THE �AM�SA OF AB� TAMM�M

Part II

V. THE ANTHOLOGY OF AL-HAM�SA

a. Origin and Transmission
The name which means 'bravery', is the title of the
first of the eleven chapters of the anthology, although, as time passed,
it came to be applied as the title of the entire work. The Hamasa is a
collection of single verses and extracts from poems
None of Abu Tammam's contemporaries mention the anthology.
It may therefore be assumed that the Hamasa was one of his
last works and that he died shortly after he had completed it, so
that it may almost be accounted a posthumous work, as is confirmed
by al-Mas<üdï 1. The reason for this, according to at-Tibrizi 2, is
that the book remained in the library of the Salama family, who kept
it for themselves and showed it to scarcely anyone else. Abu al-
Wafa' b. Salama was a bibliophile of Hamadan at whose house
Abu Tammam stayed while he was travelling from Hurasan to al- flraq.
There he was surprised by 'a heavy fall of snow that blocked the
roads and prevented the traveller from continuing on his way.
The circumstance distressed Abu Tammam, but gave much pleasure
to al-Wafa'. The latter said to the poet: "Do stay quietly here, for it
will be some time before the snow clears", and he led him into his
library. Here Abu Tammam read, studied, and wrote five books
about poetry, amongst them being the K. al-Hamasa and the Wahsiy-
3
ydt.1
This statement by at-Tibrizi may be partially true. A library was
necessary for the preparatory work on a collection of poems. However,
it is quite impossible that Abu Tammam could have written the major
part of these works during his sojourn at Hamadan.4 The actual
date of the compilation of the Hamasa had been unknown long
before the time when at-Tibrizi wrote: otherwise it would certainly
have been mentioned by al-Marzuqi.
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As to the transmission of the Hamasa, certain precise data are

known. In the an Istanbul manuscript, the names are given
of those scholars who transmitted the text of Abu Tammam's Hamasa
up to the time of al-Gawaliqi :

Al-Gawaliqi was a pupil of at-Tibrizi and was later his successor

at the Nizamiyya Academy in Bagdad. The manuscript referred to
above comes from a course al-Gawaliqi held at that Academy in the
year 521/1127. The transmission chain above shows that the philo-
in with the transmission of the text, from time to time .
logists, dealing
chose to consult several sources.
Regarding a manuscript of the Hamasa, something can be learnt
from the Muhtasar, an extract from the Gamharat an-Nasab, that is
to say Muhammad b. Habib's review of the K. an-Nasab al-Kabir
by Hisam b. Muhammad al-Kalbi 10 in the transmission of Abu
Sa"id as-Sukkari 11. This contains 12 a mention of a manuscript of the
Hamasa produced by a scribe named al-Arzani. He must have been a
144

reliable writer, since, when various texts were available, his was
preferred above the others 1. But who was this writer? Presumably he
is identical with that Yahtya b. Muhammad al-Arzani who was
famous for his 'beautiful handwriting and precision' 2.

b. Commentaries
An astonishingly large number of commentaries have been written
on the Hamasa. Their authors appear in chronological order in the
following list:

Abu Muhammad al-Qasim b. Muhammad al-Isbahani 3

as-Sabbah
4
Muhammad b. Yahya as-Suli
Abu Riyas Ahmad b. Ibrahim a§-9aibani 5
Abu al-Qasim al-Hasan b. Bisr al-1'?midi ?6
7
al-Husain b. 'Ali an-Namari
8
al-Qasim b. Muhammad ad-Daimarti
Abu al-Fath 'Utmdn b. al-Ginni 9
Abu al-Hasan b. 'Abdalldh al-`Ashari 1?
Ahmad b. Faris 11
Abu al-Muzaffar Muhammad b. Adam al-Harawi 12
Abu `Ali Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Marzüqï 1a
Abu 'Abdalldh al-Hatib al-Iskdf! 14
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Abu al-'Ald' Ahmad b. <Abdallah b. Sulaiman al-Ma`arri 1

Abu al-Hasan 'Ali b. Sida 2
Abu al-Qdsim Zaid b. 'All b. 'Abdalliih al-Farisi al-Fasawi ? 3
Abu al-Fadl 'Abdalldh b. Ahmad al-Mikali 4
`Abdallah b. Ahmad 5
al-A`lam A. al-Haggag Yusuf b. Sulaiman aš-Šantamad 6
'Abdalldh b. Ibrahim b. Hakim al-Habri ' 7
Abu Zakarya Yahya b. `Ali al-Hatib at-Tibrizi 8 .
Abu al-Mahasin Masad 'All al-Baihaqi 9
'Abu al-Fadl at-Tabarsi 10
Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. Muhammad Mundir b. Sa'id b. Malkun al-
Hadrami al-Isbili 11
Abu al-Baqqa' 'Abdalldh b. al-Husain al-'Ukbari 11
9amsaddin A. al-Muzaffar Yusuf b. Qizoglu b. `Ali Sibt b. al-
Gauzi 13
Abu 'Ali a§-9alaubin 14
Abu Nasr Mansur b. Muslim 'Ali al-Halabi 15
Abu 'Ali Hasan b. 'Ali al-Astaribadi 16
Ibrabim b. (Umar al-Cabari 17
Abu Nasr Qasim b. Muhammad al- Wäsirï an-Nahwi 18
In the course of the century following Abu Tammdm's death,
only a few commentaries on the Hamasa appeared. It aroused gen-
eral philological interest in literary circles only after the middle of the
fourth century A.H. Many commentaries then appeared, amongst
them being some of great importance.
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The path leading to this intensive philological activity was made

decidedly smoother by Abu 'Ali al-Farisi 1. He taught a number of
famous philologists, two of whom wrote an important commentary
on the Hamasa. These were Abu al-Fath b. Ginni 2 and Abu 'Ali
Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Marzuqi 3.

