Mu'allaqat

Compilation

The grammarian Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Nahhas (d. 949 CE) says expressly in his commentary on the Mu'allaqat: "The true view of the matter is this: when Hammad Ar-Rawiya (Hammad the Rhapsodist) saw how little men cared for poetry, he collected these seven pieces, urged people to study them, and said to them: 'These are the [poems] of renown.'" This agrees with all other information scholars have retrieved. Firstly, the recitation of poems was his profession. Hammad (who lived in the first three quarters of the 8th century) was perhaps of all men the one who knew most Arabic poetry by heart. It is highly like that such a rhapsodist would have performed the task of selecting the poems; some assume that he is responsible due to his somewhat fantastic title of "the suspended".^[2]

There is another fact which seems to speak in favour of Hammad as the compiler of this work. He was a Persian by descent, but a client of the Arab tribe, Bakr ibn Wa'il. For this reason, some suppose he not only received into the collection a poem of the famous poet Tarafa, of the tribe of Bakr, but also that of another Bakrite, Harith. The latter, though not accounted a bard of the highest rank, had been a prominent chieftain, while his poem could serve as a counterpoise to another also received the celebrated verses of Harith's contemporary 'Amr, chief of the Taghlib, the rival brethren of the Bakr. 'Amr praises the Taghlib in glowing terms: Harith, in a similar vein, extols the Bakr ancestors of Hammad's patrons.^[2]

The collection of Hammad appears to have consisted of the same seven poems which are found in modern editions, composed respectively by Imru' al-Qais, Tarafa, Zuhayr, Labīd, 'Antara Ibn Shaddad, 'Amr ibn Kulthum, and Harith ibn Hilliza. These are enumerated both by Ibn Abd Rabbih (860–940 CE), and, on the authority of the older philologists, by Nahhas; and all subsequent commentators seem to follow them. We have, however, evidence of the existence, at a very early period, of a slightly different arrangement. Certainly we cannot now say, on the testimony of the Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab, that two of the most competent ancient authorities on Arabic poetry, al-Mufaddal (d. c. 790) and Abu ʿUbaidah (d. 824 CE, at a great age), had already assigned to the "Seven" (i.e. "the seven Mu'allaqat") a poem each of al-Nabigha and al-A'sha in place of those of 'Antara and Harith. For meanwhile it has been discovered that the compiler of the above-mentioned work who, in order to deceive the reader, issued it under a false name is absolutely untrustworthy. However, the learned Ibn Qutaiba (9th century), in his book Of Poetry and Poets, mentions as belonging to the "Seven" not only the poem of 'Amr, which has invariably been reckoned among the Mu'allaqat (ed. de Goeje, p. 120), but also a poem of 'Abid ibn al-Abras (ibid. 144). In place of which poem he read this remains unknown, and scholars are equally ignorant as to whether he counted other pieces than those indicated above among the seven.

Now Nabigha and A'sha enjoyed greater celebrity than any of the poets represented in the Mu'allaqat, with the exception of Imru' al-Qais, and it is therefore not surprising that scholars, of a somewhat later date, appended a poem by each of these to the Mu'allaqat, without intending by this to make them an integral part of that work. This is clear, for instance, from the introductory words of Tibrizi, Yahyá ibn Ali (d. 1109 C.E.) to his commentary on the Mu'allaqat. Appended to this he gives a commentary to a poem of Nabigha, to one of A'sha, and moreover one to that poem of 'Abid which, as we have just seen, Ibn Qutaiba had counted among the seven. It is a pure misunderstanding when Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406 CE) in his Muqaddimah speaks of nine Mu'allaqat; and we ought hardly to lay any stress on the fact that he mentions not only Nabigha and A'sha, but also 'Alqama ibn 'Abada, as Mu'allaqa poets. He was probably led to this by a delusive recollection of the Collection of the "Six Poets", in which were included these three, together with the three Mu'allaqat poets, Imru' al-Qais, Zuhayr and Tarafa.

