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XIV. Al-Quhaif al-'Uqaili his poetical remains collected and translated
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
During the later periods of the Ornmayade Caliphate, with their continual rebellions and turmoil, the centre of Arab literary activity had moved entirely to the North, and we get only very few notices of poets who lived and flourished in the central provinces of Eastern Arabia, which in earlier days had produced many celebrated names. Among the poets of this period in Central Arabia the most prominent names are those of al-Quḥaif and Yazīd b. aṭ-Ṭathrlīyya, the latter being perhaps more famous through the elegy upon his death by his sister Zainab, of which verses have found a place in many anthologies. Al-Quṭaif is not mentioned by Ibn Qutaiba, Poësis, but the Kitāb al-Aghānī devotes four pages to his biography, and its author states that only few poems of his are preserved. He receives a short mention in the Fulmlat ash-Shu'arā’ of al-Aṣma'ī, where he is said to have made poems upon women, but that his verses were neither good Arabic nor suitable for being quoted as evidence for correct speech. Among the twenty-four fragments which follow there are only four which may be called poems upon women, while the remainder deal with the troubles in Central Arabia after the murder of the Caliph al-Walīd b. Yazid. As regards the statement that the verses of al-Quḥaif cannot be quoted as evidence for correct speech, the fragments preserved are too few to enable us to judge for ourselves, though I have endeavoured in the notes to several verses to point out deviations from customary usage.
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References
page 341 note 1 Cf. al-Akhṭal, al-Farazdaq, al-Kumaib, at-Ṭirimmāḥ, al-Quṭāmī, etc.
page 341 note 2 Ṭarafa, Ṭufail al-Ghanawī, Labīd, etc.
page 341 note 3 Wright, , Opuscula, p. 110Google Scholar; Ḥamāsa of Tammām, Abū, pp. 468 and 417Google Scholar; Ḥamāsa of al-Buḥturī, , p. 396Google Scholar (= ed. Cheiklio, No. 1450); Agh. vii, 123; Qālī, , ii, 87–8Google Scholar; and elsewhere.
page 341 note 4 xx, 140–3.
page 341 note 5 xx, 140, 4 a.f.
page 341 note 6 ed. Torrey, ZDMG., vol. lxv, p. 499, 5.
page 341 note 7 
page 341 note 8 Nos. 5, 6, 10, 20.
page 342 note 1 Jumādā ii, a.h. 126, Ibn al-Athīr, , Bulāq ed., v, 111.Google Scholar
page 342 note 2 The accusation of al-Aṣma'ī has not prevented other grammarians from quoting verses of al-Quḥaif as Shāhids.
page 342 note 3 iv, 250.
page 342 note 4 The author of the Kitāb al-Aghānī, (xx, 540)Google Scholar is evidently wrong when he calls him al-Quḥaif b, Ḥumair (or Ḥamīr) of the clan Qushair b. Mālik b. Khafāja b. ‘Uqail b. Ka'b b. Rabī'a b. ‘Āmir b. Ṣa'ṣa'a. Other authorities call him al-Quḥaif b. 'Umair al-'Āmirī.
page 342 note 5 Khiz., l.c. Ho doubt the edition of the class-book of al-Jumaḥī which Professor Hell is preparing will give further particulars.
page 343 note 1 In the following account I endeavour to combine the narratives of the Kitāb al-Aghānī (xx, 141–2, and vii, 122–3) and of Ibn al-Athīr (Bulāq ed., v, 119–21).
page 343 note 2 Ibn al-Athīr.
page 343 note 3 Agh. xx.
page 343 note 4 Ibn al-Athīr.
page 343 note 5 Capital of the province al-Baḥrain.
page 343 note 6 Agh. xx.
page 344 note 1 Agh. xx. This is probably the castle al-Mushuqqar, which used to be the seat of the Persian Satraps, and is frequently mentioned by Arab poets in the time before Islām.
page 344 note 2 Ibn al-Athīr says that 'Alī b. al-Muhājir escaped to al-Madīna.
page 344 note 3 Agh. xx, 143. 1–2; Ibn al-Athīr, however, says that 'Abd Allāh b. an-Nu'mān, of the tribe of Qais b. Tha'labab. ad-Du'il, wasappointed governor of the Yamāma by al-Muhair.
