16

Al-Uzza

They then adopted al-'Uzza[1] as their goddess. She is, in point of time, more recent than either Allat or Manah, since I have heard that the Arabs named their children after the latter two before they named them after al-'Uzza. Thus I have found that Tamim ibn-Murr[2] had called his son[s] Zayd-Manah ibn-Tamim ibn-Murr ibn-Udd ibn-Tabikhah'[3] and 'Abd-Manah ibn-Udd[4]. Similarly Tha'labah ibn-'Ukabah[5] named his son after Allit, calling him Taym-Allat[6]. [Others were] : Taym-Allat ibn-Rufaydah ibn-Thawr, Zayd-Allat ibn-Rufaydah ibn-Thawr ibn-Wabarah ibn-Murr ibn-Udd ibn-Tabikhah. Taym-Allat ibn-al-Namir ibn-Qasit, and 'Abd-al-'Uzza ibn-Ka'b ibn-Sa'd ibn-Zayd-Manah ibn-Tamim[7]. It is therefore more recent than the first two. 'Abd-al-'Uzza ibn-Ka'b is among the earliest compounded names the Arabs used in conjunction with al-'Uzza.

The person who introduced al-'Uzza was Zilim ibn-As'ad[8]. Her idol was situated in a valley in Nakhlat al-Sha'miyah[9] called Hurad[10], alongside al-Ghumayr'[11] to the right of the road from Mecca to al-'Iraq, above Dhat-Irq[12] and nine miles from al-Bustin[13]. Over her [Zalim] built a house called Buss[14] in which the people used to receive oracular communications. The Arabs as well as the Quraysh were wont to name their children 'Abd-al-'Uzza. Furthermore al-'Uzza was the greatest idol among the Quraysh. They used to journey to her, offer gifts unto her, and seek her favours through sacrifice.

We have been told that the Apostle of God once

 

17

 
 

mentioned al-Uzza saying, "I have offered a white sheep to al-'Uzza, while I was a follower of the religion of my people."

The Quraysh were wont to circumambulate the Ka'bah and say:


"By Allat and al-'Uzza,
And Manah, the third idol besides.
Verily they are the most exalted females[15]
Whose intercession is to be sought[16]."
These were also called "the Daughters of Allah[17]," and were supposed to intercede before God. When the Apostle of God was sent, God revealed unto him [concerning them] the following:

Have you seen Allat and al-'Uzza, and Manah the third
idol besides? What? Shall ye have male progeny and
God female? This indeed were an unfair partition! These
are mere names: ye and your fathers named them thus:
God hath not sent down any warranty in their regard[18]."
The Quraysh had dedicated to it, in the valley of Hurad, a ravine (shi'b) called Suqam[19] and were wont to vie there with the Sacred Territory of the Ka'bah. Abu-Jundub al-Hudhali[20] (also al-Qirdi), describing a woman with whom he was in love, composed the following verses and mentioned in them a vow which she made to him swearing by al-'Uzza:

"She swore an earnest and solemn oath
By her to whom the vales of Suqam were dedicated:
 

18

 
 



If thou wouldst not return my clothes, go,
For the rest of my life I would hate thee.
Since it was hard for him to part with umm-Huwayrith,
He became eager to fulfil her desire[20]."
Dirham ibn-Zayd al-Awsi[21] also said:

"By the Lord of al-'Uzza, the propitious,
And by God betwixt whose House [and Suqam] Sarif[23]stands[24]."
She also had a place of sacrifice called al-Ghabghab[25] where they offered their oblations. Hudhali[26] speaks of it in a satire which he composed against a certain man who had married a beautiful woman whose name was Asmr. He said:

"Asmi' was married to the jawbone of a little cow
Which one of the banu-Ghanm'[27] had offered for sacrifice.
As he led it to the Ghabghab of al-'Uzza,
He noticed some defects in its eyes;
And when the cow was offered upon the altar,
And its flesh divided, his portion was foul."
It was customary to divide the flesh of the sacrifice among those who had offered it and among those present at the ceremony.

