2 See pp. cxciv and cxcv.
3 See table at p. cxlix.; and notice of the B. Harith, p. cxxiii.
4 For previous notices of this tribe see pp. cxcvi. and cxcix. The uncircumcised mules are, at the period in question, given at the extravagant number or from forty to sixty thousand, which would imply a population of from two to four hundred thousand; although Adwan, the progenitor of the tribe, was not born more than two hundred years before. This illustrates the important position that tribe, when on the ascendant, rapidly increased by associating under the same banner and title with themselves other straggling tribes, attracted by the prestige of their power and the hopes of plunder. It is thus that we must account for the extensiveness of the hordes which, in the fifth century, represented the Bani Bakr, Bani Taghlib, Bani Hawazin, Bani Ghatafan, Bani Sulaim, &C, none of whose nominal progenitors was born much before 200 A.D.
Where respectable descent was wanting, a good tribe was often adopted; or endeavour was made to fabricate a claim to a good pedigree. See instances in Katib al Wackidi, p. 227; C. de Perceval, vol. ii. p. 491. Burkhardt found the Bani Adwan still inhabiting the country between Jidda and Taif: they used to muster 1000 matchlocks, but nearly exterminated by Mahommed Ali Pasha. "They were an ancient and noble tribe," be adds, "unequaled in the Hejas, and intimate with the Sharifs of Mecca." Travels in Arabia, p. 240; Burton, iii. p. 95.
5 See note p. clxi.
6 See table at p. cxcv. This tribe must be distinguished from the Bani Bakr, descendants of Abdmonat, who assisted in the expulsion of the Jorhomites from Mecca, See p. cxcviii.
7 Sullan lay to the south of the Hedjaz, and the east of Najd, towards
Yatnama.
8 Some verses of Zohair, a poet or the Bani Kalb, and the Himyarite Governor of the Bani Bakr and Tughlib, have been preserved with reference to these actions, in which, he himself was engaged.
9 This prince, it will be remembered, was the son of Maria Dzul Curtain (Maria of the ear-rings), sister or Amr al Macsur's mother. See p. cixxxvii.
10 They awarded him one of the signs of sovereignty, viz., a foourth part of
his booty. Mahomet secured a fifth.
11 See p. clxxiii.
12 An interesting coincidence may here be observed between Arab history and the Grecian writers. Procopius and Nonnosus mention an embassy to Abyssinia from Justinian, A.D. 531, the object or which was to endeavour, through the Yemenite Viceroy of the Abyssinian king, to reinstate a prince
called CAYS, in the command or the Kindinians and Maaddenians, and give him troops to fight against the Persians. Here we identify Imrul Cays, whom the Greeks sought to restore to his Arab chieftainship, and to aid against the Persian vassal the prince or Hira. Other coincidences or names may he traced in C. de Perceval, vol ii. p. 316.
The Arabs tell us that when Imrul Cays went to Constantinople he left his daughter, arms, &C, with Samuel the Jew in his fort of Ablak near to Tayma, in Northern Arabia. This noble Jew was attacked by the Ghassanide king, Harith the Lame, who demanded the deposit, and threatened to slay the son or Samuel before him if he refused. The Jew was immovable, and the "faith of Samuel" has hence become proverbial among the Arabs.
Arab writers say that the Emperor or Constantinople, jealous at the reports or the intimacy of Imrul Cays with his daughter, gave him a tunic which, like that of Hercules, consumed his body. He died in fact of ulcers. The legend shows to how late a date (540 A.D.) fiction mingles with Arabian history.
13 See Katib al Wackidi, p. 64. and Hashimi p. 426; where the embassy is described.
14 See above, p. clxxviii. This Amr is famous for his Moallaca, or "Suspended poem," which was recited at the fair of Ocatz. His tribe doted on it; and it used to be repeated even by the children long after his death.
15 They sent to Mahomet a deputation, the members of which worn golden crosses. They were allowed to maintain unchanged their own profession of Christianity, but not to baptize their children, or bring them up as Christians - a fatal concession!
16 Vide p. clxxxii.
17 Some of the most illustrious of the Arab poets belong to the Bakr and Taghlib tribes, and their poems hare rendered famous the war of Basus and the long train of hostilities which followed. Thus there are ascribed poems of the class MOALLACAT to Tarafa, Harith ibn Hilizn, and Maimun al Asha, all of the Bakr tribe, and to Amr ibn Colthum of the Bani Taghlib.
18 The patriarchs, Ghatafan and Hawazin, were contemporaries or Fihr Coreish (born A.D. 200). Their ancestor Aylan was the grandson of
Modhar, who was the grandson of Maadd. The following table will render
the subsequent details more intelligible.
19 This war is famous in Arab history and pocsy, which delight to expatiate on all the attendant circumstances. The detailed account given by M. C. de Perceval is highly illustrative of the fiery pride of Arab chivalry. The history and parentage of the ill-starred Dahis is traced with a curious minuteness which could be found in few nations but Arabia. The expression
More ill-owned than Dahis, became proverbial.
20 The only brother who escapped was Hisn, father of Uyeiua, chief of the
Fezara (a branch of the B. Dzobian), who plays a conspicuous part in the time of Mahomet.
21 See table, ii. cxcv.
22 Amir iba Tofail, chief of the Bani Amir at the rise of Islam, was born at the very moment of this victory on the rocky crest of Jabala, whither the females had been for safety removed. Mahometan writers place the engagement at an earlier date, some in the year of Mahomet's birth,
others as far back as 553 A.D. In refuting this erroneous calculation, M.C. de Perceval lays down the following useful principle. "En general, dans toute l'histoire anteislamique, les Arabes ont exagere l'antiquite des faits, comme Ia durce de la vie des personnages" vol. ii p. 484.
23 Thus Zohair ibn Abu Solma, a contemporary poet of the Mozeinia, celebrates the magnanimity of Harith and Harim, two Dzobianite chiefs, who charged themselves with supplying three thousand camels required in payment of the blood shed in this long war. Arter the negotiations had been interrupted by a perfidious murder, Harith brought a hundred camels (the price of blood), along with his own son, to the father of the murdered person, and said, Choose thou between the blood (of my son), and the milk (of the camels). The man chose the camels, and the negotiations went on.
There were many other famous poets during the war of Dahis; and none more so than the warrior Antara, whose feats have been transmitted to modern Arabs in the apocryphal but charming 'Romance of Antar.' His Moallac is still extant. Labid, the satirist of the Bani Amir stock, and Nabigha Dzohiani (so styled from his tribe), are also worthy of mention as distinguished poets.
24 i.e. the Bard Bakr ibn Wail, whom we left at p. ccxxiii.
25 See p. ccxix. and the genealogical table at p. cxlix.
26 See p. clx.
