Early Christianity in Arabia/Section 11

by Thomas Wright

SECTION XI.

The division of the northern tribes between the Persians and Romans, the overthrow of the ancient and once powerful kingdom of Hamyar, and the weakness of the Ethiopian government in the peninsula, had thrown the Arab states between Sabæa and the northern frontiers into a state of tumultuous anarchy. The various chiefs were perpetually at war with each other, and in these wars the powers of Hirah, of Ghassan, and of Yaman, became continually implicated. Their mutual hostilities were carried to such a height as to gain for them from one of their own poets the character of "men, like strong-necked lions, who menace one another with malignant hate, like the demons of Badiya, with feet firmly rivetted in the conflict."^[1]

A quarrel about the swiftness of the favourite horses of their chiefs, which were named Dahes and Ghabra, gave rise to a war between the Absites and the Dzobijamites. From the first conflict, the day of Morkateb, which was fought at Dzu'l-Morkateb, a place in the district of Scharabah, and in which the Absites triumphed, to the battle of the marsh, which was followed by a truce, it lasted forty years.^[2] This war ended about the period of the birth of Muhammed, during the reign of Amru ben Hind,^[3] and was followed by many wars and battles between the Amerites, Ghafanidites, Absites, Keisites, and other tribes, which originated in as many petty, perhaps often imaginary, injuries.^[4] Many of these conflicts took place within the bounds of the Roman and Persian provinces, and one is recorded to have happened at Ras-el-Ain, or Theodosiopolis, only fifteen farsangs, or forty-five miles, from Nisibis.^[5]

The Taglabites, or Arabs of Ghassan, were always celebrated for their personal bravery.^[6] Between them and the Becrites, who were also a powerful tribe, including the tribes of Keis, Hanifah, Edschlah, and Lodschainah in Yamama and Hadramaut, and who had gained no less than eight victories in a war with the Tamimites,^[7] a series of mutual enmities and jealousies had long existed. Of the origin of these animosities no certain account is given. The war of Basus, which ended just before Hogr the Kendite was made king of the Becrites, is said to have originated from a camel,^[8] or, according to others, from a goose.^[9] But it appears most probable that the chief cause of their hostilities was a quarrel about water, the most valuable article to a wandering Arab. Some of the tribe of Taglab, it seems, running short of water, applied for relief to the tribe of Beer, and on being refused, took arms, and obtained by force what had been denied to their entreaties.^[10] After having exhausted each other by their mutual and continual struggles, they at length called in the mediation of Amru ben Hind, the king of Hirah, who reigned from about the sixty-third to the seventy-ninth years of the sixth century.^[11] Of this event we have two authentic documents, the poetic addresses of the chiefs of the rival tribes, which deserved a place among the Moallaka that were suspended in the temple of Mecca.

Hareth was of the tribe of Beer, and his Moallaka is addressed to the king of Hirah in defence of his countrymen. At the beginning he expatiates on the injuries which the Becrites had suffered from the tribe of Taglab, and launches out in praise of his own personal innocence and valour. He recounts the various battles in which the Taglabites had been defeated, and reminds Amru of the numerous occasions in which the Becrites had assisted the kings of Hirah. He refers also to the bravery of his tribe in the war between the Arabs of Yaman and the Maadites and descendants of Adnan, and lastly appeals to the Taglabites themselves, who were present, to acknowledge their innocence.^[12]

The poet Amru ben Kelthûm was a chief of the tribe of Taglab, and had himself conquered the tribe of Temim, and had made war both on Hanifah and Hirah.^[13] He was chosen to advocate the cause of the Taglabites before Amru at Hirah, and there repeated the Moallaka which bears his name. He answers the address of Hareth by celebrating the glory of his own tribe, and comparing their actions with those of the Becrites. He boasts of having assisted the tribe of Nesâr in the invasion of Yaman,^[14] of having encamped in Syria at Dzu Tholûch, at Baalbec, and at Damascus, and even at Kâsarûn in Persian Irak, and of having repelled every attempt of his enemies to drive him away.^[15] "We severed their heads," he says, "and made them bow their necks;^[16] none ever knew us dejected or retreating."^[17] The judgment of the king of Hirah was perhaps guided by partiality and interest; but the violent spirit of Amru was incapable of bearing what he considered to be an injury, and he slew the king in his own palace, and hastened with his attendants to the Syrian desert.^[18]

Amongst the numerous poets who flourished at this period are recorded the names of Ascha and Nabega.^[19] Ascha was a Kadarite, or professor of the doctrine of free will, which he is said to have learnt from the Christians of Hirah.^[20] He was descended from Adnan,^[21] and wrote in the reign of Khosroës Parviz, and his poem, in which he praises his mistress, and bids defiance to his enemies, was suspended in the Kaaba, where it remained till the capture of Mecca by Muhammed.^[22] Ascha was concerned in several quarrels between the Arab tribes, and was once taken prisoner and confined in the castle of Ablak, but he contrived to make his escape.^[23]