Nuhaykah al-Fazari[28], addressing 'Amir ibn-al-Tufayl[29], speaks of al-Ghabghab saying:

 

19

 
 



"O 'Amir! If we had but overtaken thee with our spears,
By the stars that [watch over] Mina[30] and al-Ghabghab!
Thou wouldst have avoided the thrust of a bold warrior
by turning thy hind part,
Or thou wouldst have taken thy resting place with neither
honor nor shroud[31]."
Qays ibn-Munqidh ibn-'Ubayd ibn-Datir[32] ibn-Hubshiyah[33]ibn-Salul al-Khuza'i (born to a woman of the banu-Hudad of the Kinanah while others hold that she was of the [banu-] Hudad of the Mubarib) who is [the same as] Qays ibn-Hudadiyah[34], speaking of it, said:

"We swore first by the House of God,
And failing that, by the baetyls
which in al-Ghabghab stand."
The Quraysh were wont to venerate her above all other idols. For this reason Zayd ibn-'Amr ibn-Nufayl[35], who, during the Jahiliyah days, had turned to the worship of God and renounced that of al-'Uzza and of the other idols, said:


"I have renounced both Allat and al-'Uzza,
For thus would the brave and the robust do.
No more do I worship al-'Uzza and her two daughters,
Or visit the two idols[36] of the banu-Ghanm;
Nor do I journey to Hubal[37] and adore it,
Although it was our lord when I was young[38]."

The custody of al-'Uzza was in the hands of the banu-Shayban ibn-Jabir ibn-Murrah ibn-'Abs ibn-Rifa'ah ibn-al-Harith ibn-'Utbah ibn-Sulaym ihn-Mansur of the banu-

 

20

 
 

Sulaym[39]. The last of them to hold its custody was Dubayyah ibn-Harami al-Sulami[40]. In connection with a visit to Dubayyah, in which he was given a good pair of shoes, abu-Khirash said:


"When my old slices went to pieces,
Dubayyah gave me a new pair. The best friend is he.
Carefully and evenly made of the hide of a full-grown ox,
Truly they are a worthy present to give.
How excellent is the place where his guests rest,
While the refreshing north winds lash their tents.
Their hunger he satisfies with cakes
Steeped in butter, tasty and sweet[41]."

Al-'Uzza continued to be venerated until God sent His Prophet who ridiculed her together with the other idols and forbade her worship. At the same time a revelation concerning her came down in the Koran[42]. This proved very hard upon the Quraysh. Then abu-Uhayhah (Sa'id ibn-al-'As ibn-Umayyah ibn-'Abd-Shams ibn-'Abd-Manaf)[43] was taken sick by what proved to be his last and fatal sickness. As he lay on his deathbed, abu-Lahab[44] came to visit and found him weeping. Thereupon abu-Lahab asked, "What makes you weep O abu-Uhayhah? Is it death which is inevitable?" Abu-Uhayhah replied, "No. But I fear that al-'Uzza will not be worshipped after I depart." Abu-Lahab answered and said, "By God! Al-'Uzza was not worshipped during your lifetime for your sake, and her worship will not be discontinued after you depart because of your death." Abu-Uhayhah then said, "Now I know that I have a successor," and was well pleased with abu-Lahab's intense loyalty to al-'Uzza[45].

 

21

 
 

In the year of the victory ('am al-fath)[46], the Prophet summoned Khalid ibn-al-Walid[47] and said unto him, "Go unto a tree in the valley of Nakhlah[48] and cut it down." Khalid went thereto, captured Dubayyah, who was the custodian of al-'Uzza, and killed him. Abu-Khirash al-Hudhali said lamenting Dubayyah:


"What is wrong with Dubayyah? For days I have not seen him
Amid the wine-bibbers; he drew not nigh, he did not appear.
If he were living I would have come with a cup
Of the banu-Hatif[49] make, filled with
Bacchus oil. Generous and noble is he; no sooner his wine cups
Are filled than they become empty, like an old tank full of
holes in the midst of winter.
Suqam[50] has become desolate, deserted by
all of its friends, except the wild beasts and the wind which
blows through its empty chambers[52]."

(Said abu-al-Mundhir: Al-Hatif is a clan of the banu-'Amr ibn-Asad.)" - . . . [53]

Abu-al-Mundhir said: Sa'id ibn-al-'As abu-Uhayhah was wont to don a turban while in Mecca. Whenever he donned his turban no one ever dared don another of the same color.

