[209] Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 105.
[210] See the account of his life (according to the Kitábu’ l-Aghání) in Le Diwan d'Amro’lkaïs, edited with translation and notes by Baron MacGuckin de Slane (Paris, 1837), pp. 1-51; and in Amrilkais, der Dichter und König by Friedrich Rückert (Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1843).
[211] That he was not, however, the inventor of the Arabian qaṣída as described above (p. 76 sqq.) appears from the fact that he mentions in one of his verses a certain Ibn Ḥumám or Ibn Khidhám who introduced, or at least made fashionable, the prelude with which almost every ode begins: a lament over the deserted camping-ground (Ibn Qutayba, K. al-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará, p. 52).
[212] The following lines are translated from Arnold's edition of the Mu‘allaqát (Leipsic, 1850), p. 9 sqq., vv. 18-35.
[213] The native commentators are probably right in attributing this and the three preceding verses (48-51 in Arnold's edition) to the brigand-poet, Ta’abbaṭa Sharran.
[214] We have already (p. 39) referred to the culture of the Christian Arabs of Ḥíra.
[215] Vv. 54-59 (Lyall); 56-61 (Arnold).
[216] See Nöldeke, Fünf Mu‘allaqát, i, p. 51 seq. According to the traditional version (Aghání, ix, 179), a band of Taghlibites went raiding, lost their way in the desert, and perished of thirst, having been refused water by a sept of the Banú Bakr. Thereupon Taghlib appealed to King ‘Amr to enforce payment of the blood-money which they claimed, and chose ‘Amr b. Kulthúm to plead their cause at Ḥíra. So ‘Amr recited his Mu‘allaqa before the king, and was answered by Ḥárith on behalf of Bakr.
[217] Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, vol. ii, p. 233.
[218] Aghání, ix, 182.