A Literary History of the Arabs Part 3

Book I. _Compendium of the beginning and origins of genealogy._

Book II. _Genealogy of the descendants of al-Hamaysa' b. ?imyar._

Book III. _Concerning the pre-eminent qualities of Qa??an._

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 Dhu Nuwas._

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 ?imyarites; the extant poetry of 'Alqama,_[40]

_the elegies, the inscriptions, and other matters._

Book IX. _Concerning the proverbs and wisdom of the ?imyarites in the ?imyarite language, and concerning the alphabet of the inscriptions._

Book X. _Concerning the genealogy of ?ashid and Bakil_ (the two princ.i.p.al tribes of Hamdan).

[Sidenote: Nashwan b. Sa'id al-?imyari ( 1177 A.D.).]

[Sidenote: 'Abid b. Sharya.]

[Sidenote: ?amza of I?fahan.]

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 ancient princely families of Yemen, to recall the legendary past and become the laureate of a long vanished and well-nigh forgotten empire. In 'The ?imyarite Ode' (_al-Qa?datu 'l-?imyariyya_) he sings the might and grandeur of the monarchs who ruled over his people, and moralises in true Mu?ammadan spirit upon the fleetingness of life and the futility of human ambition.[41]

Accompanying the Ode, which has little value except as a comparatively unfalsified record of royal names,[42] is a copious historical commentary either by Nashwan himself, as Von Kremer thinks highly probable, or by some one who lived about the same time. Those for whom history represents an aggregate of naked facts would 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 the ancient traditions, the kings of 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,"[43] 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 ent.i.tled 'The Book of the Kings and the History of the Ancients' (_Kitabu 'l-Muluk wa-akhbaru 'l-Ma?in_).

Mas'udi ( 956 A.D.) speaks of it as a well-known book, enjoying a wide circulation.[44] It was used by the commentator of the ?imyarite 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, fict.i.tious verses, and such entertaining matter as a man of learning and story-teller by trade might naturally be expected to introduce. Among the few remaining Mu?ammadan authors who bestowed special attention on the Pre-islamic period of South Arabian history, I shall mention here only ?amza of I?fahan, the eighth book of whose Annals (finished in 961 A.D.) provides a useful sketch, with brief chronological details, of the Tubba's or ?imyarite kings of Yemen.

[Sidenote: Ya'rub.]

[Sidenote: ?imyar and Kahlan.]

Qa??an, 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 language, and the first to receive the salutations with which the Arabs were accustomed to address their kings, viz., "_In'im ?aba?an_" ("Good morning!") and "_Abayta 'l-la'na_" ("Mayst thou avoid malediction!").

His grandson, 'Abd Shams Saba, is named as the founder of Ma'rib and the builder of the famous d.y.k.e, which, according to others, was constructed by Luqman b. 'ad. Saba had two sons, ?imyar and Kahlan. Before his death he deputed the sovereign authority to ?imyar, and the task of protecting the frontiers and making war upon the enemy to Kahlan. Thus ?imyar obtained the lordship, a.s.sumed the t.i.tle Abu Ayman, and abode in the capital city of the realm, while Kahlan took over the defence of the borders and the conduct of war.[45] Omitting the long series of mythical Sabaean 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 'l-'Arim_, or the Flood of the d.y.k.e.

[Sidenote: The Dam of Ma'rib.]

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 rainy season the water rushes down with such violence that it becomes impa.s.sable. 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 Mu?ammad, and was reckoned by Moslems among the wonders of the world.[46] That their historians have clothed the bare fact of its destruction in ample robes of legendary circ.u.mstance is not surprising, but renders abridgment necessary.[47]

[Sidenote: Its destruction announced by portents.]

Towards the end of the third century of our era, or possibly at an earlier epoch,[48] the throne of Ma'rib was temporarily occupied by 'Amr b. 'amir Ma' al-Sama, surnamed Muzayqiya.[49] His wife, ?arifa, was skilled in the art of divination. She dreamed dreams and saw visions which announced the impending calamity. "Go to the d.y.k.e," she said to her husband, who doubted her clairvoyance, "and if thou see a rat digging holes in the d.y.k.e with its paws and moving huge boulders with its hind-legs, be a.s.sured that the woe hath come upon us." So 'Amr went to the d.y.k.e 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 d.y.k.e 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 recourse 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 exchanged, 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 G.o.d," 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 enc.u.mbrances--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 mult.i.tude. Gradually the waters made a breach in the d.y.k.e and swept over the country, spreading devastation far and wide. Hence the proverb _Dhahabu_ (or _tafarraqu_) _aydi Saba_, "They departed" (or "dispersed") "like the people of Saba."[50]

[Sidenote: Fall of the Sabaean Empire.]

This deluge marks an epoch in the history of South Arabia. The waters subside, the land returns to cultivation 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'sha sang:--

?| ?| ?| Metre _Mutaqarib_: (? - -|? - -|? - -|? -).

"Let this warn whoever a warning will take-- And Ma'rib withal, which the Dam fortified.

Of marble did ?imyar 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 n.o.blemen through Mirage-shrouded deserts that baffle the guide."[51]

The poet's reference to ?imyar is not historically accurate. It was only after the destruction of the d.y.k.e and the dispersion of the Sabaeans who built it[52] that the ?imyarites, with their capital ?afar (at a later period, ?an'a) became the rulers of Yemen.

[Sidenote: The Tubba's.]

The first Tubba', by which name the ?imyarite kings are known to Mu?ammadan writers, was ?arith, called al-Ra'ish, _i.e._, the Featherer, because he 'feathered' his people's nest with the booty which he brought home as a conqueror from India and adharbayjan.[53] Of the Tubba's who come after him some obviously owe their place in the line of ?imyar to genealogists whose respect for the Koran was greater than their critical ac.u.men. Such a man of straw is ?a'b Dhu 'l-Qarnayn (?a'b the Two-horned).

[Sidenote: Dhu 'l-Qarnayn.]

The following verses show that he is a double of the mysterious Dhu 'l-Qarnayn of Koranic legend, supposed by most commentators to be identical with Alexander the Great[54]:--

"Ours the realm of Dhu 'l-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,[55]

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'erpa.s.sed, Gog and Magog there he threw in prison Till on Judgment Day they shall awake at last."[56]

[Sidenote: Bilqis.]

Similarly, among the Tubba's we find the Queen of Sheba, whose adventures with Solomon are related in the twenty-seventh chapter of the Koran. Although Mu?ammad himself did not mention her name or lineage, his interpreters were equal to the occasion and revealed her as Bilqis, the daughter of Shara?il (Shara?bil).

[Sidenote: As'ad Kamil.]

The national hero of South Arabian legend is the Tubba' As'ad Kamil, or, as he is sometimes called, Abu Karib. Even at the present day, says Von Kremer, his memory is kept alive, and still haunts the ruins of his palace at ?afar. "No one who reads the Ballad of his Adventures or the words of exhortation which he addressed on his deathbed to his son ?a.s.san 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 undoubtedly reach back to a high antiquity."[57] I translate here the former of these pieces, which may be ent.i.tled

THE BALLAD OF THE THREE WITCHES.[58]

"Time brings to pa.s.s 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.

One morn, alone On Hinwam hill he was sore afraid.[59]

(His people knew not where he strayed; They had seen him only yesternight, For his youth and wildness 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!