We were told by al-'Anazi abu-'Ali that 'Ali ibn-al-Sabbah had told him that he himself was informed by abu-al-Mundhir, who reported that his father had related to him on the authority of abu-Salih that ibn-'Abbas said: Al-'Uzza was a she-devil which used to frequent three trees in the valley of Nakhlah. When the Prophet captured Mecca, he dispatched Khalid ibn-al-Walid saying, "Go to the valley of Nakhlah; there you

 

22

 
 

will find three trees. Cut down the first one." Khalid went and cut it down. On his return to report, the Prophet asked him saying, "Have you seen anything there?" Khalid replied and said, "No." The Prophet ordered him to return and cut down the second tree. He went and cut it down. On his return to report the Prophet asked him a second time, "Have you seen anything there?" Khalid answered, "No." Thereupon the Prophet ordered him to go back and cut down the third tree. When Khalid arrived on the scene he found an Abyssinian woman with dishevelled hair and her hands placed on her shoulder[s], gnashing and grating her teeth. Behind her stood Dubayyah al-Sulami who was then the custodian of al-'Uzza. When Dubayyah saw Khalid approaching, he said:


"O thou al-'Uzza! Remove thy veil and tuck up thy sleeves;
Summon up thy strength and deal Khalid an unmistakable blow.
For unless thou killest him this very day,
Thou shalt be doomed to ignominy and shame."

Thereupon Khalid replied:


"O al-'Uzza! May thou be blasphemed, not exalted!
Verily I see that God hath abased thee."

Turning to the woman, he dealt her a blow which severed her head in twain, and lo, she crumbled into ashes. He then cut down the tree and killed Dubayyah the custodian, after which he returned to the Prophet and reported to him his exploit. Thereupon the Prophet said, "That was al-'Uzza. But she is no more. The Arabs shall have none after her. Verily she shall never be worshipped again." Consequently abu-Khirash composed the preceding verses in lamentation of Dubayyah.

Abu-al-Mundhir said: The Quraysh as well as the other Arabs who inhabited Mecca did not offer to any of the idols anything similar to their veneration of al-'Uzza. The next in order of veneration was Allat and then Manah. Al-'Uzza,

 

23

 
 

however, received from the Quraysh the exclusive honor of visitation and sacrifice. This, I believe, was because of her close proximity. The Thaqif, on the other hand, were wont to offer Manah the exclusive honor [of visitation and sacrifice], in the same way the Quraysh offered it to al-'Uzza, while the Aws and the Khazraj favored Manah therewith. All of them, though, venerated al-'Uzza. They did not, however, hold the same regard, or anything approaching it, for the five idols which were introduced by 'Amr ibn-Luhayy. These are the five idols which God mentioned in the glorious Koran when He said, "Forsake not Wadd nor Suwa', nor Yaghuth and Ya'us and Nasr[54]." This, I believe, was because of their distance from them.

The Quraysh were wont to venerate [al-'Uzza]. The Ghani[55] and the Bihilah[56], too, joined the Quraysh in her worship. The Prophet, therefore, dispatched Khalid ibn-al-Walid, who cut down the trees, destroyed the house, and demolished the idol[57].

The Quraysh had also several idols in and around the Ka'bah. The greatest of these was Hubal[58]. It was, as I was told, of red agate, in the form of a man with the right hand broken off. It came into the possession of the Quraysh in this condition, and they, therefore, made for it a hand of gold. The first to set it up [for worship] was Khuzaymah ibn-Mudrikah ibn-al-Ya's'[59] ibn-Mudar[60]. Consequently it used to be called Khuzaymah's Hubal.

