to  him.  Admitting,  however, 
that  only  a  born  Oriental  is  able  to  appreciate  Mutanabbi  at  j 
his  full  worth,  let  us  try  to  realise  the  Oriental  point  of  view 
and  put  aside,  as  far  as  possible,  our  preconceptions  of  what 
constitutes  good  poetry  and  good  taste.  Fortunately  we 
possess  abundant  materials  for  such  an  attempt  in  the  in- 
valuable work  of  Tha'alibi,  which  has  been  already  mentioned.^ 
Tha'alibf  (961-1038  a.d.)  was  nearly  contemporary  with 
Mutanabbi.  He  began  to  write  his  Tatbna  about  thirty 
years  after   the   poet's   death,  and   while   he  bears  witness  to 

*  Motenebbi,  der  grosste  arabische  Dichter  (Vienna,  1824). 

*  Abulfedce  Annales  Muslemici  (Hafniae,  1789,  &c.),  vol.  ii,  p.  774.  Cf. 
his  notes  on  Tarafa's  Mu^allaqa,  of  which  he  pubHshed  an  edition  in 
1742. 

3  Chrestomafhie  Arabe  (2nd  edition),  vol.  iii,  p.  27  sqq.  Journal  des 
Savans,  January,  1825,  p.  24  sqq. 

*  Coinmcniatio  dc  Motcnabbio  (Bonn,  1824). 

s  Geschichte  der  Arabischen  Litteratur  (Weimar,  iSgS,  &c.),  vol.  i,  p.  86. 
^  I  have  made  free  use  of  Dieterici's  excellent  work  entitled  Mutanabbi 

und  Scifuddaida  aus  der  Edclperle  dcs  Tsadlibi  (Leipzig,  1847),  which 
contains  on  pp.  49-74  an  abstract  of  Tha'alibi's  criticism  in  the  fifth 
chapter  of  the  First  Part  of  the  Yatlma. 


MUTANABBt  309 

the  unrivalled  popularity  of  the  Dlwan  amongst  all  classes 
of  society,  he  observes  that  it  was  sharply  criticised  as  well  as 
rapturously  admired.  Tha'Alibi  himself  claims  to  hold  the 
balance  even.  "  Now,"  he  says,  "  I  will  mention  the  faults 
and  blemishes  which  critics  have  found  in  the  poetry  of 
Mutanabbi ;  for  is  there  any  one  whose  qualities  give  entire 
satisfaction  ? — 

Kafa  'l-mar'a  fadl^'^  an  tu'adda  ma'dyibiih. 

'Tis   the    height   of    merit    in    a    man    that    his    faults  can  be 
numbered. 

Then  I  will  proceed  to  speak  of  his  beauties  and  to  set  forth 
in  due  order  the  original  and  incomparable  characteristics  of 
his  style. 

The  radiant  stars  with  beauty  strike  our  eyes 
Because  midst  gloom  opaque  we  see  them  rise." 

It  was  deemed  of  capital  importance  that  the  opening 
couplet  [mat/a^)  of  a  poem  should  be  perfect  in  form  and 
meaning,  and  that  it  should  not  contain  anything  likely 
to  offend.  Tha'dlibi  brings  forward  many  instances  in  which 
Mutanabbi  has  violated  this  rule  by  using  words  of  bad  omen, 
such  as  '  sickness  '  or  '  death,'  or  technical  terms  of  music 
and  arithmetic  which  only  perplex  and  irritate  the  hearer 
instead  of  winning  his  sympathy  at  the  outset.  He  complains 
also  that  Mutanabbi's  finest  thoughts  and  images  are  too  often 
followed  by  low  and  trivial  ones  :  "  he  strings  pearls  and 
bricks  together "  (jama^a  bayna  U-durrati  wa-^l-djurrati), 
"  While  he  moulds  the  most  splendid  ornament,  and  threads 
the  loveliest  necklace,  and  weaves  the  most  exquisite  stuff  of 
mingled  hues,  and  paces  superbly  in  a  garden  of  roses, 
suddenly  he  will  throw  in  a  verse  or  two  verses  disfigured 
by  far-fetched  metaphors,  or  by  obscure  language  and  con- 
fused   thought,   or    by   extravagant   affectation    and   excessive 


310    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

profundity,  or  by  unbounded  and  absurd  exaggeration,  or 
by  vulgar  and  commonplace  diction,  or  by  pedantry  and 
grotesqueness  resulting  from  the  use  of  unfamiliar  words." 
We  need  not  follow  Tha'alibi  in  his  illustration  of  these 
and  other  weaknesses  with  which  he  justly  reproaches 
Mutanabbi,  since  we  shall  be  able  to  form  a  better  idea 
of  the  prevailing  taste  from  those  points  which  he  singles 
out  for  special  praise. 

In  the  first  place  he  calls  attention  to  the  poet's  skill  in 
handling  the  customary  erotic  prelude  (naslb),  and  particularly 
to  his  brilliant  descriptions  of  Bedouin  women,  which  were 
celebrated  all  over  the  East.  As  an  example  of  this  kind  he 
quotes  the  following  piece,  which  "  is  chanted  in  the  salons  on 
account  of  the  extreme  beauty  of  its  diction,  the  choiceness  of 
its  sentiment,  and  the  perfection  of  its  art  "  : — 

"  Shame  hitherto  was  wont  my  tears  to  stay, 
But  now  by  shame  they  will  no  more  be  stayed, 
So  that  each  bone  seems  through  its  skin  to  sob, 
And  every  vein  to  swell  the  sad  cascade. 
She  uncovered :  pallor  veiled  her  at  farewell : 
No  veil  'twas,  yet  her  cheeks  it  cast  in  shade. 
So  seemed  they,  while  tears  trickled  over  them, 
Gold  with  a  double  row  of  pearls  inlaid. 
She  loosed  three  sable  tresses  of  her  hair. 
And  thus  of  night  four  nights  at  once  she  made  ; 
But  when  she  lifted  to  the  moon  in  heaven 
Her  face,  two  moons  together  I  surveyed." ' 

The  critic  then  enumerates  various  beautiful  and  original 
features  of  Mutanabbi's  style,  e.g.  — 

I.  His  consecutive  arrangement  of  similes  in  brief  symmetri- 
cal clauses,  thus  : — 

"  She   shone   forth    Hke   a    moon,   and    swayed    like   a   moringa- 
bough. 
And  shed  fragrance  like  ambergris,  and  gazed  like  a  gazelle." 


Mutanabbi,  ed.  by  Dieterici,  p.  182,  vv.  3-9,  omitting  v.  5. 


MUTANABBl  311 

2.  The  novelty  of  his  comparisons  and  images,  as  when  he 
indicates  the  rapidity  with  which  he  returned  to  his  patron  and 
the  shortness  of  his  absence  in  these  lines  : — 

"  I  was  merely  an  arrow  in  the  air, 
Which  falls  back,  finding  no  refuge  there." 

3.  The  laus  duplex  or  '  two-sided  panegyric  '  [ai-madh 
al-muwajjah\  which  may  be  compared  to  a  garment  having 
two  surfaces  of  different  colours  but  of  equal  beauty,  as  in 
the  following  verse  addressed  to  Sayfu  '1-Dawla  : — 

"  Were  all  the  lives  thou  hast  ta'en  possessed  by  thee, 
Immortal  thou  and  blest  the  world  would  be  ! " 

Here  Sayfu  '1-Dawla  is  doubly  eulogised  by  the  mention  or 
his  triumphs  over  his  enemies  as  well  as  of  the  joy  which  all 
his  friends  felt  in  the  continuance  of  his  life  and  fortune. 

4.  His  manner  of  extolling  his  royal  patron  as  though  he 
were  speaking  to  a  friend  and  comrade,  whereby  he  raises 
himself  from  the  position  of  an  ordinary  encomiast  to  the  same 
level  with  Icings. 

5.  His  division  of  ideas  into  parallel  sentences  : — 

"We  were  in  gladness,  the  Greeks  in  fear, 
The  land  in  bustle,  the  sea  in  confusion." 

From  this  summary  of  Tha'alibi's  criticism  the  reader  will 
easily  perceive  that  the  chief  merits  of  poetry  were  then  con-  y 
sidered  to  lie  in  elegant  expression,  subtle  combination  or 
words,  fanciful  imagery,  witty  conceits,  and  a  striking  use  of 
rhetorical  figures.  Such,  indeed,  are  the  views  which  prevail 
to  this  day  throughout  the  whole  Muhammadan  world,  and  it 
is  unreasonable  to  denounce  them  as  false  simply  because  they 
do  not  square  with  ours.  Who  shall  decide  when  nations 
disagree  ?  If  Englishmen  rightly  claim  to  be  the  best  judges 
of  Shakespeare,  and  Italians  of  Dante,  the  almost  unanimous 


312     POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

verdict  of  Mutanabbi's  countrymen  is  surely  not  less  authorita- 
tive— a  verdict  which  places  him  at  the  head  of  all  the  poets 
born  or  made  in  Islam.  And  although  the  peculiar  excellences 
indicated  by  Tha'alibl  do  not  appeal  to  us,  there  are  few  poets 
that  leave  so  distinct  an  impression  oi  greatness.  One  might 
call  Mutanabbi  the  Victor  Hugo  of  the  East,  for  he  has  the 
grand  style  whether  he  soars  to  sublimity  or  sinks  to  fustian. 
In  the  masculine  vigour  of  his  verse,  in  the  sweep  and 
splendour  of  his  rhetoric,  in  the  luxuriance  and  reckless 
audacity  of  his  imagination  we  recognise  qualities  which 
inspired  the  oft-quoted  lines  of  the  elegist  : — 

"  Him  did  his  mighty  soul  supply 
With  regal  pomp  and  majesty. 
A  Prophet  by  his  diction  known  ; 
But  in  the  ideas,  all  must  own, 
His  miracles  were  clearly  shown."  ' 

One  feature  of  Mutanabbi's  poetry  that  is  praised  by 
Tha'alibi  should  not  be  left  unnoticed,  namely,  his  fondness 
for  sententious  moralising  on  topics  connected  with  human 
life  ;  wherefore  Reiske  has  compared  him  to  Euripides.  He 
is  allowed  to  be  a  master  of  that  proverbial  philosophy  in 
which  Orientals  delight  and  which  is  characteristic  of  the 
modern  school  beginning  with  Abu  'l-'Atahiya,  though  some 
of  the  ancients  had  already  cultivated  it  with  success  [cf. 
the  verses  of  Zuhayr,  p.  Ii8  supra).  The  following  examples 
are  among  those  cited  by  Bohlen  {op.  cit.,  p.  86  sqq.)  : — 

"  When  an  old  man  cries  '  Ugh  ! '  he  is  not  tired 
Of  life,  but  only  tired  of  feebleness." ' 

"He  that  hath  been  familiar  with  the  world 
A  long  while,  in  his  eye  'tis  turned  about 
Until  he  sees  how  false  what  looked  so  fair."  ^ 


»  The  author  of  these  lines,  which  are  quoted  by  Ibn  Khallikan  in  his 
article  on  Mutanabbi,  is  Abu  '1-Qasim  b.  al-Muzaffar  b.  'Ali  al-Tabasi. 
'  Mutanabbi,  ed.  by  Dieterici,  p.  581,  v.  27.  3  Ibid.,  p.  472,  v.  5. 


MUTANABBt  313 

"The  sage's  mind  still  makes  him  miserable 
In  his  most  happy  fortune,  but  poor  fools 
Find  happiness  even  in  their  misery."' 

The  sceptical  and  pessimistic  tendencies  of  an  age  of  social 
decay  and  political  anarchy  are  unmistakably  revealed  in  the 

writings   of  the    poet,  philosopher,  and    man    of 
ai-Ma"arri  (973-    letters,    Abu    'l-'Ala   al-Ma'arri,    who    was    born 

in  973  A.D.  at  Ma'arratu  '1-Nu'mdn,  a  Syrian 
town  situated  about  twenty  miles  south  of  Aleppo  on  the 
caravan  road  to  Damascus.  While  yet  a  child  he  had  an 
attack  of  small-pox,  resulting  in  partial  and  eventually  in 
complete  blindness,  but  this  calamity,  fatal  as  it  might  seem 
to  literary  ambition,  was  repaired  if  not  entirely  made  good 
by  his  stupendous  powers  of  memory.  After  being  educated 
at  home  under  the  eye  of  his  father,  a  man  of  some  culture 
and  a  meritorious  poet,  he  proceeded  to  Aleppo,  which  was 
still  a  flourishing  centre  of  the  humanities,  though  it  could  no 
longer  boast  such  a  brilliant  array  of  poets  and  scholars  as 
were  attracted  thither  in  the  palmy  days  of  Sayfu  '1-Dawla. 
Probably  Abu  'l-'Ala  did  not  enter  upon  the  career  of  a 
professional  encomiast,  to  which  he  seems  at  first  to  have 
inclined  :  he  declares  in  the  preface  to  his  ^aqtu  U-Zand  that 
he  never  eulogised  any  one  with  the  hope  of  gaining  a  reward, 
but  only  for  the  sake  of  practising  his  skill.  On  the  termina- 
tion of  his  '  Wanderjahre '  he  returned  in  993  A.D.  to 
Ma'arra,  where  he  spent  the  next  fifteen  years  of  his  life, 
with  no  income  beyond  a  small  pension  of  thirty  dinars  (which 
he  shared  with  a  servant),  lecturing  on  Arabic  poetry,  antiqui- 
ties, and  philology,  the  subjects  to  which  his  youthful  studies 
had  been  chiefly  devoted.  During  this  period  his  reputation 
was  steadily  increasing,  and  at  last,  to  adapt  what  Boswell 
wrote  of  Dr.  Johnson  on  a  similar  occasion,  "  he  thought  of 
trying  his  fortune  in  Baghddd,  the  great  field  of  genius  and 

•  Mutanabbi,  ed.  by  Dieterici,  p.  341,  v.  8. 


314    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

exertion,  where  talents  of  every  kind  had  the  fullest  scope 
and  the  highest  encouragement,"  Professor  Margoliouth  in 
the  Introduction  to  his  edition  of  Abu  '1-' Ala's 
^agMid°  correspondence  supplies  many  interesting  particu- 
lars of  the  literary  society  at  Baghdad  in  which  the 
poet  moved.  "  As  in  ancient  Rome,  so  in  the  great  Muham- 
madan  cities  public  recitation  was  the  mode  whereby  men  of 
letters  made  their  talents  known  to  their  contemporaries. 
From  very  early  times  it  had  been  customary  to  employ  the 
mosques  for  this  purpose  ;  and  in  Abu  'l-'Ala's  time  poems 
were  recited  in  the  mosque  of  al-Mansur  in  Baghdad.  Better 
accommodation  was,  however,  provided  by  the  Maecenates 
who  took  a  pride  in  collecting  savants  and  litterateurs  in  their 
houses."  I  Such  a  Maecenas  was  the  Sharif  al-Radi,  himself 
a  celebrated  poet,  who  founded  the  Academy  called  by  his 
name  in  imitation,  probably,  of  that  founded  some  years 
before  by  Abu  Nasr  Sdbiir  b.  Ardashir,  Vizier  to  the  Buwayhid 
prince,  Bahd'u  '1-Dawla.  Here  Abu  'l-'Ala  met  a  number  of 
distinguished  writers  and  scholars  who  welcomed  him  as  one 
of  themselves.  The  capital  of  Islam,  thronged  with  travellers 
and  merchants  from  all  parts  of  the  East,  harbouring  followers 
of  every  creed  and  sect — Christians  and  Jews,  Buddhists  and 
Zoroastrians,  Sabians  and  Sufis,  Materialists  and  Rationalists — 
must  have  seemed  to  the  provincial  almost  like  a  new  world. 
It  is  certain  that  Abu  'l-'Ald,  a  curious  observer  who  set  no 
bounds  to  his  thirst  for  knowledge,  would  make  the  best  use 
of  such  an  opportunity.  The  religious  and  philosophical  ideas 
with  which  he  was  now  first  thrown  into  contact  gradually 
took  root  and  ripened.  His  stay  in  Baghdad,  though  it  lasted 
only  a  year  and  a  half  (1009-1010  a.d.),  decided  the  whole 
bent  of  his  mind  for  the  future. 

Whether  his  return  to  Ma'arra  was  hastened,  as  he  says,  by 
want   of  means   and    the    illness   of    his    mother,    whom    he 
tenderly  loved,    or  by  an  indignity  which  he  suffered  at  the 
*  Margoliouth's  Introduction  to  the  Letters  of  Abu  'l-'Ald,  p.  xxii. 


ABU  'L-'ALA  AL-MA'ARRI  315 

hands  of  an  influential  patron,i  immediately  on  his  arrival  he 
shut  himself  in  his  house,  adopted  a  vegetarian  diet  and  other 
ascetic  practices,  and  passed  the  rest  of  his  long  life  in  com- 
parative seclusion  : — 

"  Methinks,  I  am  thrice  imprisoned— ask  not  me 
Of  news  that  need  no  telling — 
By  loss  of  sight,  confinement  to  my  house, 
And  this  vile  body  for  my  spirit's  dwelling."  ^ 

We  can  only  conjecture  the  motives  w^hich  brought  about  this 
sudden  change  of  habits  and  disposition.  No  doubt  his  mother's 
death  affected  him  deeply,  and  he  may  have  been  disappointed 
by  his  failure  to  obtain  a  permanent  footing  in  the  capital.  It 
is  not  surprising  that  the  blind  and  lonely  man,  looking  back 
on  his  faded  youth,  should  have  felt  vi'eary  of  the  world  and 
its  ways,  and  found  in  melancholy  contemplation  of  earthly 
vanities  ever  fresh  matter  for  the  application  and  development 
of  these  philosophical  ideas  which,  as  we  have  seen,  were 
probably  suggested  to  him  by  his  recent  experiences.  While 
in  the  collection  of  early  poems,  entitled  Saqtu  U-Zand  or  *The 
Spark  of  the  Fire-stick  '  and  mainly  composed  before  his  visit 
to  Baghdad,  he  still  treads  the  customary  path  of  his  pre- 
decessors,3  his  poems  written  after  that  time  and  generally 
known  as  the  Luziimiyyat  ^  arrest  attention  by  their  boldness 
and  originality  as  well  as  by  the  sombre  and  earnest  tone  which 
pervades  them.  This,  indeed,  is  not  the  view  of  most  Oriental 
critics,  who  dislike  the  poet's  irreverence  and  fail  to  appreciate 
the  fact  that  he  stood  considerably  in  advance  of  his  age  ;  but 
in    Europe    he    has    received    full   justice  and    perhaps  higher 

'  Ibid.,  p.  xxvii  seq. 

=  Luzumiyydt  (Cairo,  1891),  vol.  i,  p.  201. 

3  I.e.,  his  predecessors  of  the  modern  school.  Like  Mutanabbi,  he 
ridicules  the  conventional  types  (asalib)  in  which  the  old  poetry  is  cast 
Cf.  Goldziher,  Abhand.  zur  Arab.  Philologie,  Part  1,  p.  146  seq. 

*  The  proper  title  is  Luziimn  md  Id  yalzam,  referring  to  a  technical 
difficulty  which  the  poet  unnecessarily  imposed  on  himself  with  regard 
to  the  rhyme. 


3i6    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

praise  than  he  deserves.  Reiske  describes  him  as  '  Arabice 
callentissimum,  vasti,  subtilis,  sublimis  et  audacis  ingenii '  ;  ^ 
Von  Hammer,  who  ranks  him  as  a  poet  with  Abu  Tammam, 
Buhturf,  and  Mutanabbi,  also  mentions  him  honourably  as  a 
philosopher  ;  2  and  finally  Von  Kremer,  who  made  an  exhaustive 
study  of  the  Luziimiyy  at  zndi  examined  their  contents  in  a  masterly 
essay,3  discovered  in  Abu  'l-*Ala,  one  of  the  greatest  moralists 
of  all  time  whose  profound  genius  anticipated  much  that  is 
commonly  attributed  to  the  so-called  modern  spirit  of  en- 
lightenment. Here  Von  Kremer's  enthusiasm  may  have 
carried  him  too  far  ;  for  the  poet,  as  Proressor  Margoliouth 
says,  was  unconscious  of  the  value  of  his  suggestions,  unable 
to  follow  them  out,  and  unable  to  adhere  to  them  consistently. 
Although  he  builded  better  than  he  knew,  the  constructive 
side  of  his  philosophy  was  overshadowed  by  the  negative  and 
destructive  side,  so  that  his  pure  and  lofty  morality  leaves  but  a 
faint  impression  which  soon  dies  away  in  louder,  continually 
recurring  voices  of  doubt  and  despair. 

Abu  'l-'Ala  is  a  firm  monotheist,  but  his  belief  in  God 
amounted,  as  it  would  seem,  to  little  beyond  a  conviction  that 
all  things  are  governed  by  inexorable  Fate,  whose  mysteries 
none  may  fathom  and  from  whose  omnipotence  there  is  no 
escape.     He  denies  the  Resurrection  of  the  dead,  e.g.  : — 

"  We  laugh,  but  inept  is  our  laughter  ; 
We  should  weep  and  weep  sore, 
Who  are  shattered  like  glass,  and  thereafter 
Re-moulded  no  more  ! "  ■* 


'  Abnlfcda;  Annalcs  Mnslcmici,  ed.  by  Adler  (1789-1794),  vol.  iii,  p.  677. 

=  Liter attirgesch.  dcr  Araber,  vol.  vi,  p.  900  sqq. 

3  Sitzungsberichtc  der  Philosophisch-Historischen  Classe  der  Kaiserlichen 
Akademie  der  Wissenschafteii,  vol.  cxvii,  6th  Abhandlung  (Vienna,  1889). 
Select  passages  admirably  rendered  by  Von  Kremer  into  German  verse 
will  be  found  in  the  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  29,  pp.  304-312  ;  vol.  30,  pp.  40-52  ; 

vol.  31,  pp.  471-483 ;  vol.  38,  pp.  499-529- 

t  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  38,  p.  507  ;  Margoliouth,  op.  cit,  p.  131,  1-  i5  of  the 
Arabic  text. 


ABU  'L-'ALA  AL-MA'ARRf  Zi? 

Since  Death  is  the  ultimate  goal  of  mankind,  the  sage  will 
pray  to  be  delivered  as  speedily  as  possible  from  the  miseries  of 
life  and  refuse  to  inflict  upon  others  what,  by  no  fault  of  his 
own,  he  is  doomed  to  suffer  : — 

"Amends  are  richly  due  from  sire  to  son  : 
What  if  thy  children  rule  o'er  cities  great  ? 
That  eminence  estranges  them  the  more 
From  thee,  and  causes  them  to  wax  in  hate, 
Beholding  one  who  cast  them  into  Life's 
Dark  labyrinth  whence  no  wit  can  extricate."  ' 

There  are  many  passages  to  the  same  effect,  showing  that 
Abu  'l-'Ala  regarded  procreation  as  a  sin  and  universal  anni- 
hilation as  the  best  hope  for  humanity.  He  acted  in  accord- 
ance with  his  opinions,  for  he  never  married,  and  he  is  said  to 
have  desired  that  the  following  verse  should  be  inscribed  on 


his  grave  : — 


"This  wrong  was  by  my  father  done 
To  me,  but  ne'er  by  me  to  one." - 

';        Hating  the  present  life  and  weary  of  its  burdens,  yet  seeing 

I  no  happier  prospect  than  that  of  return  to  non-existence,  Abu 

I'  'l-'Ala  can  scarcely  have  disguised  from  himself  what  he  might 

%  shrink  openly  to  avow — that  he  was  at  heart,  not  indeed  an 

atheist,    but    wholly    incredulous    of    any    Divine    revelation. 

Religion,  as  he  conceives  it,  is  a  product  of  the  human  mind, 

in  which  men  believe  through  force  of  habit  and  education, 

never  stopping  to  consider  whether  it  is  true. 

"  Sometimes  you  may  find  a  man  skilful  in  his  trade,  perfect  in 
sagacity  and  in  the  use  of  arguments,  but  when  he  comes  to 
religion  he  is  found  obstinate,  so  does  he  follow  the  old  groove. 
Piety  is  implanted  in  human  nature  ;  it  is  deemed  a  sure  refuge. 


'  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  29,  p.  308. 

'  Margoliouth,  op.  cit.,  p.  133  of  the  Arabic  text. 


3i8    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

To  the  growing  child  that  which  falls  from  his  elders'  lips  is  a 
lesson  that  abides  with  him  all  his  Hfe.  Monks  in  their  cloisters  and 
devotees  in  the  mosques  accept  their  creed  just  as  a  story  is  handed 
down  from  him  who  tells  it,  without  distinguishing  between  a  true 
interpreter  and  a  false.  If  one  of  these  had  found  his  kin  among 
the  Magians,  he  would  have  declared  himself  a  Magian,  or  among 
the  Sabians,  he  would  have  become  nearly  or  quite  like  them." ' 

Religion,  then,  is  "  a  fable  invented  by  the  ancients," 
worthless  except  to  those  unscrupulous  persons  who  prey  upon 
human  folly  and  superstition.  Islam  is  neither  better  nor 
worse  than  any  other  creed  : — 

^  "  Hanifs  are  stumbling,-  Christians  all  astray, 

Jews  wildered,  Magians  far  on  error's  way. 
We  mortals  are  composed  of  two  great  schools — 

j  Enlightened  knaves  or  else  religious  fools."  ^ 

Not  only  does  the  poet  emphatically  reject  the  proud  claim 
of  Islam  to  possess  a  monopoly  of  truth,  but  he  attacks  most 
of  its  dogmas  in  detail.  As  to  the  Koran,  Abu  'l-'Ala  could 
not  altogether  refrain  from  doubting  if  it  was  really  the  Word 
of  God,  but  he  thought  so  well  of  the  style  that  he  accepted 
the  challenge  flung  down  by  Muhammad  and  produced  a  rival 
work  [al-Fusul  wa-  l-Ghayat)^  which  appears  to  have  been  a 
somewhat  frivolous  parody  of  the  sacred  volume,  though  in  the 
author's  judgment  its  inferiority  was  simply  due  to  the  fact 
that  it  was  not  yet  polished  by  the  tongues  of  four  centuries  or 
readers.  Another  work  which  must  have  sorely  offended 
orthodox  Muhammadans  is  the  Risdiatu  U-Ghufrdn  (Epistle  or 
Forgiveness). 4     Here   the    Paradise    of   the    Faithful  becomes 

'  This  passage  occurs  in  Abu  '1- 'Ala's  Risdiatu  'l-Gliufrdn  (see  infra), 
J.R.A.S.  for  1902,  p.  351.  Cf.  the  verses  translated  by  Von  Kremer  in 
his  essay  on  Abu  'l-'Ala,  p.  23. 

^  For  the  term  '  Hanif '  see  p.  149  supra.  Here  it  is  synonymous  with 
'  Muslim.'  '  3  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  38,  p.  513. 

*  This  work,  of  which  only  two  copies  exist  in  Europe — one  at  Con- 
stantinople and  another  in  my  collection — has  been  described  and  partially 
translated  in  the  J.R.A.S.  for  1900,  pp.  637-720,  and  for  1902,  pp.  75-101, 
337-362,  and  813-847. 


ABU  'L-'ALA   AL-MA'ARRt  3I9 

a  glorified  salon  tenanted  by  various  heathen  poets  who  have 
been  forgiven — hence  the  title — and  received  among  the  Blest. 
This  idea  is  carried  out  with  much  ingenuity  and  in  a  spirit 
of  audacious  burlesque  that  reminds  us  of  Lucian.  The  poets 
are  presented  in  a  series  of  imaginary  conversations  with  a 
certain  Shaykh  'Ali  b.  Mansur,  to  whom  the  work  is  addressed, 
reciting  and  explaining  their  verses,  quarrelling  with  one 
another,  and  generally  behaving  as  literary  Bohemians.  The 
second  part  contains  a  number  of  anecdotes  relating  to  the 
7.indiqs  or  freethinkers  of  Islam  interspersed  with  quotations 
from  their  poetry  and  reflections  on  the  nature  of  their  belief, 
which  Abu  '1-  'Ala  condemns  while  expressing  a  pious  hope 
that  they  are  not  so  black  as  they  paint  themselves.  At  this 
time  it  may  have  suited  him — he  was  over  sixty — to  assume 
the  attitude  of  charitable  orthodoxy.  Like  so  many  wise  men 
of  the  East,  he  practised  dissimulation  as  a  fine  art — 

"I  lift  my  voice  to  utter  lies  absurd, 
I*       But   when    I    speak    the    truth,    my   hushed    tones    scarce    are 
fc  heard." ' 

B  In  the  Luzumiyyat^  however,  he  often  unmasks.  Thus  he 
describes  as  idolatrous  relics  the  two  Pillars  of  the  Ka'ba  and 
the  Black  Stone,  venerated  by  every  Moslem,  and  calls  the 
Pilgrimage  itself  '  a  heathen's  journey '  (rihlatu  jahiliyy'"). 
The  following  sentiments  do  him  honour,  but  they  would 
have  been  rank  heresy  at  Mecca  : — 

"  Praise  God  and  pray, 
Walk  seventy  times,  not  seven,  the  Temple  round— 
And  impious  remain  ! 
Devout  is  he  alone  who,  when  he  may 
Feast  his  desires,  is  found 
With  courage  to  abstain."  = 


'  Margoliouth,  op.  cit.,  p.  132,  last  line  of  the  Arabic  text. 
'  Z.D.M.G,  vol.  31,  p.  483. 


320    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND  SCIENCE 

It  is  needless  to  give  further  instances  of  the  poet's  contempt 
for  the  Muhammadan  articles  of  faith.  Considering  that  he 
assailed  persons  as  well  as  principles,  and  lashed  with  bitter 
invective  the  powerful  class  of  the  '■Ulama^  the  clerical  and 
legal  representatives  of  Islam,  we  may  wonder  that  the  accu- 
sation of  heresy  brought  against  him  was  never  pushed  home 
and  had  no  serious  consequences.  The  question  was  warmly 
argued  on  both  sides,  and  though  Abu  'l-'Ald  was  pronounced 
by  the  majority  to  be  a  freethinker  and  materialist,  he  did  not 
lack  defenders  who  quoted  chapter  and  verse  to  prove  that  he 
was  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  must  be  remembered  that  his 
works  contain  no  philosophical  system  ;  that  his  opinions  have 
to  be  gathered  from  the  ideas  which  he  scatters  incoherently, 
and  for  the  most  part  in  guarded  language,  through  a  long 
succession  of  rhymes  ;  and  that  this  task,  already  arduous 
enough,  is  complicated  by  the  not  inrrequent  occurrence  of 
sentiments  which  are  blamelessly  orthodox  and  entirely  con- 
tradictory to  the  rest.  A  brilliant  writer,  familiar  with 
Eastern  ways  of  thinking,  has  observed  that  in  general  the 
conscience  of  an  Asiatic  is  composed  of  the  following  in- 
gredients :  (i)  an  almost  bare  religious  designation;  (2)  a 
more  or  less  lively  belief  in  certain  doctrines  of  the  creed 
which  he  professes;  (3)  a  resolute  opposition  to  many  of  its 
doctrines,  even  if  they  should  be  the  most  essential  ;  (4)  a 
fund  of  ideas  relating  to  completely  alien  theories,  which 
occupies  more  or  less  room  ;  (5)  a  constant  tendency  to  get 
rid  of  these  ideas  and  theories  and  to  replace  the  old  by  new.^ 
Such  phenomena  will  account  for  a  great  deal  of  logical  incon- 
sistency, but  we  should  beware  of  invoking  them  too  con- 
fidently in  this  case.  Abu  '1-  *Ala  with  his  keen  intellect  and 
unfanatical  temperament  was  not  the  man  to  let  himself  be 
mystified.  Still  lamer  is  the  explanation  offered  by  some 
Muhammadan  critics,  that  his  thoughts  were  decided  by  the 

'  De  Gobineau,   Lcs  religions  et  les  philosophies  dans  I'Asie  centrale, 
p.  II  seq. 


ABU  'L-'ALA  AL-MA'ARR/  321 

necessities  of  the  difficult  metre  in  which  he  wrote.  It  is 
conceivable  that  he  may  sometimes  have  doubted  his  own 
doubts  and  given  Islam  the  benefit,  but  Von  Kremer's  con- 
clusion is  probably  near  the  truth,  namely,  that  where  the 
poet  speaks  as  a  good  Moslem,  his  phrases  if  they  are  not 
purely  conventional  are  introduced  of  set  purpose  to  foil  his 
pious  antagonists  or  to  throw  them  off  the  scent.  Although 
he  was  not  without  religion  in  the  larger  sense  or  the  word, 
unprejudiced  students  of  the  later  poems  must  recognise  that 
from  the  orthodox  standpoint  he  was  justly  branded  as  an 
infidel.  The  following  translations  will  serve  to  illustrate  the 
negative  side  of  his  philosophy  : — 

"  Falsehood  hath  so  corrupted  all  the  world 
That  wrangling  sects  each  other's  gospel  chide ; 
But  were  not  hate  Man's  natural  element, 
Churches  and  mosques  had  risen  side  by  side."  ' 

"What  is  Religion?     A  maid  kept  close  that  no  eye  may  view 
her  ; 
The  price  of  her  wedding-gifts  and  dowry  baffles  the  wooer. 
Of  all  the  goodly  doctrine  that  I  from  the  pulpit  heard 
My  heart  has  never  accepted  so  much  as  a  single  word ! "  - 

"The  pillars  of  this  earth  are  four, 
Which  lend  to  human  life  a  base ; 
God  shaped  two  vessels.  Time  and  Space, 
The  world  and  all  its  folk  to  store. 

That  which  Time  holds,  in  ignorance 

It  holds — why  vent  on  it  our  spite  ? 

Man  is  no  cave-bound  eremite. 
But  still  an  eager  spy  on  Chance 

He  trembles  to  be  laid  asleep, 
Tho'  worn  and  old  and  weary  grown. 
We  laugh  and  weep  by  Fate  alone, 

Time  moves  us  not  to  laugh  or  weep  ; 


'  \Z.D.M.C.,  vol.  31,  p.  477.  *  Ibid.,  vol.  29,  p.  311. 

22 


322    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND  SCIENCE 

Yet  we  accuse  it  innocent, 

Which,  could  it  speak,  might  us  accuse, 
Our  best  and  worst,  at  will  to  choose, 

United  in  a  sinful  bent.' 

" '  The  stars'  conjunction  comes,  divinely  sent, 
And  lo,  the  veil  o'er  every  creed  is  rent. 
No  realm  is  founded  that  escapes  decay, 
The  firmest  structure  soon  dissolves  away.'"* 
With  sadness  deep  a  thoughtful  mind  must  scan 
Religion  made  to  serve  the  pelf  of  Man. 
Fear  thine  own  children  :  sparks  at  random  flung 
Consume  the  very  tinder  whence  they  sprung. 
Evil  are  all  men  ;   I  distinguish  not 
That  part  or  this  :  the  race  entire  I  blot. 
Trust  none,  however  near  akin,  tho'  he 
A  perfect  sense  of  honour  show  to  thee. 
Thy  self  is  the  worst  foe  to  be  withstood  : 
Be  on  thy  guard  in  hours  of  solitude. 

;,<  ^  -,»  *j-. 

Desire  a  venerable  shaykh  to  cite 

Reason  for  his  doctrine,  he  is  gravelled  quite. 

What !  shall  I  ripen  ere  a  leaf  is  seen  ? 

The  tree  bears  only  when  'tis  clad  in  green. '^ 

"  How  have  I  provoked  your  enmity  ? 
Christ  or  Muhammad,  'tis  one  to  me. 
No  rays  of  dawn  our  path  illume. 
We  are  sunk  together  in  ceaseless  gloom. 
Can  blind  perceptions  lead  aright. 
Or  blear  eyes  ever  have  clear  sight  ? 
Well  may  a  body  racked  with  pain 
Envy  mouldering  bones  in  vain ; 
Yet  comes  a  day  when  the  weary  sword 
Reposes,  to  its  sheath  restored. 


'  Z.D.M.G.  vol.  38,  p.  522. 

=  According  to  De  Goeje,  Memoires  stir  les  Carmathes  dii  Bahrain, 
p.  197,  n.  I,  these  lines  refer  to  a  prophecy  made  by  the  Carmathians' 
that  the  conjunction  of  Saturn  and  Jupiter,  which  took  place  in  1047  a.d. 
would  herald  the  final  triumph  of  the  Fatimids  over  the  'Abbasids. 

3  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  38,  p.  504. 


ABU  'L-'ALA  AL-MA'ARR/  323 

Ah,  who  to  me  a  frame  will  give 

As  clod  or  stone  insensitive  ? — 

For  when  spirit  is  joined  to  flesh,  the  pair 

Anguish  of  mortal  sickness  share. 

O  Wind,  be  still,  if  wind  thy  name, 

O  Flame,  die  out,  if  thou  art  flame  ! " ' 

Pessimist  and  sceptic  as  he  was,  Abu  'l-'Ala  denies  more 
than  he  affirms,  but  although  he  rejected  the  dogmas  of 
positive  religion,  he  did  not  fall  into  utter  unbelief;  for  he 
found  within  himself  a  moral  law  to  which  he  could  not 
refuse  obedience. 

"Take  Reason  for  thy  guide  and  do  what  she 
Approves,  the  best  of  counsellors  in  sooth. 
Accept  no  law  the  Pentateuch  lays  down  : 
Not  there  is  what  thou  seekest — the  plain  truth."' 

He  insists  repeatedly  that  virtue  is  its  own  reward. 

"  Oh,  purge  the  good  thou  dost  from  hope  of  recompense 
Or  profit,  as  if  thou  wert  one  that  sells  his  wares."  ^ 

His  creed  is  that  of  a  philosopher  and  ascetic.  Slay  no 
living  creature,  he  says  ;  better  spare  a  flea  than  give  alms. 
Yet  he  prefers  active  piety,  active  humanity,  to  fasting  and 
prayer.  "  The  gist  of  his  moral  teaching  is  to  inculcate  as 
the  highest  and  hoHest  duty  a  conscientious  fulfilment  of 
one's  obligations  with  equal  warmth  and  affection  towards 
all  living  beings."  4 

Abu  'l-'Ald  died  in  1057  ^'^->  ^^  ^^e  age  of  eighty-four. 
About  ten  years  before  this  time,  the  Persian  poet  and 
traveller,  Nasir-i  Khusraw,  passed  through  Ma'arra  on  his 
way  to  Egypt.  He  describes  Abu  'l-'Ala  as  the  chief 
man  in  the  town,  very  rich,  revered  by  the  inhabitants, 
and  surrounded  by  more  than  two  hundred  students  who 
came  from  all  parts  to  aitend  his  lectures  on  literature  and 

'  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  31,  p.  474.  '  Luzumiyydt  (Cairo,  1891),  i,  394. 

3  Ibid.,  i,  312.  4  Von  Kremer,  op.  cit.,  p.  38. 


324    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

poetry.i  We  may  set  this  trustworthy  notice  against  the 
doleful  account  which  Abu  'l-'Ald  gives  of  himself  in  his 
letters  and  other  works.  If  not  among  the  greatest  Muham- 
madan  poets,  he  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  original 
and  attractive.  After  Mutanabbf,  even  after  Abu  'l-'Atahiya, 
he  must  appear  strangely  modern  to  the  European  reader. 
It  is  astonishing  to  reflect  that  a  spirit  so  unconventional,  so 
free  from  dogmatic  prejudice,  so  rational  in  spite  of  his 
pessimism  and  deeply  religious  notwithstanding  his  attacks 
on  revealed  religion,  should  have  ended  his  life  in  a  Syrian 
country-town  some  years  before  the  battle  of  Senlac.  Al- 
though he  did  not  meddle  with  politics  and  held  aloof  from 
every  sect,  he  could  truly  say  of  himself,  "  I  am  the  son  or 
my  time "  {ghadawtu  ''hna  waqti).'^  His  poems  leave  no 
aspect  of  the  age  untouched,  and  present  a  vivid  picture : 
of  degeneracy  and  corruption,  in  which  tyrannous  rulers, 
venal  judges,  hypocritical  and  unscrupulous  theologians, , 
swindling  astrologers,  roving  swarms  of  dervishes  and  god- 
less Carmathians  occupy  a  prominent  place.3 


Although  the   reader  may  think  that  too  much  space  has 
been  already  devoted    to    poetry,  I  will  venture    by  way  ofj 
concluding  the  subject  to  mention  very  briefly  a  few  well-i 
known    names   which   cannot  be  altogether  omitted    from    a, 
work  of  this  kind.  I 

Abu  Tammam  (Habib  b.  Aws)  and  Buhturi,  both  of  whomj 
flourished  in  the  ninth  century,  were  distinguished  court  poets! 
of  the  same  type  as  Mutanabbl,  but  their  reputa-! 
Ind^B^u^ri"     ^i<^"  ^^^^^  more  securely  on  the  anthologies  which' 
they  compiled   under    the  title  of  Hamasa  (see, 
p.   129  seq.).  I 

•  Safar-ndma,  ed.  by  Schefer,  p.  10  seq.  =  pp.  35-36  of  the  translation. 

=  Luznmiyydt,  ii,  280.  The  phrase  does  not  mean  "  I  am  the  child  oil 
my  age,"  but  "  I  live  in  the  present,"  forgetful  of  the  past  and  carelesi' 
what  the  future  may  bring. 

3  See  Von  Kremer,  op.  cif.,  p.  46  sqq.  1 


IBNU  'L-MU'TAZZ  AND  IBNU  'L-FARID   325 

Abu  'l-<Abbas  'Abdullah,  the  son  of  the  Caliph  al-Mu'tazz, 
was  a    versatile    poet   and   man    of  letters,    who  showed   his 

originality  by  the  works  which  he  produced  in 
(86r-^8^A.DT    ^^°    novel    styles  of   composition.     It    has  often 

been  remarked  that  the  Arabs  have  no  great 
epos  like  the  Iliad  or  the  Persian  Shdhndma^  but  only  prose 
narratives  which,  though  sometimes  epical  in  tone,  are  better 
described  as  historical  romances.  Ibnu  '1-Mu'tazz  could  not 
supply  the  deficiency.  He  wrote,  however,  in  praise  of  his 
cousin,  the  Caliph  Mu'tadid,  a  metrical  epic  in  miniature, 
commencing  with  a  graphic  delineation  of  the  wretched  state 
to  which  the  Empire  had  been  reduced  by  the  rapacity  and 
tyranny  of  the  Turkish  mercenaries.  He  composed  also, 
besides  an  anthology  of  Bacchanalian  pieces,  the  first  impor- 
tant work  on  Poetics  {Kitdbu  U-Badi'-).  A  sad  destiny  was 
in  store  for  this  accomplished  prince.  On  the  death  of  the 
Caliph  Muktari  he  was  called  to  the  throne,  but  a  few  hours 
after  his  accession  he  was  overpowered  by  the  partisans  of 
Muqtadir,  who  strangled  him  as  soon  as  they  discovered  his 
hiding-place.  Picturing  the  scene,  one  thinks  almost  inevit- 
ably of  Nero's  dying  words.  Qua/is  artifex  pereo  ! 

The  mystical  poetry  of  the  Arabs  is  far  inferior,  as  a  whole, 

to  that  of  the   Persians.     Fervour  and   passion   it  has  in  the 

highest  degree,  but  it  lacks  range  and  substance, 

'Umar  Ibnu  ,  -      .  .         .  ,  ,      . 

i-Farid  not  to  speaK  OF  imagmativc  and  speculative 
power.  'Umar  Ibnu  '1-Farid,  though  he  is 
undoubtedly  the  poet  of  Arabian  mysticism,  cannot  sustain  a 
comparison  with  his  great  Persian  contemporary,  Jalalu'1-Din 
Rumi  (t  1273  A.D.)  ;  he  surpasses  him  only  in  the  intense 
glow  and  exquisite  beauty  of  his  diction.  It  will  be  con- 
venient to  reserve  a  further  account  of  Ibnu  '1-Farid  for  the 
next  chapter,  where  we  shall  discuss  the  development  of 
Sufiism  during  this  period. 

Finally  two  writers  claim  attention  who  owe  their  reputa- 


326    POETRY,  LITERATURE,   AND   SCIENCE 

tion  to  single  poems — a  by  no  means  rare  phenomenon  in 
the  history  of  Arabic  literature.  One  of  these  universally 
celebrated  odes  is  the  Ldmiyyatu  U-'-Jjam  (the  ode  rhyming 
in  /  of  the  non-Arabs)  composed  in  the  year  iiii  a.d.  by 
Tughraf  ;  the  other  is  the  Burda  (Mantle  Ode)  of  Busiri, 
which  I  take  the  liberty  of  mentioning  in  this  chapter, 
although  its  author  died  some  forty  years  after  the  Mongol 
Invasion. 

Hasan  b.  'AH  al-Tughrd'i  was  of   Persian    descent   and   a 

native   of  Isfahan. ^      He  held  the  offices  of  katih  (secretary) 

and    munshi    or    tughrai   (chancellor)    under    the 

a  a"»la'^ii2o     great    Seljuq    Sultans,    Malikshdh    and    Muham- 

*  mad,    and     afterwards    became    Vizier     to     the 

Seljiiqid    prince    Ghiyathu    '1-Dln    Mas'ud  2    in    Mosul.     He 

derived  the  title  by  which  he  is   generally  known  from  the 

royal  signature  [tughrd)   which  it  was   his  duty  to  indite  on 

all   State  papers  over    the   initial    Bismil/dh.     The    Ldmiyyatu 

U-^Ajam   is  so  called   with  reference   to  Shanfara's   renowned 

poem,  the  Ldmiyyatu  U-'-Arab  (see  p.  79  seq.),  which  rhymes 

in  the  same   letter  ;   otherwise  the   two   odes  have  only  this 

in  common,3  that  whereas  Shanfara  depicts  the  hardships  of 

an   outlaw's  life  in  the  desert,  Tughra']",  writing  in  Baghdad, 

laments  the  evil  times  on  which  he  has  fallen,  and  complains 

that  younger   rivals,   base   and  servile   men,   are    preferred   to 

him,  while  he  is  left  friendless  and  neglected  in  his  old  age. 

The  Qasidatu   'l-Burda  (Mantle    Ode)    of  al-Busiri4  is   a 

'  See  the  article  on  Tughra'i  in  Ibn  Khallilidn,  De  Slane's  translation, 
vol.  i,  p.  462. 

^  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  355. 

3  The  spirit  of  fortitude  and  patience  (hamdsa)  is  exhibited  by  both 
poets,  but  in  a  very  different  manner.  Shanfara  describes  a  man  of 
heroic  nature.  Tughra'i  wraps  himself  in  his  virtue  and  moralises  like 
a  Muhammadan  Horace.  Safadi,  however,  says  in  his  commentary  on 
Tughra'i's  ode  (I  translate  from  an  MS.  copy  in  my  possession) :  "  It  is 
named  Ldmiyyatti.  'l-'Ajam  by  way  of  comparing  it  with  the  Ldmiyyatu 
'1-' Arab,  because  it  resembles  the  latter  in  its  wise  sentences  and  maxims." 

*  I.e.,  the  native  of  Abiisir  (Biisir),  a  village  in  Egypt. 


tughrA'/  and  BUSlRi  327 

hymn  in  praise  of  the  Prophet.  Its  author  was  born  in 
Egypt  in  121 2  a.d.  We  know  scarcely  anything  con- 
cerning his  life,  which,  as  he  himself  declares, 
^"1296  A.D.^'^  was  passed  in  writing  poetry  and  in  paying  court 
to  the  great  ^ ;  but  his  biographers  tell  us  that 
he  supported  himself  by  copying  manuscripts,  and  that  he 
was  a  disciple  of  the  eminent  Sufi,  Abu  'l-'Abbas  Ahmad 
al-Marsi.  It  is  said  that  he  composed  the  Burda  while 
suffering  from  a  stroke  which  paralysed  one  half  of  his 
body.  After  praying  God  to  heal  him,  he  began  to  recite 
the  poem.  Presently  he  fell  asleep  and  dreamed  that  he 
saw  the  Prophet,  who  touched  his  palsied  side  and  threw  his 
mantle  {burda)  over  him.^  "Then,"  said  al-Busiri,  "  I  awoke 
and  found  myself  able  to  rise."  However  this  may  be,  the 
Mantle  Ode  is  held  in  extraordinary  veneration  by  Muham- 
madans.  Its  verses  are  often  learned  by  heart  and  inscribed 
in  golden  letters  on  the  walls  of  public  buildings  ;  and  not 
only  is  the  whole  poem  regarded  as  a  charm  against  evil, 
but  some  peculiar  magical  power  is  supposed  to  reside  in 
each  verse  separately.  Although  its  poetical  merit  is  no  more 
than  respectable,  the  Burda  may  be  read  with  pleasure  on 
account  of  its  smooth  and  elegant  style,  and  with  interest  as 
setting  forth  in  brief  compass  the  mediaeval  legend  of  the 
Prophet — a  legend  full  of  prodigies  and  miracles  in  which 
the  historical  figure  of  Muhammad  is  glorified  almost  beyond 
recognition. 

Rhymed  prose  [saj^)  long  retained  the  religious  associations 
which  it  possessed  in  Pre-islamic  times  and  which  were 
consecrated,  for  all  Moslems,  by  its  use  in  the  Koran. 
About  the  middle   of  the   ninth  century  it  began   to  appear 

'  The  Burda,  ed.  by  C.  A.  Ralfs  (Vienna,  i860),  verse  140  ;  La  Bordah 
traduite  et  commentee  par  Rene  Basset  (Paris,  1894),  verse  151. 

^  This  appears  to  be  a  reminiscence  of  the  fact  that  Muhammad  gave 
his  own  mantle  as  a  gift  to  Ka'b  b.  Zuhayr,  when  that  poet  recited  his 
famous  ode,  Bdnat  Su'dd  (see  p.  127  supra). 


328    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND  SCIENCE 

in  the  public  sermons  [khutab^  sing,    khutba)  of  the  Caliphs 
and  their  viceroys,  and  it  was  still  further  developed  by  pro- 
fessional preachers,  like  Ibn  Nubata  (t  984  a.d.), 

Rhymed  prose.  rr     ■    ^  •  ^•^  ^^      r\   t  ^         tt-i  n 

and  by  official  secretaries,  like  ibrahim  b.  Hilai 
al-Sab{  (t  994  A.D.).  Henceforth  rhyme  becomes  a  distinctive 
and  almost  indispensable  feature  of  rhetorical  prose. 

The  credit  of  inventing,  or  at  any  rate  of  making  popular,  a 
new  and  remarkable  form  of  composition  in  this  style  belongs 

to  al-Hamadhdnl   (t  1007  a.d.),  on  whom   pos- 
ai-Hamadham"  tcrity    Conferred   the    title    Badi^u    U-Xaman^  i.e.^ 

*  the  Wonder  or  the  Age.'  Born  in  Hamadhan 
(Ecbatana),  he  left  his  native  town  as  a  young  man  and 
travelled  through  the  greater  part  of  Persia,  living  by  his 
wits  and  astonishing  all  whom  he  met  by  his  talent  for 
improvisation.  His  Maqcundt  may  be  called  a  romance  or 
literary  Bohemianism.  In  the  maqdma  we  find  some  ap- 
proach to  the  dramatic  style,  which  has  never  been  culti- 
vated by  the  Semites.^  Hamadhdnl  imagined  as  his  hero  a 
witty,  unscrupulous  vagabond  journeying  from  place  to  place 
and  supporting  himself  by  the  presents  which  his  impromptu 
displays  of  rhetoric,  poetry,  and  learning  seldom  failed  to 
draw  from  an  admiring  audience.  The  second  character  is 
the  rdwl  or  narrator,  "  who  should  be  continually  meeting 
with  the  other,  should  relate  his  adventures,  and  repeat  his 
excellent     compositions."  2     The    Maqdmdt    01     Hamadhanl 

'  Maqdma  (plural,  maqdmdt)  is  properly  '  a  place  of  standing ' ;  hence, 
an  assembly  where  people  stand  listening  to  the  speaker,  and  in  particular, 
an  assembly  for  literary  discussion.  At  an  early  period  reports  of  such 
conversations  and  discussions  received  the  name  of  maqdmdt  (see  Brockel- 
mann,  Gesch.  der  Arab.  Littcratur,  vol.  i,  p.  94).  The  word  in  its  literary 
sense  is  usually  translated  by  '  assembly,'  or  by  the  French  ^seance' 

^  The  Assemblies  of  al-Harln,  translated  from  the  Arabic,  with  an  intro- 
duction and  notes  by  T.  Chenery  (1867),  vol.  i,  p.  19.  This  excellent  work 
contains  a  fund  of  information  on  diverse  matters  connected  with  Arabian 
history  and  literature.  Owing  to  the  author's  death  it  was  left  unfinished, 
but  a  second  volume  (including  Assemblies  27-50)  by  F.  Steingass 
appeared  in  1898. 


BADPU  'L-ZAMAN  AL-HAMADHANf     329 

became  the  model  for  this  kind  of  writing,  and  the  types 
which  he  created  survive  unaltered  in  the  more  elaborate 
work  of  his  successors.  Each  maqama  forms  an  independent 
whole,  so  that  the  complete  series  may  be  regarded  as  a 
novel  consisting  of  detached  episodes  in  the  hero's  life,  a 
medley  of  prose  and  verse  in  which  the  story  is  nothing, 
the  style  everything. 

Less  original  than  Badi'u  '1-Zaman,  but  far  beyond  him  in 
variety    of     learning     and     copiousness    of     language,    Abu 

Muhammad  al-Qasim  al-Hariri  of  Basra  pro- 
(ios4hci22"a.d.).  duced  in  his  Maqamat  a  masterpiece  which   for 

eight  centuries  "  has  been  esteemed  as,  next  to 
the  Koran,  the  chief  treasure  of  the  Arabic  tongue."  In  the 
Preface  to  his  work  he  says  that  the  composition  of  maqamit 
was  suggested  to  him  by  "  one  whose  suggestion  is  a  command 
and  whom  it  is  a  pleasure  to  obey."  This  was  the  distin- 
guished Persian  statesman,  Anushirwan  b.  Khalid,i  who 
afterwards  served  as  Vizier  under  the  Caliph  Mustarshid 
BilMh  (1118-1135  A.D.)  and  Sultan  Mas'iid,  the  Seljuq 
(1133-1152  A.D.)  ;  but  at  the  time  when  he  made  Hariri's 
acquaintance  he  was  living  in  retirement  at  Basra  and  devot- 
ing himself  to  literary  studies.  Hariri  begged  to  be  excused 
on  the  score  that  his  abilities  were  unequal  to  the  task,  "  for 
the  lame  steed  cannot  run  like  the  strong  courser. "^  Finally, 
however,  he  yielded  to  the  request  of  Anushirwan,  and,  to 
quote  his  own  words — 

"  I  composed,  in  spite  of  hindrances  that  I  suffered 
From  dullness  of  capacity  and  dimness  of  intellect, 
And  dryness  of  imagination  and  distressing  anxieties, 
Fifty  Maqdmdt,  which  contain  serious  language  and  lightsome, 


'  A  full  account  of  his  career  will  be  found  in  the  Preface  to  Houtsma's 
Recucil  dc  texies  rclatifs  a  I'histoirc  dcs  Seldjoucides,  vol.  ii,  p.  11  sqq. 
C/.  Browne's  Lit.  Hist,  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  p.  360. 

'  This  is  a  graceful,  but  probably  insincere,  tribute  to  the  superior 
genius  of  Hamadhani. 


330    POETRY,  LITERATURE,   AND   SCIENCE 

And  combine  refinement  with  dignity  of  style, 

And  brilliancies  with  jewels  of  eloquence, 

And  beauties  of  literature  with  its  rarities, 

Beside  verses  of  the  Koran  wherewith  I  adorned  them, 

And  choice  metaphors,  and  Arab  proverbs  that  I  interspersed. 

And  literary  elegancies  and  grammatical  riddles. 

And  decisions  based  on  the  (double)  meaning  of  words. 

And  original  discourses  and  highly-wrought  orations. 

And  affecting  exhortations  as  well  as  entertaining  jests  : 

The  whole  of  which  I   have  indited  as  by  the  tongue  of   Abu 

Zayd  of  Sariij, 
The  part  of  narrator  being  assigned  to  Harith  son  of  Hammam 

of  Basra.'" 

Hariri  then  proceeds  to  argue  that  his  Maqamat  are  not 
mere  frivolous  stories  such  as  strict  Moslems  are  bound  to 
reprobate  in  accordance  w^ith  a  well-lcnov^^n  passage  of  the 
Koran  referring  to  Nadr  b.  Harith,  w\\o  mortally  offended 
the  Prophet  by  amusing  the  Quraysh  with  the  old  Persian 
legends  of  Rustam  and  Isfandiyar  (Koran,  xxxi,  5-6)  : 
"  There  is  one  that  buyeth  idle  tales  that  he  may  seduce  men 
from  the  way  of  God^  without  knowledge^  and  make  it  a  laughing- 
"" stock :  these  shall  suffer  a  shameful  punishment.  And  when  Our 
signs  are  read  to  him,  he  turneth  his  back  in  disdain  as  though  he 
heard  them  not^  as  though  there  were  in  his  ears  a  deafness  : 
give  him  joy  of  a  grievous  punishment  ! "  Hariri  insists  that 
the  Assemblies  have  a  moral  purpose.  The  ignorant  and 
malicious,  he  says,  will  probably  condemn  his  v^^ork,  but 
intelligent  readers  will  perceive,  if  they  lay  prejudice  aside, 
that  it  is  as  useful  and  instructive  as  the  fables  of  beasts,  &c.,  2 
to  which  no  one  has  ever  objected.  That  his  fears  of  hostile 
criticism    were    not    altogether  groundless    is   shown    by    the 

'  The  above  passage  is  taken,  with  some  modification,  from  the  version 
of  Hariri  published  in  1850  by  Theodore  Preston,  Fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  who  was  afterwards  Lord  Almoner's  Professor  of 
Arabic  (1855-1871). 

=  Moslems  had  long  been  familiar  with  the  fables  of  Bidpai,  which 
were  translated  from  the  Pehlevi  into  Arabic  by  Ibnu  '1-Muqaffa'  (t  circa 
760  A.D.). 


HAR/Rf  331 

following  remarks  of  the  author  of  the  popular  history 
entitled  al-Fakhri  (f  circa  1300  a.d.).  This  writer,  after 
claiming  that  his  own  book  is  more  useful  than  the  Hamdsa 
of  Abu  Tammam,  continues : — 

"  And,  again,  it  is  more  profitable  than  the  Maqdmdt  on  which 
men   have   set  their   hearts,  and  which   they   eagerly   commit   to 

„  .  .,  memory  :  because  the  reader  derives  no  benefit  from 
criticised  as      Maqamat  cxccpt  familiarity  with  elegant  composition 

immora .  ^^^  knowledge  of  the  rules  of  verse  and  prose.  Un- 
doubtedly they  contain  maxims  and  ingenious  devices  and  expe- 
riences ;  but  all  this  has  a  debasing  effect  on  the  mind,  for  it  is 
founded  on  begging  and  sponging  and  disgraceful  scheming  to 
acquire  a  few  paltry  pence.  Therefore,  if  they  do  good  in  one 
direction,  they  do  harm  in  another ;  and  this  point  has  been 
noticed  by  some  critics  of  the  Maqdmdt  of  Hariri  and  Badi'u 
'1-Zaman."  ' 

Before  pronouncing  on  the  justice  of  this  censure,  we  must 
consider  for  a  moment  the  character  of  Abii  Zayd,  the  hero 

of  Hariri's  work,  whose  adventures  are  related  by 
^"^  Ablf^ay^  °^  ^  certain  Harith  b.  Hammam,  under  which  name 

the  author  is  supposed  to  signify  himself.  Accord- 
ing to  the  general  tradition,  Hariri  was  one  day  seated  with  a 
number  of  savants  in  the  mosque  of  the  Banu  Haram  at  Basra, 
when  an  old  man  entered,  footsore  and  travel-stained.  On 
being  asked  who  he  was  and  whence  he  came,  he  answered 
that  his  name  of  honour  was  Abu  Zayd  and  that  he  came 
from  Saruj.2  He  described  in  eloquent  and  moving  terms 
how  his  native  town  had  been  plundered  by  the  Greeks, 
who  made  his  daughter  a  captive  and  drove  him  forth  to 
exile  and  poverty.  Hariri  was  so  struck  with  his  wonderful 
powers  of  improvisation  that  on  the  same  evening  he  began  to 
compose  the  Maqdma  of  the  Banu  Hardm^'i  where  Abu  Zayd 

'  Al-Fakhri,  ed.  by  Derenbourg,  p.  18,  1.  4  sqq. 

=  A  town  in  Mesopotamia,  not  far  from  Edessa.     It  was  taken  by  the 
Crusaders  in  iioi  a.d.  (Abu  '1-Fida,  ed.  by  Reiske,  vol.  iii,  p.  332), 
3  The  48th  Maqdma  of  the  series  as  finally  arranged. 


332     POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

is  introduced  in  his  invariable  character  :  "  a  crafty  old  man, 
full  of  genius  and  learning,  unscrupulous  of  the  artifices  which 
he  uses  to  effect  his  purpose,  reckless  in  spending  in  forbidden 
indulgences  the  money  he  has  obtained  by  his  wit  or  deceit, 
but  with  veins  of  true  feeling  in  him,  and  ever  yielding  to 
unfeigned  emotion  when  he  remembers  his  devastated  home 
and  his  captive  child."  ^  If  an  immoral  tendency  has  been 
attributed  to  the  Assemblies  of  Hariri  it  is  because  the  author 
does  not  conceal  his  admiration  for  this  unprincipled  and 
thoroughly  disreputable  scamp.  Abu  Zayd,  indeed,  is  made 
so  fascinating  that  we  can  easily  pardon  his  knaveries  for  the 
sake  of  the  pearls  of  wit  and  wisdom  which  he  scatters  in 
splendid  profusion — excellent  discourses,  edifying  sermons, 
and  plaintive  lamentations  mingled  with  rollicking  ditties 
and  ribald  jests.  Modern  readers  are  not  likely  to  agree 
with  the  historian  quoted  above,  but  although  they  may 
deem  his  criticism  illiberal,  they  can  hardly  deny  that  it  has 
some  justification. 

Hariri's  rhymed  prose  might  be  freely  imitated  in  English, 
but  the  difficulty  of  rendering  it  in  rhyme  with  tolerable 
fidelity  has  caused  me  to  abandon  the  attempt  to  produce 
a  version  of  one  of  the  Assemblies  in  the  original  form.^  I 
will  translate  instead  three  poems  which  are  put  into  the 
mouth  of  Abu  Zayd.  The  first  is  a  tender  elegiac  strain 
recalling  far-off  days  of  youth  and  happiness  in  his  native 
land  : — 


"Ghassan  is  my  noble  kindred,  Saruj  is  my  land  of  birth, 
Where  I  dwelt  in  a  lofty  mansion  of  sunlike  glory  and  worth, 
A  Paradise  for  its  sweetness  and  beauty  and  pleasant  mirth  ! 


'  Chenery,  op.  cit.,  p.  23. 

=  This  has  been  done  with  extraordinary  skill  by  the  German  poet, 
Friedrich  Riickert  {Die  Verwandlimgen  dcs  Abu  Seid  von  Serug,  2nd  ed. 
1837),  whose  work,  however,  is  not  in  any  sense  a  translation. 


HARtRt  333 

And  oh,  the  life  that  I  led  there  abounding  in  all  delight  ! 
I  trailed  my  robe  on  its  meadows,  while  Time  flew  a  careless 

flight, 
Elate  in  the  flower  of   manhood,  no   pleasure  veiled   from  my 

sight. 

Now,  if  woe  could  kill,  I  had  died  of  the  troubles  that  haunt 

me  here, 
Or  could  past  joy  ever  be  ransomed,  my  heart's  blood  had  not 

been  dear. 
Since  death  is  better  than  living  a  brute's  life  year  after  year, 

Subdued  to  scorn  as  a  lion  whom  base  hyenas  torment. 

But    Luck   is    to    blame,    else   no    one    had   failed    of   his   due 

ascent : 
If  she  were   straight,  the  conditions   of    men   would   never   be 

bent." ' 

The  scene  of  the  eleventh  Assembly  is  laid  in  Sdwa,  a 
city  lying  midway  between  Hamadhan  (Ecbatana)  and 
Rayy  (Rhages).  "  Harith,  in  a  fit  of  religious  zeal,  betakes 
himself  to  the  public  burial  ground,  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
templation. He  finds  a  funeral  in  progress,  and  when  it  is 
over  an  old  man,  with  his  face  muffled  in  a  cloak,  takes  his 
stand  on  a  hillock,  and  pours  forth  a  discourse  on  the  certainty 
of  death  and  judgment.  ...  He  then  rises  into  poetry  and 
declaims  a  piece  which  is  one  of  the  noblest  productions  of 
Arabic  literature.  In  lofty  morality,  in  religious  fervour,  in 
beauty  of  language,  in  power  and  grace  of  metre,  this 
magnificent  hymn   is   unsurpassed."  2 

"  Pretending  sense  in  vain,  how  long,  O  light  of  brain,  wilt  thou 
heap  sin  and  bane,  and  compass  error's  span  ? 
Thy  conscious    guilt    avow  !     The    white    hairs    on    thy    brow 
admonish  thee,  and  thou  hast  ears  unstopt,  O  man  ! 


'  A  literal  translation  of  these  verses,  which  occur  in  the  sixth  Assembly, 
is  given  by  Chenery,  op.cit.,p.  138. 
=  Ibid.,  p.  163. 


334    POETRY,   LITERATURE,   AND   SCIENCE 

Death's  call  dost  thou  not  hear  ?     Rings    not    his    voice    full 
clear  ?     Of  parting  hast  no  fear,  to  make  thee    sad    and 


wise 


? 


How  long   sunk  in   a  sea   of   sloth   and  vanity   wilt  thou  play 

heedlessly,  as  though  Death  spared  his  prize  ? 
Till  when,  far  wandering  from  virtue,  wilt  thou   cling  to  evil 

ways  that  bring  together  vice  in  brief  ? 
For   thy   Lord's   anger    shame   thou   hast    none,   but   let   maim 

o'ertake    thy    cherished    aim,    then     feel'st    thou    burning 

grief. 
Thou  hail'st  with   eager  joy  the   coin   of  yellow   die,  but   if  a 

bier  pass  by,  feigned  is  thy  sorry  face  ; 
Perverse  and   callous   wight !  thou    scornest    counsel    right    to 

follow  the  false  light  of  treachery  and  disgrace. 
Thy  pleasure  thou  dost  crave,  to  sordid  gain  a  slave,  forgetting 

the  dark  grave  and  what  remains  of  dole  ; 
Were  thy  true  weal  descried,  thy  lust  would  not  misguide  nor 

thou  be  terrified  by  words  that  should  console. 
Not  tears,   blood   shall  thine   eyes  pour    at    the    great    Assize, 

when  thou  hast  no  aUies,  no  kinsman  thee  to  save ; 
Straiter  thy   tomb   shall    be    than   needle's   cavity  :  deep,   deep 

thy  plunge  I  see  as  diver's  'neath  the  wave. 
There  shall  thy  limbs  be  laid,  a  feast  for  worms  arrayed,  till 

utterly  decayed  are  wood  and  bones  withal, 
Nor  may  thy   soul   repel   that   ordeal    horrible,   when   o'er  the 

Bridge  of  Hell  she  must  escape  or  fall. 
Astray   shall   leaders  go,  and   mighty  men   be   low,   and   sages 

shall  cry,  '  Woe  like  this  was  never  yet.' 
Then  haste,  my  thoughtless  friend,  what  thou  hast  marred  to 

mend,   for   life   draws   near   its   end,   and   still   thou  art  in 

the  net. 
Trust  not  in  fortune,  nay,  though  she  be  soft  and  gay ;  for  she 

will  spit  one  day  her  venom,  if  thou  dote  ; 
Abate  thy  haughty  pride  !   lo.  Death   is   at   thy  side,  fastening, 

whate'er  betide,  his  fingers  on  thy  throat. 
When  prosperous,  refrain  from  arrogant  disdain,  nor  give  thy 

tongue  the  rein  :  a  modest  tongue  is  best. 
Comfort  the  child  of  bale  and  listen  to  his  tale  :   repair  thine 

actions  frail,  and  be  for  ever  blest. 
Feather  the   nest  once  more  of    those  whose  little  store  has 

vanished  :  ne'er  deplore  the  loss  nor  miser  be ; 
With  meanness  bravely  cope,  and  teach  thine  hand  to  ope,  and 

spurn  the  misanthrope,  and  make  thy  bounty  free. 


HARtRf  335 

Lay  up  provision  fair  and  leave  what  brings  thee  care  :  for 
sea  the  ship  prepare  and  dread  the  rising  storm. 

This,  friend,  is  what  I  preach  expressed  in  lucid  speech.  Good 
luck  to  all  and  each  who  with  my  creed  conform  ! " 

In  the  next  Maqama — that  of  Damascus — we  find  Abu 
Zayd,  gaily  attired,  amidst  casks  and  vats  of  wine,  carousing 
and  listening  to  the  music  of  lutes  and  singing — 

"  I  ride  and  I  ride  through  the  waste  far  and  wide,  and  I  fling 

away  pride  to  be  gay  as  the  swallow  ; 
Stem   the  torrent's    fierce    speed,   tame    the   mettlesome    steed, 

that  wherever  I  lead  Youth  and  Pleasure  may  follow. 
I  bid  gravity  pack,  and  I  strip  bare  my  back  lest  liquor  I  lack 

when  the  goblet  is  lifted  : 
Did  I  never  incline  to  the  quaffing  of  wine,  I   had  ne'er  been 

with  fine  wit  and  eloquence  gifted. 
Is  it  wonderful,  pray,  that  an  old  man  should  stay  in  a  well- 
stored  seray  by  a  cask  overflowing  ? 
Wine  strengthens  the  knees,  physics   every  disease,  and   from 

sorrow  it  frees,  the  oblivion-bestowing  ! 
Oh,  the  purest  of  joys  is  to  live  sans  disguise  unconstrained 

by  the  ties  of  a  grave  reputation. 
And   the   sweetest   of   love  that   the   lover   can   prove    is   when 

fear  and  hope  move  him  to  utter  his  passion. 
Thy  love   then   proclaim,   quench    the    smouldering    flame,   for 

'twill  spark  out  thy  shame  and  betray  thee  to  laughter  : 
Heal  the  wounds  of   thine   heart  and   assuage  thou  the   smart 

by  the  cups  that  impart  a  delight  men  seek  after  ; 
While   to   hand    thee   the   bowl   damsels   wait   who   cajole   and 

enravish  the  soul  with  eyes  tenderly  glancing, 
And    singers   whose    throats    pour    such    high-mounting    notes, 

when  the  melody  floats,  iron  rocks  would  be  dancing  ! 
Obey  not  the  fool  who  forbids  thee  to  pull  beauty's  rose  when 

in  full  bloom  thou'rt  free  to  possess  it ; 
Pursue  thine  end  still,  tho'  it  seem  past  thy  skill  :  let  them  say 

what  they  will,  take  thy  pleasure  and  bless  it ! 
Get  thee  gone  from  thy  sire,  if  he  thwart  thy  desire ;   spread 

thy  nets  nor  enquire  what  the  nets  are  receiving  ; 
But  be  true  to  a  friend,  shun   the   miser  and   spend,  ways  of 

charity  wend,  be  unwearied  in  giving. 
He  that  knocks  enters  straight  at  the  Merciful's  gate,  so  repent 

or  e'er  Fate  call  thee  forth  from  the  living  1 " 


336    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND  SCIENCE 

The  reader  may  judge  from  these  extracts  whether  the 
Assemblies  of  Harirf  are  so  deficient  in  matter  as  some  critics 
have  imagined.  But,  of  course,  the  celebrity  of  the  work  is 
mainly  due  to  its  consummate  literary  form — a  point  on 
which  the  Arabs  have  always  bestowed  singular  attention. 
Hariri  himself  was  a  subtle  grammarian,  living  in  Basra,  the 
home  of  philological  science  ;  ^  and  though  he  wrote  to  please 
rather  than  to  instruct,  he  seems  to  have  resolved  that  his 
work  should  illustrate  every  beauty  and  nicety  of  which  the 
Arabic  language  is  capable.  We  Europeans  can  see  as  little 
merit  or  taste  in  the  verbal  conceits — equivoques,  paronoma- 
sias, assonances,  alliterations,  &c. — with  which  his  pages  are 
thickly  studded,  as  in  tours  de  force  of  composition  which  may 
be  read  either  forwards  or  backwards,  or  which  consist  entirely 
of  pointed  or  of  unpointed  letters  ;  but  our  impatience  of  such 
things  should  not  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  they  are  intimately 
connected  with  the  genius  and  traditions  of  the  Arabic  tongue,^ 
and  therefore  stand  on  a  very  different  footing  from  those 
euphuistic  extravagances  which  appear,  for  example,  in 
English  literature  of  the  Elizabethan  age.  By  Hariri's 
countrymen  the  Maqamat  are  prized  as  an  almost  unique 
monument  of  their  language,  antiquities,  and  culture.  One 
of  the  author's  contemporaries,  the  famous  Zamakhsharl,  has 
expressed  the  general  verdict  in  pithy  verse — 

"  I  swear  by  God  and  His  marvels, 
By  the  pilgrims'  rite  and  their  shrine  : 
Hariri's  Assemblies  are  worthy 
To  be  written  in  gold  each  line." 