The hanging of the poems

Ibn Abd Rabbih in the Al-ʿIqd al-Farīd "The Precious Necklace" states, "The Arabs had such an interest in poetry, and valued it so highly, that they took seven long pieces selected from the ancient poetry, wrote them in gold on pieces of Coptic linen folded up, and hung them up (allaqat) on the curtains which covered the Ka'ba. Hence we speak of 'the golden poem of Imru' al-Qais,' 'the golden poem of Zuhayr.' The number of the golden poems is seven; they are also called 'the suspended' (al-Muʻallaqāt)." Similar statements are found in later Arabic works. But against this we have the testimony of al-Nahhas, who says in his commentary on the Muʻallaqāt: "As for the assertion that they were hung up in the Kaʻba, it is not known to any of those who have handed down ancient poems." This cautious scholar is unquestionably right in rejecting a story so utterly unauthenticated.

The customs of the Arabs before Muhammad are pretty accurately known to us; we have also a mass of information about the affairs of Mecca at the time when the Prophet arose; but no trace of this or anything like it is found in really good and ancient authorities. We hear, indeed, of a Meccan hanging up a spoil of battle on the Kaʻba (Ibn Hisham, ed. Wiistenfeld, p. 431). Less credible is the story of an important document being deposited in that sanctuary (ibid. p. 230), for this looks like an instance of later usages being transferred to pre-Islamic times. But at all events this is quite a different thing from the hanging up of poetical manuscripts. To account for the disappearance of the Muʻallaqat from the Kaʻba we are told, in a passage of late origin (De Sacy, Chrestom. ii. 480), that they were taken down at the capture of Mecca by the Prophet. But in that case we should expect some hint of the occurrence in the circumstantial biographies of the Prophet, and in the works on the history of Mecca; and we find no such thing.

That a series of long poems was written at all at that remote period is improbable in the extreme. Up to a time when the art of writing had become far more general than it was before the spread of Islam, poems were never or very rarely written, with the exception, perhaps, of epistles in poetic form. The diffusion of poetry was exclusively committed to oral tradition. Moreover, it is quite inconceivable that there should have been either a guild or a private individual of such acknowledged taste, or of such influence, as to bring about a consensus of opinion in favour of certain poems. Think of the mortal offence which the canonization of one poet must have given to his rivals and their tribes. It was quite another thing for an individual to give his own private estimate of the respective merits of two poets who had appealed to him as umpire, or for a number of poets to appear at large gatherings, such as the fair of Uqaz as candidates for the place of honour in the estimation of the throng which listened to their recitations.

No better is the variant of the legend, which we find, at a much later period, in the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun, who tells us that the poets themselves hung up their poems on the Kaʻba (ed. Paris iii. 357). In short, this legend, often related by Arabs, and still more by Europeans, has no historical basis: it is a fabrication based on the name "suspended". The word was taken in its literal sense; and as these poems were prized by many above all others in after times, the same opinion was attributed to "the [ancient] Arabs," who were supposed to have given effect to their verdict in the way already described. A somewhat simpler version also given by Nahhas in the passage already cited is as follows:

Most of the Arabs were accustomed to meet at 'Oqaz and recite verses; then, if the king was pleased with any poem, he said, 'Hang it up, and preserve it among my treasures.'" But, not to mention other difficulties, there was no king of all the Arabs; and it is unlikely that any Arabian king attended the fair at Oqaz.^[2]

The story that the poems were written in gold has evidently originated in the name "the golden poems" (literally "the gilded"), a figurative expression for excellence. The designation "suspended" may be interpreted in the same way, referring to those (poems) which have been raised, on account of their value, to a specially honourable position. Another derivative of the same root is ʻilq, "precious thing." A clearer significance attaches to another name sometimes used for these poems assumut, "strings of pearls". The comparison of artificially elaborated poems to these strings is extremely apt. Hence it became popular, even in ordinary prose, to refer to speech in rhythmical form as naqm "to string pearls." The selection of these seven poems is unlikely to have been the work of the ancient Arabs, but rather some one writing at a later date.^[2]