aa. al Mar?uqi
In the two oldest grammar schools, those of Kufa and Basra,
it was the habit of the scholars to have literary communications
with one another. Not unnaturally, people preferred the learned
men in their own particular establishment. Circumstances and
methods varied. Thus it was that al Marzuqi inclined, with a few
exceptions, towards those scholars who, like himself, belonged to
the school at Basra, such as al-Halil b. Ahmad 4, Yunus b. Habib 5,
Abu 'Ubaida 6, Abu Zaid al-Ansdri 7, al-Ajma'1 8, Ibn Duraid 9
and Abu 'Utman al-Miizini 1°. In his commentaries, al Marzuqi often
speaks, and not without pride, about his 'colleagues in Basra' 11.
When al-Marzuqi wrote his commentary on the Hamasa, his
teacher Abu 'Ali al-Farisi had died i 2. This commentary is probably
a late work by al-Marzuqi because in it he often quotes works by
himself, such as K. al-Azmina wa-1-Amkina 13,.1 Risalat al-Intisar
min Zalamat (.ric) Abi Tammam 14, Risala fi Mas'alat 'Mu'q' 15, Šarh
Kitab al-Fasih 16 and K. 'Unwan al-Adib 1'. That al-Marzuqi knew
 147

and made use of the commentary by Ibn Ginni 1 is shown by quotations

from this work. Al-Marzuqi also made use of other important writ-
ings, of which, amongst others, he mentions the Kitab of Sibawaih 2,
that he had read together with Abu 'Ali al-Farisi 3, al-Kamil by al-
Mubarrad 4 and K. al-(Ain by al-Halil 1, and he also quotes the works
of two scholars from Kufa, K. Islah al-Mantiq by Ibn as-Sikkit 6
and K. an-Nawadir by Ibn al-A `rabi 1.
To pose and to answer the question of what motives influenced Aba
Tammam in selecting and assembling the poems for the Hamasa,
a philologist would be needed who could make a critical judgment
of not only the grammatical but also the aesthetic problems of the
Arabic language and its poetry. Those who preceded al-Marzuqi
had, generally speaking, no aesthetic-critical criteria. He himself,
however, revealed a tendency to move in such a direction, as, for
example, when he asks why Abu Tammam chose to include precisely
this poem, or precisely these verses in his anthology 8. Whenever
al-Marzrqi feels unable to give an answer, he leaves the question
open or contents himself with 'Allilju a`lam' (God knows best) 9.
al-Marzuqi's explanations do not provide any exhaustive answer;
but it appears from his questioning that the individual problems of
this anthology were not lost upon him.
Before that of al-Marzuqi only a few commentaries on the Hamasa
were written. With the exception of the one by Ibn Ginni, al-Marz5q!
did not use them. Some of them may have been unknown to him,
others out of reach. Presumably, however, al-Marzuqi examined
some of them in detail, although he tried to produce a quite different
style of literary criticism. Even the commentary, unfortunately lost, of
Abu Riyas 1° is, perhaps purposely 11, nowhere mentioned by him.
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bb. at-Tibri.Zi
Abu Riyas was held to be a reliable transmitter of data on the lives
of the poets 1. These reports (ahbar) by him gave at-Tibrizi much
detailed material for his commentary on the Hamasa, because he
was greatly interested, in addition to grammatical problems, in
the legendary stories that form the background of the poems in the
collection. In his far-ranging accounts, the reader of his commentary
is made aware of the wars (ayydm) of the Arabs. The casual mention
of a place name in a poem is sufficient to make the commentator
write several pages of detailed description of all the events known
to have taken place there, without this being in the least necessary
for the understanding of the poem 2. If verses omitted by Abu
Tammam might illuminate the background of a particular poem,
at-Tibrizi replaces them. In this manner, a total of 169 additional
verses 3-sometimes even individual fragments of poems-appears
in the edition of the Hamasa on which at-Tibrizi commented. From
these additions, it becomes obvious that at-Tibrizi took no notice
of the intentions of Abu Tammam, even if he knew of them, or of
the imaginative thought that guided him in his choice of poems
and verses for the Hamasa.
Although at-Tibrizi relied upon al-Marzuqi's commentary and
even to a large extent copied his actual words, often without mention-
ing their origin, he did not accept the latter's aesthetic-critical attitude
towards the poems. Generally speaking, at-Tibrizi was very sparing
with acknowledgements to the works that he used while writing
his commentary. A comparison with other works, such as the K.
al-Mubhig fi Šarl). Asma' Su`ara' al-Hamasa li-Abi Tammam by
Ibn 6inn1 4, soon shows how dependent was at-Tibrizi upon the
secondary literature dealing with Abu Tammam. It would, however,
be unjust to at-Tibrizi's work if this were measured only against
the criterion of al-Marzuqi. At-Tibrizi's merit is principally the
production of a practical book that 'skilfully summarizes the results
of the work done by the older philologists' 5.

c. Editions
In the year 1828 Wilhelm Freytag edited the Hamasa, using the
 149

commentary of at-Tibrizi. Twenty years later he followed this up

with a Latin translation of the anthology. Shortly before, in 1846,
Friedrich R3ckcrt's translation of the Hamasa into German appeared.
In the year 1286/1869, the Hamasa was edited in Brlaq, also with
the use of at-Tibrizi's commentary. A number of new issues and
editions followed in the succeeding years 1.