It stood inside the Ka'bah. In front of it were seven divination arrows (sing. qidh, pl. qidah or aqduh). On one of these arrows was written "pure" (sarih), and on another "consociated alien" (mulsag). Whenever the lineage of a new-born was doubted, they would offer a sacrifice to it [Hubal] and then shuffle the arrows and throw them. If the arrows showed

 

24

 
 

the word "pure," the child would be declared legitimate and the tribe would accept him. If, however, the arrows showed the words "consociated alien," the child would be declared illegitimate and the tribe would reject him. The third arrow was for divination concerning the dead, while the fourth was for divination concerning marriage. The purpose of the three remaining arrows has not been explained. Whenever they disagreed concerning something, or purposed to embark upon a journey, or undertake some project, they would proceed to it [Hubal] and shuffle the divination arrows before it. Whatever result they obtained they would follow and do accordingly.

It was before [Hubal] that 'Abd-al-Muttalib[61] shuffled the divination arrows [in order to find out which of his ten children he should sacrifice in fulfilment of a vow he had sworn], and the arrows pointed to his son 'Abdullah, the father of the Prophet[62]. Hubal was also the same idol which abu-Sufyan ibn-Harb[63] addressed when he emerged victorious after the battle of Uhud[64], saying:


"Hubal, be thou exalted" (i.e. may thy religion triumph);

To which the Prophet replied:


"Allah is more exalted and more majestic[65]."

Among their idols, the Quraysh also had Isif and Na'ilah[66]. On being transformed into petrified form, they were placed by the Ka'bah in order that people might see them and be warned. Finally, as their origin became remote and, therefore, forgotten, and idol worship came into vogue, they were worshipped with the other idols. One of them stood close to the

 

25

 
 

Ka'bah while the other was placed by Zamzam[67]. Later, the Quraysh moved the one which stood close to the Ka'bah to the side of the other by Zamzam where they sacrificed to both.

Of them abu-Talib[68] said, swearing by them when the Quraysh united against the banu-Hishim[69] in connection with the rise of the Prophet:


"Unto the house [of God) I brought my men and my kin,
And held fast to the veils of its curtains;
Yea, where the banu-al-Ash'ar halt I brought them all,
Where the valleys meet and Isaf and Na'ilah stand[70]."

Bishr ibn-Khazim al-Asadi[71], speaking of Isaf, says:

Full of awe, they draw not nigh unto it, But stand afar off like the menstruating women before Isa.

The Arabs were wont to use other names in conjunction with 'Abd; yet I do not know whether they were after names of idols or not. Among these names were: 'Abd-Yalil[72], 'Abd-Ghanm[73], 'Abd-Kulal[74], and 'Abd-Ruda[75].

Some of the traditionists related that Ruda[76] was a temple which belonged to the banu-Rabi'ah ibn-Sa'd ibn-Zayd ibn-Manih[77]. It was destroyed by al-Mustawghir [whose real name] was 'Amr ibn-Rabi'ah ibn-Sa'd ibn-Zayd ibn-Manah

 

26

 
 

ibn-Tamim[78]. He was called al-Mustawghir (irascible, choleric) because he once said the following:


"The water gurgles in the water-skins
Like the gurgling (waghir) of the milk when the hot
stone is in it thrown."

When, in the early days of Islam, al-Mustawghir destroyed Ruda, he said:


I marched against Ruda and burnt it down,
And left it a heap of ashes, charred and black.
I called upon 'Abdullah's aid for its destruction;
Verily if is one like 'Abdullah who would dare unlawful
things to do[79]."

Ibn-Adh'am[80], a man of the banu-'Amir ibn-'Awf of the Kalb [tribe], said:


"When one day thou met some of our knights,
They cornered thee, but thou slipped out of their hands
As a locust once slipped out of al-'Ayyar's [toothless mouth].
Henceforth when thou seest their place thou hiest away,
As the pig fleeth the boiling water[81]."

Al-'Ayyar was a man of the Kalb [tribe] who came upon some locusts and sat down to eat a few of them. Being, how- ever, toothless one locust slipped out of his mouth. Thereupon he cried out saying, "By God, it is alive!" in other words the locust did not die, but slipped out.)

 

27

 
 

When, on the day he conquered Mecca, the Apostle of God appeared before the Ka'bah, he found the idols arrayed around it. Thereupon he started to pierce their eyes with the point of his arrow saying, "Truth is come and falsehood is vanished. Verily, falsehood is a thing that vanisheth." He then ordered that they be knocked down, after which they were taken out and burned.