page 344 note 4 Poem No. XVI.
page 344 note 5 So Agh. xx; Ibn al-Athīr calls him al-Mundalith.
page 344 note 6 Called Falaj al-Aflāj, “the brook of brooks,” or al-Falaj al-'Ādiyy, “the ‘Adite brook,” in the verses of al-Quḥaif.
page 344 note 7 Agh. xx calls him Abū Laṭīfa b. Maslama; but Agh. vii, 122, and Ibn al-Athīr have Muslim.
page 345 note 1 Ibn al-Athīr.
page 345 note 2 Agh.
page 345 note 3 Nos. XIX and XXIV; the latter piece is also attributed to Najda al-Khafājī, while Ibn al-Athīr quotes a verse in the same metre as No. XI, but referring to a later event. We may have here a case, which I have noticed rather frequently, that the poet added subsequently to a Fakhr-poem.
page 345 note 4 Ibn al-Athīr: 
Ṭāriq b. 'Abd Allāh al-Qushairī, while the two Ja'wanīs (Ibn al-Athīr has 
, but the name is correctly given Duraid, Ibn, Geneal. W., 179, 7)Google Scholar are said to belong to Qushair also, though Ibn Duraid states that they belong to Numair.
page 345 note 5 This account is given in Agh. vii, 122–3, on the authority of Abū 'Ubaida, Ibn al-Kalbī, and Abul-Jarrāḥ al-'Uqailī.
page 346 note 1 I have not been able to identify these two places.
page 346 note 2 The principal place in the, land of the tribe of 'Uqail (Bekrī, , 677).Google Scholar
page 346 note 3 From this it appears that the army of Ḥanīfa was hardly properly equipped, but a big rabble, accompanied by their women.
page 347 note 1 The account in Agh. says that only Yazīd b. aṭ-Ṭathrīyya was killed, but immediately after in a poem the other Yazīd is also named as one of the slain; cf. No. XVIII.
page 347 note 2 Poems Nos. 2 and 15.
page 347 note 3 The following account is only given by Ibn al-Athīr.
page 347 note 4 The highland towards the west from the Yamāma.
page 347 note 5 A water belonging to Numair, where there is an abundance of Ḥamḍ weed. Yāqūt, Buldān; TA. (s.v.).
page 347 note 6 Cf. No. XIX.
page 347 note 7 
(Ibn al-Athīr, l.c.).
page 348 note 1 A poet of Ḥanīfa says— 
(Ibn al-Athīr, l.c.).
page 348 note 2 No. XX, v. 5.
page 349 note 1 No. X.
page 349 note 2 I have since received the Egyptian edition, which appears to be fair, though the boast of the editors that they have improved upon that of Wüstenfeld is not justified by the quotations from al-Quḥaif which I have compared.
page 349 note 3 Abū Zaid, Nawādir, 176, 6–7 (v. 1, 2); Mubarrad, Kāmil, 342; Iqtiḍāb, 241 (v. 1), 432 (vv. 1, 2); Gauh. ii, 483 (v. 1, anon.); LA. xix, 39 (vv. 1, 2); Shaw., Mughnī, 142 (vv. 1, 2); ‘Aini, iii, 282 (vv. 1, 2); Khiz. iv, 247–9 (vv. 1, 2); Ṭabarī, Tafsir, i, 101 (v. 1, anon.); Ibn Sīdah, xiv, 65 (v. 1, anon.). The first two verses are quoted in many grammatical works for the usage of 
with 
instead of 
as dialect of ‘Āmir. The verses 3 and 4 are quoted Abū Zaid, Nawādir, 176. 18–19, and cited from the Nawādir of Ibn al-A'rabī by Khiz. iv, 249.
page 350 note 1 Agh. vii, 122–3.
page 351 note 1 Baṣrian Ḥamāsa, MS. Rāghib Pasha (communicated by Dr. O. Rescher).
page 351 note 2 Yāqūt, Buldān, iii, 931. 7.
page 352 note 1 Agh. xx, 140.
page 352 note 2 Agh. xx, 141 (vv. 1, 2, and 2 three times); xvi, 124 (vv. 1, 2).
page 352 note 3 
(Agh. xvi, 124).
page 352 note 4 Noah is proverbial for length of life.
page 352 note 5 Yāqūt, Buldān, , iii, 909Google Scholar = Cairo, ed., vi, 392Google Scholar (vv. 1,2); iv, 783 = Cairo, ed., viii, 288Google Scholar (v. 1); TA. 