d. Extent and Classification of the Hamisa

The Hamasa is the largest Arabic anthology 2. It contains 881
extracts of poems. Most of these appear under the name and tribe
of the author, the attributions probably having been made by Abu
Tammam himself. A total of 285 poets is mentioned by name. A
surprisingly large number of fragments of poems, however, amount-
ing in all to 264, appear with no mention of their authors. In place
of the poet's name is written the phrase 'another said'. A further
37 poems are given with no mention of the names but only the tribes
of the authors.
The anthology contains eleven chapters:
1. al-Hamasa (Bravery-261 poems)
2. al-Marati (Laments-129 poems)
3. al-Adab (Good Customs-61 poems)
4. an-Nasib (Love Lyrics-139 poems)
5. al-Higa' (Songs of Abuse-79 poems)
6. al-Adyaf (Verses of Hospitality-109 poems)
7. al-Madh (Poems of Praise-31 poems)
8. as-Sifat (Descriptions-2 poems)
9. as-Sair wa-n-Nu'ds (Travel and Repose-8 poems)
10. al-Mulah (Jests-34 poems)
11. Madammat an-Nisa' (Scorn of Women-18 poems)
Within the chapters it is possible now and then to see a certain
arrangement of the poems according to themes 3, catchwords 4,
historical events 5 and the like.
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The Tayyi', Abu Tammam's own tribe, has 80 poems in the

Hamasa-more than any other tribe 1. Of the Asad, for instance,
Abu Tammam includes 53 poems in the Hamasa, and of the Dabba
37 poems. The following table shows how the poems of these three
tribes are distributed:

The number of poems from the following three tribes

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The figures in the Table refer to the numbering of the poems in the Hamasa,
Cairo Edition, 1951-1953.

From time to time, the reader encounters groups of poems from

the same tribe:

Poems of the Tayyi' : Ham 192-203, 357-359, 482-485, 613-622,

799-781
Poems of the Dabba : Ham 177-191, 607-611 .
Poems of the 'Abs: Ham 141-148, 155-158 ,

This is surprising because Abu Tammam did not, in general,

arrange the poems according to the tribes of their authors. It is
therefore reasonable to assume that these poems were not transmitted
orally to Abu Tammam but that they came from written sources, i.e.
from tribal Diwans.
152

e. Sources
We know little of the tribal Diwans that had already appeared in
Abu Tammam's lifetime. Those that as-Sukkari collected are probably
later and cannot be considered as source material for the Hamasa.
Of the Diwans that aš-Šaibänï 1 edited 2, we know of only four and
these solely from their titles: they are the Diwans of the Asad 3,
5 and Ua`da 6 tribes. The Asad
Taglib 4, Muharib poems were
probably collected orally by Abu Tammam in Kufa. We do not know
why the Diwan of was not available to him.
The Fihrist provides a catalogue of the Diwans that were published
by Hisam b. Muhammad al-Kalbi 8, amongst them the lost K.
Dahis wa-1-Gabra. In the Naqa'id Garir wa-1-Farazdaq there are poems
on the Dahis war, as transmitted by al-Kalbi. A comparison of these
with the poems on the Dahis war which Abu Tammam included in
the Hamasa 9 shows that he did not use al-Kalbi's work. Muhammad
al-Kalbi also handed down poems about the so-called Bas3s war that
were included by Abu al-Farag in the K. al-Agani i°. Since not one
of these is quoted by Abu Tammam in the Hamasall, it seems certain
that he had heard his verses on the Basrs war by word of mouth.
He may have had an opportunity to do this in Basra and Kufa,
where there still existed some remnants of tribal divisions. For
instance, he could have heard them from Qais b. Ta'laba, who in
later times settled in Basra 12.
Abu Tammam was at pains to include in the Hamasa new or
lesser known poems He was therefore also interested in new publica-
tions. Ibn Daqqaq, in this connection, writes 13: 'We stayed with
Abu Tammam just as he was occupied in making a choice of poems
by modern poets (al-Mubdafün). A poem by the naive poet
Muhammad b. A. 'Uyaina, in which he abused the Halid, came
 153

into his hands. Abu Tammam examined it and laid it aside with the
words: "Well, that has already been completely edited!" '
In order to make his selection for the anthology, Abu Tammam
needed texts. In Basra and Kufa, the centres of poetical tradition,
2
they were available in quantity. Ibn al-A <räbï 1 and Ibn as-Sikkit
worked in Kufa and Muhammad b. Habib 3 in Basra, where he had
published the poems of al-Farazdaq, Carir and Du-r-Rumma, last
of the old-style Bedouin poets. Abu Tammam was no philologist,
but a poet: we do not know whether he visited the Philological
College in search of material.

f. Date of the Poems

In the case of many poems, particularly those whose authors are
unknown, it is extremely difficult to establish dates at which they
may have been written. Of the 285 named poets, 90 lived in pre-
Islamic times. They are represented by 132 poems in the Hamasa.
Forty-eight poets (71 poems) were alive at the beginning of Islam
and 147 poets (248 poems) lived wholly in the Islamic era.
The majority of the Islamic poets in the Hamasa belonged to the
Umayyad and the early Abbasid eras. Amongst them, however,
some contemporary poets are represented, e.g. Abu al-Asad 4 and
'Umara b. 'Aqil 5.
Famous poets appear only exceptionally in the Hamasa. Of Labid,6
for example, we find only two verses 7, of ?arir 8 three verses °,
of Hassan b. Tabit 1° also three verses il. Imra'ulqais 12, al-Ahtal 13, al-
Hutai'a 14 and other famous poets are not represented by even
a single verse. In compiling his anthology, Abu Tammam was 'not
154

interested in poets who were already known and famous and also
not in much-quoted poetry'; thus wrote al-Marzuqi 1. In Abu Tam-
mam's time all learning was already concentrated in Kufa and Basra.
But there were still individual poets in Arabia and it was these who
interested Abu Tammam.
Amongst the 'obscure unknown poets' 2 were those called
Muqillfin' 3 by the Arabic philologists. Abu Tammam included a
large number of these in the Hamasa, amongst whom were 6a"far
b. <Ulba al-Hariti 4, <Ddail b. al-Farh al- <1gB 5, al-Muqanna' < al-
Kindi 6, Hanzar b. Aqram ' and Murra b. Mahkan 8.

