A Literary History of the Arabs Part 25

Farazdaq and Jarir are intimately connected by a peculiar rivalry--"_Arcades ambo_--_id est_, blackguards both." For many years they engaged in a public scolding-match (_muhajat_), and 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, and by the marvellous skill which the satirists display in manipulating all the vituperative resources of the Arabic language. Soon these 'Flytings' (_Naqa'i?_) were recited everywhere, and each poet had thousands of enthusiastic partisans who maintained that he was superior to his rival.[454] One day Muhallab b.

Abi Sufra, the governor of Khurasan, who 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." Next day, when the armies faced each other, 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? "G.o.d 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 Jarir and gave judgment in his favour.[455] 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 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 questions of that kind over the camp-fires!

Akh?al joined in the fray. His sympathies were with Farazdaq, and the _naqa'i?_ which he and Jarir 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.

[Sidenote: Akh?al.]

The oldest of the trio, Akh?al (Ghiyath b. Ghawth) of Taghlib, was a Christian, like most of his tribe--they had long been settled in Mesopotamia--and remained in that faith to the end of his life, though the Caliph 'Abdu 'l-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 Akh?al confined in a church at Damascus, and pleaded his cause with the priest. The latter stopped beside Akh?al and raising the staff on which he leaned--for he was an aged man--exclaimed: "O enemy of G.o.d, 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 submissively to this priest, he answered, "It is religion, it is religion."[456] On another occasion, seeing the Bishop pa.s.s, 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 a.s.s, but Akh?al consoled her with the remark, "He and the tail of his a.s.s, there's no difference!"[457] 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,[458] but their protests went unheeded at the court of Damascus, where n.o.body 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 Mu?ammadan sentiment; so that, for example, when Yazid 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 Akh?al, who branded the _An?ar_, 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 An?ar."[459]

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. On hearing Akh?al's ode in praise of the Umayyad dynasty,[460] 'Abdu 'l-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!"[461] 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.[462] 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 Jarir and Farazdaq. From his deathbed he sent a final injunction to Farazdaq not to spare their common enemy.

Akh?al 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. Abu '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 Akh?al 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 surpa.s.sed all compet.i.tors 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.[463]

[Sidenote: Farazdaq.]

Hammam b. Ghalib, generally known as Farazdaq, belonged to the tribe of Tamim, and was born at Ba?ra towards the end of 'Umar's Caliphate, His grandfather, ?a'?a'a, won renown 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 t.i.tle, _Mu?yi 'l-Maw'udat_, '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 _mauvais 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 'Ali's grandson, Zaynu 'l-'abidin. The tragic fate of ?usayn at Karbala affected him deeply, and he called on his compatriots 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."[464]

While still a young man, he was expelled from his native city in consequence of the lampoons which he directed against a n.o.ble family of Ba?ra, the Banu Nahshal. Thereupon he fled to Medina, where he plunged into gallantry and dissipation 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 consented to an irrevocable divorce, which was witnessed by ?asan of Ba?ra, the famous theologian. No sooner was the act complete than Farazdaq began to wish it undone, and he spoke the following verses:--[465]

"I feel repentance like al-Kusa'i,[466]

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 of Farazdaq,' signifying bitter regret or disappointment, pa.s.sed into a proverb. He died a few months before Jarir in 728 A.D., a year also made notable by the deaths of two ill.u.s.trious divines, ?asan of Ba?ra and Ibn Sirin.

[Sidenote: Jarir.]

Jarir b. 'Atiyya belonged to Kulayb, a branch of the same tribe, Tamim, which produced Farazdaq. He was the court-poet of ?ajjaj, the dreaded governor of 'Iraq, and eulogised his patron in such extravagant terms as to arouse the jealousy of the Caliph 'Abdu 'l-Malik, 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 us be praised like this or in silence!"[467] Jarir'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, Bashshar b. Burd ( 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."[468] 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 'l-ibil (Camel-herd), who loudly published his opinion that Farazdaq was superior to Jarir, although the latter had lauded his tribe, the Banu 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:--

"_O 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 what he is at." By daybreak Jarir had composed a satire of eighty verses against the Banu Numayr. When he finished the poem, he shouted triumphantly, "_Allah Akbar!_" and rode away to the place where he expected to find Ra'i 'l-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 Kilab_"--

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 Ba?ra without 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.[469]

[Sidenote: Dhu 'l-Rumma.]

Next, but next at a long interval, to the three great poets of this epoch comes Dhu 'l-Rumma (Ghaylan b. 'Uqba), who imitated the odes of the desert Arabs with tiresome and monotonous 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 'l-Qays and ended with Dhu 'l-Rumma; which is true in the sense that he is the last important representative of the pure Bedouin school.