*  Two  grammatical  treatises  by  Hariri  have  come  down  to  us.  In  one 
of  these,  entitled  Diirratu  'l-Ghawwds  ('The  Pearl  of  the  Diver')  and 
edited  by  Thorbecke  (Leipzig,  1871),  he  discusses  the  solecisms  which 
people  of  education  are  wont  to  commit. 

=  See  Chenery,  op.  cit.,  pp.  83-97. 


THE  CANONICAL   BOOKS  337 

Concerning  some  of  the  specifically  religious  sciences,  such 

as  Dogmatic  Theology  and  Mysticism,  we  shall  have  more  to  say 

in  the  following  chapter,  while  as  to  the  science 

The  religious  .  .   . 

literature  of  the  of  ApostoHc  Tradition  [Hadith)  we  must  refer  the 

reader  to  what  has  been  already  said.  All  that 
can  be  attempted  here  is  to  take  a  passing  notice  of  the  most 
eminent  writers  and  the  most  celebrated  works  of  this  epoch  in 
the  field  of  religion. 

The  place  of  honour  belongs  to  the  Imam  Malik  b.  Anas 
of  Medina,    whose    Muwatta     is    the    first    great   corpus   of 

Muhammadan  Law.     He  was  a   partisan  of  the 
(^-'^795^    'A^^'is,    and    was    flogged    by    command    of    the 

Caliph  Mansur  in  consequence  of  his  declaration 
that  he  did  not  consider  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  'Abbasid 
dynasty  to  have  any  binding  effect. 

The  two  principal  authorities  for  Apostolic  Tradition  are 
Bukhari  (f  870  a.d.)  and  Muslim  (f  875  a.d.),  authors  of  the 

collections   entitled    Sahih.       Compilations   of    a 
^"MusUm"^     narrower  range,  embracing  only  those  traditions 

which  bear  on  the  Sunna  or  custom  of  the  Pro- 
phet, are  the  Sunan  of  Abii  Dawiid  al-Sijistani  (t  889   a.d.), 

the   ydmi''  of  Abu  'Isa  Muhammad   al-Tirmidhi 

(t  892  A.D. ),  the  Sunan  of  al-Nasa'i  (t  915  a.d.), 
and  the  Sunan  of  Ibn  Maja  (t  896  a.d.).  These,  together 
with  the  Sah'ths  of  Bukhari  and  Muslim,  form  the  Six  Canoni- 

•  •       •  7 

cal  Books  [al-kutuh  al-sitta)^  which  are  held  in  the  highest 
veneration.  Amongst  the  innumerable  works  of  a  similar 
kind  produced  in  this  period  it  will  suffice  to  mention  the 
Masdbihu  U-Sunna  by  al-Baghawi  (t  circa  11 20  a.d.).  A 
later  adaptation  called  Mishkdtu  U-Masdblh  has  been  often 
printed,  and  is  still  extremely  popular. 

Omitting  the  great  manuals  of  Moslem  Jurisprudence, 
which  are  without  literary  interest  in  the  larger  sense,  we 
may  pause  for  a  moment  at  the  name  of  al-Mawardi,  a 
Shafi'ite  lawyer,  who  wrote  a  well-known  treatise  on  politics — 

23 


338    POETRY,   LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

the    Kitabu   U-Ahkam    al-Sultdniyya,   or   '  Book    of  the    Prin- 
ciples of  Government.'     His  standpoint  is  purely  theoretical. 

Thus   he  lays  down  that  the  Caliph   should   be 
(t ^10^58 Y.D.)-     elected  by  the  body  of  learned,  pious,  and  orthodox 

divines,  and  that  the  people  must  leave  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  State  to  the  Caliph  absolutely,  as  being  its 
representative.  Mawardi  lived  at  Baghdad  during  the  period 
of  Buvs^ayhid  ascendancy,  a  period  described  by  Sir  W.  Muir 
in  the  following  words  :  "  The  pages  of  our  annalists  are  now 
almost  entirely  occupied  with  the  political  events  of  the  day, 
in  the  guidance  of  which  the  Caliphs  had  seldom  any  concern, 
and  which  therefore  need  no  mention  here."  ^  Under  the 
'Abbasid  dynasty  the  mystical  doctrines  of  the  Siifi's  were 
systematised  and  expounded.  The  most  important  Arabic 
works    of  reference    on    Sufiism  are    the    ^htu   U-Quluby    or 

'Food    of    Hearts,'    by    Abd    Talib    al-Makki 
tteTonlufem:    (+  996  A.D.)  ;  the  KMbu  U-Ta'arruf  li-Madhhahl 

ahli  '/-  Ta\awwuj\  or  '  Book  of  Enquiry  as  to  the 
Religion  of  the  Sufis,'  by  Muhammad  b.  Ishaq  al-Kalabadhl 
(t  circa  lOOO  A.D.)  ;  the  Tabaqdtu  U-Sufiyya^  or  'Classes  of  the 
Sutis,'  by  Abu  'Abd  al-Rahman  al-Sulami  (t  I02i  A.D.)  ;  the 
Hilyatu  H-Awl'iya^  or  '  Adornment  of  the  Saints,'  by  Abu 
Nu'aym  al-Isfahani  (t  1038  a.d.)  ;  the  RisalatuU-Qushayriyya^ 
or  '  Qushayrite  Tract,'  by  Abu  '1-Qasim  al-Oushayri  of 
Naysabur  ( t  1074  a.d.)  ;  the  Ihyau  '■JJlum  al-Din,  or  '  Revivifi- 
cation of  the  Religious  Sciences,'  by  Ghazali  (t  mi  a.d.)  ; 
and  the  ^Jwdrifu  ^l-Ma'-drif^  or  '  Bounties  of  Knowledge,'  by 
Shihabu  '1-Din  Abu  Hafs  'Umar  al-Suhrawardf  (t  1234  a.d.) 
— a    list  which    might    easily    be    extended.     In    Dogmatic 

Theology    there     is     none     to     compare     with! 
Ghazali         ^\^^    Hamid    al-Ghazdli,    surnamed     '  the    Proofr 

(t  IIII  A.D.).  •  '  I 

of  Islam'    [Hujjatu    U-Isldm).     He    is    a    figure 
of  such    towering  importance   that  some  detailed  account  ofi 
his  life  and    opinions   must  be   inserted   in  a   book  like  this, 
'  The  Caliphate,  its  Rise,  Decline,  and  Fall,  p.  573. 


GHAZAlI  339 

which  professes  to  illustrate  the  history  of  Muhammadan 
thought.  Here,  however,  we  shall  only  give  an  outline  of  his 
biography  in  order  to  pave  the  way  for  discussion  of  his  intel- 
lectual achievements  and  his  far-reaching  influence. 

"  In  this  year  (505  a.h.  =  iiii  a.d.)  died  the  Imam,  who  was  the 

Ornament  of    the   Faith   and    the    Proof   of   Islam,    Abu    Hamid 

Muhammad  ...  of   Tus,   the   Shafi'ite.      His   death 

acc^rdfnglf  fhl  took  place  on  the  14th  of  the  Latter  Jumada  at  Taba- 

(shadharatu     ran,   a    village    near    Tus.      He    was    then    fifty-five 
t-Dhahab.  ,  i^i  '1'  •  •      .       ,    ,      ^1  ',    ... 

years  01  age.     Ghazzali  is  equivalent  to  Ghazzal,  like 
'Attari  (for  'Attar)  and  Khabbazi  (for  Khabbaz),  in  the  dialect  of  the 
people   of  Khurasan '  :  so  it  is  stated  by  the  author  of  the  'Ibar.' 
Al-Isnawi  says  in  his  Tabaqdt^: — Ghazzali  is  an  Imam  by  whose  ,, 
name  breasts  are  dilated  and  souls  are  revived,  and  in  whose  literary  | 
productions  the  ink-horn  exults  and  the  paper  quivers  with  joy  ;  and  j 
at  the  hearing  thereof  voices  are  hushed  and  heads  are  bowed.     He 
was  born  at  Tiis  in  the  year  450  a.h.  =  1058-1059  a.d.     His  father 
used  to  spin  wool  {yaghzilu  'l-si'if)  and  sell  it  in  his  shop.   On  his  death- 
bed he  committed  his  two  sons,  Ghazzali  himself  and  his  brother 
Abmad,  to  the  care  of  a  pious  Siifi,  who  taught  them  writing  and 
educated  them  until  the  money  left  him  by  their  father  was  all  spent. 
'  Then,'  says  Ghazzali,  '  we  went  to  the   college   to  learn   divinity 
{fiqh)  so  that  we  might  gain  our  livelihood.'     After  studying  there 
for  some  time  he  journeyed  to  Abu  Nasr  al-Isma'ili  in  Jurjan,  then 

1  to  the  Imamu  '1-Haramayn'*  at  Naysabur,  under  whom  he  studied 
with  such  assiduity   that   he   became    the   best    scholastic    of    his 

)  .contemporaries   {sdra  anzara  ahli  zamdnihi),   and  he   lectured   ex 

"  '  Another  example  is  'Umar  al-Khayyami  for  'Umar  Khayyam.  The 
spelling   Ghazzali   (with  a   double   2^)   was    in    general    use    when    Ibn 

:  Khallikan  wrote  his  Biographical  Dictionary  in  1256  a.d.  (see  De  Slane's 
translation,  vol.  i,  p.  80),  but  according  to  Sam'ani  the  name  is  derived 
from  Ghazala,  a  village  near  Tus  ;  in  which  case  Ghazali  is  the  correct 
form  of  the  nisba,  I  have  adopted  '  Ghazali '  in  deference  to  Sam'ani's 
authority,  but  those  who  write  '  Ghazzali '  can  at  least  claim  that  they  err 

;   in  very  good  company. 

I     '  Shamsu  '1-Din  al-Dhahabi  (t  1348  A.D.). 

3  'Abdu  '1-Rahim  al-Isnawi  (f  1370  a.d.),  author  of  a  biographical 
work  on  the  Shafi'ite  doctors.  See  Brockelmann,  Gesch.  der  Arab.  Litt., 
ivol.  ii,  p.  90. 

*  Abu  '1-Ma'ali  al-Juwayni,  a  famous  theologian  of  Naysabur  (t  1085  a.d.), 
received  this  title,  which  means  '  Imam  of  the  Two  Sanctuaries,'  because 
he  taug  ht  for  several  years  at  Mecca  and  Medina. 


340    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

cathedra  in  his  master's  lifetime,  and  wrotei  books.  .  .  .  And  on  the 
death  of  his  master  he  set  out  for  the  Camp '  and  presented  himself 
to  the  Nizamu  '1-Mulk,  whose  assembly  was  the  alighting-place  of 
the  learned  and  the  destination  of  the  leading  divines  and  savants  ; 
and  there,  as  was  due  to  his  high  merit,  he  enjoyed  the  society  of  the 
principal  doctors,  and  disputed  with  his  opponents  and  rebutted 
them  in  spite  of  their  eminence.  So  the  Nizamu  '1-Mulk  inclined  to 
him  and  showed  him  great  honour,  and  his  name  Hew  through  the 
world.  Then,  in  the  year  '84  (1091  a.d.)  he  was  called  to  a  professor- 
ship in  the  Nizamiyya  College  at  Baghdad,  where  a  splendid 
reception  awaited  him.  His  words  reached  far  and  wide,  and  his 
influence  soon  exceeded  that  of  the  Emirs  and  Viziers.  But  at  last 
his  lofty  spirit  recoiled  from  worldly  vanities.  He  gave  himself  up 
to  devotion  and  dervishhood,  and  set  out,  in  the  year  '88  (1095  a.d.), 
for  the  Flijaz.^  On  his  return  from  the  Pilgrimage  he  journeyed  to 
Damascus  and  made  his  abode  there  for  ten  years  in  the  minaret  of 
the  Congregational  Mosque,  and  composed  several  works,  of  which 
the  Ihyd  is  said  to  be  one.  Then,  after  visiting  Jerusalem  and 
Alexandria,  he  returned  to  his  home  at  Tus,  intent  on  writing  and 
worship  and  constant  recitation  of  the  Koran  and  dissemination  of 
knowledge  and  avoidance  of  intercourse  with  men.  The  Vizier 
Fakhru  '1-Mulk,3  son  of  the  Nizamu  '1-Mulk,  came  to  see  him,  and 
urged  him  by  every  means  in  his  power  to  accept  a  professorship  in 
the  Nizamiyya  College  at  Naysabur.''  Ghazzali  consented,  but  after 
teaching  for  a  time,  resigned  the  appointment  and  returned  to  end 
his  days  in  his  native  town." 

Besides  his   jnagnum  opus^    the    already-mentioned  Ihyd^  in 

which  he  expounds  theology  and   the  ethics  of  religion   fromi 

the    standpoint    of   the    moderate    Sufi    school,j 

His  principal     Qhazali    wrotc    a    great    number    of    important! 

works.  °  _  _  ^1 

works,  such  as  the  Munqidh  mina  U-Dalal^  oi\ 
*  Deliverer  from  Error,'  a  sort  of '  Apologia  pro  Vita  Sua';  thcj 
Kimiyau  '/-Sa^adaty  or  'Alchemy   of  Happiness,'   which  was 

•  I.e.,  the  camp-court  of  the  Seljuq  monarch  Malikshah,  son  of 
Alp  Arslan. 

*  According  to  his  own  account  in  the  Munqidh,  Ghazali  on  leaving 
Baghdad  went  first  to  Damascus,  then  to  Jerusalem,  and  then  to  Mecca, 
The  statement  that  he  remained  ten  years  at  Damascus  is  inaccurate. 

3  The  MS.  has  Fakhru  '1-Din. 

4  Ghazall's  return  to  public  life  took  place  in  1106  a.d. 


SHAHRASTAnI  341 

originally  written  in  Persian  ;  and  the  Tahafutu  U-Falasifa^  or 
'  Collapse  of  the  Philosophers,'  a  polemical  treatise  designed  to 
refute  and  destroy  the  doctrines  of  Moslem  philosophy.  This 
work  called  forth  a  rejoinder  from  the  celebrated  Ibn  Rushd 
(Averroes),  who  died  at  Mwog€o  in   1198-1199  a.d.       h-itAAa,Vi*.:*t>, 

Here  we  may  notice  two  valuable  works  on  the  history  ot 

religion,  both  of  which  bear  the  same  title,  Kitdbu  U-Milal  wa- 

U-NihaL  that  is  to  say,  '  The  Book  of  Religions 

Shahrastani's  *       '  -^ '  .  ^  \ 

■Bookof  Reii-    and  Sects  '  by  Ibn  Hazm  of  Cordova  (t  1064  a.d.) 

gions  and  Sects.'  i       J  •  \  ,  / 

and  Abu  '1-Fath  al-Shahrastani  (t  1153  a.d.). 
Ibn  Hazm  we  shall  meet  with  again  in  the  chapter  which 
deals  specially  with  the  history  and  literature  of  the  Spanish 
Moslems.  Shahrastani,  as  he  is  named  after  his  birthplace, 
belonged  to  the  opposite  extremity  of  the  Muhammadan 
Empire,    being    a     native    of    Khurasan,    the    huge    Eastern 

[  province  bounded   by   the    Oxus.     Cureton,  who   edited    the 

.  Arabic  text  of  the  Kitdbu  '/-Mi/a/  wa-'/-Niha/  {London,  1842- 

.  1846),  gives  the  following  outline  of  its  contents  : — 

I 

After  five  introductory  chapters,  the  author  proceeds  to  arrange 

i  his  book  into  two  great  divisions ;  the  one  comprising  the  Religious, 

I  the  other  the  Philosophical  Sects.  The  former  of  these  contains  an 
account  of  the  various  Sects  of  the  followers  of  Muhammad,  and 
likewise  of  those  to  whom  a  true  revelation  iiad  been  made  (the 
Ahlu  'l-Kitdb,   or   '  People   of    the    Scripture '),    that    is,  Jews    and 

'  Christians  ;  and  of  those  who  had  a  doubtful  or  pretended  revelation 

.  {man  lahi'i  shubhatu  l-Kitdb),  such  as  the  Magi  and  the  Manichasans. 

;  The  second  division  comprises  an  account  of  the  philosophical 
opinions  of  the  Sabaeans  (Sabians),  which  are  mainly  set  forth  in  a 

'  very  interesting  dialogue   between   a    Sabaean   and    an    orthodox 

■  Muhammadan  ;  of  the  tenets  of  various  Greek    Philosophers  and 

■  some  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Christian  Church  ;  and  also  of  the 
Muhammadan  doctors,  more  particularly  of  the  system  of  Ibn  Sina 
or  Avicenna,  which  the  author  explains  at  considerable  length. 
The  work  terminates  with  an  account  of  the  tenets  of  the  Arabs 

;  before  the  commencement  of  Islamism,  and  of  the  religion  of  the 
'  people  of  India. 

The  science  of  grammar  took  its  rise  in  the  cities  of  Basra 


342     POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

and  Kufa,  which  were  founded   not  long  after  Muhammad's 
death,  and  which  remained  the  chief  centres  of  Arabian  life 

and    thought    outside    the    peninsula    until    they 
^"wioiogy"**     were  eclipsed  by  the  great  'Abbasid  capital.     In 

both  towns  the  population  consisted  of  Bedouin 
Arabs,  belonging  to  different  tribes  and  speaking  many 
different  dialects,  while  there  were  also  thousands  of  artisans 
and  clients  who  spoke  Persian  as  their  mother-tongue,  so  that 
the  classical  idiom  was  peculiarly  exposed  to  corrupting ' 
influences.  If  the  pride  and  delight  of  the  Arabs  in  their 
noble  language  led  them  to  regard  the  maintenance  of  its 
purity  as  a  national  duty,  they  were  equally  bound  by  their 
religious  convictions  to  take  decisive  measures  for  ensuring  the 
correct  pronunciation  and  interpretation  of  that  "  miracle  of 
Divine  eloquence,"  the  Arabic  Koran.  To  this  latter  motive 
the  invention  of  grammar  is  traditionally  ascribed.  The 
inventor  is  related  to  have  been  Abu  '1-Aswad  al-Du'ali,  who 

died  at  Basra  during  theUmayyad  period.     "  Abu 

Theinvention  ,     ",        •  i  111  1  ■      , 

of  Arabic         1-Aswad,    havmg     been    asked     where    he    had 

grammar.  •       j       i_  •  r  11 

acquired  the  science  or  grammar,  answered  that 
he  had  learned  the  rudiments  of  it  from  'AH  b.  Abi  Tdlib.  It 
is  said  that  he  never  made  known  any  of  the  principles  which 
he  had  received  from  'Ali  till  Ziyad^  sent  to  him  the  order  to 
compose  something  which  might  serve  as  a  guide  to  the 
public  and  enable  them  to  understand  the  Book  of  God.  He 
at  first  asked  to  be  excused,  but  on  hearing  a  man  recite  the . 
following  passage  out  of  the  Koran,  anna  Ulaha  bar¥^^  m'lna 
^I-mushrikina  wa-rasuluhu^^  which  last  word  the  reader  pro- 
nounced rasUlihi^  he  exclaimed,  '  I  never  thought  that  things 
would  have  come  to  this.'     He  then  returned  to  Ziyad  and 


'  See  p.  195  supra. 

*  Kor.  ix,  3.  The  translation  runs  ("  This  is  a  declaration)  that  God  is 
clear  of  the  idolaters,  and  His  Apostle  likewise."  With  the  reading 
rasiUihi  it  means  that  God  is  clear  of  the  idolaters  and  also  of  His 
Apostle. 


THE  ARAB   GRAMMARIANS  343 

said,  '  I  will  do  what  you  ordered.'  "  i     The  Basra  school  of 
grammarians  which  Abu  '1-Aswad  is  said  to  have  founded  is 

older  than  the  rival  school  of  Kufa  and  surpassed  it 
^'^^o^'fiasrl.'^'^    in  fame.     Its  most  prominent  representatives  were 

Abu  'Amr  b.  al-'Ald  (t  770  a.d.),  a  diligent 
and  profound  student  of  the  Koran,  who  on  one  occasion 
burned  all  his  collections  of  old  poetry,  &c.,  and  abandoned 
himself  to  devotion  ;  Khalil  b.  Ahmad,  inventor  of  the  Arabic 
system  of  metres  and  author  of  the  first  Arabic  lexicon  (the 
Kitdbu  ^l-^Ayn\  which,  however,  he  did  not  live  to  complete  ; 
the  Persian  Sibawayhi,  whose  Grammar,  entitled  'The  Book 
of  Sibawayhi,'  is  universally  celebrated  ;  the  great  Humanists 
al-Asma'i  and  Abu  'Ubayda  who  flourished  under  Hdrun 
al-Rashid  ;  al-Mubarrad,  about  a  century  later,  whose  best- 
I  known  work,  the  Kamil^  has  been  edited  by  Professor  William 
Wright ;  his  contemporary  al-Sukkari,  a  renowned  collector 
and  critic  of  old  Arabian  poetry  ;  and  Ibn  Durayd  ( t  934  a.d.), 
a  distinguished  philologist,  genealogist,  and  poet,  who  re- 
ceived a  pension  from  the  Caliph  Muqtadir  in  recognition  of 
his  services  on  behalf  of  science,  and  whose  principal  works, 
in  addition  to  the  famous  ode  known  as  the  Maqsura^  are  a 
voluminous  lexicon  {al-'Jamhara  fi  U-Lugha)  and  a  treatise  on 
the  genealogies  of  the  Arab  tribes  (^Kitdbu  H-hhtiqdq), 

Against  these  names  the  school  of  Kiifa  can  set  al-Kisd'i, 
a    Persian    savant    who    was    entrusted  by    Hdrun  al-Rashfd 

with  the  education  of  his  sons  Amin  and 
^""'ofKUf'a.^'"'  Ma'mdn;    al-Farra    (t   822  a.d.),   a    pupil    and 

compatriot  of  al-Kisd'i ;  al-Mufaddal  al-Dabbi, 
a  favourite  of  the  Caliph  Mahdi,  for  whom  he  compiled  an 
excellent  anthology  of  Pre-islamic  poems  {al-Mufaddaliyydt)^ 
which  has  already  been  noticed  2  ;  Ibnu  '1-Sikkit,  whose  out- 
spoken partiality  for  the  House  of  'Ali  b.  Abi  X^lib  caused 
him    to    be    brutally    trampled     to     death     by    the    Turkish 

'  Ibn  Khallikan,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  i,  p.  663. 
*  See  p.  128. 


344    POETRY,  LITERATURE,   AND   SCIENCE 

guards  of  the  tyrant  Mutawakkil  (858  a.d.)  ;  and  Tha'lab, 
head  of  the  Kufa  school  in  his  time  (f  904  a.d.),  of  whose 
rivalry  with  al-Mubarrad  many  stories  are  told,  A  con- 
temporary, Abu  Bakr  b.  Abi  '1-Azhar,  said  in  one  of  his 
poems  : — 

"Turn  to  Mubarrad  or  to  Tha'lab,  thou 
That  seek'st  with  learning  to  improve  thy  mind  ! 
Be  not  a  fool,  like  mangy  camel  shunned  : 
All  human  knowledge  thou  with  them  wilt  find. 
The  science  of  the  whole  world,  East  and  West, 
In  these  two  single  doctors  is  combined."  ' 

Reference  has  been  made  in  a  former  chapter  to  some  ot 
the  earliest  Humanists,  e.g.^  Hammad  al-Rawiya  (t  776  a.d.) 
and  his  slightly  younger  contemporary,  Khalaf  al-Ahmar,  to 
their  inestimable  labours  in  rescuing  the  old  poetry  from 
oblivion,  and  to  the  unscrupulous  methods  which  they  some- 
times employed. 2  Among  their  successors,  who  flourished  in 
the  Golden  Age  of  Islam,  under  the  first  'Abbdsids,  the  place 
of  honour  belongs  to  Abii  'Ubayda  (t  about  825  a.d.)  and 
al-Asma'i  (f  about  830  a.d.). 

Abii  'Ubayda  Ma'mar  b.  al-Muthannd  was  or  Jewish- 
Persian  race,  and  maintained  in  his  writings  the  cause  of  the 
Shu'ubites  against    the  Arab   national   party,  for 

Abu 'Ubayda.  ^  -u     . 

which  reason  he  is  erroneously  described  as  a 
Khdrijite.3  The  rare  expressions  of  the  Arabic  language,  the 
history  of  the  Arabs  and  their  conflicts  were  his  predominant 
study — "  neither  in  heathen  nor  Muhammadan  times,"  he 
once  boasted,  "  have  two  horses  met  in  battle  but  that  I 
possess  information  about  them  and  their  riders  "  4  ;  yet,  with 
all  his  learning,  he  was  not  always  able  to  recite  a  verse  with- 
out mangling  it ;  even  in  reading  the  Koran,  with  the  book 

"  Ibn  Khallikan,No.  608  ;  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  iii,  p.  31. 

"^  See  pp.  131-134,  supra. 

3  Goldziher,  Mtihammedanische  Studien,  Part  I,  p.  197. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  195. 


ABU    U BAY  DA   AND   ASMA'l  345 

before  his  eyes,  he  made  mistakes.^  Our  knowledge  of 
Arabian  antiquity  is  drawn,  to  a  large  extent,  from  the 
traditions  collected  by  him  which  are  preserved  in  the  Kitabu 
U-Aghant  and  elsewhere.  He  left  nearly  two  hundred  works, 
of  which  a  long  but  incomplete  catalogue  occurs  in  the  Fihrist 
(pp.  53-54).  Abu  'Ubayda  was  summoned  by  the  Caliph 
Hariin  al-Rashid  to  Baghdad,  where  he  became  acquainted 
,      ,,         with   Asma'i.     There   was  a  standing    feud    be- 

Asma  1.  •  ° 

tween  them,  due  in  part  to  difference  of  character^ 
and  in  part  to  personal  jealousies.  'Abdu  '1-Malik  b,  Qurayb 
al-Asma'i  was,  like  his  rival,  a  native  of  Basra.  Although  he 
may  have  been  excelled  by  others  of  his  contemporaries  in  certain 
branches  of  learning,  none  exhibited  in  such  fine  perfection 
the  varied  literary  culture  which  at  that  time  was  so  highly 
prized  and  so  richly  rewarded.  Whereas  Abu  'Ubayda  was 
dreaded  for  his  sharp  tongue  and  sarcastic  humour,  Asma'i 
had  all  the  accomplishments  and  graces  of  a  courtier.  Abu 
Nuwas,  the  first  great  poet  01  the  'Abbasid  period,  said  that 
Asma'i  was  a  nightingale  to  charm  those  who  heard  him 
with  his  melodies.  In  court  circles,  where  the  talk  often 
turned  on  philological  matters,  he  was  a  favourite  guest,  and 
the  Caliph  would  send  for  him  to  decide  any  abstruse  question 
connected  with  literature  which  no  one  present  was  able  to 
answer.  Of  his  numerous  writings  on  linguistic  and  anti- 
quarian themes  several  have  come  down  to  us,  e.g.^  'The  Book 
of  Camels  '  {Kitabu  U-Ihil),  'The  Book  of  Horses'  {Kitabu 
'l-Khayl\  and  'The  Book  of  the  Making  of  Man'  [Kitabu 
Khalqi  U-Insdn\  a  treatise  which  shows  that  the  Arabs  of  the 
desert  had  acquired  a  considerable  knowledge  of  human 
anatomy.  His  work  as  editor,  commentator,  and  critic  ot 
Arabian  poetry  forms  (it  has  been  said)  the  basis  of  nearly  all 
that  has  since  been  written  on  the  subject. 

'  Ibn  Qutayba,  Kitabu  H-Ma'drif,  p.  269. 

^  While  Abu  'Ubayda  was  notorious  for  his  free-thinking  prodivities, 
Asma'i  had  a  strong  vein  of  pietism.  See  Goldziher,  loc.  cit.,  p.  199 
and  Abh.  zur  Arab.  Philologie,  Part  I,  p.  136. 


346    POETRY,  LITERATURE,   AND   SCIENCE 

Belles-lettres  [A dab)  and  literary  history  are  represented  by 

a  whole  series  of  valuable  works.     Only  a  few  of  the   most 

important  can   be  mentioned  here,  and  that  in  a 

Ibnu  '1-Muqaf£a'  t-v,  t-v        .  n  ^    i  -i 

(tcjVca76oA.D,).  very    summary    manner.      1  he    rersian    Kuzbih, 

better  known  as  'Abdullah  Ibnu  '1-Muqaffa',  who 
was  put  to  death  by  order  of  the  Caliph  Mansiir,  m.ade  several 
translations  from  the  Pehlevi  or  Middle-Persian  literature  into 
Arabic.  We  possess  a  specimen  of  his  powers  in  the  famous 
^ook  of  Kali  la  and  D'lmna^  which  is  ultimately  derived  from 
the  Sanscrit  Fables  of  Bidpai.  The  Arabic  version  is  one  of 
the  oldest  prose  works  in  that  language,  and  is  justly  regarded 
as  a  model  of  elegant  style,  though  it  has    not  the  pungent 

brevity  which  marks  true  Arabian  eloquence.  Ibn 
(t'ssgA.a).^      Qutayba,  whose  family  came  from  Merv,  held  for 

a  time  the  office  of  Cadi  at  Dinawar,  and  lived  at 
Baghdad  in  the  latter  half  of  the  ninth  century.  We  have  more 
than  once  cited  his  '  Book  of  General  Knowledge  '  [Kitdhu 
H-Ma^arifY  and  his  '  Book  of  Poetry  and  Poets,'  [Kitahu 
^l-Shi'-r  wa-  l-Shu^ard)^  and  may  add  here  the  Adabu  'l-Kdtib^  or 
'Accomplishments  of  the  Secretary,' 2  a  manual  of  stylistic, 
dealing  with  orthography,  orthoepy,  lexicography,  and  the 
like  ;  and  the  ^Uyunu  U-Akhbdr^  or  '  Choice  Histories,' 3  a  work 
in  ten  chapters,  each  of  which  is  devoted  to  a  special  theme 
such  as  Government,  War,  Nobility,  Friendship,  Women,  &c. 

'Amr  b.  Bahr  al-Jdhiz  of  Basra  was  a  celebrated 
(t  8^4^A^D  )•      freethinker,  and  gave  his  name  to  a  sect  of  the 

Mu'tazilites  {al-Jdhlztyya)A  He  composed 
numerous  books  of  an  anecdotal  and  entertaining  character. 
Ibn  Khallikan  singles  out  as  his  finest  and  most  instructive 
works  the  Kitdbu   U-Hayawdn   ('  Book  of  Animals '),  and  the 


'  Professor  Browne  has  given  a  resume  of  the  contents  in  his  Lit.  Hist, 
of  Persia,  vol.  i,  p.  387  seq. 
^  Ed.  by  Max  Griinert  (Leyden,  1900). 
3  An  edition  by  C.  Brockelmann  is  in  course  of  pubHcation. 
*  The  epithet /a/»?  means  'goggle-eyed.' 


BELLES-LETTRES  347 

Kitdbu  U-Bayan  wa-l-Tabyin  ('  Book  of  Eloquence  and 
Exposition  '),  which  is  a  popular  treatise  on  rhetoric.  It  so 
happens — and  the  fact  is  not  altogether  fortuitous — that 
extremely  valuable  contributions  to  the  literary  history  of  the 
Arabs    were    made     by    two     writers    connected    with    the 

Umayyad  House.  Ibn  'Abdi  Rabbihi  of  Cordova, 
bihufglfd  A  a),  who  was  descended  from  an  enfranchised  slave  of 

the  Spanish  Umayyad  Caliph,  Hishdm  b.  'Abd 
al-Rahmdn  (788-796  a.d.),  has  left  us  a  miscellaneous 
anthology  entitled  al-'-Iqd  al-Farid^  or  '  The  Unique  Neck- 
lace,' which  is  divided  into  twenty-five  books,  each  bearing 
the  name  of  a  different  gem,   and    "contains    something   on 

every  subject."  Though  Abu  '1-Faraj  'Ali,  the 
i?fahani '      author    of   the    Kitabu    "'l-Aghant,    was    born    at 

(\  067  A  D  ^ 

Isfahan,  he  was  an  Arab  of  the  Arabs,  being  a 
member  of  the  tribe  Quraysh  and  a  lineal  descendant  of 
Marwdn,  the  last  Umayyad  Caliph.  Coming  to  Baghdad, 
he  bent  all  his  energies  to  the  study  of  Arabian  antiquity, 
and  towards  the  end  of  his  life  found  a  generous  patron  in 
al-Muhallab{,  the  Vizier  of  the  Buwayhid  sovereign,  Mu'izzu 
'1-Dawla.  His  minor  works  are  cast  in  the  shade  by  his 
great  'Book  of  Songs.'  This  may  be  described  as  a  history  of 
all  the  Arabian  poetry  that  had  been  set  to  music  down  to 
the  author's  time.  It  is  based  on  a  collection  of  one  hundred 
melodies  which  was  made  for  the  Caliph  Harun  al-Rashld, 
but  to  these  Abu  '1-Faraj  has  added  many  others  chosen  by 
himself.  After  giving  the  words  and  the  airs  attached  to 
them,  he  relates  the  lives  of  the  poets  and  musicians  by  whom 
they  were  composed,  and  takes  occasion  to  introduce  a  vast 
quantity  of  historical  traditions  and  anecdotes,  including  much 
ancient  and  modern  verse.  It  is  said  that  the  Sahib  Ibn 
*Abbad,i  when  travelling,  used  to  take  thirty  camel-loads  of 
books  about  with   him,  but  on  receiving  the  Aghdni  he  con- 

'  See  p.  267. 


348    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

tented  himself  with  this  one  book  and  dispensed  with  all  the 
rest.i  The  chief  man  of  letters  of  the  next  generation  was 
Abu  Mansur  al-Tha'alibi  (the  Furrier)  of  Nay- 
(+To3^7^A.D.).  sabur.  Notwithstanding  that  most  of  his  works 
are  unscientific  compilations,  designed  to  amuse 
the  public  rather  than  to  impart  solid  instruction,  his  famous 
anthology  of  recent  and  contemporary  poets — the  Tatlmatu 
*l-Dahr^  or  '  Solitaire  of  the  Time  ' — supplies  indubitable 
proof  of  his  fine  scholarship  and  critical  taste.  Successive 
continuations  of  the  Tatima  were  written  by  al-Bakharzi 
(t  1075  A.D.)  in  the  Dumyatu  U-Qasr^  or  'Statue  of  the 
Palace';  by  Abu  '1-Ma'AU  al-Haziri  (t  1172  a.d.)  in  the 
Zlnatu  U-Dahr^  or  '  Ornament  of  the  Time '  ;  and  by  the 
favourite  of  Saladin,  'Imadu  '1-Din  al-Katib  al-Isfahani 
(t  1201  A.D.),  in  the  Kharidatu  ^l-Qast\  or  '  Virgin  Pearl  of  the 
Palace.'  From  the  tenth  century  onward  the  study  of  philology 
proper  began  to  decline,  while  on  the  other  hand  those  sciences 
which  formerly  grouped  themselves  round  philology  now 
became  independent,  were  cultivated  with  brilliant  success, 
and  in  a  short  time  reached  their  zenith. 

The  elements  of  History  are  found  (i)  in  Pre-islamic  tra- 
ditions and  (2)  in  the  Hadlth  of  the  Prophet,  but  the  idea  or 
historical  composition  on  a  grand  scale  was  prob- 
ably suggested  to  the  Arabs  by  Persian  models 
such  as  the  Pehlevi  Khuday-nama^  or  '  Book  of  Kings,'  which 
Ibnu  '1-Muqaffa'  turned  into  Arabic  in  the  eighth  century 
of  our  era  under  the  title  of  Siyaru  Muluki  U-*-Ajam^  that  is, 
'  The  History  of  the  Kings  of  Persia.' 

Under  the  first  head  Hishdm  Ibnu  '1-KalW  (t  819  a.d.) 
and  his  father  Muhammad  deserve  particular  mention  as  pains- 
taking and  trustworthy  recorders. 

Historical   traditions  relating  to  the    Prophet  were    put  in 

'  Ibn  Khallikan,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  ii,  p.  250. 


ti< 


BIOGRAPHERS  AND   HISTORIANS       349 

writing  at  an  early  date  (see  p.  247).     The  first  biography  of 

Muhammad    [Siratu    Rasiili   Ulah\    compiled    by    Ibn    Ishaq, 

who  died    in    the  reign    of  Mansiir   (768   a.d.), 

Histories  of  the      ,  ,  i         ■  u  •    „ 

Prophet  and  his  has    come    down    to    us    only    m    the    recension 
Companions.     ^^^^  by  Ibn  Hisham  (t  834  a.d.).     This  work 
as    well    as    those    of    al-Waqidi  (t   823  a.d.)   and    Ibn  Sa'd 
(t  845  A.D.)  have  been  already  noticed. 

Other  celebrated  historians  of  the  'Abbasid  period  are  the 
following. 

Ahmad  b.  Yahya  al-Baladhuri  (t  892  a.d.),  a  Persian,  wrote 
an  account  of  the  early  Muhammadan  conquests  [Kitdbu 
Futiihi  U-Buldan\  which  has  been  edited  by 
De  Goeje,  and  an  immense  chronicle  based  on 
genealogical  principles,  '  The  Book  of  the  Lineages  of  the 
Nobles '  {K'ltdbu  Amdb'i  U-Ashrdf)^  of  which  two  volumes  are 
extant.i 

Abu  Hanifa  Ahmad  al-Dinawari  (t   895  a.d.)  was  also  or 

Iranian  descent.        His     '  Book    of  Long    Histories '    {Kitdbu 

U-Akhbdr     al-Tiwdl)      deals     largely    with      the 

Dmawan.  •  '  •  i  i_ 

national  legend  of  Persia,  and  is  written  through- 
out from  the  Persian  point  of  view. 

Ibn  Wadih  al-Ya'qiibi,  a   contemporary  of  Dinawarl,  pro- 
duced an    excellent  compendium   of  universal  history,  which 
is  specially  valuable   because    its  author,  being  a 
Yaqu  I.        follower  of  the   House  of  'All,  has  preserved  the 
ancient  and  unfalsified  Shi'ite   tradition.     His  work  has  been 
edited  in  two  volumes  by  Professor  Houtsma  (Leyden,  1883). 

The  Annals  of  Tabari,  edited  by  De  Goeje  and  other 
European  scholars  (Leyden,  1879-1898),  and  the  Golden 
Meadows 2  [Muruju  U-Dhahab)   of  Mas'udi,  which  Pavet  de 

'  One  of  these,  the  eleventh  of  the  complete  work,  has  been  edited  by 
Ahlwardt :  Anonymc  Arabischc  Clironik  (Greifsvvald,  1883).  It  covers  part 
of  the  reign  of  the  Umayyad  Caliph,  'Abdu  '1-Malik  (685-705  a.d.). 

''  The  French  title  is  Les  Prairies  d'Or.    Brockelmann,  in  his  shorter 


350    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

Courteille  and  Barbier  de  Meynard  published  with  a  French 
translation  (Paris,  1861-1877),  have  been  frequently  cited  in 
the  foregoing  pages  ;  and  since  these  two  authors  are  not  only 
the  greatest  historians  of  the  Muhammadan  East  but  also 
(excepting,  possibly,  Ibn  Khaldun)  the  most  eminent  of  all 
who  devoted  themselves  to  this  branch  of  Arabic  literature, 
we  must  endeavour  to  make  the  reader  more  closely  ac- 
quainted with  them, 

Abu  Ja'far  Muhammad  b.  Jarlr  was  born  in  838-839  a.d.  at 

Amul  in    Tabaristan,  the   mountainous  province  lying  along 

the  south  coast  of  the  Caspian  Sea  ;  whence  the 

^^Q^A^D^)"      name,  Tabari,  by  which    he    is  usually   known. ^ 

At  this  time  'Iraq  was  still  the  principal  focus  of 

Muhammadan  culture,  so  that  a  poet  could  say  : — 

"  I  see  a  man  in  whom  the  secretarial  dignity  is  manifest, 
One  who  displays  the  brilliant  culture  of  'Iraq."  ^ 

Thither  the  young  Tabari  came  to  complete  his  education. 
He  travelled  by  way  of  Rayy  to  Baghdad,  visited  other 
neighbouring  towns,  and  extended  his  tour  to  Syria  and 
Egypt.  Although  his  father  sent  him  a  yearly  allowance,  it  did 
not  always  arrive  punctually,  and  he  himself  relates  that  on  one 
occasion  he  procured  bread  by  selling  the  sleeves  of  his  shirt. 
Fortunately,  at  Baghdad  he  was  introduced  to  'UbayduUah  b. 
Yahya,  the  Vizier  of  Mutawakkil,  who  engaged  him  as  tutor  for 
his  son.  How  long  he  held  this  post  is  uncertain,  but  he  was  only 
twenty-three  years  of  age  when  his  patron  went  out  of  office. 
Fifteen  years  later  we  find  him,  penniless  once  more,  in  Cairo 

Hist,  of  Arabic  Literature  (Leipzig,  1901),  p.  no,  states  that  the  correct 
translation  of  Muriiju  'l-Dhahab  is  'Goldvvaschen.' 

'  Concerning  Tabari  and  his  work  the  reader  should  consult  De  Goeje's 
Introduction  (published  in  the  supplementary  volume  containing  the 
Glossary)  to  the  Leyden  edition,  and  his  excellent  article  on  Tabari  and 
early  Arab  Historians  in  the  Encyclopcedia  Britannica. 

=  Abu  '1-Mahasin,  ed.  by  Juynboll,  vol.  i,  p.  608. 


TABARf  351 

(876-877    A.D.).     He    soon,  however,  returned    to    Baghdad, 
where   he  passed    the   remainder  of  his  life  in    teaching   and 
writing.     Modest,  unselfish,  and  simple  in  his  habits,  he  diffused 
his    encyclopaedic    knowledge    with     an    almost  superhuman 
industry.     During  forty  years,  it  is  said,  he  wrote  forty  leaves 
every  day.      His  great  works  are   the  Tarlkhu  U-Rusul   wa- 
'l-Muluk,  or  '  Annals  of  the  Apostles  and  the  Kings,'  and  his 
Tafslr^  or  '  Commentary  on  the  Koran.'     Both,  even  in  their 
present  shape,  are    books  of  enormous  extent,  yet   it  seems 
likely   that   both   were   originally   composed    on  a   far    larger 
scale  and  were  abbreviated  by  the  author  for  general  use.     His 
pupils,  we  are  told,  flatly  refused  to  read  the  first  editions  with 
him,  whereupon  he  exclaimed  :  "  Enthusiasm  for  learning  is 
dead  !  "     The  History  of  Tabari,  from  the   Creation  to  the 
year  302  A.H.r=9i5  a.d.,  is  distinguished  by  "completeness  of 
detail,  accuracy,  and  the  truly  stupendous  learning  of  its  author 
that  is  revealed  throughout,  and  that  makes  the  Annals  a  vast 
storehouse  of  valuable  information  for  the  historian  as  well  as 
I  for  the  student  of  Islam."  ^     It  is  arranged  chronologically, 
the  events  being  tabulated  under  the  year  (of  the  Muhammadan 
era)  in  which  they  occurred.     Moreover,  it  has  a  very  peculiar 
form.     "Each    important  fact  is   related,  if   possible,    by   an 
eye-witness   or    contemporary,    whose    account    came    down 
through  a  series  of  narrators  to  the  author.     If  he  has  obtained 
more  than  one  account  of  a  fact,  with  more  or  less  important 
modifications,    through    several    series  of  narrators,   he   com- 
municates them  all  to  the   reader  in   extenso.     Thus  we  are 
enabled  to  consider  the  facts  from   more  than   one  point    of 
view,    and    to   acquire    a  vivid   and   clear  notion   of   them."  ^ 
According  to  modern   ideas,  Tabari's   compilation   is  not  so 
much  a  history  as  a   priceless  collection  of  original  documents 
placed  side  by  side  without  any  attempt  to  construct  a  critical 

•  Selection  from  the  Annals  of  Tabari,  ed.  by  M.  J.  de  Goeje  (Leyden, 
1902),  p.  xi. 
'  De  Goeje's  Introduction  to  Tabari,  p.  xxvii. 


352    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

and  continuous  narrative.  At  first  sight  one  can  hardly  see  the 
wood  for  the  trees,  but  on  closer  study  the  essential  features 
gradually  emerge  and  stand  out  in  bold  relief  from  amidst  the 
multitude  of  insignificant  circumstances  which  lend  freshness 
and  life  to  the  whole.  Tabari  suffered  the  common  fate  of 
standard  historians.  His  work  was  abridged  and  popularised, 
the  isndds  or  chains  of  authorities  were  suppressed,  and  the 
various  parallel  accounts  were  combined  by  subsequent  writers 
into  a  single  version. ^  Of  the  Annals,  as  it  left  the  author's 
hands,  no  entire  copy  exists  anywhere,  but  many  odd  volumes 
are  preserved  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  The  Leyden 
edition  is  based  on  these  scattered  MSS.,  which  luckily  com- 
prise the  whole  work  with  the  exception  of  a  few  not  very 
serious  lacunae. 

*A1{  b.  Husayn,  a  native  of  Baghdad,  was  called   Mas'udf 

after  one  of  the  Prophet's  Companions,  'Abdullah  b.  Mas'iid, 

to  whom  he  traced  his    descent.     Although  we 

tg56A.D.).  possess  only  a  small  remnant  of  his  voluminous 
writings,  no  better  prooi  can  be  desired  of  the 
vast  and  various  erudition  which  he  gathered  not  from  books 
alone,  but  likewise  from  long  travel  in  almost  every  part  of 
Asia.  Among  other  places,  he  visited  Armenia,  India,  Ceylon, 
Zanzibar,  and  Madagascar,  and  he  appears  to  have  sailed  in 
Chinese  waters  as  well  as  in  the  Caspian  Sea.  "  My  journey," 
he  says,  "  resembles  that  of  the  sun,  and  to  me  the  poet's  verse 
is  applicable  : — 

"'We  turn  our  steps  toward  each  different  clime, 
Now  to  the  Farthest  East,  then  West  once  more  ; 
Even  as  the  sun,  which  stays  not  his  advance 
O'er  tracts  remote  that  no  man  durst  explore.'  "  ^ 


'  Al-Bal'ami,  the  Vizier  of  Mansiir  I,  the  Samanid,  made  in  963  a.d.  a 
Persian  epitome  of  which  a  French  translation  by  Dubeux  and  Zotenberg 
was  published  in  1867-1874. 

'  Murujii  'l-Dliahab,  ed.  by  Barbier  de  Meynard,  vol.  i,  p.  5  seq. 


MAS'tlDJt  353 

He  spent  the  latter  years  of  his  life  chiefly  in  Syria  and  Egypt 
— for  he  had  no  settled  abode — compiling  the  great  historical 
works,!  of  which  the  Muruju  U-Dhahab  is  an  epitome.  As 
regards  the  motives  which  urged  him  to  write,  Mas'udi 
declares  that  he  wished  to  follow  the  example  of  scholars  and 
sages  and  to  leave  behind  him  a  praiseworthy  memorial  and 
imperishable  monument.  He  claims  to  have  taken  a  wider 
view  than  his  predecessors.  "  One  who  has  never  quitted  his 
hearth  and  home,  but  is  content  with  the  knowledge  which 
he  can  acquire  concerning  the  history  of  his  own  part  of  the 
world,  is  not  on  the  same  level  as  one  who  spends  his  life  in 
travel  and  passes  his  days  in  restless  wanderings,  and  draws 
forth  all  manner  of  curious  and  precious  information  from  its 
hidden  mine."  2 

Mas'udi  has  been  named  the  *  the  Herodotus  of  the  Arabs,' 
and  the  comparison   is  not  unjust.3     His   work,  although   it 

lacks  the  artistic  unity  which  distinguishes  that 
'^^^Dhahat''     ^^  ^^^  Greek    historian,  shows   the   same    eager 

spirit  of  enquiry,  the  same  open-mindedness  and 
disposition  to  record  without  prejudice  all  the  marvellous  things 
that  he  had  heard  or  seen,  the  same  ripe  experience  and  large 
outlook  on  the  present  as  on  the  past.  It  is  professedly  a 
universal  history  beginning  with  the  Creation  and  ending  at 
the  Caliphate  of  Mud',  in  947  a.d.,  but  no  description  can 
cover  the  immense  range  of  topics  which  are  discussed  and 
the  innumerable  digressions  with  which  the  author  delights 
or  irritates  his  readers,  as  the  case  may  be.4     Thus,  to  pick 

'  The  Akhbdru  'l-Zamdn  in  thirty  volumes  (one  volume  is  extant  at 
Vienna)  and  the  Kitdb  al-Awsat.  *  Muruju  'l-Dhahab,  p.  gseq. 

3  It  may  be  noted  as  a  coincidence  that  Ibn  Khaldun  calls  Mas'udi 
imdm"''  lil-mu' arrikhin,  "an,  Imam  for  all  the  historians,"  which 
resembles,  though  it  does  not  exactly  correspond  to,  "  the  Father  of 
History." 

*  Mas'udi  gives  a  summary  of  the  contents  of  his  historical  and  religious 
works  in  the  Preface  to  the  Tanbih  wa-'l-Ishrdf,  ed.  by  De  Goeje,  p.  2  sqq. 
A  translation  of  this  passage  by  De  Sacy  will  be  found  in  Barbier  de 
Meynard's  edition  of  the  Mutiiju  H-Dhahab,  vol.  ix,  p.  302  sqq. 

24 


3S4    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND  SCIENCE 

a  few  examples  at  random,  we  find  a  dissertation  on  tides 
(vol.  i,  p.  244)  ;  an  account  of  the  t'lnnin  or  sea-serpent  [ihid.y 
p.  267)  ;  of  pearl-fishing  in  the  Persian  Gulf  {ihid.^  p.  328) ; 
and  of  the  rhinoceros  {ibid.^  p.   385).     Mas'udi  was  a  keen 
student  and   critic  of  religious  beliefs,  on   which  subject  he 
wrote  several  books.^     The  Muruju  U-Dhahab  supplies  many 
valuable   details   regarding  the  Muhammadan  sects,  and  also 
regarding  the  Zoroastrians  and  Sabians.    There  is  a  particularly 
interesting  report  of  a  meeting  which    took  place  between 
Ahmad    b.  Tuliin,  the   governor  of  Egypt  (868-877    a.d.), 
and  an  aged  Copt,  who,  after  giving  his  views  as  to  the  source 
of  the  Nile  and  the  construction  of  the  Pyramids,  defended  his 
faith  (Christianity)  on  the  ground  of  its  manifest  errors  and  con- 
tradictions, arguing  that  its  acceptance,  in  spite  of  these,  by 
so  many  peoples  and  kings  was  decisive  evidence  of  its  truth.2 
Mas'udi's   account  of  the  Caliphs  is  chiefly  remarkable    for 
the  characteristic    anecdotes   in  which    it   abounds.     Instead 
of  putting  together  a  methodical  narrative  he  has  thrown  oft 
a   brilliant  but  unequal  sketch  of  public  affairs  and   private 
manners,  of  social  life  and  literary  history.  Only  considerations 
of  space  have  prevented  me  from  enriching  this  volume  with 
not  a  few  pages  which  are  as  lively  and  picturesque  as  any  in 
Suetonius.     His  last  work,  the  Kitabu  U-Tanblh  wo-l-hhraf 
('  Book  of  Admonition  and  Recension' ),3  was  intended  to  take 
a    general    survey  of  the   field  which    had    been    more    fully 
traversed  in  his  previous  compositions,  and  also  to  supplement 
them  when  it  seemed  necessary. 

We  must  pass  over  the  minor  historians  and  biographers 
of  this   period — for   example,  'Utbi    (t    1036    a.d.),  whose 

•  See  Muruju  vol.  i,  p.  201,  and  vol.  iii,  p.  268. 

=  Ihid.^  vol.  ii,  p.  372  sqq. 

3  De  Sacy  renders  the  title  by  '  Le  Livre  de  1' Indication  et  de  1' Ad- 
monition ou  rindicateur  et  le  Moniteur '  ;  but  see  De  Goeje's  edition  of 
the  text  (Leyden,  1894),  p.  xxvii. 


OTHER   HISTORICAL    WRITERS  355 

Kitdb  aI-Tam{n{  celebrates  the  glorious  reign  of  Sultan 
Mahmud    of  Ghazna ;    Khatib    of  Baghdad    (t    1071    a.d.), 

who  composed  a  history  of  the  eminent  men  of 
hSans.      that    city;    'Imadu    '1-Din    of   Isfahan    (t    120 1 

A.D.),  the  biographer  of  Saladin ;  Ibnu  '1-Qifti 
(t  1248  A.D.),  born  at  Qi^ft  (Coptos)  in  Upper  Egypt,  whose 
lives  of  the  philosophers  and  scientists  have  only  come  down 
to  us  in  a  compendium  entitled  Ta''rikhu  U-Hukamd  ;  Ibnu 
'I-Jawzi  (t  1200  A.D.),  a  prolific  writer  in  almost  every  branch 
of  literature,  and  his  grandson,  Yusuf(t  1257  a.d.) — generally 
called  Sibt  Ibn  al-Jawzi — author  of  the  Mirdtu  U-Zamdn,  or 
*  Mirror  of  the  Time';  Ibn  Abi  Usaybia  (t  1270  a.d.), 
whose  history  of  physicians,  the  '■Uyunu  U-Anbd^  has  been 
edited  by  A.  Miiller  (1884) ;  and  the  Christian,  Jirjis  (George) 
al-Makin  (t  1273  a.d.),  compiler  of  a  universal  chronicle — 
named  the  Majmu''  al-Mubdrak — of  which  the  second  part, 
from  Muhammad  to  the  end  of  the  'Abbdsid  dynasty,  was 
rendered  into  Latin  by  Erpenius  in  1625, 

A  special  notice,  brief  though  it  must  be,  is  due  to  'Izzu 

'1-Dln  Ibnu  '1-Athir  (ti234  a.d.).     He  was  brought  up  at 

Mosul    in    Mesopotamia,  and  after    finishing    his 

(HzjiAD)"^     studies    in    Baghdad,    Jerusalem,    and    Syria,    he 

returned    home  and   devoted    himself  to  reading 

and    literary    composition.     Ibn    Khallikan,    who    knew    him 

personally,  speaks  of  him  in  the  highest  terms  both  as  a  man 

and   as  a  scholar.     "  His  great  work,   the  Kdmil^^  embracing 

the  history  of  the  world  from  the  earliest  period  to  the  year 

628  of  the  Hijra  (1230-1231  a.d.),  merits  its  reputation  as 

one  of  the   best   productions  of  the  kind."  2     Down  to  the 

year   302  a.h.   the  author  has   merely   abridged   the  Annals 

of  Tabarl  with  occasional  additions  from  other   sources.     In 

•  The  full  title  is  Kitdbu  'l-Kdmil  fi  'l-Ta'rikh,  or  '  The  Perfect  Book 
of  Chronicles.'  It  has  been  edited  by  Tornberg  in  fourteen  volumes 
(Leyden,  1851-1876). 

'  Ibn  Khallikan,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  ii,  p.  289. 


356    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

the  first  volume  he  gives  a  long  account  of  the  Pre-islamic 
battles  [Ayydmu  U-^Jrab)  which  is  not  found  in  the  present 
text  of  Tabarl  ;  but  De  Goeje,  as  I  learn  from  Professor 
Bevan,  thinks  that  this  section  was  included  in  Tabari's 
original  draft  and  was  subsequently  struck  out.  Ibnu  '1-Athir 
was  deeply  versed  in  the  science  of  Tradition,  and  his  Usdu 
*l-Ghdba  ('Lions  of  the  Jungle')  contains  biographies  of  7,500 
Companions  of  the  Prophet. 

An  immense  quantity  of  information  concerning  the  various 
countries  and  peoples  of  the  'Abbasid  Empire  has  been  pre- 
served   for  us  by  the  Moslem  geographers,  who 

Geographers.      .  j  m  i  i  n  • 

m  many  cases  describe  what  they  actually  wit- 
nessed and  experienced  in  the  course  of  their  travels, 
although  they  often  help  themselves  liberally  and  without 
acknowledgment  from  the  works  of  their  predecessors. 
The  following  list,  which  does  not  pretend  to  be  exhaustive, 
may  find  a  place  here.i 

1.  The  Persian  Ibn  Khurdadbih  (first  half  of  ninth  century) 
was     postmaster    in    the    province    of  Jibal,    the    Media   of 

the  ancients.    His  Kitabu  U-Masdlik  wa-l-Mamdlik 
('Book  of  the  Roads  and  Countries'),  an  official 

guide-book,  is    the  oldest    geographical  work    in  Arabic  that 

has  come  down  to  us. 

2.  Abu  Ishdq  al-Farisi,  a  native  of  Persepolis  (Istakhr) — 
on  this  account  he  is  known  as  Istakhri — wrote  a  book  called 

Masdliku  H-Mamdlik  ('Routes  of  the  Provinces'), 

i6n'sawq"^.     which   was  aftcrwards    revised    and    enlarged    by 

Ibn   Hawqal.     Both  works  belong  to  the  second 

half  of  the  tenth  century  and  contain  "  a  careful  description 

*  An  excellent  account  of  the  Arab  geographers  is  given  by  Guy  Le 
Strange  in  the  Introduction  to  his  Palestine  under  the  Moslems  (London, 
1890).  De  Goeje  has  edited  the  works  of  Ibn  Khurdadbih,  Istakhri,  Ibn 
Hawqal,  and  Muqaddasi  in  the  Bihliotheca  Geographorum  Arabicorum 
(Leyden,  1870,  &c.) 


THE  MOSLEM   GEOGRAPHERS  357 

of  each  province  in  turn  of  the  Muslim   Empire,  with  the 
chief  cities  and  notable  places." 

3.  Al-Muqaddasi  (or  al-Maqdisi),  i.e.^  *  the  native  of  the 

Holy  City ',    was  born   at    Jerusalem    in    946    a.d.     In    his 

delightful     book    entitled     Ahsanu   U-Taqdslm   fi 
Muqaddasf.      ^^^c^y^^^-  '/.^^j//^  he  has  gathered  up  the  fruits 

of  twenty    years'  travelling    through    the   dominions    of   the 
Caliphate. 

4.  Omitting   the   Spanish  Arabs,    BakrI,    Idrlsf,   and   Ibn 
Jubayr,   all    of    whom    flourished    in    the    eleventh    century, 

we  come  to  the  greatest  of  Moslem  geographers, 
^^'^^^'  Yaqiitb. 'Abdallah  ( 1 179-1229  A.D.).  A  Greek 
by  birth,  he  was  enslaved  in  his  childhood  and  sold  to 
a  merchant  of  Baghdad.  His  master  gave  him  a  good 
education  and  frequently  sent  him  on  trading  expeditions 
to  the  Persian  Gulf  and  elsewhere.  After  being  enfranchised 
in  consequence  of  a  quarrel  with  his  benefactor,  he  supported 
himself  by  copying  and  selling  manuscripts.  In  1219-1220  a.d. 
he  encountered  the  Tartars,  who  had  invaded  Khwarizm,  and 
"fled  as  naked  as  when  he  shall  be  raised  from  the  dust  of 
the  grave  on  the  day  of  the  resurrection."  Further  details  of 
his  adventurous  life  are  recorded  in  the  interesting  notice 
by  Ibn  Khallikan.i  His  great  Geographical  Dictionary 
{Mu'-jamu  U-Bulddn)  has  been  edited  in  six  volumes  by 
Wiistenfeld  (Leipzig,  1866),  and  is  described  by  Mr.  Le 
Strange  as  "a  storehouse  of  geographical  information,  the 
value  of  which  it  would  be  impossible  to  over-estimate,"  We 
possess  a  useful  epitome  of  it,  made  about  a  century  later,  viz., 
the  Mardsidu  U-Ittild^.  Among  the  few  other  extant  works 
of  Yaqiit,  attention  may  be  called  to  the  Mushtarik — a  lexicon 
of  places  bearing  the  same  name — and  the  Mu^jamu  'l-UdabA, 
or  '  Dictionary  of  Litterateurs,'  of  which  the  first  volume  is  now 
being  edited  by  Professor  Margoliouth  for  the  Trustees 
of  the  Gibb  Memorial  Fund. 

'  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  iv,  p.  9  sqq. 


358     POETRY,   LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

As  regards  the  philosophical  and  exact  sciences  the  Moslems 
naturally  derived  their  ideas  and  material  from  Greek  culture, 

which  had  established  itself  in  Egypt,  Syria,  and 
^^til^^Jc^"     Western    Asia    since    the    time    of    Alexander's 

conquests.  When  the  Syrian  school  of  Edessa 
was  broken  up  by  ecclesiastical  dissensions  towards  the  end 
of  the  fifth  century  of  our  era,  the  expelled  savants  took  refuge 
in  Persia  at  the  Sasanian  court,  and  Khusraw  Anilshirwan,  or 
Nushlrwan  (531-578  a.d.) — the  same  monarch  who  welcomed 
the  Neo-platonist  philosophers  banished  from  Athens  by  Jus- 
tinian— founded  an  Academy  at  Junde-shapur  in  Khuzistdn, 
where  Greek  medicine  and  philosophy  continued  to  be  taught 
down  to  'Abbasid  days.  Another  centre  of  Hellenism  was  the 
city  of  Harran  in  Mesopotamia.  Its  inhabitants,  Syrian  heathens 
who  generally  appear  in  Muhammadan  history  under  the  name 
of  *Sabians,'  spoke  Arabic  with  facility  and  contributed  in 
no  small  degree  to  the  diffusion  of  Greek  wisdom.  The  work 
of  translation  was  done   almost   entirely  by  Syrians.     In  the 

monasteries     of     Syria    and     Mesopotamia     the 

Translations  ..  r*-i/^i  ni  ii 

from  the       wHtmgs  of  Anstotle,  Galen,  rtoiemy,  and  other 

Greek.  .  . 

ancient  masters  were  rendered  with  slavish  fidelity. 


and  these  Syriac  versions  were  afterwards  retranslated 
into  Arabic.  A  beginning  was  made  under  the  Umayyads, 
who  cared  little  for  Islam  but  were  by  no  means  in- 
different to  the  claims  of  literature,  art,  and  science.  An 
Umayyad  prince,  Khalid  b.  Yazid,  procured  the  translation 
of  Greek  and  Coptic  works  on  alchemy,  and  himself  wrote 
three  treatises  on  that  subject.  The  accession  of  the  'Abbdsids 
gave  a  great  impulse  to  such  studies,  which  found  an  en- 
lightened patron  in  the  Caliph  Mansur.  Works  on  logic  and 
medicine  were  translated  from  the  Pehlevi  by  Ibnu  '1-MuqafFa' 
(t  about  760  A.D.)  and  others.  It  is,  however,  the  splendid 
reign  of  Ma'mun  (813-833  a.d.)  that  marks  the  full  vigour 
of  this  Oriental  Renaissance.  Ma'mun  was  no  ordinary  man. 
Like  a  true  Persian,  he  threw  himself  heart  and  soul  into 


TRANSLATIONS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  WORKS    359 

theological  speculations  and  used  the  authority  of  the  Caliphate 
to  enforce  a  liberal  standard  of  orthodoxy.     His  interest  in 
science  was  no  less  ardent.     According  to  a  story  told  in  the 
Fihristy^    he    dreamed    that    he    saw   the   venerable   figure  of 
Aristotle  seated  on  a  throne,  and  in  consequence 
enTOu"ee"ment    ^^  ^^'^  vision  he  Sent  a  deputation  to  the  Roman 
°l^v^n^      Emperor  (Leo  the  Armenian)  to  obtain  scientific 
books  for  translation  into  Arabic.     The  Caliph's 
example  was  followed  by  private  individuals.     Three  brothers, 
Muhammad,  Ahmad,  and  Hasan,  known   collectively  as  the 
Band  Miisa,  "  drew  translators  from  distant  countries  by  the 
offer  of  ample   rewards  2  and  thus  made  evident  the  marvels 
of  science.     Geometry,  engineering,  the   movements  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,   music,    and    astronomy    were    the    principal 
subjects  to  which  they  turned  their  attention  ;  but  these  were 
only  a  small  number  of  their  acquirements."3     Ma'mun  in- 
stalled them,  with  Yahyd  b.  Abi  Mansur  and  other  scientists, 
in  the  House  of  Wisdom  {Baytu  U-Hikma)  at  Baghdad,  an 
institution   which    comprised    a    well-stocked    library  and   an 
astronomical   observatory.     Among  the  celebrated  translators 
of  the  ninth  century,  who  were  themselves  conspicuous  workers 
in  the  new  field,  we  can  only  mention  the  Christians  QustA  b. 
Luqa  and  Hunayn  b.  Ishaq,  and  the  Sabian  Thabit  b.  Qurra. 
It  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  this  volume  to  consider 
in  detail   the  achievements  of  the  Moslems  in   science  and 
philosophy.     That  in  some  departments  they  made  valuable 
additions   to  existing   knowledge  must   certainly  be   granted, 
but  these  discoveries  count  for  little  in  comparison  with  the 
debt  which  we   owe  to  the  Arabs  as  pioneers  of  learning  and 
bringers  of  light  to  mediaeval  Europe.4     Meanwhile  it  is  only 

'  P.  243. 

=  The  translators  employed  by  the  Banu  Musa  were  paid  at  the  rate 
of  about  500  dinars  a  month  [ibid.,  p.  43,  1.  18  sqq.). 

3  Ibid.,  p.  271  ;  Ibn  Khallikan,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  iii,  p.  315. 

*  A  chapter  at  least  would  be  required  in  order  to  set  forth  adequately 
the  chief  material  and  intellectual  benefits  which  European  civilisation 


36o    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

possible  to  enumerate  a  few  of  the  most  eminent  philosophers 
and  scientific  men  who  lived  during  the  'Abbdsid  age.  The 
reader  will  observe  that  with  rare  exceptions  they  were  of 
foreign  origin. 

The  leading  spirits  in  philosophy  were  : — 

1.  Ya*qub  b.  Ishaq  al-Kindi,  a  descendant  of  the  princely 
family  of  Kinda  (see  p.  42).     He  was  distinguished  by  his 

contemporaries  with  the  title  Faylasufu  H-^Arab^ 
c  'pj^g  Philosopher  of  the  Arabs.'     He  flourished 
in  the  first  half  of  the  ninth  century. 

2.  Abu  Nasr   al-Fdrdbf  (t  950  a.d.),  of  Turkish  race,  a 
native  of  FArdb   in  Transoxania.     The  later  years  of  his  life 

were   passed    at  Aleppo   under   the  patronage  of 
Sayfu  '1-Dawla.     He  devoted  himself  to  the  study 

of  Aristotle,  whom  Moslems  agree  with  Dante  in  regarding 

as  "il  maestro  di  color  che  sanno." 

3.  Abii  'All  Ibn  SlnA  (Avicenna),  born  of  Persian  parents 
at   Kharmaythan,  near   Bukhara,   in   the  year  980  a.d.     As 

a  youth  he  displayed  extraordinary  talents,  so 
that  "in  the  sixteenth  year  of  his  age  physicians 
of  the  highest  eminence  came  to  read  medicine  with  him 
and  to  learn  those  modes  of  treatment  which  he  had 
discovered  by  his  practice."  ^  He  was  no  quiet  student, 
like  Fardbl,  but  a  pleasure-loving,  adventurous  man  of  the 
world  who  travelled  from  court  to  court,  now  in  favour,  now 
in  disgrace,  and  always  writing  indefatigably.  His  system 
of  philosophy,  in  which  Aristotelian  and  Neo-platonic  theories 
are   combined   with    Persian    mysticism,   was   well  suited    to 

has  derived  from  the  Arabs.  The  reader  may  consult  Von  Kremer's 
Culturgeschichte  dcs  Orients,  vol.  ii,  chapters  7  and  9 ;  Diercks,  Die 
Araber  im  Mittelalter  (Leipzig,  1882) ;  Sedillot,  Histoire  generate  des 
Arabes;  Schack,  Pocsie  und  Kunst  der  Araber  in  Spanien  und  Sicilien ; 
Munk,  Melanges  de  Philosophie  Juive  et  Arabe ;  and  Krehl's  article, 
'Arabische  Sprache  und  Literatur'  in  Brockhaus'  Conv.-Lexicon. 
'  Ibn  Khallikan,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  i,  p.  440. 


PHILOSOPHERS  AND   SCIENTISTS      361 

the  popular  taste,  and  in  the  East  it  still  reigns  supreme.  His 
chief  works  are  the  ^hifa  (Remedy)  on  physics,  meta- 
physics, &c,,  and  a  great  medical  encyclopaedia  entitled  the 
^nun  (Canon).     Avicenna  died  in   1037  a.d. 

4.  The  Spanish  philosophers,  Ibn  Bajja  (Avempace),  Ibn 
Tufayl,  and  Ibn  Rushd  (Averroes),  all  of  whom  flourished  in 
the  twelfth  century  after  Christ. 

The  most  illustrious  name  beside  Avicenna  in  the  history 
of  Arabian  medicine  is  Abii  Bakr  al-Raz{  (Rhazes),  a  native  of 

Rayy,  near  Teheran  (t  923  or  932  a.d.).  Jabir 
Astronomy,        b.  Hayyan  of  Tarsus  (t  about  780  a.d.) — the 

Geber  of  European  writers — won  equal  renown 
as  an  alchemist.  Astronomy  went  hand  in  hand  with  astrology. 
The  reader  may  recognise  al-Farghdni,  Abu  Ma'shar  of  Balkh 
(t  885  A.D.)  and  al-Battanl,  a  Sabian  of  Harran  (t  929  A.D.), 
under  the  names  of  Alfraganus,  Albumaser,  and  Albategnius, 
by  which  they  became  known  in  the  West.  Abu  'Abdaliah 
al-Khwarizmi,  who  lived  in  the  Caliphate  of  Ma'mun,  was 
the  first  of  a  long  line  of  mathematicians.  In  this  science,  as 
also  in  Medicine  and  Astronomy,  we  see  the  influence  of 
India  upon  Muhammadan  civilisation — an  influence,  however, 
which,  in  so  far  as  it  depended  on  literary  sources,  was  more 
restricted  and  infinitely  less  vital  than  that  of  Greece.  Only 
a  passing  reference  can  be  made  to  Abil  Rayhan  al-Blruni,  a 
native    of    Khwarizm    (Khiva),    whose    knowledge    of    the 

sciences,  antiquities,  and  customs  of  India  was 
Biruni973-      such  as  no  Moslcm  had  ever  equalled.     His  two 

1048  A.D.)  .  ^ 

principal  works,  the  Athdr  al-Bdqiya^  or  *  Sur- 
viving Monuments,'  and  the  Ta'rikhu  U-Hind^  or  'History  of 
India,'  have  been  edited  and  translated  into  English  by  Dr. 
Sachau.^ 

Some  conception  of  the  amazing  intellectual  activity  of  the 

'  The  Chronology   of  Ancient  Nations   (London,    1879)  and  Alberuni's 
India  (London,  1888). 


