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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
Ancient Arabic poetry in general is rightly regarded in Arab circles as one of the paramount monuments of Arabic literature, and it is of course also held in esteem among Western scholars. For the most part, however, this admiration does not, in effect, extend to the specifically historical poetry quoted – sometimes in vast quantities – in the works of such historians as Ibn A‘tham al-Kūfī, al-Balādhurī, and al-Ṭabarī. It is readily apparent that this verse is often of extraordinary difficulty, that some represents retrojections from later times, and that many poems (in particular the later forgeries) are of an inferior quality; but the often-heard views holding that the historical poetry is, as a whole, of no particular historical importance or literary merit are simply false.
This essay comprises a continuation of Lawrence I. Conrad, “Notes on al-Ṭabarīs History of the Caliphate of Hishamāibn ‘Abd al-Malik “Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, 3 (1993), pp. 1–31, a review article devoted to the prose parts of The History of al-Ṭabarī, vol. 25: The End of Expansion, translated by Khalid Yahya Blankinship (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), hereafter referred to as “Bk.”. The present discussion will be limited to poetry. References to the Arabic text are to the edition of M. J. de Goeje et al. (Leiden, 1879–1901), which includes a final volume with extremely important sections providing a Glossarium and Addenda et emendanda, neither of which has been used by the translator (emendations which are not those of the co-authors cite the source in parentheses and refer to these sections). Occasional use has also been made of the edition of Muhammad Abu I-Fadl Ibrāhīm, 2nd ed. (Cairo, 1968–9).
1 See Conrad, , “Notes on al-ëabarț's History”, pp. 1–2Google Scholar.
2 Cf. Tammām, Ab፫, Ash‘ār al-ḥamāsah (Hamasae carmina), edited by Freytag, Georg (Bonn, 1828–1851), i, 129: 5–9Google Scholar.
3 Cf. ’Ubaydah, Abū, Naqā’iḍ Jarțr wa-l-Farazdaq, edited by Bevan, A. A. (Leiden, 1905–1912), i, 321: 5–8; ii, 856ult, 878:4, 938:7Google Scholar; al-Maydānț, , Majma’ al-amthāl, edited by Muḥyū l-Dțn, Muḥammadal-Ḥamțd, ’Abd (Cairo, 1374/1955), ii, 133, no. 2996Google Scholar.
4 Tammām, AbūḤamāsah, i, 140: 19–20, 259: 6–9Google Scholar.
5 We are grateful to Professor Kamal Abu-Deeb for elucidating part of this line.
6 On the arāk and barțr, see Jabbūr, Jibrā’īl, Al-Badw wa-l-bādiyah: ṣuwar min ḥayāt al-badw fț bādiyat al-Shām (Beirut, 1988), p. 66Google Scholar.
7 De Goeje states that fatḥan here is an adverb meaning “abundantly” (Glossarium, p. 397), but it is difficult to see how an adverb can fit the syntax of the line.
8 See Conrad, , “Notes on al-ëabarț&s History”, p. 5Google Scholar.
9 See De Goeje, , Glossarium, p. 466Google Scholar.
10 For a usage of lajjāb in poetry, see al-‘Ajjāj, Ru’bah ibn, Dțwān, edited by Ahlwardt, Wilhelm in his Sammlungen alter arabischer Dichter, iii (Berlin, 1903), p. 8Google Scholar:11–12, nos. 130–1; fț dhț akhādțda mubmțni landțb / fțhi’zwirārun ‘an muḍirrin lajjāb. On the word's connotations of noise made by a crowd of men and horses, especially in a military camp (the context of the verse in al-ṭabarț), see Manẓūr, Ibn, Lisān al-‘arab (Beirut, 1374–1376/1955–1956), iGoogle Scholar, 735b: 16. Cf. also the use of jaysh/‘askar lajib in prose in, for example, al-K؛fț, Ibn A’tham, Kitāb al-futūḥ, edited by al-Muțd Khān, Muḥammad ‘Abd (Hyderabad, 1388–1395/1968–1975), vi, 187Google Scholar: 13; vii, 54: 1; viii, 107: 6, 145: 7–8, 258: 9, 313: 3, 333: 9.
11 De Goeje, , Glossarium, p. 122Google Scholar.
12 For this sense of jallaba, see Blachère, et al. , Dictionnaire, iii, 1595–1596Google Scholar.
13 Cf. the rather tortuous explanation of the verses in De Goeje, , Glossarium, pp. 380–1Google Scholar; “loco regionis ubi Lailâ habitavit, domicilium, visitatu longinquum, nacti sumus vallum periculosum, quod non transit nocturnus viator, inter desertum, in terra salebrosa ad orientem ejus, et celeriter fluentem cujus undae nobis viam praecludunt”
14 Ibid., p. 303.
15 See al-Mubarrad, , Al-Kāmilfț l-lughah wa-l-adab, edited by Wright, William (Leipzig, 1864–1892), p. 56Google Scholar: 3 and the explanation of safḥ in this verse in the commentary that follows (11. 17–18). Cf. also Manẓūr, Ibn, Lisān al-’arab, iiGoogle Scholar, 485b: 1, where for his first definition the author states: al-safḥu ’urḍu l-jabali ḥaythu yasfaḥu fțhi al-mā’.
16 Cf. Hishām, Ibn, Sțrat rasūl Allāh, edited by Wü;stenfeld, Ferdinand (Göttingen, 1858–1860), i. 2, 639Google Scholar: 3, with an exegesis in al-Zamakhsharī, Al-Fā’iq fț gharțb al-ḥadțth, q.v.; and especially al-ëabarț, i, 2292ult–2293: 1: “What is your ’illah today, when you are mounted on horses that will serve as your fortresses and have swords that will not fail to strike whatever mark you wish?”
17 See al-Maydānț, , Majma’ al-amthāl, i. 184–5, 388, nos. 980–4, 2051Google Scholar.
18 Glossarium, p. 583.
19 On the conceptualization of ghayrah in early Islam, see Beeston, A. F. L., The Epistle on Singing Girls by jāḥiẓ (Warminster, 1980), p. 41Google Scholar.
20 Cf. Shi‘r al-Kumayt ibn Zayd al-Asadț, edited by Sallūm, Da’ūd (Baghdad, 1969–1970), i, 159ultGoogle Scholar.
21 See El 1, iii, 438a, 439a (Henri Lammens).
22 For samām see De Goeje, , Glossarium, p. 297Google Scholar; and on bādirah (pl. bawādir), cf. Lane, , Lexicon, i, 166bGoogle Scholar.
