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.
50 Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, vol. i, p. 497.
51 Hamdání, Iklíl, bk. viii, edited by D. H. Müller in S.B.W.A.(Vienna, 1881), vol. 97, p. 1037. The verses are quoted with some textual differences by Yáqút, Mu‘jam al-Buldán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, vol. iv, 387, and Ibn Hishám, p. 9.
52 The following inscription is engraved on one of the stone cylinders described by Arnaud. "Yatha‘amar Bayyin, son of Samah‘alí Yanúf, Prince of Saba, caused the mountain Balaq to be pierced and erected the flood-gates (called) Raḥab for convenience of irrigation." I translate after D. H. Müller, loc. laud., p. 965.
53 The words Ḥimyarand Tubba‘do not occur at all in the older inscriptions, and very seldom even in those of a more recent date.
54 See Koran, xviii, 82-98.
55 Dhu ’l-Qarnayn is described as "the measurer of the earth" ( Massáḥu ’l-arḍ) by Hamdání, Jazíratu ’l-‘Arab, p. 46, l. 10. If I may step for a moment outside the province of literary history to discuss the mythology of these verses, it seems to me more than probable that Dhu ’l-Qarnayn is a personification of the Sabæan divinity ‘Athtar, who represents "sweet Hesper-Phosphor, double name" (see D. H. Müller in S.B.W.A., vol. 97, p. 973 seq.). The Minæan inscriptions have "‘Athtar of the setting and ‘Athtar of the rising" ( ibid., p. 1033). Moreover, in the older inscriptions ‘Athtar and Almaqa are always mentioned together; and Almaqa, which according to Hamdání is the name of Venus ( al-Zuhara), was identified by Arabian archæologists with Bilqís. For qarnin the sense of 'ray' or 'beam' see Goldziher, Abhand. zur Arab. Philologie, Part I, p. 114. I think there is little doubt that Dhu ’l-Qarnayn and Bilqís may be added to the examples ( ibid., p. 111 sqq.) of that peculiar conversion by which many heathen deities were enabled to maintain themselves under various disguises within the pale of Islam.
56 The Arabic text will be found in Von Kremer's Altarabische Gedichte ueber die Volkssage von Jemen, p. 15 (No. viii, l. 6 sqq.). Ḥassán b. Thábit, the author of these lines, was contemporary with Muḥammad, to whose cause he devoted what poetical talent he possessed. In the verses immediately preceding those translated above he claims to be a descendant of Qaḥṭán.
57 Von Kremer, Die Südarabische Sage, p. vii of the Introduction.
58 A prose translation is given by Von Kremer, ibid., p. 78 sqq. The Arabic text which he published afterwards in Altarabische Gedichte ueber die Volkssage von Jemen, p. 18 sqq., is corrupt in some places and incorrect in others. I have followed Von Kremer's interpretation except when it seemed to me to be manifestly untenable. The reader will have no difficulty in believing that this poem was meant to be recited by a wandering minstrel to the hearers that gathered round him at nightfall. It may well be the composition of one of those professional story-tellers who flourished in the first century after the Flight, such as ‘Abíd b. Sharya (see p. 13 supra), or Yazíd b. Rabí‘a b. Mufarrigh (õ 688 a.d.), who is said to have invented the poems and romances of the Ḥimyarite kings ( Aghání, xvii, 52).
59 Instead of Hinwam the original has Hayyúm, for which Von Kremer reads Ahnúm. But see Hamdání, Jazíralu ’l-‘Arab, p. 193, last line and fol.
60 I read al-jahdifor al-jahli.
61 I omit the following verses, which tell how an old woman of Medína came to King As‘ad, imploring him to avenge her wrongs, and how he gathered an innumerable army, routed his enemies, and returned to Ẓafár in triumph.