g. The position of the H?zm?sa in Arabic Literatllre

There are three anthologies that might be called precursors of the
Hamasa : 'the seven long' Qasidas collected by Hammad ar-Rawiya 9,
later entitled Mu`allaqat, the Mufaddaliyyat and the A?ma <iyyät.
The two latter anthologies owe their existence to the instructions
issued by a Caliph; al-Mansur 1° realized the great importance that a
collection of suitable poems could have for students of poetry.
He therefore commissioned al-Mufaddal ad-Dabbi 11 to undertake
the tutorship of his son al-Mahdi 12 and to select and arrange suitable
poems for him. It was thus that the collection known as the Mufadda-
14
liyydt 13 came into being. Later, al-Asma <ï was also called upon to
teach the son of a caliph, namely Amin 15, son and successor of Härün
al Rasid 16. When he made his anthology of poetry, his collection
was assembled with the intention that it should resemble as nearly
 155

as possible the famous classical anthology of Mufaddal. Both antho-

logies were composed in such closely related circumstances that the
A?ma <iyyät might seem to be a continuation of the Mufaddaliyyat 1.
Compared with the old anthologies, the Hamasa had the advantage
that its poems were suitable as libretti for musical performances,
especially those that were commissioned by al-Mausili 2 and his son
Ishaq 3.
Both the Mufaddaliyyat and the A?ma <iyyät were originally
intended for the instruction of the young sons of caliphs and the
selection of the themes was therefore hedged about with considerable
limitations. The Hamasa, however, was not written ad Zf.rls?yl Delphini.
In selecting his poems, including the very coarse songs of K. al-Mulah,
as well as those of K. Madammat an-Nisa', Abu Tammam had no
fears of any censor.
The poetic fragments in the Hamasa are short and pregnant.
They could comfortably be quoted in literary society because the
anthology contains verses suitable for any occasion. It is therefore
to be understood that the popularity of the Hamasa far exceeded
that of the anthology of Mufaddal. This circumstance, which favours
the Hamasa and is still evident to-day, has one disadvantage which
cannot be gainsaid-namely, that the poems which Abu Tammam
worked over and abridged have lost something of their originality
and natural freshness. The fragments of poems in the Hamasa can
be likened to flowers that have not grown naturally in the fresh air,
but have been artificially reared in a greenhouse, `flowers of fading
beauty on beds of sagacity', as al-Marzuqi said 4. Herein lies the con-
trast with the anthology of Mufaddal, where good, medium and poor
verses are harmoniously mixed together. Thus the Mufaddaliyyat
give a much more balanced picture of old Arabic poetry than do
the arbitrarily selected and much edited Hamasiyyat 5.

h. Principles of selection
Unlike earlier compilers of anthologies, Abu Tammam was not
156

concerned to pass on the poems that he had selected in their complete

forms. This is proved by the abridgements that he made of them,
where his guiding principle was to include only those verses that
agreed with his own views on poetry.

i. Examples
A few examples from the Hamasa and comparisons with the Diwan
serve to show Abu Tammam's intentions and what caused him to
assemble this collection of poems. The verse:

takaffala -1-aitdma 'an ibd)ihi,,ii

hattd wadidni annand aitdmu
He cared for orphans in place of their fathers, so that we our-
selves would gladly have been orphans
from a Qasida by Abu Tammam 1, was criticized 2 because of the
peculiarity of the idea that it expresses, while the two verses:
mj zilta fi -l `afivi li -J-Janfibi wa-itlaqin
li-`dnin bi-jurmihi galiqi
loattd tamann,7-1-bur,7tu annabumii
'indaka amsau fi -I-qiddi wa -1-balaqi
You always pardoned their misdeeds and gave freedom
to any who admitted a fault,
So that even the guiltless hoped, under your rule,
that they might be bound or lie in chains
written by the poet Abu Dahbal3 were never attacked although
they contained a parallel idea. Al-Marzuqi wrote in this connection 4 :
'If this expression is admissible, which is used by Abu Dahbal
when he describes how much innocent and free people wished
to be bound and chained so that they too might experience his
benevolence, then these two other verses (Abu Tammam's) may not
be differently judged. No traditionalist and no modernist has ever
criticized what Abu Dahbal wrote or even rejected it as being some-
how open to question. In my work Protest against the unjust critics of >4 bfi
Tammdt,Y,5, I have compared these two verses, have found them
 157