(v. 1); LA. xiv, 157 (v. 3).
page 353 note 1 Metaphor taken from the watering of the camels.
page 353 note 2 The hyenas get fat through feasting upon the multitude of the slain.
page 353 note 3 Yāqūt, Buldān, iv, 572 = Cairo, ed., viii, 94Google Scholar (vv. 1–3), probably part of the preceding poem.
page 353 note 4 Yāqūt, Buldān, i, 466 = Cairo, ed., i, 376Google Scholar (vv. 1–3); ii, 479 = Cairo, ed., iii, 473Google Scholar (v. 4); TA. vi, 282 (vv. 2, 3), acc. Ṣaghānī.
page 353 note 5 
, Cairo edition of Yāqūt.
page 353 note 6 
, var. lect. Yāqūt.
page 354 note 1 
TA.
page 354 note 2 I understand 
as plural of 
; it is hardly possible that a special clan is meant; the variant 
is simply a misreading.
page 354 note 3 Agh. xx, 141.
page 355 note 1 Ibn al-Athīr, ed. Bulāq, , v, 120.Google Scholar
page 355 note 2 Yāqūt, Buldān, i, 699 = Cairo ed., ii, 250 (vv. 1, 2); iv, 236 = Cairo ed., vii, 216 (vv. 3–5); iii, 909 = Cairo ed., vi, 392 (vv. 6–10).
page 355 note 3 
, var. lect.; this is not as good from a point of euphony and also as regards the meaning; this is the reading of Cairo edition.
page 355 note 4 Yāqūt reads unmetrically 
. I have to thank Professor Geyer for this conjecture.
page 356 note 1 
var. lect.
page 356 note 2 
, Yāqūt, also Cairo edition.
page 356 note 3 I take this word to be a synonym of 
, “a cloud giving much rain” (LA. xvi, 106. 11; Ibn Sīdāh, , ix, 100. 5 a.f.).Google Scholar
page 357 note 1 Var.: the ‘Ādite Falaj.
page 357 note 2 Yāqūt, Buldān, iii, 701 = Cairo, ed., vi, 199–200.Google Scholar
page 357 note 3 Yāqūt has 
, but I believe this is the name of a place in the land of the Banū Ja'da, frequently mentioned by an-Nābigha al-Ja'dī. 
, Yāqūt.
page 357 note 4 Text and translation very uncertain.
page 357 note 5 Referring to the pale yellow colour of the slain and the red blood shed.
page 358 note 1 Yāqūt, Buldān, iii, 416. 18 = Cairo, ed., v, 400Google Scholar (apparently a verse out of a Hijā’-poem). I take 
to be an irregular plural of 
, “a woman who has lost her husband, through death or any other cause.”
page 358 note 2 Agh. vii, 123.
page 359 note 1 Agh. xx, 142 (vv. 1, 2, 5–15); Yāqūt, Buldān, iv, 516 = Cairo, ed., vii, 41Google Scholar (vv. 1–4); LA. ix, 474 (v. 8); Yāqūt, Buldān, iii, 288= Cairo, ed., v, 263Google Scholar (v. 4).
page 359 note 2 
, Yāqūt.
page 359 note 3 
, Agh.; 
, Yāqūt, 
, Cairo ed.; 
, Yāqūt, var. lect.; 
for 
.
page 359 note 4 
, Agh., Yāqūt; 
, Yāqūt, var. lect.
page 359 note 5 
, Yāqūt; so Cairo ed., except … 
.
page 359 note 6 
, Yāqūt, var. lect.
page 359 note 7 
, Yāqūt, iv, 516 = Cairo ed., but correct iii, 288. 1. = Cairo ed., v, 262.
page 359 note 8 So LA. ix, 474; Agh. has 
… 
… 
.
page 360 note 1 LA. iii, 56; TA. ii, 20.
page 360 note 2 Var.: but wars have come, etc.
page 360 note 3 Var.: a wearing journey.