362    POETRY,   LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

Moslems  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  'Abbasid  period,  and 
also  of  the  enormous  losses  which  Arabic  literature  has  suf- 
fered through  the  destruction  of  thousands  of  books  that  are 
known  to  us  by  nothing  beyond  their  titles  and  the  names  of 
their  authors,  may  be   gained  from  the  Fihrist^ 
or  *  Index'  of  Muhammad  b.  IsWq  b.  Abi  Ya'qub 
al-Nadim  al-Warraq   al-Baghdadi  (t   995    A.D.).     Regarding 
the  compiler  we  have  no  further  information  than  is  conveyed 
in    the   last    two    epithets   attached    to    his    name :    he    was 
a  copyist  of  MSS.,  and  was  connected  with   Baghdad   either 
by  birth  or  residence  ;  add  that,  according  to  his  own  state- 
ment (p.  349,   1.    14  sqq.),  he  was  at  Constantinople  {Ddru 
U-Rum)  in  988  A.D.,  the  same  year  in  which  his  work  was 
composed.     He  may  possibly  have  been  related  to  the  famous 
musician,  Ishaq  b.  Ibrahim  al-Nadim  of  Mosul  (t  849-850  a.d.),  , 
but  this  has  yet  to  be  proved.     At  any  rate  we  owe  to  his 
industry  a  unique  conspectus  of  the  literary  history  of  the 
Arabs  to  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  after  the  Flight.     The 
Fihrist  (as  the  author  explains    in    his  brief  Preface)  is  "am 
Index  of  the  books  of  all  nations,  Arabs  and  foreigners  alike, , 
which  are  extant  in  the  Arabic  language  and  script,  on  every 
branch   of  knowledge  ;    comprising    information    as    to   their 
compilers  and  the  classes  of  their  authors,  together  with  the  , 
genealogies  of  those  persons,  the  dates  of  their  birth,  the  length  [ 
of  their  lives,  the  times  of  their  death,  the  places  to  which  i 
they  belonged,  their  merits  and  their  faults,  since  the  begin-  j 
ning  or  every  science  that  has    been  invented  down  to  the  ! 
present  epoch  :  namely,  the  year  377  of  the  Hijra."     As  the  , 
contents  of  the  Fihrist  (which  considerably  exceed  the  above  | 
description)    have    been    analysed    in    detail    by     G.     Fliigel 
{Z.D.M.G.,  vol.    13,   p.  559  sqq.)    and  set  forth  in   tabular  I 
form  by  Professor  Browne  in  the  first  volume  of  his  Literary  ' 
History  of  Persia^^  1  need  only  indicate  the  general  arrange-  | 
ment    and    scope    of    the     work.      It    is    divided    into    ten 

'    P.  384  sqq.  , 


THE  FIHRIST  363 

I  discourses  {maqdlat)^  which  are  subdivided  into  a  varying 
number  of  sections  {funun).  Ibnu  '1-Nadim  discusses,  in 
the    first  place,  the  languages,  scripts,   and    sacred    books   of 

i  the  Arabs  and  other  peoples,  the  revelation  of  the  Koran,  the 
order  of  its  chapters,  its  collectors,  redactors,  and  commen- 
tators. Passing  next  to  the  sciences  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
arose  from  study  of  the  Koran  and  primarily  served  as  hand- 
maids  to   theology,  he    relates    the  origin  of  Grammar,   and 

'  gives  an  account  of  the  different  schools  of  grammarians  with 
the  treatises  which  they  wrote.  The  third  discourse  embraces 
History,  Belles-Lettres,  Biography,  and  Genealogy  ;  the  fourth 
treats  of  Poetry,  ancient  and  modern.  Scholasticism  {Kaldm) 
forms  the  subject  of  the  following  chapter,  which  contains 
a  valuable  notice  of  the  Isma'flis  and  their  founder,  *AbdulUh 
b.  Maymun,  as  also  of  the  celebrated  pantheist,  Husayn  b. 
Mansur  al-Halldj.  From  these  and  many  other  names  redo- 
lent of  heresy  the  author  returns  to  the  orthodox  schools  of 
Law— the  Malikites,  Hanafites,  Shafi'ites  and  Zahirites  ;  then 
to  the  jurisconsults  of  the  Shi'a,  &c.  The  seventh  discourse 
deals  with  Philosophy  and  '  the  Ancient  Sciences,'  under  which 
head  we  find  some  curious  speculations  concerning  their 
origin  and  introduction  to  the  lands  of  Islam  ;  a  list  of  trans- 

'  lators  and  the  books  which  they  rendered  into  Arabic  ;  an 
account  of  the  Greek  philosophers  from  Thales  to  Plutarch, 
with  the  names  of  their  works  that  were  known  to  the  Mos- 
lems ;  and  finally  a  literary  survey  of  the  remaining  sciences, 
such  as  Mathematics,  Music,  Astronomy,  and  Medicine. 
Here,  by  an  abrupt  transition,  we  enter  the  enchanted  domain 
of  Oriental  fable — the  Ha%dr  Afsan^  or  Thousand  Tales, 
KaHla  and  Dimna,  the  Book  of  Sindbad,  and  the  legends  of 
Rustam  and  Isfandiydr  ;  works  on  sorcery,  magic,  conjuring, 
amulets,  talismans,  and  the  like.  European  savants  have  long 
recognised  the  importance  of  the  ninth  discourse,^   which  is 

'  The  passages  concerning  the  Sabians  were  edited  and  translated,  with 
copious  annotations,  by  Chwolsohn  in  his  Ssabier  und  Ssabismus  (St. 


364    POETRY,  LITERATURE,  AND   SCIENCE 

devoted  to  the  doctrines  and  writings  of  the  Sabians  and  the 
Dualistic  sects  founded  by  Manes,  Bardesanes,  Marcion,  Maz- 
dak,  and  other  heresiarchs.  The  author  concludes  his  work 
with  a  chapter  on  the  Alchemists  [al-Kimiyaun). 

Petersburg,  1856),  vol.  ii,  p.  1-365,  while  Fliigel  made  similar  use  of  the 
Manichaean  portion  in  Maui,  seine  Lehre  und  seine  Schriften  (Leipzig, 
1862). 


1 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ORTHODOXY,    FREE-THOUGHT,    AND    MYSTICISM 

We  have  already  given  some  account  of  the  great  political 
revolution  which  took  place  under  the  'Abbasid  dynasty,  and 

w^e  have  now  to  consider  the  no  less  vital  influence 
'^and^iS!''     of  the  new  era  in  the  field  of  religion.     It  will  be 

remembered  that  the  House  of  'Abbds  came 
forward  as  champions  of  Islam  and  of  the  oppressed  and 
persecuted  Faithful.  Their  victory  was  a  triumph  for  the 
Muhammadan  over  the  National  idea.  "They  wished,  as 
they  said,  to  revive  the  dead  Tradition  of  the  Prophet.  They 
brought  the  experts  in  Sacred  Law  from  Medina,  which  had 
hitherto  been  their  home,  to  Baghdad,  and  always  invited 
their  approbation  by  taking  care  that  even  political  questions 
should  be  treated  in  legal  form  and  decided  in  accordance  with 
the  Koran  and  the  Sunna.  In  reality,  however,  they  used  Islam 
only  to  serve  their  own  interest.  They  tamed  the  divines  at 
their  court  and  induced  them  to  sanction  the  most  objection- 
able measures.  They  made  the  pious  Opposition  harmless  by 
leading  it  to  victory.  With  the  downfall  of  the  Umayyads  it 
had  gained  its  end  and  could  now  rest  in  peace."  ^  There 
is  much  truth  in  this  view  of  the  matter,  but  notwithstanding 
the  easy  character  of  their  religion,  the  'Abbdsid  Caliphs  were 
sincerely  devoted  to  the  cause  of  Islam  and  zealous  to  maintain 
its  principles  in  public  life.     They  regarded  themselves  as  the 

'  Wellhausen,  Das  Arabische  Reich,  p.  350  seq. 
365 


366     ORTHODOXY  AND  FREE-THOUGHT 

supreme  pontiflFs  of  the  Moslem  Church  ;  added  the  Prophet's 
mantle  [al-burda)  to  those  emblems  of  Umayyad  royalty,  the 
sceptre  and  the  seal  ;  delighted  in  the  pompous  titles  which 
their  flatterers  conferred  on  them,  e.g.^   '  Vicegerent  of  God,' 
*  Sultan  of  God  upon    the    Earth,'  '  Shadow  of   God,'   &c. ; 
and  left  no  stone    unturned    to    invest  themselves  with  the 
attributes  of  theocracy,  and    to    inspire    their   subjects  with 
veneration.i     Whereas    the    Umayyad    monarchs   ignored   or 
crushed    Muhammadan    sentiment,    and    seldom    made   any 
attempt  to  conciliate  the  leading  representatives 
\heorogian°s^     of  Iskm,  the  'Abbdsids,  on  the  other  hand,  not 
only  gathered  round    their    throne  all  the  most 
celebrated  theologians  of  the  day,  but  also  showed  them  every 
possible    honour,    listened    respectfully    to    their   counsel,  and 
allowed  them  to  exert  a  commanding  influence  on  the  admin- 
istration of  the  State.2     When  Malik  b.  Anas  was  summoned 
by  the   Caliph    Hdnin    al-Rashid,   who   wished    to  hear  him 
recite  traditions,  Malik  replied,  "  People  come  to  seek  know- 
ledge."    So  Hdrun  went  to  Mdlik's  house,  and  leaned  against 
the  wall  beside  him.     Mdlik  said,  "  O  Prince  of  the  Faithful, 
whoever  honours  God,  honours   knowledge."    Al-Rashid  arose 
and  seated  himself  at  Malik's  feet  and  spoke  to  him  and  heard 
him   relate   a   number  of  traditions    handed   down  from   the 
Apostle  of  God.     Then  he  sent  for  Sufyan  b.  'Uyayna,  and 
Sufyan    came    to   him    and    sat    in    his    presence  and  recited 
traditions  to  him.     Afterwards  al-Rashid  said,  "O  Malik,  we 
humbled  ourselves  before  thy  knowledge,  and  profited  thereby, 
but  Sufydn's  knowledge  humbled  itself  to  us,  and  we  got  no 
good  from  it." 3     Many  instances  might  be  given  of  the  high 
favour  which  theologians   enjoyed    at   this  time,  and  of  the 
lively  interest  with  which  religious  topics  were  debated  by  the 

»  See  Goldziher,  Mtihamm.  Studten,  Part  II,  p.  53  sqq. 
'  Ibid.,  p.  70  seq. 

3  Fragmenta  Historicorum  Arabicortim,  ed.  by  De  Goeje  and  De  Jong, 
p.  298. 


1 


ill 


I 


I 


! 


THE  DIVINES  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT    367 

Caliph  and  his  courtiers.  As  the  Caliphs  gradually  lost  their 
temporal  sovereignty,  the  influence  of  the  ^-Ulamd — the 
doctors  of  Divinity  and  Law — continued  to  increase,  so  that 
ere  long  they  formed  a  privileged  class,  occupying  in  Islam 
a  position  not  unlike  that  of  the  priesthood  in  mediaeval 
Christendom. 

It  will  be  convenient  to  discuss  the  religious  phenomena  of 
the  'Abbasid  period  under  the  following  heads : — 

I.  Rationalism  and  Free-thought. 

II.  The    Orthodox    Reaction    and   the   rise   of    Scholastic 
Theology. 

III.  The  Silfl  Mysticism. 

I.  The  first  century  of  'Abbasid  rule  was  marked,  as  we 
have  seen,  by  a  great  intellectual  agitation.     All  sorts  of  new 

ideas  were  in  the  air.     It  was  an  age  of  discovery 
Free^uiought!    and   awakening.     In   a   marvellously   brief  space 

the  diverse  studies  of  Theology,  Law,  Medicine, 
Philosophy,  Mathematics,  Astronomy,  and  Natural  Science 
attained  their  maturity,  if  not  their  highest  development. 
Even  if  some  pious  Moslems  looked  askance  at  the  foreign 
learning  and  its  professors,  an  enlightened  spirit  generally 
prevailed.  People  took  their  cue  from  the  court,  which 
patronised,  or  at  least  tolerated,^  scientific  research  as  well  as 
theological  speculation. 

These  circumstances  enabled  the  Mu'tazilites  (see  p.  222  sqq.) 
to  propagate  their  liberal  views  without  hindrance,  and  finally 

to  carry  their  struggle  against  the  orthodox  party 

The  Mu'tazilites     ^  c  ^    •  T^  ^u  a-    ^ 

and  their        to  a  successful  issue.     it  was  the  same  conflict 

opponen  s.      ^^^^  divided  Nominalists   and  Realists  in  the  days 

of  Thomas  Aquinas,   Duns  Scotus,   and   Occam.     As  often 

happens  when  momentous  principles  are  at  stake,  the  whole 

'  There  are,  of  course,  some  partial  exceptions  to  this  rule,  e.g.,  Mahdi 
and  Harun  al-Rashid. 


368     ORTHODOXY  AND  FREE-THOUGHT 

controversy  between  Reason  and  Revelation  turned  on  a 
single  question — "  Is  the  Koran  created  or  uncreated  ?  "  In 
other  terms,  is  it  the  work  of  God  or  the  Word  of  God  ? 
According  to  orthodox  belief,  it  is  uncreated  and  has  existed 
with  God  from  all  eternity,  being  in  its  present  form  merely 
a  transcript  of  the  heavenly  archetype. ^  Obviously  this  con- 
ception of  the  Koran  as  the  direct  and  literal  Word  of 
God  left  no  room  for  exercise  of  the  understanding,  but 
required  of  those  who  adopted  it  a  dumb  faith  and  a  blind 
fatalism.  There  were  many  to  whom  the  sacrifice  did  noti 
seem  too  great.  The  Mu'tazilites,  on  the  contrary,  asserted 
their  intellectual  freedom.  It  was  possible,  they  said,  to  know 
God  and  distinguish  good  from  evil  without  any  Revelation  at 
all.  They  admitted  that  the  Koran  was  God's  work,  in  the 
sense  that  it  was  produced  by  a  divinely  inspired  Prophet,  but 
they  flatly  rejected  its  deification.  Some  went  so  far  as  to 
criticise  the  '  inimitable '  style,  declaring  that  it  could  be 
surpassed  in  beauty  and  eloquence  by  the  art  of  man.  2 

The  Mu'tazilite  controversy  became  a  burning  question  in 
the  reign  of  Ma'mun  (813-833  a.d.),  a  Caliph  whose  scien- 
tific enthusiasm  and  keen  interest  in  religious  matters  we  have 
already  mentioned.  He  did  not  inherit  the  orthodoxy  of  hisi 
father,  Hariin  al-Rashid ;  and  it  was  believed  that  he 
was  at  heart  a  zindiq.  His  liberal  tendencies  would  have  been 
wholly  admirable  if  they  had  not  been  marred  by  excessive 
intolerance  towards  those  who  held  opposite  views  to  his 
own.  In  833  A.D.,  the  year  of  his  death,  he  promul- 
gated a  decree  which  bound  all  Moslems  to  accept  the 
Mu'tazilite  doctrine  as  to  the  creation  of  the  Koran  on  pain 
of  losing  their  civil  rights,  and  at  the  same  time  he  estab- 
blished  an  inquisition  [mihna)  in  order  to  obtain  the  assent  of 

*  See  p.  163,  note. 

=  Several  freethinkers  of  this  period  attempted  to  rival  the  Koran  with  I 
their   own    compositions.     See    Goldziher,  Mtihamm.  Sttidicn,  Part  IljlJiHi 
p.  401  seq. 


) 


THE  MU'TAZILITES  IN  POWER        369 

the  divines,  judges,  and  doctors  of  law.  Those  who  would 
not  take  the  test  were  flogged  and  threatened  with  the  sword. 

After  Ma'mun's  death  the  persecution  still  went  on, 
adopted"and'^ut  although  it  was  Conducted  in  a  more  moderate 
Caiiph^ia^m^n.    fashion.      Popular  feeling  ran  strongly  against  the 

Mu'tazilites.  The  most  prominent  figure  in  the 
orthodox  camp  was  the  Imam  Ahmad  b.  Hanbal,  who  firmly 
resisted  the  new  dogma  from  the  first.  "But  for  him,"  says 
the  Sunnite  historian,  Abu  '1-Mahasin,  "the  beliefs  of  a  great 
number  would  have  been  corrupted." ^  Neither  threats  nor 
entreaties  could  shake  his  resolution,  and  when  he  was 
scourged  by  command  of  the  Caliph  Mu'tasim,  the  palace 
was  in  danger  of  being  wrecked  by  an  angry  mob  which  had 
assembled  outside  to  hear  the  result  of  the  trial.  The  Mu'ta- 
zilite  dogma  remained  officially  in  force  until  it  was  abandoned 

by  the  Caliph  Wathiq    and  once   more  declared 

Mutawakkil  ■'         •       ,     ,  ,  ,  ,     ,  . 

returns  to        heretical  by  the   cruel    and   bigoted   Mutawakkil 

orthodoxy.  .  . 

(847  A.D.).  From  that  time  to  this  the  victorious 
party  have  sternly  suppressed  every  rationalistic  movement  in 
Islam. 

According  to  Steiner,  the  original  Mu'tazilite  heresy  arose 
in  the  bosom  of  Islam,  independently  of  any  foreign  influence, 
but,  however  that  may  be,  its  later  development 
M^taziutes.*    was  largely  affected   by  Greek  philosophy.     We 
need  not  attempt  to  follow  the  recondite  specula- 
tions of  Abii  Hudhayl  al-'Allaf   (t    about  840   a.d.)   of  his 
contemporaries,  al-Nazzam,  Bishr  b.  al-Mu'tamir,  and  others, 
and  of  the  philosophical  schools  of  Basra  and  Baghdad  in  which 
the  movement  died  away.     Vainly  they  sought  to  replace  the 
Muhammadan  idea  of  God  as  will  by  the  Aristotelian  concep- 
tion of  God  as  law.     Their   efforts   to  purge  the  Koran  of 
anthropomorphism  made  no  impression  on  the  faithful,  who 
ardently  hoped  to  see   God  in  Paradise  face  to  face.     What 
they  actually  achieved  was  little  enough.     Their  weapons  of 
'  Al-Nujum  al-Zdhira,  ed.  by  Juynboll,  vol.  i,  p.  639. 

25 


370     ORTHODOXY  AND  FREE-THOUGHT 

logic  and  dialectic  were  turned  against  them  with  triumphant 
success,  and  scholastic  theology  was  founded  on  the  ruins  of 
Rationalism.  Indirectly,  however,  the  Mu'tazilite  principles 
leavened  Muhammadan  thought  to  a  considerable  extent  and 
cleared  the  way  for  other  liberal  movements,  like  the  Fraternity 
of  the  Ikhwanu  U-Safa,  which  endeavoured  to  harmonise 
authority  with  reason,  and  to  construct  a  universal  system  of 
religious  philosophy. 

These  '  Brethren  of  Purity,'  i  as  they  called  themselves,  com- 
piled a  great  encyclopaedic  work  in  fifty  tractates  (Rasd'i/).     Of 

the  authors,  who  flourished  at  Basra  towards  the 
^''■i-s'a'fZ^""    end   of  the  tenth  century,  five  are  known  to  us 

by    name :    viz.,  Abu    Sulaymdn   Muhammad   b. 
Ma'shar  al-Bayusti  or  al-Muqaddasi  (Maqdisl),  Abu  'I-Hasan    , 
*A1{  b.  Hdrun  al-Zanjdnl,  Abu  Ahmad  al-Mihrajdni,  aPAwff,    ! 
and  Zayd  b.  Rifd'a.     "  They  formed  a  society  for  the  pursuit    j 
of  holiness,  purity,  and  truth,  and  established  amongst  them-    | 
selves  a  doctrine  whereby  they  hoped  to  win  the  approval  of  ' 
God,    maintaining    that    the    Religious   Law    was  defiled  by    i 
ignorance  and  adulterated   by  errors,   and  that  there  was  no   ji 
means  of  cleansing  and  purifying  it  except  philosophy,  which   ii 
united  the  wisdom  of  faith  and  the  profit  of  research.     They   j 
held  that  a  perfect  result  would  be  reached  if  Greek  philosophy   ' 
were  combined  with  Arabian  religion.     Accordingly  they  com- 
posed fifty  tracts  on  every  branch  of  philosophy,  theoretical  as 
well  as  practical,  added  a  separate  index,  and  entitled  them  the 
*  Tracts  of  the  Brethren  of  Purity'  {Rasatlu  Ikhwdn  al-Safa). 
The  authors  of  this  work  concealed  their  names,  but  circulated 
it  among  the   booksellers  and  gave  it   to  the  public.     They 
filled  their  pages  with  devout  phraseology,  religious  parables, 
metaphorical    expressions,    and    figurative    turns   of  style."  2 

'  This  is  the  hteral  translation  of  Ikhwanu  'l-Safd,  but  according  to 
Arabic  idiom  '  brother  of  purity  '  (akiiu  'l-safd)  simply  means  '  one  who  is 
pure  or  sincere,'  as  has  been  shown  by  Goldziher,  Muhamm.  Shidien, 
Part  I,  p.  9,  note.     The  term  does  not  imply  any  sort  of  brotherhood. 

»  Ibnu  '1-Qifti,  Ta'rtkhu  'l-Hukamd  (ed,  by  Lippert),  p.  83,  1.  17  sqq. 


THE  BRETHREN  OF  PURITY  371 

Nearly  all  the  tracts  have  been  translated  into  German  by 
Dieterici,  who  has  also  drawn  up  an  epitome  of  the  whole 
encyclopaedia  in  his  Philosophie  der  Araher  im  X yahrhundert. 
It  would  take  us  too  long  to  describe  the  system  of  the  Ikhwdn^ 
but  the  reader  will  find  an  excellent  account  of  it  in  Stanley 
Lane- Poole's  Studies  in  a  Mosque^  2nd  ed.,  p.  176  sqq.  The 
view  has  recently  been  put  forward  that  the  Brethren  of  Purity 
were  in  some  way  connected  with  the  Isma'ili  propaganda,  and 
that  their  eclectic  idealism  represents  the  highest  teaching  of 
the  Fatimids,  Carmathians,  and  Assassins.  Strong  evidence  in 
support  of  this  theory  is  supplied  by  a  MS.  of  the  Bibliotheque 
Nationale  (No.  2309  in  De  Slane's  Catalogue),  which  contains, 
together  with  fragments  of  the  Rasail^  a  hitherto  unknown 
tract  entitled  the  Jdmi'-a  or  '  Summary.'  i  The  latter  purports 
to  be  the  essence  and  crown  of  the  fifty  RascCil^  it  is  manifestly 
Isma'ilite  in  character,  and,  assuming  that  it  is  genuine,  we 
may,  I  think,  agree  with  the  conclusions  which  its  discoverer, 
M.  P.  Casanova,  has  stated  in  the  following  passage  : — 

"  Surtout  je  crois  etre  dans  le  vrai  en  affirmant  que  les  doctrines 
philosophiques  des  Ismailiens  sent  contenues  tout  entieres  dans  les 
Epitres  des  Freres  de  la  Purete.  Et  c'est  ce  qui 
The  doctrines  of  explique  '  la  seduction  extraordinaire  que  la  doctrine 
Purity Ide^nticai  exergait  sur  des  hommes  serieux.' '  En  y  ajoutant  la 
wth  the  esoteric  crovance  en  r  imam  cache  (al-imdm  al-mastur)  qui  doit 

philosophy  of  the  -^       ^  .  /  ,  ■'    .  , 

isma'ilis.  apparaitre  un  jour  pour  etablir  le  bonheur  universel, 
elle  realisait  la  fusion  de  toutes  les  doctrines  idealistes, 
du  messianisme  et  du  platonisme.  Tant  que  1'  imam  restait  cache, 
il  s'y  melait  encore  une  saveur  de  mystere  qui  attachait  les  esprits 
les  plus  eleves.  ...  En  tous  cas,  on  peut  affirmer  que  les  Carmathes 
et  les  Assassins  ont  ete  profondement  calomnies  quand  ils  ont  ete 
accuses  par  leurs  adversaires  d'atheisme  et  de  debauche.  Le  fetwa 
d'  Ibn  Taimiyyah,  que  j'ai  cite  plus  haut,  pretend  que  leur  dernier 
degre  dans  1'  initiation  {al-baldgh  al-akbar)  est  la  negation  meme  du 
Createur.     Mais  la  djdmi'at  que  nous  avons  decouverte  est,  comme 


'  Notice  sur  un  manuscrit  de  la  secte  des  Assassins,  by  P.  Casanova  in  the 
Journal  Asiatique  for  1898,  p.  151  sqq. 
'  De  Goeje,  Memoire  sur  les  Carmathes,  p.  172. 


372     ORTHODOXY  AND  FREE-THOUGHT 

tout  rindique,  le  dernier  degre  de;la  science  des  Freres  de  la  Purete 
et  des  Ismai'liens ;  il  n'y  a  rien  de  fonde  dans  une  telle  accusation. 
La  doctrine  apparait  tres  pure,  tres  elevee,  tres  simple  meme :  je 
repete  que  c'est  une  sorte  de  pantheisme  mecaniste  et  esthetique  qui 
est  absolument  oppose  au  scepticisme  et  au  materialisme,  car  il  repose 
sur  r  harmonic  generate  de  toutes  les  parties  du  monde,  harmonic 
voulue  par  le  Createur  parce  qu'elle  est  la  beaute  meme. 

"  Ma  conclusion  sera  que  nous  avons  la  un  exemple  de  plus  dans 
I'histoire  d'  une  doctrine  tres  pure  et  tres  elevee  en  theorie,  devenue, 
entre  les  mains  des  fanatiques  et  des  ambitieux,  une  source  d'actes 
monstrueux  et  meritant  I'infamie  qui  est  attachee  a  ce  nom  historique 
d' Assassins." 

Besides  the  Mu'tazilites,  we  hear  much  of  another  class  of 
heretics  who  are  commonly  grouped  together  under  the  name 
of  Xindtqs. 

"  It  is  well  known,"  says  Goldziher,i  "  that  the  earliest 
persecution  was  directed  against  those  individuals  who  man- 
aged   more   or    less    adroitly    to    conceal    under 

The  Zindigs.         °  ,  ,      r»        •  i-     • 

the  veil  of  Islam  old  Persian  religious  ideas. 
Sometimes  indeed  they  did  not  consider  any  disguise  to  be 
necessary,  but  openly  set  up  dualism  and  other  Persian  or 
Manichasan  doctrines,  and  the  practices  associated  therewith, 
against  the  dogma  and  usage  of  Islam.  Such  persons  were 
called  ZindiqSj  a  term  which  comprises  different  shades  of 
heresy  and  hardly  admits  of  simple  definition.  Firstly,  there 
are  the  old  Persian  families  incorporated  in  Islam  who,  following 
the  same  path  as  the  Shu'ubites,  have  a  national  interest  in  the 
revival  of  Persian  religious  ideas  and  traditions,  and  from  this 
point  of  view  react  against  the  Arabian  character  of  the 
Muhammadan  system.  Then,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are 
freethinkers,  who  oppose  in  particular  the  stubborn  dogma  i 
of  Islam,  reject  positive  religion^  and  acknowledge  only  the 
moral  law.     Amongst  the  latter  there  is  developed  a  monkish 

»  Sdlih  b.  'Abd  al-Quddus  und  das  Zindikthum  wiihrend  der  Rcgicrung 
des  Chalifen  al-Mahdi  in  Transactions  of  the  Ninth  Congress  of  Orientalists, 
vol.  ii,  p.  105  seq. 


THE  ZINDlQS  373 

asceticism   extraneous   to   Islam   and  ultimately  traceable   to 
Buddhistic  influences." 

The  'Abbasid  Government,  which  sought  to  enforce  an 
official  standard  of  belief,  was  far  less  favourable  to  religious 
liberty  than  the  Umayyads  had  been.  Orthodox  and  heretic 
alike  fell  under  its  ban.  While  Ma'mun  harried  pious  Sunnites, 
his  immediate  predecessors  raised  a  hue  and  cry  against  Zindiqs. 
The  Caliph  Mahdi  distinguished  himself  by  an  organised  perse- 
cution of  these  enemies  of  the  faith.  He  appointed  a  Grand  In- 
quisitor [Sdhibu  U-Zanadiqa  ^  or  ^Arifu  U-Zanddiqa) 
^"Iinrf5"°^  to  discover  and  hunt  them  down.  If  they  would 
not  recant  when  called  upon,  they  were  put  to 
death  and  crucified,  and  their  books  2  were  cut  to  pieces  with 
knives. 3  Mahdi's  example  was  followed  by  Hddl  and  Hdrun 
al-Rashld.  Some  of  the  'Abbdsids,  however,  were  less  severe. 
Thus  Khasib,  Mansiir's  physician,  was  a  Zindlq  who  professed 
Christianity,  4  and  in  the  reign  of  Ma'mun  it  became  the  mode 
to  affect  Manichaean  opinions  as  a  mark  of  elegance  and  re- 
finement.5 

The  two  main  types  of  "zandaqa  which  have  been  described 

above  are  illustrated  in  the  contemporary  poets,  Bashshar  b. 

Burd   and  Salih    b.    'Abd   al-Quddiis.     Bashshdr 

^^^Bur"'''      ^^^  ^°''"  stone-blind.     The  descendant  of  a  noble 

Persian    family — though  his  father,   Burd,  was  a 

slave — he   cherished    strong   national  sentiments  and   did  not 

attempt   to    conceal    his   sympathy  with    the    Persian    clients 

{Mawdli)^  whom  he  was  accused  of  stirring  up  against  their 

Arab  lords.     He  may  also  have  had  leanings  towards  Zoroastri- 

anism,  but  Professor  Bevan  has  observed  that  there  is  no  real 

'  Tabari,  iii,  522,  i. 

''  I.e.  the  sacred  books  of  the  Manichaeans,  which  were  often  splendidly 
illuminated.    See  Von  Kremer,  Culturgesch.  Streifziige,  p.  39. 

3  Cf.  Tabari,  iii,  499,  8  sqq. 

*  Ibid.,  iii,  422,  19  sqq. 

s  Cf.  the  saying  "  Azrafii  mina  'l-Zindiq  "  (Freytag,  Arabum  Proverbia, 
vol.  i,  p.  214). 


374     ORTHODOXY  AND  FREE-THOUGHT 

evidence  for  this  statement,^  which  is  improbable  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  Bashshdr  was  a  thorough  sceptic  and  used  to 
dispute  with  a  number  of  noted  freethinkers  in  Basra,  e.g.^  with 
Wasil  b.  'Atd,  who  started  the  Mu'tazilite  heresy,  and  'Amr 
b.  'Ubayd.  He  and  Salih  b.  'Abd  al-Quddus  were  put  to 
death  by  the  Caliph  Mahdi  in  the  same  year  (783  a.d.). 

This  Salih  belonged  by  birth  or  affiliation  to  the  Arab  tribe 
of  Azd.     Of  his  life  we  know  little  beyond  the  circumstance 

that  he  was  for  some  time  a    street-preacher   at 
^ai-QuddUs'^      Basra,  and  afterwards  at  Damascus.     It  is  possible 

that  his  public  doctrine  was  thought  dangerous, 
although  the  preachers  as  a  class  were  hand  in  glove  with  the 
Church  and  did  not,  like  the  Lollards,  denounce  religious 
abuses.2  His  extant  poetry  contains  nothing  heretical,  but  is 
wholly  moral  and  didactic  in  character.  We  have  seen,  how- 
ever, in  the  case  of  Abu  'l-'Atdhiva,  that  Muhammadan  I 
orthodoxy  was  apt  to  connect  '  the  philosophic  mind '  with 
positive  unbelief ;  and  Salih  appears  to  have  fallen  a  victim  to 
this  prejudice.  He  was  accused  of  being  a  dualist  [thanawi)^ 
i.e.,  a  Manichaean.  Mahdi,  it  is  said,  conducted  his  examination 
in  person,  and  at  first  let  him  go  free,  but  the  poet's  fate  was 
sealed  by  his  confession  that  he  was  the  author  ot  the  following 
verses : — 

"The  greybeard  will  not  leave  what  in  the  bone  is  bred 
Until  the  dark  tomb  covers  him  with  earth  o'erspread ; 
For,  the'  deterred  awhile,  he  soon  returns  again 
To  his  old  folly,  as  the  sick  man  to  his  pain."  ^ 


'  As  Professor  Bevan  points  out,  it  is  based  solely  on  the  well-known 
verse  {Aghdni,  iii,  24,  1.  11),  which  has  come  down  to  us  without  the 
context  : — 

"  Earth  is  dark  and  Fire  is  bright, 
And  Fire  has  been  worshipped  ever  since  Fire  existed." 

*  These  popular  preachers  (qussds)  are  admirably  described  by  Gold- 
ziher,  Muhamm.  Studien,  Part  II,  p.  161  sqq. 

3  The  Arabic  text  of  these  verses  will  be  found  in  Goldziher's  mono- 
graph, p.  122,  11.  6-7.  ■ 


THE  ZINDIQS  375 

Abu  'l-'AM  al-Ma'arri,  himself  a  bold  and  derisive  critic  of 
Muhammadan  dogmas,  devotes   an  interesting  section  of  his 

Risdlatu  ^l-Ghufrdn  to  the  Zindlqs^  and  says 
ai-Maarri  on  the  many  hard  things  about  them,   which  were   no 

doubt  intended  to  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  a 
suspicious  audience.  The  wide  scope  of  the  term  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  he  includes  under  it  the  pagan  chiefs  of 
Quraysh  ;  the  Umayyad  Caliph  Walid  b.  Yazid  ;  the  poets 
Di^bil,  Abu  Nuwas,  Bashshar,  and  Salih  b.  'Abd  al-Quddus ; 
Abu  Muslim,  who  set  up  the  'Abbasid  dynasty  ;  the  Persian 
rebels,  Babak  and  Mazyar  ;  Afshin,  who  after  conquering 
Bdbak  was  starved  to  death  by  the  Caliph  Mu'tasim  ;  the 
Carmathian  leader  al-Jannabi  ;  Ibnu  '1-Rawandi,  whose  work 
entitled  the  Ddmigh  was  designed  to  discredit  the  '  miraculous ' 
style  of  the  Koran  ;  and  Husayn  b.  Man§ur  al-Hallaj,  the 
Sufi  martyr.  Most  of  these,  one  may  admit,  fall  within  Abu 
'l-'Ald's  definition  of  the  Zindiqs  :  "  they  acknowledge  neither 
prophet  nor  sacred  book."  The  name  Zindlq^  which  is  applied 
by  Jahiz  (t  868  a.d.)  to  the  Buddhists,^  seems  in  the  first 
instance  to  have  been  used  of  Manes  [Mdni)  and  his  followers, 
and  is  no  doubt  derived,  as  Professor  Bevan  has  suggested,  from 
the  xaddiqs^  who  formed  an  elect  class  in  the  Manichaean 
hierarchy. 2 

II.  The  official  recognition  of  Rationalism  as  the  State 
religion  came  to  an  end  on  the  accession  of  Mutawakkil 
in  847  A.D.     The  new  Caliph,  who  owed  his  throne  to  the 

'  See  a  passage  from  the  Kitdbu  'l-Hayawdn,  cited  by  Baron  V.  Rosen 
in  Zapiski,  vol.  vi,  p.  337. 

=  Zaddtq  is  an  Aramaic  word  meaning  'righteous.'  Its  etymological 
equivalent  in  Arabic  is  siddiq,  which  has  a  different  meaning,  namely, 
'veracious.'  Zaddiq  passed  into  Persian  in  the  form  Zandik,  which  was 
used  by  the  Persians  before  Islam,  and  Zindiq  is  the  Arabicised  form  of 
the  latter  word.  For  some  of  these  observations  I  am  indebted  to  Professor 
Bevan.  Further  details  concerning  the  derivation  and  meaning  of  Zindiq 
are  given  in  Professor  Browne's  Literary  Hist,  of  Persia  (vol.  i,  p.  159  sqq.), 
where  the  reader  will  also  find  a  lucid  account  of  the  Manichaean  doctrines. 


3/6     ORTHODOXY  AND  FREE-THOUGHT 

Turkish  Praetorians,  could  not  have  devised  a  surer  means 
of  making  himself  popular  than  by  standing  forward  as  the 

avowed  champion  of  the  faith  of  the  masses.  He 
The  Orthodox    persecuted    impartially    Jews,    Christians,    Mu't- 

azilites,  Shi'ites,  and  Sufis — every  one,  in  short, 
who  diverged  from  the  narrowest  Sunnite  orthodoxy.  The 
Vizier  Ibn  Abf  Du'ad,  who  had  shown  especial  zeal  in  his 
conduct  of  the  Mu'tazilite  Inquisition,  was  disgraced,  and  the 
bulk  of  his  wealth  was  confiscated.  In  Baghdad  the  followers  of 
Ahmad  b.  Hanbal  went  from  house  to  house  terrorising  the 
citizens,!  and  such  was  their  fanatical  temper  that  when  Tabari, 
the  famous  divine  and  historian,  died  in  923  a.d.,  they  would  not 
allow  his  body  to  receive  the  ordinary  rites  of  burial. ^  Finally, 
in  the  year  935  a.d.,  the  Caliph  Radi  issued  an  edict  denouncing 
them  in  these  terms  :  "  Ye  assert  that  your  ugly,  ill-favoured 
faces  are  in  the  likeness  of  the  Lord  of  Creation,  and  that  your 
vile  exterior  resembles  His,  and  ye  speak  of  the  hand,  the  fingers, 
the  feet,  the  golden  shoes,  and  the  curly  hair  (of  God),  and  of 
His  going  up  to  Heaven  and  of  His  coming  down  to  Earth.  .  .  . 
The  Commander  of  the  Faithful  swears  a  binding  oath  that 
unless  ye  refrain  from  your  detestable  practices  and  perverse 
tenets  he  will  lay  the  sword  to  your  necks  and  the  fire  to  your 
dwellings." 3  Evidently  the  time  was  ripe  for  a  system  which 
should  reconcile  the  claims  of  tradition  and  reason,  avoiding 
the  gross  anthropomorphism  of  the  extreme  Hanbalites  on  the 
one  side  and  the  pure  rationalism  of  the  advanced  Mu'tazilites 
(who  were  still  a  power  to  be  reckoned  with)  on  the  other. 
It  is  a  frequent  experience  that  great  intellectual  or  religious 
movements  rising  slowly  and  invisibly,  in  response,  as  it  were, 
to  some  incommunicable  want,  suddenly  find  a  distinct  inter- 
preter with  whose  name  they  are  henceforth  associated  for 
ever.  The  man,  in  this  case,  was  Abu  '1-Hasan  al-Ash'arf. 
He  belonged  to  a  noble  and  traditionally  orthodox  family  of 

'  Ibnu  '1-Athir,  vol.  viii,  p.  229  seq.  (anno  323  A.H.  =  934-935  a.d.). 
^  Ihid.,  p.  98.  3  Ihid.,  p.  230  seq. 


ABU  'L-HASAN  AL-ASH'ARl  2>77 

Yemenite  origin.  One  of  his  ancestors  was  Abu  Musd 
al-Ash*ari,  who,  as  the  reader  will  recollect,  played  a  somewhat 

inglorious  part  in  the  arbitration  between  'AH  and 
^^"-ASr     Mu'awiya  after  the  battle  of  Siffin.i     Born  in  873- 

874  A.D.  at  Basra,  a  city  renowned  for  its  scientific 
and  intellectual  fertility,  the  young  Abu  '1-Hasan  deserted  the 
faith  of  his  fathers,  attached  himself  to  the  freethinking  school, 
and  until  his  fortieth  year  was  the  favourite  pupil  and  intimate 
friend  of  al-Jubba'i  (t  915  a.d.),  the  head  of  the  Mu'tazilite 
party  at  that  time.  He  is  said  to  have  broken  with  his  teacher 
in  consequence  of  a  dispute  as  to  whether  God  always  does 
what  is  best  {asjah)  for  His  creatures.  The  story  is  related  as 
follows  by  Ibn  Khallikan  (De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  ii, 
p.  669  seq.)  : — 

Ash'ari  proposed  to  Jubba'i  the  case  of  three  brothers,  one  of 
whom  was  a  true  believer,  virtuous  and  pious  ;  the  second  an  infidel, 
a  debauchee  and  a  reprobate  ;  and  the  third  an  infant  : 
thre°/brothers.  ^hey  all  died,  and  Ash'ari  wished  to  know  what  had 
become  of  them.  To  this  Jubba'i  answered :  "  The 
virtuous  brother  holds  a  high  station  in  Paradise ;  the  infidel 
is  in  the  depths  of  Hell,  and  the  child  is  among  those  who 
have  obtained  salvation."  ^  "  Suppose  now,"  said  Ash'ari,  "  that 
the  child  should  wish  to  ascend  to  the  place  occupied  by  his  virtuous 
brother,  would  he  be  allowed  to  do  so?"  "No,"  replied  Jubba'i, 
"  it  would  be  said  to  him  :  '  Thy  brother  arrived  at  this  place  through 
his  numerous  works  of  obedience  towards  God,  and  thou  hast  no 
such  works  to  set  forward.'  "  "  Suppose  then,"  said  Ash'ari,  "  that  the 
child  say  :  '  That  is  not  my  fault ;  you  did  not  let  me  live  long 
enough,  neither  did  you  give  me  the  means  of  proving  my  obedi- 
ence.'"  "In  that  case,"  answered  Jubba'i,  " the  Almighty  would 
say  :  '  I  knew  that  if  I  had  allowed  thee  to  live,  thou  wouldst  have 
been  disobedient  and  incurred  the  severe  punishment  (of  Hell)  ; 
I  therefore  acted  for  thy  advantage.' "  "Well,"  said  Ash'ari,  "and 
suppose  the  infidel  brother  were  to  say  :  '  O  God  of  the  universe  ! 
since   you  knew  what  awaited  him,  you  must  have  known  what 


'  See  p.  192. 

'  I.e.,  he  is  saved  from  Hell  but  excluded  from  Paradise. 


3/8     ORTHODOXY  AND  FREE-THOUGHT 

awaited  me ;  why  then  did  you  act  for  his  advantage  and  not  for 
mine  ?  "     Jubba'i  had  not  a  word  to  offer  in  reply. 

Soon  afterwards  Ash'ari  made  a   public  recantation.     One 
Friday,  while  sitting  (as  his  biographer  relates)  in  the  chair 
from   which   he  taught  in   the   great  mosque  of 
conversion  to     Basra,  he  cried  out  at  the  top  of  his  voice  :  "  They 
o  oxy.      ^^^  know    me   know   who   I  am  :  as  for  those 
who    do    not    know    me    I  will    tell  them.      I    am    'All    b. 
Ismd'il  al-Ash'ari,  and    I    used  to   hold   that   the  Koran  was 
created,  that  the  eyes  of  men  shall  not  see  God,  and  that  we 
ourselves  are   the  authors  of  our   evil   deeds.     Now    I   have 
returned  to  the  truth  ;  I  renounce  these  opinions,  and  I  under- 
take  to  refute  the  Mu'tazilites  and  expose  their  infamy  and 
turpitude."  ^ 

These   anecdotes  possess  little  or   no  historical    value,  but 

illustrate   the    fact  that    Ash'arl,  having  learned  all   that  the 

Mu'tazilites  could  teach  him  and  having  thoroughly  mastered 

their    dialectic,    turned    against    them   with   deadly  force  the 

weapons  which  they  had  put  in  his  hands.     His  doctrine  on 

the  subject  of  free-will  may  serve  to  exemplify  the  method  of 

Kalam    (Disputation)  by  which  he  propped  up  the  orthodox 

creed.2     Here,  as  in  other  instances,  Ash'ari  took 

^founder  of"^     the  Central  path — medio  tutissimus — between   two 

Theoio^!        extremes.     It  was  the  view  of  the  early  Moslem 

Church — a  view  justified  by  the  Koran  and  the 

Apostolic    Traditions — that    everything    was    determined    in 

advance  and  inscribed,  from  all  eternity,  on  the  Guarded  Tablet 

(al-Lawh  al-Mahfuz.\  so  that  men  had  no  choice  but  to  commit 

the   actions   decreed  by    destiny.     The  Mu'tazilites,  on   the 

'  Ibn  Khallikan,  ed.  by  Wustenfeld,  No.  440  ;  De  Slane's  translation, 

vol.  ii,  p.  228. 

*  The  clearest  statement  of  Ash'ari's  doctrine  with  which  I  am  acquainted 
is  contained  in  the  Creed  published  by  Spitta,  Zur  Geschichtc  Abu  'l-Hasan 
al-Ash'ari's  (Leipzig,  1876),  p.  133,  1.  9  sqq.  ;  German  translation,  p.  95  sqq. 
It  has  been  translated  into  English  by  D.  B.  Macdonald  in  his  Muslim 
Theology,  p.  293  and  foil. 


MOSLEM  SCHOLASTICISM  379 

contrary,  denied  that  God  could  be  the  author  of  evil  and 
insisted  that  men's  actions  were  free.  Ash'ari,  on  his  part, 
declared  that  all  actions  are  created  and  predestined  by  God, 
but  that  men  have  a  certain  subordinate  power  which  enables 
them  to  acquire  the  actions  previously  created,  although  it 
produces  no  effect  on  the  actions  themselves.  Human  agency, 
therefore,  was  confined  to  this  process  of  acquisition  (kasb). 
With  regard  to  the  anthropomorphic  passages  in  the  Koran, 
Ash'ari  laid  down  the  rule  that  such  expressions  as  "  The 
Merciful  has  settled  himse/f  upon  His  throne^^''  ^^  Both  His  hands 
are  spread  out^"*  &c.,  must  be  taken  in  their  obvious  sense  without 
asking  'How?'  {bila  kayfa).  Spitta  saw  in  the  system  of 
Ash'ari  a  successful  revolt  of  the  Arabian  national  spirit  against 
the  foreign  ideas  which  were  threatening  to  overwhelm  Islam,i 
a  theory  which  does  not  agree  with  the  fact  that  most  of  the 
leading  Ash'arites  were  Persians.^  Von  Kremer  came  nearer 
the  mark  when  he  said  "  Ash'ari's  victory  was  simply  a  clerical 
triumph,"  3  but  it  was  also,  as  Schreiner  has  observed,  "a 
victory  of  reflection  over  unthinking  faith." 

The  victory,  however,  was  not  soon  or  easily  won.4  Many 
of  the  orthodox  disliked  the  new  Scholasticism  hardly  less  than 
the  old  Rationalism.  Thus  it  is  not  surprising  to  read  in  the 
^fl;;z//of  Ibnu  '1-Athir  under  the  year  456  a.h.  =  1046  a.d., 
that  Alp  Arsldn's  Vizier,  'Amidu  '1-Mulk  al-Kunduri,  having 
obtained  his  master's  permission  to  have  curses  pronounced 
against  the  Rafidites  (Shi'ites)  from  the  pulpits  of  Khurdsdn, 
included  the  Ash'arites  in  the  same  malediction,  and  that 
the  famous  Ash'arite  doctors,  Abu  '1-Qdsim  al-Qushayri 
and  the  Imdmu  '1-Haramayn  Abu  '1-Ma'ali  al-Juwaynl,  left 
the    country    in    consequence.      The    great    Nizamu  '1-Mulk 

'  Op.  ctt.,  p.  7  seq. 

*  Schreiner,  Zur  Geschichte  des  Ash'aritenthums  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Eighth  International  Congress  of  Orientalists  (1889),  p.  5  of  the  tirage  a  part. 

3  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  31,  p.  167. 

*  See  Goldziher  in  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  41,  p.  63  seq.,  whence  the  following 
details  are  derived. 


38o     ORTHODOXY  AND  FREE-THOUGHT 

exerted  himself  on  behalf  of  the  Ash'arites,  and  the  Nizdmiyya 
College,  which  he  founded  in  Baghdad  in  the  year  1067  a.d., 
was  designed  to  propagate  their  system  of  theology.  But  the 
man  who  stamped  it  with  the  impression  of  his  own  powerful 
genius,  fixed  its  ultimate  form,  and  established  it  as  the 
universal  creed  of  orthodox  Islam,  was  Abu  Hamid  al-Ghazali 
(1058-1111  A.D.).  We  have  already  sketched  the  outward 
course  of  his  life,  and  need  only  recall  that  he  lectured  at  Baghddd 
in  the  Nizamiyya  College  for  four  years  (1091-1095  a.d.).^ 
At  the  end  of  that  time  he  retired  from  the  world  as  a  Suti,  and 
so  brought  to  a  calm  and  fortunate  close  the  long  spiritual 
travail  which  he  has  himself  described  in  the  Munqidh  m'lna 
''l-Dalal^  or  '  Deliverer  from  Error.'  2  We  must  now  attempt 
to  give  the  reader  some  notion  of  this  work,  both  on  account  of 
its  singular  psychological  interest  and  because  Ghazdli's  search 
for  religious  truth  exercised,  as  will  shortly  appear,  a  profound 
and  momentous  influence  upon  the  future  history  of  Muham- 
madan  thought.     It  begins  with  these  words  : — 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  the  Merciful,  the  Compassionate.  Praise 
be  to  God  by  the  praise  of  whom  every  written  or  spoken  discourse 

is  opened  !  And  blessings  on  Muhammad,  the  Elect, 
autobiography,    the  Prophet  and  Apostle,  as  well  as  on  his  family  and 

his  companions  who  lead  us  forth  from  error  !  To 
proceed  :  You  have  asked  me,  O  my  brother  in  religion,  to  explain 
to  you  the  hidden  meanings  and  the  ultimate  goal  of  the  sciences, 
and  the  secret  bane  of  the  different  doctrines,  and  their  inmost 
depths.  You  wish  me  to  relate  all  that  I  have  endured  in  seeking 
to  recover  the  truth  from  amidst  the  confusion  of  sects  with  diverse 
ways  and  paths,  and  how  I  have  dared  to  raise  myself  from  the 
abyss  of  bhnd  belief  in  authority  to  the  height  of  discernment.  You 
desire  to  know  what  benefits  I  have  derived  in  the  first  place  from 
Scholastic  Theology,  and  what  I  have  appropriated,  in  the  second 


'  See  p.  339  seq. 

*  I  have  used  the  Cairo  edition  of  1309  a.h.  A  French  translation  by 
Barbier  de  Meynard  was  published  in  the  Journal  Asiatique  (January, 
1877).  pp.  9-93- 


I 


GHAZAU  381 

place,  from  the  methods  of  the  Ta'limites '  who  think  that  truth  can 
be  attained  only  by  submission  to  the  authority  of  an  Imam  ;  and 
thirdly,  my  reasons  for  spurning  the  systems  of  philosophy  ;  and, 
lastly,  why  I  have  accepted  the  tenets  of  Sufiism  :  you  are  anxious, 
in  short,  that  I  should  impart  to  you  the  essential  truths  which  I 
have  learned  in  my  repeated  examination  of  the  (religious)  opinions 
of  mankind." 

In  a  very  interesting  passage,  which  has  been  translated  by 
Professor  Browne,  Ghazdli  tells  how  from  his  youth  upward  he 
was  possessed  with  an  intense  thirst  for  knowledge,  which 
impelled  him  to  study  every  form  of  religion  and  philosophy, 
and  to  question  all  whom  he  met  concerning  the  nature  and 
meaning  of  their  belief.^  But  when  he  tried  to  distinguish 
the  true  from  the  false,  he  found  no  sure  test.  He  could  not 
trust  the  evidence  of  his  senses.  The  eye  sees  a  shadow  and 
declares  it  to  be  without  movement ;  or  a  star,  and  deems  it 
no  larger  than  a  piece  of  gold.  If  the  senses  thus  deceive, 
may  not  the  mind  do  likewise  ?  Perhaps  our  life  is  a  dream 
full  of  phantom  thoughts  which  vi^e  mistake  for  realities — until 
the  awakening  comes,  either  in  moments  of  ecstasy  or  at 
death.  "For  two  months,"  says  Ghazali,  "I  was  actually, 
though  not  avowedly,  a  sceptic."  Then  God  gave  him  light, 
so  that  he  regained  his  mental  balance  and  was  able  to  think 
soundly.  He  resolved  that  this  faculty  must  guide  him  to  the 
truth,  since  blind  faith  once  lost  never  returns.  Accordingly, 
he  set  himself  to  examine  the  foundations  of  belief  in  four 
classes  of  men  who  were  devoted  to  the  search  for  truth, 
namely.  Scholastic  Theologians,  Esoterics  {Batiniyya\ 
Philosophers,  and  Sufis.  For  a  long  while  he  had  to  be  content 
with  wholly  negative  results.  Scholasticism  was,  he  admitted, 
an  excellent  purge  against  heresy,  but  it  could  not  cure  the 
disease  from  which  he  was  suffering.  As  for  the  philosophers, 
all  of  them — Materialists  {Dahriyyun\  Naturalists  {Tahl^iyyun), 

'  These  are  the  Isma'ilis  or  Batinis  (including  the  Carmathians  and 
Assassins).     See  p.  271  sqq. 
^  A  Literary  History  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  p.  295  seq. 


382     ORTHODOXY  AND  FREE-THOUGHT 

and  Theists  [Ilihiyyun) — "are  branded  with  infidelity  and 
impiety."  Here,  as  often  in  his  discussion  of  the  philosophical 
schools,  Ghazdli's  religious  instinct  breaks  out.  We  cannot 
imagine  him  worshipping  at  the  shrine  of  pure  reason  any 
more  than  we  can  imagine  Herbert  Spencer  at  Lourdes. 
He  next  turned  to  the  Ta^imites  (Doctrinists)  or  Batinites 
(Esoterics),  who  claimed  that  they  knew  the  truth,  and  that  its 
unique  source  was  the  infallible  Imam.  But  when  he  came  to 
close  quarters  with  these  sectaries,  he  discovered  that  they 
could  teach  him  nothing,  and  their  mysterious  Imam  vanished 
into  space.  Sufiism,  therefore,  was  his  last  hope.  He  carefully 
studied  the  writings  of  the  mystics,  and  as  he  read  it  became 
clear  to  him  that  now  he  was  on  the  right  path.  He  saw 
that  the  higher  stages  of  Sufiism  could  not  be  learned  by 
study,  but  must  be  realised  by  actual  experience,  that  is,  by 
rapture,  ecstasy,  and  moral  transformation.  After  a  painful 
struggle  with  himself  he  resolved  to  cast  aside  all  his  worldly 
ambition  and  to  live  for  God  alone.  In  the  month  of  Dhu 
'1-Qa'da,  488  a.h.  (November,  1095  a.d.),  he  left  Baghddd 
and  wandered  forth  to  Syria,  where  he  found  in  the  Siifi  disci- 
pline of  prayer,  praise,  and  meditation  the  peace  which  his 
soul  desired. 

Mr.  Duncan  B.  Macdonald,  to  whom  we  owe  the  best  and 
fullest  life  of  Ghazali  that  has  yet  been  written,  sums  up  his 
work  and  influence  in  Islam  under  four  heads  ^  : — 

First^  he  led  men  back  from  scholastic  labours  upon  theo- 
logical dogmas  to  living  contact  with,  study  and  exegesis  of, 
the  Word  and  the  Traditions. 

Second^  in  his  preaching  and  moral  exhortations  be  re-intro- 
duced the  element  of  fear. 

Third,  it  was  by  his  influence  that  Sufiism  attained  a  firm 
and  assured  position  within  the  Church  of  Islam. 


'  The  Life  of  al-Ghazzall  in  the  Journal   of  the  American  Oriental 
Society,  vol.  xx  (1899),  p.  122  sqq. 


ghazAlI  383 

Fourth^   he   brought  philosophy  and   philosophical  theology 
within  the  range  of  the  ordinary  mind. 

I     "  Of  these  four  phases  of  al-Ghazzall's  work,"  says  Macdonald,  "  the 

first  and  third  are  undoubtedly  the  most  important.     He  made  his 

mark  by  leading  Islam  back  to  its  fundamental  and  his- 

Ghazairs  work   torical  facts,  and  by  giving  a  place  in  its  system  to  the 

emotional  religious  life.     But  it  will  have  been  noticed 

that  in  none  of  the  four  phases  was  he  a  pioneer.     He  was  not  a 

scholar  who  struck  out  a  new  path,  but  a  man  of  intense  personahty 

who  entered  on  a  path  already  trodden  and  made  it  the  common 

highway.     We   have   here    his   character.     Other    men   may  have 

been    keener    logicians,   more    learned    theologians,    more    gifted 

saints ;  but  he,  through  his  personal  experiences,  had  attained  so 

overpowering  a  sense  of  the  divine  realities  that  the  force  of  his 

character — once  combative  and  restless,  now  narrowed  and  intense 

—swept  all  before  it,  and  the  Church  of  Islam  entered  on  a  new  era 

of  its  existence." 

I 


•    III.  We  have  traced  the  history  of  Mysticism  in  Islam  from 
the  ascetic  movement  of  the  first  century,  in  vi'hich  it  originated, 

to  a  point   where  it    begins    to   pass  beyond   the 
-IS^ 'period,  sphere  of  Muhammadan  influence    and  to  enter 

on  a  strange  track,  of  which  the  Prophet  assuredly 
never  dreamed,  although  the  Sufi's  constantly  pretend  that  they 
alone  are  his  true  followers.  I  do  not  think  it  can  be  main- 
tained that  Sufiism  of  the  theosophical  and  pantheistic  type, 
which  we  have  now  to  consider,  is  merely  a  development  of  the 
older  asceticism  and  quietism  which  have  been  described  in  a 
former  chapter.  The  diflFerence  between  them  is  essential  and 
must  be  attributed,  as  Von  Kremer  saw,i  to  the  intrusion  of 
some  extraneous,  non-Islamic,  element.  As  to  the  nature  of 
this  new  element  there  are  several  conflicting  theories,  which 
have  been  so  clearly  and  fully  stated  by  Professor  Browne  in 
his  Literary  History  of  Persia  (vol.  i,  p.  418  sqq.)  that  I  need 
not  dwell  upon  them  here.     Briefly  it  is  claimed — 

'  Herrschendc  Ideen,  p.  67. 


384  MYSTICISM 

[a)  That  Sufiism  owes  its  inspiration  to  Indian  philosophy, 
and  especially  to  the  Vedanta. 

{}))  That    the  most    characteristic   ideas    in   Sufiism  are   of 
Persian  origin. 

(c)  That  these  ideas  are  derived  from  Neo-platonism. 
Instead  of  arguing  for  or  against  any  of  the  above  theories, 
all  of  u^hich,  in  my  opinion,  contain  a  measure  of  truth,  I 
propose  in  the  following  pages  to  sketch  the  historical  evolution 
of  the  Sufi  doctrine  as  far  as  the  materials  at  my  disposal  will 
permit.  This,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  only  possible  method  by 
which  we  may  hope  to  arrive  at  a  definite  conclusion  as  to  its 
origin.  Since  mysticism  in  all  ages  and  countries  is  funda- 
mentally the  same,  however  it  may  be  modified  by  its  peculiar 
environment,  and  by  the  positive  religion  to  which  it  clings 
for  support,  we  find  remote  and  unrelated  systems  showing 
an  extraordinarily  close  likeness  and  even  coinciding  in  many 
features  of  verbal  expression.  Such  resemblances  can  prove 
little  or  nothing  unless  they  are  corroborated  by  evidence 
based  on  historical  grounds.  Most  writers  on  Sufiism  have 
disregarded  this  principle ;  hence  the  confusion  which  exists  at 
present.  The  first  step  in  the  right  direction  was  made  by 
Adalbert  Merx,  ^  who  derived  valuable  results  from  a  chrono- 
logical examination  of  the  sayings  of  the  early  Siifis.  He  did 
not,  however,  carry  his  researches  beyond  Abii  Sulayman 
al-Ddrani  (f  830  A.D.),  and  confined  his  attention  almost 
entirely  to  the  doctrine,  which,  according  to  my  view,  should 
be  studied  in  connection  with  the  lives,  character,  and  nation- 
ality of  the  men  who  taught  it.^  No  doubt  the  origin  and 
growth  of  mysticism  in  Islam,  as  in  all  other  religions,  ultimately 
depended  on  general  causes  and  conditions,  not  on   external 

'  Idee  und  Grundlinien  ciner  allgcmciner  Geschichte  dcr  Mystik,  an 
academic  oration  delivered  on  November  22,  1892,  and  published  at 
Heidelberg  in  1893. 

'  The  following  sketch  is  founded  on  my  paper,  A  Histoncal  Enquiry 
coticerning  the  Origin  and  Development  of  Sufiism  (J.R.A.S.,  April,  1906, 
p.  303  sqq). 


I 


PRINCIPLES   OF  INVESTIGATION      385 

circumstances.  For  example,  the  political  anarchy  of  the 
Umayyad  period,  the  sceptical  tendencies  of  the  early  '  Ab- 
bisid  age,  and  particularly  the  dry  formalism  or  Moslem 
theology  could  not  fail  to  provoke  counter-movements  towards 
quietism,  spiritual  authority,  and  emotional  faith.  But  although 
Siifiism  was  not  called  into  being  by  any  impulse  from  without 
(this  is  too  obvious  to  require  argument),  the  influences  or 
which  I  am  about  to  speak  have  largely  contributed  to  make 
it  what  it  is,  and  have  coloured  it  so  deeply  that  no  student  of 
the  history  of  Sufiism  can  afford  to  neglect  them. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  eighth   century  of  our   era    the 
influence  or  new  ideas  is  discernible  in  the  sayings  of  Ma'rui 

al-Karkhi  (t  815  a.d.),  a  contemporary  of  Fudayl 
Ma'ruf^a^KMkhi  ^^  cj^^^  ^^^  Shaqiq  of  Balkh.     He  was  born  in 

the  neighbourhood  of  Wdsit,  one  of  the  great 
cities  of  Mesopotamia,  and  the  name  of  his  father,  Ffruz,  or 
Firuzan,  shows  that  he  had  Persian  blood  in  his  veins.  MaVut 
was  a  client  [mawla)  of  the  Shi'ite  Imdm,  *Ali  b.  Musd 
al-Ridd,  in  whose  presence  he  made  profession  of  Islam  ;  for  he 
had  been  brought  up  as  a  Christian  (such  is  the  usual  account), 
or,  possibly,  as  a  Mandaean.  He  lived  during  the  reign 
of  Hariin  al-Rashid  in  the  Karkh  quarter  of  Baghdad,  where 
he  gained  a  high  reputation  for  saintliness,  so  that  his  tomb  in 
that  city  is  still  an  object  of  veneration.  He  is  described  as  a 
God-intoxicated  man,  but  in  this  respect  he  is  not  to  be  com- 
pared with  many  who  came  after  him.  Nevertheless,  he 
deserves  to  stand  at  the  head  of  the  theosophical  as  opposed 
to  the  ascetic  school  of  Sufis.  He  defined  Sufiism  as  "  the 
apprehension  of  Divine  realities  and  renunciation  of  human 
possessions."  I     Here  are  a  few  of  his  sayings  : — 

"  Love  is  not  to  be  learned  from  men ;  it  is  one  of  God's  gifts  and 
comes  of  His  grace. 


'  This,  so  far  as  I  know,  is  the  oldest  extant  definition  of  Sufiism, 

26 


386  MYSTICISM 

"  The  Saints  of  God  are  known  by  three  signs  :  their  thought  is  of 
God,  tlieir  dwelling  is  with  God,  and  their  business  is  in  God. 

"  If  the  gnostic  {'drif)  has  no  bliss,  yet  he  himself  is  in  every  bliss. 
"When  you  desire  anything  of  God,  swear  to  Him  by  me." 

From  these  last  words,  which  Ma*ruf  addressed  to  his  pupil 
Sarf  al-Saqatf,  it  is  manifest  that  he  regarded  himself  as  being 
in  the  most  intimate  communion  with  God. 

Abii  Sulaymdn   (t  830   a.d.),  the  next  great  name  in  the 

Sufi  biographies,  was  also  a  native  of  Wasit,  but   afterwards 

emigrated   to  Syria  and  settled  at   Ddrayd    (near 

ai-Darani^"    Damascus),  whencc  he  is  called  *  al-Darani.'      He 

developed  the  doctrine  of  gnosis  (;wflVzy^^).     Those 

who  are  familiar  with   the  language  of  European   mystics — 

illuminatioy  oculus  cordis^  Sec. — will  easily  interpret  such  sayings 

as  these : — 

"  None  refrains  from  the  lusts  of  this  world  save  him  in  whose 
heart  there  is  light  that  keeps  him  always  busied  with  the  next 
world. 

"When  the  gnostic's  spiritual  eye  is  opened,  his  bodily  eye  is  shut : 
they  see  nothing  but  Him. 

"  If  Gnosis  were  to  take  visible  form,  all  that  looked  thereon  would 
die  at  the  sight  of  its  beauty  and  loveliness  and  goodness  and  grace, 
and  every  brightness  would  become  dark  beside  the  splendour 
thereof.' 

"  Gnosis  is  nearer  to  silence  than  to  speech." 

We  now  come  to  Dhu  '1-Nun  al-Misri  (t  860  a.d.),  whom 

the  Suris  themselves  consider  to  be  the  primary  author  ot  their 

doctrine.2     That    he   at    all    events    contributed 

Dhu  'l-Niin  ,  ... 

al-Misri        morc    than    any  one  else   to  give  it    permanent 

shape  is  a  fact  which    is  amply  attested    by  the 

collection  of  his  sayings  preserved  in  'Attdr's  Memoirs  of  the 

'  It  is  impossible  not  to  recognise  the  influence  of  Greek  philosophy  in 
this  conception  of  Truth  as  Beauty. 

=  Jami  says  [Nafahdtu  'l-Uns,  ed.  by  Nassau  Lees,  p.  36)  :  "  He  is  the 
head  of  this  sect :  they  all  descend  from,  and  are  related  to,  him." 


DHU  'L-NUN  AL-MISRt  38; 

faints  and  in  other  works  of  the  same  Icind.i  It  is  clear  that 
the  theory  of  gnosis,  with  which  he  deals  at  great  length,  was 
the  central  point  in  his  system  ;  and  he  seems  to  have  intro- 
duced the  doctrine  that  true  knowledge  of  God  is  attained  only 
by  means  of  ecstasy  [wajd),  "The  man  that  knows  God 
best,"  he  said,  "  is  the  one  most  lost  in  Him."  Like  Dionysius, 
he  refused  to  make  any  positive  statements  about  the  Deity. 
"  Whatever  you  imagine,  God  is  the  contrary  of  that." 
Divine  love  he  regarded  as  an  ineffable  mystery  which  must 
not  be  revealed  to  the  profane.  All  this  is  the  very  essence 
of  the  later  Sufiism.  It  is  therefore  supremely  important 
to  ascertain  the  real  character  of  Dhu  '1-Nun  and  the  in- 
fluences to  which  he  was  subjected.  The  following  account 
gives  a  brief  summary  of  what  I  have  been  able  to  discover  ; 
fuller  details  will  be  found  in  the  article  mentioned  above. 

His  name  was  Abu  '1-Fayd  Thawbdn  b.  Ibrahim,  Dhu 
'1-Nun  (He  of  the  Fish)  being  a  sobriquet  referring  to  one 
of  his  miracles,  and  his  father  was  a  native  of  Nubia,  or  of 
Ikhmlm  in  Upper  Egypt.  Ibn  Khallikan  describes  Dhu 
'1-Nun  as  '  the  nonpareil  or  his  age  '  for  learning,  devotion, 
communion  with  the  Divinity  {Ml),  and  acquaintance  with 
literature  [adab)  ;  adding  that  he  was  a  philosopher  {hakim) 
and  spoke  Arabic  with  elegance.  The  people  of  Egypt, 
among  whom  he  lived,  looked  upon  him  as  a  zindlq  (free- 
thinker), and  he  was  brought  to  Baghddd  to  answer  this 
charge,  but  after  his  death  he  was  canonised.  In  the  Fihrist 
he  appears  among  "the  philosophers  who  discoursed  on 
alchemy,"  and  Ibnu  '1-Qifti  brackets  him  with  the  famous 
occultist  Jdbir  b.  Hayydn.  He  used  to  wander  (as  we  learn 
from  Mas'ud{)2  amidst  the  ruined  Egyptian  monuments, 
studying  the  inscriptions  and  endeavouring  to  decipher  the 
mysterious  figures  which  were  thought  to  hold  the  key  to  the 

'  See  'Attar's  Tadhkiratu  'l-Awliyd,  ed.  by  Nicholson,  Parti,   p.  114; 
Jami's  Nafahdt,  p.  35  ;  Ibn  Khallikan,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  i,  p.  291. 
2  Murujii  'l-Dhahab,  vol.  ii,  p.  401  seq. 


388  MYSTICISM 

lost  sciences  of  antiquity.     He  also  dabbled  in  medicine,  which, 
like  Paracelsus,  he  combined  with  alchemy  and  magic. 

Let  us  see  what  light  these  facts  throw  upon  the  origin  or 
the  Suff  theosophy.  Did  it  come  to  Egypt  from  India,  Persia, 
or  Greece  ? 

Considering  the  time,  place,  and  circumstances  in  which  it 
arose,  and  having  regard  to  the  character  of  the  man  who  bore 
the   chief  part   in    its    development,    we   cannot 
theosop^mcai     hesitate,    I    think,  to  assert   that  it  is    mainly  a 
■" '^™'        product  of  Greek  speculation.     Ma'ruf  al-Karkhi, 
Abu  Sulaymdn  al-Ddrdnf,  and  Dhu  '1-Nun  al-MisrI  all  three 
lived  and  died  in  the  period  (786-861  a.d.)  which  begins  with 
the  accession  of  Hdrun  al-Rashid  and    is  terminated  by  the 
death  of   Mutawakkil.     During  these  seventy-five  years  the 
stream  of  Hellenic  culture  flowed  unceasingly  into  the  Moslem 
world.     Innumerable  works  of  Greek  philosophers,  physicians, 
and  scientists  were  translated  and  eagerly  studied.     Thus  the 
Greeks  became  the  teachers  of  the  Arabs,  and  the  wisdom  o£ 
ancient    Greece   formed,  as    has    been  shown  in  a  preceding 
chapter,  the  basis  of  Muhammadan  science  and   philosophy. 
The  results  are  visible  in  the  Mu'tazilite  rationalism  as  well  aS; 
in  the  system  of  the  Ikhwdnu  U-Safd.     But  it  was  not  through 
literature  alone  that  the  Moslems  were  imbued  with  Hellenism, 
In  Syria  and  Egypt  they  found  themselves  on  its  native  soil,;  ,| 
which  yielded,  we  may  be  sure,  a  plentiful  harvest  of  ideas — ► 
Neo-platonistic,  Gnostical,  Christian,  mystical,  pantheistic,  and 
what  not  ?     In  Mesopotamia,  the  heart  of  the  'Abbasid  Empire, 
dwelt  a  strange  people,  who  were  really  Syrian  heathens,  but  ill 
who  towards  the  beginning  ot  the  ninth  century  assumed  the| 
name  of  Sdbians  in  order  to  protect  themselves  from  the  per- 
secution  with    which    they  were   threatened    by    the   Caliph 
Ma'mun.     At   this    time,    indeed,   many   of    them    accepted    j^! 
Islam    or    Christianity,    but   the  majority  clung  to  their  old  ' 
pagan  beliefs,  while  the  educated  class  continued  to  profess  a      i 
religious  philosophy  which,  as  it  is  described  by  Shahrastdni  and 


ORIGIN  OF  StlFI  THEOSOPHY       389 

i{  other  Muhammadan  writers,  is  simply  the  Neo-platonism  of 
Proclus  and  lamblichus.  To  return  to  Dhu  '1-Nun,  it  is 
incredible  that  a  mystic  and  natural  philosopher  living  in  the 

II  first  half  of  the  ninth  century  in  Egypt  should  have  derived  his 
doctrine  directly  from  India.  There  may  be  Indian  elements 
in  Neo-platonism  and  Gnosticism,  but  this  possibility  does  not 
affect  my  contention  that  the  immediate  source  of  the  Sufi 
theosophy  is  to  be  sought  in  Greek  and  Syrian  speculation. 
To  define  its  origin  more  narrowly  is  not,  I  think,  practicable 
in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge.  Merx,  however,  would 
trace  it  to  Dionysius,  the  Pseudo-Areopagite,  or  rather  to  his 
master,  a  certain  "  Hierotheus,"  whom  Frothingham  has 
identified  with  the  Syrian  mystic,  Stephen  bar  Sudaili  {circa 
500  A.D.).  Dionysius  was  of  course  a  Christian  Neo-platonist. 
His  works  certainly  laid  the  foundations  of  mediaeval  mysticism 
in  Europe,  and  they  were  also  popular  in  the  East  at  the  time 
when  Sufiism  arose. 

