A Literary History of the Arabs Part 44

[9] Concerning the nature and causes of this antagonism see Goldziher, _op. cit._, Part I, p. 78 sqq.

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

[11] First published by Sachau in _Monatsberichte der Kon. Preuss. Akad.

der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_ (February, 1881), p. 169 sqq.

[12] See De Vogue, _Syrie Centrale, Inscriptions Semitiques_, p. 117.

Other references are given in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 35, p. 749.

[13] On this subject the reader may consult Goldziher. _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part I, p. 110 sqq.

[14] Professor Margoliouth in _F.R.A.S._ for 1905, p. 418

[15] Noldeke, _Die Semitischen Sprachen_, p. 36 sqq. and p. 51.

[16] _Journal Asiatique_ (March, 1835), p. 209 sqq.

[17] Strictly speaking, the _Jahiliyya_ includes the whole time between Adam and Mu?ammad, but in a narrower sense it may be used, as here, to denote the Pre-islamic period of Arabic Literature.

[18] _Die Namen der Saugethiere bei den Sudsemitischen Volkern_, p. 343 seq.

[19] _Iramu Dhatu 'l-'Imad_ (Koran, lx.x.xix, 6). The sense of these words is much disputed. See especially ?abari's explanation in his great commentary on the Koran (O. Loth in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 35, p. 626 sqq.).

[20] I have abridged ?abari, _Annals_, i, 231 sqq. _Cf._ also chapters vii, xi, xxvi, and xlvi of the Koran.

[21] Koran, xi, 56-57.

[22] See Doughty's _Doc.u.ments Epigraphiques recueillis dans le nord de l'Arabie_, p. 12 sqq.

[23] Koran, vii, 76.

[24] Properly Saba' with _hamza_, both syllables being short.

[25] The oldest record of Saba to which a date can be a.s.signed is found in the a.s.syrian 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 Sabaean--gold, spices, slaves, horses, and camels." Ithamara is identical with Yatha'amar, a name borne by several kings of Saba.

[26] A. Muller, _Der Islam im Morgen und Abendland_, vol. i, p. 24 seq.

[27] 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'allaqat_, i, 44).

[28] _Op. cit._, p. 94 seq. An excellent account of the progress made in discovering and deciphering the South Arabic inscriptions down to the year 1841 is given by Rodiger, _Excurs ueber himjaritische Inschriften_, in his German translation of Wellsted's _Travels in Arabia_, vol. ii, p.

368 sqq.

[29] Seetzen's inscriptions were published in _Fundgruben des Orients_, vol. ii (Vienna, 1811), p. 282 sqq. The one mentioned above was afterwards deciphered and explained by Mordtmann in the _Z.D.M.G._, vol.

31, p. 89 seq.

[30] The oldest inscriptions, however, run from left to right and from right to left alternately (??st????d??).

[31] _Notiz ueber die himjaritische Schrift nebst doppeltem Alphabet derselben_ in _Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes_, vol. i (Gottingen, 1837), p. 332 sqq.

[32] See Arnaud's _Relation d'un voyage a Mareb (Saba) dans l'Arabie meridionale_ in the _Journal Asiatique_, 4th series, vol. v (1845), p.

211 sqq. and p. 309 sqq.

[33] See _Rapport sur une mission archeologique dans le Yemen_ in the _Journal Asiatique_, 6th series, vol. xix (1872), pp. 5-98, 129-266, 489-547.

[34] See D. H. Muller, _Die Burgen und Schlosser Sudarabiens_ in _S.B.W.A._, vol. 97, p. 981 sqq.

[35] The t.i.tle _Mukarrib_ combines the significations of prince and priest.

[36] Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part I, p. 3.

[37] See F. Praetorius, _Unsterblichkeitsglaube und Heiligenverehrung bei den Himyaren_ 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.

[38] _Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology_, vol. 5, p.

409.

[39] This table of contents is quoted by D. H. Muller (_Sudarabische Studien_, p. 108, n. 2) from the t.i.tle-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.

[40] The poet 'Alqama b. Dhi Jadan, whose verses are often cited in the commentary on the '?imyarite Ode.'

[41] _Die Himjarische Kasideh_ herausgegeben und ubersetzt von Alfred von Kremer (Leipzig, 1865). _The Lay of the Himyarites_, by W. F.

Prideaux (Seh.o.r.e, 1879).

[42] Nashwan was a philologist of some repute. His great dictionary, the _Shamsu 'l-'Ulum_, is a valuable aid to those engaged in the study of South Arabian antiquities. It has been used by D. H. Muller to fix the correct spelling of proper names which occur in the ?imyarite Ode (_Z.D.M.G._, vol. 29, p. 620 sqq.; _Sudarabische Studien_, p. 143 sqq.).

[43] _Fihrist_, p. 89, l. 26.

[44] _Muruju 'l-Dhahab_, ed. by Barbier de Meynard, vol. iv, p. 89.

[45] Von Kremer, _Die Sudarabische Sage_, p. 56. Possibly, as he suggests (p. 115), the story may be a symbolical expression of the fact that the Sabaeans were divided into two great tribes, ?imyar and Kahlan, the former of which held the chief power.

[46] _Cf._ Koran x.x.xiv, 14 sqq. The existing ruins have been described by Arnaud in the _Journal Asiatique_, 7th series, vol. 3 (1874), p. 3 sqq.

[47] I follow Mas'udi, _Muruju 'l-Dhahab_ (ed. by Barbier de Meynard), vol. iii, p. 378 sqq., and Nuwayri in Reiske's _Primae lineae Historiae Rerum Arabicarum_, p. 166 sqq.

[48] 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. Glaser, _Zwei Inschriften uber den Dammbruch von Marib_ (_Mitteilungen der Vorderastatischen Gesellschaft_, 1897, 6).

[49] 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.

[50] Freytag, _Arab.u.m Proverbia_, vol. i, p. 497.

[51] Hamdani, _Iklil_, bk. viii, edited by D. H. Muller in _S.B.W.A._ (Vienna, 1881), vol. 97, p. 1037. The verses are quoted with some textual differences by Yaqut, _Mu'jam al-Buldan_, ed. by Wustenfeld, vol. iv, 387, and Ibn Hisham, p. 9.

[52] 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) Ra?ab for convenience of irrigation." I translate after D. H. Muller, _loc. laud._, p. 965.

[53] The words _?imyar_ and _Tubba'_ do not occur at all in the older inscriptions, and very seldom even in those of a more recent date.

[54] See Koran, xviii, 82-98.

[55] Dhu 'l-Qarnayn is described as "the measurer of the earth"