84 Ḥíra is the Syriac ḥértá (sacred enclosure, monastery), which name was applied to the originally mobile camp of the Persian Arabs and retained as the designation of the garrison town.

85 Sadír was a castle in the vicinity of Ḥíra.

86 Ṭabarí, i, 853, 20 sqq.

87 Bahrám was educated at Ḥíra under Nu‘mán and Mundhir. The Persian grandees complained that he had the manners and appearance of the Arabs among whom he had grown up (Ṭabarí, i, 858, 7).

88 Má’ al-samá ( i.e., Water of the sky) is said to have been the sobriquet of Mundhir's mother, whose proper name was Máriya or Máwiyya.

89 For an account of Mazdak and his doctrines the reader may consult Nöldeke's translation of Ṭabarí, pp. 140-144, 154, and 455-467, and Professor Browne's Literary History of Persia, vol. i, pp. 168-172.

90 Mundhir slaughtered in cold blood some forty or fifty members of the royal house of Kinda who had fallen into his hands. Ḥárith himself was defeated and slain by Mundhir in 529. Thereafter the power of Kinda sank, and they were gradually forced back to their original settlements in Ḥaḍramawt.

91 On another occasion he sacrificed four hundred Christian nuns to the same goddess.

92 See p. 50 infra.

93 Aghání, xix, 86, l. 16 sqq.

94 Aghání, xix, 87, l. 18 sqq.

95 Hind was a princess of Kinda (daughter of the Ḥárith b. ‘Amr mentioned above), whom Mundhir probably captured in one of his marauding expeditions. She was a Christian, and founded a monastery at Ḥíra. See Nöldeke's translation of Ṭabarí, p. 172, n. 1.

96 Aghání, xxi, 194, l. 22.

97 Zayd was actually Regent of Ḥíra after the death of Qábús, and paved the way for Mundhir IV, whose violence had made him detested by the people (Nöldeke's translation of Ṭabarí, p. 346, n. 1).

98 The Arabs called the Byzantine emperor ' 'Qayṣar,' i.e., Cæsar, and the Persian emperor ' Kisrá,' i.e., Chosroes.

99 My friend and colleague, Professor A. A. Bevan, writes to me that "the story of ‘Adí's marriage with the king's daughter is based partly on a verse in which the poet speaks of himself as connected by marriage with the royal house ( Aghání, ii, 26, l. 5), and partly on another verse in which he mentions 'the home of Hind' ( ibid., ii, 32, l. 1). But this Hind was evidently a Bedouin woman, not the king's daughter."

100 Aghání, ii, 22, l. 3 sqq.

101 When Hurmuz summoned the sons of Mundhir to Ctesiphon that he might choose a king from among them, ‘Adí said to each one privately, "If the Chosroes demands whether you can keep the Arabs in order, reply, 'All except Nu‘mán.'" To Nu‘mán, however, he said: "The Chosroes will ask, 'Can you manage your brothers?' Say to him: 'If I am not strong enough for them, I am still less able to control other folk!'" Hurmuz was satisfied with this answer and conferred the crown upon Nu‘mán.

102 A full account of these matters is given by Ṭabarí, i, 1016-1024 = Nöldeke's translation, pp. 314-324.

103 A similar description occurs in Freytag's Arabum Proverbia, vol. ii. p. 589 sqq.

104 Ṭabarí, i, 1024-1029 = Nöldeke's translation, pp. 324-331. Ibn Qutayba in Brünnow's Chrestomathy, pp. 32-33.

105 A town in Arabia, some distance to the north of Medína.

106 See Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, vol. ii, p. 611.

107 A celebrated Companion of the Prophet. He led the Moslem army to the conquest of Syria, and died of the plague in 639 a.d.

108 Ibn Qutayba in Brünnow's Chrestomathy, pp. 26-28.

109 The following details are extracted from Nöldeke's monograph: Die Ghassânischen Fürsten aus dem Hause Gafna's, in Abhand. d. Kön. Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften(Berlin, 1887).

110 Nöldeke, op. cit., p. 20, refers to John of Ephesus, iii, 2. See The Third Part of the Ecclesiastical History of John, Bishop of Ephesus, translated by R. Payne Smith, p. 168.