When  speaking  of  the  various  current  theories  as  to  the 
;    origin  of  Sufiism,  I  said  that  in  my  opinion  they  all  contained 
a  measure  of  truth.     No  single  cause  will  account 
^olied^f  m^'     for  a  phenomenon  so  widely  spread  and  so  diverse 
elements.       •"   i^^  manifestations.      Sufiism    has   always    been 
thoroughly    eclectic,  absorbing   and    transmuting 
whatever  ^broken  lights'  fell  across  its  path,  and  consequently 
it  gained  adherents  amongst  men  of  the  most  opposite  views — 
theists  and  pantheists,  Mu'tazilites  and  Scholastics,  philosophers 
and  divines.     We  have  seen  what  it  owed  to  Greece,  but  the 
Perso-Indian  elements  are  hardly  less    important.     Although 
the  theory  "  that  it  must  be  regarded  as  the  reaction  of  the 
Aryan  mind  against  a  Semitic  religion  imposed  on  it  by  force  " 
is   inadmissible — Dhu  '1-Nun,    for   example,    was  a  Copt   or 
Nubian — the  fact  remains  that  there  was  at  the  time  a  powerful 
anti-Semitic  reaction,  which  expressed  itself,  more  or  less  con- 
sciously, in   Sufi's   of  Persian   race.      Again,  the  literary  in- 
fluence of  India  upon  Muhammadan  thought  before  lOOO  a.d. 


390  MYSTICISM 

was  greatly  inferior  to  that  of  Greece,  as  any  one  can  see 
by  turning  over  the  pages  of  the  Fihrist ;  but  Indian  religious 
ideas  must  have  penetrated  into  Khurdsdn  and  Eastern  Persia 
at  a  much  earlier  period. 

These  considerations  show  that  the  question  as  to  the  origin 
of  Sufiism  cannot  be  answered  in  a  definite  and  exclusive  way. 
None  of  the  rival  theories  is  completely  true,  nor  is  any  of 
them  without  a  partial  justification.  The  following  words  of 
Dr.  Goldziher  should  be  borne  in  mind  by  all  who  are 
interested  in  this  subject : — 

"§ufiisin  cannot  be  looked  upon  as  a  regularly  organised  sect  within 
Islam.     Its  dogmas  cannot  be  compiled  into  a  regular  system.     It 
manifests    itself    in     different    shapes    in    different 
character"f  ^     Countries.     We  find  divergent  tendencies,  according 
siifiism.  J.Q  j.j^g  spirit  of  the  teaching  of  distinguished  theoso- 

phists  who  were  founders  of  different  schools,  the  followers  of 
which  may  be  compared  to  Christian  monastic  orders.  The  influ- 
ence of  different  environments  naturally  affected  the  development 
of  Sufiism.  Here  we  find  mysticism,  there  asceticism  the  prevailing 
thought." ' 

The  four  principal  sources  of  Sufiism  are  undoubtedly 
Christianity,  Neo-platonism,  Gnosticism,  and  Buddhism.  I 
shall  not  attempt  in  this  place  to  estimate  their  comparative 
importance,  but  it  should  be  clearly  understood  that  the  specu- 
lative and  theosophical  side  of  Sufiism,  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  first  elaborated  in  Egypt  and  Syria,  bears  unmistalcable 
signs  of  Hellenistic  influence. 

There  is  a  strong  pantheistic  tendency  in  the  sayings  or 
Dhu  '1-Nun  and  his  two  predecessors  who  have  been  men- 
tioned, yet  none  of  them  can  fairly  be  called  a  pantheist  in 
the  true  sense.     The  step  from  theosophy  to  pantheism  was 

'  The  Influence  of  Buddhism  upon  Islam,  by  I.  Goldziher  (Budapest, 
1903).  As  this  essay  is  written  in  Hungarian,  I  have  not  been  able  to  con- 
sult it  at  first  hand,  but  have  used  the  excellent  translation  by  Mr.  T. 
Duka,  which  appeared  in  the  J.K.A.S.  for  January,  1904,  pp.  125-141. 


bAyazid  of  BIST  Am  391 

first  openly  made  by  a  Persian,  the  celebrated  Abu  Yazld,  or 

Bdyazid  (t  874-875  a.d.),  of  Bistdm,  a  town  in  the  province 

of  Qumis  situated  near  the  south-eastern  corner 

Bdyazi'dand     gf    the    Caspian    Sea.       His    grandfather,    Suru- 

Sufi  pantheism.  ^  °  .  j     u  • 

shdn,  or  Sharwasan,  was  a  Zoroastrian,  and  his 
master  in  Sufiism  a  Kurd.  The  genuineness  of  all  the 
sayings  ascribed  to  him  is  not  above  suspicion,  but  they 
probably  represent  his  character  accurately  enough.  Bayazid 
introduced  the  doctrine  of  self-annihilation  {fand) — perhaps 
a  reflection  of  the  Buddhistic  Nirvana — and  his  language 
is  tinged  with  the  peculiar  poetic  imagery  which  was  after- 
wards developed  by  the  great  Siifi  of  Khurasan,  Abii  Sa'id 
b.  Abi  '1-Khayr  (t  1049  a.d.).  I  can  only  give  a  few 
specimens  of  his  sayings.  They  show  that,  if  the  theo- 
sophical  basis  of  Sufiism  is  distinctively  Greek,  its  pantheistic 
extravagances  are  no  less  distinctively  Oriental. 

"Creatures  are  subject  to  '  states'  {ahwdl),  but  the  gnostic  has  no 
'state,'  because  his  vestiges  are  effaced  and  his  essence  is  annihilated 
by  the  essence  of  another,  and  his  traces  are  lost  in  another's  traces. 

"  I  went  from  God  to  God  until  they  cried  from  me  in  me,  '  O 
Thou  I  !' 

"  Nothing  is  better  for  Man  than  to  be  without  aught,  having  no 
asceticism,  no  theory,  no  practice.  When  he  is  without  all,  he  is 
with  all. 

"  Verily  I  am  God,  there  is  no  God  except  me,  so  worship  me  ! 

"Glory  to  me  !  how  great  is  my  majesty  ! 

"  I  came  forth  from  Bayazid-ness  as  a  snake  from  its  skin.  Then 
I  looked.  I  saw  that  lover,  beloved,  and  love  are  one,  for  in  the 
world  of  unification  all  can  be  one. 

"  I  am  the  wine-drinker  and  the  wine  and  the  cup-bearer." 

Thus,  in  the  course  of  a  century,  Sufiism,  which  at  first 
was  little  more  than  asceticism,  became  in  succession  mystical 
and  theosophical,  and  finally  advanced  to  extreme  pantheism. 
Henceforward  the  term  Tasawwuf  unites  all  these  varying 
shades.  With  the  exception  of  Bdyazid,  however,  the  great 
Sufis   of  the   third   century   a.h.    (815-912    a.d.)    keep  the 


392  .    MYSTICISM 

doctrine  of  fana  in  the  background.  Most  of  them  agreed 
with  Junayd  of  Baghdad  (t  909  a.d.),  the  leading  theosophist 
of  his  time,  in  preferring  "  the  path  of  sobriety,"  and  in  seeking 
to  reconcile  the  Law  {shart'-at)  with  the  Truth  [haqiqat). 
"  Our  principles,"  said  Sahl  b.  'Abdulldh  al-Tustari  (t  896 
A.D.),  "are  six  :  to  hold  fast  by  the  Book  of  God,  to  model 
ourselves  upon  the  Apostle  (Muhammad),  to  eat  only  what  is 
lawful,  to  refrain  from  hurting  people  even  though  they  hurt 
us,  to  avoid  forbidden  things,  and  to  fulfil  obligations  without 
delay."  To  these  articles  the  strictest  Moslem  might  cheer- 
fully subscribe.  Siifiism  in  its  ascetic,  moral,  and  devotional 
aspects  was  a  spiritualised  Islam,  though  it  was  a  very  different 
thing  essentially.  While  doing  lip-service  to  the  established 
religion,  it  modified  the  dogmas  of  Islam  in  such  a  way  as  to 
deprive  them  of  all  significance.  Thus  Allah,  the  God  of 
mercy  and  wrath,  was  depersonalised  and  worshipped  as  an 
abstract  idea  under  the  title  of  '  The  Truth '  {Al-Haqq). 
Here  the  Suffs  betray  their  kinship  with  the  Mu'tazilites,  but 
the  two  sects  have  little  in  common  except  the  Greek  philo- 
sophy.i  It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  Siifiism  was  the 
expression  of  a  profound  religious  feeling — "hatred  of  the 
world  and  love  of  the  Lord."  2  "  Tasawwuf^'  said  Junayd,  "  is 
this  :  that  God  should  make  thee  die  from  thyself  and  should 
make  thee  live  in  Him." 

The  further  development  of  Siifiism  may  be  indicated  in  a 
few  words. 

What  was  at  first  a  form  of  religion  adopted  by  individuals 
and  communicated  to  a  small  circle  of  companions  gradually 
became  a  monastic  system,  a  school  for  saints,  with  rules 
of  discipline  and  devotion  which  the  novice  {murid)  learned 
from  his  spiritual  director  {pir  or  mtadh\  to  whose  guidance  he 

'  It  was  recognised  by  the  Sufis  themselves  that  in  some  points  their 
doctrine  was  apparently  based  on  Mu'tazilite  principles.  See  Sha'rani, 
Laiviiqihu  1-Anwdr  (Cairo,  1299  A.H.),  p.  14,  1-  21  sqq. 

»  This  definition  is  by  Abu  1-Husayn  al-Niiri  (f  907-908  A.U.). 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  SUFIISM  393 

submitted  himself  absolutely.  Already  in  the  third  century  after 
Muhammad  it  is  increasingly  evident  that  the  typical  Sufi  adept 

of  the  future  will  no  longer  be  a  solitary  ascetic 
^''"otsufiism.^"'  shunning  the  sight  of  men,  but  a  great  Shaykh  and 

hierophant,  who  appears  on  ceremonial  occasions 
attended  by  a  numerous  train  of  admiring  disciples.  Soon  the 
doctrine  began  to  be  collected  and  embodied  in  books.  Some 
of  the  most  notable  Arabic  works  of  reference  on  Sufiism  have 
been  mentioned  already.  The  oldest  is  the  Qiitu  U-Qulub,  by 
Abu  Talib  al-Makki,  who  died  in  996  a.d.  The  twelfth 
century  saw  the  rise  of  the  Dervish  Orders.  *Adi  al-Hakkari 
(t  1 163  A.D.)  and  'Abdu  '1-Qadir  al-Jili  (t  1166  a.d.)  founded 
the  fraternities  which  are  called  'Adawis  and  Qddirls,  after 
their  respective  heads.  These  were  followed  in  rapid  suc- 
cession by  the  Rifa'is,  the  Shadhills,  and  the  Mevlevls,  of  whom 
the  last  named  owe  their  origin  to  the  Persian  poet  and  mystic, 
Jalalu  '1-Dln  Rumi  (t  1273  a.d.).  By  this  time,  mainly 
through  the  influence  of  Ghazali,  Sufiism  had  won  for  itself  a 
secure  and  recognised  position  in  the  Muhammadan  Church. 
Orthodoxy  was  forced  to  accept  the  popular  Saint-worship  and 
to  admit  the  miracles  ot  the  Awliyd^  although  many  Moslem 
puritans  raised  their  voices  against  the  superstitious  veneration 
which  was  paid  to  the  tombs  of  holy  men,  and  against  the 
prayers,  sacrifices,  and  oblations  offered  by  the  pilgrims  who 
assembled.  Ghazdll  also  gave  the  Sufi  doctrine  a  metaphysical 
basis.  For  this  purpose  he  availed  himself  of  the  terminology, 
which  P'arabi  (also  a  Sufi)  and  Avicenna  had  already  borrowed 
from  the  Neo-platonists.  From  his  time  forward  we  find  in 
§uf{  writings  constant  allusions  to  the  Plotinian  theories  of 
emanation  and  ecstasy. 

Sufiism  was  more  congenial  to  the  Persians  than  to  the 
Arabs,  and  its  influence  on  Arabic  literature  is  not  to  be 
compared  with  the  extraordinary  spell  which  it  has  cast 
over   the    Persian    mind    since    the   eleventh    century  of  the 


394  MYSTICISM 

Christian  era  to  the  present  day.     With  few  exceptions,  the 

great  poets  of  Persia  (and,  we  may  add,  of  Turkey)  speak  the 

allegorical  language  and  use  the  fantastic   imagery  of  which 

the  quatrains  of  the  Sufi  pantheist,  Abu  Sa'Id  b.  Abi  '1-Khayr,i 

afford  almost  the  first  literary  example.     The  Arabs  have  only 

one  mystical  poet  worthy  to  stand  beside  the  Persian  masters. 

This  is  Sharafu  '1-DIn  'Umar  Ibnu  '1-F^rid,  who 

^T-Fadd!"      was  born  in  Cairo  (ii8l  a.d.)  and  died  there  in 

1235.       His  Dlwdn  was  edited  by  his  grandson 

*AH,  and   the  following  particulars  regarding  the  poet's   life 

are  extracted  from  the   biographical  notice    prefixed    to    this 

edition  2  : — 

"  The  Shaykh  'Umar  Ibnu  '1-Fdrid  was  of  middle  stature  ;  his  face 
was  fair   and   comely,   with  a   mingling  of  visible    redness  ;  and 
when   he  was   under   the  influence  of  music  {samd')  and   rapture 
(wajd),  and   overcome   by   ecstasy,   it  grew   in  beauty  and   brilli- 
ancy,  and   sweat    dropped   from    his    body   until  it    ran   on    the 
ground    under     his     feet.      I    never    saw     (so    his    son    relates) 
among  Arabs  or  foreigners  a  figure   equal   in   beauty  to  his,  and 
I   am  the  likest   of  all  men   to  him   in  form.  .  .  .  And  when  he 
walked  in  the  city,  the  people  used  to  press  round  him  asking  his 
blessing  and  trying  to  kiss  his  hand,  but  he  would  not  allow  any  one 
to  do  so,  but  put  his  hand  in  theirs.  .  .  .  'Umar  Ibnu  '1-Farid  said : 
'  In  the  beginning  of  my  detachment  {tajrid)  from  the  world  I  used 
to  beg  permission  of  my  father  and  go  up  to  the  Wadi  '1-Mustad'afin 
on  the  second  mountain  of  al-Muqattam.     Thither  I  would  resort 
and  continue  in  this  hermit  life  (siydha)  night  and  day  ;  then  I  would 
return  to  my  father,  as  bound  in  duty  to  cherish  his  affection.     My 
father   was  at  that  time  Lieutenant  of  the  High  Court  {khalifaiu 
'l-hukmi  'l-'aziz)  in  Qahira  and  Misr,3  the  two  guarded  cities,  and  was 
one  of  the  men  most  eminent  for  learning  and  affairs.     He  was 
wont  to  be  glad  when  I  returned,  and  he  frequently  let  me  sit  with 
him  in  the  chambers  of  the  court  and  in  the  colleges  of  law.    Then 
I  would  long  for  "  detachment,"  and  beg  leave  to  return  to  the  life  of 


'  See  Professor  Browne's  Lit.  Hist  of  Persia,  vol.  ii,  p.  261  sqq. 
^  The  Diwdn  of  'Umar  Ibnu  'l-Fdrid,  ed.   by  Rushayd    al-Dahdalj 
(Marseilles,  1853). 

3  I.e.,  New  and  Old  Cairo. 


'UMAR  IBNU  'L-FARW  395 

a  wandering  devotee,  and  thus  I  was  doing  repeatedly,  until  my 
father  was  asked  to  fill  the  office  of  Chief  Justice  {Qddi  'l-Quddi),  hut 
refused,  and  laid  down  the  post  which  he  held,  and  retired  from 
society,  and  gave  himself  entirely  to  God  in  the  preaching-hall 
{qd'aiu  'l-khitdba)  of  the  Mosque  al-Azhar.  After  his  death  I 
resumed  my  former  detachment,  and  solitary  devotion,  and  travel 
in  the  way  of  Truth,  but  no  revelation  was  vouchsafed  to  me.  One 
day  I  came  to  Cairo  and  entered  the  Sayfiyya  College.  At  the  gate 
I  found  an  old  grocer  performing  an  ablution  which  was  not 
prescribed.  First  he  washed  his  hands,  then  his  feet ;  then  he  wiped 
his  head  and  washed  his  face.  "  O  Shaykh,"  I  said  to  him,  "  do  you, 
after  all  these  years,  stand  beside  the  gate  of  the  college  among  the 
Moslem  divines  and  perform  an  irregular  ablution  ?"  He  looked  at 
me  and  said,  "  O  'Umar,  nothing  will  be  vouchsafed  to  thee  in  Egypt, 
but  only  in  the  Hijaz,  at  Mecca  (may  God  exalt  it  !) ;  set  out  thither, 
for  the  time  of  thy  illumination  hath  come."  Then  I  knew  that  the 
man  was  one  of  God's  saints  and  that  he  was  disguising  himself  by 
his  manner  of  livelihood  and  by  pretending  to  be  ignorant  of  the 
irregularity  of  the  ablution.  I  seated  myself  before  him  and  said 
to  him, "  O  my  master,  how  far  am  I  from  Mecca  !  and  I  cannot  find 
convoy  or  companions  save  in  the  months  of  Pilgrimage."  He  looked 
at  me  and  pointed  with  his  hand  and  said,  "  Here  is  Mecca  in  front 
of  thee"  ;  and  as  I  looked  with  him,  I  saw  Mecca  (may  God  exalt 
it !) ;  and  bidding  him  farewell,  I  set  off  to  seek  it,  and  it  was  always 
in  front  of  me  until  I  entered  it.  At  that  moment  illumination  came 
to  me  and  continued  without  any  interruption.  ...  I  abode  in  a 
valley  which  was  distant  from  Mecca  ten  days'  journey  for  a  hard 
rider,  and  every  day  and  night  I  would  come  forth  to  pray  the  five 
prayers  in  the  exalted  Sanctuary,  and  with  me  was  a  wild  beast  of 
huge  size  which  accompanied  me  in  my  going  and  returning,  and 
knelt  to  me  as  a  camel  kneels,  and  said,  "  Mount,  O  my  master,"  but 
I  never  did  so.'  " 

When  fifteen  years  had  elapsed,  'Umar  Ibnu  '1-Farid 
returned  to  Cairo.  The  people  venerated  him  as  a  saint, 
and  the  reigning  monarch,  Malik  al-Kdmil,  wished  to  visit 
him  in  person,  but  'Umar  declined  to  see  him,  and  rejected  his 
bounty.  "  At  most  times,"  says  the  poet's  son,  "  the  Shaykh 
was  in  a  state  of  bewilderment,  and  his  eyes  stared  fixedly. 
He  neither  heard  nor  saw  any  one  speaking  to  him.  Now  he 
would  stand,  now   sit,  now   repose  on  his  side,  now  lie  on  his 


396  MYSTICISM 

back  wrapped  up  like  a  dead  man  ;  and  thus  would  he  pass 
ten  consecutive  days,  more  or  less,  neither  eating  nor  drinking 
nor  speaking  nor  stirring."  In  1231  a.d.  he  made  the 
pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  on  which  occasion  he  met  his  famous 
contemporary,  Shihabu'  1-Dln  Abu  Hafs  'Umar  al-Suhrawardi. 
He  died  four  years  later,  and  was  buried  in  the  Oarafa 
cemetery  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Muqattam. 

His  Diwan  of  mystical  odes,  which  were  first  collected  and 
published  by  his  grandson,  is  small  in  extent  compared  with 
similar  works  in  the  Persian  language,  but  of  no 
ibnuU-Farid.  unusual  brevity  when  regarded  as  the  production 
of  an  Arabian  poet.i  Concerning  its  general 
character  something  has  been  said  above  (p.  325).  The  com- 
mentator, Hasan  al-Burlni  (t  1615  a.d.),  praises  the  easy 
flow  {insijdm)  of  the  versification,  and  declares  that  Ibnu 
'1-Farid  "  is  accustomed  to  play  with  ideas  in  ever-changing 
forms,  and  to  clothe  them  with  splendid  garments."  ^  His 
style,  full  of  verbal  subtleties,  betrays  the  influence  of 
Mutanabbi.3  The  longest  piece  in  the  Diwdn  is  a  Hymn  of 
Divine  Love,  entitled  Nazmu  U-Suluk  ('  Poem  on  the  Mystic's 
Progress '),  and  often  called  al-Taiyyatu  U-Kubrd  ('  The  Greater 
Ode  rhyming  in  t '),  which  has  been  edited  with  a  German 
verse-translation  by  Hammer-Purgstall  (Vienna,  1854).  On 
account  of  this  poem  the  author  was  accused  of  favouring  the 
doctrine  of  hulid^  i.e.^  the  incarnation  of  God  in  human  beings. 
Another  celebrated  ode  is  the  Khamriyya,  or  Hymn  of  Wine.4 

'  The  Diwdn,  excluding  the  Td'tyyatu  'l-Kubrd,  has  been  edited  by 
Rushayd  al-Dahdah  (Marseilles,  1853). 

=  Diwdn,  p.  219,  1.  14  and  p.  213,  1. 18. 

3  Ibnu  '1-Farid,  like  Mutanabbi,  shows  a  marked  fondness  for  diminu- 
tives.   As  he  observes  {Diwdn,  p.  552)  : — 

md  qultti  hubayyibi  tnina  'l-tahqiri 

bal  ya^dhubu  'smu  'l-shakhsi  bi-l-tasghiri. 

"Not  in  contempt  I  say  'my  darling.'     No  ! 
By  '  diminution'  names  do  sweeter  grow." 

*  Diwdn,  p.  472  sqq.  A  French  rendering  will  be  found  at  p.  41  of 
Grangeret  de  Lagrange's  Anthologie  Arabe  (Paris,  1828). 


'UMAR  IBNU  'L-FARW  397 

The  following  versions  will  perhaps  convey  to  English  readers 
some  faint  impression  of  the  fervid  rapture  and  almost  ethereal 
exaltation  which  give  the  poetry  of  Ibnu  '1-Fdrid  a  unique 
place  in  Arabic  literature  : — 

"  Let  passion's  swelling  tide  my  senses  drown  ! 
Pity  love's  fuel,  this  long-smouldering  heart, 
Nor  answer  with  a  frown. 
When  I  would  fain  behold  Thee  as  Thou  art, 
'  Thou  Shalt  not  see  Me! '    O  my  soul,  keep  fast 
The  pledge  thou  gav'st :  endure  unfaltering  to  the  last  ! 
For  Love  is  life,  and  death  in  love  the  Heaven 
Where  all  sins  are  forgiven. 
To  those  before  and  after  and  of  this  day. 
That  witnesseth  my  tribulation,  say, 
'  By  me  be  taught,  me  follow,  me  obey, 
And  tell  my  passion's  story  thro'  wide  East  and  West.' 
With  my  Beloved  I  alone  have  been 
When  communings  more  sweet  than  evening  airs 
Passed,  and  the  Vision  blest 
Was  granted  to  my  prayers, 

That  crowned  me,  else  obscure,  with  endless  fame. 
The  while  amazed  between 
His  beauty  and  His  majesty 
I  stood  in  silent  ecstasy, 

Revealing  that  which  o'er  my  spirit  went  and  came. 
Lo  !  in  His  face  commingled 
Is  every  charm  and  grace ; 
The  whole  of  Beauty  singled 
Into  a  perfect  face 
Beholding  Him  would  cry, 
'  There  is  no  God  but  He,  and  He  is  the  most  High  1 '"  ^ 

Here  are  the  opening  verses  of  the  Taiyyatu  'l-Sughrd^  or 
'The  Lesser  Ode  rhyming  in  f,'  which  is  so  called  in  order  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  Ta'iyyatu  U-Kuhrd  : — 

"  Yea,  in  me  the  Zephyr  kindled  longing,  O  my  loves,  for  you  ; 
Sweetly  breathed  the  balmy  Zephyr,   scattering  odours  when  it 
blew  ; 

'  The  words  of  God  to  Moses  (Kor.  vii,  139)-  '  Diwdn,  p.  257  sqq. 


398  MYSTICISM 

Whispering  to  my  heart  at  morning  secret  tales  of  those  who 

dwell 
(How  my  fainting  heart  it  gladdened  !)  nigh  the  water  and  the 

well  ; 
Murmuring  in  the  grassy  meadows,  garmented  with  gentleness, 
Languid  love-sick  airs  diffusing,  healing  me  of  my  distress. 
When  the  green  slopes  wave  before  thee,  Zephyr,  in  my  loved 

Hij^z, 
Thou,  not   wine  that   mads   the  others,  art   my  rapture's  only 

cause. 
Thou  the  covenant  eternal '  callest  back  into  my  mind, 
For  but   newly  thou  hast   parted  from   my  dear   ones,  happy 

Wind  ! 
Driver  of  the  dun-red  camels  that  amidst  acacias  bide, 
Soft  and  sofa-like  thy  saddle  from  the  long  and  weary  ride  ! 
Blessings  on  thee,  if  descrying  far-off  Tiidih  at  noon-day, 
Thou  wilt  cross  the  desert  hollows  where  the  fawns  of  Wajra 

play. 
And  if  from  'Urayd's  sand-hillocks  bordering  on  stony  ground 
Thou  wilt  turn  aside  to  Huzwa,  driver  for  Suwayqa  bound, 
And  Tuwayli"s  willows  leaving,  if  to  Sal'  thou  thence  wilt  ride — 
Ask,  I  pray  thee,  of  a  people  dweUing  on  the  mountain-side  ! 
Halt  among  the  clan  I  cherish  (so  may  health  attend  thee  still  !) 
And  deliver  there  my  greeting  to  the  Arabs  of  the  hill. 
For  the  tents  are  basking  yonder,  and  in  one  of  them  is  She 
That  bestows  the  meeting  sparely,  but  the  parting  lavishly. 
Spears  and  arrows  make  the  rampart  of  her  maiden  puissance. 
Yet  my  glances  stray  towards  her  when  on  me  she  deigns  to 

glance. 
Girt  about   with  double   raiment — soul   and   heart  of  mine,  no 

less — 
She  is  guarded  from  beholders,  veiled  by  her  unveiledness. 
Death  to  me,  in  giving  loose  to  my  desire,  she  destineth  ; 
Ah,  how  goodly  seems  the  bargain,  and  how  cheap  is  Love  for 

Death  !  ^ 

Ibnu  '1-Farid    came   or    pure    Arab   stock,   and   his  poetry 
is  thoroughly  Arabian    both   in  form  and  spirit.     This  is  not 

'  This  refers  to  Kor.  vii,  171.  God  drew  forth  from  the  loins  of  Adam 
all  future  generations  of  men  and  addressed  them,  saying,  "  Am  not  I  your 
Lord?"  They  answered,  "  Yes,"  and  thus,  according  to  the  Sufi  inter- 
pretation, pledged  themselves  to  love  God  for  evermore. 

'  Diwdn,  p.  142  sqq. 


MUHIYVU  'L'D/N  IBNU  'L-'ARABf      399 

the  place  to  speak  of  the  great  Persian  Suffs,  but  Husayn 
b.  Mansiir  al-Hallaj,  a  wild  antinomian  pantheist  who  was 
executed  in  the  Caliphate  of  Muqtadir  (922  a.d.),  could  not 
have  been  altogether  omitted  but  for  the  fact  that  Professor 
Browne  has  already  given  a  most  admirable  account  of  him, 
to  which  I  am  unable  to  add  anything  of  importance.^ 
The  Arabs,  however,  have  contributed  to  the  history  of 
Sufiism  another  memorable  name — Muhiyyu  '1-Dln  Ibnu 
'l-'Arabl,  whose  life  falls  within  the  final  century  of  the 
'Abbdsid  period,  and  will  therefore  fitly  conclude  the  present 
chapter. 2 

Muhiyyu  '1-Dfn  Muhammad  b.  'AH  Ibnu  'l-'Arabf  (or  Ibn 

'Arabi)  3  was  born  at  Mursiya  (Murcia)  in  Spain  on  the   17th 

of  Ramaddn,    560    a.h.  =  July    20,    116^    a.d. 

Ibnu 'l-'Arabi.  •       t     J  j      j         y)  j 

l*rom  1 173  to  1202  he  resided  in  Seville.  He 
then  set  out  for  the  East,  travelling  by  way  of  Egypt  to  the 
Hijdz,  where  he  stayed  a  long  time,  and  after  visiting  Baghddd, 
Mosul,  and  Asia  Minor,  finally  settled  at  Damascus,  in  which 
city  he  died  (638  a.h.  =  1240  a.d.).  His  tomb  below  Mount 
Qdsiyun  was  thought  to  be  "  a  piece  of  the  gardens  of 
Paradise,"  and  was  called  the  Philosophers'  Stone.4  It  is 
now  enclosed  in  a  mosque  which  bears  the  name  of 
Muhiyyu  '1-Din,  and  a  cupola  rises  over  it.S  We  know  hardly 
anything  concerning  the  events  of  his  life,  which  seems  to 
have  been  passed  in  quiet  meditation  and  in  the  composition 

'  See  A  Literary  History  of  Persia,  vol.  i,  p.  428  sqq. 

=  The  best  known  biography  of  Ibnu  'l-'Arabi  occurs  in  Maqqari's 
Nafhu  'l-Tib,  ed.  by  Dozy  and  others,  vol.  i,  pp.  567-583.  Much  additional 
information  is  contained  in  a  lengthy  article,  which  I  have  extracted  from 
a  valuable  MS.  in  my  collection,  the  Shadharatu  'l-Dhakab,  and  published 
in  the  J.R.A.S.  for  1906,  pp.  806-824.  Cf.  also  Von  Kremer's  Herrschende 
Idcen,  pp.  102-109. 

3  Muhiyyu  '1-Din  means  '  Reviver  of  Religion.'  In  the  West  he  was 
called  Ibnu  'l-'Arabi,  but  the  Moslems  of  the  East  left  out  the  definite 
article  [al)  in  order  to  distinguish  him  from  the  Cadi  Abu  Bakr  Ibnu 
'l-'Arabi  of  Seville  (f  1151  a.d.). 

''  Al-Kibrit  al-ahmar  (literally,  '  the  red  sulphur '). 

s  See  Von  Kremer,  op.  cit,  p.  108  seq. 


400  MYSTICISM 

of  his  voluminous  writings,  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty 

in  number  according  to  his  own  computation.     Two  of  these 

works  are  especially  celebrated,  and  have  caused  Ibnu  'l-'Arab{ 

to  be  regarded  as  the  greatest  of  all  Muhammadan  mystics — 

the  Fiituhdt  al-Makkiyya^  or  '  Meccan   Revelations,'  and  the 

Fususii  'l-Hikam^  or  '  Bezels  of  Philosophy.'      The  Futuhdt  is 

a  huge  treatise  in  five  hundred  and  sixty  chapters,  containing  a 

complete  system  of  mystical  science.     The  author  relates  that 

he  saw  Muhammad  in  the  World  of  Real  Ideas,  seated  on  a 

throne  amidst  angels,  prophets,  and  saints,  and  received  his 

command  to  discourse  on  the  Divine  mysteries.     At  another 

time,  while  circumambulating  the  Ka'ba,  he  met  a  celestial 

spirit  wearing  the  form  of  a  youth  engaged  in  the  same  holy 

rite,  who  showed    him  the  living  esoteric  Temple  which  is 

concealed    under    the    lifeless    exterior,    even    as    the    eternal 

substance  of  the  Divine  Ideas  is  hidden  by  the  veils  of  popular 

religion — veils  through  which  the  lofty  mind  must  penetrate, 

until,  having  reached  the  splendour  within,  it  partakes  of  the 

Divine  character  and  beholds  what  no  mortal  eye  can  endure 

to  look  upon.     Ibnu  'l-'Arabi  immediately  fell  into  a  swoon. 

When  he  came  to  himself  he  was  instructed  to  contemplate 

the  visionary  form  and  to  write  down  the  mysteries  which  it 

would  reveal  to  his  gaze.     Then  the  youth  entered  the  Ka'ba 

with  Ibnu  'l-*Arab{,  and  resuming  his  spiritual  aspect,  appeared 

to  him  on  a  three-legged  steed,  breathed  into  his  breast  the 

knowledge  of  all  things,  and  once  more  bade  him  describe  the 

heavenly  form  in  which  all  mysteries  are  enshrined. i     Such  is 

the  reputed  origin  of  the  '  Meccan  Revelations,'  of  which  the 

greater  portion   was  written  in   the  town  where   inspiration 

descended    on    Muhammad  six  hundred    years    before.     The 

author   believed,    or    pretended    to    believe,   that   every  word 

of  them  was  dictated  to  him  by   supernatural   means.     The 

'  The  above  particulars  are  derived  from  an  abstract  of  the  Futuhdt 
made  by  'Abdu  '1-Wahhab  al-Sha'rani  (t  1565  a.d.),  of  which  Fleischer  has 
given  a  full  description  in  the  Catalogue  of  Manuscripts  in  the  Leipzig 
Univ.  Library  (1838),  pp.  490-495. 


I" 


MUHIYYU  'L-DlN  IBNU  'L-'ARABf      401 

Fuius^  a  short  work  in  twenty-seven  chapters,  each  of  which 
is  named  after  one  of  the  prophets,  is  no  less  highly  esteemed, 
and  has  been  the  subject  of  numerous  commentaries  in  Arabic, 
Persian,  and  Turkish. 

We  cannot  here  attempt  to  summarise  the  abstruse,  fantastic, 
and  interminable  speculations  which  Ibnu  'l-'Arabi  presents  to 
his  readers  in  the  guise  of  Heavenly  Truth,  nor  would  it  be 
easy  to  sketch  even  the  outlines  of  his  theosophical  system 
until  the  copious  materials  at  our  disposal  have  been  more 
thoroughly  studied  by  some  European  scholar  interested  in 
Sufiism.  The  following  sayings  and  verses  may  be  taken  as 
samples  : — 

"  Prayer  (rfw'a)  is  the  marrow  of  devotion.  As  the  marrow  gives 
strength  to  the  limbs,  so  the  devotion  of  devotees  is  strengthened 
by  prayer. 

"  The  Sufi  is  he  that  drops  the  three  f's,  saying  neither  '  to  me '  (}i) 
nor  'beside  me'  {'indi)  nor  'my  property'  {niatd'i),  that  is,  he  does 
not  attribute  anything  to  himself. 

"  It  is  no  fault  in  the  gnostic  to  say  to  his  disciple,  '  Receive  this 
knowledge  which  you  will  not  find  in  any  one  except  me,'  and 
to  use  like  terms  of  self-glorification,  because  his  intention  is  to 
encourage  the  pupil  to  learn.  ■* 

"  When  a  man  is  truly  grounded  in  Unification  (tawhid),  every  false 
pretence,  such  as  hypocrisy  and  conceit,  departs  from  him,  for  he 
feels  that  all  praiseworthy  qualities  belong  to  God,  not  to  himself. 

"  Do  not  let  doubt  enter  into  the  mysteries  of  theosophy  :  its  place 
is  only  in  the  speculative  sciences. 

"  The  whole  sect  (of  Sufis)  are  agreed  that  knowledge  of  God  is 
utter  ignorance  of  Him. 

"  I  know  the  greatest  name  of  God  and  I  know  the  Philosophers' 
Stone  {al-Kimiyd}." 

"  O  Pearl  Divine,  white  Pearl  that  in  a  shell 
Of  dark  mortahty  art  made  to  dwell  ! 
Alas,  while  common  gems  we  prize  and  hoard, 
Thy  worth  inestimable  is  still  ignored  ! "  ' 


Maqqari,  vol.  i,  p.  570, 1.  7. 
27 


402  MYSTICISM 

"  My  heart  is  capable  of  every  form  : 
A  cloister  for  the  monk,  a  fane  for  idols, 
A  pasture  for  gazelles,  the  votary's  Ka'ba, 
The  tables  of  the  Torah,  the  Koran. 
Love  is  the  creed  I  hold  :  wherever  turn 
His  camels.  Love  is  still  my  creed  and  faith." ' 

Curiously  enough,  Ibnu  'l-'Arabf  combined  the  most  extrava- 
gant mysticism  vs^ith  the  straitest  orthodoxy.  "  He  vi^as  a 
Zahirite  (literalist)  in  his  devotions  and  a  Batinite  (spiritualist) 
in  his  beliefs."  2  He  rejected  all  authority  {taql'id).  "I  am 
not  one  of  those  who  say,  '  Ibn  Hazm  said  so-and-so,  Ahmad  3 
said  so-and-so,  al-Nu'man  4  said  so-and-so,' "  he  declares  in 
one  of  his  poems.  But  although  he  insisted  on  punctilious 
observance  of  the  sacred  law,  we  may  suspect  that  his 
refusal  to  follow  any  human  authority,  analogy,  or  opinion 
was  simply  the  overweening  presumption  of  the  seer  who 
regards  himself  as  divinely  illuminated  and  infallible.  Many 
theologians  were  scandalised  by  the  apparently  blasphemous 
expressions  which  occur  in  his  writings,  and  taxed  him 
with  holding  heretical  doctrines,  e.g.^  the  incarnation  ot  God 
in  man  {hulul)  and  the  identification  of  man  with  God 
[ittihdd).  Centuries  passed,  but  controversy  continued  to 
rage  over  him.  He  found  numerous  and  enthusiastic  partisans, 
who  urged  that  the  utterances  of  the  saints  must  not  be  inter- 
preted literally  nor  criticised  at  all.  It  was  recognised,  how- 
ever, that  such  high  mysteries  were  unsuitable  for  the  weaker 
brethren,  so  that  many  even  of  those  who  firmly  believed  in 
his  sanctity  discouraged  the  reading  of  his  books.  They  were 
read  nevertheless,  publicly  and  privately,  from  one  end  of  the 
Muhammadan  world  to  the  other  ;  people  copied  them  for  the 
sake  of  obtaining  the  author's  blessing,  and  the  manuscripts 
were  eagerly  bought.     Among   the  distinguished    men    who 

'  These  lines  are  quoted  by  'Abdu  '1-Ghani  al-Ndbulusi  in  his  Com- 
mentary on  the  Td'iyyatu  'l-Kiibrd  of  Ibnu  '1-Farid  (MS.  in  the  British 
Museum,  7564  Rich.). 

^  Maqqari,  i,  569,  11.  3  Aljmad  b,  Hanbal.  *  Abii  Hanifa. 


MUHIYYU  'L-DIN  IBNU  'L-'ARABI       403 

wrote  in  his  defence  we  can  mention  here  only  Majdu  '1-Din 
al-Firiizabddi  (t  1414  a.d.),  the  author  of  the  great  Arabic 
lexicon  entitled  al-Qamiis  ;  Jalalu  '1-Din  al-Suyiiti  (t  1445 
A.D.);  and  'Abdu  '1-Wahhab  al-Sha'rani  (t  1565  a.d.).  From 
the  last-named  we  learn  that  Ibnu  'l-'Arabi's  opponents 
accused  him  of  having  asserted  ^ — 

{a)  That  the  Muhammadan  confession  of  faith,  "  There  is 
no  god  except  God  "  [Id  ildha  ilia  Uldhu)^  is  mischievous. 

[b)  That  nothing  exists  except  God. 

{c)  That  Pharaoh  was  a  true  believer. 

(<^  That  the  saint  is  superior  to  the  apostle. 

Sadru  '1-Din  of  Qonya  (t  1273  a.d.),  a  famous  pupil  of 
Ibnu  'l-'Arabi,  is  reported  to  have  said  :  "  Our  Shaykh, 
Ibnu  'l-'Arabi,  had  the  power  of  uniting  himself  with  the 
spirit  of  any  of  the  Prophets  or  Saints  of  old,  in  three 
ways  :  if  God  willed,  he  drew  down  the  spirituality  of  the 
holy  personage  into  this  world  and  possessed  him  corporeally 
in  an  ideal  form,  resembling  the  sensible  and  temporal  form 
which  he  had  in  life  ;  or  if  God  willed,  he  summoned  him  to 
His  presence  during  sleep  ;  or  if  God  willed,  he  became 
disembodied  and  united  himself  with  Him."  2 

Ibnu  'l-'Arabi  appears  to  have  set  his  face  against  the  extreme 
pantheistic  tendencies  which  characterise  Persian  Sufiism.  With 
all  his  marvellous  visions  and  revelations,  his  prophetic  enthu- 
siasm, and  a  luxuriant  fancy  which  delighted  in  Pythagorean 
theories  of  numbers  and  letters,  he  did  not  allow  himself  to 
forget  that  the  human  and  Divine  natures  are  essentially 
different :  even  Muhammad,  as  he  points  out,  remained  at 
two   bow-lengths'  distance  from  God.3     The    true    union    is 

•  Yawdqit  (Cairo,  1277  A.H.),  p.  15  seq. 

=  J.R.A.S.  for  1906,  p.  816. 

3  On  the  occasion  of  the  Prophet's  Night-Journey  to  Heaven  (which  is 
called  by  Moslems  his  Mi'mj,  or  '  Ascension ')  "  he  approached  and  drew  nigh 
until  he  was  at  the  distance  of  two  bow-lengths  or  nearer"  (Kor.  liii,  8-g). 
These  words  in  their  original  context  do  not  refer  to  Muhammad,  although 
they  are  frequently  applied  to  him  by  Sufi  writers. 


404  MYSTICISM 

one   of  will,   not    of    essence.      He   illustrates   this   by   the 
following  apologue  : — 

"A  diver  essayed  to  bring  to  shore  the  red  jacinth  of  Deity  hidden 
in  its  resplendent  shell,  but  he  emerged  from  that  ocean  empty- 
handed,  with  broken  arms,  blind,  dumb,  and  dazed.  When  he 
regained  his  breath  and  when  his  senses  were  no  longer  obscured, 
he  was  asked,  "  What  hath  disturbed  thee,  and  what  is  this  thing 
that  hath  befallen  thee  ? "  He  answered,  "  Far  is  that  which  ye 
seek  !  Remote  is  that  which  ye  desire  !  None  ever  attained  unto 
God,  and  neither  spirit  nor  body  conceived  the  knowledge  of  Him. 
He  is  the  Glorious  One  who  is  never  reached,  the  Being  who 
possesses  but  is  not  possessed.  Inasmuch  as  before  His  attributes 
the  mind  is  distraught  and  the  reason  totters,  how  can  they  attaiia  to 
His  very  essence  ? "  ' 

As  I  have  said,  however,  it  would  be  rash  to  make  positive 
statements  regarding  Ibnu  'l-*Arabi's  theosophy  without  more 
evidence  than  is  yet  available.  His  true  character  is  equally 
in  suspense.  Perhaps  he  was  a  charlatan  to  some  extent,  but 
the  genuineness  of  his  enthusiasm  cannot,  I  think,  be  ques- 
tioned. The  title  of  '  The  Grand  Master  '  {al-Shaykh 
al-Akhar)^  by  which  he  is  commonly  designated,  bears  witness 
to  his  acknowledged  supremacy  in  the  world  of  Arabian 
mysticism.  In  Persia  and  Turkey  his  influence  has  been 
enormous,  and  through  his  pupil,  §adru  '1-Din  of  Qonya, 
he  is  linked  with  the  greatest  of  all  Siifi  poets,  Jalalu  '1-Din 
Rumi,  the  author  of  the  Mathnawi^  who  died  some  thirty 
years  after  him. 

'  See  Fleischer,  of.  cit.,  p.  493. 


CHAPTER   IX 


THE    ARABS    IN    EUROPE 


It  will  be  remembered  that  before  the  end  of  the  first  century 
of  the  Hijra,  in  the  reign  of  the  Umayyad  Caliph,  Walid  b. 
'Abd  al-Malik  (705-715  a.d.),  the  Moslems  under  Tdriq 
and  Musd  b.  Nusayr,  crossed  the  Mediterranean,  and  having 
defeated  Roderic  the  Goth  in  a  great  battle  near  Cadiz, 
rapidly  brought  the  whole  of  Spain  into  subjection.  The 
fate  of  the  new  province  was  long  doubtful.  The  Berber 
insurrection  which  raged  in  Africa  (734-742  a.d.)  spread  to 
Spain  and  threatened  to  exterminate  the  handful  of  Arab 
colonists  ;  and  no  sooner  was  this  danger  past  than  the 
victors  began  to  rekindle  the  old  feuds  and  jealousies  which 
they  had  inherited  from  their  ancestors  of  Qays  and  Kalb. 
Once  more  the  rival  factions  of  Syria  and  Yemen  flew  to 
arms,  and  the  land  was  plunged  in  anarchy. 

Meanwhile  'Abdu  '1-Rahmdn  b.  Mu'awiya,  a  grandson  or 

the  Caliph   Hishdm,  had    escaped  from   the  general  massacre 

with  which  the  'Abbasids  celebrated  their  triumph 

'i-Rahman,  the    ovcr  the  House  of  Umayya,  and  after  five  years 

mayya  .      ^^  wandering    adventure,    accompanied    only    by 

his  faithful  freedman,   Badr,  had   reached   the  neighbourhood 

of  Ceuta,    where    he    found    a    precarious    shelter    with    the 

Berber  tribes.     Young,  ambitious,  and  full  of  confidence  in 

his   destiny,   *Abdu   '1-Rahman    conceived    the    bold    plan    of 

405 


4o6  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

throwing  himself  into  Spain  and  of  winning  a  kingdom 
with  the  help  of  the  Arabs,  amongst  whom,  as  he  well 
knew,  there  were  many  clients  of  his  own  family.  Accord- 
ingly in  755  A.D.  he  sent  Badr  across  the  sea  on  a  secret 
mission.  The  envoy  accomplished  even  more  than  was 
expected  of  him.  To  gain  over  the  clients  was  easy,  for 
*Abdu  '1-Rahman  was  their  natural  chief,  and  in  the  event 
of  his  success  they  would  share  with  him  the  prize.  Their 
number,  however,  was  comparatively  small.  The  pretender 
could  not  hope  to  achieve  anything  unless  he  were  supported 
by  one  of  the  great  parties,  Syrians  or  Yemenites.  At  this 
time  the  former,  led  by  the  feeble  governor,  Yusuf  b. 
*Abd  al-Rahman  al-Fihrl,  and  his  cruel  but  capable  lieutenant, 
Sumayl  b.  Hatim,  held  the  reins  of  power  and  were  pursuing 
their  adversaries  with  ruthless  ferocity.  The  Yemenites, 
therefore,  hastened  to  range  themselves  on  the  side  of  'Abdu 
'1-Rahman,  not  that  they  loved  his  cause,  but  inspired  solely 
by  the  prospect  of  taking  a  bloody  vengeance  upon  the 
Syrians.  These  Spanish  Moslems  belonged  to  the  true 
Bedouin  stock  ! 

A  few  months  later  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  landed  in  Spain, 
occupied  Seville,  and,  routing  Yusuf  and  Sumayl  under  the 
walls  of  Cordova,  made  himself  master  of  the  capital.  On 
the  same  evening  he  presided,  as  Governor  of  Spain,  over 
the  citizens  assembled  for  public  worship  in  the  great  Mosque 
(May,  756  A.D.). 

During  his  long  reign  of  thirty-two  years  'Abdu  '1-Rahman 
was  busily  employed  in  defending  and  consolidating  the  empire 
which  more  than  once  seemed  to  be  on  the  point  of  slipping 
from  his  grasp.  The  task  before  him  was  arduous  in  the 
extreme.  On  the  one  hand,  he  was  confronted  by  the 
unruly  Arab  aristocracy,  jealous  of  their  independence  and 
resardino-  the  monarch  as  their  common  foe.  Between  him 
and  them  no  permanent  compromise  was  possible,  and  since 
they  could  only  be  kept  in  check  by  an  armed  force  stronger 


'ABDU  'L-RAHMAN  the   UMAYYAD     407 

than   themselves,    he  was    compelled   to  rely  on  mercenaries, 

for  the  most  part  Berbers  imported  from  Africa.     Thus,  by 

a  fatal  necessity  the  Moslem  Empire  in  the  West  gradually 

assumed  that  despotic  and  Praetorian  character  which  we  have 

learned  to   associate    with    the  'Abbasid   Government  in   the 

period  of  its  decline,  and  the  results  were  in  the  end  hardly 

less  disastrous.     The  monarchy  had  also  to  reckon  with  the 

fanaticism  of  its  Christian  subjects   and    with    a   formidable 

Spanish  national  party  eager  to  throw  ofF  the  foreign  yoke. 

Extraordinary    energy    and    tact    were    needed    to    maintain 

authority  over  these  explosive  elements,  and   if  the  dynasty 

founded    by    *Abdu    '1-Rahman    not    only    survived    for   two 

centuries  and  a  half  but  gave  to   Spain  a  more  splendid  era 

of  prosperity   and    culture    than    she    had    ever   enjoyed,    the 

credit  is  mainly  due  to  the  bold  adventurer  from  whom  even 

his  enemies  could  not  withhold  a  tribute  of  admiration.     One 

day,  it  is  said,  the  Caliph  Mansur  asked  his  courtiers,  "  Who 

is  the   Falcon  of  Quraysh  ?  "     They  replied,  "  O  Prince  or 

the  Faithful,  that  title  belongs  to  you  who  have  vanquished 

mighty  kings  and  have  put  an  end  to  civil  war."     "  No,"  said 

the   Caliph,    "it    is   not    I."      "Mu'dwiya,    then,    or   *Abdu 

'1-Malik  ?"     "No,"  said  Mansur,  "the  Falcon  of  Quraysh 'i* 

'Abdu  '1-Rahman   b.   Mu'dwiya,  he  who   traversed  alone   the 

deserts  of  Asia  and  Africa,  and  without  an  army  to  aid  him 

sought  his  fortune  in  an  unknown  country  beyond   the  sea. 

With  no  weapons  except  judgment  and  resolution  he  subdued 

his   enemies,   crushed    the    rebels,  secured    his    frontiers,    and 

founded  a   great   empire.     Such    a    feat    was    never   achieved 

by  any  one  before."  ^ 

Of  the  Moslems  in  Spain  the  Arabs  rormed  only  a  small 
minority,  and  they,  moreover,  showed  all  the  indifference 
towards    religion    and    contempt    for     the     laws    of    Islam 

'  Abridged  from  Ibnu  'l-'Idhari,  al-Baydn  al-Mughrib,  ed.  by  Dozy, 
vol,  ii,  p.  61  seq. 


408  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

which  might  be  expected  from  men  imbued  with  Bedouin 
traditions  whose  forbears  had  been  devotedly  attached  to  the 
world-loving  Umayyads  of  Damascus.     It  was  otherwise  with 

the  Spanish  converts,  the  so-called  '  Renegades ' 
^spTn'°       o''  Muwalladun  (Affiliati)  living  as  clients  under 

protection  of  the  Arab  nobility,  and  with  the 
Berbers.  These  races  took  their  adopted  religion  very 
seriously,  in  accordance  with  the  fervid  and  sombre  tempera- 
ment which  has  always  distinguished  them.  Hence  among 
the  mass  of  Spanish  Moslems  a  rigorous  orthodoxy  prevailed. 
The  Berber,  Yahyd  b.  Yahya  (t  849  a.d.),  is  a  typical  figure. 

At  the  ase  of  twenty-eight  years  he  travelled  to  the 

Yahya  b.  Yahya.    ^  ,  ,.     ,  ,       f-rn-i     i     a  i       j-  j 

East  and  studied  under  Mahk.b  Anas,  who  dictated 
to  him  his  celebrated  work  known  as  the  Muwatja\  Yahyd 
was  one  day  at  Malik's  lecture  with  a  number  of  fellow- 
students,  when  some  one  said,  "  Here  comes  the  elephant  !  " 
All  of  them  ran  out  to  see  the  animal,  but  Yahya  did  not  stir. 
"  Why,"  said  Malik,  "  do  you  not  go  out  and  look  at  it  ? 
Such  animals  are  not  to  be  seen  in  Spain."  To  this  Yahya 
replied,  "  I  left  my  country  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  you 
and  obtaining  knowledge  under  your  guidance.  I  did  not 
come  here  to  see  the  elephant."  Malik  was  so  pleased 
with  this  answer  that  he  called  him  the  most  intelligent 
('fl^/7)  of  the  people  of  Spain.  On  his  return  to  Spain 
Yahyd  exerted  himself  to  spread  the  doctrines  of  his 
master,  and  though  he  obstinately  refused,  on  religious 
grounds,  to  accept  any  public  office,  his  influence  and 
reputation  were  such  that,  as  Ibn  Hazm  says,  no  Cadi  was  ever 
appointed  till  Yahya  had  given  his  opinion  and  designated 
the  person  whom  he  preferred.^  Thus  the  Malikite  system, 
based  on  close  adherence  to  tradition,  became  the  law  of  the 
land.  "  The  Spaniards,"  it  is  observed  by  a  learned  writer  or 
the    tenth    century,    "recognise    only    the    Koran    and    the 

'  Ibn  Khallikan,  ed.  by  Wustenfeld,  No.  802  ;  De  Slane's  translation, 
vol.  iv,  p.  29  sqq. 


BIGOTRY  OF  THE  MOSLEM  CLERGY   409 

Muwattd'  ;  if  they  find  a  follower  of  Abu  Hanifa  or  Shafi'i, 
they  banish  him  from  Spain,  and  if  they  meet  with  a 
Mu'tazilite  or  a  Shi'ite  or  any  one  of  that  sort,  they  often  put 
him  to  death."  i  Arrogant,  intensely  bigoted,  and  ambitious 
of  power,  the  Muhammadan  clergy  were  not  disposed  to  play 
a  subordinate  role  in  the  State.  In  Hishdm  (788-796  a.d.), 
the  successor  of  'Abdu  '1-Rahmdn,  they  had  a  prince  after  their 
own  heart,  whose  piety  and  devotion  to  their  interests  left 
nothing  to  be  desired.  Hakam  (796-822  a.d.)  was  less  com- 
plaisant. He  honoured  and  respected  the  clergy,  but  at  the 
same  time  he  let  them  see  that  he  would  not  permit  them  to 
interfere  in  political  affairs.  The  malcontents,  headed  by  the 
fiery  Yahyd  b.  Yahya,  replied  with  menaces  and  insults,  and 
called  on  the  populace  of  Cordova — especially  the  'Renegades' 
in  the  southern  quarter  {rabad)  of  the  city — to  rise  against 
the  tyrant  and  his  insolent  soldiery.  One  day  in  Ramaddn, 
198  A.H.  (May,  814  A.D.),  Hakam  suddenly  found  himself  cut 
off"  from  the  garrison  and  besieged  in  his  palace  by  an  infuriated 
mob,  but  he  did  not  lose  courage,  and,  thanks  to  his  coolness 

and  skilful  strategy,  he  came  safely  out  of  the 
^the  Suburb!^     peril    in    which    he    stood.      The    revolutionary 

suburb  was  burned  to  the  ground  and  those 
of  its  inhabitants  who  escaped  massacre,  some  60,000  souls, 
were  driven  into  exile.  The  real  culprits  went  unpunished. 
Hakam  could  not  afford  further  to  exasperate  the  divines,  who 
on  their  part  began  to  perceive  that  they  might  obtain  from 
the  prince  by  favour  what  they  had  failed  to  wring  from  him 
by  force.  Being  mostly  Arabs  or  Berbers,  they  had  a  strong 
claim  to  his  consideration.  Their  power  was  soon  restored, 
and  in  the  reign  of  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  II  (822-852  a.d.) 
Yahyd  himself,  the  ringleader  of  the  mutiny,  directed 
ecclesiastical  policy  and  dispensed  judicial  patronage  as  he 
pleased. 

'  Muqaddasi  (ed.  by  De  Goeje),  p.  236,  cited  by  Goldziher,  Die  Zdhiriten 
p.  114. 


410  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

The  Revolt  of  the  Suburb  was  only  an  episode  in  the  long 
and  sanguinary  struggle  between  the  Spaniards,  Moslem  or 
Christian,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  monarchy  of  Cordova  on 
the  other — a  struggle  complicated  by  the  rival  Arab  tribes, 
which  sometimes  patched  up  their  own  feuds  in  order  to 
defend  themselves  against  the  Spanish  patriots,  but  never  in 
any  circumstances  gave  their  support  to  the  detested  Umayyad 

Government.  The  hero  of  this  war  of  inde- 
^""^^"^."^^     pendence  was  'Umar  b.  Hafsun.     He  belonged  to 

a  noble  family  of  West-Gothic  origin  which  had 
gone  over  to  Islam  and  settled  in  the  mountainous  district 
north-east  of  Malaga.  Hot-blooded,  quarrelsome,  and  ready 
to  stab  on  the  slightest  provocation,  the  young  man  soon  fell 
into  trouble.  At  first  he  took  shelter  in  the  wild  fastnesses 
of  Ronda,  where  he  lived  as  a  brigand  until  he  was  captured 
by  the  police.  He  then  crossed  the  sea  to  Africa,  but  in 
a  short  time  returned  to  his  old  haunts  and  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  a  band  of  robbers.  Here  he  held  out  for  two 
years,  when,  having  been  obliged  to  surrender,  he  accepted  the 
proposal  of  the  Sultan  of  Cordova  that  he  and  his  companions 
should  enlist  in  the  Imperial  army.  But  'Umar  was 
destined  for  greater  glory  than  the  Sultan  could  confer  upon 
him.  A  few  contemptuous  words  from  a  superior  officer 
touched  his  pride  to  the  quick,  so  one  fine  day  he  galloped 
off  with  all  his  men  in  the  direction  of  Ronda.  They  found 
an  almost  impregnable  retreat  in  the  castle  of  Bobastro,  which 
had  once  been  a  Roman  fortress.  From  this  moment,  says 
Dozy,  'Umar  b.  Hafsun  was  no  longer  a  brigand-chief,  but 
leader  of  the  whole  Spanish  race  in  the  south.  The  lawless 
and  petulant  free-lance  was  transformed  into  a  high-minded 
patriot,  celebrated  for  the  stern  justice  with  which  he  punished 
the  least  act  of  violence,  adored  by  his  soldiers,  and  regarded 
by  his  countrymen  as  the  champion  of  the  national  cause. 
During  the  rest  of  his  life  (884-917  a.d.)  he  conducted  the 
guerilla  with  untiring  energy  and  made  himself  a  terror  to  the 


'ABDU  'L-RAHMAN  III  411 

Arabs,  but  fortijne  deserted  him  at  the  last,  and  he  died — 
feltx  opportunitate  mortis — only  a  few  years  before  complete  ruin 
overtook  his  party.  The  Moslem  Spaniards,  whose  enthusiasm 
had  been  sensibly  weakened  by  their  leader's  conversion  to 
Christianity,  were  the  more  anxious  to  make  their  peace  with 
the  Government,  since  they  saw  plainly  the  hopelessness  of 
continuing  the  struggle. 

In  912  A.D.  'Abdu  'l-Rahmdn  III,  the  Defender  of  the 
Faith  [al-Ndsir  li-dini  'IMh),  succeeded  his  grandfather,  the 
Amir  'Abdulldh,  on  the  throne  of  Cordova.  The  character, 
genius,  and  enterprise  of  this  great  monarch  are  strikingly 
depicted  in  the  following  passage  from  the  pen  of  an  eloquent 
historian  whose  work,  although  it  was  published  some  fifty 
years  ago,  will  always  be  authoritative  ^  : — 

"Amongst  the  Umayyad  sovereigns  who  have  ruled  Spain  the 
first  place  belongs  incontestably  to  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  III.     What  he 

,    ,         ,  accomplished  was  almost  miraculous.     He  had  found 

■^mdn'm'^"     the  empire  abandoned  to  anarchy  and  civil  war,  rent 

I  (912-961  A.D.).  by  factions,  parcelled  amongst  a  multitude  of  hetero- 
geneous princes,  exposed  to  incessant  attacks  from  the  Christians  of 
the  north,  and  on  the  eve  of  being  swallowed  up  either  by  the 
Leonnese  or  the  Africans.     In  spite  of  innumerable  obstacles  he 

■  had  saved  Spain  both  from  herself  and  from  the  foreign  domination. 
He  had  endowed  her  with  new  life  and  made  her  greater  and 
stronger  than  she  had  ever  been.  He  had  given  her  order  and 
prosperity  at  home,  consideration  and  respect  abroad.  The  public 
treasury,  which  he  had  found  in  a  deplorable  condition,  was  now 
overflowing.  Of  the  Imperial  revenues,  which  amounted  annually 
to  6,245,000  pieces  of  gold,  a  third  sufficed  for  ordinary  expenses  ; 
a  third  was  held  in  reserve,  and  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  devoted  the 
remainder  to  his  buildings.  It  was  calculated  that  in  the  year  951 
he  had  in  his  coffers  the  enormous  sum  of  20,000,000  pieces  of  gold, 
so  that  a  traveller  not  without  judgment  in  matters  of  finance 
assures  us  that  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  and  the  Hamdanid  (Nasiru 
'1-Dawla),  who  was  then  reigning  over  Mesopotamia,  were  the 
wealthiest  princes  of  that  epoch.     The  state  of  the  country  was  in 


•  Dozy,  Histoire  des  Mnstilmans    d'Espagne    (Leyden,   1861),  vol.  iii, 
p.  90  sqq. 


412  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

keeping  with  the  prosperous  condition  of  the  treasury.  Agriculture, 
industry,  commerce,  the  arts  and  the  sciences,  all  flourished.  .  .  . 
Cordova,  with  its  half-million  inhabitants,  its  three  thousand  mosques, 
its  superb  palaces,  its  hundred  and  thirteen  thousand  houses,  its 
three  hundred  bagnios,  and  its  twenty-eight  suburbs,  was  inferior  in 
extent  and  splendour  only  to  Baghdad,  with  which  city  the  Cordo- 
vans loved  to  compare  it.  .  .  .  The  power  of  'Abdu  '1- Rahman  was 
formidable.  A  magnificent  fleet  enabled  him  to  dispute  with  the 
Fatimids  the  empire  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  secured  him  in  the 
possession  of  Ceuta,  the  key  of  Mauritania.  A  numerous  and  well- 
disciplined  army,  perhaps  tlie  finest  in  the  world,  gave  him  superi- 
ority over  the  Christians  of  the  north.  The  proudest  sovereigns 
solicited  his  alliance.  The  emperor  of  Constantinople,  the  kings  of 
Germany,  Italy,  and  France  sent  ambassadors  to  him. 

"  Assuredly,  these  were  brilliant  results  ;  but  what  excites  our 
astonishment  and  admiration  when  we  study  this  glorious  reign  is 
not  so  much  the  work  as  the  workman  :  it  is  the  might  of  that  com- 
prehensive intelligence  which  nothing  escaped,  and  which  showed 
itself  no  less  admirable  in  the  minutest  details  than  in  the  loftiest 
conceptions.  This  subtle  and  sagacious  man,  who  centralises,  who 
founds  the  unity  of  the  nation  and  of  the  monarchy,  who  by  means 
of  his  alliances  estabhshes  a  sort  of  political  equilibrium,  who  in  his 
large  tolerance  calls  the  professors  of  another  religion  into  his 
councils,  is  a  modern  king  rather  than  a  mediaeval  Caliph." ' 

In  short,  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  III  made  the  Spanish  Moslems 
one  people,  and  formed  out  of  Arabs  and  Spaniards  a  united 
Andalusian  nation,  which,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  advanced 
with  incredible  swiftness  to  a  height  of  culture  that  was  the 
envy  of  Europe  and  was  not  exceeded  by  any  contemporary 
State  in  the  Muhammadan  East.  With  his  death,  however,  the 
decline  of  the  Umayyad  dynasty  began.  His  son,  Hakam  II 
(t  976  A.D.),  left  as  heir-apparent  a  boy  eleven  years  old, 
Hisham  II,  who  received  the  title  of  Caliph  while  the  govern- 
ment was  carried  on   by  his  mother  Aurora  and 

Regency  of  •'  r       _ 

Mansdr  ibn  Abi   ^\^^  ambitious  minister  Muhammad  b.  Abi  'Amir. 

'Amir  *  o       •  j 

(976-1002  A.D.).    The  latter  was  virtually  monarch   of  Spain,  and 
whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  means  by  which  he  rose  to 
eminence,  or  of  his  treatment  of  the  unfortunate  Caliph  whose 
'  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  III  was  the  first  of  his  line  to  assume  this  title. 


^i 


MANSIJR  IBN  ABI  'AMIR  413 

*  mental  faculties  he  deliberately  stunted  and  whom  he  con- 
demned to  a  life  of  monkish  seclusion,  it  is  impossible  to  deny- 
that  he  ruled  well  and  nobly.  He  was  a  great  statesman  and 
a  great  soldier.  No  one  could  accuse  him  of  making  an 
idle  boast  when  he  named  himself  '  Al-Mansur '  ('  The 
Victorious').  Twice  every  year  he  was  accustomed  to  lead 
his  army  against  the  Christians,  and  such  was  the  panic  which 
he  inspired  that  in  the  course  of  more  than  fifty  campaigns 
he  scarcely  ever  lost  a  battle.  He  died  in  1002  a.d.  A 
Christian  monk,  recording  the  event  in  his  chronicle,  adds, 
"he  was  buried  in  Hell,"  but  Moslem  hands  engraved  the 
following  lines  upon  the  tomb  of  their  champion  : — 

"  His  story  in  his  relics  you  may  trace, 
As  tho'  he  stood  before  you  face  to  face. 
Never  will  Time  bring  forth  his  peer  again, 
Nor  one  to  guard,  like  him,  the  gaps  of  Spain." ' 

His   demise  left  the    Praetorians    masters  of  the  situation. 
Berbers  and  Slaves  2  divided  the  kingdom  between  them,  and 

'  Maqqari,  vol.  i,  p.  259.  As  Maqqari's  work  is  our  principal  authority 
for  the  literary  history  of  Moslem  Spain,  I  may  conveniently  give 
some  account  of  it  in  this  place.  The  author,  Ahmad  b.  Muhammad 
al-Tilimsani  al-Maqqari  (t  1632  A.D.)  wrote  a  biography  of  Ibnu  '1-Khatib, 
the  famous  Vizier  of  Granada,  to  which  he  prefixed  a  long  and  discursive 
introduction  in  eight  chapters  :  (i)  Description  of  Spain  ;  (2)  Conquest  of 
Spain  by  the  Arabs  ;  (3)  History  of  the  Spanish  dynasties  ;  (4)  Cordova  ; 
(5)  Spanish-Arabian  scholars  who  travelled  in  the  East  ;  (6)  Orientals  who 
visited  Spain  ;  (7)  Miscellaneous  extracts,  anecdotes,  poetical  citations,  &c., 
bearing  on  the  literary  history  of  Spain  ;  (8)  Reconquest  of  Spain  by  the 
Christians  and  expulsion  of  the  Arabs.  The  whole  work  is  entitled 
Najhii  'l-Tib  min  gliusni  'l-Andalusi  'l-ratib  wa-dhikri  wazirihd  Lisdni 
'l-Din  Ibni  'l-KIiatib.  The  introduction,  which  contains  a  fund  of 
curious  and  valuable  information — "  a  library  in  little  " — has  been  edited 
by  Dozy  and  other  European  Arabists  under  the  title  of  Analedes  sur 
VHistoirc  et  la  Literature  des  Arabes  d'Espagnc  (Leyden,  1855-1861). 

=  The  name  of  Slaves  (Saqdliba)  was  originally  applied  to  prisoners  of 
war,  belonging  to  various  northern  races,  who  were  sold  to  the  Arabs  of 
Spain,  but  the  term  was  soon  widened  so  as  to  include  all  foreign  slaves 
serving  in  the  harem  or  the  army,  without  regard  to  their  nationality.  Like 
the  Mamelukes  and  Janissaries,  they  formed  a  privileged  corps  under  the 


414  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

amidst  revolution  and  civil  vi^ar  the  Umayyad  dynasty  passed 
away  (1031   a.d.). 

It  has  been  said  with  truth  that  the  history  of  Spain  in  the 
eleventh  century  bears  a  close  resemblance  to  that  of  Italy  in 
the  fifteenth.  The  splendid  empire  of  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  III 
was  broken  up,  and  from  its  ruins  there  emerged  a  fortui- 
tous  conglomeration    of  petty   states  governed    by  successful 

condottieri.  Of  these  Party  Kings  [Muluku 
(Mubiku        '/-Tawaif).  as  they  are  called  by  Muhammadan 

writers,  the  most  powerful  were  the  'Abbadids  of 
Seville.  Although  it  was  an  age  of  political  decay,  the 
material  prosperity  of  Spain  had  as  yet  suffered  little  diminu- 
tion, whilst  in  point  of  culture  the  society  of  this  time  reached 
a  level  hitherto  unequalled.  Here,  then,  we  may  pause  for  a 
moment  to  review  the  progress  of  literature  and  science 
during  the  most  fruitful  period  or  the  Moslem  occupation 
of  European  soil. 

Whilst  in  Asia,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Arab  conquerors 
yielded  to  the  spell  of  an  ancient  culture  infinitely  superior  to 

their  own,  they  no  sooner  crossed  the  Straits  of 

Awbuf  cuuure    Gibraltar   than  the  roles  were  reversed.     As  the 

spania^'rds.       invaders  extended  their  conquests  to  every  part  of 

the  peninsula,  thousands  of  Christians  fell  into  their 
hands,  who  generally  continued  to  live  under  Moslem  protection. 
They  were  well  treated  by  the  Government,  enjoyed  religious 
liberty,  and  often  rose  to  high  offices  in  the  army  or  at  court. 
Many  of  them  became  rapidly  imbued  with  Moslem  civilisa- 
tion, so  that  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  we  find 
Alvaro,  Bishop  of  Cordova,  complaining  that  his  co-religionists 
read  the  poems  and  romances  of  the  Arabs,  and  studied  the 
writings  of  Muhammadan  theologians  and  philosophers,  not  in 

patronage  of  the  palace,  and  since  the  reign  of  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  III  their 
number  and  influence  had  steadily  increased.  Cf.  Dozy,  Hist,  dcs  Mus. 
d'Espagne,  vol.  iii,  p.  58  sqq. 