accurate and have said that these poetical thoughts cannot be im-
pugned.'
In order to legitimize his poetical style, Abu Tammam sought
by means of examples taken from the early poetry, including that of
the Umayyad era, to prove that even the older poets used the same
language that, when used by him, was criticized as being a repudiation
of traditionalism.
For the same reason he selected verses with expressions that the
rhetoricians would have characterized as `badi`', in a style that could
be described as being highly rhetorical. These rhetorical figures of
speech were mainly those that he used exaggeratedly in his own poetry,
and which caused him to be much criticized. These individual verses
taken from their context and standing alone were intended to illustrate
their unity with the language of modern poetry. Seeing that this
'new' style had been extensively used by the ancient poets, the
reader of the Hamasa should gain the conviction that the style
of Abu Tammam's own poetry is not at all 'new' or strange as had
been alleged by the critics.
Many poems, according to al-Marzaq! 1, were brought into the
Hamasa because of their original antithetical verse structure. In a
poem by poeta of the B. al-'Anbar 2 :

yag?una min ?.Ztilmiabli ?ua? firatan

sva-min isd'ati ahli -s-su'i ihsdnd

They repay with forgiveness the injustice that the evil do to

them, and with good works the ill deeds of wicked men
there may be found several antitheses in a single verse 3.
Abu Tammam's preference for a play on words is revealed in
many examples taken from the Hamasa, as for instance in a poem
by Sulma b. Rabi'a:

pallat T umädiru garbatan fa -bfa/I at

Fallan wa-ahluka bi -1-Liwd-fa -/- Hallat

Tumadir has settled far away from you, has in fact settled in
Falg; but your people live between al-Liwa and al-Hallat 4.
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Abu Tammam included in the Hamasa many verses from ancient

poetry which likewise could be called immoderate in their expressions.
This type of coarseness can be seen in a verse by the poet Qais
b. al-Hatim al-Ausi 1: .

'(Out of vengeance I wounded 'Abdalqais with a spear

'
and made a wound so great that it would have been filled
with light had not blood poured from it on all sides.) I
kneaded in it (the wound) with the palms of my hands
and widened the opening, so that there could be seen what
. lay behind it (i.e. so that one could look right through
2
it).'
About this verse al-Marzuqi wrote: 'In this description lies an
abhorrent from the decencies of 3
departure style.'
The difficulties shared alike by the Hamasa and the Diwan include
wrong and irregular grammatical word forms including,
for instance, the unconventional form 'alikni' 4. This was no new
invention by Abu Tammam : he was able to demonstrate it in a
poem by Hudlul b. Hubaira, 5 and in fact in old Arabic poetry
`alikni' is far from rare. However, in Abu Tammam's Diwan, it
assumed a kind of conscious archaism, which was rejected.
Certain unusual word forms brought in by the poet to achieve
homophony were also held to be against the rules. An example of
this is the form in a verse of the pre-Islamic poet Ibn Zayyaba 6:

ya lahfa Zayyabata li -l Hariti -s-

fdbihi fa -1-dyibi*
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Woe Zayyaba, to the al-Harit, who fall upon

us in the morning, plunder us and then
go home with their spoils.

If, instead of the poet had chosen the usual fourth form of
the verb, i.e. musbib, the verse would have lost its rhetorical effect,
which lies in the sequence of the four fa `il forms. ,
Similarly, a verse may be mentioned by the poet Gabir 1, who used
the unusual participle of the fourth form of the verb, 'baqala', namely
'mttbqil' for bäqil' .
lva-äbinl (abdin lahd mumiqun
Sadirtin wa-li.Z'un lahä mubqilu
The last condition under which it (the sheep) lived (or: the
last thing known of it, i.e. the sheep) was a rainfall and
a grassgrown hill 2.

Syntactically loose connections form one of the special difficulties

encountered in reading many poems in the Hamasa. In old Arabic
it isnot usual to violate the structure of the language and the arrange-
ment of words in ancient Arabic poetry is, in general, that of prose.
It is therefore remarkable to observe the large number of verses
in the Hamasa in which there is no agreement between the individual
parts of sentences, for example in the following verse by an unnamed
poet of the Asad 3 :
lva-mä and bi -n-dan yyi wa-lä -¡¡açj¡
idi sadda 'atini du -l-mawaddati ahrabu
I am no inferior weakling and also not one who is angered
if his friend turns away from him.

There is no congruence between the nomen of the main sentence

(mausul) and its dependent clause (sila), in the way of a constructio
ad sensum.
An unusual arrangement of words is shown in a verse by the
poet Musawir b. Hind, a contemporary of the Prophet 4:
160

idd gäratttn ,?ullat li-Sa Idi -bni Mälikin

lahj ibilun iiillat bihj ibildni

If camels belonging to a woman protected by Sa'd b. Malik have

been stolen then twice as many camels will be stolen for her.

The li-Sa'di -bni Mälikin, inserted as it is, apparently breaks the

sentence. However, since verse was always recited orally, the gap
could be bridged by the tone of the voice.
An unusual construction of a sentence is encountered in the last
of the following verses by the poetess Zainab bt. at-Tatriyya 1:

add -l qaumu Vammü baitahu fa-hwa cd,,t.,idiin

li-ahsani ma ?annu bihi fa-hJVa fa`iluh
tard gd?iraihi yur`adani wa-näruhu
Calaibd "adimilu -1-halimi wa-similub
jaiurrdni jinyan bairubi garatin
basiran bibd lam ta `du canbd mafdgiluh
When his people come to visit him at his house, he always
intends to do the best that they can expect from him and
does it too.
You see his two slaughterers trembling (with cold); upon
his fire are set old logs of wood and dry chips.
The pair kill the camel mare that has twice borne young.
The best parts go to his prot6g6e; he is one who knows
her well and whose occupations do not keep him away
from her.

