[225]. A collection of similar poetical passages is to be found in Freytag’s Commentary on the amâsâ, pp. 601 and 606.
[226]. Ḥamâsâ, Text, p. 340, 3 infr.
[227]. E.g. Yâḳûṭ, Geograph. Dict., II. 118. s.v. gamal.
[228]. al-Nâbiġâ, III. 2.
[229]. Journal Asiatique, 1868, II. 378.
[230]. Just as can be said of another passage closely connected with the above, Is. XL. 26. On the contrary, especially in the latter passage, the host of stars is compared to a war-host, ṣâbhâ; and the idea that each star is a valiant warrior is also not strange to Arabic poetry (e.g. Ḥamâsâ, p. 36, l. 5, comp. Num. XXIV. 17); for the conception of ṣebâ hash-shamayîm ‘host or army of heaven,’ has taken as firm root among the Arabs as among the Hebrews. ‘For thou art the Sun,’ says al-Nâbiġâ (VIII. 10) to king Noʿmân, ‘and the other kings are stars; when the former rises, not a single star of these latter are any longer visible.’ With this is connected the expression juyûsh al-ẓalâm ‘the armies of darkness’ (Romance of ʿAntar, XVIII. 8. 6, XXV. 60. 69). In the last passage, indeed, it stands in parallelism with ʿasâkir al-ḍiʾâ w-al-ibtisâm ‘armies of light and smiling,’ just as with the synonymous juyûsh al-ġeyhab (ʿAntar, XV. 58. 11).
[231]. On this peculiarity of the poets of the towns an opinion of ʿAjjâj very much to the point occurs in the Kitâb al-aġânî, II. 18.
[232]. The Heart of Africa, I. 28.
[233]. Quer durch Afrika, I. 121.
[234]. Palgrave, Central and Eastern Arabia, I. 463.