page 361 note 1 LA. xv, 163.
page 361 note 2 Agh. vii, 123.
page 362 note 1 Agh. xx, 142 (vv. 1–3); Iqtiḍāb, 394 (vv. 2, 4, 5); Yāqūt, Buldān, iii, 678 = Cairo ed., vi, 178 (vv. 4, 6, 7); Ibn al-Athīr, ed. Bulāq, v, 120 (v. 8); Maidānī, ii, 262 (vv. 9, 10); ‘Umda, ii, 39 (v. 11). Sinā'atain, 255, quotes a half-verse which probably belongs to the poem—
“with horses the riders of which are haughty in their bearing.”
page 362 note 2 
, Iqtiḍāb.
page 362 note 3 
, Iqtiḍāb; 
, Yāqūt.
page 362 note 4 
, Yāqūt, but variant as in text.
page 363 note 1 Var.: we take recourse to.
page 363 note 2 Agh. xx, 143.
page 364 note 1 The word Muftī is interesting at such an early date.
page 364 note 2 Abū Zaid, Nawādir, 208. 12–16 (vv. 1–5); Khiz. ii, 341 (vv. 1, 2); LA. xiii, 305 (vv. 1, 2); TA. v, 128 = v, 130 (vv. 4, 5); LA. vii, 34 (v. 5, anon.); Asās, 
(v. 5); Ibn Sīdāh, iv, 25 (vv. 5, b).
page 364 note 3 So vocalized in Nawādir and explained to mean 
for the customary 
; Khiz. and LA. xiii, 305 have 
.
page 364 note 4 The subject to 
in the verse following is considered a fault in poetry; the technical term given to it by al-Khalīl is 
Nawādir
page 364 note 5 LA. has wrongly 
. This verse as quoted in the Lexica is shāhid for 
in the meaning of “herd of camels”; it usually means “a troop of horses”.
page 365 note 1 
, translated by “calamity”, is stated by commentators to mean a mysterious bird which causes ruin, and we have in this probably the survival of some ancient superstition. The word in this form or as 
or 
occurs rather frequently, e.g. Ṭufail al-Ghanawī, iii, v. 30; Aslam b. al-Qaṣṣār, Ḥam. Buḥt, No. 371, v. 1; anon, poet, LA. xii, 149 = xi, 349; anon, poet, Howell, Grammar, i, 794; anon, poet, LA. ii, 133; Abū Nowās, ‘Askarī, Jamharat-al-Amthal (in margin of Maidanī, Cairo, 1312), ii, 49; al-'Utbī, Jurjānī, Kināya, 50.
page 365 note 2 TA. after Ṣāghānī reads … 
.
page 365 note 3 TA. 
page 366 note 1 Yāqūt, Buldān, iii, 909 = Cairo, ed., vi, 392Google Scholar (vv. 1–3); i, 344 = Cairo ed., v, 318 (v. 1).
page 366 note 2 
, i, 344.
page 366 note 3 Majmū'at al-Ma'ānī, 113 (vv. 1, 2); LA. xv, 334.
page 366 note 4 
, LA.
page 366 note 5 The author of the Majmū'a says that he quotes from the Ḥamāsa of Abū Hilāl al- 'Askarī, and that the second verse is generally attributed to Bashshār. This is expressed by Ibn Barrī, , LA. xv, 334Google Scholar, 
.
page 367 note 1 Agh. xx, 142.
page 367 note 2 Ḥamasa, ed. Bulāq, , i, 112Google Scholar (a Tamīmī); Shaw., Mughnī, , 116–17Google Scholar; ‘Aini, i, 302; Hamāsa, Baṣr MS. Pasha, Rāghib, i, 150Google Scholar (Resoher); Kitāb al-Ḥalba, ed. Ross, D., Calcutta, 25.Google Scholar These verses are frequently cited elsewhere, generally without the name of the poet.
page 367 note 3 
, ‘Aini, Jauh. i, 63, governed by 
.
page 367 note 4 
, ‘Aini; Shaw., Mughnī.
page 367 note 5 The variant 
is recorded, Shaw., Mughnī.
page 367 note 6 The customary greeting to kings in pre-Islamic times, proving that this poet lived at least a century earlier than al-Quḥaif al-'Uqailī.