In this connection, Rashid ibn-'Abdullah al-Sulami[83] said:


"She asked me to speak, hut I said, 'No.
Neither God nor Islam would approve our speech.
Hast thou not seen Muhammad and his men
On the day of victory, when the idols were demolished?
Then the light of God shone with all its brilliance,
And polytheism was submerged in a sea of darkness.'"[84]

Said [abu-al-Mundhir: The Quraysh] had another idol [called] Manaf[85]. They were wont to call their children 'Abd-Manaf[86], after it. I do not, however, know where it stood, or who erected it. The menstruating women were not allowed to come near the idols or to touch them. Rather, they stood far off. In this connection, Bal'a' ibn-Qays ibn-'Abdullah ibn-Ya'mar'[87] (Yamar is al-Shuddakh[88] al-Laythi), who was afflicted with alphosis[89] (Hisham ibn-Muhammad abu-al-Mundhir related that Khalid ibn-Sa'id ibn-al-'As[90] had told him on the authority of his father[91] that Bal'a' was once asked

 

28

 
 

about his affliction and replied, "The sword of God has been polished."), said:


"A matchless peer. I no longer augur at its shrine,
But stay away as the menstruating women stand afar off
from Manaf."

[Abu-al-Mundhir] also said : Every family in Mecca had at home an idol which they worshipped. Whenever one of them purposed to set out on a journey his last act before leaving the house would be to touch the idol in hope of an auspicious journey; and on his return, the first thing he would do was to touch it again in gratitude for a propitious return.

When God sent His Prophet, who came preaching the Unity of God and calling for His worship alone without any associate, [the Arabs] said, "Maketh he the god to be but one god? A strange thing forsooth is this[92]." They had in mind the idol.

The Arabs were passionately fond of worshipping idols. Some of them took unto themselves a temple around which they centered their worship, while others adopted an idol to which they offered their adoration. The person who was unable to build himself a temple or adopt an idol would erect a stone in front of the Sacred House or in front of any other temple which he might prefer, and then circumambulate it in the same manner in which he would circumambulate the Sacred House. The Arabs called these stones baetyls (ansab). Whenever these stones resembled a living form they called then' idols (asnam) and images (awthan). The act of circumambulating them they called circumrotation (dawar).

Whenever a traveler stopped at a place or station in order to rest or spend the night, he would select for himself four stones, pick out the finest among them and adopt it as his god, and use the remaining three as supports for his cooking-pot.

 

29

 
 

On his departure he would leave them behind, and would do the same on his other stops.[93]

The Arabs were wont to offer sacrifices before all these idols, baetyls, and stones. Nevertheless they were aware of the excellence and superiority of the Ka'bah, to which they went on pilgrimage and visitation. What they did on their travels was a perpetuation of what they did at the Ka'bah, because of their devotion to it.

The sheep which they offered and slaughtered before their (34 idols and baetyls were called sacrifices (ata'ir, sing. atirah); the place on which they slaughtered and offered the sacrifice was called an altar, ('itr). In this connection Zuhayr ibn-abi-Sulma[94] said:


"He moved therefrom and reached a mountain top,
Like a high altar sprinkled with the blood of sacrifice."

The banu-Mulayh[95] of the Khuza'ah [tribe] (they are the kindreds of Talhat a-Talahat[96] [or al-Talhat]) were wont to worship the jinn. In reference to them the following verse was revealed: "Truly they worship ye call on besides God, are, like yourselves, his servants[97]."

 

 
 

FOOTNOTES

1. Ryckmans. vol 1, p. 26; Wellhausen, pp.34-45.

2. Ishtiqaq,p. 123.

3. ibid., p.133.

4. ibid.,p. 144.

5. Unidentified.

6. Ishtiqaq, p.315.

7. The last four names unidentified.

8. Taj al-'Arus, entries bss and zz.

9. Buldan, vol. iv, p.769.

10. ibid., vol. ii, p.229.

11. ibid., vol. iii, p. 816.

12. ibid., vol. iii, pp. 651-652.

13. ibid., vol. i,pp. 611-612.

