[199] It was customary for the avenger to take a solemn vow that he would drink no wine before accomplishing his vengeance.
[200] Ḥamása, 679.
[201] Cf. the lines translated below from the Mu‘allaqa of Ḥárith.
[202] The best edition of the Mu‘allaqát is Sir Charles Lyall's (A Commentary on Ten Ancient Arabic Poems, Calcutta, 1894), which contains in addition to the seven Mu‘allaqát three odes by A‘shá, Nábigha, and ‘Abíd b. al-Abraṣ. Nöldeke has translated five Mu‘allaqas (omitting those of Imru’ u’ l-Qays and Ṭarafa) with a German commentary, Sitzungsberichte der Kais. Akad. der Wissenschaften in Wien, Phil.-Histor. Klasse, vols. 140-144 (1899-1901); this is by far the best translation for students. No satisfactory version in English prose has hitherto appeared, but I may call attention to the fine and original, though somewhat free, rendering into English verse by Lady Anne Blunt and Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (The Seven Golden Odes of Pagan Arabia, London, 1903).
[203] Ancient Arabian Poetry, Introduction, p. xliv. Many other interpretations have been suggested—e.g., 'The Poems written down from oral dictation' (Von Kremer), 'The richly bejewelled' (Ahlwardt), 'The Pendants,' as though they were pearls strung on a necklace (A. Müller).
[204] The belief that the Mu‘allaqát were written in letters of gold seems to have arisen from a misunderstanding of the name Mudhhabát or Mudhahhabát (i.e., the Gilded Poems) which is sometimes given to them in token of their excellence, just as the Greeks gave the title χρύσεα ἔπη to a poem falsely attributed to Pythagoras. That some of the Mu‘allaqát were recited at ‘Ukáẓ is probable enough and is definitely affirmed in the case of ‘Amr b. Kulthúm (Aghání, ix, 182).
[205] The legend first appears in the ‘Iqd al-Faríd (ed. of Cairo, 1293 a.h., vol. iii, p, 116 seq.) of Ibn ‘Abdi Rabbihi, who died in 940 a.d.
[206] See the Introduction to Nöldeke's Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Poesie der alten Araber (Hannover, 1864), p. xvii sqq., and his article 'Mo‘allaḳḳát' in the Encyclopædia Britannica.
[207] It is well known that the order of the verses in the Mu‘allaqát, as they have come down to us, is frequently confused, and that the number of various readings is very large. I have generally followed the text and arrangement adopted by Nöldeke in his German translation.
[208] See p. 42 supra.