INFLUENCE   OF  ARABIC  CULTURE      415 

order  to  refute  them  but  to  learn  how  to  express  themselves  in 
Arabic  with  correctness  and  elegance.  "  Where,"  he  asks, 
"  can  any  one  meet  nowadays  with  a  layman  who  reads  the 
Latin  commentaries  on  the  Holy  Scriptures  ?  Who  studies 
the  Gospels,  the  Prophets,  the  Apostles?  Alas,  all  young 
Christians  of  conspicuous  talents  are  acquainted  only  with  the 
language  and  writings  of  the  Arabs  ;  they  read  and  study 
Arabic  books  with  the  utmost  zeal,  spend  immense  sums  or 
money  in  collecting  them  for  their  libraries,  and  proclaim 
everywhere  that  this  literature  is  admirable.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  you  talk  with  them  of  Christian  books,  they  reply 
contemptuously  that  these  books  are  not  worth  their  notice. 
Alas,  the  Christians  have  forgotten  their  own  language,  and 
amongst  thousands  of  us  scarce  one  is  to  be  found  who  can 
write  a  tolerable  Latin  letter  to  a  friend ;  whereas  very  many 
are  capable  of  expressing  themselves  exquisitely  in  Arabic  and 
of  composing  poems  in  that  tongue  with  even  greater  skill  than 
the  Arabs  themselves."  ^ 

However  the  good  bishop  may  have  exaggerated,  it  is 
evident  that  Muhammadan  culture  had  a  strong  attraction 
for  the  Spanish  Christians,  and  equally,  let  us  add,  for  the 
Jews,  who  made  numerous  contributions  to  poetry,  philosophy, 
and  science  in  their  native  speech  as  well  as  in  the  kindred 
Arabic  idiom.  The  '  Renegades,'  or  Spanish  converts  to 
Islam,  became  completely  Arabicised  in  the  course  of  a  few 
generations ;  and  from  this  class  sprang  some  of  the  chief 
ornaments  of  Spanish-Arabian  literature. 

Considered  as   a    whole,    the    poetry   of  the   Moslems   in 

Europe  shows  the    same    characteristics    which    have   already 

been  noted  in  the  work  of  their  Eastern  contem- 

^'^oA°hl'^      poraries.    The  paralysing  conventions  from  which 

Spanish Ara  s.     ^^^  laureates  of  Baghdad  and  Aleppo  could  not 

emancipate  themselves  remained  in  full  force  at  Cordova  and 

*  Dozy,  o/>,  c/7.,  vol.  ii,  p.  103  seq. 


4i6  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

Seville.  Yet,  just  as  Arabic  poetry  in  the  East  was  modified 
by  the  influences  of  Persian  culture,  in  Spain  also  the  gradual 
amalgamation  of  Aryans  with  Semites  introduced  new 
elements  which  have  left  their  mark  on  the  literature  of  both 
races.  Perhaps  the  most  interesting  features  of  Spanish-Arabian 
poetry  are  the  tenderly  romantic  feeling  which  not  infre- 
quently appears  in  the  love-songs,  a  feeling  that  sometimes 
anticipates  the  attitude  of  mediaeval  chivalry  ;  and  in  the 
second  place  an  almost  modern  sensibility  to  the  beauties  of 
nature.  On  account  of  these  characteristics  the  poems  in 
question  appeal  to  many  European  readers  who  do  not  easily 
enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  Mu^allaqdt  or  the  odes  of 
Mutanabbf,  and  if  space  allowed  it  would  be  a  pleasant  task 
to  translate  some  of  the  charming  lyric  and  descriptive  pieces 
which  have  been  collected  by  anthologists.  The  omission, 
however,  is  less  grave  inasmuch  as  Von  Schack  has  given  us  a 
series  of  excellent  versions  in  his  Poesie  und  Kunst  der  Araher 
in  Spanien  and  Sicilien  (2nd  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1877). 

"  One  of  its  marvels,"  says  Qazwini,  referring  to  the  town 
of  Shilb  (Silves)  in  Portugal,  "  is  the  fact,  which  innumerable 
persons  have  mentioned,  that  the  people  living  there,  with  few 
exceptions,  are  makers  of  verse  and  devoted  to  belles-lettres  ; 
and  if  you  passed  by  a  labourer  standing  behind  his  plough 
and  asked  him  to  recite  some  verses,  he  would  at  once 
improvise  on  any  subject  that  you  might  demand."  ^  Of 
such  folk-songs  the  %ajal  and  muwashshah  were 

Folk-songs.         ^  .  -n      u     r  •  *      j    • 

favourite  types.^  Uoth  forms  were  invented  in 
Spain,  and  their  structure  is  very  similar,  consisting  of  several 
stanzas  in  which  the  rhymes  are  so  arranged  that  the  master- 
rhyme  ending  each  stanza  and  running  through  the  whole 
poem  like  a  refrain  is  continually  interrupted  by  a  various 
succession  of  subordinate  rhymes,  as  is  shown  in  the  following 
scheme  : — 

'  Qazwini,  Athdru  H-Bildd,  ed.  by  Wustenfeld,  p.  364, 1.  5  sqq. 
»  See  Schack,  op.  cit,  vol.  ii,  p.  46  sqq. 


ANDALUSIAN  POETRY  41? 

aa 

bbba 
ccca 
ddda. 

Many  of  these  songs  and  ballads  were  composed  in  the 
vulgar  dialect  and  without  regard  to  the  rules  of  classical 
prosody.  The  troubadour  Ibn  Quzman  (t  1160  a.d.)  first 
raised  the  %ajal  to  literary  rank.  Here  is  an  example  of  the 
muwashshah  : — 

"  Come,  hand  the  precious  cup  to  me, 
And  brim  it  high  with  a  golden  sea  ! 
Let  the  old  wine  circle  from  guest  to  guest, 
While  the  bubbles  gleam  like  pearls  on  its  breast, 
So  that  night  is  of  darkness  dispossessed. 
How  it  foams  and  twinkles  in  fiery  glee  ! 
'Tis  drawn  from  the  Pleiads'  cluster,  perdie. 

Pass  it,  to  music's  melting  sound. 
Here  on  this  flowery  carpet  round, 
Where  gentle  dews  refresh  the  ground 
And  bathe  my  limbs  deliciously 
In  their  cool  and  balmy  fragrancy. 

Alone  with  me  in  the  garden  green 
A  singing-girl  enchants  the  scene  : 
Her  smile  diffuses  a  radiant  sheen. 
I  cast  off  shame,  for  no  spy  can  see, 
And  'Hola,'  I  cry,  'let  us  merry  be  !'"' 

True  to  the  traditions  of  their  family,  the  Spanish 
Umayyads  loved  poetry,  music,  and  polite  literature  a  great 

deal  better  than  the  Koran.  Even  the  Falcon  of 
^Iflffifr"    Quraysh,  'Abdu  '1-Rahmdn  I,  if  the  famous  verses 

on  the  Palm-tree  are  really  by  him,  concealed 
something  of  the  softer  graces  under  his  grim  exterior.     It  is 

'  The  Arabic  original  occurs  in  the  nth  chapter  of  the  Halbatu  'l-Kumayt, 
a  collection  of  poems  on  wine  and  drinking  by  Muhammad  b.  Hasan 
al-Nawaji  (f  1455  a.d.),  and  is  also  printed  in  the  Anthologie  Arabe  of 
Grangeret  de  Lagrange,  p.  202. 

28 


4i8  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

said  that  in  his  gardens  at  Cordova  there  was  a  solitary  date- 
palm,  which  had  been  transplanted  from  Syria,  and  that  one 
day  'Abdu  '1-Rahman,  as  he  gazed  upon  it,  remembered  his 
native  land  and  felt  the  bitterness  of  exile  and  exclaimed  : — 

"O  Palm,  thou  art  a  stranger  in  the  West, 
Far  from  thy  Orient  home,  like  me  unblest. 
Weep  !     But  thou  canst  not.     Dumb,  dejected  tree, 
Thou  art  not  made  to  sympathise  with  me. 
Ah,  thou  wouldst  weep,  if  thou  hadst  tears  to  pour. 
For  thy  companions  on  Euphrates'  shore  ; 
But  yonder  tall  groves  thou  rememberest  not. 
As  I,  in  hating  foes,  have  my  old  friends  forgot."  ' 

At  the  court  of  'Abdu  '1-Rahman   II    (822-852  a.d.)   a 
Persian  musician   was  prime   favourite.     This  was  Zirydb,  a 

client  of  the   Caliph   Mahdi  and  a  pupil  of  the 
Sciln^       celebrated  singer,  Ishdq  al-Mawsili.2    Ishaq,  seeing 

in  the  young  man  a  dangerous  rival  to  himself, 
persuaded  him  to  quit  Baghdad  and  seek  his  fortune  in  Spain. 
'Abdu  '1-Rahman  received  him  with  open  arms,  gave  him  a 
magnificent  house  and  princely  salary,  and  bestowed  upon  him 
every  mark  of  honour  imaginable.  The  versatile  and  accom- 
plished artist  wielded  a  vast  influence.  He  set  the  fashion  in 
all  things  appertaining  to  taste  and  manners ;  he  fixed  the  : 
toilette,  sanctioned  the  cuisine,  and  prescribed  what  dress ' 
should  be  worn  in  the  different  seasons  of  the  year.  The 
kings  of  Spain  took  him  as  a  model,  and  his  authority  was 
constantly  invoked  and  universally  recognised  in  that  country 
down  to  the  last  days  of  Moslem  rule.3     Zirydb  was  only  one 

'  Al-HuUat  al-Siyard  of  Ibnu  'l-Abbar,  ed.  by  Dozy,  p.  34.  In  the  last 
line  instead  of  "  foes  "  the  original  has  "  the  sons  of  'Abbas."  Other  verses 
addressed  by  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  to  this  palm-tree  are  cited  by  Maqqari, 

vol.  ii,  p.  37. 

"  Full  details  concerning  Ziryab  will  be  found  in  Maqqari,  vol.  ii,  p.  83 
sqq.     Cf.  Dozy,  Hist,  des  Mus.  d'Espagne,  vol.  ii,  p.  89  sqq. 

3  Maqqari,  loc.  cit,  p.  87, 1.  10  sqq. 


CULTURE  AND  EDUCATION  419 

of  many  talented  and  learned  men  who  came  to  Spain  from 
the  East,  while  the  list  of  Spanish  savants  who  journeyed  "  in 
quest  of  knowledge"  (//  talabi  U-Hlm)  to  Africa  and  Egypt, 
to  the  Holy  Cities  of  Arabia,  to  the  great  capitals  of  Syria  and 
'Iraq,  to  Khurasan,  Transoxania,  and  in  some  cases  even  to 
China,  includes,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  perusal  of  Maqqari's 
fifth  chapter,  nearly  all  the  eminent  scholars  and  men  of  letters 
whom  Moslem  Spain  has  produced.  Thus  a  lively  exchange 
of  ideas  was  continually  in  movement,  and  so  little  pro- 
vincialism existed  that  famous  Andalusian  poets,  like  Ibn 
Hani  and  Ibn  Zaydun,  are  described  by  admiring  Eastern 
critics  as  the  Buhturis  and  Mutanabbis  of  the  West. 

The  tenth  century  of  the  Christian  era  is  a  fortunate 
and  illustrious  period  in  Spanish  history.  Under  *Abdu 
'1-Rahman  III  and  his  successor,  Hakam  II,  the  nation, 
hitherto  torn  asunder  by  civil  war,  bent  its  united  energies 
to  the  advancement  of  material  and  intellectual  culture. 
Hakam  was  an  enthusiastic  bibliophile.  He  sent  his  agents 
in  every  direction  to  purchase  manuscripts,  and  collected 
400,000  volumes  in  his  palace,  which  was 
^yakLm^ii."^  thronged  with  librarians,  copyists,  and  book- 
binders. All  these  books,  we  are  told,  he  had 
himself  read,  and  he  annotated  most  of  them  with  his  own 
hand.  His  munificence  to  scholars  knew  no  bounds.  He 
made  a  present  of  1,000  dinars  to  Abu  '1-Faraj  of  Isfahan, 
in  order  to  secure  the  first  copy  that  was  published  of  the 
great '  Book  of  Songs  '  [Kitdbu  U-Aghani)^  on  which  the  author 
was  then  engaged.  Besides  honouring  and  encouraging  the 
learned,  Hakam  took  measures  to  spread  the  benefits  of 
education  amongst  the  poorest  of  his  subjects.  With  this 
view  he  founded  twenty-seven  free  schools  in  the  capital 
and  paid  the  teachers  out  of  his  private  purse.  Whilst  in 
Christian  Europe  the  rudiments  of  learning  were  confined 
to  the  clergy,  in  Spain  almost  every  one  could  read  and 
write. 


420  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

"  The  University  of  Cordova  was  at  that  time  one  of  the  most 
celebrated  in  the  world.  In  the  principal  Mosque,  where  the 
lectures  were  held,  Abu  Bakr  b.  Mu'awiya,  the 
Ti^e  University  Qurayshite,  discussed  the  Traditions  relating  to 
Muhammad.  Abii  'All  al-Qali  of  Baghdad  dictated 
a  large  and  excellent  miscellany  which  contained  an  immense 
quantity  of  curious  information  concerning  the  ancient  Arabs, 
their  proverbs,  their  language,  and  their  poetry.  This  collection 
he  afterwards  published  under  the  title  of  Amdli,  or  '  Dictations.' 
Grammar  was  taught  by  Ibnu  '1-Qutiyya,  who,  in  the  opinion  of  Abu 
'All  al-Qali,  was  the  leading  grammarian  of  Spain.  Other  sciences 
had  representatives  no  less  renowned.  Accordingly  the  students 
attending  the  classes  were  reckoned  by  thousands.  The  majority 
were  students  of  what  was  called  fiqh,  that  is  to  say,  theology  and 
law,  for  that  science  then  opened  the  way  to  the  most  lucrative 
posts."  ' 

Among  the  notable  savants  of  this  epoch  we  may  mention 
Ibn  'Abdi  Rabbihi  (t  940  a.d.),  laureate  of  'Abdu  '1-  Rah- 
mdn  III  and  author  of  a  well-known  anthology  entitled 
al-^Iqd  al-Farld  i  the  poet  Ibn  Hani  of  Seville  (t  973  a.d.), 
an  Isma'ill  convert  who  addressed  blasphemous  panegyrics  to 
the  Fatimid  Caliph  Mu'izz;2  the  historians  of  Spain,  Abii 
Bakr  al-Razi  (t  937  a.d.),  whose  family  belonged  to  Rayy  in 
Persia,  and  Ibnu  'l-Qiitiyya  (t  977  a.d.),  who,  as  his  name 
indicates,  was  the  descendant  of  a  Gothic  princess ;  the 
astronomer  and  mathematician  Maslama  b.  Ahmad  of  Madrid 
(t  1007  a.d.)  ;  and  the  great  surgeon  Abu  '1-Qasim  al- 
Zahrawl  of  Cordova,  who  died  about  the  same  time,  and  who 
became  known  to  Europe  by  the  name  of  Albucasis. 

The  fall  of  the  Spanish  Umayyads,  which  took  place  in  the 
first  half  of  the  eleventh  century,  left  Cordova  a  republic  and 
a  merely  provincial  town  ;  and  though  she  might  still  claim  to 
be  regarded  as  the  literary  metropolis  of  Spain,  her  ancient 
glories  were  overshadowed  by  the  independent  dynasties  which 

'  Dozy  Histoire  des  Musulmans  d'Espagne,  vol.  iii,  p.  107  sqq. 
»  See  the  verses  cited  by  Ibnu  '1-Athir,  vol.  viii,  p.  457. 


:M| 


THE  'ABBAdIDS  421 

now  begin  to  flourish  in  Seville,  Almeria,  Badajoz,  Granada, 
Toledo,  Malaga,  Valencia,  and  other  cities.  Of  these  rival 
princedoms  the  most  formidable  in  arms  and  the  most  brilliant 
in  its  cultivation  of  the  arts  was,  beyond  question,  the  family 

of  the  'Abbadids,  who  reigned  in  Seville.      The 
(io23-io9i^AD^)    foundations  of  their  power  were  laid  by  the  Cadi 

Abu  '1-Qasim  Muhammad.  "  He  acted  towards 
the  people  with  such  justice  and  moderation  as  drew  on  him 
the  attention  of  every  eye  and  the  love  of  every  heart,"  so  that 
the  office  of  chief  magistrate  was  willingly  conceded  to  him. 
In  order  to  obtain  the  monarchy  which  he  coveted,  the  Cadi 
employed  an  audacious  ruse.  The  last  Umayyad  Caliph, 
Hisham  II,  had  vanished  mysteriously  :  it  was  generally  sup- 
posed that,  after  escaping  from  Cordova  when  that  city  was 
stormed  by  the  Berbers  (10 13  a.d.),  he  fled  to  Asia  and  died 
unknown  ;  but  many  believed  that  he  was  still  alive.  Twenty 
years  after  his  disappearance  there  suddenly  arose  a  pretender, 
named  Khalaf,  who  gave  out  that  he  was  the  Caliph  Hishdm. 
The  likeness  between  them  was  strong  enough  to  make  the 
imposture  plausible.  At  any  rate,  the  Cadi  had  his  own 
reasons  for  abetting  it.  He  called  on  the  people,  who  were 
deeply  attached  to  the  Umayyad  dynasty,  to  rally  round  their 
legitimate  sovereign.  Cordova  and  several  other  States  recog- 
nised the  authority  of  this  pseudo-Caliph,  whom  Abu  '1-Qasim 
used  as  a  catspaw.  His  son  'Abbad,  a  treacherous  and  blood- 
thirsty tyrant,  but  an  amateur  of  belles-lettres,  threw  off  the 
mask  and  reigned  under  the  title  of  al-Mu'tadid  (1042- 
1069  A.D.).  He  in  turn  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  al-Mu'tamid, 
whose  strange  and  romantic  history  reminds  one  of  a  sentence 
frequently  occurring  in  the  Arabian  Nights :  "  Were  it  graven 
with  needle-gravers  upon  the  eye-corners,  it  were  a  warner  to 
whoso  would  be  warned."  He  is  described  as  "  the  most 
liberal,  the  most  hospitable,  the  most  munificent,  and  the  most 
powerful  of  all  the  princes  who  ruled  in  Spain.  His 
court    was    the    halting-place    of    travellers,    the    rendezvous 


422  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

of  poets,   the    point    to   which    all    hopes  were  directed,  and 

the    haunt    of  men    of  talent."  ^     Mu'tamid    himself  was  a 

poet  of  rare   distinction.     "  He    left,"    says    Ibn 

Seville         Bassam,  "  some  pieces  of  verse  beautiful  as  the  bud 

(1069-IO91    A.D.).  ,  .  ,.       ,  ,  -  1    u     J       U 

when  It  opens  to  disclose  the  flower  ;  and  had  the 
like  been  composed  by  persons  who  made  of  poetry  a  pro- 
fession and  a  merchandise,  they  would  still  have  been  con- 
sidered charming,  admirable,  and  singularly  original."  2 
Numberless  anecdotes  are  told  of  Mu'tamid's  luxurious  life 
at  Seville  :  his  evening  rambles  along  the  banks  of  the 
Guadalquivir  ;  his  parties  of  pleasure  ;  his  adventures  when 
he  sallied  forth  in  disguise,  accompanied  by  his  Vizier,  the 
poet  Ibn  'Ammar,  into  the  streets  of  the  sleeping  city  ;  and 
his  passion  for  the  slave-girl  I'timad,  commonly  known  as 
Rumaykiyya,  whom  he  loved  all  his  life  with  constant 
devotion. 

Meanwhile,  however,  a  terrible  catastrophe  was  approach- 
ing. The  causes  which  led  up  to  it  are  related  by  Ibn 
Khallikan  as  follows  3  : — 

"  At  that  time  Alphonso  VI,  the  son  of  Ferdinand,  the  sovereign 
of  Castile  and  king  of  the  Spanish  Franks,  had  become  so  powerful 

that  the  petty  Moslem  princes  were  obliged  to  make 
^^^i^'spafn.''^^'  peace  with  him  and  pay  him  tribute.     Mu'tamid  Ibn 

'Abbad  surpassed  all  the  rest  in  greatness  of  power 
and  extent  of  empire,  yet  he  also  paid  tribute  to  Alphonso.  After 
capturing  Toledo  (May  29,  1085  a.d.)  the  Christian  monarch  sent 
him  a  threatening  message  with  the  demand  that  he  should  sur- 
render his  fortresses  ;  on  which  condition  he  might  retain  the  open 
country  as  his  own.  These  words  provoked  Mu'tamid  to  such  a 
degree  that  he  struck  the  ambassador  and  put  to  death  all  those 
who  accompanied  him.  ^    Alphonso,  who  was  marching  on  Cordova, 


'  Ibn  Khallikan,  No.  697  ;  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  iii,  p.  186. 

^^  Ibn  Khallikan,  loc.  cit. 

3  Loc.  cit,  p.  189.  For  the  sake  of  clearness  I  have  slightly  abridged 
and  otherwise  remodelled  De  Slane's  translation  of  this  passage. 

*  A  somewhat  different  version  of  these  events  is  given  by  Dozy, 
Histoire  des  Musulmans  d'Espagitc,  vol.  iv,  p.  189  sqq. 


MU'TAMID   OF  SEVILLE  423 

no  sooner  received  intelligence  of  this  event  than  he  returned  to 
Toledo  in  order  to  provide  machines  for  the  siege  of  Seville.    When 
the  Shaykhs  and  doctors  of  Islam  were  informed  of  this  project 
they  assembled  and  said  :  '  Behold  how  the  Moslem  cities  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  Franks  whilst  our  sovereigns  are  engaged  in  warfare 
against  each  other  !     If  things   continue  in  this  state  the  Franks 
will  subdue  the  entire  country.'    They  then  went  to  the  Cadi  (of 
Cordova),  'Abdullah  b.  Muhammad  b.  Adham,  and  conferred  with 
him  on  the  disasters  which  had  befallen  the  Moslems  and  on  the 
means  by  which  they  might  be  remedied.     Every  person  had  some- 
thing to  say,  but  it  was  finally  resolved  that  they  should  write  to 
Abii  Ya'qub  Yusuf  b.  Tashifin,  the  king  of  the  Mulaihthamun '  and 
sovereign  of   Morocco,  imploring   his   assistance.     The  Cadi  then 
waited   on   Mu'tamid,   and    informed    him    of    what   had   passed. 
Mu'tamid   concurred  with   them    on  the   expediency   of   such   an 
application,   and   told  the   Cadi   to   bear   the   message   himself  to 
Yusuf   b.  Tashifin.     A   conference    took    place    at    Ceuta.     Yusuf 
recalled  from  the  city  of  Morocco  the  troops  which  he  had  left 
there,  and  when  all  were  mustered  he  sent  them  across  to  Spain, 
and  followed  with  a  body  of  10,000  men.     Mu'tamid,  who  had  also 
assembled  an   army,   went   to  meet   him  ;    and  the   Moslems,   on 
hearing  the  news,  hastened  from  every  province  for  the  purpose  of 
combating  the  infidels.     Alphonso,  who  was  then  at  Toledo,  took 
the  field  with  40,000  horse,  exclusive  of  other  troops  which  came  to 
join  him.     He  wrote   a   long  and  threatening   letter  to  Yusuf  b. 
Tashifin,  who  inscribed  on  the  back  of  it  these  words  :  '  What  will 
happen  thou  shall  see  I '  and  returned  it.     On  reading  the  answer 
Alphonso  was  filled  with  apprehension,  and  observed  that  this  was  a 
man  of  resolution.     The  two  armies  met  at  Zallaqa, 
Battle  of  zaiiaqa  near  Badaioz.     The  Moslems  gained  the  victory,  and 

^October  2'^  <->  -^ 

1086  A.D.).'      Alphonso  fled  with  a  few  others,  after  witnessing  the 
complete  destruction   of    his  army.     This  year   was 
adopted  in  Spain  as  the  commencement  of  a  new  era,  and  was 
called  the  year  of  Zallaqa." 

Mu'tamid  soon  perceived  that  he  had  "  dug  his  own  grave  " 
— to  quote  the  words  used  by  himself  a  few  years  afterwards — 
when  he  sought  aid  from  the  perfidious  Almoravide.     Yusuf 

'  The  term  Mulaththamun,  which  means  literally  '  wearers  of  the 
lithdm '  (a  veil  covering  the  lower  part  of  the  face),  is  applied  to  the 
Berber  tribes  of  the  Sahara,  the  so-called  Almoravides  (al-Munibitiin), 
who  at  this  time  ruled  over  Northern  Africa. 


424  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

could  not  but  contrast  the  beauty,  riches,  and  magnificent 
resources  of  Spain  with  the  barren  deserts  and  rude  civilisation 
of  Africa.  He  was  not  content  to  admire  at  a  distance  the 
enchanting  view  which  had  been  dangled  before  him.  In 
the  following  year  he  returned  to  Spain  and  took  possession 
of  Granada.  He  next  proceeded  to  pick  a  quarrel  with 
Mu'tamid.  The  Berber  army  laid  siege  to  Seville,  and 
although  Mu'tamid  displayed  the  utmost  bravery,  he  was 
unable  to  prevent  the  fall  of  his  capital  (Septem- 

Captivityand 

death  of        ber,    lOQi    A.D.).      1  he  unfortunate  prmce   was 

Mu'tamid.  ,  .  .  ,  n  /r 

thrown  mto  chams  and  transported  to  Morocco. 
Yusuf  spared  his  life,  but  kept  him  a  prisoner  at  Aghmdt, 
where  he  died  in  1095  a.d.  During  his  captivity  he 
bewailed  in  touching  poems  the  misery  of  his  state,  the 
sufferings  which  he  and  his  family  had  to  endure,  and  the 
tragic  doom  which  suddenly  deprived  him  of  friends,  fortune, 
and  power.  "  Every  one  loves  Mu'tamid,"  wrote  an  historian 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  "  every  one  pities  him,  and  even  now 
he  is  lamented."  I  He  deserved  no  less,  for,  as  Dozy  remarks, 
he  was  "  the  last  Spanish-born  king  {le  dernier  rot  indigene)^ 
who  represented  worthily,  nay,  brilliantly,  a  nationality  and 
culture  which  succumbed,  or  barely  survived,  under  the 
dominion  of  barbarian  invaders."  2 

The  Age  of  the  Tyrants,  to  borrow  from  Greek  history  a 

designation  which  well  describes  the  character  of  this  period, 

yields    to    no    other    in    literary   and    scientific 

Ibn  Zaydun.        ■  _  •' 

renown.  Poetry  was  cultivated  at  every  Anda- 
lusian  court.  If  Seville  could  point  with  just  pride  to 
Mu'tamid  and  his  Vizier,  Ibn  'Ammar,  Cordova  claimed  a 
second  pair  almost  equally  illustrious — Ibn  Zaydun  (1003— 
107 1  A.D.)  and  Wallada,  a  daughter  of  the  Umayyad  Caliph 
al-Mustakfi.  Ibn  Zaydun  entered  upon  a  political  career 
and  became  the  confidential  agent  of  Ibn  Jahwar,  the  chief 

'  Ibnu  '1-Abbdr  (Dozy,  Loci  de  Abbadidis,  vol.  ii,  p.  63). 
^  Histoirc  des  Mustdmans  d'Espagne,  vol.  iv,  p.  287. 


IBN  Z A  YD  UN  425 

magistrate  of  Cordova,  but  he  fell  into  disgrace,  probably  on 
account  of  his  love  for  the  beautiful  and  talented  princess, 
who  inspired  those  tender  melodies  which  have  caused  the 
poet's  European  biographers  to  link  his  name  with  Tibullus 
and  Petrarch.  In  the  hope  of  seeing  her,  although  he  durst 
not  show  himself  openly,  he  lingered  in  al-Zahra,  the  royal 
suburb  of  Cordova  built  bv  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  III.  At  last, 
after  many  wanderings,  he  found  a  home  at  Seville,  where  he 
was  cordially  received  by  Mu'tadid,  who  treated  him  as  an 
intimate  friend  and  bestowed  on  him  the  title  of  Dhu 
U-Wizdratayn.^  The  following  verses,  which  he  addressed 
to  Wallada,  depict  the  lovely  scenery  of  al-Zahra  and  may 
serve  to  illustrate  the  deep  feeling  for  nature  which,  as  has 
been  said,  is  characteristic  of  Spanish-Arabian  poetry  in 
general.2 

"  To-day  my  longing  thoughts  recall  thee  here  ; 
The  landscape  glitters,  and  the  sky  is  clear. 
So  feebly  breathes  the  gentle  zephyr's  gale, 
In  pity  of  my  grief  it  seems  to  fail. 
The  silvery  fountains  laugh,  as  from  a  girl's 
Fair  throat  a  broken  necklace  sheds  its  pearls. 
Oh,  'tis  a  day  like  those  of  our  sweet  prime. 
When,  stealing  pleasures  from  indulgent  Time, 
We  played  midst  flowers  of  eye-bewitching  hue, 
That  bent  their  heads  beneath  the  drops  of  dew. 
Alas,  they  see  me  now  bereaved  of  sleep  ; 
They  share  my  passion  and  with  me  they  weep. 
Here  in  her  sunny  haunt  the  rose  blooms  bright, 
Adding  new  lustre  to  Aurora's  light ; 
And  waked  by  morning  beams,  yet  languid  still, 
The  rival  lotus  doth  his  perfume  spill. 


'  I.e.,  '  holder  of  the  two  vizierships ' — that  of  the  sword  and  that  of 
the  pen.  See  De  Slane's  translation  of  Ibn  Khallikan,  vol.  iii,  p.  130, 
n.  I. 

-  The  Arabic  text  of  this  poem,  which  occurs  in  the  Qald'idu  'l-'Iqydn 
of  Ibn  Khaqan,  will  be  found  on  pp.  24-25  of  Weyers's  Specimen  critictun 
exliibens  locos  Ibn  Khacanis  de  Ibn  Zeidouno  (Leyden,  1831). 


426  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

All  stirs  in  me  the  memory  of  that  fire 
Which  in  my  tortured  breast  will  ne'er  expire. 
Had  death  come  ere  we  parted,  it  had  been 
The  best  of  all  days  in  the  world,  I  ween ; 
And  this  poor  heart,  where  thou  art  every  thing, 
Would  not  be  fluttering  now  on  passion's  wing. 
Ah,  might  the  zephyr  waft  me  tenderly. 
Worn  out  with  anguish  as  I  am,  to  thee  ! 
O  treasure  mine,  if  lover  e'er  possessed 
A  treasure !     O  thou  dearest,  queenliest  ! 
Once,  once,  we  paid  the  debt  of  love  complete 
And  ran  an  equal  race  with  eager  feet. 
How  true,  how  blameless  was  the  love  I  bore, 
Thou  hast  forgotten  ;  but  I  still  adore  ! " 

The  greatest  scholar  and  the  most  original  genius  of 
Moslem    Spain    is   Abu    Muhammad    'All    Ibn    Hazm,    who 

was  born  at  Cordova  in  994  a.d.  He  came 
(gg^^-lofri^D.).    o^  ^  '  Renegade '  family,  but  he  was  so  far  from 

honouring  his  Christian  ancestors  that  he  pretended 
to  trace  his  descent  to  a  Persian  freedman  of  Yazid  b.  Abf 
Sufyan,  a  brother  of  the  first  Umayyad  Caliph,  Mu'awiya  ; 
and  his  contempt  for  Christianity  was  in  proportion  to  his 
fanatical  zeal  on  behalf  of  Islam.  His  father,  Ahmad,  had 
filled  the  office  of  Vizier  under  Mansiir  Ibn  Abi  'Amir,  and 
Ibn  Hazm  himself  plunged  ardently  into  politics  as  a  client — 
through  his  false  pedigree — of  the  Umayyad  House,  to  which 
he  was  devotedly  attached.  Before  the  age  of  thirty  he 
became  prime  minister  of  'Abdu  '1-Rahman  V  (1023- 
1024  A.D.),  but  on  the  fall  of  the  Umayyad  Government 
he  retired  from  public  life  and  gave  himself  wholly  to  litera- 
ture. Ibn  Bashkuwal,  author  of  a  well-known  biographical 
dictionary  of  Spanish  celebrities  entitled  al-Sila  fi  akhbari 
aimmati  U-Andalus^  speaks  of  him  in  these  terms  :  "  Of  all 
the  natives  of  Spain  Ibn  Hazm  was  the  most  eminent  by 
the  universality  and  the  depth  of  his  learning  in  the  sciences 
cultivated  by  the  Moslems  ;  add  to  this  his  profound 
acquaintance  with   the  Arabic   tongue,  and   his  vast  abilities 


IBN  HAZM  427 

as  an  elegant  writer,  a  poet,  a  biographer,  and  an  historian  ; 
his  son  possessed  about  400  volumes,  containing  nearly  80,000 
leaves,  which  Ibn  Hazm  had  composed  and  written  out."i 
It  is  recorded  that  he  said,  "  My  only  desire  in  seeking 
knowledge  was  to  attain  a  high  scientific  rank  in  this  world 
and  the  next."  2  He  got  little  encouragement  from  his  con- 
temporaries. The  mere  fact  that  he  belonged  to  the 
Zahirite  school  of  theology  would  not  have  mattered,  but 
the  caustic  style  in  which  he  attacked  the  most  venerable 
religious  authorities  of  Islam  aroused  such  bitter  hostility  that 
he  was  virtually  excommunicated  by  the  orthodox  divines. 
People  were  warned  against  having  anything  to  do  with 
him,  and  at  Seville  his  writings  were  solemnly  committed 
to  the  flames.  On  this  occasion  he  is  said  to  have 
remarked — 

"The  paper  ye  may  burn,  but  what  the  paper  holds 
Ye  cannot  burn  :  'tis  safe  within  my  breast :  where  I 
Remove,  it  goes  with  me,  alights  when  I  alight, 
And  in  my  tomb  will  lie."  3 

After  being  expelled  from  several  provinces  of  Spain,  Ibn 

Hazm  withdrew  to  a  village,  of  which  he  was  the  owner,  and 

remained  there  until  his  death.     Of  his  numerous 

Religions  and    writiuffs  oulv  a  few  havc  escaped  destruction,  but 

Sects.'  o  y 

fortunately  we  possess  the  most  valuable  of  them 
all,  the  'Book  of  Religions  and  Sects'  {^Kitahu  U-Milal 
•wa-l-'Nihd\  which  was  recently  printed  in  Cairo  for  the 
first  time.  This  work  treats  in  controversial  fashion  (i)  of 
the  non-Muhammadan  religious  systems,  especially  Judaism, 
Christianity,  and  Zoroastrianism,  and  (2)  of  Islam  and  its 
dogmas,    which    are    of  course    regarded    from    the    Zahirite 

'  Cited  by  Ibn  Khallikan  in  his  article  on  Ibn  Hazm  (De  Slane's  transla- 
tion, vol.  ii,  p.  268). 
^  Maqqari,  vol.  i,  p.  511,  1.  21. 
3  Maqqari,  loc.  cit,  p.  515,  1.  5  seq. 


428  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

standpoint,  and  of  the  four  principal  Muhammadan  sects,  viz., 
the  Mu'tazilites,  the  Murjites,  the  Shi'ites,  and  the  Khari- 
jites.  The  author  maintains  that  these  sects  owed  their  rise 
to  the  Persians,  who  sought  thus  to  revenge  themselves 
upon  victorious  Islam.  ^ 

The  following  are  some  of  the  most  distinguished  Spanish 

writers  of  this  epoch  :  the  historian,- Abu  Marwan  Ibn  Hayyan 

of  Cordova  (t  1075  A.D.),  whose  chief  works  are  a 

^s"^*nin'°     colossal  history  of  Spain  in  sixty  volumes  entitled 

^''cenbl^'!*^     al- Matin    and  a  smaller  chronicle  [al-Muqtahis\ 

both  of  which  appear  to  have  been  almost  entirely 

lost ;  2    the    jurisconsult    and     poet,    Abu    '1-Walid     al-Baji 

(f    108 1    A.D.)  ;    the    traditionist    Yusuf    Ibn    *Abd    al-Barr 

(t    1 07 1    A.D.)  ;    and    the    geographer   al-Baicri,   a   native    of 

Cordova,    where    he    died    in    1094    A.D.       Finally,    mention 

should   be  made  of  the   famous  Jews,  Solomon  Ibn  Gabirol 

(Avicebron)   and    Samuel    Ha-Levi.     The    former,  who  was 

born    at    Malaga  about    1020  a.d.,  wrote   two    philosophical 

works  in  Arabic,    and    his    Fons  Vitae   played    an   important 

part  in  the  development  of  mediaeval  scholasticism.     Samuel 

Ha-Levi   was   Vizier  to  Badis,  the  sovereign   of 

Samuel  Ha-Levi.  ,       /  r,  \  t  i     •  j      • 

Granada  (1038-1073  a.d.).  In  their  admira- 
tion of  his  extraordinary  accomplishments  the  Arabs  all  but 
forgot  that  he  was  a  Jew  and  a  prince  {Naghid)  in  Israel.3 
Samuel,  on  his  part,  when  he  wrote  letters  of  State,  did  not 
scruple  to  employ  the  usual  Muhammadan  formulas,  "  Praise 
to  Allah  !  "  "  May  Allah  bless  our   Prophet   Muhammad  ! " 

'  The  contents  of  the  Kiidhii  'l-Milal  wa-'l-Nihal  are  fully  summarised 
by  Dozy  in  the  Leyden  Catalogue,  vol.  iv,  pp.  230-237.  Cf.  also  Zur 
Komposition  von  Ibn  Hazm's  Milal  wa'n-Nihal,  by  Israel  Friedlaender  in 
the  Noldeke-Fcstschrift  (Giessen,  1906),  vol.  i,  p.  267  sqq. 

=  So  far  as  I  am  aware,  the  report  that  copies  are  preserved  in  the  great 
mosque  at  Tunis  has  not  been  confirmed. 

3  His  Arabic  name  is  Isma'il  b.  Naghdala.  See  the  Introduction  to 
Dozy's  ed.  of  Ibnu  'I-'Idhari,  p.  84,  n.  i. 


WRITERS  OF  THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY  429 

and  to  glorify  Islam  quite  in  the  manner  of  a  good  Moslem. 
He  had  a  perfect  mastery  of  Hebrew  and  Arabic  ;  he  knew 
five  other  languages,  and  was  profoundly  versed  in  the 
sciences  of  the  ancients,  particularly  in  astronomy.  With 
all  his  learning  he  was  a  supple  diplomat  and  a  man  of  the 
world.  Yet  he  always  preserved  a  dignified  and  unassuming 
demeanour,  although  in  his  days  (according  to  Ibnu  'l-'Idhari) 
"  the  Jews  made  themselves  powerful  and  behaved  arrogantly 
towards  the  Moslems."  ^ 

During  the  whole  of  the  twelfth,  and  well  into  the  first 
half  of  the  thirteenth,  century  Spain  was  ruled  by  two 
African  dynasties,  the  Almoravides  and  the  Almohades, 
which  originated,  as  their  names  denote,  in  the  religious 
fanaticism  of  the  Berber  tribes  of  the  Sahara.  The  rise 
of  the  Almoravides  is  related  by  Ibnu  '1-Athir  as  follows  : — 2 

"  In  this  year  (448  a.h.  =  1056  a.d.)  was  the  beginning  of  the 
power   of  the   Mulaththami'in.^     These  were   a   number   of  tribes 

descended  from  Himyar,  of  which  the  most  consider- 
Ataoravfdes.     ^^Ic  were  Lamtuna,  Jadala,  and  Lamta.  .  .  .  Now  in 

the  above-mentioned  year  a  man  of  Jadala,  named 
Jawhar,  set  out  for  Africa''  on  his  way  to  the  Pilgrimage,  for  he 
loved  religion  and  the  people  thereof.  At  Qayrawan  he  fell  in 
with  a  certain  divine — Abu  'Imran  al-Fasi,  as  is  generally  sup- 
posed— 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  Abu  'Imran  to 
send  back  with  him  to  the  desert  a  teacher  who  should  instruct 
the  ignorant  Berbers  in  the  laws  of  Islam.     So  Abu  'Imran  sent 

1  An  interesting  notice  of  Samuel  Ha-Levi  is  given  by  Dozy  in  his 
Hist,  des  Mus.  d'Espagne,  vol.  iv,  p.  27  sqq. 

2  Kdmil  of  Ibnu  '1-Athir,  ed.  by  Tornberg,  vol.  ix,  p.  425  sqq.  The 
following  nan-ative  (which  has  been  condensed  as  far  as  possible)  differs 
in  some  essential  particulars  from  the  accounts  given  by  Ibn  Khaldun 
{History  of  the  Berbers,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  ii,  p.  64  sqq.)  and  by 
Ibn  Abi  Zar'  (Tornberg,  Annates  Regiim  Mauritanice,  p.  100  sqq.  of  the 
Latin  version).     Cf.  A.  Miiller,  Der  Islam,  vol.  ii,  p.  611  sqq. 

3  See  note  on  p.  423.  *  The  province  of  Tunis. 


.^' 


430  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

with  him  a  man  called  'Abdullah  b.  Yasin  al-Kuzuli,  who  was  an 
excellent  divine,  and  they  journeyed  together  until  they  came  to 
the  tribe  of  Lamtuna.  Then  Jawhar  dismounted  from  his  camel 
and  took  hold  of  the  bridle  of  'Abdullah  b.  Yasin's  camel,  in 
reverence  for  the  law  of  Islam ;  and  the  men  of  Lamtuna 
approached  Jawhar  and  greeted  him  and  questioned  him  con- 
cerning 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  'Abdullah,  '  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  our- 
selves. Begone  elsewhere  !'  .  .  .  And  they  came  to  Jadala, 
Jawhar's  own  tribe,  and  'Abdullah  called  on  them  and  the  neigh- 
bouring tribes  to  fulfil  the  law,  and  some  consented  while  others 
refused.  Then,  after  a  time,  'Abdullah  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  'Abdullah 
declared  that  he  was  only  a  missionary,  and  on  his  advice  the 
command  was  offered  to  Abii  Bakr  b.  'Umar,  the  chief  of  Lamtuna, 
a  man  of  great  authority  and  influence.  Having  prevailed  upon 
him  to  act  as  leader,  'Abdullah  began  to  preach  a  holy  war,  and 
gave  his  adherents  the  name  of  Almoravides  (al-Murdbitiln)." ' 

The   little  community  rapidly  increased    in    numbers   and 

power.     Yusuf  b.  Tashifin,  who  succeeded  to  the  command 

in  1069  A.D.,  founded  the  city  of  Morocco,  and 

The  Almoravide  . 

Empire         from  this  Centre  made   new  conquests   m   every 

(IO56-II47  A.D.).  .  .  1  ■  1 

direction,  so  that  ere  long  the  Almoravides  ruled 
over  the  whole  of  North-West  Africa  from  Senegal  to 
Algeria.     We  have  already  seen   how  Yusuf  was  invited  by 

'  Murdbit  is  literally  '  one  who  lives  in  a  ribdt,'  i.e.,  a  guardhouse  or 
military  post  on  the  frontier.  Such  buildings  were  often  occupied,  in 
addition  to  the  garrison  proper,  by  individuals  who,  from  pious  motives, 
wished  to  take  part  in  the  holy  war  {jihad)  against  the  unbelievers.  The 
word  murdbif,  therefore,  gradually  got  an  exclusively  religious  significa- 
tion, '  devotee '  or  '  saint,'  which  appears  in  its  modern  form,  marabout. 
As  applied  to  the  original  Almoravides,  it  still  retains  a  distinctly  military 
flavour. 


THE  ALMORAVIDES  43 1 

the  'Abbadids  to  lead  an  army  into  Spain,  how  he  defeated 
Alphonso  VI  at  Zallaqa  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  Yusuf 
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. 

The  empire  of  the  Almoravides   passed  into  the  hands  of 

another   African   dynasty,   the  Almohades.i      Their  founder, 

Muhammad  Ibn  Tumart,  was  a  native  of  the  moun- 

IbnTumart.  .     '  ...  ^    r.  i  i  •    i     i-  i  ^u 

tamous  district  of  Sus  which  hes  to  the  south- 
west of  Morocco.  When  a  youth  he  made  the  Pilgrimage  to 
Mecca  (about  1108  a.d.),  and  also  visited  Baghdad,  where  he 
studied  in  the  Nizdmiyya  College  and  is  said  to  have  met 
the  celebrated  Ghazali.  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  Mahdi  (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,  how- 
ever, may  be  briefly  stated.  "  In  most  questions,"  says  one 
of  his  biographers,^  "  he  followed  the  system  of  Abu  '1-Hasan 
al-Ash'ari,  but  he  agreed  with  the  Mu'tazilites  in  their  denial 
of  the  Divine  Attributes  and  in  a  few  matters  besides  ;  and  he 

'  See  Goldziher's  article  Materialien  zur  Kennfniss  det  Almohaden- 
bcwegung  in  Nordafrika  (Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  41,  p.  30  sqq.). 

-  'Abdu  '1-Wahid,  History  of  the  Almohadcs,  ed.  by  Dozy,  p.  135, 
1.  I  sqq. 


432  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

was  at  heart  somewhat  inclined  to  Sh{'ism,  although  he  gave  it 
no  countenance  in  public."  ^  The  gist  of  his  teaching  is  indi- 
cated by  the  name  Muwahhid  (Unitarian),  which  he  bestowed 
on  himself,  and  which  his  successors  adopted  as  their  dynastic 
title.2  Ibn  Tiimart  emphasised  the  Unity  of  God  ;  in  other 
words,  he  denounced  the  anthropomorphic  ideas  which  pre- 
vailed 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  Imdm 
{al-Imdm  a/-Ma^sum)^  and  he  naturally  asserted  that  the 
Imam  was  Muhammad  Ibn  Tumart,  a  descendant  of  'AH 
b.  Ab{  Tdlib. 

On  the  death  of  the  Mahdf  (1130  a.d.)  the  supreme 
command    devolved    upon     his     trusted     lieutenant,    'Abdu 

'1-Mu'min,  who  carried  on  the  holy  war  against 
a^3(>^i?6°9^A'D)    ^^^   Almoravides   with   growing  success,  until  in 

1 158  A.D.  he  "united  the  whole  coast  from  the 
frontier  of  Egypt  to  the  Atlantic,  together  with  Moorish 
Spain,  under  his  sceptre."  3  The  new  dynasty  was  far  more 
enlightened  and  favourable  to  culture  than  the  Almoravides 
had  been.  Yusuf,  the  son  of  'Abdu  '1-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 
Tufayl,  was  his  Vizier  and  court  physician  ;  and  Ibn  Rushd 
(Averroes)  received  flattering  honours  both  from  him  and 
from  his  successor,  Ya'qub  al-Mansur,  who  loved  to  converse 
with  the  philosopher  on  scientific  topics,  although  in  a  fit  of 
orthodoxy  he  banished  him  for  a  time.4     This  curious  mixture 

'  The  Berbers  at  this  time  were  Sunnite  and  anti-Fatimid. 
^  Almohade  is  the  Spanish  form  of  al-Muwahhid. 
3  Stanley  Lane-Poole,  The  Mohammadan  Dynasties,  p.  46. 
t  Renan,  Averroes  et  I' Averro'isme,  p.  12  sqq. 


THE  ALMOHADES  433 

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  Zahirite 
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-fe,  which  had  been  prohibited  by 
his  grandfather,  of  Malikite  and  other  obnoxious  books.i  The 
spirit  of  the  Almohades  is  admirably  reflected  in  Ibn  Tufayl's 
famous  philosophical  romance,  named  after  its  hero,  Hayy  ibn 
Taqzdn^  i.e.y  '  Alive,  son  of  Awake,'  ^  of  which  the  following 
summary  is  given  by  Mr.  Duncan  B.  Macdonald  in  his  excel- 
lent Muslim  Theology  (p.  253)  : — 

"  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 
nlyy  b.^YaqzLi.  religion  of  rewards  and  punishments.  Two  men  there, 
Salamdn  and  Asal,^  have  raised  themselves  to  a  higher 
level  of  self-rule.  Salamdn  adapts  himself  externally  to  the  popular 
religion  and  rules  the  people  ;  Asal,  seeking  to  perfect  himself  still 
further  in  solitude,  goes  to  the  other  island.  But  there  he  finds 
a  man,  Ha5'y  ibn  Yaqzan,  who  has  lived  alone  from  infancy  and  has 
gradually,  by  the  innate  and  uncorruptcd  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  revela- 
tion, and  the  purified  religion  of  Asal  are  one  and  the  same.  The 
story  told  by  Asal  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  Muhammad  was  the  true  one 


'  See  a  passage  from  'Abdu  '1-Wahid's  History  of  the  Almohades  (p.  201, 
1.  19  sqq.),  which  is  translated  in  Goldziher's  ZdlUriteii,  p.  174. 

=  The  Arabic  text,  with  a  Latin  version  by  E.  Pocock,  was  published  in 
1671,  and  again  in  1700,  under  the  title  Philosoplms  Autodidactus.  An 
English  translation  by  Simon  Ockley  appeared  in  1708,  and  has  been 
several  times  reprinted. 

3  The  true  form  of  this  name  is  Absal,  as  in  Jami's  celebrated  poem. 
Cf.  De  Boer,  The  History  of  Philosophy  in  Islam,  translated  by  E.  R. 
Jones,  p.  144. 

29 


434  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

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." 

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 
t'j.^Almorrv'ldel  »  class  by  themselves.  Ibn  Bdjja  (Avempace), 
(iioo^So  a'S  It>n  Rushd  (Averroes),  Ibn  Tufayl,  and  Miisi  b. 
Maymiin  (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, 
Muhiyyu  '1-Din  Ibnu  'l-'Arabi  (f  1240  a.d.)  ;  his  fellow- 
townsman,  Ibn  Sab'in  (f  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  Khaqan  (f  1134  a.d.),  Ibn  Bassam 
(t  1 147  A.D.),  and  Ibn  Bashkuwal  (f  1183  a.d.).  The 
geographer  Idrisi  (f  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  1 1 83-1 185  a.d.  ;  Ibn 
Zuhr  (Avenzoar),  who  became  a  Vizier  under  the  Almoravides, 
was  the  first  of  a  whole  family  of  eminent  physicians  ;  and 
Ibnu  '1-Baytar  of  Malaga  (f  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-Kamil. 

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 

Reconquest  of  ■'  i  •  i  r> 

Spain  by       the  Christian  arms  everywhere  triumphant.     By 

Ferdinand  III.  -'  .  - 

1230  A.D.  the  Almohades  had  be^en  driven  out  or 
the  peninsula,  although  they  continued  to  rule  Africa  for  about 


i 


THE  NASRIDS   OF  GRANADA  435 

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.,  Muhammad  Ibnu  '1-Ahmar 
assumed  the  proud  title  of  '  Conqueror  by  Grace  of  God ' 
{Ghdlib  billah)  and  founded  the  Nasrid  dynasty,  which  held  the 
Tu  XT     J       Christians  at  bay  during  two  centuries  and  a  half. 

The  Nasrids  J  o 

of  Granada      That  the  little  Moslem  kingdom  survived  so  long 

(1232-I492  A.D.).  °  ° 

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-Hamra)  of 
the  Nasrid  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),i  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  Muhammadan  culture  in  a  single  day. 

The  names  of  Ibnu  '1-Khatib  and  Ibn  Khaldun  represent 
the  highest  literary  accomplishment  and  historical  comprehen- 
sion of  which  this  age  was  capable.  The  latter,  indeed,  has 
no  parallel  among  Oriental  historians. 

Lisanu  '1-Din  Ibnu  '1-Khadb  2  played  a  great  figure  in  the 

'  Jurji  Zaydan,  however,  is  disposed  to  regard  the  story  as  being  not 
without  foundation.  See  his  interesting  discussion  of  the  evidence  in  his 
TaWikhu  'l-Iamaddim  al-Isldmi  {'  History  of  Islamic  Civilisation '), 
Part  III,  pp.  40-46. 

"  The  life  of  Ibnu  '1-Khatib  has  been  written  by  his  friend  and  contem- 
porary, Ibn  Khaldun  {Hist,  of  the  Berbers,  translated  by  De  Slane,  vol.  iv. 


436  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

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."  ^  A  young 
(^Sz-l'm^S.).  "^^"  1^^^  I^""  '1-Khatib,  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  Nasrid  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-'Aziz  ;  but  on  the  accession  of  Abu  'l-'Abbas 
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.  Maqqari  relates  that  Ibnu  '1-Khatib  suffered 
from  insomnia,  and  that  most  of  his  works  were  composed 
during  the  night,  for  which  reason  he  got  the  nickname  of 
Dhu  U-^Umrayn^  or  'The  man  of  two  lives.' ^  He  was 
a  prolific  writer  in  various  branches  of  literature,  but,  like  so 
many  of  his  countrymen,  he  excelled  in  History.  His  mono- 
graphs on  the  sovereigns  ,and  savants  of  Granada  (one  of 
which  includes  an  autobiography)  supply  interesting  details 
concerning  this  obscure  period. 

p,  390  sqq.),  and  forms  the  main  subject  of  Maqqari's  Naflni  'l-Tib 
(vols,  iii  and  iv  of  the  Bulaq  edition). 

'  Schack,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  312  seq. 

'  Cited  in  the  Shadhanitu  'l-Dhahab,  a  MS.  in  my  collection.  See 
J.R.A.S.  for  1899,  p.  911  seq.,  and  for  1906,  p.  797. 


IBNU  'L-KHATtB  AND  IBM  KHALDtlN  437 

Some  apology  may  be  thought  necessary  for   placing  Ibn 

Khaldun,    the    greatest    historical    thinker    of    Islam,    in    the 

present    chapter,  as    though   he  were  a  Spaniard 

(i332"-Mo6'l'?^.).  ^'^^^^  '^y  ^^^^^  °''  '■esidence.  He  descended,  it 
is  true,  from  a  family,  the  Banu  Khaldiin,  which 
had  long  been  settled  in  Spain,  first  at  Carmona  and  after- 
wards at  Seville ;  but  they  migrated  to  Africa  about  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  Ibn  Khaldun  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,  Abu  ^Abdallah  Ibnu  '1-Ahmar,  and  would 
probably  have  made  that  city  his  home  had  not  the  jealousy  of 
his  former  friend,  the  Vizier  Ibnu  '1-Khatib,  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  Khaldun  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  Kitdbu  'l-^Ibar  ('  Book  of 
Examples  ').i  He  himself  has  stated  his  idea  of  the  historian's 
function  in  the  following  words  : — 

"  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 

Ibn  Khaldun  as   '^^  natural  phenomena,  such  as  savage  life,  the  softening 

a  philosophical   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 


^  The  Arabic  text  of  the  Prolegomena  has  been  published  by  Quatre- 
mere  in  Notices  et  extraits  des  maimscrits  de  la  Biblioiheque  Imperiale, 
vols.  16-18,  and  at  Beyrout  (1879,  1886,  and  1900).  A  French  translation 
by  De  Slane  appeared  in  Not.  et  E.xtraits,  vols.  19-21. 


438  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE  || 

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."  *  :,|| 


Ibn  Khaldun  argues  that  History,  thus  conceived,  is  subject 
to  universal  laws,  and  in  these  laws  he  finds  the  only  sure 
criterion  of  historical  truth. 


I 


"  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) 

of  historical     and   discriminate   between   the   characteristics  which 

criticism.        ^j,g    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."  =>  '|( 

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  con- 
clusions 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  Khaldiin 
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  Khalddn  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 

'  Muqaddima  (Beyrout  ed.  of  1900),  p.  35, 1.  5  sqq.  =  Prolegomena  trans- 
lated by  De  Slane,  vol.  i,  p.  71. 
=  Muqaddima,  p.  37, 1.  4  fr.  foot  =  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  i,  p.  yy. 


IBN  KHALDJ)N  439 

mediaeval  and  modern  historians  of  Europe — Machiavelli  and 
Vico  and  Gibbon. 

It  is  worth  while  to  sketch   briefly  the  peculiar  theory  of 

historical  development  which  Ibn  Khaldun    puts  forward  in 

his  Prolegomena — a  theory  founded  on  the  study 

Ibn  Khaldun's  °  .   .  ■'  .  ^ 

theory  of  his-     of  actual    conditions   and    events   either   past  or 

toncal  evolution.  _  _  *  _ 

passing  before  his  eyes.i  He  was  struck,  in  the 
first  place,  with  the  physical  fact  that  in  almost  every  part  of 
the  Muhammadan  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  Hira 
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 
Khaldun  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  Khaldun  regards  it  ;  but  we  must  try  to  give 
our  readers  some  further  account  of  the  philosophical  ideas 

'  Von  Kremer  has  discussed  Ibn  Khaldun's  ideas  more  fully  than  is 
possible  here  in  an  admirably  sympathetic  article,  Ihn  Chaldun  tind  seine 
Culturgeschichte  der  islamischen  Rciche,  contributed  to  the  Sitz.  der  Kais. 
Akad.  der  Wissenschafieti,  vol.  93  (Vienna,  1879).  I  have  profited  by  many 
of  his  observations,  and  desire  to  make  the  warmest  acknowledgment  of 
my  debt  to  him  in  this  as  in  countless  other  instances. 


440  THE  ARABS  IN  EUROPE 

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  ^asabiyyay 
the  binding  element  in  society,  the  feeling  which  unites 
mambers  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  ^asabiyya  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  Khaldun 
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.^ 
During  this  time  they  pass  through  five  stages  of  development 
and  decay.2  It  is  noteworthy  that  Ibn  Khaldun  admits  the 
moral  superiority  of  the  Nomads.  For  him  civilisation  neces- 
sarily 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  Muhammadan 
world,  to  which  his  view  was  restricted. 3 

'  Muqaddima,  Beyrout   ed.,   p.  170  =  De   Slane's  translation,   vol.  i, 
p.  347  sqq. 
^  Muqaddima,  p.  175  =  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  i,  p.  356  sqq. 
3  An  excellent  appreciation  of  Ibn  Khaldun  as  a  scientific  historian  will 


EXPULSION  OF   THE  MOORS  441 

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 

The  fall  of  ^^ 

Granada        Granada."      The    victors    showed    a    barbarous 

(1492  A.D.). 

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  Muhammadan  rule.     Compelled  to  choose  / 
between  apostasy  and  exile,  many  preferred  the  latter  alterna-  1 
tive.       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. 

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, 
^''skiiy'^'"     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  (i  194-1250  a.d.)  might  be 
seen  "  astrologers  from  Baghddd  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."  ^  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  neighbour- 
ing towns  of  Lower  Italy. 

be  found  in  Robert  Flint's  History  of  the  Philosophy  of  History,  vol,  i, 
pp.  157-171- 

'  Schack,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  p.  151. 


CHAPTER   X 

FROM    THE    MONGOL    INVASION    TO    THE    PRESENT    DAY 

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 
teristics  of  the  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  Muhammadan  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  Mame- 
lukes until  15 1 7  A.D.,  when  they  passed  under  Ottoman 
rule.  In  North  Africa  the  petty  Berber  dynasties  (Hafsids, 
Ziydnids,  and  Marinids)  gave  place  in  the  sixteenth  century 
to  the  Ottoman  Turks.  Only  in  Spain,  where  the  Nasrids  of 
Granada  survived  until  1492  a.d.,  in  Morocco,  where  the 
Sharifs  (descendants  of  'Ali  b.  Abl  Tdlib)  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 

44a 


CHARACTER   OF   THE  PERIOD  443 

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    Khaldiin    and     the    mystic    Sha^rani — 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."  ^     Until  comparatively  recent   times,  when 
Egypt  and  Syria  first   became  open  to  European  civilisation, 
the  Arab  retained  his  mediaeval  outlook  and  habit  of  mind, 
and  was  in  no  respect  more  enlightened  than  his  forefathers 
who    lived    under    the    'Abbdsid    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.^ 

Between  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century  and   the    end 

'  E.  J.  W.  Gibb,  A  History  of  Ottoman  Poetry,  vol.  ii,  p.  5. 
»  The  nineteenth  century  should  have  been    excepted,  so  far  as  the 
influence  of  modern  civilisation  has  reacted  on  Arabic  literature. 


444    THE  MONGOL   INVASION  AND  AFTER 

of  the  fourteenth  the  nomad  tribes  dwelling  beyond  the  Oxus 
burst  over  Western  Asia    in    three    successive    waves.     First 

came  the  Seljiiq  Turks,  then  the  Mongols 
Th^Mongoi      uj^jjej.    Chingiz    Khan    and    Hiildgu,    then    the 

hordes,  mainly  Turkish,  of  Tfmur.  Regarding 
the  Seljiiqs  all  that  is  necessary  for  our  purpose  has  been  said 
in  a  former  chapter.  The  conquests  of  Timur  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 
Bdbar,  a  descendant  of  Timur,  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 
Chingiz  Khan  and  HulAgu,  from  the  steppes  of  China  and 
Tartary  to  the  Mediterranean. 

In  1 2 19  A.D.  Chingiz  Khan,  having  consolidated  his  power 
in   the    Far    East,    turned    his    face    westward   and    suddenly 

advanced  into  Transoxania,  which  at  that  time 
^ndliiiugd"     formed  a  province  of  the  wide  dominions  of  the 

Shdhs  of  Khwarizm  (Khiva).  The  reigning 
monarch,  'Ala'u  '1-Din  Muhammad,  was  unable  to  make  an 
eflFective  resistance  ;  and  notwithstanding  that  his  son,  the 
gallant  Jaldlu  '1-Din,  carried  on  a  desperate  guerilla  for  twelve 
years,  the  invaders  swarmed  over  Khurasdn  and  Persia, 
massacring  the  panic-stricken  inhabitants  wholesale  and 
leaving  a  wilderness  behind  them.  Hitherto  Baghddd  had 
not  been  seriously  threatened,  but  on  the  first  day  of  January, 
1256  A.D. — an  epoch-marking  date — Hiildgii,  the  grandson 
of  Chingiz  Khan,  crossed  the  Oxus,  with  the  intention  of 
occupying  the    'Abbasid   capital.      I   translate    the    following 


HI)lAGJ)  at  BAGHDAD  445 

narrative  from  a  manuscript  in  my  possession  of  the  Tarlkh 
al-Khamh  by  Diydrbakri  (f  1574  a.d.)  : — 

In  the  year  654  (a.h.  =  1256  a.d.)  the  stubborn  tyrant,  Hulagu, 
the  destroyer  of  the  nations  (Mubidu  'l-Umani),  set  forth  and    took 
the  castle  of  Alamut  from  the   Isma'ih's'  and  slew 
Baghdad  (1258    them  and   laid  waste  the   lands   of   Rayy.  .  .  .  And 
'^■^■^"  in  the  year  655  there  broke  out  at  Baghdad  a  fear- 

ful riot  between  the  Sunni's  and  the  Shi'ites,  which  led  to 
great  plunder  and  destruction  of  property.  A  number  of  Shi'ites 
were  killed,  and  this  so  incensed  and  infuriated  the  Vizier  Ibnu 
'l-'Alqami  that  he  encouraged  the  Tartars  to  invade  'Iraq,  by  which 
means  he  hoped  to  take  ample  vengeance  on  the  Sunnis.''  And  in 
the  beginning  of  the  year  656  the  tyrant  Hulagu  b.  Tiili  b.  Chingiz 
Khan,  the  Moghul,  arrived  at  Baghdad  with  his  army,  including  the 
Georgians  (al-Kiirj)  and  the  troops  of  Mosul.  The  Dawidars 
marched  out  of  the  city  and  met  Hulagu's  vanguard,  which  was 
commanded  by  Baju.''  The  Moslems,  being  few,  suffered  defeat ; 
whereupon  Baju  advanced  and  pitched  his  camp  to  the  west  of 
Baghdad,  while  Hulagu  took  up  a  position  on  the  eastern  side. 
Then  the  Vizier  Ibnu  l-'Alqami  said  to  the  Caliph  Musta'sim 
Billah :  "  I  will  go  to  the  Supreme  Khan  to  arrange  peace."  So  the 
hound  s  went  and  obtained  security  for  himself,  and  on  his  return 
said  to  the  Caliph :  "  The  Khan  desires  to  marry  his  daughter  to 
your  son  and  to  render  homage  to  you,  like  the  Seljuq  kings, 
and  then  to  depart."     Musta'sim  set  out,  attended  by  the  nobles  of 


'  These  Isma'ilis  are  the  so-called  Assassins,  the  terrible  sect  organised 
by  Hasan  b.  Sabbah  (see  Professor  Browne's  Literary  History  of  Persia, 
vol.  ii,  p.  201  sqq.),  and  finally  exterminated  by  Hulagu.  They  had  many 
fortresses,  of  which  Alamut  was  the  most  famous,  in  the  Jibal  province, 
near  Qazwin. 

^  The  reader  must  be  warned  that  this  and  the  following  account  of  the 
treacherous  dealings  of  Ibnu  'l-'Alqami  are  entirely  contradicted  by 
Shi'ite  historians.  For  example,  the  author  of  al-Fakhri  (ed.  by  Deren- 
bourg,  p.  452)  represents  the  Vizier  as  a  far-seeing  patriot  who  vainly 
strove  to  awaken  his  feeble-minded  master  to  the  gravity  of  the  situation. 

3  Concerning  the  various  functions  of  the  Dawidar  (literally  Inkstand- 
holder)  or  Dawadar,  as  the  word  is  more  correctly  written,  see 
Quatremere,  Histoirc  des  Sultans  Mamlouks,  vol.  i,  p.  118,  n.  2. 

*  The  MS.  writes  Yajiinas. 

5  Al-kalb,  the  Arabic  equivalent  of  the  Persian  sag  (dog),  an  animal 
which  Moslems  regard  as  unclean. 


446    THE  MONGOL   INVASION  AND   AFTER 

his  court  and  the  grandees  of  his  time,  in  order  to  witness  the 

contract  of  marriage.     The  whole  party  were  beheaded  except  the 

CaUph,   who  was  trampled   to  death.      The   Tartars 

Baghdid.       entered  Baghdad  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-Isldm.^  .  .  .  And  on  this  wise  did  the  Caliphate  pass 

from  Baghdad.     As  the  poet  sings: — 

"  KhaJati  'l-mandbiru  wa-'l-asirmfu  minhumu 
wa-'alayhimu  hatta  'l-mamdti  saldntti." 

"  The  pulpits  and  the  thrones  are  empty  of  them ; 
I  bid  them,  till  the  hour  of  death,  farewell ! " 

It  seemed  as  if  all  Muhammadan  Asia  lay  at  the  feet  of 
the  pagan  conqueror.  Resuming  his  advance,  Hulagu 
occupied  Mesopotamia  and  sacked  Aleppo.  He  then 
returned  to  the  East,  leaving  his  lieutenant,  Ketbogha,  to 
complete  the  reduction  of  Syria.  Meanwhile,  however,  an 
Egyptian  army  under  the  Mameluke  Sultan  Muzaffar  Qutuz 
was  hastening  to  oppose  the  invaders.  On  Friday,  the  25th 
of  Ramadan,  658  a.h.,  a  decisive  battle  was  fought  at  'Ayn 
Jdlut    (Goliath's    Spring),    west  lof    the   Jordan. 

Battle  of  'Ayn       ,_,,__  .... 

jaiiit  (September,  1  he  i  artars  wcrc  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  Hulagu,  the  Il-Khans,  reigned 
over  a  great  empire,  which  the  conversion  of  one  of  their 
number,  Ghazan  (i 295-1 304  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  Hulagu  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    mediaeval 

'  By  Shamsu  'l-Di'n  al-Dhahabi  (f  1348  a.d.). 


THE  MAMELUKE   DYNASTY  447 

world,  from  Samarcand  to  Seville,  for  a  long  time  owed  its 
highest  literary  and    scientific  culture,   have  now  finally  dis- 
solved   their    partnership.     It    is    true    that    the 
Arabic  ceases  to  cleavage    began     many     centuries    earlier,    and 

be  the  language  o  o  J  _  •         i       i 

of  the  whole      before  the  fall  of  Baghdad  the  Persian  genius  had 

Moslem  world.  °  ... 

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  philoso- 
phical 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. 

The    dynasty    of   the   Mameluke  ^    Sultans   of  Egypt    was 

founded    in    1250    A.D.    by    Aybak,    a    Turkish    slave,    who 

commenced    his   career    in    the    service    of    the 

The  Mamelukes      .  ,,  .  ,        •«  «■    ,.i  o^i-i  -kt    •  »i    -r^^  tt- 

of  Egypt       Ayyubid,    Malik     Sahh     Najmu      1-Din.       His 

(1250-1517  A.D.).  •'•'  111**-  T?  ^  JC- 

successors  ^  held  sway  in  Egypt  and  byna 
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, 
Sultan  Baybars       |^q    richlv    dcserved    his    title    Malik    al-Zahir, 

(1200-I277  A.D.).  J 

i.e,  the  Victorious  King.  His  name  has  passed 
into  the  legends  of  the   people,  and  his  warlike  exploits  into 

'  Mameluke  (Mamliik)  means  'slave.'  The  term  was  applied  to  the 
mercenary  troops,  Turks  and  Kurds  for  the  most  part,  who  composed  the 
bodyguard  of  the  Ayyubid  princes. 

"  There  are  two  Mameluke  dynasties,  called  respectively  Bahri  (River) 
Mamelukes  and  Burji  (Tower)  Mamelukes.  The  former  reigned  from 
1250  to  1390,  the  latter  from  1382  to  1517. 


3- 


448    THE  MONGOL  INVASION  AND  AFTER 

romances  written  in  the  vulgar  dialect  which  are  recited  by 
story-tellers  to  this  day.^  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  reputa- 
tion 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  '1-Qasim  Ahmad,  a  pretended  scion  of  the  'Abbasid 
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, 
Caiiphs^fE^gyt't.  Arabia,    and    all    the    provinces    that    he    might 

obtain  by  future  conquests.  This  Ahmad, 
entitled  al-Mustansir,  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.  The  last  of  the  line  bequeathed  his  rights  of  succes- 
sion to  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Selim  I,  on  which  ground  the 
Sultans  of  Turkey  base  their  claim  to  supreme  authority 
over  the  Moslem  world. 

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 

Arabic  poetry         .  ...  a  i 

after  the  Mongol  nses  above   mediocrity.     At   the  same   time  my 

Invasion.  .  .  /■  ,       t  C 

own  impression  (based,  1  confess,  on  a  very 
desultory  and  imperfect  acquaintance  with  their  work)  is 
that  the  best  among  them  are  merely  elegant  and  accom- 
plished 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  Mutanabbi's  power,  Ma'arri's  earnest- 
ness, or  Ibnu  '1-Fdrid's  enthusiasm.     In  the  absence  of  these 

'  See  Lane,  The  Modem.  Egyptians,  ch.  xxii. 


POETS   OF  THE  PERIOD  449 

qualities  we   must  be  content  to  admire   the   technical  skill 

with    which    the    old   tunes  are  varied  and  revived.     Let   us 

take,  for   example,  Safiyyu    '1-Din    al-Hilli,  who 

^^'S^Hiui^'"     was    born     at    Hilla,    a     large     town     on    the 

Euphrates,    in    1278    a.d.,    became     laureate    of 

the  Urtuqid  dynasty  at  Maridin,  and  died  in  Baghdid  about 

1350.     He  is  described  as  "the  poet  of  his  age  absolutely," 

and    to     judge    from      the     extracts      in     Kutubi's     Fawdtu 

U-JVafaydt^  he  combined  subtlety  of  fancy  with  remarkable 

ease    and    sweetness   of  versification.     Many    of    his    pieces, 

however,  are  jeux   cCesprit^  like   his  ode  to  the   Prophet,   in 

which    he    employs    151    rhetorical    figures,    or   like   another 

poem  where  all  the  nouns  are  diminutives.^     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  ! "  3 

We  have  already   referred  to    the  folk-songs  {muwashshah 
and  xajal)  which  originated  in  Spain.     These  simple  ballads, 

'  Ed.  of  Bulaq  (1283  A.H.),  pp.  356-366. 

=  Ibid.,  p.  358- 

3  These  verses  are  cited  in  the  Hadiqatu  'l-Afrdh  (see  Brockelmann's 
Gcsch.  d.  Arab.  Litt.,  ii,  502),  Calcutta,  1229  A.H.,  p.  280.  In  the  final 
couplet  there  is  an  allusion  to  Kor.  iv,  44  :  "  Verily  God  will  not  wrong 
any  one  even  the  weight  of  a  mite"  (mithqala  dharrat'"). 

