[40] The poet ‘Alqama b. Dhí Jadan, whose verses are often cited in the commentary on the 'Ḥimyarite Ode.'
[41] Die Himjarische Kasideh herausgegeben und übersetzt von Alfred von Kremer (Leipzig, 1865). The Lay of the Himyarites, by W. F. Prideaux (Sehore, 1879).
[42] Nashwán was a philologist of some repute. His great dictionary, the Shamsu ’l-‘Ulúm, is a valuable aid to those engaged in the study of South Arabian antiquities. It has been used by D. H. Müller to fix the correct spelling of proper names which occur in the Ḥimyarite Ode (Z.D.M.G., vol. 29, p. 620 sqq.; Südarabische Studien, p. 143 sqq.).
[43] Fihrist, p. 89, l. 26.
[44] Murúju ’l-Dhahab, ed. by Barbier de Meynard, vol. iv, p. 89.
[45] Von Kremer, Die Südarabische Sage, p. 56. Possibly, as he suggests (p. 115), the story may be a symbolical expression of the fact that the Sabæans were divided into two great tribes, Ḥimyar and Kahlán, the former of which held the chief power.
[46] Cf. Koran xxxiv, 14 sqq. The existing ruins have been described by Arnaud in the Journal Asiatique, 7th series, vol. 3 (1874), p. 3 sqq.
[47] I follow Mas‘údí, Murúju ’l-Dhahab (ed. by Barbier de Meynard), vol. iii, p. 378 sqq., and Nuwayrí in Reiske's Primæ lineæ Historiæ Rerum Arabicarum, p. 166 sqq.
[48] The story of the migration from Ma’rib, as related below, may have some historical basis, but the Dam itself was not finally destroyed until long afterwards. Inscriptions carved on the existing ruins show that it was more or less in working order down to the middle of the sixth century a.d. The first recorded flood took place in 447-450, and on another occasion (in 539-542) the Dam was partially reconstructed by Abraha, the Abyssinian viceroy of Yemen. See E. Glaser, Zwei Inschriften über den Dammbruch von Mârib (Mitteilungen der Vorderastatischen Gesellschaft, 1897, 6).
[49] He is said to have gained this sobriquet from his custom of tearing to pieces (mazaqa) every night the robe which he had worn during the day.