62 Ibn Hishám, p. 13, l. 14 sqq.
63 Ibn Hishám, p. 15, l. 1 sqq.
64 Ibid., p. 17, l. 2 sqq.
65 Arabic text in Von Kremer's Altarabische Gedichte ueber die Volkssage von Jemen, p. 20 seq.; prose translation by the same author in Die Südarabische Sage, p. 84 sqq.
66 The second half of this verse is corrupt. Von Kremer translates (in his notes to the Arabic text, p. 26): "And bury with me the camel stallions ( al-khílán) and the slaves ( al-ruqqán)." Apart, however, from the fact that ruqqán(plural of raqíq) is not mentioned by the lexicographers, it seems highly improbable that the king would have commanded such a barbarity. I therefore take khílán(plural of khál) in the meaning of 'soft stuffs of Yemen,' and read zuqqán(plural of ziqq).
67 Ghaymán or Miqláb, a castle near Ṣan‘á, in which the Ḥimyarite kings were buried.
68 The text and translation of this section of the Iklílhave been published by D. H. Müller in S.B.W.A., vols. 94 and 97 (Vienna, 1879-1880).
69 Aghání, xx, 8, l. 14 seq.
70 Koran, lxxxv, 4 sqq.
71 Ṭabarí, I, 927, l. 19 sqq.
72 The following narrative is abridged from Ṭabarí, i, 928, l. 2 sqq. = Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, p. 192 sqq.
73 The reader will find a full and excellent account of these matters in Professor Browne's Literary History of Persia, vol. i, pp. 178-181.
74 Goldziher, Muhammedanische Studien, Part I, p. 225.
75 Maydání's collection has been edited, with a Latin translation by Freytag, in three volumes ( Arabum Proverbia, Bonn, 1838-1843).
76 The Kitábu ’l-Agháníhas been published at Buláq (1284-1285 a.h.) in twenty volumes. A volume of biographies not contained in the Buláq text was edited by R. E. Brünnow (Leiden, 1888).
77 Muqaddimaof Ibn Khaldún (Beyrout, 1900), p. 554, II. 8-10; Les Prolégomènes d' Ibn Khaldoun traduits par M. de Slane(Paris, 1863-68) vol. iii, p. 331.
78 Published at Paris, 1847-1848, in three volumes.
79 These are the same Bedouin Arabs of Tanúkh who afterwards formed part of the population of Ḥíra. See p. 38 infra.
80 Ibn Qutayba in Brünnow's Chrestomathy, p. 29.
81 Properly al-Zabbá, an epithet meaning 'hairy.' According to Ṭabarí (i, 757) her name was Ná’ila. It is odd that in the Arabic version of the story the name Zenobia (Zaynab) should be borne by the heroine's sister.
82 The above narrative is abridged from Aghání, xiv, 73, l. 20-75, l. 25. Cf.Ṭabarí, i, 757-766; Mas‘údí, Murúju ’l-Dhahab(ed. by Barbier de Meynard), vol. iii, pp. 189-199.
83 Concerning Ḥíra and its history the reader may consult an admirable monograph by Dr. G. Rothstein, Die Dynastie der Laẖmiden in al-Ḥíra (Berlin, 1899), where the sources of information are set forth (p. 5 sqq.). The incidental references to contemporary events in Syriac and Byzantine writers, who often describe what they saw with their own eyes, are extremely valuable as a means of fixing the chronology, which Arabian historians can only supply by conjecture, owing to the want of a definite era during the Pre-islamic period. Muḥammadan general histories usually contain sections, more or less mythical in character, "On the Kings of Ḥíra and Ghassán." Attention may be called in particular to the account derived from Hishám b. Muḥammad al-Kalbí, which is preserved by Ṭabarí and has been translated with a masterly commentary by Nöldeke in his Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden. Hishám had access to the archives kept in the churches of Ḥíra, and claims to have extracted therefrom many genealogical and chronological details relating to the Lakhmite dynasty (Ṭabarí, i, 770, 7).