[Sidenote: Prose writers of the Umayyad period.]

Concerning the prose writers of the period we can make only a few general observations, inasmuch as their works have almost entirely perished.[470] In this branch of literature the same secular, non-Mu?ammadan spirit prevailed which has been mentioned as characteristic of the poets who flourished under the Umayyad dynasty, and of the dynasty itself. Historical studies 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 responsible for a great deal of the fabulous lore belonging to the domain of _Awa'il_ (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 (_maghazi_). 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,[471] but it shows also that histories of a legendary and popular character preceded those which were based, like the _Maghazi_ of Musa b. 'Uqba ( 758 A.D.) and Ibn Is?aq's _Biography of the Prophet_, upon religious tradition. No work of the former cla.s.s has been preserved. The strong theological influence which a.s.serted itself in the second century of the Hijra was unfavourable to the development of an Arabian prose literature on national lines. In the meantime, however, learned doctors of divinity began to collect and write down the _?adiths_. We have a solitary relic of this sort in the _Kitabu 'l-Zuhd_ (Book of Asceticism) by Asad b. Musa ( 749 A.D.). The most renowned traditionist of the Umayyad age is Mu?ammad b. Muslim b.

Shihab al-Zuhri ( 742 A.D.), who distinguished himself by accepting judicial office under the tyrants; an act of complaisance to which his more stiff-necked and conscientious brethren declined to stoop.

[Sidenote: The non-Arabian Moslems.]

It was the l.u.s.t of conquest even more than missionary zeal that caused the Arabs to invade Syria and Persia and to settle 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 respect by embracing the religion of their conquerors, they found themselves sadly mistaken. The new converts were attached as clients (_Mawali_, sing. _Mawla_) 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 _Mawali_ 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 remembered, were not ignorant serfs, but men whose culture was acknowledged by the Arabs themselves--men who formed the backbone of the influential learned cla.s.s 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 _Mawali_ they had no argument save the sword.

[Sidenote: Presages of the Revolution.]

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 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 Mu?ammad himself, prophecies of war and deliverance floated to and fro. Men pored over apocryphal books, and asked whether the days of confusion and slaughter (_al-harj_), which, it is known, shall herald the appearance of the Mahdi, 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 pa.s.sed away. Alike in politics and literature, the Persian race a.s.serted 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.

[Sidenote: The 'Abbasids.]

[Sidenote: 'Abbasid propaganda in Khurasan.]

While the Shi'ite missionaries (_du'at_, sing. _da'i_) were actively engaged in canva.s.sing for their party, which, as we have seen, recognised in 'Ali and his descendants the only legitimate successors to Mu?ammad, 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 "pa.s.ses for one of the strongest pillars of religious tradition; but, in the eyes of unprejudiced European research, he is only a crafty liar." His descendants "lived in deep retirement in ?umayma, 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 the propaganda in their own behalf with the utmost skill. 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."[472] These countries were inhabited by a 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 which they had been reduced, were eager to join in any desperate enterprise that gave them hope of relief. Moreover, the Arabs in Khurasan were already to a large extent Persianised: they had Persian wives, wore trousers, drank wine, and kept the festivals of Nawruz and Mihrgan; while the Persian language was generally understood and even spoken among them.[473] Many interesting details as to the methods of the 'Abbasid emissaries will be found in Van Vloten's admirable work.[474] Starting from Kufa, 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 intelligence of those whom they sought to enlist. Like the Shi'ites, they canva.s.sed for 'the House of the Prophet,' an ambiguous expression which might equally well be applied to the descendants of 'Ali or of 'Abbas, as is shown by the following table:--

HaSHIM.

'Abdu 'l-Mu??alib.

'Abdullah. Abu ?alib. 'Abbas.

Mu?ammad (the Prophet). 'Ali (married to Fa?ima, daughter of the Prophet).

[Sidenote: The Shi'ites join hands with the 'Abbasids.]

It was, of course, absolutely essential to the 'Abbasids that they should be able to count on the support of the powerful Shi'ite organisation, which, ever since the abortive rebellion headed by Mukhtar (see p. 218 _supra_) had drawn vast numbers of Persian _Mawali_ into its ranks. Now, of the two main parties of the Shi'a, viz., the Hashimites or followers of Mu?ammad Ibnu 'l-?anafiyya, and the Imamites, who pinned their faith to the descendants of the Prophet through his daughter Fa?ima, the former had virtually identified themselves with the 'Abbasids, inasmuch as the Imam Abu Hashim, who died in 716 A.D., bequeathed his hereditary rights to Mu?ammad b. 'Ali, 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 'Ali. By means of this ruse they obtained a free hand in Khurasan, and made such progress that the governor of that province, Na?r 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 princ.i.p.al '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."[475]