111 Iyás b. Qabíṣa succeeded Nu‘mán III as ruler of Ḥíra (602-611 a.d.). He belonged to the tribe of Ṭayyi’. See Rothstein, Laẖmiden, p. 119.

112 I read yatafaḍḍalufor yanfaṣilu. The arrangement which the former word denotes is explained in Lane's Dictionary as "the throwing a portion of one's garment over his left shoulder, and drawing its extremity under his right arm, and tying the two extremities together in a knot upon his bosom."

113 The fanakis properly a kind of white stoat or weasel found in Abyssinia and northern Africa, but the name is also applied by Muḥammadans to other furs.

114 Aghání, xvi, 15, ll. 22-30. So far as it purports to proceed from Ḥassán, the passage is apocryphal, but this does not seriously affect its value as evidence, if we consider that it is probably compiled from the poet's díwánin which the Ghassánids are often spoken of. The particular reference to Jabala b. al-Ayham is a mistake. Ḥassán's acquaintance with the Ghassánids belongs to the pagan period of his life, and he is known to have accepted Islam many years before Jabala began to reign.

115 Nábigha, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 78; Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 96. The whole poem has been translated by Sir Charles Lyall in his Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 95 sqq.

116 Thorbecke, ‘Antarah, ein vorislamischer Dichter, p. 14.

117 The following narrative is an abridgment of the history of the War of Basús as related in Tibrízí's commentary on the Ḥamása(ed. by Freytag), pp. 420-423 and 251-255. Cf. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 39 sqq.

118 See p. 5 supra.

119 Wá’il is the common ancestor of Bakr and Taghlib. For the use of stones (anṣáb) in the worship of the Pagan Arabs see Wellhausen, Reste Arabischen Heidentums(2nd ed.), p. 101 sqq. Robertson Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites(London, 1894), p. 200 sqq.

120 Ḥamása, 422, 14 sqq. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 39, last line and foll.

121 Ḥamása, 423, 11 sqq. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 41, l. 3 sqq.

122 Ḥamása, 252, 8 seq. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 44, l. 3 seq.

123 Hind is the mother of Bakr and Taghlib. Here the Banú Hind (Sons of Hind) are the Taghlibites.

124 Ḥamása, 9, 17 seq. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 45, l. 10 sqq.

125 Ḥamása, 252, 14 seq. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 46, l. 16 sqq.

126 Ḥamása, 254, 6 seq. Nöldeke's Delectus, p. 47, l. 2 seq.

127 Ḥamása, 96. Ibn Nubáta, cited by Rasmussen, Additamenta ad Historiam Arabum ante Islamismum, p. 34, remarks that before Qays no one had ever lamented a foe slain by himself ( wa-huwa awwalu man rathá maqtúlahu).

128 Ibn Hishám, p. 51, l. 7 sqq.

129 In the account of Abraha's invasion given below I have followed Ṭabarí, i, 936, 9-945, 19 = Nöldeke's translation, pp. 206-220.

130 I read ḥilálak. See Glossary to Ṭabarí.

131 Ṭabarí, i, 940, 13.

132 Another version says: "Whenever a man was struck sores and pustules broke out on that part of his body. This was the first appearance of the small-pox" (Ṭabarí, i, 945, 2 sqq.). Here we have the historical fact—an outbreak of pestilence in the Abyssinian army—which gave rise to the legend related above.

133 There is trustworthy evidence that Abraha continued to rule Yemen for some time after his defeat.

134 Ibn Hishám, p. 38, l. 14 sqq.

135 Ibid., p. 40, l. 12 sqq.

136 See pp. 48-49 supra.

137 Full details are given by Ṭabarí, I, 1016-1037 = Nöldeke's translation, pp. 311-345.

138 A poet speaks of three thousand Arabs and two thousand Persians (Ṭabarí, I, 1036, 5-6).

139 Ibn Rashíq in Suyúṭí's Muzhir (Buláq, 1282 a.h.), Part II, p. 236, l. 22 sqq. I quote the translation of Sir Charles Lyall in the Introduction to his Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 17, a most admirable work which should be placed in the hands of every one who is beginning the study of this difficult subject.