The mondar who succeeded Amru ben Hind, Noman abu Kabus, who reigned at Hirah from the year 589 to 611,^[24] is said to have embraced Christianity.^[25] The progress, even the existence, of Christianity in the kingdom of Hirah, seems to have been always uncertain and inconstant, as it was dependent on the character and policy of the king, or rather on that of his master, the Khosroës of Persia. Christian bishops, however, were stationed there, at Hirah and at Kufa. Christianity is said to have been first carried into this part of Arabia by a monk, about the year 363.^[26] A king of Hirah is mentioned as having been converted in the beginning of the sixth century, and as having built several churches in various parts of his dominions.^[27] Noman abu Kabus is said to have been led to embrace the religion of Jesus by his admiration of the constancy and punctuality of a Syrian Christian, whom he had designed to put to death. In a fit of drunkenness he had wantonly killed two of his friends, and when sober, in repentance for his cruelty, and in remembrance of their friendship, he erected tombs over their graves, and vowed to moisten them once every year with the blood of an enemy. One of the first victims intended for the fulfilment of his vow was this Christian of Syria, who entreated the mondar to allow him a short space of time to return home, for the purpose of acquitting himself of some duty with which he had been entrusted; and the boon was granted on his solemn promise to return at an appointed time. The time came and he was punctual to his word, and thus saved his life.^[28] Noman abu Kabus proved the sincerity of his conversion by melting down a statue of Venus, of solid gold, which had been worshipped by his tribe, and by distributing the produce amongst the poor.^[29] Many Saracens of Hirah followed his example, and were baptized.

1. Zohair, Moallakah, couplet 71.
2. Rasmussen, Hist. Præcip. Arab. Regn. pp. 83–88.
3. Id. ib. p. 89.
4. Id. pp. 89–110. The following may be cited as an instance of the trifling causes of these hostilities. "Dies Fagar secundus fuit inter Koreischitas et Havazenitas: juvenes nempe aliquot Koreischitæ mulieri cuidam e beni Amer ben Dsâdsâh (معمعه‎) [Havazenitis] in foro Ocads consederunt. Complures subinde adolescentes Cananitæ eam circumdederunt, rogantes, ut vultum, velo demto, retegeret; quod cum negasset, aliquis eorum, a tergo subrepens, indusium ejus dorso spina affixit, unde factum, ut cum incauta surrexit, in conspectum data esset pars ejus postica. In risum effusi juvenes ei dixere: conspectum faciei tui nobis denegasti, sed conspiciendam partem adversam nobis præbuisti. Convocavit in auxilium mulier tributes Ameritas, unde orta altercatio leviorque conflictio; mox tamen rem composuit Harb filius Omijah." Nuweir, in Rasmussen, p. 75.
5. Rasmussen, p. 103.
6. Vullers, Prolegom. ad Hareth, Moallaca, p. ii.
7. Rasmussen, p. 117, et seq.
8. Id. pp. 111, 115.
9. Vuller, Prolegom. in Hareth. Moall.
10. Id. ib.
11. 563 or 564 to 576 or 579, according to Rasmussen.
12. Hareth, Moallaca, ed. J. Vullers. 4to. Bon. 1827.
13. Abu'l-farādsch Ali, ap. Kosegarten, in Amrui ben Kelthûm Moallaca, p. 38. He was celebrated as an excellent poet, and composed much.
14. Amru ben Kelthûm, Moallaca, coupl. 68. It has been published by G. L. Kosegarten, Jen. 1819. 4to. and translated by Sir W. Jones.
15.  

    Finximus tentoria nostra Dsutholûchi
    Ad Syriam usque, et repulimus minantes coupl. 28.

    Sæpius pocula exhausi Baalbeki,
    Aliaque Damasci et Kâsserûni. coupl. 7.

    Kâsserûni is, according to Meninski, Kasserûn in Persian Irak, or the province of Fars, which is mentioned by Sir W. Ouseley, (Travels, vol. i. p. 271) as a place founded by Kobad, or perhaps earlier. It was noted in the time of the Arabian geographers for the number of its fire temples. Kosegarten, de Mohammede Ebn Batuta, p. 31.

16.  

    Findimus illis capita agminis findendo,
    Demetunt colla, ita ut succidantur. coupl. 38.

17.  

    Ohe, non cognoverunt gentes nos
    Abjectos unquam neque torpentes. coupl. 58.

18. Kosegarten, Amrui Moallac. p. 39. His violence came into a proverb—"Violentior Amruo ben Kelthûm."
19. A learned Arab being asked who was the best Arabian poet, said, "Amru'l-Kais when he is in a rage; Nabega when under the influence of fear; Zohair, when under that of desire; Ascha, when he is transported with joy." Abul-faradj, in the Fundgruben des Orients, band v. p. 1.
20. Silvester de Sacy, ibid.
21. Eichhorn, Monum. Ant. Hist. p. 137.
22. This poem was edited by de Sacy, in the Fundgruben des Orients, band v. with an introduction and translation.
23. Fundgruben des Orients, band v. p. 3.
24. Id. band ii. p. 37.
25. Id. ib. Evagrius, lib. vi. c. 22. Pococke, Spec. Hist. p. 75.
26. Fundgruben des Orients, band ii. p. 360.
27. Abulfeda, ap. Pococke, p. 75.
28. Pococke, ibid. Fundgruben des Orients, band iii. p. 38.
29. Τοτε και Νααμανης των εκθρων Σκηνητων φυλαρχος, εξαγιστος και παμμιαγος Ἑλλην (i.e. a pagan), ὡς και ανθρωπους αυτοχειρι σφαγιαζειν τοις αυτου δαιμονιοις, τῳ αγιῳ προσηλθε βαπτισματι, την οντως ολην χρυσην Αφροδιτην πυρ τηξας, και πτωχοις διαδους, και παντας τους αμφ' αυτου τῳ θεῳ προσαγαγων. Evagrius, lib. vi. c. 22. This account agrees remarkably with that of the Arabian writers.