18 
[No. 1, 
C. J. Lyall— The Mo^llaqdh of Zuheyr. 
v. 3. “ The wild kine,” the antilope defassa , a species of bovine antelope. “ The 
deer,” dram (for ar’dm), plural of ri’m. Ri'm is the white antelope ( antilope leucoryx ) ; 
though identical in form with the Hebrew r’em ( reym ), it is very doubtful whether the 
latter word means the same : the LXX translate it by povduepws (A. Y. “unicorn”). 
The Assyrian is, like the Arabic, ri’mu, and there is a good discussion of the meaning 
of this word in an article on the Animals of the Assyrian Sculptures in the Transactions 
of the Society of Biblical Archaeology for 1877 ; it appears certain that it is not the 
antilope leucoryx , but some larger and robuster animal, perhaps the wild buffalo (see 
Job xxxix, 9-12). 
v. 5. “ Trench” : round the tent a trench is dug to receive the rain from the 
roof and prevent the water from flooding the interior. 
v. 6. “ In the morn” : the morning was the time when raids were made, and 
the word sabdh thus itself is used in the sense of a sudden attack. Yd sabdhdh was the 
battle-cry {shikar) of Temim in the Day of el-Kulab. To wish peace in the morning 
to a place is therefore an appropriate greeting. 
vv. 7—15. The journey here described would take the wanderers along the 
southern skirt of the tract called by Palgrave (Cent, and East. Arabia, Yol. I, chap, 
vi) “the Upper Kaseemer-Rass is still a place of some importance, and will be 
found marked on Palgrave’s map some distance to the North of ‘Oneyzeh. In the days 
of Zuheyr the country was in the possession of the Benu. Asad, who were not always 
on the friendliest terms with the Benu Bubyan, among whom the poet lived. 
v. 12. Tassels of scarlet wool decorated the haudaj in which ladies rode. “ l Ish- 
riq seeds” : habbu-l-fend ; the exact nature of this plant with a scarlet seed or fruit 
is very doubtful : see Lane, s. vv. and 
%* 
v. 16. “ The Holy House” is the Ka‘beh. The mention of its building by the 
Qureysh and the men of Jurhum must not be understood of the same time. Jurhum 
was the name of two Arab stocks : the first the ancient race who peopled the lower 
Hijaz and Tihameh at the time of the legendary settlement of Ishmael among them, 
with whom he is said to have intermarried ; the second (whom M. de Perceval regards as 
alone having had a historical existence) a tribe who ruled in Mekkeh from about 70 
B. C. to 200 A. D. They were expelled from Mekkeh and dispersed so that no me¬ 
morial of them remained by an Azdite stock from el-Yemen called the Khuza‘ah (C. 
de Perceval, Essai, i, 218. Aghanl, xiii, 108-111.). The second Jurhum are said 
(Agh. id., p. 109) to have rebuilt the Ka‘beh on the foundations laid by Abraham after 
it had been overthrown by a flood : the architect was one ‘Omar el-Jarud, whose 
descendants were known as the Jedarah , or masons. The Qureysh settled in Mekkeh 
during its occupation by the Khuza‘ah, and gained possession of the Iva‘beh in the 
time of Qusayy, whose mother was of the race of the Jedarah, about 440 A. D. (O. 
de Perceval). Qusayy, in the year 450 A. D. or thereabout, caused the building 
erected by the Jurhum to be demolished, and rebuilt the Ka‘beh on a grander scale. 
It was rebuilt a third time in the year 605 A. D., very shortly before the Mo‘allaqah 
was composed. Mohammed, then 35 years old, assisted in the work. These three 
occasions are probably those to which Zuheyr refers. 
