14 
C. J. Lyall —The J\Io‘allaqali of Zuheyr. 
[No. 1, 
true, it would be an important datum for fixing the year in which the peace was made ; 
but it is not consistent with the other facts of the history. The date of the peace is 
fixed by M. Caussin de Perceval, on grounds of great probability, at from 608 to 610 
A. D. (Essai, ii. p. 499) ; it was not till the 8th year of the Hijrah (629—639 A. D.) that 
‘Abs and Bubyan embraced el-Islam (id. iii, p. 218). According to the ‘Iqd el-Ferid 
of Ibn ‘Abd Rabbih, quoted by M. Fresnel (Journ. Asiatique, 3me serie, iv. p. 20), 
the two persons whom Zuheyr praises in his Mo‘allaqah are ‘Auf and Ma‘qil, sons of 
Subey‘ son of ‘Amr, of the line of Tha‘lebeh ibn Sa‘d. These two did indeed, accor¬ 
ding to el-Meydani, make peace between ‘Abs and their own tribe of the Benu Tha‘- 
lebeh, who at first refused to join the rest of Bubyan in the engagement; but it is 
impossible to regard them as the two praised by Zuheyr if v. 18 is genuine, inasmuch 
as they were not of the line of Ghey'S son of Murrah. 
The name of the man who was slain by Hoseyn son of Damdam is given by el- 
Meydani and the ‘Iqd as Tijan. ‘Antarah slew Damdam, Hoseyn’s father, on the Bay 
of el-Mureyqib, one of the earliest battles of the war (Fresnel, loc. cit. p. 6), and Ward 
son of Habis slew Herim, Hoseyn’s brother, on the Bay of el-Ya‘muriyyeh, imme¬ 
diately after the slaying of the hostages by Ho'Seyfeh (Aghani, xvi. 30). Between 
these two dates ‘Antarah composed his Mo‘allaqah, in vv. 73—75 of which he mentions 
Damdam as slain by his hand, and the two sons as still alive. 
It is worthy of notice that the Mo‘allaqah, in vv. 40—46, (if those verses are 
rightly placed,) seems to tell of a graver dissension as having arisen out of Hoseyn’s 
violent deed than that which this tradition relates ; for it would appear that the renewal 
of strife which followed it was the occasion when the slain men named in vv. 42 and 
43 (said in the commentary to be all of ‘Abs) met their death ; and that some bloodshed 
ensued seems certain from the metaphor in vv. 40—41, where the camels, (that is, 
the fighting men,) after a <tim', or period of thirst, are said to have been led down again 
to drink of the pools of Death. The $im’ was probably the truce during which peace 
was being arranged. 
3 This parenthesis, telling of the end of Qeys son of Zuheyr, is founded on the 
testimony of Ibn el-Athir, who is believed generally to follow Abu ‘Obeydeh (Kamil 
i. p. 434.), and et-Tebrizi (Hamaseh, p. 223) ; it is vouched for by a poem by a man 
of ‘Abs, Bishr son of Ubayy son of Homam, quoted in the Hamaseh, where it is said 
of the horses that ran in the Race of Dahis— 
S ? " G ^ & / • s ✓ /O * i/ C/« * o' ' 
<♦/* ^J—^ 
's' f ' y y yy ^ 
9 
“ They brought to pass—so God willed—the spilling of Malik’s blood, 
and cast Qeys away forlorn an exile in far ‘Oman.” 
4 This paragraph is mine, and expresses what seems to me the most probable 
view to take of the case. I should add that besides el-Harith, Herim, and Kharijeh, 
another pair of the house of Ghey<5 are mentioned in the ‘Iqd (Journ. Asiat., Juillet 
1837, p. 18) as having exerted themselves to establish peace between ‘Abs and Bubyan, 
viz. Harmaleh son of el-Ash‘ar and his son Hashim. 
Notes to the Mo‘allaqah. 
The measure of the poem is the noble cadence called the Tawil, most loved of all 
by the ancient poets. Each hemistich consists of four feet, arranged thus— 