The subject of the bdl clause 'basiran bihi' in the last verse is not, as
might be assumed, identical with the subject of the verbal clause
yagurrani', i.e. 'al-gaziräni', but with the subject of the first verse, which
refers to the poetess's brother. The question of whether this hdl
clause should be completed by the personal pronoun `basiran biba
huwa' caused a split in the views of the philologists and some of the
learned men from Basra actually agreed with their colleagues in
Kufa. It is beyond doubt that the reader of Abu Tammam's time
also found it difficult to come to terms with these abnormal syn-
tactical conditions.
The poets of the Umayyad era follow in part the pre-Islamic and
early Islamic patterns, even though the historical background was
 161

no longer the same, and they are comparatively easy to understand.

The same poets, however, sometimes express themselves with de-
liberate obscurity, either in whole Qasidas or in single verses. Thus
the poet 6awwas 1 : .

1. sabagat Umayyatu bz -d-dimj'i ri&i,7bani

iva-tazvat Umayyatu dgnand dunyahä
2. a'Umayyu rubba katibatin magbulatin
sidi -1-kui),ijti 'alaikuivti da `auhd
3. kiinnd wuldta ti `aniha wa-diribibi
battd tagallat 'ankumu gummibd
4. wa -llabu yag?i Id Ummayyatu sa yand
wa-(ulan .cadadnd bi -r-rimahi 'iirjl)d
5. ii-tum mina -1-ha . lari' -1-ba(idi niyatuhü
wa tunkiru kablabi zva fatdhd 2
6. id aqbalatqaisun ka'anna `uyunahd
. hadaqu -1-kildbi iva-a?barat simdbd
1. Umayya has coloured our lances with blood; but Umayya
has concealed from us their rich booty hidden in the folds
of their garments.
2. Umayya, how many bands of horsemen of hitherto un-
known strength, who proudly held up their heads, called
upon you to do battle!
3. We were exposed to their lances and their swords until
the intolerable burden fell from you.
4. God, not Umayya, will reward our efforts and the high
authority that we secured with the lances.
5. You have come from the high-soaring stone; and Syria
does not know either their old or their young men (i.e.
looks upon them all as aliens),33
6. As Qais advance, with their eyes like the greedy eyes of
dogs, which thus display the characteristics of dogs.

`lVlaghula' in the second verse is an elliptical speech form which

might be completed as `magbulat In verse 4 two pictures
are conjoined and the meaning is that they have won by reason
162

of their high authority. Whether 4b is really the second part of this

verse must be doubted. Al-Marzuqi's explanation is forced. Verse 6
should probably be set higher, perhaps following verse 3. The real
difficulty, however, lies in verse 5. We may at least make the suggestion
that what was meant was the 'black' stone that is set head high in the
wall of the Ka 'ba, though it must be admitted that 'ba'idi niyä!uhü' does
suggest something higher. In any case `hagar' is singular and simply
means stone! May there be, perhaps, some background of fairytale,
proverb or idiomatic form of speech? P
Similar difficulties are to be met with in other verses by the same
1
poet :

4. fa-kam min a-mirin qabla i1aearwä¡¡a ¡va -bnihi

kasafna -1-gammi `anhr? _ fa-abfara
5. wa-mustaslimin naffasna `anb?a wa-qad badat
nawd'idiihil battä ahalla ¡va-kabbarä

4. From many a prince of Marwan and his son, we have

drawn awayr the veil of sorrow so that he could more
easily see!
5. Many a one who would yield has been saved by our horse-
men when already his molar teeth were visible (gesture
of despair), so that he praised and worshipped God!

After an elegant and stylish introduction (verses 1-3), the poet turns
against the Qais. Those who had been conquered at Marg Rahit
(Qais) were allowed at court by Abdalmalik and behaved themselves
with great pride. This aroused bitterness. `naffasna' for 'naffastia
was an expression known to everyone during the lifetime
of the poet. Whether the readers of the Hamasa in Abu Tammam's
time were capable of completing the subject is very uncertain.
The following verse by Gawwas 2 is also noteworthy:

m,a-kunta idd a.crafta fi ra'si rdmatin

' '
tadd'alta inna -I-bj-'ifa -1-mutadi"ilfi
'
As you stood above on the hill, you became weak;
true, he that is fearful is weak.
 163

'rdma', here, is not a place name but probably a loanword from

Aramaic 1 and perhaps known only in the Syrian dialect of Arabic.
In literary language, in any case, this word did not exist and would
have been unknown to most readers of the Hamasa. The last half-
verse, 'inna -I-bd-ifa -1-mutadd'ilfi', reflects the style of ancient poetry.
The criticism directed against Abu Tamman that his Qasidas
were hard to understand because of their obscure forms of expression
can equally be applied to many of the poetic fragments in the Hamasa.
The analogy to the Qasidas in the Diwan is often obvious. The
following anecdote, told by the poet Mitqal, clearly reveals Abu
Tammam' intentions:
'I once visited Abu Tammam. At the time, he was working on
so beautiful a poem that nothing like it had ever come my way.
One verse, however, stood out from the others. He noticed that I
looked at this verse more closely. I said to him: "Oh that you had
excluded this verse!" He laughed and replied: "Do you think you
know more about it than I do? This is exactly like a man having a
number of sons of whom each is well-bred, handsome and better than
all other men. Only one among them is ugly and backward. He (i.e.
the father) knows his nature, sees what is the case with him and will
not suffer him to die. So it is also with the poems of people." 2
The unusually difficult verbal style of many such 'sick' verses of
which Abu Tammam speaks in this parable confused 3 the commen-
tators, as for example in the following lines from a poem by Qabisa
b. Gdbir4 :

1. bi-tinvai Hi6amin gaddun namäni

bafiyyan bi -1-muhi)talati -htiyali
2. ma- `agamtu -l-umura ava- `agamatni
ka-anni kuntu fi -/-awawi -1-bawili
3. fa-lasni min bani jaddd'a bikrin
ava-lakinnd banu giddi -n-niqjli 5
164

1. In the two folds of the Hidyam valley some good fortune

came to my help, while the adversaries seeking to
overcome me were too slow.
2. I have tested life and it has tested me, (so long have I
.. lived) as if I were one of those who belonged to the past 1.
3. We are not sons of a small-breasted one who has given
birth for the first time; but we are the descendants of
ancestors with arrow-heads.