14. Buldan, vol. i, pp. 622-623; Taj al-'Arus, entries bss and zz.

15. Ar. ghardniq, lit. Numidian cranes,

16. Said to be one of the "abrogated" verses of the Koran; cf. Tabari, vol.1, pp. 1192-1196.

17. Al-Tabari, Jami' al-Bay'dn fi Tafsir al-Qur'an, Cairo, 1323-1330, vol. xxvii, pp.34-36. Also F. V. Winnett, "The Daughters of Allah," in The Moslem World, vol. xxx (1940), pp. 113-130.

18. Surah LIII: 19-20. For Muhammad's compromise with these deities and his subsequent repentence, see Tabari, vol. i, pp. 1192-1196; cf. also Surah xvii: 75-76.

19. Buldan, vol. III. p.100.

20. Kosegarten, Ash'ar al-Hudhaliyin, pp. 79-99.

21. cf. Buldan, vol. iii, p. 100. The verses are not mentioned in Kosegarten's edition.

22. cf. al-Aghani, vol. ii, pp. 166, 168.

23. Sifah, p.120; Buldan, vol. III, pp. 77-78.

24. Buldan, vol. iii, p.665; cf. al-Aghani', vol.II p. 168, line 4.

25. cf. Sifah, p.177; Buldan, vol. iii, pp.772-773.

26. Abu-Khirash Khuwaylid ihn-Murrah; al-Shi'r w-al-Shu'ara' p.48; al-Aghani, vol. xxi, pp.54-70.

27. Ishtiqaq, p. 87, line 15.

28. Nahik in Lisan al-'Arab, entry hsb See Khizanat al-Adab, vol. iv, p. 164, where his name is Nuhaykah ibn-al-Harith al-Mizini of the Fararah tribe.

29. d. A.H. 10 / A.D. 631-632. Tabari, vol.1, pp. 1443-1448, 1745-1747; al-Aghani. vol. xv, p.52; al-Shi'r w-al-Shu'ara; pp.191-192.

30. Buldan, vol. iv, pp.642-643.

31. cf. Buldan, vol.III, p.773.

32. cf. al-Aghani, vol. xiii, p. 2, where it is Dayatir.

33. Ishtiqaq, p.276.

34. Al-Aghani, vol: xiii, pp. 2-8.

35. One of four men who are supposed to have renounced idolatry during the Jahiliyah days. See Surah, pp. 143-149. Muhammad is said to have declared him one of the ten promised Paradise. See al-Ma'arif, p. 29.

36. Unidentified.

37. Ryckmans, vol.I, pp.9, 71.

38. cf. al-Aghani, vol.III, pp.15-16.

39. Ishtiqaq, p 187.

40. Al-Aghani, vol. xxi, p.57.

41. cf. ibid., vol. xxi, pp.57-58.

42. Surah LIII: 19.

43. d. A.H. 1/ A.D. 622-623; Ishtiqaq, p.49; Tabari, vol.I, p.1261.

44. cf. Surah cxi; Sirah, pp. 231, 233, 276; Tabari, vol.I, pp. 1170-1172; al-Marif, pp. 60-61.

45. cf. Buldan, vol.III, pp. 665-666.

46. A.H. 8 / A.D. 629-630, the year Mecca was captured.

47. The greatest Muslim general ; d. A.H. 21 / A.D. 642; see ibn-Sa'd, vol. iv, Pt. 2, pp.1-2, vol. vii, pt. 2, pp.118-121; aI-Ma'drif, p.136.

48. Sifah, p.127, line 1; Buldan, vol. iv, pp.769-770.

49. Taj al-'Arus, entry htf. A sub-tribe of the Kinanah.

50. Buldan, vol.III, p. 100.

51. cf. al-Aghani; vol. xxi, p. 58.

52. Ishtiqaq, p.110.

53. Linguistic notes precede and follow this sentence.

54. Surah LXXI: 22-23.

55. Ishtiqaq, p. 164.

56. ibid., p. 164.