The seven renowned ones

The lives of these poets were spread over a period of more than a hundred years. The earliest of the seven was Imru' al-Qais, regarded by many as the most illustrious of Arabian Muʻallaqah poets. His exact date cannot be determined; but probably the best part of his career fell within the midst of the sixth century. He was a scion of the royal house of the tribe Kindah, which lost its power at the death of its king, Harith ibn ʻAmr, in the year 529. The poet's royal father, Hojr, by some accounts a son of this Harith, was killed by a Bedouin tribe, the Banu Asad ibn Khuzaymah. The son led an adventurous life as a refugee, now with one tribe, now with another, and appears to have died young. The anecdotes related of him which, however, are very untrustworthy in detail as well as his poems, imply that the glorious memory of his house and the hatred it inspired were still comparatively fresh, and therefore recent. A contemporary of Imruʻ al-Qais was Abid ibn al-Abras, one poem of whose, as we have seen, is by some authorities reckoned among the collection. He belonged to the Banu Asad, and is fond of vaunting the heroic dead of his tribe the murder of Hujr in opposition to the victim's son, the great poet.^[2]

The Muʻallaqah of 'Amr ibn Kulthum hurls defiance against the king of al-Hirah, 'Amr III ibn al-Mundhir, who reigned from the summer of 554 until 568 or 569, and was afterwards slain by the poet. This prince is also addressed by Harith in his Muʻallaqa. Of Tarafa, who is said to have attained no great age, a few satirical verses have been preserved, directed against this same king. This agrees with the fact that a grandson of the Qais ibn Khalid, mentioned as a rich and influential man in Tarafa's Muʻallaqah (v. 80 or 81), figured at the time of the Battle of Dhi Qar, in which the tribe Bakr routed a Persian army. This battle falls about 610 CE.^[2]

The Muʻallaqah of Antarah ibn Shaddad and that of Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma contain allusions to the feuds of the kindred tribes Banu Abs and Banu Dhubyan. Famous as these contests were, their time cannot accurately be ascertained. But the date of the two poets can be approximately determined from other data. Ka'b bin Zuhayr, composed first a satire, and then, in the year 630, a eulogy on the Prophet; another son, Bujair, had begun, somewhat sooner, to celebrate Muhammad. Antara killed the grandfather of Ahnaf ibn Qais, who died at an advanced age in 686 or 687; he outlived 'Abdallah ibn Simma, whose brother Duraid was a very old man when he fell in battle against the Prophet (early in 630 CE); and he had communications with Ward, whose son, the poet Urwah ibn al-Ward, may perhaps have survived the flight of Muhammad to Medina. From all these indications we may place the productive period of both poets in the end of the 6th century. The historical background of Antara's Muʻallaqat lies somewhat earlier than that of Zuhayr's.^[2]

To the same period appears to belong the poem of 'Alqama ibn 'Abada, which, as we have seen, Ibn Khaldun reckons amongst the Muʻallaqāt. This too is certainly the date of Al-Nabigha, who was one of the most distinguished of Arabic poets. For in the poem often reckoned as a Muʻallaqah, as in many others, he addresses himself to the king of al-Hirah, al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir, who reigned in the two last decades of the sixth century. The same king is mentioned as a contemporary in one of poems of ʻAlqama.^[2]

The poem of al-A'sha, sometimes added to the Muʻallaqāt, contains an allusion to the battle of Dhi Qar (under the name "Battle of Hinw", v. 62). This poet, not less famous than Nabigha, lived to compose a poem in honour of Muhammad, and died not long before 630 CE.^[2]

Labīd is the only one of these poets who embraced Islam. His Muʻallaqa, however, like almost all his other poetical works, belongs to the pre-Islamic period. He is said to have lived until 661, or even later; certainly it is true of him, what is asserted with less likelihood of several others of these poets, that he lived to a ripe old age.^[2]

Hammad Ar-Rawiya's seven poets

1. Imru' al-Qais
2. Labīd
3. Tarafa
4. Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma
5. Antara Ibn Shaddad
6. Amr ibn Kulthum
7. Harith ibn Hilliza

Poets sometimes numbered amongst the seven

1. Al-Nabigha
2. al-A'sha
3. 'Abid ibn al-Abras

See also

• Charles J. Lyall, Ancient Arabian Poetry
• Charles J. Lyall, The Diwans of 'Abid ibn al-Abras and 'Amir ibn at-Tufail: London, 1913
• W. A. Clouston, Arabian Poetry for English Readers: Edinburgh
• Robert Irwin, Night and Horses and the Desert