The Wines of the Ancient Orient. 



35 



yards of at-Ta'if to be destroyed when he beleaguered that 

 city K Qazwini II, 64 praises the g-rapes and the raisins of at 

 Ta'if. At-Ta'if furnished Mecca with grapes (Idrisi, Vol. I, p. 1 39). 

 A troop of the Sulaim goes to at-Ta'if in order to buy pro- 

 visions and wine (Diwan of the Hudh. No. 216). In Medina, 

 which abounded in dates, generally date-wine seems to have 

 been drunk 2. Several large kegs filled with strong drink 

 were broken to pieces and wine-skins were emptied on the 

 ground at the time when one of the castles of Chaibar was 

 taken by the forces of Muhammed (Waqidi, 151a, 15lb)3. 

 The sixteenth Sura of the Koran (v. 69) testifies to the viticul- 

 ture of the Arabs, and it shows also that they prepared palm- 

 wines*. This was before Mohammed placed the prohibition 

 of intoxicating liquors upon his followers. On festive occasions 

 the Arabs of pre-Mohammedan times were accustomed to use 

 wine to excess ^ A significant case of inebriation is narrated, 

 for instance, in Abulfedae Historia Anteislamica *^. For a men- 

 tion of the grapes of ad-Damr see Lebid, XLI, 48. Sadum 

 Rah (^1^ 0"^"^)^ ^ well-inhabited fortress of considerable size, 

 possessed many vineyards'. Palgrave^, describing the G'auf, 

 makes a casual mention of viticulture in that district of Nor- 



i) Ibn Hisham, ed. Wiistenfeld, 873, and Wellhausen, J-, Muhammed in 

 Medina. Das ist Vakidi's Kitab al-Ma^hazi, Berlin 1882, p. 370. 



2) Bukhari, III, Kitab al-Ashriba. 



3) Wellhausen, J., Muhammed in Medina, p, 275. 



4) l-i-w-vsw ^))^ \S.^^ dJ^ ^^uXivJ i^LU V 1^ ^.<vs,\Jl CjIv^j ^^-o^' 

 5j Geopn. II, c. 21; see also chapter IV. 



^\i^\ ^Ju^i b\ (^^^^3 ds-^^" ^^-^^ <jj^ (^ ej>.5Ly\ jj, ^\g^cti 



..f^ ^-j <ilL.-.A5Jl ^pli-^ d'.X^ ^yX^\^ j^SX\ (ed. Fleischer, Lipsiae, 

 MDCCCXXXI. p. 186, lines 6 8). I may add here the interesting passage, 

 Yaqut, Vol. IV, p. 380, lines 3 and 4: 



V )\yXcJ\ liS.'i (i. e. the black stone and the Zemzem-well) 1.^* sUa ^^ 



L^jyi* -^.vkJU ^_^^-<*J\ <*w^ ^-tL*.j ^^ c^.y^ ^-^3^^ 



7) Jaubert, 0. c, Vol. I, p. 145. 



8) Palgrave, W. G., Narrative of a Year's yourney through Central and 

 Eastern Arabia, London, i866, Vol. I, p. 184. 



3* 