The poem is by a poet of the Tayyi', but hardly by Qabisa b.

Gabir 2, being probably later, although belonging to Umayyad times.
Verse 3b is obscure. Efforts at explaining it by al-Marzüqï and
at-Tabrizi do not help to elucidate it. We may suppose that the word
Iniqdl' is here the plural of 'naqla', meaning a particularly effective
type of arrow-head. Al-Marzuqi correctly believes that Abu Tammam
chose this verse for inclusion in his anthology because of the unclear
manner in which it is expressed. But his assumption that Abu
Tammam included 'bad' verses in the Hamasa in order to demonstrate
by practical examples how poems should not be written 3 rests upon a
false premise. This form of instruction was used by the philologists.
Ibn al-Mu"tazz, for example, follows the end of each chapter in his
IL. al-Badi' with a list in which he gives examples only of faulty
usage of rhetorical figures of speech, so that 'mistakes could be
recognized and avoided' 4. Abu Tammam, of course, had no intention
of providing instruction on the writing of poetry.
Abu Tammam's propensity for the unusual can be recognized
also by the odd metres in the Hamasa. The metre:

- -IJ- IJ- - 5
- IJIJ-

cannot be fitted into the metrical system of Halil b. Ahmad 6. It is

nearest to the Basit metre.
The special difficulties of the poems in the Hamasa lie particularly
in the realms of thought. The picturesque language of many poetic
 165

fragments makes these intensely obscure. In the verse by the poet

ar-Rd'i 1:

rafaln,7 labi niran t1tlaqqibu li -I-qir,7

ava-liqhata adydfzn lawilan rr.rkuduhd
We built a tall fire for them, which was lit in order to prepare
a meal for the guests, and a guest cooking pot which stood
long on the fire

the word 'liqba', which is normally applied to a camel giving copious

milk, appears in this case in the meaning of 'qidr' (cooking pot) from
which the Bedouin serves his night-time guest. But, taking this into
account, how is the expression `dahnzd'a laisat bi-liqbatin' in al-Faraz-
2
daq's verse, referring to a similar cooking pot, to be understood?

lahu dah)vi,7"a laisat bi-liqbatin

tadurru ida )7id habba nabraii caqip.,itb,7

I sent him a black (full kettle)-I do not mean a milkgiving

camel-that will provide nourishment when ill fortune
sends an unfruitful wind.

A highly individual concept can be found in the following verse:

ka-anna -l-mabäla -l ?urra , fi bqkar,7tibd

Caddri badat itsiba hamimul?d 3

Just as if the white spinal bones at its sides were virgins

that showed themselves (with unveiled face) after the
beloved had been slain.

The comparison and the metaphor (isticira) belonged to

the oldest style. Beneath such circumlocutions the true sense of the
verse often remained hidden. The picturesque form of expression
employed by Musa b. Gabir in a poem in praise of two generous
men who fed the poor of their tribe 4 is unusual:
166

hililini batJlmaläni fi ktilli fatwatiii

mina -t-taqli ma la -1-abä'irÛ

Two sickle moons, they both carry, every winter, such a

burden as draught camels could not manage.

This is typical Bedouin poetry, although the poet lived in Islamic

times 1.
Such a picture 2 as that of the slim boy who, in the rough and
tumble of the fight, pressed himself close to courageous warriors,
as mangy camels rub themselves against each other, was an unusual
one for the poetical tastes even of that time.
The form of expression used in the following verse, by an unnamed
poet 3, is also something of a riddle:
i,va-inni la-a.rtahyi ya?zini wa-bainahd
zva-baina fanzi bahitzzu

I am ashamed of my right hand because between it and my

mouth there is inky darkness.

A very strange and somewhat tasteless picture is met with in an

elegy by Abu Sa`tara al-Baulani 4:

aaa?adduhumuwuddan idi &ämara -1-baJa

add'a 'al,7 -1-adld'i wa -1-lailii &,.,.,isfi
I love her so much that when my love mixes with my bowels
it causes light to shine over my ribs, even in the dark of
the night 5.

Idiomatic forms of speech and words of which the meaning was

little known made it hard to understand many of the verses in the
Hamasa. The popular meaning of 'balaf' (dates of poor quality)
does not give sense to the verse 6 :

lam nuku/ bibim ba.?afa -n-na&li

In reward for them, we have eaten no bad dates

 167

by the poet al-Hurait b. Zaid al-Hail, who lived in the Umayyad era.
It may be that the reference was to an old proverb that had become
incomprehensible. It is doubtful whether the sense of this, explained
by al-Marzuqi in the words lam na'hud diyatahum-"we have not
accepted their blood-price"-was automatically understood by the
readers of the Hamasa.
The verses quoted below show that Abu Tammam not only in-
cluded complicated poems in the Hamasa but also had a feeling
for natural and unaffected poetry. In order to gain a readership for
his anthology, he was obliged to see that it also contained verses that
were free from obscure and difficult expressions and corresponded
with the literary taste of his own time. But, even here, his preference
for the original was seen:

na, .Zartuka-anni min avara'i ?ugdgatin

ila -d-ddri min farti -s-sabiti anzurü I

It seemed to me as if I looked through an (opaque) glass

upon the home (of my beloved), watching her with passion-
ate love.

fa-ld tabsibi anna -1-jariba -lladi na"d

)pa-ldkinna man tan'aina 'anbu garïbü 2

Do not believe that an alien is one who lives abroad; on the

other hand, he from whom you remain distant is an alien.