30 


450    THE  MONGOL   INVASION  AND  AFTER 

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 

Popular  poetry.  ^    •'  ° 

popularity  was  such  that  even  the  court  poets 
occasionally  condescended  to  write  in  this  style.  To  the 
%ajal  and  muwashshalj  we  may  add  the  diihayt^  the  mawdliyyd, 
the  kdnwakdn^  and  the  h'tmdq^  which  together  with  verse 
of  the  regular  form  made  up  the  'seven  kinds  of  poetry' 
[al-funun  al-saV-a).  Safiyyu  '1-Din  al-Hillf,  who  wrote  a 
special  treatise  on  the  Arabic  folk-songs,  mentions  two 
other  varieties  which,  he  says,  were  invented  by  the  people 
of  Baghdad  to  be  sung  in  the  early  dawn  of  Ramadan,  the 
Moslem  Lent.^  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  U-Quhuf^ 
by  Shirbini,  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  Muhammadan  divines.3 
For  this  purpose  he  introduces  a  typical  Fellah  named 
Abii  Shaduf,  whose  role  corresponds  to  that  of  Piers  the 
Plowman  in  Longland's  f^ision.  Unfortunately,  we  can- 
not say  that  such  isolated  offshoots  have  gone  any  way  to 
found  a  living  school  of  popular  poetry.  The  classical 
tradition  remains  as  strong  as  ever.  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. 

'  Hartmann,  Das  Muwaisah  (Weimar,  1897),  p.  218. 

^  Literally,  '  The  Shaking  o£  the  Skull-caps,'  in  allusion  to  the  peasants' 
dance. 

3  See  Vollers,  Beitrdge  zur  Kenntniss  dcr  lebenden  arabischen  Sprache 
in  Acgypten,  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  41  (1887),  p.  370, 


IBN  KHALLIKAN  451 

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 
(i2\\^^'t^.).   hesitation    in    awarding   the    place  of  honour   to 

the  Wafayatu  U-A^'yan^  or  '  Obituaries  of  Emi- 
nent Men,'  by  Shamsu  '1-Din  Ibn  Khallikan,  a  work  which 
has  often  been  quoted  in  the  foregoing  pages.  The  author 
belonged  to  a  distinguished  family  descending  from  Yahya 
b.  Khalid  the  Barmecide  (see  p.  259  seq.),  and  was  born  at 
Arbela  in  121 1  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  Wafayat  Ibn  Khallikan 
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  : — 

"  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 
"'oSn^'.''^'  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  in- 
correctly; and  I  have  cited  the  traits  which  may  best  serve  to 
characterise  each  individual,  such  as  noble  actions,  singular  anec- 
dotes, 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." ' 

'  Ibn  Khallikan,  De  Slane's  translation,  vol.  i,  p.  3. 


452    THE  MONGOL   INVASION  AND  AFTER 

Ibn  Khallikan  might  have  added  that  he  was  the  first  Muham- 
madan  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.^ 
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  miscel- 
laneous 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 
yohnson.'^ 

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 

Historians  of         "^  ,         ,         .r-i  •  ti  t-^i     i  i  ^  i. 

the  Mameluke    of  this    kmd.     Concemmg    ibn    Khaldun,    who 

period' 

held  a  professorship  as  well  as  the  office  of  Cadi 
in  Cairo  under  Sultan  Barquq  (i 382-1 398  a.d.),  we  have 
already  spoken  at  some  length.  This  extraordinary  genius 
discovered    principles   and  methods   which   might    have    been 

•  It  should  be  pointed  out  that  the  Wafaydt  is  very  far  from  being 
exhaustive.  The  total  number  of  articles  only  amounts  to  865.  Besides 
the  Caliphs,  the  Companions  of  the  Prophet,  and  those  of  the  next  genera- 
tion (Tdbi'iin),  the  author  omitted  many  persons  of  note  because  he  was 
unable  to  discover  the  date  of  their  death.  A  useful  supplement  and 
continuation  of  the  Wafaydt  was  compiled  by  al-Kutubi  (t  1363  a.d.) 
under  the  title  Fawdtu  'l-Wafaydt. 

"  The  Arabic  text  of  the  Wafaydt  has  been  edited  with  variants  and 
indices  by  Wiistenfeld  (Gottingen,  1835-1850).  There  is  an  excellent 
English  translation  by  Baron  MacGuckin  de  Slane  in  four  volumes 
(1842-1871). 


MAQRfzt  AND   OTHER   HISTORIANS    453 

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,  how- 
ever, 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  '1-Din  al-Maqrizl  (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  Khitat  ^  and  the  Suluk.^  Although  he 
was  both  unconscientious  and  uncritical,  too  often  copying 
without  acknowledgment  or  comment,  and  indulging  in 
wholesale  plaffiarism  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."  3     Other  well-known   works  belonging  to  this 

'  The  full  title  is  al-MawdHz  wa-'l-Vtihdr  fi  dhikri  'l-Khitat  wa-l-Athdr. 
It  was  printed  at  Bulaq  in  1270  A.H. 

^  Al-Siiliik  li-ma'rifati  Duwali  'l-MiMk,  a  history  of  the  Ayyiibids  and 
Mamelukes.  The  portion  relating  to  the  latter  dynasty  is  accessible  in  the 
excellent  French  version  by  Quatremere  {Histoire  dcs  Sultans  Mamlouks 
de  I'Egypte,  Paris,  1845). 

3  A.  R.  Guest,  A  List  of  Writers,  Books,  and  other  Authorities  mentioned 
by  El  Maqrfzl  in  his  Khitat,  f.R.A.S.  for  1902,  p.  106. 


454    THE  MONGOL   INVASION  AND  AFTER 

epoch  are  the  Fakhrt  of  Ibnu  '1-Tiqtaqd,  a  delightful  manual 
of  Muhammadan  politics  i  which  was  written  at  Mosul  in 
1302  A.D.J  the  epitome  of  universal  history  by  Abu  '1-Fida, 
Prince  of  Hamdt  (f  1331)  ;  the  voluminous  Chronicle  of 
Islam  by  DhahabI  (f  1348)  ;  the  high-flown  Biography  of 
Tfmiir  entitled  ^Aja'ibu  U-Maqdur,  or  *  Marvels  of  Destiny,' 
by  Ibn  *Arabshdh  (t  1450)  ;  and  the  Nujiim  al-Zahira 
('Resplendent  Stars')  by  Abu  '1-Mahasin  b.  Taghribirdf 
(t  1469),  which  contains  the  annals  of  Egypt  under  the 
Moslems.  The  political  and  literary  history  of  Muham- 
madan Spain  by  Maqqari  of  Tilimsan  (f  1632)  was  mentioned 
in  the  last  chapter.^ 

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 

Jalalu 'l-Din  al-        .....  ,      .  ,, 

suyuti  (1445      Civilisation,  our   choice  would    assuredly    fall    on 

1505  A.D.). 

Jaldlu  '1-Din  al-Suyud,  who  was  born  at  Suydt 
(Usyuf)  in  Upper  Egypt  in  1445  a.d.  His  family  came 
originally  from  Persia,  but,  like  Dhahabi,  Ibn  Taghribirdi,  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  Suratu  U-Tahrim  (Sura  of  For- 
bidding), 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 
1 501,  when  he  was  deprived  of  his  post  in  consequence  of 
malversation  of  the  bursary  monies  in   his  charge.     He  died 

'  The  Fakhri  has  been  edited  by  Ahlwardt  (i860)  and  Derenbourg 
(1895).  The  simplicity  of  its  style  and  the  varied  interest  of  its  contents 
have  made  it  deservedly  popular.  Leaving  the  Koran  out  of  account,  I 
do  not  know  any  book  that  is  better  fitted  to  serve  as  an  introduction  to 
Arabic  literature. 

*  See  p.  413,  n.  i. 


JALALU  'L-DIn  AL-SUYtJTl  455 

four  years  later  in  the  islet  of  Rawda  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.     Suyuti'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.     Suyiiti,  on  his  part, 
laid    before    the     Shaykhu   '1-Islam    a    formal    accusation    of 
plagiarism  against  Qastalldni,  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 
Itqan  on  Koranic  exegesis  ;  the  Tafsiru  U-Jaldlayn^  or  *  Com- 
mentary on  the  Koran  by  the  two  Jalals,'   which  was  begun 
by   Jaldlu    '1-Din    al-Mahalli    and    finished   by  his  namesake, 
Suydti  ;  the   Muxhir  [Mizhar\  a  treatise  on  philology  ;  the 
Husnu  U-Muhadaroy  a  history  of  Old  and   New  Cairo  ;  and 
the  Ta'rikhu  'l-Khulafd^  or  '  History  of  the  Caliphs.' 

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  encyclopaedists  Nuwayri 
(fi332),  author  of  the  Nihdyatu  'I- Jraby  znd  Ibnu  '1-Wardi 


456    THE  MONGOL   INVASION  AND   AFTER 

(fi349).       Safadi  (11363)    compiled    a   gigantic    biographical 
dictionary,  the  Wafi  hi  ^l-JVafayat^  in  twenty-six  volumes,  and 
the   learned    traditionist,    Ibn    Hajar   of  Ascalon 
Tfhe'pertoT    (ti449),    ^as    left    a    large    number   of  writings, 
among  which   it  will    be  sufficient  to  name  the 
Isaba  ft  tamytz  al-Sahdba^  or  Lives  of  the  Companions  of  the 
Prophet. I     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 
'1-Barakdt  al-Nasafi    (fi3io),   'Adudu  '1-D(n   al-Ijl    (ti355), 
Sldi'    Khalfl    al-Jund{    (ti365),    TaftAzdni    ({1389),     Sharif 
al-Jurjan{  (11413),  and  Muhammad  b.  Yusufal-Sanusi(  11486). 
For    Philology    and    Lexicography    we    have    the    Alfiyya^   a 
versified    grammar    by    Ibn     Mdlik    of    Jaen     (11273)  '■>  ^^ 
Ajurriimiyya   on   the   rudiments  of  grammar,   an  exceedingly 
popular  compendium    by  Sanhdjf   (11323);    and  two   famous 
Arabic  dictionaries,  the  Lisanu  U-^Arab  by  JamAlu '1-Din  Ibn 
Mukarram  (11311),  and  the  Qdmus  by  Firuzdbddl  (11414). 
Nor,  although  he  was  a  Turk,  should  we  leave   unnoticed  the 
great    bibliographer    Hdjjl    Khalifa    (11658),    whose    Kashfu 
^l-Zunun    contains    the   titles,    arranged    alphabetically,  of  all 
the     Arabic,    Persian,    and    Turkish    books    of   which    the 
existence  was  known  to  him. 

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  master- 
piece of  Arabic  literature.  The  modern  title,  'Arabian  Nights,' 
tells  only  a  part  of  the  truth.     Mas'udl  (1956  a.d.)  mentions 

'  A  Biographical  Dictionary  of  Persons  who  knew  Mohammad,  ed.  by 
Sprenger  and  others  (Calcutta,  1856- 1873). 


THE    THOUSAND  AND   ONE  NIGHTS   457 

an  old  Persian  book,  the  Hazar  Afsana  ('Thousand  Tales') 

which  "  is  generally  called  the  Thousand  and  One  Nights  ;  it 

is  the  story  of  the  King  and  his  Vizier,  and  of  the 

'^^fX^^^^^^Jl^,  Vizier's  daughter  and  her  slave-girl :  Shfrazdd  and 

and  One  Nights.  o  ^ 

Dlndzdd."  I  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)  : — 

"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 

rAhe"Tholi"    Parthian  kings,  who  form  the  third  dynasty    of  the 

sand  and  One     kjngs  of  Persia,  showed  the  utmost  zeal  in  this  matter. 

Nights.  ° 

Then  in  the  days  of  the  Sasanian  kings  such  books 
became  numerous  and  abundant,  and  the  Arabs  translated  them 
into  the  Arabic  tongue,  and  they  soon  reached  the  hands  of  philo- 
logists 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  {Hazdr 
Afsdn),  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  Shahrazad,  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  [qahramdnd)  named  Dinarzad,  who  was  in 
league  with  the  queen.  It  is  also  said  that  this  book  was  composed 
for  Humani,  the  daughter  of  Bahman,  and  there  are  various  tradi- 
tions concerning  it.     The  truth,  if  God  will,  is  that  Alexander  (the 

Great)  was  the  first  who  heard  stories  by  night,  and 
'^^Afidn^'^      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 '  {Hazdr  Afsdn)  for  this 


'  Muruju  'l-Dhahab,  ed.  by  Barbier  de  Meynard,  vol.  iv.  p.  90.  The 
names  Shirazad  and  Dinazad  are  obviously  Persian.  Probably  the  former 
is  a  corruption  of  Chihrazad,  meaning  '  of  noble  race,'  while  Dinazad 
signifies  '  of  noble  religion.'  My  readers  will  easily  recognise  the 
familiar  Scheherazade  and  Dinarzade. 


458     THE  MONGOL   INVASION  AND  AFTER 

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  {kitdb""  ghathth"" 
bdndu'l-Jjadithy 

Abu  'Abdallah  Muhammad  b.  'Abdus  al-Jahshiyari  (1942-943  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." 

Evidently,  then,  the  Hazdr  Jfsdn  was  the  kernel  of  the 
'  Arabian  Nights,'  and  it  is  probable  that  this  Persian 
archetype  included  the  most  finely  imaginative 
c^te"c"o\ieS  tales  in  the  existing  collection,  e.g.,  the  '  Fisher- 
man and  the  Genie,'  *  Camaralzamdn  and 
Budiir,' 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  Baghddd  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,    1704-17 17)    is    a    charming 

'  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  this  criticism  represents  the  view  of  nearly 
all  Moslem  scholars  who  have  read  the  '  Arabian  Nights.' 


THE  ROMANCE   OF  'ANTAR  459 

paraphrase,  which  in  some  respects  is  more  true  to  the  spirit  of 
the  original  than  are  the  scholarly  renderings  of  Lane  and 
Burton. 

The  'Romance  of  'Antar'  {Slratu  '-Antar)  is  traditionally 
ascribed   to   the  great  philologist,  Asma'1,1  who  flourished   in 

the  reign  of  Hdrun  al-Rashld,  but  this  must  be  con- 
^oV'AntTr^""    sidered  as  an  invention  of  the  professional  reciters 

who  sit  in  front  of  Oriental  cafes  and  entertain 
the  public  with  their  lively  declamations, 2  According  to 
Brockelmann,  the  work  in  its  present  form  apparently  dates 
from  the  time  of  the  Crusades.3  Its  hero  is  the  celebrated 
heathen  poet  and  warrior,  'Antara  b.  Shaddad,  of  whom  we 
have  already  given  an  account  as  author  of  one  of  the  seven 
Mu^allaqdt.  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  V Orient  (1802)  was  the  means 
of  introducing  the  Siratu  ^Antar  to  European  readers,  justly 
remarks  that  it  cannot  be  translated  in  full  owing  to  its 
portentous  length.  It  exists  in  two  recensions  called  respec- 
tively the  Arabian  [Hijdziyya)  and  the  Syrian  {Shamiyya)y  the 
latter  being  very  much  curtailed. 4 

While  the  decadent  state  of  Arabic  literature    during   all 

•  Many  episodes  are  related  on  the  authority  of  Asma'i,  Abu  'Ubayda, 
and  Wahb  b.  Munabbih. 

^  Those  who  recite  the  Siratu  ^Antar  are  named  'Andtira,  sing.  'Antari. 
See  Lane's  Modern  Egyptians,  ch.  xxiii. 

3  That  it  was  extant  in  some  shape  before  1150  a.d.  seems  to  be  beyond 
doubt.  Cf.  the  Journal  Asiatiqtie  for  1838,  p.  383  ;  Wiistenfeld,  Gesch. 
der  Arab.  Aerzte,  No.  172. 

*  Antar,  a  Bedoueeti  Romance,  translated  from  the  Arabic  by  Terrick 
Hamilton  (London,  1820),  vol.  i,  p.  xxiii  seq.  See,  however,  Fliigel's 
Catalogue  of  the  Kais.  Kon.  Bibl.  at  Vienna,  vol.  ii,  p.  6.  Further  details 
concerning  the  '  Romance  of  'Antar '  will  be  found  in  Thorbecke's 
'Antarah  (Leipzig,  1867),  p.  31  sqq.  The  whole  work  has  been  published 
at  Cairo  in  thirty-two  volumes. 


46o    THE  MONGOL   INVASION  AND  AFTER 

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  spiri- 
^m'^^idsm"'^    tual  paralysis  which  had  long  been  creeping  over 

Islam  and  which  manifested  itself  by  the  com- 
plete 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  z/W,  t.e.^  the  consensus  of  public  opinion 
(which  was  practically  controlled  by  themselves),  they  found  a 
potent  weapon  against  heresy.  How  ruthlessly  they  some- 
times used  it  we  may  see  from  the  following  passage  in  the 
Yawaqit  of  Sha'rani.  After  giving  instances  of  the  persecu- 
tion to  which  the  Sufis  of  old — Bayazid,  Dhu  '1-Nun,  and 
others — were  subjected  by  their  implacable  enemies,  the 
'■Ulama^  he  goes  on  to  speak  of  what  had  happened  more 
recently  ^  : — 

"  They  brought  the  Imam  Abii  Bakr  al-Nabulusi,  notwithstanding 

his  merit  and  profound  learning  and  rectitude  in  religion,  from  the 

Maghrib  to  Egypt  and  testified  that  he  was  a  heretic 

^^Teretics.  °^    izindiq).    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  Nasimi  to  be  flayed  at  Aleppo.^    When  he  silenced  them  by 


'  Sha'rani,  Yawdqit  (ed.  of  Cairo,  1277  a.h.),  p.  18. 

=  In  1417  A.D.  The  reader  will  find  a  full  and  most  interesting  account 
of  Nasimi,  who  is  equally  remarkable  as  a  Turkish  poet  and  as  a  mystic 
belonging  to  the  sect  of  the  Hurufis,  in  Mr.  E.  J.  W.  Gibb's  History  of 
Ottoman  Poetry,  vol.  i,  pp.  343-368.  It  is  highly  improbable  that  the 
story  related  here  gives  the  true  ground  on  which  he  was  condemned  : 
his  pantheistic  utterances  afford  a  sufficient  explanation,  and  the  Turkish 
biographer,  Latifi,  specifies  the  verse  which  cost  him  his  life.  I  may  add 
that  the  author  of  the  Shadhardtu  'l-Dhahab  calls  him  Nasimu  '1-Din  of 


}i 


SCHOLASTICS   AND   SUFtS  461 

his  arguments,  they  devised  a  plan  for  his  destruction,  thus  :  They 
wrote  the  Suraiu  'l-Ikhlds '  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  (Nasimi),  who 
put  it  on,  for  he  knew  not.  His  adversaries  went  to  the  governor 
of  Aleppo  and  said  :  '  We  have  sure  information  that  Nasimi  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  Nasimi  was  reciting  muwashshahs  in 
praise  of  the  Unity  of  God,  until  he  composed  five  hundred  verses, 
and  that  he  was  looking  at  his  executioners  and  smiling.  And  like- 
wise they  brought  Shaykh  Abu  '1-Hasan  al-Shadhili=  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  '1-Din  b. 
'Abd  al-Salam3  of  infidelity  and  sat  in  judgment  over  him  on 
account  of  some  expressions  in  his  'Aqida  (Articles  of  Faith)  and 
urged  the  Sultan  to  punish  him  ;  afterwards,  however,  he  was 
restored  to  favour.  They  denounced  Shaykh  Taju  '1-Din  al-Subki'» 
on  the  same  charge,  asserting  that  he  held  it  lawful  to  drink  wine 
and  that  he  wore  at  night  the  badge  (ghiydr)  of  the  unbelievers  and 
the  zone  {zunndr)^ ;  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  Arab  '•Ulamd^  that  they  seldom  resorted 
to  violence.  Islam  was  happily  spared  the  horrors  of  an 
organised  Inquisition.    On  the  other  hand,  their  authority  was 

Tabriz  (he  is  generally  said  to  be  a  native  of  Nasim  in  the  district  of 
Baghdad),  and  observes  that  he  resided  in  Aleppo,  where  his  followers 
were  numerous  and  his  heretical  doctrines  widely  disseminated. 

'  The  1 12th  chapter  of  the  Koran.    See  p.  164. 

=  Founder  of  the  Shadhiliyya  Order  of  Dervishes.    He  died  in  1258  a.d. 

3  A  distinguished  jurist  and  scholar  who  received  the  honorary  title, 
'  Sultan  of  the  Divines.'     He  died  at  Cairo  in  1262  a.d. 

■*  An  eminent  canon  lawyer  (t  1370  a.d.). 

s  It  was  the  custom  of  the  Zoroastrians  (and,  according  to  Moslem 
belief,  of  the  Christians  and  other  infidels)  to  wear  a  girdle  round  the  waist. 


462     THE  MONGOL   INVASION  AND  AFTER 

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.  Sufiism  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  the  great  freethinkers  of  their  own  sect  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  wonder- 
fully well.  If  pious  souls  were  shocked  by  the  lawlessness  of 
the  Dervishes,  and  if  bigots  would  fain  have  burned  the  books  of 
Ibnu  'l-'Arabl  and  Ibnu  '1-Farid,  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  '1-Dfn  Ibn  Taymiyya  and  'Abdu  '1-Wahhab 
al-Sha'ran{. 

Ibn  Taymiyya  was  born  at  Harran  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 
(1263— 1^328 Zd!).  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  Hanbalite  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  primi- 
tive monotheism   taught  by  the  Prophet  and  to  purge  Islam 


^ 


I 


IBN   TAYMIYYA  463 

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  over- 
growth 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  Sufis,  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  con- 
fined to  a  very  small  circle.  We  shall  see  them  reappearing  vic- 
toriously in  the  Wahhabite  movement  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Notwithstanding  the  brilliant  effort  of  Ghazali  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 


464    THE  MONGOL   INVASION  AND  AFTER 

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  faqlh  (theologian)  ?ind  faqtr  (dervish),  the  one 
class  forming  a  powerful  official  hierarchy  in  close  alliance  with 
the  Government,  whereas  the  Siifis  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 

Muhammadan  theosophist,  'Abdu  '1-Wahhab 
(1^1565 AD)      al-Sha'rani,  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  informa- 
tion 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'rdnl  contrasts  the  miserable  lot  of  the  peasantry 
under  the  new  regime  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  j  and 
every  lucrative  business  was  crushed  by  confiscation.  It  is 
not  to  be  supposed,  however,  that  Sha'rani  gave  serious  atten- 
tion 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,  Muhiyyu  '1-Din 
Ibnu  'l-'Arabi,  whose  Meccan  Revelations  he  studied  and 
epitomised.      His    autobiography  entitled    Lataifu    'l-Minan 


SHA'RAnI  465 

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  extra- 
ordinary qualities  are  Divine  blessings  and  are  gratefully  set 
forth  by  their  recipient  ad  majorem  Dei  gloriam.  We  should 
be  treating  Sha'rani  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  Siifiism,  and  endea- 
voured 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"  {ikhtilafu  ummatl 
rahmat"'-).  Like  the  Arabian  Sufis  generally,  Sha'rdni  kept  his 
mysticism  within  narrow  bounds,  and  declared  himself  an 
adherent  of  the  moderate  section  which  follows  Junayd  of 
Baghdad  (t  909-9 10  A.D.).  For  all  his  extravagant  pretensions 
and  childish  belief  in  the  supernatural,  he  never  lost  touch  with 
the  Muhammadan  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  Wahhabite  Reformation. ^ 

Muhammad  b.  'Abd  al-WahhAb,^  from  whom  its  name  is 

'  See  Materials  for  a  History  of  the  Wahabys,  by  J,  L.  Burckhardt,  pub- 
lished in  the  second  volume  of  his  Notes  on  the  Bedouins  and  Wahabys 
(London,  1831).  Burckhardt  was  in  Arabia  while  the  Turks  were  engaged 
in  re-conquering  the  Hijaz  from  the  Wahhabis.  His  graphic  and  highly 
interesting  narrative  has  been  summarised  by  Dozy,  Essai  sur  I'histoire 
de  rislamisme,  ch.  13. 

'  Following  Burckhardt's  example,  most  European  writers  call  him 
simply  'Abdu  '1-Wahhab. 

31 


466    THE  MONGOL  INVASION  AND  AFTER 

derived,  was  born  about  1720  a.d.  in  Najd,  the  Highlands  of 
Arabia.  In  his  youth  he  visited  the  principal  cities  of  the 
Muhammad  b  East,  "  as  is  much  the  practice  with  his  country- 
'^'''^and^hi^''^^''  men  even  now,"  i  and  what  he  observed  in  the 
successors.  coursc  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,^  Ibn  'Abd 
al-Wahhab  determined  to  re-establish  the  pure  religion  of 
Muhammad  in  its  primitive  form.  Accordingly  he  returned 
home  and  retired  with  his  family  to  Dir'iyya  at  the  time  when 
Muhammad  b.  Sa'iid  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  Wahhdbis,  under  'Abdu  'l-'Aziz,  son  of  Muhammad 
b.  Sa'iid,  gained  their  first  great  successes.  In  1801  they  sacked 
Imdm-Husayn,3  a  town  in  the  vicinity  of  Baghdad,  massacred 
five  thousand  persons,  and  destroyed  the  cupola  of  Husayn's 
tomb  ;  the  veneration  paid  by  all  Shi'ites  to  that  shrine  being, 
as  Burckhardt  says,  a  sufficient  cause  to  attract  the  Wahhdbf 
fury  against  it.  Two  years  later  they  made  themselves 
masters  of  the  whole  Hijaz,  including  Mecca  and  Medina. 
On  the  death  of  'Abdu  'l-'Aziz,  who  was  assassinated  in  the 
same  year,  his  eldest  son,  Sa'ud,  continued  the  work  of  conquest 
and  brought  the  greater  part  of  Arabia  under  Wahhabite  rule. 
At  last,  in  181 1,  Turkey  despatched  a  fleet  and  army  to  recover 
the  Holy  Cities.  This  task  was  accomplished  by  Muhammad 
'All,  the  Pasha  of  Egypt  (1812-13),  and  after  five  years'  hard 
fighting  the  war  ended  in  favour  of  the  Turks,  who  in  18 18 
inflicted  a  severe  defeat  on  the  Wahhabis  and  took  their 
capital,  Dir'iyya,  by  storm.     The  sect,  however,  still  maintains 

»  Burckhardt,  op.  cit,  vol.  ii,  p.  96. 

'  MSS.  of  Ibn  Taymiyya  copied  by  Ibn  'Abd  al-Wahhab  are  extant 
(Goldziher  in  Z.D.M.G.,  vol.  52,  p.  156). 

3  This  appears  to  be  the  place  usually  called  Karbala  or  Mashhad 
Husayn. 


THE    WAHHABITE  REFORMATION     467 

its  power  in  Central  Arabia,  although  it  has  lost  all  political 
importance. 

The  Wahhdbfs  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 
^Ref^matfon^  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  Carma- 
thians  only  in  their  acts.  Burckhardt  says  very  truly  :  "  Not 
a  single  new  precept  was  to  be  found  in  the  Wahaby  code. 
Abd  el  Wahab  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."  ^  "  The  Wahhabites,"  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  Medina. 
Saint-worship  they  combated  just  as  strongly.  They  pro- 
claimed 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."  ^  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  pro- 
hibited the  drinking  of  coffee  ;  this,  however,  is  not  the  fact : 
they  have  always  used  it  to  an  immoderate  degree."  3 

The  Wahhabite  movement  has   been  compared  with  the 

'  Op.  ciU,  vol.  ii,  p.  112. 

^  Essai  sur  V histoire  de  Vlslamisme,  p.  416. 

3  Burckhardt,  loc.  latid.,  p.  1 15. 


468    THE  MONGOL   INVASION  AND  AFTER 

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  Saniisiyya 

The  Sanusis  in     t-,      ^i       i         j  i  •     n 

Africa.  Brotherhood,  whose  mfluence  is  supreme  m 
Tripoli,  the  Sahara,  and  the  whole  North 
African  Hinterland,  and  whose  members  are  reckoned  by 
millions.  Muhammad  b.  'All  b.  Sanusi,  the  founder  of  this 
vast  and  formidable  organisation,  was  born  at  Algiers  in  1791, 
lived  for  many  years  at  Mecca,  and  died  at  Jaghbub  in 
the  Libyan  desert,  midway  between  Egypt  and  Tripoli,  in 
1859.  Concerning  the  real  aims  of  the  Sanusis  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  theo- 
cratic State  on  the  model  of  that  which  the  Prophet  and  his 
successors  called  into  being  at  Medina  in  the  seventh  century 
after  Christ. 

Since  Napoleon  showed  the  way  by  his  expedition  to  Egypt 
in  1 798,  the  Arabs  in  that  country,  as  likewise  in  Syria  and  North 

Africa,  have  come  more  and  more  under  European 
modern  civiiisa-  influence.^      The   above-mentioned    Muhammad 

*AH,  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 

'  I  cannot  enter  into  details  on  this  subject.  A  review  of  modern 
Arabic  literature  is  given  by  Brockelmann,  Gesch,  der  Arab.  Litt.,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  469-511,  and  by  Huart,  Arabic  Literature,  pp.  411-443. 


INFLUENCE   OF  EUROPEAN  CULTURE    469 

many  classical  works,  which  had  well-nigh  fallen  into  oblivion, 
rekindled  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Arabs  for  their  national  litera- 
ture, 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. i  Besides  these  ephemeral 
sheets,  books  of  all  sorts,  old  and  new,  have  been  multiplied  by 
the  native  and  European  presses  of  Cairo,  Bulaq,  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 
Moliere,2  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.3  The  learned  and 
purely  technical  literature  derived  immediately  or  indirectly  from 
Europe  is  extensive.  In  short,  France  and  Britain  have  taken 
the  place  which  was  occupied  in  the  Golden  Age  of  Islam  by 
Greece  and  India,  but  we  must,  I  think,  confess  that  down  to 
the  present  day  the  results  of  all  this  activity  amount  to  little 
more  than  the  proverbial  mouse. 

Hitherto  modern  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  afifections  of  the 
Arab  people,  or  whether  it  will  always  continue  to  be  an 
'^~' exotic  and  highly-prized  accomplishment  of  the  enlightened 
and  emancipated  few,  but  an  object  of  scorn  and  detestation 
to  Moslems  in  general — these  are  questions  that  may  not  be 
solved  for  centuries  to  come. 

'  See  M.  Hartmann,  The  Arabic  Press  of  Egypt  (London,  1899). 

=  Brockelmann,  loc.  cit.,  p.  476. 

3  Translated  into  Arabic  verse  by  Sulayman  al-Bistani  (Cairo,  1904). 
See  Professor  Margoliouth's  interesting  notice  of  this  work  in  the  J. R.A.S. 
for  1905,  p.  417  sqq. 


470    THE  MONGOL  INVASION  AND  AFTER 

Meanwhile  the  Past  affords  an  ample  and  splendid  field  of 
study. 

"  Man  lam  ya'i  'l-ta'rikha  ft  sadrihi 
Lam  yadri  Jnilwa  'l-'ayshi  min  murrihi 
I  Wa-man  wa'd  akhbdra  man  qad  madd 

/  Addfa  a'mdr"^^  ild  'umrihi." 

!    "  He  in  whose  heart  no  History  is  enscrolled 
Cannot  discern  in  Ufe's  alloy  the  gold. 
But  he  that  keeps  the  records  of  the  Dead 

Adds  to  his  life  new  lives  a  hundredfold." 

■■■'.I 
■1 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  WORKS  BY 
EUROPEAN  AUTHORS 

The  following  list  is  intended  to  give  students  of  Arabic  as  well 
as  those  who  cannot  read  that  language  the  means  of  obtaining 
further  information  concerning  the  various  topics  which  fall  within 
the  scope  of  a  work  such  as  this.  Since  anything  approaching  to  a 
complete  bibliography  is  out  of  the  question,  I  have  mentioned  only 
a  few  of  the  most  important  translations  from  Arabic  into  English, 
French,  German,  and  Latin  ;  and  I  have  omitted  (i)  monographs  on 
particular  Arabic  writers,  whose  names,  together  with  the  principal 
European  works  relating  to  them,  will  be  found  in  Brockelmann's 
great  History  of  Arabic  Literature,  and  (2)  a  large  number  of  books 
and  articles  which  appeal  to  specialists  rather  than  to  students. 
Additional  information  is  supplied  by  Professor  Browne  in  his 
Literary  History  of  Persia,  vol.  i,  pp.  481-496,  and  Mr.  D.  B. 
Macdonald  in  his  Development  of  Muslim  Theology,  etc.  (London, 
1903),  pp.  358-367  ;  while  many  texts  and  translations  of  an  older 
date  are  comprised  in  the  '  Litteratura  Arabica,'  which  occupies 
pp.  109-136  of  J.  H.  Petermann's  Grammar  in  the  '  Porta  Linguarum 
OrientaUum'  Series  (1867).  Those  who  require  more  detailed  refer- 
ences may  consult  the  Bibliographie  des  ouvrages  arabes  ou  relatifs 
aux  Arabes  publ.  dans  I'Europe  chretienne  de  1810  a  1885,  by  V. 
;Chauvin  (Liege,  1892-1903),  the  Orientalische  Bibliographie,  edited 
by  A.  Miiller,  E.  Kuhn,  and  L.  Scherman  (Berlin,  1887—),  and  the 
Catalogue  of  the  Arabic  Books  in  the  British  Museum,  by  Mr.  A.  G. 
Ellis,  2  vols.  (London,  1894-1902). 

In  each  section  works  of  outstanding  authority  and  value  are 
marked  with  an  asterisk. 

I 

PHILOLOGY. 

I.  Histoire  generate  des  langues  semitiques,  by  E.  Renan  (3rd  ed., 
Paris,  1863). 
*2.  Die  Semitischen  Sprachen,  by  Th.  Noldeke  (Leipzig,  1887). 

An  improved  and  enlarged  reprint  of  the  German  original 

471 


472  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

of  his    article,  '  Semitic    Languages,'   in   the  Encydopcs  dia 
Britannica  (9th  edition). 

*3.  A  Grammar  of  the  Arabic  Language,  by  W.  Wright,  3rd  ed., 
revised  by  W.  Robertson  Smith  and  M.  ].  de  Goeje,  2  vols. 
(Cambridge,  1896-98). 

The  best  Arabic  grammar  for  advanced  students.  Be- 
ginners may  prefer  to  use  the  abridgment  by  F.  du  Pre 
Thornton,  Elementary  Arabic:  a  Grammar  (Cambridge 
University  Press,  1905),  or  Socin's  Arabic  Grammar,  trans- 
lated by  A.  R.  S.  Kennedy  (London,  1895). 

*4.  Arabic-English  Lexicon,  by  E.  W.  Lane,  8  parts  (London, 
1^63-93). 

This  monumental  work  is  unfortunately  incomplete. 
Among  other  lexica  those  of  Freytag  (Arabic  and  Latin, 
4  vols,  Halle,  1830-37),  A.  de  Biberstein  Kazimirski  (Arabic 
and  French,  2  vols.,  Paris,  1846-60,  and  4  vols.,  Cairo,  1875), 
and  Dozy's  Supplement  aux  Dictionnaires  arabes,  2  vols. 
(Leyden,  1881),  deserve  special  notice.  Smaller  dictionaries, 
sufficient  for  ordinary  purposes,  have  been  compiled  by 
Belot  (Vocabulaire  arabe-franfais,  5th  ed.,  Beyrout,  i8g8j, 
and  Wortabet  and  Porter  {Arabic-English  Dictionary,  2nd  ed., 
Beyrout,  1893). 

"^5.  Abhandlungen  zur  Arabischen  Philologie,  by  Ignaz  Goldziher, 
Part  I  (Leyden,  1896). 

Contains  valuable  essays  on  the  origins  of  Arabic  Poetry 
and  other  matters  connected  with  literary  history. 

6.  Einleitung  in  das  Studium  der  Arabischen  Sprache,  by  G.  W. 

Freytag  (Bonn,  1861). 

7.  Die  Rhetorik  der  Araber,  by  A.  F.  Mehren  (Copenhagen,  1853). 

II 

GENERAL  WORKS  ON  ARABIAN  HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY, 
GEOGRAPHY,   LITERATURE,   ETC. 

*8.  Chronique  de  Tabari,  traduite  sur  la  version  persane  de  .  .  . 

Bel' ami,  by  H.  Zotenberg,  4  vols.  (Paris,  1867-74). 
*9.  The  Muri'iju  'l-Dhahab  of  Mas'udi  {Mafoudi :  Les  Prairies  d'Or), 
Arabic  text  with  French  translation  by  Barbier  de  Meynard 
and  Pavet  de  Courteille,  9  vols.  (Paris,  1861-77). 

The  works  of  Tabari  and  Mas'udi  are  the  most  ancient  and 
celebrated  Universal  Histories  in  the  Arabic  language. 
*io.  AbulfedcE  Annates  Muslcmici  arabice  et  latinc,  by  J.  J.  Reiske, 
5  vols.  (Hafniae,  1789-94). 


f 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  473 

*ii  Der  Islam  im    Morgen    und    Abendland,    by    August    Miiller, 
2  vols.  (Berlin,  1885-87). 

12.  Histoire  generate  des  Arabes  :  leur  empire,  leur  civilisation,  leurs 

ecoles  pitilosophiques,  scientifiques  et  tiiteraires,  hy  L.  A.  Sedillot, 
2  vols.  (Paris,  1877). 

13.  Short  History  of  the  Saracens,   by   Syed   Ameer  Ali  (London, 

1899). 
*I4.  Essai  sur  I'liistoire  de  Vlslamisme,  by  R.  Dozy,  translated  from 

the  Dutch  by  Victor  Chauvin  (Leyden  and  Paris,  1879). 
*I5.  The  Preaching  of  Islam,  a  History   of  the   Propagation  of  tlie 

Muslim  Faith,  by  T.  W.  Arnold  (London,  1896). 
*i6.  Sketches  from  Eastern  History,  by  Th.  Noldeke,  translated  by 

J.  S.  Black  (London,  1892). 
*I7.  The  Mohammadan  Dynasties,  by  Stanley  Lane-Poole  (London, 

1894). 

Indispensable  to  the  student  of  Moslem  history. 
*i8.  Genealogische  Tabellen  der  Arabischen  Stdmme  und  Familien  niit 

historischen  und  geographischen  Bemerkungen  in  einem  alpha- 

betischen  Register,  by  F.  Wiistenfeld  (Gottingen,  1852-53). 
*I9.  Ibn   Kliallilidn' s   Biographical    Dictionary,  translated  from   the 

Arabic   by   Baron   MacGuckin   de   Slane,   4  vols.   (Oriental 

Translation  Fund,  1842-71). 
One  of  the  most  characteristic,  instructive,  and  interesting 

works  in  Arabic  literature. 
*20.  Geographic  d'Aboulfeda,   traduite  de  I'arabe,  by  Reinaud  and 

Guyard,  2  vols.  (Paris,  1848-83). 
*2i.  Travels  in  Arabia  Deserta,  by  C.  M.  Doughty,  2  vols.  (Cam- 
bridge, 1888). 

Gives  a  true  and  vivid  picture  of  Bedouin  life  and  manners. 

22.  Personal  Narrative  of  a  Pilgrimage  to  al-Madinah  and  Meccah, 

by  Sir  R.  F.  Burton,  2  vols.  (London,  1898). 

23.  Tlie    Penetration    of  Arabia  :    a   record  of   the  development  of 

Western  knowledge  concerning  the  Arabian  Peninsula,  by  D.  G. 

Hogarth  (London,  1905). 
*24.  Hajji  Khalifa,  Lexicon  bibliographicum  et  encyclopcedicum,  Arabic 

text  and  Latin  translation,  by  G.  Fliigel,  7  vols.  (Leipzig  and 

London,  1835-58). 
*25.  Die  Geschichtschreiber  der  Araberund  ihre  Werke  (aus  dem  xxviii. 

und  xxix.   Bande  der  Abhand.  d.  Konigl.  Ges.  d.  Wiss.  zu 

Gottingen),  by  F.  Wustenfeld  (Gottingen,  1882). 
26.  Litteraturgeschichte  der  Araber  bis  zum  Ende  des  12  Jahrhundert 

der  Hidschret,  by  J.  von  Hammer-Purgstall,  7  vols.  (Vienna, 

1850-56). 


474  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A  work  of  immense  extent,  but  unscientific  and  extremely 
inaccurate. 
*27.  Geschichte    der   Arabischen   Litteratur,    by   Carl  Brockelmann, 

2  vols.  (Weimar,  1898-1902). 

Invaluable  for  bibliography  and  biography. 
*28.  A  Literary  History  of  Persia,  by  Professor  E.  G.  Browne,  vol.  i 
from  the  earliest  times  to  Firdawsi  (London,  1902),  and  vol.  ii 
down  to  the  Mongol  Invasion  (London,  1906). 

The  first  volume  in  particular  of  this  illuminating  work 
contains  much  information  concerning  the  literary  history  of 
the  Arabs. 

29.  Geschichte    der    Arabischen     Litteratur,    by    C.    Brockelmann 

(Leipzig,  1901). 

A  popular  but  trustworthy  sketch. 

30.  A   History  of  Arabic  Literature,  by  Clement   Huart  (London, 

1903)- 
The  student  will  find  this  manual  useful  for  purposes  of 

reference. 

31.  Chrestomathie  Arabe  ou  extraits  de  divers  ecrivains  arabes  .  .  . 

avec  une  traduction' franfaise  et  des  notes,  hy  Silvestre  de  Sacy, 

3  vols.  (2nd  ed.,  Paris,  1826-27). 

32.  Specimens  of  Arabic  Poetry  from  the  earliest  time  to  the  extinction 

of  the  Khaliphat,  by  J.  D.  Carlyle  (Cambridge,  1796). 

33.  Ueber  Poesie  und  Poetik  der  Araber,  by  W.  Ahlwardt  (Gotha, 

1856). 

34.  Arabum  Proverbia,  Arabic  text  with  Latin  translation,  by  G.  W. 

Freytag,  3  vols.  (Bonn,  1838-43). 

35.  Arabic  Proverbs,  by  J.  L.  Burckhardt  (2nd  ed.,  London,  1875). 


Ill 

PRE-ISLAMIC    HISTORY,    LITERATURE,    AND 

RELIGION. 

36.  Lettres  sur  I'histoire  des  Arabes  avant  I'lslamisme,  by  F.  Fresnel 
(Paris,  1836). 
*37.  Essai  sur  I'histoire  des  Arabes  avant  I'lslamisme,  by  A.  P.  Caussin 
de  Perceval,  3  vols.  (Paris,  1847-48). 

Unscientific,  but  affords  an  excellent  survey  of  Pre-islamic 
legend  and  tradition. 
*38.  Geschichte  der  Perser  und  Araber  zur  Zeit  der  Sasaniden,  trans- 
lated from  the  Annals  of  Tabari,  by  Th.  Noldeke  (Leyden, 
1879). 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  475 

The  ample  commentary  accompanying  the  translation  is 
valuable  and  important  in  the  highest  degree. 

39.  Die  Dynastie  der  Lahmiden  in  al-Hira,  by  Gustav  Rothstein 

(Berlin,  1899). 

40.  Die  Ghassdnisclien  Ftirsten  aus  dem  Hatise  Gafna's  in  Abltand.  d. 

Ron.  Preuss.  Akad.  d.  Wissenschaften,  by  Th.  Noldeke  (Berlin, 
1887). 

41.  Die  Siidarabische  Sage,  by  A.  von  Kremer  (Leipzig,  1866). 

*42.  Filnf  Mo'allaqdt  ilbersetzt  and  erkldrt,  by  Th.  Noldeke  (Vienna, 

1899-1901). 
The  omitted  Mu'allaqas  are  those  of  Imru'u  '1-Qays  and 

Tarafa. 
43.  The  Seven  Golden  Odes  of  Pagan  Arabia,  translated  from  the 

original  Arabic  by  Lady  Anne  Blunt  and  done  into  English 

verse  by  Wilfrid  Scawen  Blunt  (London,  1903). 
*44.  Hamdsa  oder  die  dltesien  arabischen  Volkslieder  ilbersetzt  mid 

erldutert,  by  Friedrich  Riickert,  2  vols.  (Stuttgart,   1846). 
Masterly  verse-translations  of  the  old  Arabian  poetry. 
*45.  Translations  of  ancient  Arabian  poetry,  chiefly  Pre-islamic,  with 

an  introduction  and  notes,  by  C.  J.  Lyall  (London,  1885). 
*46.  Beitnige  ziir  Kenntniss  der  Poesie  der  alien  Arabcr,  by  Th. 

Noldeke  (Hannover,  1864). 
47.  Benterkungen  Uber  die  Aechiheii  der  alien  Arabischen  Gedichte,  by 

W.  Ahlwardt  (Greifswald,  1872). 
*48.  Studien  in  arabischen  Dichtern,  Heft  iii,  Altarabisches  Beduinen- 

leben  nach  den  Qiiellen  geschildert,  by  G.  Jacob  (Berlin,  1897). 
*49.  Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia,  by  W.  Robertson  Smith 

(2nd  ed.,  London,  1903). 
*50.  Lectures  on   the  Religion  of  the  Semites,  First   Series,  by  W. 

Robertson  Smith  (London,  1894). 
*5i.  Reste  Arabischen  Heidentums,  by  J.  Wellhausen  (2nd  ed.,  Berlin, 

1897). 
52.  Ueber   die   Religion    der  vorislamischcn  Araber,  by  L.   Krehl 

(Leipzig,  1863). 

IV 

MUHAMMAD     AND     THE     KORAN. 

*53.  Das  Leben  Mohammed's,  translated  from  the  Arabic  biography 
of  Ibn  Hisham  by  G.  Weil,  2  vols.  (Stuttgart,  1864). 
54.  Muhammed  in  Medina,  by  J.  Wellhausen  (Berlin,  1882). 

An  abridged  translation  of  Waqidi's  work  on  Muhammad's 
Campaigns. 

,1^  ^ 


476  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

*55.  Das  Leben  und  die  Lehre  des  Mohammad,  by  A.  Sprenger,  3  vols. 

(Berlin,  1861-65). 
*56.  Life  of  Mahomet,  by  Sir  W.  Muir,  4  vols.  (London,  1858-61). 
*57.  Das  Leben  Muhammed's  nach  den  Quellen  popular  dargestellt, 

by  Th.  Noldeke  (Hannover,  1863). 
58.  Das  Leben  und  die  Lehre  des  Muhammed,  by  L.  Krehl  (Leipzig, 

1884). 
*59.  The  Life  and  Teachings  of  Mohammed  and  the  Spirit  of  Islam, 

by  Syed  Ameer  Ali  (London,  189 1). 
*6o.  Mohammed,  by  H.  Grimme,  2  vols.  (Miinster,  1892-95). 
61.  Die  welfgeschichtliche  Bedeutung  Arabiens :  Mohammed,  by  H. 

Grimme  (Munich,  1904). 
*62.  Mohammed  and  the  Rise  of  Islam,  by  D.  S.  Margoliouth   in 

'Heroes   of  the   Nations'  Series  (London  and  New  York, 

1905)- 

63.  Muhammed,  sein  Leben,  nebst  e.  Einleitung  fiber  d.  Verhdltnisse 

in  Arabien  vor  seinem  Auftreten,  by  F.  Buhl,  trans,  by  P. 
Stocks  (Leipzig,  1906). 

64.  Muhammed,  his  life  and  doctrines,  by  A.  N.  Wollaston  (London, 

1904). 

65.  Annali  dell'  Islam,  by  Leone  Caetani,  Principe  di  Teano,  vol  i. 

(Milan,  1905). 

Besides  a  very  full  and  readable  historical  introduction 
this  magnificent  work  contains  a  detailed  account  of 
Muhammad's  life  during  the  first  six  years  of  the  Hijra 
(622-628  A.D.). 

66.  The  Koran,  translated  into  English  with  notes  and  a  preliminary 

discourse,  by  G.  Sale  (London,  1734). 

Sale's  translation,  which  has  been  frequently  reprinted,  is 
still  serviceable.  Mention  may  also  be  made  of  the  English 
versions  by  J.  M.  Rodwell  (London  and  Hertford,  1861)  and 
by  E.  H.  Palmer  (the  best  from  a  literary  point  of  view)  in 
vols,  vi  and  ix  of  '  The  Sacred  Books  of  the  East '  (Oxford, 
1880). 
*67.  Geschichte  des  Qordns,  by  Th.  Noldeke  (Gottingen,  i860). 

Cf.  Noldeke's  essay,  '  The  Koran,'  in  Sketches  from  Eastern 
History,  pp.  21-59,  O"^  his  article  in  the  Encyclopcedia 
Britannica  (9th  ed.). 

68.  Einleitung  in  den  Koran,  by  G.  Weil  (2nd  ed.,  Bielefeld,  1878). 

69.  Le  Koran,  sa  poesie  et  ses  lots,  by  Stanley  Lane-Poole  (Paris, 

1882). 

70.  New  Researches  into  the  composition  and  exegesis  of  the  Qordn, 

by  H.  Hirschfeld  (London,  1902). 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  477 

71.  The  Speeches  and  Table-talk  of  the  Prophet  Mohammed,  chosen 

and  translated  . .  .,  by  Stanley  Lane-Poole  (Edinburgh,  1882), 

72.  Les  traditions  islamiques  trad,  de  I'arabe,  by  O.  Houdas  and 

W.  Margais,  vol,  i  (Paris,  1903). 

A  translation  of  the  celebrated  collection  of  Traditions  by 
Bukhari. 


THE    HISTORY   OF  THE   CALIPHATE. 

*73.  Geschichte  der  Chalifen,  by  G.Weil,  3  vols.  (Mannheim,  1846-51). 
Completed  by  the  same  author's  Geschichte  des  Abbasiden- 
Chalifats  in  Egypten,  2  vols.  (Stuttgart,  1860-62). 

74.  Aimals  of  the  Early  Caliphate,  by  Sir  W.  Muir  (London,  1883). 

75.  The  Caliphate,  its  rise,  decline,  and  fall,  by  Sir  W.  Muir  (London, 

1891). 
-^76.  The  Arab  Conquest  of  Egypt  and  the  last  thirty  years  of  Roman 
dominion,  by  A.  J.  Butler  (London,  1902). 
+77.  Das  Arabische  Reich  und  sein  Sturz,  by  J.  Wellhausen  (Berlin, 
1902). 

An  excellent  history  of  the  Umayyad  dynasty  based  on  the 
Annals  of  Tabari. 
*78.  Recherches  sur  la  Domination  arabe,  la  Chiitisme  et  les  croyances 
messianiques  sous  le  Khalifat  des  Omayades,  by  G.  Van 
Vloten  (Amsterdam,  1894). 
79.  Geschichte  der  Fatimiden-Chalifen,  nach  arabischen  Quellen,  by 
F.  Wiistenfeld  (Gottingen,  188 1). 

VI 
THE    HISTORY   OF   MOSLEM   CIVILISATION. 

*8o.  Prolegomhics  d'Ibn    Khaldoun,   a    French    translation    of  the 

Muqaddima  or  Introduction  prefixed  by  Ibn  Khaldun  to  his 

Universal   History,  by  Baron  MacGuckin  de  Slane,  3  vols. 

(in   Notices   et  Extraits    des  Manuscrits   de    la    Bibliotheque 

Imperiale,  vols,  xix-xxi,  Paris,  1863-68). 

*8i.  Culturgeschichte   des  Orients   unter  den    Chalifen,    by    A.    von 
Kremer,  2  vols.  (Vienna,  1875-77). 

*82.  Culturgeschichtliche  Streifzilge   auf   dem  Gebiete  des  Islams,  by 
A.  von  Kremer  (Leipzig,  1873). 

This  work  has  been  translated  into  English  by  S.  Khuda 
Bukhsh  in  his  Contributions  to  the  History  of  Islamic  Civiliza- 
tion (Calcutta,  1905). 


t- 


478  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

*83.  Geschichte  der  herrschenden  Ideen  des  Islams,  by  A.  von  Kremer 
(Leipzig,  1868). 

*84.  Muhammedanische  Studien,  by  Ignaz  Goldziher  (Halle,  i888-go) 
This  book,  which  has  frequently  been  cited  in  the  fore- 
going pages,  should  be  read  by  every  serious  student  of 
Moslem  civilisation. 
85.  Umayyads  and  'Abbdsids,  being  the  Fourth  Part  of  Jurji 
Zaydan's  History  of  Islamic  Civilisation,  translated  by  D.  S. 
Margoliouth  (E.  J.  W.  Gibb  Memorial,  London,  1907). 

*86.  Baghdad  during    the    Abbasid  Caliphate,    by  G.    le    Strange 
(Oxford,  1900). 

*87,  The  Lands  of  the  Eastern  Caliphate,  by  G.  le  Strange  (Cam- 
bridge, 1905). 

*88.  Palestine  imder  the  Moslems,  by  G.  le  Strange  (London,  1890). 

89.  Arabian  Society  in  the  Middle  Ages,  by  E.  W.  iLane,  edited  by 

Stanley  Lane-Poole  (London,  1883). 

90.  Die  Araber  im  Mittelalter  und  ihr Einfluss  aufdie  Cultur  Europa's, 

by  G.  Diercks  (2nd  ed.,  Leipzig,  1882). 
*9i.  An  account  of  the  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Modern  Egyptians, 
by  E.  W.  Lane  (5th  ed.,  London,  1871). 


VII 

MUHAMMADAN        THEOLOGY,         PHILOSOPHY,         AND 

MYSTICISM. 

*Q2.  Development  of  Muslim   Theology,  Jurisprudence,  and  Constitu- 
tional Theory,  by  Duncan  B.  Macdonald  (London,  1903). 
The  best  general  sketch  of  the  subject. 
93.  The  History  of  Philosophy  in  Islam,  by  T.  J.  de  Boer,  translated 
by  E.  R.  Jones  (London,  1903). 

*94.  Asch-Schahrastdni's  Religionspartheien  und  Philosophen-Schulen, 
translated  by  T.  Haarbriicker  (Halle,  1850-51). 

*95.  Die  religios-politischen  Oppositionsparteien  im  alien  Islam,  by 
J.  Wellhausen  (BerHn,  1901). 

*96.  Die  Charidschiten    unter  den    ersten    Omayyaden,    by    R.    E, 
Briinnow  (Leyden,  1884). 

*97.  Die  Mutaziliten  oder  die  Freidenker  im  Islam,  by  H.  Steiner 
(Leipzig,   1865). 

98.  Die  Schule  der  Zdhiriten,  by  I.  Goldziher  (Leipzig,  1884). 

99,  Zur  Geschichte  Abu  'l-Hasan  al-Ash'ari's,  by  W.  Spitta  (Leipzig, 

1876). 
*ioo.  Die  Philosophic  der  Araber  im  X.  Jahrhundert  n.  Chr.  aus  den 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  479 

Schriflen  der  lantern  Brildcr  herausgegeben,  by  F.  Dieterici 
(Berlin  and  Leipzig,  1861-1879). 
loi.  Averroes  et  I' Averroisme,  by  E.  Renan  (Paris,  1861). 

102.  Melanges  de  Philosophie  Juive  et  Arabe,  by  S.  Munk  (Paris, 

1859)- 

103.  Fragments  relatifs  a  la  doctrine  des  Ismaelis,  by  S.  Guyard 

(Paris,  1874). 

104.  Memoire  sur   les  Carmathes  du  Bahrain  et    les  Fatimides,  by 

M.  J.  de  Goeje  (Leyden,  1886). 

105.  Expose  de  la  Religion  des  Driizes,  by  Silvestre  de  Sacy,  2  vols. 

(Paris,  1838). 

106.  Idee  nnd  Grundlinien  einer  allgemeinen  Geschichte  der  Mystik, 

by  A.  Merx  (Heidelberg,  1893). 

107.  Ssufismtis    sive   Theosophia  Persarum    Pantheisiica,   by   F.   A. 

Tholuck  (Berlin,  1821). 

Some  notion  of  the  leading  principles  of  Sufiism  may 
readily  be  obtained  from  Professor  Browne's  article  Sufiism 
in  Religious  Systems  of  the  World  (Swan  Sonnenschein,  1892), 
or  from  the  Introductions  to  Whinfield's  abridged  translation 
of  the  Masnavi  of  Jalalu'ddin  Rumi  (2nd  ed.,  London,  1898), 
and  to  his  edition  of  the  Gulshan-i  Rdz  of  Mahmud  Shabistari 
(London,  1880). 

108.  The  Dervishes  or  Oriental  Spiritualism,   by  John   P.   Brown 
(London,  1868). 

*I09.  Les  Confrcries  religieuses  Musiilmanes,  by  O.  Depont  and 
X.  Coppolani  (Algiers,  1897). 

VIII 

THE  HISTORY  AND  LITERATURE  OF  THE  MOORS. 

*iio.  Histoire  des  Musuhnans  d'Espagne  jusqu'  a  la  conquete  de 
I'Andalusie  par  les  Almoravides  (711-1110  a.d.),  by  R.  Dozy, 
4  vols.  (Leyden,  1861). 

111.  History  of  the  Moorish  Empire  in  Europe,  by  S.  P.  Scott,  3  vols. 

(New  York,  1904). 

112.  The  Moriscos  of  Spain,  their  conversion  and  expulsion,  by  H.  C. 

Lea  (Philadelphia,  1901). 

113.  Historia  de  los  Mozdrabes  de  Espafia,  by  F.  J.  Simonet  (Madrid, 

1897-1903). 

114.  History  of  the  Mohammedan  dynasties  of  Spain,  translated  from 

the  Naflt  al-Tib  of  Maqqari  by  Pascual  de  Gayangos,  2  vols. 
(London,  Oriental  Translation  Fund,  1840-43). 


48o  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

115.  Annales  regunt  Mauritanice,  Arabic  text  and  Latin  translation, 
by  C.  J.  Tornberg  (Upsala,  1843-46). 
[   116.  The  History  of  the  Almohades,  by  'Abdu  '1- Wahid  al-Marrakoshi, 
translated  by  E.  Fagnan  (Algiers,  1893). 
117.  Bibliothcca  arabico-hispana  Escurialensis,  by  M.  Casiri,  2  vols. 
(Madrid,  1760-70). 
*ii8.  Recherches  sur  I'histoire  et  la  littcrature  de  I'Espagne  pendant  le 

moyen  age,  by  R.  Dozy,  2  vols.  (3rd  ed.,  Leyden,  1881). 
*ii9.  Poesie  und  Kunst  der  Araber  in  Spanien  und  Sicilien,  by  A.  F. 
von  Schack,  2  vols.  (2nd.  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1877). 
120.  Moorish  remains  in  Spain,  by  A.  F.  Calvert  (London,  1905). 

IX 

THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  ARABS  FROM  THE  MONGOL 
INVASION  IN  THE  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  TO  THE 
PRESENT  DAY. 

*i2i.  Histoire  des  Sultans  Mamlouks  de  I'Egypte,  ecrite  en  arabe  par 
Taki-eddin  Ahmed  Makrizi,  iraduite  en  franfais  .  .  .  par 
M.  Quatremere,  2  vols.  (Oriental  Translation  Fund,  1845). 

122.  The  Mameluke  or  Slave  dynasty  cf  Egypt,   by  Sir   W.   Muir 

(London,  1896). 

123.  Histoire  de  Bagdad  depuis  la  domination  des  Khans  mongols 

jusqu'  au  massacre  des  Mamlouks,  by  C.  Huart  (Paris,  1901). 

124.  History  of  the  Egyptian  revolution  from  the  period  of  the  Mame- 

lukes to  the  death  of  Mohammed  AU,  by  A.  A.  Paton,  2  vols. 
(London,  1870). 

125.  The  Shaikhs  of  Morocco  in  the  XVI"'  century,  by  T.  H.  Weir 

(Edinburgh,  1904). 

126.  Arabien  und  die  Araber  seit  hunderi  Jahren,  by  A.  Zehme 

(Halle,  1875). 

127.  Die    Zeitungen    und    Zeitschriften    in    arabischer   Sprache,  by 

M.   Hartmann,  in  Specimen   dune  Encyclopedie  Musulmane, 
ed.  by  Th.  Houtsma  (Leyden,  1899). 

128.  The  Arabic  Press  of  Egypt,  by  M.  Hartmann  (London,  1899). 

129.  Neuarabische   Volkspoesie  gesammeli  und  uebersetzt,  by  Enno 

Littmann  (Berlin,  1902). 


I 


M 


INDEX 


In  the  following  Index  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  omit  the  accents  indicating  the 
long  vowels,  and  the  dots  which  are  used  in  the  text  to  distinguish  letters  of  similar 
pronunciation.  On  the  other  hand,  the  definite  article  al  has  been  prefixed  throughout  to 
those  Arabic  names  which  it  properly  precedes  :  it  is  sometimes  written  in  full,  but  is 
generally  denoted  by  a  hyphen,  e.g.  -'Abbas  for  al-'Abbas.  Names  of  books,  as  well  as 
Oriental  words  and  technical  terms  explained  in  the  text,  are  printed  in  italics.  Where  a 
number  of  references  occur  under  one  heading,  the  more  important  are,  as  a  rule,  shown 
by  means  of  thicker  type. 


Aaron,  215,  273 

'Abbad,  421 

'Abbadid  dynasty,  the,  414, 
421-424,  431 

-'Abbas,  146,  249,  250,  251 

-'Abbas  b.  -Ahnaf  (poet),  261 

'Abbasa,  261 

'Abbasid  history,  two  periods 
of,  257 

'Abbasid  propaganda,  the, 
249-251 

'Abbasids,  the,  xxviii,  xxix, 
XXX,  6s,  181,  182,  IQ3,  194, 
220,  249-253,  254-284,  287- 
291,  365-367,  373 

'Abdullah,  father  of  the  Pro- 
phet, xxvii,  146,  148,  250 

'Abdullah,  brother  of  Durayd 
b.  -Simma,  83 

'Abdullah,  the  Amir  (Spanish 
Umayyad),  411 

'Abdullah     b.    -'Abbas,     145, 

237.  249 
'Abdullah  b.  Hamdan,  269 
'Abdullah  b.  Ibad,  2U 
'Abdullah  b.  Mas'ud,  352 
'Abdullah     b.     Maymun    al- 

Qaddah,  271-274,  363 
'Abdullah   b.   Muhammad    b. 

Adham,  423 
'Abdullah    b.    -Mu'tazz.     See 

Ibntt  'l-Mii'tazz 
'Abdullah  b.  Saba,  215,  216 
'Abdullah  b.  Tahir,  129 
'Abdullah  b.  Ubayy,  172 
'Abdullah  b.  Yasin  al-Kuzuli, 

430 
'Abdullah  b.  -Zubayr,  198, 199, 

200,  202 
'Abdu  'l-'Aziz  (Marinid),  436 
'Abdu      'l-'Aziz,     brother    of 

'Abdu  '1-Malik,  200 
'  Abdu  'l-'Aziz,  son  of  Muham- 
mad b.  Sa'ud,  466 


'Abdu    '1-Ghani   al-Nabulusi, 

402 
'Abdu  '1-Hamid,  267 
'Abdu     '1-Malik     (Umayyad 

Caliph),   200-202,   206,  209, 

224,  240,  242,  244,  247,  349, 

407 
'Abd  Manaf,  146 
'Abdu   'l-Mu'min  (Almohade), 

432 
'Abdu  '1-Muttalib,  66-68,  146, 

148,  154,  250 
'Abdu   '1-Qadir    al-Baghdadi, 

i3i 
'Abdu  '1-Qadir  al-Jili,  393 
'Abd  al-Qays  (tribe),  94 
'Abdu       '1-Rahman     I,      the 

Umayyad,  253, 264, 405-407, 

417,418 
'Abdu  '1-Rahman  II  (Spanish 

Umayyad),  409,  418 
'Abdu  '1-Rahman  III  (Spanish 

Umayyad),  411-412, 420,  425 
'Abdu  'i-Rahman  V  (Spanish 

Umayyad),  426 
'Abdu  '1-Rahman  b.  'Awf,  186 
'Abd  Shams,  146 
'Abd  Shams  Saba,  14 
'Abdu  'l-'Uzza,  159 
'Abdu  '1-Wahhab,  founder  of 

the  Wahhabite  sect.     See 

Muhammad    b.    'Abd    al- 

Wahhab. 
'Abdu  '1-Wahhab  al-Sha'rani. 

See  -Sha'rani 
'Abdu  '1-Wahid  of  Morocco 

(historian),  431,  433 
'Abid  b.  -Abras  (poet),  39,  44, 

86,  loi 
'Abid  b.  Sharya,  13,  19,  247 
'Abida  b.  Hilal,  239 
'Abir,  xviii 
'Abla,  115 

-Ablaq  (name  of  a  castle),  84 
Ablutions,  the  ceremonial,  in- 
cumbent on  Moslems,  149 

32 


-Abna,  29 

Abraha,  6,  15,  28,  63-68 

Abraham,  xviii,  22,  62,  63.  66, 

149,  150,  165.  172,  177 
Abraham,  the  religion  of,  62, 

149.  177 
'Abs  (tribe),  xix,  61,  88,  114- 

117 
Absal,  433 

Abu  1  'Abbas  (Marinid),  436 
Abu     '1- 'Abbas     Ahmad     al- 

Marsi,  327 
Abu  'l-'Abbas  al-Nami  (poet), 

270 
Abu  'l-'Abbas-Saffah,  182,  253. 

See  -Saffah 
Abu  'Abdallah  Ibnu  '1-Ahmar 

(Nasrid),  437 
Abu     'Abd     al-Rahman     al- 

Sulami,  338 
Abu  Ahmad  al-Mihrajani,  370 
Abu    'l-'Ala    al-Ma'arri,    166, 

167,  206.  271,  289,  291,  296, 

30«,  313-324,  375,  448 
Abu  'Ali  al-Qali,  420 
Abu  'Ali    b.   Sina,    265.    See 

Ibn  Sina 
Abu  'Amir,  the  Monk,  170 
Abu  'Amr  b.  al-'Ala,  242,  283, 

343 
Abu   '1-Aswad  al-Du'ali,  342, 

343 
Abu    'l-'Atahiya    (poet),    261, 
291,  296-303,  308,  312,  324. 

374 
Abu  A^'man  (title),  14 
Abu  Bakr  (Caliph),  xxvii,  142, 

153,  175.  180,  183,  18s,  210, 

214,  215,  257,  268,  297 
Abu  Bakr  b.  Abi  'l-Azhar,  344 
Abu   Bakr   Ibnu   'l-'Arabi  of 

Seville,  399 
Abu  Bakr  b.  Mu'awiya,  42a 
Abu  Bakr  al-Nabulusi,  460 
Abu  Bakr  al-Razi  (physician), 

265.    See  -Razi 

481 


482 


INDEX 


Abu  Bakr  b.  'Umar,  430 
Abu  l-Darda,  225 
Abu  Dawud  al-Sijistani,  337 
Abu  '1-Faraj   of  Isfahan,   32, 

123,  131,  270,  347,  419.    See 

Kitabu  'l-Aghani 
Abu      'l-Faraj      al-Babbagha 

(poet),  270 
Abu   '1-Fida  (historian),    308, 

316,  331,  4S4. 
Abu  Firas  al-Hamdani  (poet), 

270,  304 
Abu  Ghubshan,  65 
Abu  Hanifa,  222,  284,  402,  408 
Abu    l-Hasan  'Ali   b.    Harun 

al-Zanjani,  370 
Abu   'l-Hasan  al-Ash'ari,   284. 

See  -Ash'ari 
Abu  Hashim,  the  Imam,  220, 

251 
Abu  Hashim,  the  Sufi,  229 
Abu  Hudhayl  -'AUaf,  369 
Abu  '1-Husayn  al-Nuri,  392 
Abu  'Imran  al-Fasi,  429 
Abu     Ishaq     al-Farisi.      See 

-Istakhri 
Abu  Ja'far  -Mansur,  258,     See 

-Mamur,  Die  Caliph 
Abu  Jahl,  158 
Abu  Karib,  the  Tubba',  12,  19. 

See  As'ad  Kainil 
Abu  Lahab.  159,  160 
Abu    '1-Mahasin     b.    Taghri- 

birdi  (historian),    257,    262, 

267,  268,  350.  369,  434 
Abu  Marwan  Ghaylan,  224 
Abu  Ma'shar,  361 
Abu  Mihjan  (poet),  127 
Abu  Mikhnaf,  2io 
Abu  Musa  al-Ash'ari,  192,  377 
Abu  Muslim,  220,  251-2S2,  375 
Abu  Nasr  al-Isma'ili,  339 
Abu  Nu'aym  al-Isfahani,  338 
Abu  Xuwas  (poet),  261,  277, 

286,  290,  291,  292-296,  303, 

308,  345.  375 
Abu  yabus,  kuiiya  of  -Nu'man 

HI,  45 
Abu    '1-Qasim    Ahmad.      See 

-Mtistaiisir 
Abu  '1-Qasim  Muhammad,  the 

Cadi,  421 
Abu  '1-Qasim  b.  -Muzaffar,  312 
Abu  '1-Qasim  al-Zahrawi,  420 
Abu  Qays  b.  Abi  Anas,  170 
Abu  QuiTa,  221 
Abu    Sa'id   b.    Abi    '1-Khayr, 

391.  394 
Abu  Salama,  257 
Abu  Salih   Mansur   b.   Ishaq 

(Samanid),  265 
Abu  'i-Salt  b.  Abi  Rabi'a,  69 
Abu  Shaduf,  450 
Abu  Shamir  the  Younger,  50 
Abu  Shamir,  kuiiya  of  -Harith 

b.  'Amr  Muharriq,  50 
Abu  Shuja'  Buwayh,  266 
Abu  Sufyan,  124,  175,  195 
Abu  Sulayman  al-Darani,  384, 

386,  388 
Abu    Sulayman    Muhammad 

b.  Ma'shar  al-Bayusti,  370 


Abu  Talib,  uncle  of  the  Pro- 
phet, 146,  148,  154,  157,  183, 

250 
Abu  Talib  al-Makki,  338,  393 
Abu  Tammam,  author  of  the 

Hamasa,  79,  129-130,  288, 

316,324.331.     See -Hamasa 
Abu  'Ubayda  (philologist),  94, 

242,  261,  280,  343,  344,  343, 

459 
Abu  'Ubayda  b.  al-Jarrah.  51 
Abu  '1-Walid  al-Baji,  428 
Abu  Yazid    al-Bistami,    391. 

See  Bayazid  al-Bistami 
Abu  Yusuf,  the  Cadi,  283 
Abu  Zayd  of  Saruj,  330,  331, 

332,  335 
Abu    Zayd     Muhammad  al- 

Qurashi.  130 
Abusir,  326 

Abyssinia,  53,  155,  156 
Abyssinians,     the,     .xxi  ;      in 

-Yemen,  5,  6,  26-29 ;  invade 

the  Hijaz,  66-68 
Academ}'    of    Junde-shapur, 

the,  358 
Academy  of  Sabur,  the,  267, 

314 
■Ad  (people),  1,  2,  3 
adab,  283,  346 
Adabu  H-Katib,  346 
Adam,  xxvi,  62,  63,  244,  398 
'Adana  (river),  15 
'Adawi  dervishes,  the,  393 
Adharbayjan,  17 
'Adi  (tribe),  233 
'Adi  b.  '.A.mr,  94 
'Adi  al-Hakkari,  393 
'Adi  b.  Marina,  244 
'Adi  b.  Nasr,  35 
'Adi  b.  Zayd,   40,  43-48,   49, 

138,  244  " 
'Adiya,  85 
Adler,  316 

'Adnan,  xviii,  xix,  xx,  64 
'Adudu  '1-Da\vla  (Buwayhid), 

266,  307 
^■Elius  Gallus,  9 
..•Ethiopic  language,  the,  xvi, 

xxi 
Afghanistan,  268,  275 
Africa,  xv,  xvi 
Africa,    North,  53,   203,    253, 

271.  274.  405,  419,  423,  424. 
429,  430,  434,  437,  439,  442, 

443>  468 
Afshin,  375 

-Af  wah  al-Awdi  (poet),  83 
-Aghani.  SeeKiiabii  'l-Aghani 
Aghlabid    dynasty,    the,    264, 

274.  441 
Aghmat,  424 
-Ahlaf,  at  -Hira,  38 
Ahlu  '1-Kitab,  341 
Ahlu    '1-Taswiya,    380.     See 

Shu'jibifes,  the 
Ahlu    '1-tawhid    \va-'l-'adl,    a 

name  given  to  the  Mu'tazi- 

lites,  224 
Ahlwardt.   76,    loi,    125,    128, 

133,  136,  286,  293,  294,  304, 

349,  454 


Ahmad  (Buwayhid),  266 
Ahmad,   brother   of  Ghazali, 

339 
Ahmad,  father  of  Ibn  Hazm, 

426 
Ahmad  b.   Hanbal,  284,  369, 

376,  402 
Ahmad  al-Nahhas,  102 
Ahmad  b.  Tulun,  354 
Ahmarof  Thamud,  3 
Ahnum,  19 

Ahqafu  '1-Raml  (desert),  i 
Alisaiiu  'l-Taqasim    fi  ma'r- 

ifati  'l-Aqalim,  357 
ahwal,  mystical  term,  231,  391 
-Ahwas(poet),  237 
-Ahwaz,  271,  293 
A'isha,  151,  183 
'Aja  Hbu  'l-Maqdiir,  454 
-'Ajam   (the   non-Arabs),  277. 