57. Ibn-Sa'd, vol. ii, pt 1, p.105.

58. See above, p.19.

59. Also Alyas; cf. Ishtiqaq, p.20.

60. Ishtiqaq, pp. 19-20.

61. Grandfather of the Prophet.

62. For details, see Sirah, pp. 91-100.

63. One of "those whose hearts are reconciled" to Islam (al-mu'allafah qulubuhum), namely Arab chiefs with whom the Prophet made terms after the battle of Hunayn, A.H. 8 / A.D. 629. in order to secure their aid. Sirah, pp. 880-883; cf. Sirah ix: 60. His son, Mu'awiyah, who later founded the Umayyad dynasty. was another.

64. Sirah, pp. 555-592. In this battle, A.H. 3 / A.D. 625, Muhammad himself was wounded. See also Tabari, vol.I, pp. 1383-1431.

65. cf. Ishtiqaq, p. 316.

66. See above, p. 8.

67. The sacred well within the precincts of the Sacred Mosque, supposed to he identical with the well from which Hagar and Ishmael drank while in the wilderness. Buldan, vol.II, pp. 941-944; cf. Gen. xvi: 4.

68. The uncle and guardian of Muhammad. Sirah, pp. 114-117.

69. The family of the Prophet.

70. Sirah, pp. 172-177. The banu-al-Ash'ar (al-Ash'arun in the text) were a South Arabian tribe, See Lisan al-'Arab, entry sh'r. They were also known as al-Ashair; see Shams al-Ulam, p. 56. 71. Al-Shi'r w-al-Shu'ara, pp. 145-147. See also Gustav von Grunebaum, Bishr b. abi Khazim: Collection of Fragments," in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1939), pp. 533-567. For the verse see no. xxvi, on p. 558.

72. Ryckmans, vol. I, p. 111.

73. ibid., vol.I, p. 175.

74. ibid., vol. 5, p. 267.

75. ibid., vol. I, p. 32.

76. Buldan, vol. II, p. 789.

77. Ishtiqdq, p. 154.

78. ibid, p. 154.

79. cf Sifah p. 56; Buldan, vol. ii, p. 789.

80. In al Maydini, Majma' al-Amthal, Cairo, 1310, the poet is Masruh al Kalbi and in Taj al-'Aras, entry ghnz, he is Masruh ibn-Adham al-Na'ami (a sub-tribe of the KaIb), and the verses are said against Jarir.

81. In Lisan al-'Arab, entry ghnz," these verses are ascribed to Jarir; entry yr at Ayy'ar is supposed to be a horse, and the verses are ascribed to abu 'Ubayd, perhaps ibn-abi-Wajzab; cf. also Taj al-'Aras, entries jrd and yr. In the "Jambarah" (Escurial MS), folio 215, the verses are said against al-Nabighah al-Dhubyani.

82. Surah xvii 83.

83. cf. ibn-Hajar al-'Asqalani, al-Isabah fi Tamyiz al-Sahabah, Cairo, 1327, vol. ii, p. 185.

84. cf. Buldan, vol. iv, p. 950.

85. Ryckmans, vol.1, pp. 18, 129.

86. Ishtiqaq, p. 10.

87. ibid., p. 106.

88. Also al-Shaddakh; see Ishtiqaq, p 106; Lisan al-Arab, entry shdkh; Tabari vol. i, p.1097.

89. Ar. abras, which literally means a leper. But the malady was probably the very common bahaq which resulted in the loss of pigment.

90. d. A.H. 14 / A.D. 635; al-Baladhuri, Futah al-Buldan, ed. M. J. de-Goeje, Leyden, 1866, p. 119; cf. al-Ma'arif, p. 151; Istiqaq, p.49. Since ibn-al-Kalbi flourished almost two centuries later, there must be a lacuna in the chain of transmission.

91. Abu-Uhayhab; see above, p. 20.

92. Surah xxxviii: 4.

93. This recalls to one's mind the stone which Jacob set up and anointed at Bethel. See Gen. xxviii: 18-22.

94. Al-Shi'r w-al-Shu'ara, pp. 57-67; al-Aghani, vol. ix, pp. 146-158.

95. Ishtiqaq, pp. 276, 280.

96. His real name was Talhah ibn-'Abdullah ('Ubayd-Allah in Lisan al-'Arab, entry thl) ibn-Khalaf al-Khuza'i. See al-Ma'arif, p. 214; Ishtiqaq, p.280.

97. Surah vii: 193.

 
 

 

  

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