See  -Mawali 
-'Ajjaj  (poet)  138 
-Ajurruviiyya,  456 
Akbar  (Mogul  Emperor),  xxx 
Akhba7-u  'l-Zanian,  353 
-Akhtal  (poet),  221,  238,  239- 

242.  285 
akhu  'l-safa,  370 
Akilu  '1-Murar  (surname),  42 
-j^'lam  (philologist),  128 
Alamut,  445 
'Ala'u      '1-Din      Muhammad 

Khwarizmshah,  444 
Albategnius,  361 
Albucasis,  420 
Albumaser,  361 
Alchemists,  the,  361,  387 
Alchemy,  works  on,  tianslated 

into  ."Vrabic,  358 
Aleppo,  269.  270,  275,  291,  303, 

305,  313,  360,  415,  446,451, 

460,  461 
Alexander  the  Great,  17,  276, 

358,  457 
Alexandria,  340 
Alexandrian  Library,  the,  435 
Alf  Layla  wa-Layla.  456,  459. 

See  Thousand  Nights  and  a 

Night  and  Arabian  Nights 
-A  Iflyya,  456 
Alfraganus,  361 
Algeria,  430 
Algiers,  468 
Alhambra.  the,  435 
'All  (Buwayhid),  266 
'Ali,  grandson  of  'Umar  Ibnu 

'1-Farid,  394 
'Ali  b.  Abi  Talib,  the  Prophet's 

son-in-law,  xxvii,xxviii,  105, 

153,  181,  183,  19(y-193.  194, 

196,205,   207-211,    213-218, 

220-222.  243.  249,  250,  251, 

264,  267,  273,  274,  342,  343, 

349.  377.  432,  442 
'All     b.    Abi     Talib,     public 

cursing  of,  205 
'Ali  b.  -Mansur,  Shaykh,  319 
'Ali  b.  Musa  b.  Ja'far  al-Rida, 

262,  3S5 
'Alids,  the,  258,   259,  337.     See 

'AH  b.  Abi   Talib  and  Shi- 

Htes,  Die 


INDEX 


483 


Allah,  62,  134,  135,  164.  231, 
392 

Allah,  the  Muhammadan  con- 
ception of,  225,  231 

Almaqa,  18 

Almeria,  421 

Almohades,  the,  217, 429,  431- 
434 

Almoravides,   the,    423,    429- 

431 
Alp  Arslan  (Seljuq),  275,  276, 

34°.  379 
Alphabet,   the  South   Arabi?, 

6,  8,  12 
Alphonso  VI  of  Castile,  422, 

423.  431 
'Alqama  b.  'Abada  (poet),  121, 

125,  128 
'Alqama  b.  Dhi  Jadan  (poet), 

12 
Alvaro,   Bishop    of  Cordova, 

414 
Amaj,  22 
-Aniali,  420 

-Amaliq  (Amalekites).  2,  3,  63 
'Amidu    "l-Mulk    al-Kunduri, 

379 
-Amin,  the  Caliph,  255,  262, 

293.  343 

Amina,  mother  of  the  Pro- 
phet, 146 

'Amir  b.  Sa'sa'a  (tribe),  119 

■Amir  b.  Uhaymir,  87 

Amiru  '1-Mu'minin  (Com- 
mander   of    the   Faithful), 

185 
Amiru  '1-Umara  (title),  264 
•Amr,  the  Tubba',  25,  26 
'Amr  b.  'Adi  b.   Nasr,  35,  36, 

37.  40 
'Amr  b.  'Amir  (tribe),  94 
'Amr  b.   'Amir  Ma'   al-Sama 

al-Muzayqiya,  15,  16,  49 
'Amr  b.  -'As,  192 
'Amr  b.  -Harith  (Ghassanid), 

50,  54,  122 
'Amr  b.  Hind  (Lakhmite),  44, 

107,  108,  109,  112 
'Amr  b.  Kulthum  (poet),  44, 

82,  102,  109-113,  128,  269 
'Amr  b.  Luhayy,  63,  64 
'Amr  b.  Ma'dikarib,  82 
'Amr  b.  Mas'ud,  43 
'Amr  b.  'Ubayd,  223,  374 
'Amr  b.  Zarib,  35 
Amul,  350 
Anas,  88 
'anaiira,  459 
'Anaza  (tribe),  xix 
-Anbar,  38 

-Anbari  (philologist),  128 
-Anbat,      xxv.      See     Naba- 

fceans,  the. 
Ancient     Sciences,    the,   282 
-Andarin,  iii 

Angels  the  Recording,  i6i 
Angora,  104 

-Ansar  (the  Helpers)  171,  241 
'Antar,  the  Romance  of,  34, 

459 
'Antara   (poet),  76,  109,  IH- 

116,  128,  459 


'antari,  459 

Anthologies  of  Arabic  poetry, 
128-130,  2S9,   325,   343,  347, 

348.  417 
Anthropomorphism,  369,  376, 

379,  432 
Antioch,  43 
Anushirwan  (Sasanian  king). 

See  Nnshinvan 
Anushirwan  b.  Khalid,  329 
Aphrodite,  43 
-'Aqida,    by   'Izzu    '1-Din    b. 

'Abd  al-Salam,  461 
'Aqil,  35 
Arab  horses,  the  training  of, 

226 
Arab  singers  in  the  first  cen- 
tury a.'h.,  236 
a'rabi  (Bedouin),  210 
Arabia,  in  the'Abbasid  period, 

276 
Arabia    Felix,    xvii,    4.      See 

-Yemen 
Arabian  History,  three  periods 

of,  xxvi 
Arabian  Nights,  the,  238,  256, 

261,  292,  421,  456-459 
Arabic    language,     the,     xvi, 

xvii,    xxi-xxv,    6,    77,    201, 

203,  239,  265,  277-280,  336, 

342.  344 
Arabic  literature,  largely  the 

work    of    non-Arabs,    xxx, 

xxxi,  276-278 
Arabic  Press,  the,  469 
Arabic    writing,  201  ;    oldest 

specimens  of,  xxi,  xxii 
Arabs,  the  Ishmaelite,  xviii 
Arabs     of     Khurasan,     the, 

thoroughly  Persianised,  250 
Arabs,     the    Northern.      See 

Arabs,  the  Ishmaelite 
Arabs,     the     Northern     and 

Southern,     racial     enmity 

between,  xx,  199,  200,  252, 

405,  406 
Arabs,    the     Southern,     xvii, 

xviii,   XX,  4.     See  Arabs,  the 

Yemenite 
Arabs,    the     Yemenite,    xvii, 

xviii,  XX,    38,   55,   199,   252, 

405,  406.    See  Sabceans,  the ; 

Himyarites,  the 
Arabs,    the    Yoqtanid,    xviii. 

See  Arabs,  the  Yemenite 
Aram^ans,  the,  xv,  xxv 
Aramaic  language,  the,  xvi, 

XXV.  279,  375 
-Araqim,  113,  114 
Arbela,  451 
Ardashir  Babakan,  founder  of 

the  Sasanian  dynasty,  34,  38 
'Ap'sQaq  Tov  FajSaXa,  51 
Arhakim,  11 
'an/ (gnostic),  386 
'Arifu  '1-Zanadiqa,  373 
Aristocracy  of  Islam,  the,  188, 

190 
Aristotle,  35S,  359,  360 
-'Arji  (poet),  237 
Armenia,  xv,  352 
Arnaud,  Th.,  9,  15,  17 


Arnold,    F.   A.,  105,  107,  109, 

III,  113,  114 
Arnold,  f.  W.,  184,  223,  224 
Arsacids,  the,  21,  38 
Aryat,  27,  28 

-'Asa  (name  of  a  mare),  36 
'asabiyya,  440 
Asad  (tribe),  xix,  104 
Asad   Kamil,  the  Tubba',  12, 

19-23,  25,  26,  137 
Asad  b.  Musa,  247 
Asal,  433 
asalib,  289,  315 
Ascaloa  456 
Ascension  of  the  Prophet,  the, 

169,  403 
Asd  (tribe),  19 
-A'sha(poet),  16,  loi,  121,  123- 

125,  128,  138,  139 
-Ash'ari  (Abu  '1-HaSan),  284, 

376-379,  431 
Ash'arites,  the,  379,  380,  460 
Ash'aru  'l-Hudhaliyyin,  128 
-Ashram  (surname  of  Abraha), 

28 
Asia,  XV,  275,  352,  414 
Asia,  Central,  255 
Asia  Minor,  269,  399,  434,  446 
Asia.  Western,  xvi,  jcxix,  358, 

442,  444,  446 
aslania,  153 
-Asma'i  (philologist),  261,  343, 

344.  343,  459 
Assassins,  the,  272,  371,  372, 

381.  445 

Assyrians,  the,  xv 

Assyrian  language,  the,  xvi 

Astrologers  and  Astronomers, 
361 

Astronomy,  276,  283 

Aswad  b.  -Mundhir,  47 

-Atliar  al-Baqiya,  361 

Atharu  'l-Bilad,  416 

Athens,  240,  358 

'Athtar,      'Athtor       (Sabaean 
divinity),  11,  18 

Atlal,  286 

'Attar  (Persian  mystic).    See 
Faridii'ddin  'Attar 

'Atwada,  28 

Aurelian,  34 

Aurora,  412 

Avempace.    See  Ibn  Bajfa 

Avenzoar,  434 

Averroes.     See  Ibn  Rushd 

Avicenna.    See  Ibn  Sina 

awa'il  (origins),  247 

'Awarifxi  'l-Ma'arif,  230,  338 

-'Awfi,  370 

auiiya  (saints),  393 

Awrangzib  (Mogul  Emperor) 
xxx 

Aws  (tribe),  170 

Aws  b.  Hajar  (poet),  131 

Awwam  Dhu  'Iran  Alu,  11 

ayat    (verse    of    the    Koran, 
sign,  miracle),  166 

Ayatu   '1-Kursi   (the  Throne- 
verse),  176 

Aybak,  447 

-Ayham    b.    -Harith    (Ghas- 
sanid), 50 


484 


INDEX 


'  Ayn  Jalut,  battle  of,  446 
'Ayn  Ubagh.  battle  of,  52 
ayyamu  'I- Arab,  55,  356 
Ayyubid    dynasty,    the,    275, 

447>  453 
Azd  (tribe),  79,  374 
-Azhar,  the  mosque,  395 
Azraqites  (-Azariqa),  the,  208 

239 

B 


Baalbec.  iii 

Bab  al-Mandab,  5 

Babak,  258,  375 

Babar     (Mogul      Emperor), 

xxix,  444 
Babylon,  xxv,  38 
Babylonia,    34,   38.   138,  253, 

255,  307.    See  -Iraq 
Babylonians,  the,  xv 
Babylonian     and     Assyrian 

inscriptions,   the,   xvi,   xxv 
Badajoz,  421,  423 
Badis,  428 
fiadi'u    '1-Zaman    al-Hama- 

dhani,  328,  329,  331 
Badr,  battle  of,  158,  174.  I75 
Badr,     freedman    of     'Abdu 

'l-Rahnian   the    Umayyad, 

405,  406 
-Baghawi,  337 
Baghdad,    xxviii,    xxix,     131, 

182,  254,    255-236,  290-293, 

303.  307,  313,  314,  315,  326. 

338,  340,  345.  346.  347.  350. 

351.  352,  355,  357,  359,  362, 

3f'5,  369.  376,  380,  382.  385. 

387.  392,  399.  412.  41S.  418. 

431,  441,  444-446,  447.  449, 

450,  458,  461,  465,  466 
Baghdad,      history     of     its 

eminent   men,  by  -Khatib, 

355 
Baha'u  '1-Dawla  (Buwayhid), 

267,  314 
Bahdala  (tribe),  87 
Bahira,  the  monk,  148 
Bahman  (Sasanian),  457 
Bahram  Gor  (Sasanian),  40, 41 
-Bahrayn  (province),  107, 108, 

186 
Bahri  Mamelukes,  the,  447 
Baju,  445 
-Bakharzi,  348 
Bakil  (tribe),  12 
Bakr  (tribe),  xix,  55-60,  61,  69, 

70,  76,  93,  107,  109,  113,  114, 

242  o 

-Bakri  (geographer),  357,  428 
Balaam,  73 
-Baladhuri    (historian),    280, 

349 
-balagh  al-akbar,  371 

Balak,  73 

-Bal'ami,  265,  352 

Balaq  (mountain),  17 

Balkh,  232,  233,  259,  361,  385 

-Balqa,  63 

Baiiat    Su'ad,    the    openmg 

words  of  an  ode,  119.  127, 

327 


Banu  '1-Ahrar,  29 

Banu  Hind,  58 

Banu  Khaldun,  437 

Banu  Musa,  359 

Banu  Nahshal,  243 

Baptists,  name  given  to  the 

early  Moslems,  149 
Baqqa,  36 

-Baramika,  259.    See  Barme- 
cides, the 
Barbier  de  Meynard,   13,  15. 
37.   19s.  259.  350,  352,   353. 
380,  457 
Bardesanes,  364 
Barmak,  25g 

Barmakites,  the.    See  Barme- 
cides, the 
Barmecides,     the,    255,    239- 

261,  262,  293 
Barquq,  Sultan  (Mameluke), 

452 
Bashama,  119 
Bashshar  b.   Burd,   245.   277, 

290,  373-374,  375 
-basil  (metre),  75 
-Basra,   xxiv,    127,    133,    I34- 
186,  189,  195,  202,  209,  210, 
215,  222,  223,  225.  226,  233, 
242,  243,  246,  273,  281,  293, 
294,  329,  331,  336,  341,  342, 
343,  345.  346,  369,  370,  374. 
377.  378 
Basset,  R.,  327 
-Basus,  56 
-Basus,  the  War  of,  53-60,  61, 

76,  107,  114 
-Batiniyya     (Batinites),    381, 
382,    402.      See    Isma'ilis, 
the 
-Battani,  361 
-hayan,  283 

-Bayan  al-Mughrib,  407 
Bayard,  191 
Bayazid  of  Bistam,  460.    See 

Abu  Yazid  al-Bistami 
Baybars,  Sultan  (Mameluke), 

447.  448 
-Baydawi,  145,  i79 
bayt  (verse),  74,  77 
Baytu  l-Hikma,  at  Baghdad, 

359 
-Bazbaz,  60 

Bedouin  view  of  life,  the,  136 
Bedouin    warfare,    character 

°f'  54,  55  ,,   ^       ^,  ., 

Bedouin  women,  Mutanabbi  s 

descriptions  of,  310 
Benu  Marthadim,  n 
Berber  insurrection  in  Africa, 

405 

Berbers,   the,   204,   274,    405- 

409,  413.  420,  423.  424,  429- 
432,  442,  443 
Berbers,  used  as  mercenaries, 

407 
Berlin  Royal  Library,  8,  12 
Bevan,  Prof.  A.  A.,  46,  80,  151, 

166,  168,  199,  205,  239,  244, 

253.  356,  373.  374.  375 
Beyrout,  238,  469 
Bibliographical     Dictionary, 

by  Hajji  KhaUfa,  456 


Bibliotheca       Geographorum 

Arabicorum,  356 
Bidpai.  the    Fables     of,  330. 

346 
Bilqis,  18 

-Bimaristan  al-'Adudi,  266 
Biographies  of  poets,  346,  347, 

348 
Birnam  Wood,  25 
-Biruni    (Abu   Rayhan),  269, 

280,  361 
Bishr  b.  Abi  Khazim  (poet), 

86 
Bishr  al-Hafi,  228 
Bishr  b.  -Mutamir,  369 
Bistam,  391 

Black,  J.  S.,  184,  249,  258 
Black,    the    colour     of    the 

'Abbasids,  220,  262 
Black    Stone  in  the    Ka'ba, 

the,  63,  274,  319.  467 
Blunt,  Lady  Anne,  88,  loi 
Blunt,  Wilfrid,  88,  loi 
Bobastro,  410 
Boer,  T.J.  de,  433 
Bohlen,  308,  312 
Bokhara,  203,  265,  275,  360 
Book    of    Examples,   the,   by 

Ibn  Khaldun,  437 
Book  of  Sibawayhi.  the,  343 
Book  of  the  Thousand  Tales. 

th^   '  See  Hazar  Afsan 
Book  of  Viziers,  tlie,  458 
Books,    the    Six    Canonical, 

337 
Boswell,  144,  313.  452 
Brethren  of  Purity,  the,  370- 

372 
British  Museum,  the  12,  402 
Brockelmann,    C. ,  205,    236, 

237,  308,  328,  339.  346.  349. 

449.  459.  468,  469 
Browne,  Prof.  E.  G.,  29,  42, 

185,  217,  218,   230,  247,  251. 

258,  265,  272,  275,  290,  329. 

346,  362,  375.  381,  383.  394, 

399.  445 
Briinnow,   R.  E.,  32,  35,  49, 

51,  209,  210 

Brutus,  252 

Bu'ath,  battle  of,  170 

Buddh.i,  297,  298 

Buddhism,  373.  375.  39°.  391- 
See  'Nirvana 

-Buhturi    (poet),    130,      316, 
324 

Bujayr  b.  'Amr,  58 

Bukhara.    See  Bokhara 

-Bukhari,    144.   146,   151,   337 

Bulaq,  4'39 

Bunyan,  212 

Burckhardt,  95,465.  466.  4^7 

Burd,  373 

-Burda,  326,  327 

-burda  (the  Prophet's  mantle) 
327,  366 

Burji  Mamelukes,  the,  447 

Burns,  Robert,  450 

burnus,  the,  a  mark  of  asceti- 
cism, 210 

Burton,  Sir  Richard,  459 

Busir,  326 


i 


INDEX 


485 


-Busiri  (poet),  326,  327 

Buthayna,  238 

Butrites,   the,   a  Shi'ite  sect, 

297 
Buwavhid  dynasty,  the,  264, 

266^268,  271,  275,  303,  338 
Byzantine  Empire,  the,  3,  29, 

46,  171,  255,  261,  269,  359 


Cadiz,  405 

Caesar,  252 

Caetani,  Prince,  149,  155,  156, 
171 

Cairo,  275,  350,  394,  395,  437, 
447.  448,  451.  452,  453.  454. 
455.  458.  461.  4^14.  4<J9 

Caliph,  the,  must  belong  to 
yuraysh,  207 

Caliph,  name  of  the,  men- 
tioned in  the  Friday  ser- 
mon, 263,  264  ;  stamped 
on  the  coinage,  264  ;  title 
of,  assumed  by  the  Fati- 
mids,  271 ;  by  the  Umay- 
yads  of  Spain,  412 

Caliphs,  the,  -Mas'udi's  ac- 
count of,  354 

Caliphs,  the  'Abbasid.  See 
'Abbasids,  the 

Caliphs,  the  Orthodox,  xxiii, 
x-xvii,  181-193 

Caliphs,  the  Umayyad.  See 
Umayyad  dynasty,  the 

Calpe,  204 

Canaanites,  the,  3 

Canonical  Books,  the  Six,  337 

Capuchins,  the,  228 

Carmathians,  the,  272,  274, 
322,  324,  371,  375,  381,  467. 
See  Fatimid  dynasty ; 
Isma'ilis 

Carmona,  437 

Casanova,  P.,  371 

Caspian  Sea,  the,  xxviii,  21, 
264,  266,  350,  352,  391 

Castile,  422,  437 

Castles  of  -Yemen,  the,  24 

Catharine  of  Siena,  233 

Cathay,  xxv 

Caussin  de  Perceval,  32 

Cave-dwellers  of  Khurasan, 
the,  232 

Celibacy  condemned  by  Mu- 
hammad, 224 

Cemetery  of  the  Sufis,  the,  at 
Damascus,  463 

Ceuta,  405,  412,  423,  434 

Ceylon,  352 

Chagar  Beg,  275 

Charles  the  Hammer,  204 

Charter,  the,  drawn  up  by 
Muhammad  for  the  people 
of  Medina,  173 

Chaucer,  289 

Chauvin,  Victor,  214 

Chenery,  T.,    244,    328,   332, 

333.  336 
Chihrazad,  457 
China,  203,  352,  419,  444 


Chingiz  Khan,  444 

Christian  poets  who  wrote  in 
Arabic,  138,  139 

Christianity  in  Arabia,  117, 
137-140;  in  Ghassan,5i,  54, 
123  ;  at  -Hira,  39,  41,  43,  44, 
46,  49,  123,  124,  138  ;  in 
Najran,  26,  27,  124,  137  ;  in 
Moslem  Spain,  407,  411, 
412,  413.  414-413,  431,  435. 
441 

Christianity,  influence  of,  on 
Muhammadan  culture,  xxii, 
176.  177,  216,  221,  231,  389, 
390 

Christians,  supposed  by  Mos- 
lems to  wear  a  girdle,  461 

Christians,  Monophysite,  51 

Christians  at  the  Umayyad 
court,  221,  240,  241 

Chrouology  of  Ancient  Na- 
tions, the,  by  -Biruni,  361 

Church  and  State,  regarded 
as  one  by  Moslems,  170, 
182,  197 

Chwolsohn,  363 

Classicism,  revolt  against, 
287-289 

Cleopatra,  34 

Coinage,  Arabic,  introduced 
by  'Abdu'l-Malik,  201 

Commercial  terms  derived 
from  Arabic,  281 

Companions  of  the  Prophet, 
biographies  of  the,  144,  356, 
456 

Confession  of  faith,  the  Mu- 
hammadan, 403 

Conquests,  the  early  Muh.im- 
madan,  work  on  the,  349 

Constantinople,  xxix,  29,  45, 
52,  84,  104,  318,  362,  412 

Cordova,  131,  341,  347,  406- 
411,  412,  413-415,418,420- 
426,  428,  434,  435 

Cordova,  the  University  of, 
420 

Courage,  Arabian,  the  nature 
of,  82 

Criticism  of  Ancient  and 
Modern   Poets,  283-289 

Cromwell,   189 

Crusade,  the  Third,  275 

Crusaders,  the,  331,  447 

Cruttenden,  8 

Ctesiphon.  47,   48,   210.      See 

-Madain 
Cureton,  211,  216,  341 


D 

Dabba  (tribe),  xix 

-Dahab  al-'Ijli,  44 

Dahis  (name  of  a  horse),  61 

Dahis  and  -Ghabra,  the  War 

of,  61,  62,  114,  116 
-daliriyynn,  381 
da'i  (missionary),  249,  272 
-Daja'ima,  50 

-Dajjal  (the  Antichrist),  216 
dakhil,  95 


Damascus,  xxi,  xxviii,  13,  46, 
51.  53,  54.  1".  181,  194,  195, 
202,  203,  207,  235,  240,  241, 
242,  244,  247,  252,  255,  274, 

304.  313.  335,  340.  374,  386 
399,  408,  451,  462,  463 

-Damigh,  375 

Daniel,  162 

Dante,  360 

dapir  (Secretary),  257 

Daqiqi,  Persian  poet,  265 

Daraya,  386 

Darius,  256 

Darmesteter,  J.,  217 

Daru  'l-Rum(Constantinople), 
362 

Daughters,  the  birth  of,  re- 
garded as  a  misfortune,  91 , 

156 
Daughters  of  Allah,  the,  135, 

156 
Davidson,  A.  B.,  8? 
dawidar  (dawadar),  445 
Daws  Dhu  Tha'laban,  27 
-Daylam,  266 
Dead  Sea,  the,  249 
Decline  of  the  Caliphate,  257, 

263 
Derenbourg,  H.,  54,  122,  123, 

194,  260,  331,  445,  454 
Dervish  orders,  the,  393 
Desecration  of  the  tombs  of 

the  Umayyad  Caliplis,  205 
-Dhahabi  (Shamsu'1-Din),  his- 
torian, 339,  446,  454 
Dhamar'ali  Dhirrih,  10 
Dhu  '1-Khalasa,  name  of  an 

idol,  105 
Dhu  l-Khursayn  (name  of  a 

sword),  96 
Dhu  'l-Majaz,  114 
Dhu  Nafar,  66,  67 
Dhu  l-Nun  al-Misri,  386-388, 

389, 460 
Dhu  '1-Nusur  (surname),  2 
Dhu  Nuwas,   12,   26-27,   I37 

162 
Dhu  Qar,  battle  of,  69,  70 
Dhu  l-Qarnayn,  17,  18 
Dhu  '1-Quruh  (title),  104 
Dhu  Ru'ayn,  25,  26 
Dhu  '1-Rumma  (poet),  246 
Dhu  'l-'Umrayn,  nickname  of 

Ibnu  'l-Khatit),  436 
Dhu  '1-Wizaratayn  (title),  425 
Dhubyan  (tribe),  xix,  61,  62 

ii6,'ii7,  121 
Diacritical  points  in   Arabic 

script,  201 
Di'bil  (poet),  261,  375 
Dictionaries,  Arabic,  343,  403, 

456 
Didactic    poem    by    Abu    '1- 

'Atahiya,  300 
Diercks,  360 
Dieterici,    F.,    270,   305,    307 

30S,  310,  312,  313,  371 
dihqan,  291 
Diminutives,  396,  449 
din  (religion),  178,  287 
Dinarzad,  457 
Dinarzade,  457 


486 


INDEX 


-Dinawar,  346 

-Dinawari  (historian),  251, 349 

Dinazad,  457 

Diodorus  Siculus,  3 

Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  387, 

38Q 
Dirge,  the  Arabian,  126 
-Dir'iyya,  466 
dithar,  152 

Divan-i  Shams-i  Tabfiz,  298 
Divine     Right,     the     Shi'ite 

theory  of,  214,  271 
diwan  (collection  of  poems), 

127,  128 
Diwan  (Register)  of  'Umar, 

the,  187,  188 
Diwans  of  tlie  Six  Poets,  the, 

128 
diya  (blood-wit),  93 
-Diyarbakri  (historian),  445 
Dog.the,  regarded  by  Moslems 

as  unclean,  445 
Doughty,  E.  M.,  3 
Dozy,  214,399.  407,  410,  411, 

413,  414.  415.  420,  422,  424, 

428,  429,  431,  465,  467 
Drama,  the,  not  cultivated  by 

the  Semites,  328 
Drinking  parties  described  in 

Pre-islamic  poetry,  124,  125, 

167 
Droit  du  seigneur,  le,  4 
dubayt  (a  species  of  verse), 

450 
Dubeux,  352 
Duka,  T.,  390 
Dumas,  272 
Dumyatu  'l-Qasr,  348 
Duns  Scotus,  367 
Durayd  b.  Simma,  83 
Durayd  b.  Zayd  b.  Nahd,  75 
Durratu  'l-Ghawwas,  336 
Dtiwalu  'l-lslam,  446 
Dvorak,  R.,  304 
Dyke  of  Ma'rib,  the,  2,  5,  14- 

17,  50,  63 
Dynasties    of     the    'Abbasid 

period,  264-276 


E 

Eber,  xviii 

Ecbatana,       129,     328.     See 

Hamadlian 
Ecstasy,  387,  393,  394 
Edessa,  331,  358 
Egypt,   xxiv,  xxix,  xxx,  4,  5, 

132,  184,  186,  193,  215,  268, 

274.  275.  307,  323,  326.  327, 

350,  354.  355.  1358.  387-390, 

399.  419.  432,  434.  442.  443. 

447,  448,  450.  451,  454.  460, 

461,  464,  466,  468 
Egypt,   conquest   of,   by  the 

Moslems,  184 
Egypt,    History  of,    by     Ibn 

Taghribirdi,  454 
Eichhorn,  xv 
Elegiac  poetry,  126,  127 
Elephant,  the  Sura  of  the.  68 
Elephant,  the  year  of  the,  28, 

66,  146 


Eloquence,  Arabian,  346,  347 
Emanation,  Plotinus's  theory 

of,  393 

Emessa,  304 

Encomium  of  the  Umayyad 
dynasty,  by  -Akhtal,  242 

Epic  poetry  not  cultivated  by 
the  Arabs,  325 

Equality  of  Arabs  and  non- 
Arabs  maintained  by  the 
Shu'ubites,  279,  280 

Equites  Thamudeni,  3 

Erotic  prelude,  the.   See  ttasib 

Erpenius,  355 

Essenes,  the,  224 

Euphrates,  the,  xv.  33,  36,  37, 
38,  41,  S3,  no,  113,  i86,  189, 
192,  196,  256.  418,  443.  449 

Euting,  Julius,  9 


Fables  of  beasts,  considered 
useful  and  instructive,  330 

-Fadl,  the  Barmecide,  260 

-Fadl  b.  al-Rabi',  293 

-Fahl  (surname),  125 

Fahm  (tribe),  81 

Fairs,  the  old  Arabian,  135 

-Fakhri,  187,  188,  194,  203,  260, 
331,  445.  454 

Fakhru  '1-Dawla  (Buwayhid), 
267 

Fakhru  '1-Mulk,  340 

Falcon  of  Quraysh,  the,  407, 

417 
-falsafa  (Philosophy),  283 
fana  (self-annihilation),   233, 

391 
fanak,  53 
faqih,  464 

faqir  (fakir),  230.  464 
faqr  (poverty),  230 
Farab,  360 
-Farabi  (Abu  Nasr),  270,  360, 

393 
-Farazdaq  (poet),  196,  238,  239, 

240.  242-244,  245,  246 
-Farghani,  361 
Faridu'ddin   'Attar,  226,  228, 

386 
-Farqadan    (name     of     two 

stars),  35 
-Farra,  343 
Farrukh-mahan,  45 
Fars  (province),  266 
Fathers,  the  Christian,  341 
-Fatiha,  143 
Fatima,    daughter  of  -Khur- 

shub,  88 
Fatima,     daughter    of     the 

Prophet,  183,  218,  250,  251, 

258,  267,  274 
Fatima  (mother  of  Qusayy), 

64 
Fatima,  a  woman   loved  by 

Imru'u  l-Qays,  106 
Fatimid  dynasty,  the,  217,  265, 

268,  269,  271-275,  322,  371, 

-Fatra,  152 


Fawatu  'l-Wafayat,  449,  452 
Faylasufu  'l-'Arab  (title),  360. 

See  -Kindi 
Faymiyun  (Phemion),  26 
Ferdinand  I  of  Castile,  422 
Ferdinand  III  of  Castile,  434 
Ferdinand  V  of  Castile,  441 
Fez,  436 
-fiqh    (Jurisprudence),     283  ; 

denoting  law  and  theology, 

339,  420.  465 
Fihr  (tribe),  xix 
-Fihtist,  13,  142,  345,  359,  361- 

364,  387,  457 
-Find,  58,  60,  84 
Firdawsi,  Persian   poet,   265, 

269 
Firuz  (Firuzan),  father  of  Ma- 

'ruf  al-Karkhi,  385 
Firuz,  a  Persian  slave,  189 
-Firuzabadi    (Majdu    '1-Din), 

403,  456 
Fleischer,  400,  404 
Flint.  Robert,  441 
Fluegel,  G.,  142,  297,  362,  364, 

459 
Folk-songs,  Arabic,  238,  416- 

417.  449-450 

Foils  VitcE,  428 

Foreigners,  Sciences  of  the, 
282,  283 

Forgery  of  Apostolic  Tradi- 
tions. 145,  146.  279 

Forgery  of  Pre-islamic  poems, 

133.  134 
France,  9,  412,  469 
Frederick     II      of     Hohen- 

staufen,  434.  441 
Free    schools,    founded     by 

Hakam  II,  419 
Free-thought  in   Islam,   283. 

284.     298,     345,    460.      See 

Mii'tazilites  and  Zindiqs 
Free-will,  the  doctrine  ot,  223, 

224 
Freytag,  G.  W.,  16,  31,  48.  50. 

55.  73.  89.  91,  109.  129,  292, 

373 
Friedlaender,  I.,  428 
Frothingham,  389 
-Fudayl    b.   'lyad,    232,    233, 

385 
-fnhul,  138 
Fukayha.  89 
-fiinuii    aUsab'a  (the    seven 

kinds  of  poetry).  450 
Fuqaym  (tribe),  28 
-Fiisulwa-'l-Ghayat,  318 
Fitsusu  l-Hikam.  400,  401 
-Fiituhat   al-Makkiyya,    400, 

464 
Future       life,       Pre-islamic 

notions  of  the,  166 


Gabriel.  63,  141,  150,  267 
Galen,  358 
Galland,  458 
Gallienus,  33 
Gaulonitis,  the,  53 


INDEX 


487 


Gaza,  5 

Geber,  361 

Geiger,  162 

Genealogy,      Muhammadan, 

XX. 

Genealogy,    treatise    on,    by 

Ibu  Durayd,  343 
Genesis,  Book  of,  xv 
Geographers,    the      Moslem, 

356.  357 
George  -Makin,  355 
Georgians,  the,  445 
Germany,  8,  412 
Gesenius,  8 

-Ghabra  (name  of  a  mare),  61 
-Gharid,  236 
-Ghariyyan,  43 
Ghassan,  xxii,  33,  37,  38,  42, 
43,  121,  122,  138',  139,  158,332 
Ghassanids,  the,  33,  49-34, 122 
Ghassanid    court,     the,    de- 
scribed    by     Hassan      b. 
Thabit,  53 
Ghatafan  (tribe),  xix,  61 
-Ghawl,  119 

ghayba  (occultation),  216 
Ghayman  (castle),  24 
Ghayz  b.  Murra,  117 
Ghazala,  339 
-Ghazali,   230,   234,  277,  338- 

341,  380-383, 393.  43i.  4^3 
Ghazan,  446 
Ghaziyya  (tribe),  83 
Ghazna,  268-269,  355 
Ghaznevid  dynasty,  the,  265, 

268-269,271,  275 
ghiyar,  461 
Ghiyathu       '1-Din       Mas'ud 

(Seljuq),  326,  329 
-Gkttlat  (the  extreme  Shiites), 

216 
Ghumdan  (castle),  24 
Gibb,  E.  J.  W.,  443,  460 
Gibbon,  439 
Gibraltar  (Jabal  Tariq),  204, 

414 
Glaser,  E.,  9,  15 
Gnosis,  the  Sufi  doctrine  of, 

386,  387 
Gnosticism,  389,  390 
Gobineau,  Comte  de,  320 
Goeje,  M.  J.  de,  179,  180,  253, 
256,  257,  287,  322,  349,  350, 
351.  353,  354.  356,  366,  371, 
409 
Goethe,  97 
Gog  and  Magog,  18 
Golden    Meadows,    the.     See 
Murujit     'l-Dhahab      and 
-Mas'udi 
Goldziher,  Ignaz,  xx,  xxii,  lo, 
18,  30,  73,  90,  119,  145,  £77. 
178,  199,  200,  221,  225,  246, 
278,  279,  280,  285,  287,  289, 
297,  298,  315,  344,  345,  366, 
368,  370,  372,  374,  379,  390, 
409,  431,  433,  466 
Gospel,  the,  165,  171 
Grammar,  Arabic,  the  origin 
of,   202,   278,   282,   341-343, 
363 
Grammars,  Arabic,  343,  456 


Granada,  421,  424,  428,  431, 
434,  435-437,  441,  442,  447 

Gray,  T.,  77 

Greece,  131,  296,  361,  434 

Greece,  the  influence  of,  on 
Muhammadan  thought, 
220,  221,  229,  266,  338-361, 
363.  369,  370,  386,  388 

Greek  Philosophers,  the,  341, 
363 

Green,  the  colour  of  the 
'Alids,  262 

Grimme,  H.,  xv,  10 

Griinert,  M.,  346 

Guadalquivir,  the,  422 

Guest,  A.  R.,  453 

Guirgass,  251 

Guyon,  Madame,  233 


H 

Haarbriicker,    220,    221,    223, 

224,  297 
Habib    b.     Aws.      See    Abu 

Tammam 
-Hadi,  the  Caliph,  260,  373 
Hadiqatu  'l-Afrah,  449 
-hadith    (Traditions    of    the 

Prophet),  132,  134, 143-146, 

201,    247,    258,    348.       See 

Traditions  of  the  Prophet 
Hadramawt  (province),  i,  5, 

42 
Hadrian,  137 
Hafsa.  142 

Hafsid  dynasty,  the,  442 
Hagar.     See  Hajar,  wife  of 

Abraham 
Hajar  (in  -Bahrayn),  94,  96 
Hajar,    wife    of     Abraham, 

xviii,  63 
-Hajjaj  b.  Yusuf,  200,  201-203, 

209,  213,  244 
Hajji  Khalifa,  456 
-Hakam   I   (Spanish    Umay- 

yad),  409 
-Hakam    11  (Spanish  Umay- 

yad),  412,  419 
hakim  (philosopher),  387 
hal,  mystical  term,  387 
Halbatu  'l-Kumayt,  417 
Halevy,  Joseph,  9 
Halila,  56 
HaUma,  the  Prophet's  nurse, 

147 
Halima,  daughter  of  -Hanth 

al-A'raj,  50 
Halima,  the  battle  of,  43,  50, 

51.  125 
Halle,  8 
Ham,  XV 
hama    (owl    or  wraith),   94, 

166 
Hamadhan  (Ecbatana),   129, 

292,  328,  333 
-Hamadhani,328.  See  Badi'u 

'l-Zaman 
Hamal  b.  Badr,  61,  88 
-Hamasa,  of  Abu  Tammam, 

55.  57-61,  79.  81,  82,  83,  84, 

87,  92,  93,  98,  100,  126,  129- 


130,  136,  137,  199,  213,  324, 

331 
-Hamasa,  of  -Buhturi,  130, 324 
hamasa  (fortitude),  79,  326 
Hamat,  454 

-Hamaysa'  b.  Himyar,  12 
Hamdan,  19 
Hamdan  Qarmat,  274 
-Hamdani  (geographer),  6,  11, 

12,  13,  17,  18.  20,  24 
Hamdanid  dynasty,  the,  268, 

269-271,  291,  303 
Hamilton,  Terrick,  459 
Hammad  al-Rawiya,  103, 113 

128,  132-134,  344 
Hammer,   J.    von,    308,    316, 

396,  459 
Hamzaof  Isfahan  (historian), 

14,  280 
Hanbalites.  the,  376,  462 
handasa  (geometry),  283 
Hani',  a  chieftain  of  Bakr,  69 
Hanifa  (tribe),  183 
Hanifs,  the,  69,  149,  130,  170, 

318 
Hanzala  of  Tayyi  ,  44 
haqiqat,  mystical  term,  392 
-haqq,  mystical  term,  392 
Haram  (tribe),  331 
Harim  b.  Sinan,  61,   ii6,  117. 

288 
-Hariri,  author  of  the  Maqa- 

mat,  329-336 
-Harith  al-Akbar.  See-Harith 

b.  Atnr  Miiharriq 
-Harith  b.  'Amr  (Kindite),  42, 

44,  103,  104 
-Harith    b.    'Amr     Muharriq 

(Ghassanid),  50 
-Harith  al-A'raj  (Ghassanid), 

43.  50.  54.  125.    See  -Harith 

b.  Jabala 
-Hanth  b.  'Awf,  61,  116,  117 
-Harith    b.     Hammam,     330, 

331,  333 
-Harith  b.   Hilliza  (poet),  44, 

100,  109,  113-114,  128 
-Harith  b.  Jabala  (Ghassanid), 

43,  50,  31,  82.     See  -Harith 

al-A'raj 
-Harith  al-Ra'ish,  17 
-Harith  b.  Suravj,  222 
-Harith  b.  'Ubad,  58,  59 
-Harith  the  Younger  (Ghas- 
sanid), so 
-Harith  b.  Zalim,  85 
-harj,  249 

Harran,  221,  358,  361,  462 
Harran,  the  bilingual  inscrip- 
tion of,  xxii 
Hartmann,  M.,  450,  468 
Harun  al-Rashid,  the  Caliph, 

XXIX,  25s,  258,  259,260-261, 

262,  277,  283,  292,  293,  296, 

298,  343.  345.  347,  366,  367. 

368,  373.  385,  388,  458,  459 
Harura,  208 
Harwat,  11 
hasab,  100 

Hasan  (Buwayhid),  266 
-Hasan   of    -Basra,   208,   222, 

223,223-227, 230, 243, 244, 294 


488 


INDEX 


-Hasan  b.  Ahmad  al-Hamdani, 

II.     See  -Hamdani 
-Hasan   b.  'Ali,   the   Nizamu 
'1-MuIk,  276.    See   Nizamu 
'UMulk 
-Hasan  b.  'Ali  b.  Abi  Talib, 

216,  297 
-Hasan  al-Burini,  396 
-Hasan  b.  -Sabbah,  445 
Hashid  (tribe),  I2 
Hashim,  65,  146,  250 
-Hashimiyya    (Shi'ite     sect), 

220,  251 
Hassan  b.  Thabit  (poet),  18, 

S2,  53.  54.  127 
Hassan  (son  of  As'ad  Kamil) 

the  Tubba',  ig,  23,  25 
Hatim  of  Ta>'j'i',  85-87,  288 
Hawa/.in  (tribe),  xix 
Hayy  b.  Yaqzan,  433 
Hayyum,  19 
Hazar  Afsan  (Hazar  Afsana), 

363,  457-458 
-Haziri  (Abu  '1-Ma'aIi),  348 
Hazzu  'l-Quhuf,  450 
Hebrews,  the,  xv 
Hebrew  language,  the,  xvi 
Hellespont,  the,  xxix 
Helpers,  the.     See  -Ansar 
Hengstenberg,  102 
Heraclius,  52 
Heresies      of      the      Caliph 

-Ma'mun,   262 
Herodotus,  353 
Hierotheus,  389 
hija  (satire),  73,  294 
-Hijaz,  xvii,  3,  21,  62,  63,  64, 
69,   137,    149,    150,  215,  340, 
.395.  398.  399.  465.  466 
-Hijr,  the  inscriptions  of,  xxi, 

3 
-Hijra  (Hegira),  xxv,  158,  171 
-Hilla,  449 

Hilyatu  'l-Awliya,  338 
himaq  (a   species  of  verse), 

450 
Hims,  304 

Hiniyar  (person),  14 
Himyar  (people),  xxv,   i,   6, 

10,  17,  24,  25,  26,  429 
Himyarites,  the,  xviii,  xx,  xxi, 

4,  3,  6,  7,  12,  17,  23,  26 
Himyarite  kings,   the,   9,  10, 
12,     13,     14,     17-27.      See 
Tubba's,  the 
Himyarite  language,  the,  xvi, 

x\  ii,  xxi,  6-1 1 
Himyarite  Ode,  thi,  12.  13 
Hind,   mother  of   Bakr   and 

Taghlib,  58 
Hind  (a  Bedouin  woman),  46 
Hind,  daughter  of  -Nu'man 

III,  46.  47 
Hind,  wife  of  -Mundhir   III, 

44.  45,  110 
Hinwani  (hill),  20 
-Hira,   xxii,   xxiii,    29,  33,  34, 
37-49,  51,  52,  53.  54.  60,  69 
70,  85,  87,  103,  107,  108,  109, 
no,  112,  114,  121,  122,  124, 
138,  i,?9,  189.  244,  439 
Hira,  Mount,  150 


Hirran,  11 

Hirschfeld,  H.,  151 

Hisham   (Umayyad    Caliph), 

200,  206,  224,  243 
Hisham    I   (Spanish    Umay- 
yad), 347,  409 
Hisham  II    (Spanish  Umay- 
yad), 412,  421 
Hisham    b.    Muhammad    al- 

Kalbi,  38,  39,  40,  34S 
Hisn  Ghurab,  8 
Historians,  Arab.  11-14,   144, 
247,  348-336,  420,  428,  435- 
440,  452-434 
Historical  studies  encouraged 

by  the  Umayyads,  247 
History,  the  true  purpose  of, 
4.57  ;    subject  to  universal 
laws,  438  ;  evolution  of,  439, 
440 
History  of  the  Berbers,  by  Ibn 

Khaldun,  429,  435 
History    of  the   Caliphs,    by 

-Suyuti,  455 
History  of  Islamic    Civilisa- 
tion, by   Jurji   Zaydan,  435 
History  of  Old  and  New  Cairo, 

by  -Suyuti,  455 
Holy  Ghost,  the,  150 
Holy  War.  the,  enjoined  by 

the  Koran,  174 
Homer,   the   Iliad  of,  trans- 
lated into  Arabic  verse,  469 
Homeritae,  the.  5 
Hommel,  F.,  xv,  i 
Honour,  Pre-islamic  concep- 
tion of,  82-100 
Horace,  326 
Hospitality,      the      Bedouin 

ideal  of,  85 
House  of  the   Prophet,  the, 
25a     See  'Ali  b.  Abi  Talib  ; 
'Alids  ;  Shi'iti'S. 
Houtsma,   Th.,  193,  242,  329, 

349 
Huart,  C,  468 

Hubal  (name  of  an  idol),  64 
Hubba,  64 
Hud  (prophet),  2 
Hudhalites  (Hudhaylites),  22, 

128.     See  Hudhayl 
Hudhayfa  b.  Badr,  61 
Hudhayfa  b.  al-Yaman,  142 
Hudhayl  (tribe),   xix,  64,  98, 

99.  100 
Hughes,  G.,  80 
Huir  (Kindite),  42 
Hujr,    father    of    Imru'u    'I- 

Qays,  104 
Hulagu,  xxix,  182,  444-446 
Hulayl  b.  Hubshiyya,  64 
-Hullai  al-Siyara,  418 
Hulton,  8 

hulul  (incarnation),  396,402 
Hulwan,  292 
Humani,  457 
-Humayma,  249 
Hunayn  b.  Ishaq,  359 
hur  (houris),  167 
Hurmuz  (Sasanian),  47 
Hurufis,  the,  460 
-Husayn,  son  of   'Ali  b.  Abi 


TaUb,  196,197, 198,  216,  218, 

243,  466 
-Husayn  b.  Damdam,  117 
-Husayn  b.  -Mansur  -Hallaj, 

363,  375.  399 
Hiisnii  'l-Mtihadara,  455 
-Hutay'a  (poet),  127,  131,  261 
Hypocrites,  the.    See  -Muna- 

fiqun 
Huzwa,  398 


I 


lamblichus,  389 

'Ibad,  the,  of  -Hira,  38,  39,  138 

Ibadites    (a    Kharijite  sect), 

the,  211 
-'Ibar,  by  -Dhahabi,  339 
Ibnu  'l-.\bbar,  418,  424 
Ibn  'Abdi   Rabbihi,   102,  131 

347,  420 
Ibn  Abi  Du'ad,  376 
Ibn  Abi  Usaybi'a,  266,  355 
Ibn  Abi  Ya'qub  al-Nadim,  362 
Ibn  Abi  Zar',  429 
Ibnu  '1-Ahraar  (Nasrid),  435 
Ibn  'A'isha,  236 
Ibnu  'l-'Alqami,  445 
Ibnu  'l-'Amid,  267 
Ibn  'Ammar  (poet),  422,  424 
Ibnu  'l-'Arabi.     See  Miihiyyit 

l-Din  Ibnii  'l-'Arabi 
Ibnu   'l-'Arabi,   the   Cadi,    of 

Seville,  399 
Ibnu    '1-A'rabi     (philologist), 

128 
Ibn  'Arabshah,  454 
Ibnu  'l-.\thir,   203,    205,    253, 

333-356,  376,  379.  420,  429 
Ibn  Bajja,  361,  434 
Ibn  Bashkuwal,  426,  434 
Ibn  Bassam,  422,  434 
Ibnu  '1-Baytar,  434 
Ibn  Durayd,  253,  280,  343 
Ibnu    '1-Farid.      See     'Umar 

Ibnu  'l-Farid 
Ibn  Hajar,  456 

Ibnu   'i-Hanafiyya.    See  Mu- 
hammad Ibnu  'l-Hanafiyya 
Ibn  Hani  (poet),  419,  420 
Ibn  Hawqal,  356 
Ibn  Hayyan,  428 
Ibn  Hazm,  222,  341  402,  42fr- 

428 
Ibn  Hisham,  17,  22,  23,  63,  64, 
69,   144,  147,  150,  151,   152, 
154.  156.  158,  166,  170,  173, 
175.  349 
Ibn  Humam,  105 
Ibnu  'l-'Idhari,  407,  428,  429 
Ibn   Ishaq.  6g,   144,   146,  149, 

156,  247,  349 
Ibn  Jahwar,  424 
Ibnu  '1-Jawzi,  355 
Ibn  Jubayr,  357,  434 
Ibn    Kabsha,     nickname    of 

Muhammad,  166 
Ibn  Khalawayh,  271 
Ibn  Khaldun,  32,  228,  229,  277, 
278,  288,   289,  350,  353,  429, 
435.  437-440,  443,  452 


I 


INDEX 


489 


Ibn  KhaUikan,  I2g,  132.  iW 
213,  224,  234.  24S.  261,  266, 
267,  276.  288,  295.  308.  312. 
326,  343,  344.  346,  348.  355, 
357.  359,  360.  377,  378.  387, 
408,  422,  425,  427,  4S1-4S2 

Ibn  Khaqan,  425,  434 

Ibnu  '1-Khatib,  the  Vizier,  413. 

435,  436,  437 
Ibn  Khidham,  105 
Ibn  Khurdadbih,  356 
Ibn  Maja,  337 
Ibn  Malik  of  Jaen,  450 
Ibn    Mukarram   (Jamalu 

'1-Din),  456 
Ibn  Muljam,  193         „,.       o 
Ibnu  'l-Muqatfa',  33°.  346, 348, 

358 
Ibnu  '1-Mu'tazz  (poet),  325 
Ibn  Nubata  (man  of  letters) 

Ibn    Nubata,    the    preacher, 

271.  328 
Ibnu  'l-Qifti,  355,  370,  387 
Ibn  Qutayba,  xviii,  35.  49,  5°. 
51,  75,  77,  105,  117,  145,  202, 
223,  257'  277,  280,  286,287, 
28S,  289.  293,  294.  345,  346 
Ibnu  '1-Qutiyya,  420 
Ibn  Quz!Tian,4i7 
Ibn  Rashiq,  71.  288 
Ibnu  '1-Rawandi,  375 
IbnRushd,  341,361.  432-434 
Ibn  Sab'in,  434 
IbnSa'd,  144,  256,  349 
Ibnu  '1-Sammak,  261 
Ibnu  'I-Sikkit,  343 
Ibn  Sina  (Avicenna),  265,  200, 

341,360,361,393 
Ibn  Sirin,  244 
Ibn  Surayj,  236 
Ibn  Taymiyya,  371.  "2,  483, 

465,  466 
Ibnu  '1-Tiqtaqa,  4S4 
Ibn  Tufayl,  361,  432.  433.  434 
Ibn  Tumart,  431-432 
Ibnu  'l-Wahshiyya,  xxv 
Ibnu  '1-Wardi,  455 
Ibn  Zaydun  (poet),  419,  424- 
426 

IbnZuhr,  434  ... 

Ibrahim  (Abraham),  xvui,  63. 

See  Abraham 
Ibrahim  ('Alid),  258 
Ibrahim  b.  Adham,  232 
Ibrahim  b.  Hilal  al-Sabi,  328 
Ibrahim  of  Mosul,  261 
Idol-worship  at  Mecca,  62-64 
Idris,  264 

-Idrisi  (geographer),  35/ 
Idrisid  dynasty,  the,  264 
Ihya'u     Uluiii    al-Din, 

234,  338,  34<3   .   ^       , 
-Iji  (Adudu  l-Din),  456 

ijma' ,  460 

ikiilas,  164 

Ikhmim,  387 

-Ikhtiyarat,  128 

Ikhwanu  'l-Safa,  370-372,  388 

-Iklil,  6, 12,  13,  24 

-ilahiyyiin,  382 

Iliad,  the.  xxii,  325,  469 


,434 
230, 


Il-Khans,  the,  xxix,  446 

U-Makah,  11 

ilmti    'l-hadith    (Science    of 

Apostolic  Tradition),  283 
•ilnm     'l-kalam     (Scholastic 

Theolofiv),  2S3 
'ihiiH  'l-nujum  (Astronomy), 

283 
'ilmu    H-qii-a'at   (Koranic 

Criticism).  283 
'ilmu     'l-tafsir    (Koranic 

E.xesesis),  283 
'ilq,  loi 
'Imadu  '1-Dawla  (Buwayhid), 

266 
•Imadu    '1-Din    al-Katib     al- 

Isfahani,  348,  355 
Imam  (head  of  the  religious 

community),  210 
Imam,  the    Hidden,  216-217, 
371  ;    the    Infallible,    220, 

432 
Imam-Husayn,  a  town  near 

Baghdad,  466.  See  Karbala 
-imam  al-ma'sum,  432 
Imamites,  the,  2,^1 
Imams,  the  Shi'ite,  214-220 
Imams,  the  Seven,  217,  273 
Imams,  the  Twelve,  217 
Imamu     '1-Haramayn,     339, 

379 
iman  (faith),  222 
Imru'u  '1-Qays  (poet),  42,  84. 

85,   loi,    102,  103-107,    128, 

136,  246,  289 
Ind'ia,  4,  17.  268,  341.  352,  361, 

389 
India,  History  of,  by  -Biruni, 

361  , 

India,  the    inHuence  of,  on 
Moslem     civilisation,    361, 

389,  390  ,    . 

India,  Moslem  conquests  in, 

203,  268 
Indian  religion,  descnbed  by 

-Shahrastani,  341 
Indus,  the,  xxiv,  203,  264 
Infanticide,  practised  by  the 

pagan  Arabs,  149,  243 
Initiation,   the  Isma'ilite  de- 
grees of,  273 
Inquisition    {mthiia)    estab- 
lished   by   -Ma'mun,    368, 
369 
Inscriptions,  the  Babylonian 

and  Assyrian,  xxv,  4 
Inscriptions,  Himyarite.    bee 

Inscriptions,  Soiitli  Arabic 
Inscriptions,  Nabatiean,  xxv,  3 
Inscriptions,    South    Arabic, 

xvi,  xxi,  xxvi,  6-11 
Inspiration,     views    of     the 
heathen    Arabs    regarding, 
72    73,  152.  165 
Intellectual  and   Philosophi- 
cal Sciences,  the,  282 
Ionia,  the  dialect  of,  xxiii 
-•Iqd  al-Farid,    102,   131,347, 

420 
Iram,  i 

-'Iraq,  34.38,  42,  123.  132,  142, 
201,  202,  207,  208,  243,  244, 


255,  262,  266,  273,  303,  350, 
419,  445.    See  Babylonia 
-Isaba  fi  tatnyiz    al-Sahaba, 

456 
Isabella  of  Castile,  441 
Isaiah,  151 
Isfahan,  14.  131,  268,  280,  326. 

347,  355.  419 
Isfandiyar,  330,  363   ^, 
Ishaq  b.  Ibrahim  al-Mawsili. 

261,  362.  418 
Ishaq  b.  Khalaf ,  92 
Ishmael.    See  Isma'il 
Isidore  of  Hispalis,  198 
Islam,  meaning  of,  153  ;  car- 
dinal doctrines  of,  163-168  ; 
formal    and    ascetic     cha- 
racter of,  168,  224  :  derived 
from      Christianity       and 
Judaism,   176,    i77;    pag^" 
elements  in,  177  ;  opposed 
to  the    ideals  of  heathen- 
dom,   177,    178;   identified 
with  the  religion  of  Abra- 
ham,   62,     177;    a    world- 
religion,  1S4 
Isma'il    (Ishmael),    xviu,  63, 

64 
Isma'il  (Samanid),  265 
Isma'il  b.  'Abbad,  267.     See 

-Sahib  Isma'il  b.  'Abbad 
Isma'il  b.  Naghdala,  428 
Isma'ilis,   the,    217,  272-274, 

363,371,372,381,  420,445 
isna'd,  144.  278,  352 
-Isnawi,  339 
Israel,  73 
Istakhr.  356 
-Istakhri,  356 
istifa,  228 

Italy,  412,  414,  441     .     ^ 
Ithamara  (Sabcean  king),  4 
-I  t  h  n  a  -'a  s  h  a  r  i  y  y  a  (the 

Twelvers),  217  . 

I'timad,  name  of  a  slave-girl 

422 
-Itqan,  145,  455 
iiiihad,  402 
'iyar.  29'? 

lyas  b.  Qabisa,  53      .,  ^ 
'Izzu     l-Din     b.     'Abd     al- 
Salam,  461 


J 

Jabal  Tariq  (Gibraltar),  204 
Jabala  b.    -Ayham    (Ghassa- 

nid),  50,  51,  52,  53.  54     . 
-Jabariyya    (the    Predestina- 

rians),  224 
Jabir  b.  Hayyan,  361,  387 
jabr  (compulsion),  224,  297 
Jacob,  G.,  74,  76 
Jadala  (tribe),  429 
Jadhima  al-Abiash,  34,  35,  36, 

40 
Jadis  (tribe),  4,  25 
Jaen, 456  . ,       , 

1  Ja'far,  the  Barmecide,  260 
!  Jafar,  son  of  the  Caliph -Hadi, 

26a 


490 


INDEX 


Jafna,  founder  of  the  Ghas- 
sanid  dynasty,  50 

Jafnites,  the.  See  Ghassanids. 
the 

Jaghbub,  468 

Jahdar  b.  Dubay'a,  59 

-jahiliyya  (the  Age  of  Bar- 
barism), .\-x\i,  30,  31,  34 
71,  90,  158.  287 

-Jahiz,  267,  280,  3M-317,  375 

jahiz,  346 

-Jahiziyya  (Mu'taziUte  sect), 
346 

iahl,  meaning  'barbarism,'  30 

Jahm  b.  Safwan,  222 

-Jahshiyari  (Abu  'Abdallah 
Muhammad  b.  'Abdus),  458 

Jalalu  '1-Din  Khwarizmshah, 

,  444 

Jalalu  '1-Din  al-Mahalli,  455 

Jalalu  '1-Din  Rumi,  Persian 
poet,  298,  393,  404 

Jallaban,  293 

-Jamhara  fi  'I-  Liigha,  343 

Jamharat'u  Ash'ari  'l-'Arab, 
130 

-Jami('Abdu  '1-Rahman),  Per- 
sian poet,  229,  284,  386,  433 

-Jami',  by  -Tirmidhi,  337 

-JamVa,  371 

Jamil,  238 

Jandal,  245 

Janissaries,  the,  413 

-Jannabi,  375 

-Jaradatan  (name  of  two  sing- 
ing girls)  2 

Janr  (poet),  205,  238,  239,  240. 
242,  244-246 

Jassas  b.  Murra,  56,  57 

-Jawf,  9 

Jawhar,  429 

-Jawlan,  54 

Jerusalem,  i6g,  177,  233,  275 

,  340,  355  357 

Jesus,  215,  216 

Jews,  the,  341.     See  Judaism 

-Jibal  (province),  292,  3s6,  445 

Jibril  (Gabriel),  150 

jihad,  430 

Jinn,  the,  72,  112,  119,  152,  165 

jinni  (genie),  165 

Jirjis  -Maliin  (historian),  355 

John  of  Damascus,  221 

John  of  Ephesus,  52 

Johnson.  Dr.,  286,  313 

Joljtan,  -xviii 

Jones,  E.  R.,  433 

Jones,  Sir  William,  102,  452 

Jong,  P.  de,  366 

Jordan,  the,  446 

-Jubha'i,  377,  378 

Judaism,  established  in 
-Yemen,  23,  137;  zealously 
fostered  by  Dhu  Nuwas, 
26;  in  Arabia,  137-140,  149, 
158,  170-172,  173,  176,  177  ; 
in  Spain,  415,  428,  429  ;  in 
Sicily,  441 

Judaism,  influence  of,  on 
Muhammadan  thought,  176, 
177,  215,  216 

-iu'iyya  (the  Pasters),  232 


Juliana  of  Norwich,  233 

-Junayd  of  Baghdad,  228,  230, 
392,  465 

Junde-shapur,  358 

Jurhum  (tribe),  .xviii,  63,  117 

Jurjan,  339 

Jurji  Zaydan,  435 

Justinian,  43.  51,  104,  358 

Justinus  (Byzantine  Em- 
peror),  27,  52 

-Juwayni  (Abu  '1-Ma'ali),  339, 
379 

JuynboU,  257,  262,  268,  350, 
369 

K 

Ka'b  (tribe),  246 

Ka'b  b.  Zuhayr   (poet),    119, 

127,  327 
-Ka'ba,  63,  64,  63-67,  loi,  117, 

154.  155,  157.  164,  169,  177, 

198,  319,  400,  402,  467 
Ka'bu  '1-Ahbar,  185 
-Kadhdhab   (title  of  Musay- 

lima),  183 
Kafur  (Ikhshidite),  306,  307 
Kahlan,  14 
-Kalabadhi,  338 
-kalatii   (Scholasticism),   363, 

378 
Kalb  (tribe),  199,  405 
kalb,  445 
Kalila  and  Dimna,  the  Book 

of,  346,  363 
-Kamala  (title),  88 
-kamil  (metre),  75 
-Kaniil     of      Ibnu     'I-Athir, 

355.    379.    429-      See  Ibnu 

■l-Athir. 
-Kamil  of  -Mubarrad,  92, 131, 

202,  226,  227,  237,  244,  343 
kaiiwakan  (a  species  of  verse), 

45° 
Karbala,    196,    198,    208,   216, 

218,  243.  466 
Kariba'il  Watar,  10 
-Karkh,  a  quarter  of  Baghdad, 

267.  385 
kasb,  379 

Kashfu  'l-Ztinun,  456 
-Kashshaf,  145 
katib  (secretary),  257,  326 
Kawadh  (Sasanian),  42 
Ketbogha,  446 
Khadija,   148,   150,    151,    152, 

153.  157 
-J/io/i/l  metre),  75 
Khalaf,  421 
Khalaf    al-Ahmar,  97,    134, 

293.  344 
Khalid  b.  -Mudallil.  43 
Khalid  b.  -Walid,  184 
Khalid  b.  Yazid,  358; 
khalifa  (Caliph),  xxvii,  175 
-Khalil    b.    Ahmad,    75,   285, 

343 
Khamir  (village),  19 
-Khamriyya,  by  Ibnu  'l-Farid, 

39& 
khatnriyyat,  294 
khanaqah  (monastery),  229 


-Khansa  (poetess),  126,  127 

Kharidatu  'l-Qasr,  348 

khariji  (Kharijite),  209 

Kharijites,  the,  193,  207,  208- 
213,  221,  222,  239,  248,  259, 
428 

Kharmaythan,  360 

-Khasib,  373 

khatib.  271 

-Khatib,  of  Baghdad,  355 

-Khatim  b  'Adi,  94,  96 

-Khawarij.   See  Kharijites,  the 

-Khawarnaq  (castle),  40,  41 

-Khaybar,  50 

-Khayf,  237 

Khazaza,  battle  of,  5 

-Khazraj  (tribe),  170 

Khedivial  dynasty,  the,  468 

Khidash  b.  Zuhayr,  95,  96 

Khindif,  xix 

-Khitat,  by  -Maqrizi,  453 

Khiva,  361,  444 

Khizanatu'l-Adab,  131 

Khuda  Bukhsh,  S.,  279 

Khulafa  al-Rashidun,  xxvii. 
See  Caliphs,  the  Orthodox 

Khuday-nama,  348 

Khurasan,  xxviii,  129,  132, 
220,  221,  232,  233,  239,  249, 
250,  251,  254,  256,  258,  263, 
265,  266,  275,  303,  339,  341, 

379.  390,  391.  419.  444 
Khurasan,  dialect  of,  339 
khuruj  (secession),  209 
Khusraw  Parwez.     See  Par- 

wez 
khutba,  263,  328 
Khuza'a  (tribe),  63,  64,  65 
Khuzayma  (tribe),  xix 
Khuzistan,  266,  274,  293,  358 
Khwarizm,  357,  361,  444 
-Khwarizmi  (Abu  'Abdallah), 

361 
-kibrit  al-ahmar,  399 
Kilab  (tribe),  246 
Kilab  b.  Murra,  64 
-kimiya    (the    Philosophers' 

Stone),  401 
Kimiya'u  'ISa'adat,  340 
-kimiya' un  (the  Alchemists), 

364 
Kinana  (tribe),  xix,  64 
Kinda  (tribe),  xviii,  42,  43,69, 

85,  103,  104.  360 
-KIndi,  288,  360 
-Kisa'i  (philologist),  261,  343 
Kisra  (title),  45 

Kitabu  'l-Aghani  (the  Book 
of  Songs),  19,  26,  31,  32,  37, 
43.  44.  46.  47.  53.  85,  86,  87, 
88,  8g,  94,  102,  104,  109,  no, 
123,  124,  131,  134,  138,  139, 
150,  200,  205,  216,  236,  237, 
239,  241,  242,  243,  244,  245, 
270,  279,  291,  292,  297,  345. 
347,  374.  419 
Kitabu      'l-Ahkam      al-Su^ 

taniyya,  338 
Kitabu    'l-Akhbar   al-Tiwal, 

349 
Kitabu  Ansabi  'l-Ashraf,  349 
-Kitab  a^Awsat, 3S3 


INDEX 


491 


Kitabu  'l-'Ayn,  343 

Kitabii  'l-Badi',  325 

Kitabu  l-Bayan  wa-'l-l  abyin, 

347 
Kitabu    'l-Falaliat    al-Naba- 

tiyya,  xxv 
Kitabu  Futuhi  'l-Bnldan,  349 
Kitabu  'l-Hayawait,  346,  375 
Kitabu  'l-'lbar,  by  Dhahabi, 

339 
Kitabu  'l-Ibar,  by  Ibn  Khal- 

dun,  437 
Kitabu  'l-Ibil,  345 
Kitabu  'l-Islitiqaq,  343 
Kitabu  'l-Kaiiiil  fi    l-Ta'rikh, 

355.      See  -Kamil  of  Ibnu 

■l-Athir 
Kitabu  Khalq  al-Insan,  345 
Kitabu  'l-Khayl.  345 
Kitabu  'l-Ma'arit.   xviii,   202, 

223.  224,  345,  346 
Kitabu  'l-Magliazi,  by   Musa 

b.  'Uqba,  247 
Kitabu   'l-Maghazi,  by  -Wa- 

qidi,  144 
-Kitab  al-Mansuri,  265 
Kitabu   'l-Masalik  wa-'l-Ma- 

malik,  356 
Kitabu  'l-Milal    wa-'l-Nihal, 

by  Ibn  Hazm,  341,427,  428 
Kitabu   'l-Milal  wa  -l-}iihal, 

by  -Shahrastani,  341.     See 

Shahrastani 
Kitabu    'l-Muluk   wa-akhbar 

al-Madin,  13 
Kitabu  'l-Shi'r  xva-'l-Shu'ara, 

75.  78,    105,    "7.   257,  293, 

346 
Kitabu    'l-Ta'arruf  li-Madh- 

habi  ahli  ' l-Tasaicwuf.  338 
Kitabu    'l-Tabaqat   al-Kibar, 

144 
Kitabu 'l^Tanbih  wa- 1- Ishraf, 

353.  354 

-Kitab  al-Yamini,  355 

Kitabu  7-  Zuhd,  247 

Koran,  the,  xvii,  xx,  xxii-xxv, 
xxvi,  xxvii,  I,  2,  3,  15,  17,  18, 
27,68,  74,  91,  102,  119,  132, 
134,  141-143,  144-152.  154- 
156,  158,  159-168,  169,  172, 
174,173,176,  i7«,  179,  183, 
184,  185,  187,  192,  201,  203, 
207-212,  215,  221,  223,  225, 
231,  234,  233,  237,  247,  249, 
273,  277,  278,  279,  282,  284, 
287,  294,  318,  327,  329,  330, 
342.  343,  344.  363.  3155.  368, 
369,  375,  378,  37<J.  397.  398, 
402,  403,  408,  417,  433.  449. 
454.  455.  460,  461,  4^2,  463, 
467 

Koran,  the,  derivation  of,  159  ; 
collection  of,  142  ;  historical 
value  of,  143  ;  arrangement 
of,  143,  161  ;  style  of,  159, 
318,  368  ;  not  poetical  as  a 
whole,  160  ;  held  by  Mos- 
lems to  be  the  literal  Word 
of  God,  159,  23s  :  heavenly 
archetype  of,  151,  163,  368  ; 
revelation  of,  150-152,  159  ; 


designed  for  oral  recitation, 
161  ;  commentaries  on,  144, 
145,  351,455  ;  imitations  of, 
318,  368,  375  ;  dispute  as  to 
whether  it  was  created  or 
not,  262,  368,  369 

Koran-readers  (-qurra),  the, 
209,  210,  277 

Kosegarten,  128 

Krehl,  L.,  151.  360 

Kremer,  Alfred  von.  13,  14,  18, 
19,  23,  24,  loi,  139,  140,  220, 
221,  225,  233.  279,  281,  302, 
304,  316,  318,  321,  323,  324, 
360,  373,  379,  383,  399,  439 

-Kufa,  xxiv,  38,  70,  127,  133, 
134,  186,  189,  193.  196,  198, 
202,  207-210,  215,  2i8,  219, 

229,    250,  253,    291,   293,    296, 

304,  342.  343,  344 
-Kulab,  battle  of,  253 
Kulayb  (tribe),  244,  245 
Kulayb  b.  Rabi'a,  5,  55,  56,  57, 

76,93 
Kulayb  b.  Wa'il,   no.      See 

Kulayb  b.  Rabi'a 
Kulthum  b.  Malik,  no 
-Kumayt  (poet),  138 
kunya  (name  of  honour),  45, 

50,  112 
-Kusa'i,  244 
Kuthayyir  (poet),  216 
-kutub  al-sitta(ih.e.  Six  Books), 

337 
-Kutubi,  449,  452 


La  Fontaine,  469 

Labid  (poet),  50,  109,  119-121, 

128,  139,  140 
Lagrange,  Grangeret  de,   396, 

417 
Lahore,  268 
Lakhmites,  the,  of  -Hira,  33, 

38,  39-49,  54.  69 
Lamis  (name  of  a  woman),  82 
Lamiyyatu  'l-'AJam,  326 
Lamiyyatu  'I-' Arab,  79, 80,  89, 

134,  326 
Lamta  (tribe),  429 
Lamtuna  (tribe),  429 
Lane,  E.  W  ,  53,  164,  448,  459 
Lane-Poole,  Stanley,  264,  275, 

371,  432 
-Lat  (goddess),  135,  155 
Lata'iju  'l-Minan,  464 
Latiti    (Turkish   biographer), 

460 
Laus       duplex       (rhetorical 

figure),    311 
Law,      Muhammadan,       the 

schools  of,  283,  284,  363, 465; 

the  first  corpus  of,  337 
Lawaqihu  'l-Anwar,  225,  226, 

392 
-Lawh  al-Mahfuz,  163,  378 
Layla,      the       beloved       of 

-Majnun,  238 
Layla,   mother    of    'Amr     b. 

Kulthum,  44,  109,  no 


Le  Strange,  G.,  256,  356,  357 
Learning,  Moslem  enthusiasm 

for,  281 
Lees,  Nassau,  386 
Leo  the  Armenian,  359 
Letter-writing,  the  art  of,  267 
Lexicon,  the  tirst  Arabic,  343 
Library  of  Nuh  II,  the  Sama- 

nid,  265,  266  ;  of  Hakam  II, 

the  Spanish  Umayyad,  419 
Linguistic  Sciences,  the,  282 
Lippert.  370 
Lisanu  'I- Arab,  456 
Lisanu  '1-Din  Ibnu  'I-Khatib. 

See  Ibnu  'l-Khatib 
Literary  culture  despised  by 

the  Arabs,  278 
litham,  423 
Littmann,  Enno,  73 
Lollards,  the,  374 
Longland,  450 
Loth.  O.,  I 
Lourdes,  382 
Love,  Divine,  the  keynote  of 

Sufiism,  231  ;  two  kinds  of, 

234  ;  an  ineffable  mystery, 

387  ;  hymn  of,  396  ;  in  Sufi 

poetry,  397,  398,  402 
Loyalty,    as    understood    by 

the  heathen  Arabs,  83-85 
Lucian,  319 

-lugha  (Lexicography),  283 
Luhayy,  63 
Lulu,  3041 

Luqman  b.  'Ad  (king),  2,  14 
-Luzumiyyat,    315,    316,   319, 

323.  324 

Luzumu  ma  la  yalzatn,  315. 
See  -Luzumiyyat 

Lyall,  Sir  Charles,  32,  54,  71, 
75,  82,  89,  92,  97,  loi,  109, 
III,  112,  113,  114,  115,  ny, 
118,  120,  121,  125,  129,  139, 
140,  149 


M 

Ma'  al-Sama  (surname),  41 
Ma'ab,  63 

ma'ad  (place  of  return),  215 
Ma'add,  xix,  xx,  112 
Ma'arratu  '1-Nu'man,  313, 314, 

323 
-Ma'arri  (Abu    'l-'Ala),    448. 

See  Abu  'l-'Ala  al-Ma'arri 
Ma'bad  (singer),  236 
Ma'bad  al-Juhani,  224 
Macbeth,  Arabian  parallel  to 

an  incident  in,  25 
Macdonald,  D.    B.,  273,  378, 

382,  433 
Macedonia,  276 
Machiavelli,  439 
Macoraba,  5,  62 
Madagascar,  352 
-Mada'in  (Ctesiphon),  29,  33, 

46,  47,  48.    See  Ctesiphon 
Mada'in  Salih,  3 
-madh  al-muwajjah  311 
I  -madid  (metre),  98 
I  madih  (panegyric),  78,  294 


492 


INDEX 


Madinatu  '1-Salam,  255.    See 

Baghdad 
Madrid,  420 
ma/akhir,  100 
maghazi,  247 
-Maghrib,  460 
Magi    (Magians),   the.      See 

Zoroasiiians,  the 
Magian  lire-temple  at  Baikh, 

the,  259 
Mahaffy,  J.  P.,  82 
Mahdi,  the,  216,  217,  248,  249, 

274.  431 
-Mahdi,  the  Caliph,  103,  128, 
257,  258,  296,  343,  367,  373, 

374,  418 
-Mahdiyva,  274 
Mahmud    (Ghaznevid),    268- 

269,  355 
Mahra,  dialect  of,  xxi 
Maimonides,  434 
Majdu    '1-Din    al-Firuzabadi. 

See  -Finizabadi 
-Majmn'  al-Mubarak,  355 
-Majnun,  238 
majniin,  165 
Malaga,  410,  421,  428,  434 
Malik  (booa  companion    of 

Jadhima),  35 
Malik  (brother    of    Qays    b. 

Zuhayr),  61 
Malik  the  Azdite,  34 
Malik,  the  slayer  of  -Khatim 

b.  'Adi,  94,  95 
Malik  b.  Anas,  284,  337,  366, 

408 
-Malik  al-Dillil  (title  of  Imru'u 

'1-Qavs),  104 
-Malik    al-Kamil    (Ayyubid), 

395,  434 
-Malik  al  -Salih  Najmul-Dm 

(Ayyubid),  447 
Malik  Shah  (Seljuq),  275,  276, 

326,  340 
-Malik     al-Zahir    (Ayyubid), 

275 
-Malik      al-Zahir      Baybars. 

See  Baybars,  Sultan 
Malikite  books  bnrned  by  the 

Almohades,  433 
MaUkite  school  of  Law,  the, 

408 
Mamelukes,  the,  413 
Mameluke  d5'nasty,  the,  xxix, 

442,  446,  447,  448,  453.  464 
tnamluk,  447 
-Ma'mun,  the  Caliph,  92,  129, 

255,  257,  262,  263,  284,  302, 

343.  358-339,  361,  368,  369, 

373.  388 
Manat  (goddess),  135,  155 
Mandeville,  Sir  John,  xxv 
Manfred,  441 
-Manfuha,  124 
Mani  (Manes),  364,  375 
Manichaans,    the,    218,    297, 

341,  372-375.    See  Zindiqs, 

the 
-Mansur,  the  Caliph,  128,  206, 

252.  253,  255,  256,  257,  258- 

2S9,  291,  314,  337,  346,  349, 

358,  373,  407 


iWansur    I    (Samanid),     265, 

352 
-Mansur  Ibn  Abi  "Amir,  412, 

413,  426 
Mantle    Ode    {-Burda),    the, 

326,  327 
maqama,  328 
-Maqamat.oi  Badi'u  '1-Zaman 

al-  Haraadhani,  328,  329 
-Maqamat,   of    -Hariri,    329- 

336 
Maqamu  Ibrahim,  63 
-Maqdisi.      See  -Miiqaddasi 
-Maqqari,  399,   401,  413,   418, 

419,  427,  436,  454 
-Maqrizi  (Taqiyyu  '1-Din),  453 
-Maqsuia,  343 
Marabout,    modern    form   of 

miirahit,  430 
Marasidu  'l-Ittila',  357 
mavathi,  294 
Marathon,  battle  of,  174 
Marcion,  364 
Margoliouth,  Prof.  D.  S.,  xxiv, 

183,  267,  314,  316,  317,  319, 

357.  469 
Mariaba,  5 
Ma'rib,  2,  5,  9,  14,  I5,  i6,  17, 

50.     See  Dyke  Of  Ma'rib 
Maridin,  449 
ma'rifat  (gnosis),  386 
Marinid  dynasty,  the,  442 
Mariya,  mother  of  -Mundhir 

111,41 
Mariya    (name    of    a    hand- 
maiden), 46,  47 
Mariya  of  the  Ear-rings,  50 
Marj  Rahit,  battle  of,  199 
Marr  al-Zahran,  95 
Marriage,   a    loose    form   of, 

prevailing  among  the  Shi- 

'ites,  262 
Ma'ruf    al-Karkhi,    385,    386, 

388 
Marwan  I  (Umayyad  Caliph), 

199 
Marwan  1 1  (Umayyad  Caliph), 

181,  251,  253,  347 
-Marzuqi  (philologist),  128 
Masabihu  'l-Sunna,  337 
Masaliku  'l-Mamalik,  356 
-niashaf,  294 
Mashhad  -Husayn,  466 
Maslama  b.  Ahmad,  420 
Masruq,  28 
Mas'ud,    Sultan,     329.       See 

Ghiyathu  'l-Din  Mas'ud 
-Mas-udi,  13,  15,  37.  i95,  203, 

205,  206,  259,  260,  267,  349, 

332-354,  387,  456 
Materia  Mcdica,  by  Ibnu  '1- 

Baytar,  434 
mathalib,  100,  280 
Mathnau'i,  the.   by  Jalalu  '1- 

Din  Rumi,  404 
-Matin,  428 
mathv,  309 
niatn,  144 
Mauritania,  412 
-Mawa'izu'a'l-Vtibarfi  dhikri 

'IKhitatica  'l-Athar,  453 
-Mawali    (the    Clients),    198, 


207,  219,  222,  248,  250,  278, 
279,  373 
-Mawali  (the  Clients),  coalesce 
with  the  Shi'ites,  198,  219, 
220,  250  ;  treated  with  con- 
tempt by  the  Arabs,  219, 
248,  278,  279  ;  their  culture, 
248 ;  their  influence,  278, 
279 
mawaliyya,     a     species     of 

verse,  450. 
-Mawardi,  337,  338 
Mawiyya,   mother  of   -Mun- 
dhir 111,41 
Mawiyva,  wife  of  Hatim  of 

Tayy'i',  87 
-Maydani,  31.    See  Proverbs, 

Arabic 
Maymun  b.  Qays.  See  -A'sha 
Maysun,  195 
Mazdak,  42,  258,  364 
Mazyar,  375 

Mecca,  xviii,  xxiii,  xxvi,xxvii, 
2,  3,  5,  6,  22,  28,  53,  62,  63, 
64,65-68,  loi,  102,  114,  117. 
146,  150,  154-156,  158,  169, 
171,  174,  175,  196,  198,  202, 
236,  249,  274,  319,  339-  340- 
395,  396,  429,  431,  434,  439, 
466,  468 
Mecca,    Pre-islamic    history 
of,    62  ;     attacked    by    the 
Abyssinians,    66-69  ;     sub- 
mits to  the  Prophet,  64,  175 
Mecca,  the  dialect  of,  xxiii 
Meccan  Rcrelatious,  the,  464. 

See  Fuiuhat  al^Makkiyya 
Meccan  Suras  of  the  Koran, 

the,  160-168 
Media,  356 

Medina  "  (-Madina),  xxvi, 
xxvii,  3,  21,  22,  49,  50,  52, 
62,  71,  84,  150,  157,  158,  169, 
170,  171,  173,  175,  176,  177, 
181,  185,  186,  188,  198,  208, 
209,  236,  241,  243,  337,  330, 
365,  466,  468 
Medina,  Suras  of  the  Koran 

revealed  at,  175, 176 
Mediterranean   Sea,    the,    5, 

255,275,404  412,444 

Merv,  252,  346 

Merx,  A.,  384,  389 

Mesopotamia,  35,  186.  238, 
240,  269,  355,  358,  385,  388, 
411,  446 

Messiah,  Moslem  beliefs  re- 
garding the,  215-217,  24S, 
249.    See  Mahdi.  the 

Metempsychosis,  the  doctrine 
of,  267 

Metres,  the  Arabian,  74,  75 

Mevlevi    dervish   order,   the, 

393 
mihna,  368 
-Mihras,  124 

Mihrgan,  Persian  festival,  250 
Milton,  212 
Mina,  119 

Minsean  language,  the,  xxi 
Mina;ans,  the,  7 
minbar  (pulpit),  199 


INDEX 


493 


Minqar,  57 
Miqlab  (castle),  24 
Miracles   demanded    bv   the 
Quraysh  from  Muhammad, 
165 ;   falsely    attributed   to 
Muhammad,  166 
-MVraj  (the  Ascension  of  the 

Prophet),  169,  403 
Mir'atn   l-Zaman,  355 
Mishkatu  l-Masabili.'  337 
Misr  (Old  Cairo),  394 
misra'  (hemistich),  74 
-Mizhar,  455.     See  -Mitzhir 
Moguls,  the  Great,  xxix,  444 
Moliere,  469 
Monasticism,  alien  to  Islam, 

225 
Mongol  Invasion,  the,   xxiv, 
xxLX,  XXX,  272,  277,  326,  443, 
444-446 
Mongols,  the,  254,   264,  275. 
442,  443,  462.     See  Mongol 
Invasion,  the 
Monte  Crista,  469 
Montrose,  igi 
Mordtmann,  g 
Morocco,  264,   341,  423,  424, 

430,431,  442 
Moses,  165,  172,  185,  215,  273. 

397 
Moslem,  meaning  of,  153 
Moslems,  the  first,  153 
Moslems,    the    non-Arabian. 

See  -Mawali 
Mosul  (-Mawsil),  261,  269,  281, 

326,  355.  362,  399,  445,  454 
-Mu'allaqaf.  77,  82,  101-121, 

128,  131,416,  459 
Mu'awiya  b.  Abi  Sufyan 
(Caliph),  xxviii,  13,  119, 181. 
191,  192,  193,  194-193,  196, 
206,  207,  208,  213,  214,  222, 
256,  377.  407,  426 
Mu'awiya  b.    Bakr    (Amale- 

kite  prince),  2 
Mu'awiya,  brotherof -Khansa, 

126 
Mu'ayyidu  'I-Dawla  (Buway- 

hid),  267 
-Mubarrad    (philologist),  92, 
131,  202,  226,  237,  244,  343, 
344 
Mudar  b.  Nizar,  xix,  252 
Mudar,  the  tribes  descended 

from,  xix 
-Miidhluibaf,  -Mudliahhabat, 

101 
-Mufaddal    al-Dabbi    (philo- 
logist), 31,  128,  133,  343 
-Mufaddaliyyat,  90,  128,  343 
-Mughammas,  69 
muhajat    (scolding  -  match), 

238 
-Muhajirun    (the  Refugees), 

171,  209 
Muhalhil   b.    Rabi'a,   58,    76, 

109,  no 
-Muhallab  b.  Abi  Sufra,  239 
-Muhallabi,   the    Vizier,    267, 

347 
Muhammad,     the     Prophet, 
xxiii,  xxvi-xxviii,  3,  10,  15.  i 


18,  27,  30,  51,  62,  64,  65.  66, 
69,  70,  71,  74,  86,  87,  105, 
124.  132,  134,  135,  137,  139. 
141-180.  181-183,  186-188, 
190-193,  201,  202,  207-209, 
213-218,  223,  224,  229,  231, 
233,  233,  237,  249,  250,  251, 
257.  258,  267,  273,  274,  277, 
278,  279,  280,  318,  327,  330, 
341,  342.  348,  349.  355.  356, 
380,  383,  392,  400.  403,  420, 
428,  433.  449,  455,  462,  463, 
465,  467 
Muhammad,  question 
whether  he  could  read  and 
write,  151  ;  his  attitude 
towards  the  heathen  poets, 
159,  212,  235  ;  his  aim  in 
the  Meccan  Suras,  160  ;  his 
death,  175  ;  his  character, 
179,  180  ;  biographies  of, 
144,  146,  247,  349  ;  poems 
in  honour  of,  124,  127,  326, 
327.  449  ;  medisval  legend 
of,  327  ;  pilgrimage  to  the 
tomb  of,  463  ;  his  tomb 
demolished  by  the  Wah- 
habis,  467 
Muhammad  CAlid),  258 
Muhammad  (Seljuq),  326 
Muhammad     b.      'Abd     al- 

Wahhab,  465-467 
Muhammad  b.  'Ali  ('Abbasid), 

251 
Muhammad  'Ah  Pasha,  466, 

468 
Muhammad  b.  'Ali  b.-Sanusi, 

468 
Muhammad     Ibnu    '1-Hana- 

tiyya,  216,  218,  220 
Muhammad   b.   -Hasan,   the 

Imam,  217 
Muhammad  b.    Isma'il,    the 

Imam,  217,  272-274 
Muhammad  al-Kalbi,  348 
Muhammad  b.  Sa'ud,  466 
Muhiyyu'l-Dinlbnu  'l-'Arabi,  ! 
399-404,  434,  462  I 

Muhiyyu   l-Maw'udat  (title), 

243 
-Muhtadi.  the  Caliph,  264 
Muir,   Sir  W.,    142,   143,  146, 

156,  184,  197,  338 
-Mu'izz  (Fatimid  Caliph).  420 
Mu'izzu  '1-Dawla  (Buwayhid), 

266,  267,  347 
Mujamit  'l-Buldan,  17,  357 
Mu'janiu  'l-Udaba,  357 
-Mujammi' (title),  65 
Mukarrib  (title),  10 
-Mukhadramun    (a   class    of 

poets),  127 
-Mukhtar,  198,  218-220,  250 
-Mukhtarat,  128 
-Muktafi,  the  Caliph,  257,  269, 

325 
-Mulaththamun,  423 
Miiller,  A.,   5,    loi,   261,   266, 


355,  429 
Miiller,  D.   H. 

17,  18,  24 
Muitan,  203 


\g,  10,  12,  13, 


Muluku  'I-Tawa'if  (the  Party 

Kings  of  Spain)  414 
-Munafiqun  (the  Hypocrites), 

171,  172,  176 
-Munakhkhal  (poet),  49 
-Mundhir  I  (Lakhmite),  41 
-Mundhir     III     (Lakhmite), 
41-44,  45,  50,  51,  60,  87,  103, 
104 
-Mundhir     IV      (Lakhmite), 

45,47 
-Mundhir  b.  -Harith  (Ghassa- 

nid),  50,  52 
-Mundhir  b.  Ma'  al-sama,  50, 

51.     See  ->/«  ndh  ir  III 
-Munjibat  (title;,  .S8 
Munk.  S.,  360 
-Munqidh  mina  'l-Dalal,  340 

380 
miinshi,  326 
-Muqaddasi  (geographer),  356, 

357.  409 
-Miiqaddima,  of  Ibn  Khaldun, 
32,    229,   278,   289,  437-440. 
See  Ibn  Kkaldun 
-Muqanna',  258 
-Muqattam,  Mt.,  394,  396 
-Muqtabis,  428 
-Muqtadir,    the   Caliph,    325, 

343,  399 
-miirabit,  430 
-Murabitun,  423.    See  Almo- 

ravides,  the 
niurid,  392 
mitrji'  (ilurjite),  221 
Murjites,   the,   206,  220,  221- 

222,  428 
Murra,  56,  57,  58 
Mursiya  (Murcia),  399 
Murujii  'l-Dhahab,  13,  15,  37, 
195,  203,  205,  206,  259,  260, 
267,  349,  353,  354,  387,  457 
miiniimva  (vu-tue),  72,82,  178, 

287 
Musa   b.   Maymun    (Maimo- 

nides),  434 
Musa  1j.   Nusayr,    203,    204, 

405 
Musa  b.  'Uqba,  247 
Mus'ab,  igg 
Musaylima,  183 
-Mushtarik,  357 
Music  in  Pre-Islamic  Arabia, 

236 
Musicians,  Arab,  236 
-mtisiqi  (Music),  283 
Muslim  (author  of  -Saltih), 
,  144,337 

Muslim  b.  'Aqil,  196 
Muslim  b.  -Walid  (poet),  261 
Muslim   (Moslem),   meaning 

of,  153 
inusnad  (inscriptions),  6 
-Mustakfi     (Spanish     Umay- 

yad),  424 
-Mustakfi,    'Abbasid    Caliph, 

266 
-Mustansir  ('Abbasid),  448 
-Mustarshid    BiUah,    the 

Caliph,  329 
-Mustasim,  the  Caliph,  254 
445 


494 


INDEX 


-Mustawrid  b.  'Ullifa,  210 
-mut'a,  262 

-Mu'taclid('Abbadid).42i  42-; 
-Mu'tadid  CAbbasid   Caliph) 

325  ^  '' 

-Mu'tamid  ('Abbadid),  is,2\-a2!s, 
-Mutajarrida.  49,  122 
-Mutalammis  (poet),  107,  108, 

138 

Mutammim  b.  Nuwa.vra    127 

-Mutanabbi  (poet),  266, '  269, 

270,  289,  290,  291,  292,  304-^ 

313,  315,  316,  324,  396,  416, 

44K 

7nntasaiinmfa    (aspirants    to 

Sufiism),  229 
-Mu'tasim,   the    Caliph,   129 
^257,  263,  369,  375 
-Mutawakkil,  the  Caliph,  257 

sliiSr'*' ''°' ^"^' "^' 

mutawakkil,  233 
Mu'tazilites,     the,     206,    220 
222-224,  225,  230,  262,  268' 
284,  346,    367-370,  376,  377 
378,  392,  409,  428,  431 
-Mu'tazz,  the  Caliph,  32'; 
-Muti'.  the  Caliph,  353 
Muti'  b.  lyas  (poet),  291,  292 
muwahhid,  432 
-Muwalladun,  278,  408 
miiwashshah,  verse-form,  416 
417.  449  ' 

-Muwatta,  337,  408,  409 
Muzaffar  Qutuz  (Mameluke), 

446 
Muzayna  (tribe),  116 
-Muzayqiya  (surname),  15 
-Muzhir,  71,  455 
Mystical  poetry  of  the  Arabs 
^  the,  325,  396-398 
Jlysticism.    See  Sufiism 


N 

-Nabat,      the      Nabataans, 

XXV,  279 
Nabataean,    Moslem    use    of 

the  term,  xxv 
Nabatcnan     Agriculture,    the 

Book  of,  xxv 
Nabatwan  inscriptions,  xxv  3 
-Nabigha  al-Dhubvam(poet) 

39.  49,  50,  54,  86,  loi,  121- 

123,  128,  139 
nadhir  (warner),  164 
Nadir3(tribe),  170 
-Nadr  b.  Harith,  330 
^afahatn  'l-Uns,  by  Jami,  386 
Nafhu    •l-Tib,   by    -Maqqari, 
_  399,  413,  436 
Nafi'  b.  -Azraq,  208 
-Nafs  al-zakiyya  (title),  258 
-Nahhas  (philologist),  102 
-Nahrawan,  battle  of,  208 
-nahw  (grammar),  283 
Na'ila,  35 
-Najaf,  40 
-Najashi  (the  Negus),  26,  27, 

Najd,  xvii,  62,  107,  466 


Kajda  b.  '  Amir,  209 
Najdites (a  Khariiite sect),  the 

208 
Najran,  26,  27,   105,  124,  136 

137,  162 
Na'man,  ii 
Namir  (tribe),  xix 
Napoleon,  468 

-Naqaid,  of-Akhtal  and  larir 
240 

-Naqa'id,      of     Jarir     and 

-Farazdaq,  239 
Naqb  al-Hajar,  8 
-Nasafi  (Abu  'l-Barakat),  4S6 
-Nasa'i,  337  ^ 

Nashwan  b.  Sa'id  al-Himyari 

12,  13  ' 

nasib  (erotic  prelude),  77,  310 
Nasim,  a  place  near  Baghdad 

461 

-Nasimi    (the    Hurufi  poet) 

460,  461 
Nasir-i   Khusraw,   Persian 

poet,  323 

Nasiru  '1-Dawla  (Hamdanid) 

269,411 
Nasr  b.  Savvar,  251 
NasrII  (Samanid),  265 
Nasrid  dynasty  of  Granada, 

the,  435,  442 
nat',  257 
-Nawaji      (Muhammad       b. 

-Hasan),  417 
Nawar,    wife    of  -Farazdaq, 
243,244 

Nawar,  the  beloved  of  Labid 
121  ' 

Nawruz,  Persian  festival,  250 

Naysabur,  232,  276,  338,  539 

340,  348 

Nazmu  'l-Sulnk,  396 

-Nazzani,  369 

Neo-platonism,  360,  384,  380 
390  t    o  V, 

Neo-platonist      philosophers 
welcomed   by   Nushirwan 
358 
Nero,  325 

Nessus,  104  I 

I  Nicephorus,  261 
Niebuhr,  Carsten,  7 
Night  journey  of  Muhammad, 
I      the,  169,  403 
Night  of  Power,  the,  150 
Nihayatu  'UArab,  455 
Nile,  the,  xxviii,  264,  3<4    /icc 
Nirvana,  233,  391    ^   ^^^'  ^^^ 
-Nizamiyva     College      at 
Baghdad,  276,  340,  380,  431 
-Nizamiyya      College,    at 

Naysabur,  276,  340 
Nizamu  '1-Mulk,  276,  340  370 
Nizar,  xix  ^^  '  ^^^ 

Noah,  XV,  xviii,  165 
Noldeke,  Th.,  xv,  xx,  xxxiii 
xxv,  5,  27,  29,  38,  42,  44,  4:5,' 
48,  49,  51,  52.  54.  55,  57-60, 
66,  70,  78,  80,  83,  loi,  102 
103,  109,  113.  122,  123,  126 
127,  130,  134,  145,  15I,  160, 
167,  172,  184,  195,  228,  237, 
238.  249,  252,  258,  288 


Nomadic  life,  characteristics 

°i'  439.440 
Nominalists,  367 
Normans,  the,  441 
Nubia,  387 

Nuh  I  (Samanid),  265 
Nuh  II  (Samanid),  265 
-Nvjuni   alZahira,   2«    262 
268,  369,  4S4  ' 

-Nu'man  I  (Lakhmite),4o  41 

139 
-Nu'man  III  (Lakhmite),  45. 

»9»  50,  53,   54,   69.  86,  121, 

122 

-Nu'man  al-Akbar.    See  Nu'- 
man I 

-Nu'man  al-A'war(Lakhmite). 

See  -Nu'man  I 
-Nu'man    b.    -Mundhir    Abu 

Qabus.    See  -Nu'man  III 
Numayr  (tribe),  245,  246 
-Nuri  (Abu  '1-Husayn),  392 
Nushirwan   (Sasanian  king) 

29,  42,  45,  358 
-Nuwayri,  15,  455 


O 

Occam,  367 

Ockley,  Simon  433 

Ode,  the  Arabian,  76-78.    See 

qasida 
Odenathus,  33.  35 
Odyssey,  the,  xxii 
Ordeal  .)f  tire,  the,  23 
Orthodox   Caliphs,  the,  xxiii 

xxvii,  181-193 
Orthodox  Reaction,  the,  284 

376.     See  -Ash'ari 
Osiander,  9 
Ottoman    Turks,     the,    xxix, 

442,   447,   464-467 
Oxus,  the,  xxviii,  341,  444 


Pahlavi  (Pehlevi)    language, 

the,  214,  330, 346,  348,  358 
Palermo,  441 

Palestine,  52,  104,  137,  229 
Palmer,  E.  H.,  172,  176,  260 
Palms,  the  Feast  of,  54 
Palm-tree,  verses  on  the,  by 

'Abd  al-Rahman  I,  418 
Palm-trees    01    Hulwan,   the 

two,  292 
Palmyra,  33,  53 
Panegyric,  two-sided  (rheto- 
rical figure),  311 
Panjab  fPunjaub),   the,   203, 

Pantheism,  231,  233,  234,  275 

372,  390,  391,  394.  403,  460    ' 
Paracelsus,  388 
Paradise,  the  Muhammadan. 

burlesqued  by  Abu'l  -'Ala 

al-Ma'arri,  318,  319 
Parthian  kings,  the,  457 
Parwez,  son  of  Hurmuz  (Sa- 

sanian),  48,  69 
Passion  Play,  the,  218 


INDEX 


495 


Paul  and  Virginia,  469 
Pavet  de  Courteille.  349 
Pearl -fishing  in   the   Persian 

Gulf,  354 
Pedro  of  Castile,  437 
Penitents,  the  (a  name  given 
to    certain     Shiite     insur- 
gents), 218 
Pentateuch,  the,  165,  171,  323 
Persecution  of  the  early  Mos- 
lems, 154,  155,  157  :  of  here- 
tics, 224,  368,  369,  372-375. 
376,  436,  460,  461 
Persepolis,  356 
Persia,   xxiv,  xxvii,  xxix,   21, 

29,  33.  34.  38,  41.  42.  48.  113. 
169,  1S2,  184,  185,  i88.  208, 
214,  247,  255,  25a,  265,  266, 
274.  279.  328,  348.  349.  390. 
394.  404.  444.  446,  454.  457 

Persia,  the  Moslem  conquest 
of,  184 

Persia,  the  national  legend  of, 

349 
Persian  divines,  influence  of 

the,  278 
Persian  Gulf,  the,  4,  107,  354, 

357 
Persian  influence  on  Arabic 

civilisation   and   literature, 

xxviii,  xxix.  182,   250,   256, 

265,   267.  276-281,  287,  2S8, 

290,  295,  418 
Persian  influence  on  the  Shi'a, 

214,  219 
Persian  Kings,  History  of  tlie, 

translated  by  Ibnu  '1-Mu- 

qaffa',  348 
Persian  literature,  fostered  by 

the  Samanids  and  Buway- 

hids   265,  303 
Persian  Moslems  who  WTote 

in  Arabic,  xxx,  xxxi,   276- 

278 
Persians,  the,  rapidly  became 

Arabicised,  280,  281 
Persians,  the,  in  -Yemen,  29 
Petra  xxv,  5 
Petrarch,  425 
Pharaoh,  162,  403 
Pharaohs,  the,  4,  5 
Philip  III,  441 
Philistines,  the,  3 
Philologists,    the  Arab   xxiv, 

32,  127, 128.  133,  246, 341-348 
Philosophers,  the  Greek,  341, 

363 
Philosophers,  the  Moslem, 360, 

361,  3S1.  382.  432-434 
Philosophers    and    scientists. 

Lives  of  the,    by   Ibnu   '1- 

Qifti.  355 
Philosophus  Autodidadus,  433 
Phoenician  language,  the,  xvi 
Phoenicians,  the,  xv 
Physicians,  History  of  the,  by 

Ibn  Abi  Usaybi'a,  266,  355 
Piers  the  Plowman,  450 
Pietists,  the,  207,  208 
Pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  the,  63, 

65.  135.  136,  319 
Pilgrimage,  of  the  Shi'ites,  to 


the  tomb  of  -Husayn  at 
Karbala,  218,  466 

pir  rPersian  word),  392 

Plato,  204 

Plutarch,  363 

Pocock,  E.,  433 

Poems  of  the  Hudhayliies  the, 
128 

Poems,  the  Pre-islamic,  xxii, 
xxiii,  30,  31,  71-140,  282, 
285-289,  290  ;  chief  col- 
lections of,  127-131  ;  the 
tradition  of.  131-134  ;  first 
put  into  writing.  132 

Poems,  the  Suspended.  See 
-Mu'allaqat 

Poetics,  work  on,  by  Ibnu 
'1-Mu'tazz,  325 

Poetry,  Arabian,  the  origins 
of,  72-75  ;  the  decline  of, 
not  due  to  Muhammad, 
235  ;  in  the  Umayyad 
period,  235-246  ;  in  the 
'Abbasid  period,  285-336  ; 
in  Spain,  415-417,  425,  426  ; 
after  the  Mongol  Invasion, 
448-450. 

Poetry,  conventions  of  the 
Ancient,  criticised,  286,  288, 

315 

Poetrj',  Muhammadan  views 
regarding  the  merits  of, 
308-312  ;  intimately  con- 
nected wth  public  life,  436 ; 
seven  kinds  of,  450 

Poetry,  the  oldest  written 
Arabic,  138 

Poetry  and  Poets,  Book  of  by 
Ibn  Qutayba.  See  Kitabu 
'IShi'r  wa-'lShu'ara 

Poets,  the  Modern,  289-336  ; 
judged  on  their  merits  by 
Ibn  Qutayba,  287  ;  pro- 
nounced superior  to  the 
Ancients,  288,  289 

Poets,  the  Pre-islamic,  cha- 
racter and  position  of,  71- 
73 ;  regarded  as  classical, 
xxiii,  72,  285,  286 

Pohtics,  treatise  on,  by  -Ma- 
wardi,  337,  338 

Portugal,  416 

Postal  service,  organised  by 
'Abdu  l-Malik,  201 

Postmaster,  the  office  of,  45 

Prastorius,  F.,  10 

Pravers,  the  five  daily,  149, 
168 

Predestination,  157,  223,  224, 

378.  379 

Preston,  Theodore,  330 

Prideaux,  W.  F.,  11,  13 
j  Primitive  races  in  Arabia,  1-4 

Proclus,  389 

Procreation,  considered  sin- 
ful, 317 

Prophecy,  a,  made  by  the 
Carmathians,  322 

Prose,  Arabic,  the  beginnings 
of,  31 

Proverbs,  Arabic,  3,  16,  31,  50, 
84,  91,  109,  244,  292,  373 


Ptolemies,  the,  276 

Ptolemy  (geographer),  3,  358 

Public   recitation  of   literary 

works,  314 
Pyramids,  the,  354 
Pyrenees,  the,  xx^'iii,  204 
Pythagoras,  102 


Q 

Qabus  (Lakhmite),  44,  45,  52 
qadar  (power),  224 
-Qadarij-ya  (the  upholders  of 

free-will),  224 
qaddah  (oculist),  271 
qadi  'l-qudat  (Chief  Justice), 

395 

Qadiri  dervish  order,  the,  393 

-Qahira,  275.  394.    See  Cairo 

qahraniana,  457 

Qahtan,  xviii.  12,  14,  18,  200 

Qala'idu  'l-Iqyan,  425 

-Qamus,  403,  456 

-Qaniin,  361 

qara'a,  159 

-Qarafa  cemetery,  396 

-Qaramita,  274.  See  Carma- 
thians, the 

qarawi,  138 

qarn,  meaning  '  ray,'  18 

qasida  (ode),  76-78,  105,  288 

qasida  (ode),  form  of  the,  76, 
77  ;  contents  and  divisions 
of  the,  77,  78  :  loose  struc- 
ture of  the,  134  ;  unsuitable 
to  the  conditions  of  urban 
life.  288 

Qasidatu'l-Burda.  See-Burda 

Qasidatu  'l-Hiniyarivya,  12 

Qasir,  36,  37 

Qasirin,  III 

QasijTjn,  Mt.,  399 

-Qastallani,  455 

Qatada,  294 

Qatari  b.  -Fuja'a,  213 

-Qayrawan,  264,  429 

Qays  'A^'lan  (tribe),  xix,  199 

293.  405 
Qays  b.  -Khatim,  94-97,  137 
Qays  b.  Zuhayr,  61,  62 
Qaysar  (title),  45 
Qazwin,  445 

-Qazwini  (geographer),  416 
Qift,  355 
gtyas,  297 
Qonya,  403,  404 
Quatremere,  M.,  xxv,  437,  445, 

453 
Qudar  the  Red,  3 
Qumis  (province),  391 
-Quran,  159.    See  Koran,  the 
Quraysh    (tribe),    xix,     xxiii, 
xxvii,    22,    64,   65-68,    117, 
124,   134,  142,  146,  153-158, 
164.  165,  170,  174,  175,  183, 
207,  216,  237,  241,  279,  330. 
347,  375.  407.  417 
Quraysh,  the  dialect  of,  xxiii, 
142  ;  regarded  as  the  classi- 
cal standard,  xxiii,  134 
Qurayza  (tribe),  21,  170 


496 


INDEX 


% 


qurra  (Readers  of  the  Koran), 
277.    See  Koran -readers,  tlie 
Qusayy,  64,  65,  146 
-Qushaj'ri,  226,  227,  228,  230, 

338.379 
Quss  b.  Sa'ida,  136 
gussas,  374 
Qusta  b.  Luqa,  359 
Qutit  7  -Qulub,  338,  393 


R 

rabad,  409 

Rabi',  son  of  Fatima,  the 
daughter  of  -Khurshub,  88 

Rabi 'a  b.  Nizar,  xix,  5 

Rabi'a  (b.  Nizar),  the  descen- 
dants of,  xix 

Rabi'a  al-'Adawiyya,  227, 
232,  233-234 

Racine,  469 

-Radi,  the  Caliph,  376 

Radwa,  Mount,  216 

Rafidites.  the,  268.  See  ShV- 
ites,  the 

Ra'i  '1-ibil  (poet),  245,  246 

raj'a  (pahngenesis),  215 

-rajaz  (metre),  74.  75,  76,  77 

Rakhman,  126 

Rakusians,  the,  149 

Ralfs,  C.A.,  327 

Ramadan,  the  Fast  of,  224, 
450 

Ramla,  229 

Raqqada,  274 

Rasa'ilu  Ikhwan  al  -Safa,  370, 
371 

Rasmussen,  6i 

Rationalism.  See  Free-thought 

-Rawda,  island  on  the  Nile, 

455 

rawi  (reciter),  131 

Rawis,  the,  131-134 

Raydan.  10 

-Rayy,  258,  259,  268,  333,  350, 
361,  420,  445 

-Rayyan,  120 

-Razi  (Abu  Bakr),  physician, 
361.  See  Abii  Bakr  al- 
Razi 

-Razi  (Abu  Bakr),  historian, 
420 

Reading  and  writing  de- 
spised by  the  pagan  Arabs, 

39 
Realists,  368 
Red  Sea,  the,  4,  5.  62 
Reformation,  the,  468 
Reforms   of    'Abdu    '1-Malik, 

201  :  of  'Umar  b.  'Abd  al- 

-'Aziz,  205 
Refugees,  the.    See  -Muhaji- 

run 
Register  of  'Umar,  the,   187, 

188 
Reiske,  15,  102,  30S,  312,  316, 

331 
Religion,  conceived  as  a  pro- 
duct of  the  human  mind, 

317 
Religion  of  the  Sabseans  and 
Htmyarites,  lo,  11  ;  of  the 


Pagan  Arabs,  56.   135-140, 

164,   166 ;    associated   with 

commerce,  135,  154 
Religions  and  Sects,  Book  of, 

by  -Sliahrastani,    341  ;    by 

IbnHazm,34i.   See  Kitabu 

'l-Milal  wa-'l-Kihal 
Religious  ideas  in  Pre-islamic 

poetry,   117,   119,    123,    124, 

135-140 
Religious    literature    in    the 

'Abbasid  period,  337-341 
Religious  poetry,  298-302 
Renaissance,  the,  443 
Renan,  xv,  432 
Renegades,  tiie,  408,  415,  426 
Resurrection,    the,    166,   215, 

297,  299,  316 
Revenge,  views  of  the  Arabs 

concerning,  93,  94  ;  poems 

relating  to,  97 
Rhages.    See  -Rayy 
Rhapsodists,  the,  131 
Rhazes,   265,   361.     See  Abu 

Baltr  al  -Razi. 
Rhetoric,     treatise     on,     by 

-Jahiz,  347 
Rhinoceros,  the,  354 
Rhymed  Prose.    See  sai' 
Ribah  b  MuiTa,  25 
ribat.  276,  430 
Richelieu,  195 

Rifa'i  dervish  order,  the,  393 
-Rijam,  119 
Risalatu    l-Ghiifran,  166,  167, 

206,  318,  319,  373 
-Risalat  al-Qtishayriyya,  226, 

227,  338 
Roderic,  204.  405 
Rodiger,  Emil,  8 
Roger  II  of  Sicil}',  434 
Rome,  33,  34,  41,  43,  so,  52, 

113,  252.  314.    See  Byzan- 
tine Empire,  the 
Ronda,  410 
Rosary,  use  of  the,  prohibited, 

467 
Rosen,  Baron  V.,  375 
Rothstein,  Dr.  G.,  37,  53 
-Rub'  al  -Khali,  xvii 
Rubicon,  the,  252 
Ruckert,     Friedrich,     93,    97, 

104,  292,  332 
Rudagi,  Persian  poet,  265 
Ruhu      '1-Quds     (the     Holy 

Ghost),  150 
-ruj~,  152 
Ru'knu  '1-Dawla  (Buwayhid), 

266,  267 
-Rumaykiyya,  422 
Rushayd  al-Dahdah,  394,  396 
Rustam,  330,  363 
Ruzbih,  346.    See  Ibnii  'l-Mu- 

qaffa' 


-Sa'b  Dhu  '1-Qarnayn,  17 
-Sab'    aUTiwal    (the    Seven 

Long  Poems),  103 
Saba  (Sheba),  xxv,  i,  4,  6,  6, 

10,  16,  17.    See  Sabxans,  tlw 


Saba  (person),  14 

Sabaean    language,    the,    xvi 

See  Sotith  Arabic  language. 

the 
Sabafans,  the,  xv,  xvii,  x\'iii , 

XX,  xxi,  I,  4,  S,  7,  14,  17 
Saba'ites,  the.  a  Shi'ite  sect, 

215.  216,  217,  219 
Sabians.    the.    149,    341,  354. 

358.  363,  364.  388 
-Sab'iyya  (the  Seveners),  217 
Sabota,  5 
Sabuktagin,  268 
Sabur  I,  33 

Sabur  b.  Ardashir,  267,  314 
Sachau,  E.,  xxii,  361 
Sacy.  Silvestre  de,  8,  80,  102, 

353.  354 
Sa'd  (tribe),  147 
Sa'd    (client     of     Jassas    b. 

Murra),  56,  57 
Sad  b.  ^Ialik  b.  Dubay'a,  57 
sada  (owl  or  wraith),  94,  166 
Sa'd-ilah,  11 
sadin,  259 
-Sadir  (castle),  41 
Sadru  '1-Din  of   Qonya,  403, 

404 
safa  (purity),  228,  370 
Safa,  the  inscriptions  of,  xxi 
-Safadi,  326,  456 
Safar-Nama,  324 
Safawid  dynasty,  the.  xxix 
-Saffah,  253.  254.  257,  259 
-Saffah  b.  'Abd  Manat,  253 
-Saffah,  meaning  of  the  title, 

253 
-Saffar  (title),  265 
Saffarid  dynasty,  the,  265 
safi  (pure),  228 
Safiyyu  '1-Din  al-Hilli  (poet) 

449.  450 
sag  (Persian  word),  445 
-Sahaba  (the  Companions  of 

the  Prophet),  229 
Sahara,  the,  423,  429,  468 
-Sahib  Ismail  b.  'Abbad,  267. 

347 
Sahibu  '1-Zanadiqa  (title),  373 
-Sahih,  of  -Bukhari,  144,  146, 

337 
-Sahih,  of  Muslim,  144,  337 
Sahl  b.  'Abdallah   al-Tustari, 

392 
Sa'id  b.  -Husayn,  274 
St.   John,    the    Cathedral  of, 

203 
St.  Thomas,  the  Church  of,  at 

-Hua,  46 
Saints,  female,  233 
Saints,  the  Moslem,  386,  393, 

395,  402,  403,  463,  467 
saj'   (rhymed   prose),   74,   75, 

159,  327.  328 
Sakhr,  brother  of  -Khansa, 

126,  127 
Sal',  398 

Saladin,  275,  34S,  355 
Salahu  '1-Din  b.  Ayyub,  275. 

See  Saladin 
Salama  b.  Khalid,  253 
Salaman,  433 


INDEX 


497 


Salaman  (tribe),  79 

Salamiyj'a,  274 

Salih  (prophet),  3 

Salih  (tribe),  50 

Salih  b.  'Abd  al-Quddus,  372- 

375 

Sjilim  al-Suddi,  204 

Saltpetre    industry,    the,    at 
-Basra.  273 

Sam  b.  Nuh,  xviii.     SeeS/w;)!, 
the  son  of  Noah 

saina'  (religious  music),  394 

sama'  (oral  tradition),  297 

Samah'ali  Yanuf,  10,  17 

-Sam'ani,  339 

Samanid    dynasty,    the,  265, 
266,  268,271,303 

Samarcand,  203,  268,  447 

Samarra,  263 

-Samaw'al  b.  'Adiya,  84,  85 

Samuel  Ha-Levi,  428,  429 

San'a,  8,  9,  17,  24,  28,  66,  215 

sanaci.  144 

-Sanhaji.  456 

Sanjar  (Seljuq),  264 

-Sanusi  (Muhammad  b.  Yu- 
suf),  456 

Sanusivva  Brotherhood,  the, 
468  "" 

-Saqaliba,  413 

Saqtu  'l-Zan'd,  313,  315 

Sarabi  (name  of  a  she-camel), 
56 

Sargon,  King,  4 

Sari  al-Raffa  (poet),  270 

Sari  al-Saqati,  386 

Saruj,  330,  331,  332 

Sa'sa'a,  242 

Sasanian  dynasty,  the,  34,  38, 
40,  41,  42,  214,  256,  358,  457 

Sasanian  kings,  the,  re- 
garded as  divine,  214 

Satire,  73,  200,  245,  246 

Saturn  and  Jupiter,  conjunc- 
tion of,  322 

Sa'ud  b.  'Abd  al-'Aziz  b. 
Muhammad  b.  Sa'ud,  466 

Sawa,  333 

Sayf  b.  Dhi  Yazan,  29 

-Sayfij'j'a  College,  the,  in 
Cairo,  395 

Savfu  l-Dawla  (Hamdanid), 
269-271,  303-307,  311  3i3. 
360 

Saylu  'l-'Arim,  14 

Schack,  A.  F.  von,  360,  416, 
436,  441 

Schefer,  C,  324 

Scheherazade,  457 

Scholasticism,  Muhammadan, 
284,  363,  460.  See  -Asli'ari ; 
Ash'arites  ;  Orthodox  Re- 
action 

Schreiner,  379 

Schulthess,  F.,  87 

Sciences,  the  Foreign,  282, 
283,  358-364 

Sciences,the  Moslem.develop- 
ment  and  classification  of, 
282,283 

Scripture,  People  of  the,  341 

Sea-serpent,  the,  354 


Sedillot,  36c 

Seetzen,  Ulrich  Jasper,  8 
Seleucids,  the,  276 
Self-annihilation  (faiia),  the 

Sufi  doctrine  of,  233 
SeUm  I  (Ottoman  Sultan),  448 
Seljuq  dynasty,  the,  264,  265, 

26S,  273, 276,  326,  445 
Seljuq  b.  Tuqaq,  275 
Seljuq  Turks,  the,  275,  444 
Sell,  Rev.  E.,  468 
Semites,  the,  xv,  xvi,  i,  328 
Semitic  languages,    the,    xv, 

xvi 
Senegal,  430 
Seville,  399,  406,  416,  420,  421, 

422,  424,  425,  427,  431,  435, 

437.  447 
Shabib,  209 
Shabwat,  5 
Shaddad  (king),  i 
Shaddad  b.  -Aswad  al-Laythi, 

166 
Shadhaiatxi   'l-Dhahab,    339, 

399.  436,  460 
-Shadhili  (Abu  '1- Hasan),  461 
Shadhili  order  c)f  dervishes, 

393.  461 
-Shafi'i,  284,  409 
Shafi'ite  doctors,  biographical 

work  on  the,  339 
Shahnama,  the,  by  Firdawsi, 

265,  325 
-Shahrastani,    211,    216,    220, 

221,  223,  224.  297,  341,  388 
Shahrazad,  457 
sha'ir  (poet),  72,  73 
Shakespeare,  252 
Shamir  b.  Dhi  '1-Ja\vshan.i96, 

197,  198 
Shams  (name  of  a  god),  11 
Shams  b.  Malik,  81 
Shamsiyya,  Queen  of  Arabia, 

4 
Shamsu  'l-'Ulum,  13 
-Shanfara,  79-81,  89,  97,  134, 

326 
Shaqiq  (Abu  'Ali),  of  Balkh, 

232,  233,  385 
Sharahil  (Sharahbil),  18 
-Sha'rani,  225,   226,  392,  400, 

403,  443,  460,  462, 164-465 
shari'at,  392 
-Sharif  al-Jurjani,  456 
-Sharif  al-Radi  (poet),  314 
Sharif's,  of  Morocco,  the  442 
Sharik  b.  'Amr,  44 
Sharwasan,  391 
Shas,  125 

Shayban  (clan  of  Bakr),  58 
-Shaykh   alAkbar,    404.    See 

M  21  h  i  yy  11      'l-Diii    Ibiiu 

'l-Arabi 
Sheba,  4 

Sheba,  the  Queen  of,  18 
Shem,  the  son  of  Noah,  xv, 

xviii 
shi'a  (party),  213 
Shi'a,  the,  213.   See  Shi'itcs,  the 
-Shifa,  361 
Shihabu  '1-Din  al-Suhrawardi. 

See  -Snhrawardi 

33 


-Shihr,  dialect  of,  xxi 

Shi'ites,  the,  xxviii.  207,  208, 
213-220,  222,  248,  249,  250, 
262,  267,  268,  271-275,  297, 
379,  409,  428,  432,  445,  466 

shikaft  (Persian  word),  232 

-shikafiiyya  (the  (iave- 
dwellers),  232 

Shilb,  416 

Shiraz,  266.  307 

Shirazad,  457 

-Shirbini,  450 

-shiiral  (the  Sellers),  20() 

Shu'ubites,  the,  279-280,  344, 
372 

Sibawayhi,  343 

Sibt  Ibn  al-Jawzi,  355 

Sicily,  xvi,  52,  441 

siddiq,  meaning  of,  218,  375 

-Siddiq  (title  of  Abu  Bakr), 
183 

Stdi  Khalil  al-Jundi,  456 

Hifatu  Jazirat  a!-' A  tab,  12, 
'18,  20 

Siflin,  battle  of,  192,  208,  377 

-S!7iKTOrt-'Wii;ziya( Magic  and 
Alchemy),  283 

-Sila  fi  akhbari  a'immati 
'l-Andahis,  426 

Silves,  416 

Simak  ij.  'Ubayd,  210 

Sinbadh  the  Magian,  258 

Sindbad,  the  Book  of,  363 

Sinimmar,  40 

Siqadanj,  252 

Siratu  'Aiitar,  459 

Siratu  Rasuli  'llah,  349 

siyaha,  394 

Siyarit  Mitliik  al-'Ajam,  348 

Slane,  Baron  MacGuckin  de, 
32,  104,  129,  132,  136,  190, 
213,  224,  229,  245,  261,  267, 
278,  2S8,  289,  295,  326,  343, 
344.  348.  355.  357,  359.  360, 
371,  377.  378,  387,  408,  422, 
425,  427,  429.  435,  437,  438, 

440.  451 
Slaves,  the.  413 
Smith,  R.  Payne,  52 
Smith,  W.  Robertson,  56,  199 
Snouck  Hurgronje,  217 
Solecisms,\vorkon,  by -Hariri, 

336 
Solomon,  xvii 
Solomon  Ibn  Gabirol,  428 
Soothsayers,  Arabian,  72,  74, 

152,  159,  165 
South     Arabic     inscriptions, 

the.    See  Inscriptions,  South 

Arabic 
South   Arabic    language,  the, 

xvi,  xxi,  6-1 1 
Spain,  xvi,  xxx,  199,  203,  204, 

253.   264,  276,  399,  405-441, 

442,  443.  449,  454 
Spain,  the  Moslem  conquest 

of,  203,  204,  405 
Spencer,  Herbert,  382 
Spitta,  378 
Sprenger.   A.,    143,    145,    149, 

153,^456 
I  Steiner,  369 


498 


INDEX 


Steingass,  F..  32S 

Stephen  bar  Sudaili,  389 

Stones,  the  worship  of,  in 
pagan  Arabia,  56 

Stories,  frivolous,  reprobated 
by  strict  Moslems,  330 

Street-preachers,  374 

Stylistic,  manual  of,  by  Ibn 
Qutayba,  346 

-Subki  'Taju  l-Din),  461 

Suetonius,  354 

SI// (wool),  228 

Sufi,  derivation  of,  227,  228  ; 
meaning  of,  228,  229,  230 

Sufiism,  227-233,  382. 383-401, 
460,  462,  463-465 

Sufiism,  Arabic  works  of 
reference  on,  338 

Sufiism,  origins  of,  228-231, 
388-389:  distinguished  from 
asceticism,  229,  230,  231  ; 
the  kej'note  of,  231  ;  argu- 
ment against  the  Indian 
origin  of,  233  ;  composed  of 
many  different  elements, 
389,  390  ;  different  schools 
of,  390 ;  foreign  sources  of, 
390  ;  principles  of,  392  ; 
definitions  of,  228,  385,  392 

Sufis,  the,  206,  327,  339,  381, 
460-465.     See  Sufiism 

Sufyan  b.  'Uyayna,  366 

Suhaym  b.  \Vathil  (poet), 
202 

-Suhrawardi  (Shihabu  'l-Din 
Abu  Hafs  'Umar),  230,  232, 
338.  396 

-Suhrawardi  (Shihabu  'l-Din 
Yahya),  275 

-Sukkari,  128,  343 

-Sulayk  b.  -Sulaka,  89 

Sulaym  (tribe),  xix 

Sulayma,  34 

Sulayman  (Umayyad  Caliph), 
200,  203 

Sulayman  al-Bistani,  469 

-Suli,  297 

-Snliik  li-ma'rifati  Duwali 
'l-Multtk,  453 

-Sum  ay  1  b.  Hatim,  406 

Sumajya,  195 

-Sunan,  of  Abu  Dawud  al-Siji- 
stani,  337 

-S'una^i,  of  Ibn  Maja,  337 

-Sunaii,  of  -Nasa'i,  337 

-siinna,  144,  234 

-sunna.  collections  of  tradi- 
tions bearing  on,  337 

Sunnis,  the,  207 

Sunnis  and  Shi'ites,  riot  be- 
tween the,  445 

siira,  143,  159 

Sura  of  Abu  Lahab,  the,  160 

Sura  of  Coagulated  Blood, 
the,  151 

Sura  of  the  Elephant,  the,  68 

Sura  of  the  Enwraffed,  the, 
152 

Sura  of  the  Morning,  the,  152 

Sura,  the  Opening.  143,  168 

Sura  of  Purification,  the,  164. 
See  Suratu  'l-lkhlas  I 


Sura  of  theSevering,  the,  161 

Sura  of  the  Signs,  the,  162 

Sura  of  the  Smiting,  the,  163 

Sura  of  the  Unbelievers,  the, 
163 

Suratu  l-Fatiha  (the opening 
chapter  of  the  Koran),  168. 
See  Sura,  the  Opening 

Suratu  'l-lkhlas,  461.  SceSiira 
of  Purification,  the 

Suratu  'l-Tahrim,  454 

Surra-man-ra'a,  263 

Surushan,  391 

-Sus,  431 

Suwayqa,  398 

Suyut,  454 

-Suyuti  (Jalalu  'l-Din),  55,  71, 
145,  403,  454, 455 

Syria,  xxiv,  xxvii-xxx,  3,  5,  26, 
33,  35.  43,  46.  49.  50.  SI,  52, 
54  63,  73,  84,  123,  132,  142, 
148,  170,  184,  1S5,  186,  191, 
193.  199,  207,  215,  232,  240, 
247,  255,  262,  268,  269,  271, 
274,  275.  303,  304,  350,  355, 
358,  382,  386,  388,  390,  40=;, 
418,  419,  442,  443,  446,  448, 
451,  461,  468 

Syria,  conquest  of,  by  the 
Moslems,  184 


Ta'abbata  Sharran  (poet),  79, 

81,  97,  107,  126 
Tabala,  105 

Tabaqatu  'l-Atibba,  266 
Tabaqatu  'l-Sufiyya,  338 
Tabaran,  339 

-Tabari,  i,  27,  35,  37,  38,  41, 42, 
'  44,  45,  48,  49,  66-68,  70,  145, 

155.  156,  158,  185,  186,  187, 

189,  210,  212,  215,  218,  219, 

256,  258,  259,  265,  277,  349- 

352,  355.  356.  373,  376 
-Tabari's /I  ;n!a/s,  abridgment 

of,  by  -Bal'ami,  265,  352 
Tabaristan,  350 
J-Tabi'un  (the  Successors),  229 
fabi'iyyun,  3S1 
Table,  the  Guarded,  163 
Tabriz,  461 
Tacitus,  194 
Tadhkiralu      'l-Awliya,     by 

Faridu'ddin  'Attar,  226, 228, 

387 
tadlis,  14s 

Tafsiru  'l-Jalalayn,  455 
Tafsiru  'l-Qur'an.  by  -Tabari. 

I,  145,  351 
-Taftazani,  456 
Taghlib  (tribe),  xix,  44, 55-60, 

61,  76,  q3,  107,  109,  no,  112, 

113,  240,  253,  269 
Tahafutu  'l-Falasifa,  341 
Tahir,  262,  263 

Tahirid  dynasty,  the,  263,  265 
tahrimu  'l-makasib,2(fj 
Ta'if,  158 
-la'iyyatu  'l-Kubra,  396,  397, 

402 


-Taiyyatu  'l-Sughra.  397 

tajrid,  394 

Talha,  190 

Ta'liinites,  the,  381,  382 

Talisman,  the,  469 

Tamerlane.  437.     See  Timur 

Taniim  (tribe),  xix,  125,  242, 

293 
Tamini  al-Dari,  225 
fanasukh    (metempsychosis), 

267 
Tanukh  (tribe),  xviii,  34,  38 
taqlid,  402 
Tarafa  (poet),  44,    loi,   107- 

109,  128,  138,  308 
tardiyyal.  294 
Ta'rikhu  'l-Hind,  361 
Ta'rikhu  'l-Hukama,  355,  370 
Ta'rikhu  'l-Khamis,  445 
Ta'rikhu  'l-Khulafa,  455 
Ta'rikhu     'l-Rusul    wa-'t- 

Mubik,  351 
Ta'rikhu    'l-Tamaddun     al- 

lslami,4S5 
Tariq,  204,  405 
Tarsus,  361 
Tartary,  444I 
tasaunciif  (Sufi'ism),  228 
Tasm  (tribe),  4.  25 
ta%vaf,  117 
tawakkul,  233 
taivhid,  401 
ta'wil    (Interpretation),    the 

doctrine  of,  220 
-tawil  (metre),  75,  80 
-Tawwabun  (the  Penitents), 

218 
Tayma,  84 
Tayyi'   (tribe),    xviii,    44,  53, 

115 
ta'ziya  (Passion  Play),  218 
Teheran,  361 
Temple,    the,    at  Jerusalem, 

169.  177 
Tennyson,  79 
Teresa.  St.,  233 

Testament,  the  Old,  i6r,  179 
-Tha'alibi,  267,  271,  288,  290, 

303,  304,  308  312,  348 
Thabit  b.  Jabir  b.  Sufyan,  81. 

126.  See  Ta'abbata  Sharran 
Thabit  b.  Qurra,  359 
Thabit  Qutna,  221 
Tha'lab,  344 
Thales,  363 
Thamud,  i,  3,  162 
thanawi,  374 
Thapsus,  274 
Thaqif  (tribe),  6g 
Theodore  Abucara,  221 
Theologians,  influence  of,  in 

the    'Abbasid    period,   247, 

283,  366,  367 
Thoma  (St.  Thomas),  46 
Thomas  Aquinas,  367 
Thorbecke,  H.,55, 90, 114, 129, 

SSfi.  459 
Thousand  and  One  Nights,  the, 

34,  456-459.    See  Arabian 

Nights,  the 
-/jbb  (Medicine),  283 
Tiberius,  194 


INDEX 


499 


-Tibrizi    (commentator),    55, 

130 
TibuUus,  425 

Tides,  a  dissertation  on,  354 
Tigris,  the,  189,  238,  256,  446 
-Tihiama,  62 

Tiliama,  the,  of  Mecca,  3 
TiUnisau,  454 
Timur,   xxix,   444,  454.     See 

Tamerlane 
Timur,  biography  of,  by  Ibn 

'Arabshali,  454 
tinnin,  354 

-Tirimmah  (poet),  138 
-Tirmidhi  (Abu  'Isa  Muham- 
mad), 337 
Titus,  137 

Tobacco,  the  smoking  of,  pro- 
hibited, 467 
Toledo,  204,  421-423 
Toleration,    of    Moslems  to- 
wards   Zoroastrians,    184  ; 
towards     Christians,    184, 
414,  441 
Torah,  the,  402.    See  Penta- 
teuch 
Tornberg,  203,  205,  253,  355, 

429 
Tours,  battle  of,  204 
Trade    between    India    and 

Arabia,  4,  5 
Trade,  expansion   of,  in   the 

'Abbasid  period,  281 
Traditional      or      Religious 

Sciences,  the,  282 
Traditions,  the  Apostolic,  col- 
lections of,  144,  247,  337 
Traditions    of    the    Prophet. 
143-146,  237,  277,  278,  279, 
282,  337,  356,  378,  462,  463, 
464,  465,  467 
Trajan,  xxv 

Translations  into  Arabic,from 
Pehlevi,  330,  346,  348,  358  ; 
from  Greek,  358,  359,  469  : 
from  Coptic,  358 ;  from 
English  and  French,  469 
Translators  of  scientific  books 
into  Arabic,  the,  358,  359, 
363 
Transoxania,    203,    233,    263, 

26s,  266,  275,  360,  419,  444 
Transoxania,  conquest  of,  by 

the  Moslems,  203 
Tribal  constitution,  the,  83 
Tribes,  the  Arab,  xix,  xx 
Tripoli,  468 
Truth,  the  (Sufi  term  for  God), 

392 
Tubba's,      the      (Himyarite 

kings),  5,  14,  17-26,  42 
Tudih,  398 
tuglira,  326 
-Tughra'i  (poet),  326 
tughia'i  (chancellor),  326 
Tughril  Beg,  264,  275 
tulul.  286 
Tumadir,  126 
Tunis,  274,  428,  437,  441 
Turkey,  xvi,  169,394,404,448, 

466 
Turkey,  the  Sultans  of,  448 


Turks,  the,  263,  264,  26S,  325, 
343.  See  Ottoman  Turks ; 
Seljuq  Turks 

Tus,  339,  340 

Tuwayli',  398 

Tuways,  236 

Twenty  Years  After,  by  Dumas. 


U 

'Ubaydu'Uah,  the  Mahdi,  274 
'Ubaydu'llah  b.  Yahya,  350 
'Ubaydu'Uah    b.    Zivad,    19C, 

198 
Udhayna  (Odenatluis).  33,  35 
Uhud,  battle  of,  170,  175 
'Ukaz,  the  fair  of,   loi,   102, 

135 
-'Ulama,  320,  367,  460.  461 
Ultra-Shi 'ites,  the,  258.     See 

-Ghulat 
'Uman  (province),  4,  62 
'Umar  b.  'Abd  al-'Aziz  (Umay- 

yad  Caliph),  200,  203,  204- 

206,  283 
'Umar  b.  Abi    Rabi'a  (poet), 

237 

'Umar  Ibnu  '1-Farid  (poet), 
325,  394-398,  402,  448,  462 

'Umar  b.  Hafsun,  410 

■Umar  b.  al-Khattab  (Caliph), 
xxvii,  51,  105,  127,  142,  157, 
183,  185-190,  204,  210.  214, 
215,  242,  254,  268,  297.  435 

'Umar  Khavvam,  339 

'Umara.  88'  ' 

Umayma  (name  of  a  woman), 
90,  91,  92 

Umayya,  ancestor  of  the 
Umayyads,  65,  14(5,  181,  190 

Uma-^-s  a  b.  Abi  '1-Salt  (poet), 
69,149-150 

Umaj'j-ad  dynasty,  the,  xxviii, 
65,'  154,  f8i,  190,  193-206, 
214,  222,  264,  273,  274,  27S, 
279,  282,  283,  347,  358,  366, 

373,  408 
Umayyad  literature,  235-247 
Umayyads    (descendants    of 

Umayya),  the,  190, 191.   See 

Umayyad  dynasty,  the 
Umayyads,  Moslem  prejudice 

against  the,   154,   193,  194, 

197,  207 
Umayyads  of  Spain,  the,  253, 

264',  347,  403-414 
-'Umda,  by  Ibn  Rashiq,  288 
Umm  'Asim,  204 
Umm  Jamil,  89 
Unays,  67 
-'Urayd,  398 

Urtuqid  dynasty,  the,  449 
Usdu  'l-Gliaba,  356 
'Usfan,  22 
iistadh,  392 
Ustadhsis,  258 
Usyut,  454 

'Utba,  a  slave-girl,  296 
-'Utbi  (historian),  269,  354 
'Uthman    b.    'Affan,    Caliph, 

xxvii,    142,    185,    190,    191, 


210,    2£I,    213,    214,    215,  221, 

236,  297 

'Uyutin   l-Akhbar,  346 
'Uynnu  l-Aiiba  fi  Tahaqat  al- 

Atibba,  35s.    See  Tabaqatu 

'l-Atibba 
-'Uzza  (goddess).  43,  135,  [55 


Valencia,  421 

Valerian,  33 

Van  Vloten,  221,  222,  250 

Vedanta,  the,  384 

Venus,  18 

Vico,  439 

Victor  Hugo,  312 

Villon,  243 

Vizier,  the  office  of,  256,  257. 

See  wazir. 
Viziers     of      the     Buwayhid 

dynasty,  the,  267 
Vogue,  C.  J.  M.  de,  xxii 
Volleis,  450 
Vowel-marks  in  Arabic  script 

201 

W 

Wadd,  name  of  a  god,  123 
Wadi  l-Mustad'aftn,  394 
Wafayatu  'l-Ayau,  451,  452. 

Sve  Ibn  Khallikan 
-Wafi  bi  'l-Wafayat,  456 
-wajir  (metre),  75 
Wahb  b.  Munabbih,  247,  459 
Wahhabis.  the,  463,  465-46S 
Wahhabite  Reformation,  the, 

465-468 
-Wahidi  (commentator),  305, 

307 
-wa'id,  297 
Wail  xix,  56,  57 
wajd,  mystical  term,  387,  394 
Wajra,  398 
-WaUd     b.     'Abd     al- Malik 

(Umavyad     Caliph),     200, 

203,  405 
-Walid  b.   Yazid    (Uma>'yad 

Caliph),  132,  206,  291,  375 
Wallada,  424,  425 
-Waqidi  (historian),  144,  261, 

349 
Waraqa  b.  Nawfal,  149,  150 
wast  (executor),  215 
Wasil  b.  'Ata,  223,  224,  374 
Wasit,  385,  386 
Water-diviners,  honoured  by 

the  pagan  Arabs,  73 
-Wathiq,  the  Caliph,  257,  369 
wazir,  an  Arabic  word,  256. 

See  Vizier 
Wellhausen,  J.,  56,   128,   135, 

139,  140,   149,  173,  198,  205, 

207,  209,  210,  215,  218,  219, 

222,  250,  365 
Well-songs,  73 
Wellsted,  J.  R.,  S 
West     Gothic     dynasty     in 

Spain,  the,  204 
Weyers,  425 


500 


INDEX 


Wine-songs,  124,  125, 138,  206, 

325,  417 
Witches,  Ballad  of  the  Three, 

19 
Women  famed  as  poets,  89, 

126,  127  ;  as  Sufis,  233 
Women,  position  of,  in  Pre- 

islamic  times,  87-92 
Woollen  garments,  a  sign  of 

asceticism,  228,  296 
Wright,  W.,  202,  226,  343 
Writing,  the  art  of,  in  Pre- 

islamic  times,  xxii,  31,  102, 

131,  138 

Writing,  Arabic,   the    oldest 

specimens  of,  xxi 
Wustenfeld,  F.,  xviii,  17,  129. 

132,  190,  213,  245,  253,  275, 
295.  357.  37S,  408.  416.  452. 
459 

X 

Xerxes,  256 

Ximenez,  Archbishop,  435 


Yatiniatu   'l-Dahr,  267,   271, 

304,  308,  348 
-Yawaqit,  by  -Sha'rani,  403, 

460 
Yazdigird  I  (Sasanian),  40,  41 
Yazid  b.  'Abd  al-  Malik  (Um- 

ayyad  Caliph),  200 
Yazid  b.  Abi  Sufyan,  426 
Yazid  b.  Mu'awiya  (Umayyad 

Caliph),  195-199,  208,  241 
Yazid  b.  Rabi'a  b.  Mufarrigh, 

19 
-Yemen  (-Yaman),  xvn,  2,  5. 7, 

II,  12,  15,  17,  22,  23,  24,  26, 

27,  28,  29,  42,  49,  65,  68,  87, 

99,  103.   137,  215.   247,   252, 

274.  405 
Yoqtan,  xviii 
Yoqtanids,  the,  xviii,  4.    See 

Arabs,  the  Yemenite 
Yusuf  b.  'Abd  al-Barr,  428 
Yusuf  b.  'Abd  al-Mu'min  (Al- 

mohade).  432 
Yusuf  b.  Abd  al-Rahman  al- 

Fihri,  406 
Yusuf   b.   Tashifin  (Almora- 

vide),  423,  430,  431 


-Yahud  (the  Jews),  171 
Yahya  b.  Abi  Mansur,  359 
Yahya  b.  Khalid,  259,260,451 
Yahya  b.  Yahya,  the  Berber, 

408,  409 
-Yamama,  25,  iii,  124 
-Yamama,  battle  of,  xxii,  142 
Yaqsum,  28 
Ya'qub  b.  -La\'th,  265 
Ya'qub     al-Mansur     (Almo- 

hade),    432 
-Ya'qubi    (Ibn    Wadih).   his- 
torian, 193.  194.  349 
Yaqut,  17,  357 
Ya'rub,  14 

Yatha'amar  (Sabaan  king),  4 
Yatha'amar  Bayyin,  lo,  17 
Yathrib,  62.    See  Medina 
Yathrippa,  62 

-Yatima.    See    Yatimatii    '/■ 
Dahr 


Zab,  battle  of  the,  181,  253 
Zabad,  the  trilingual  inscrip- 
tion of,  xxii 
-Zahba,35.36,37-  SeeZenobia 
Zabdai,  34 
zaddiq.  375 
Zafar  (town  in  -Yemen),  7,  8, 

17.  19.  21 
Zafar  (tribe),  94 
zahid  (ascetic),  230 
Zahirites,  the.  402,  427,  433 
-Zahra,   suburb  of   Cordova, 

425 
zajal,    verse-form,   416,   417. 

449 
Zallaqa,  battle  of,  423,  431 
-Zamakhshari,  145.  280,  336 
zaiidik,  SJS 
-Zanj,  273 


Zanzibar,  352 

Zapiski,  375 

Zarifa,  15 

Zarqa'u  '1-Yamama,  25 

Zayd,  son  of  'Adi  b.  Zayd, 

48 
Zayd  b.  'All  b.  -Husayn,  297 
Zayd  b.  'Amr  b.  Nufayl,  149 
Zayd  b.  Hammad,  45 
Zayd  b.  Haritha,  153 
Zavd  b.  Kilab  b.  Murra,  64. 

See  Qusayy 
Zayd  b.  Rif  a'a,  370 
Zayd  b.  Thabit,  142 
Zaydites,  the,  297 
Zaynab  (Zenobia),  35.  So 
Zaynab,  an  Arab  woman.  237 
Zaynu  'l-'Abidin,  243 
Zenobia,  33.  34.  35 
Zitiatu  'l-Dahr,  348 
Zindiqs.  the,  291,  296,  319,  3oS. 

372-375,  387.  460 
Ziryab  (musician),  418 
Ziyad,   husband  of    Fatima, 
the  daughter  of  -Khurshub, 
88 
Ziyad  ibn  Abihi,  195.  256,  34^ 
Ziyad b.  Mu'awiya.    See  -Na- 

biglui  al-Dhul>yani 
Ziyanid  dynasty,  the,  442 
Zone,   the,   worn    by  Zoroa- 

strians,  461 
Zoroaster,  184,  258 
Zoroastrians,  the,  184,  341.354. 

373.461    „ 
Zotenberg,  H.,  352 
Zubayda,  wife  of  Harun  al- 

Kashid,  262 
-Zubayr,  190 
-Zuhara,  18 
Zuhavr  b.  Abi  Sulma  (poet), 

62,116-119,  128,   131.    137. 

140.  312 
zuhd  (asceticism).    229,  230, 

299 
zuhdiyyat,  294 
Zuhra  b.  Kilab  b.  Murra,  64 
-Zuhri  (Muhammad  b.Mushm 

b.  Shihab),  153.  247.  258 
zimnar,  461 


OKWIN  BROTHERS,  LIMITED,  THE  GRESHAM  PRESS,  WOKING  .^XD  LONDON. 


"^q-rf 


/i5^~... 


nw  ^f^'^ 


'^m 


k 


T\^r 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


20ct 


^KLf  (N) 


REC'D  LD 


JAN  2  a '65 -2  PM 


"jJrBiroSBir 


33a» 


m^j.0 


65-4  P% 


DECS  '66 


% 


MAY  :^7  186y5  5 


RECD  ^P 


NOV  15  10675  9 


PK'r^^i^ 


NOU    r67'2PIW 


i»Oj^M  £>t£PT, 


JUL  1  £  2002 


■zmrrngg- 


^^CEIVED 


JAW  0  ^  1996 


^"«RCULAT/0IS/  DEPT. 


■fr 


o  w  1  "jgo 


LD  21A-60m-4,'64 
(E45558l0)476B 


'^ 


General  Library  j 

Uoiversity  of  California         i 
Berkeley 


yi«s^j 


IJIIlSll^,r,^!:i,^LEY  LIBRAF 


f764         5 


/L.r.1