The following couplet 3:

fa-in tarii"i -1-ayy,7mu baini ma-bainabi

bi-Di -1-Atli saifan mi tla saifi zva-?aarba `i
a.ruddu -n-nawd hddihi
mard'ira in gddabtaba lam taqqatta `i 4

If the days that passed in Du -1-Atl between you and me

should bring again a summer like mine that was then,
and a spring like my former one,
 168

Then I would secretly fasten ropes to the neck of departure;

and if you and I should play tug-of-war with them, they
would not break

was certainly included in the Hamasa by Abu Tammam because

of the delightful picture in the second verse, although the first verse
contains some difficulty which lies less in the construction ad .ren.rum
'saifan mitla .raifi ma-marba`i' than in the unusual transitive meaning
of 1.
The poet responsible for the following verse belonged to the
Asad tribe: his name is not mentioned 2 :

tabi `tza -l hazvd ya Taibu battd ka-annani

min agliki maçlrusu -1-gariri qa'udu

I have followed passionate love, Taiba, so far that for your

. sake I am like a camel chafed by a halter that willingly
allows itself to be led.

An original form of expression is encountered in a verse by Qabisa

b. Nasrani al-Garmi 3:

zvagadnd ahzvana -1-a)?,iwdlihulkan

wa-gaddika mi nasabta lahu -1-afdJi
Of all goods-by your fortune!-the loss we found easiest
to bear was that for which you set up your hearthstones.

The poet 'Amr b. Mihlat al-Kalbi writes in a poem about the

Battle of Marg Rahit 4:

zva-ddqa 'alaihi -/-Jnar£u wa -l ?yzargis ma.ri `u .

To him the field became narrow, although the field (= Marg

'
Rahit) was so wide.
'
Hanzar b. Aqram 5 :
.
fa-ma fataba -1-aqwdmit min bdbi .rau'atin
bani Qatani'n illd ava-antum suhuduhd
 169

The people have never opened the gate to any form of evil,
B. Qatan, without you having been present with them.

A verse from a poem by Harran b. `Abd Mandt i :

tabki calä bakrin ?aribtii bihi

safahan tabakkibd 'ali bakrin
She cries over a young camel that I have spent on drink
(i.e. sold for drinking money)-what madness to weep over
a young camel.

The whole poem appears in the Hamasa in the Elegies section

although it rather belongs to the Lampoons. The mourning songs
were so hackneyed that this type represented something completely
new.
From a poem by Kutayyir 2:
'
ta? fir fa-innaka ahltahu
3
wa-afçlaltt bilmin bisbatan ?>ilnaumugdabi

They have acted evilly. However, if you forgive them, this is

worthy of you; for the clemency which deserves the highest
praise is the clemency of him who is angry.

It is not only single verses but also whole poems that witness to a
similar beauty and elegance of expression. Here, however, there is
no space for longer quotations.

It is striking that verses which are distinguished by particularly

fine wording are frequently found amongst those poetic fragments
where Abu Tammam does not mention the names of the poets.
About every third poem in the Hamasa is without the author's
name 4, an unusually large number. Did Abu Tammam purposely
omit the names of certain poets? Had he something to conceal?
It is noticeable that many parallel thoughts can be found between
170

the unnamed poets of the Hamasa and the poems in his own Diwan.
Out of many examples given by al-Marzaq! in this connection 1,
one is specially quoted here. In his comments on two verses by an
unnamed poet 2:

. in yapsidüni fa-inni gairu ld'inihim

qabli mina -n-na.ri ahlit qad pusidu
fa-däma li zva-lahitm md bi wa-mä bihimu
i,va-mita aktarzsnd gaizan bi-md_yagidu
When they are envious of me, I do not scold them; already
before me excellent people have been envied.
May I and may they (the envious ones) remain always just
as we are, even if most of us die from vexation over what
we feel

al-Marzuqi 3 states : `Abu 'Abdallah Hamza b. al-Hasan b. Mahdl

al-Kisrawi says 4: "I have exhaustively studied the Diwans of ancient
and modern poets; I have found that Abu Tammam has no equal
as regards his expressed thoughts 5:

iva-idi arida -Iljhu ?aasra fadilati?a

trtzviyat atdba lahi lisäna basfidi
latt-lä -t-tahawwufii li -l `aavdqibi lam la.Zal
li -n-nt/mä `ald -1-tvabsi7di
When God wishes to make known a noble human feature
that has hitherto existed only as a latent one, he sets it in
the mouth of an envious man .6
If there were no fear of (unpleasant) consequences, the envious
would have always done a favour to the envied.
In this respect no one has yet surpassed him." I (al-Marzüqï) am of
opinion that Abu Tammam has taken over and widened (the sense
of) these two verses.'
 171

Al-Marzubani has most clearly expressed his suspicions of 'plagiar-

ism' 1 :
'The Tayyite (Abu Tammam) has committed many literary thefts.
He has been successful with some but others were failures. As I
studied the book in which he has compiled his anthology, I dis-
covered that he concealed the origin of most of the beautiful verses.
Some of them he has actually copied (in his own poems). This is the
reason why he omitted to mention which poet wrote them. A number
of them he held ready to turn to in case of need, in the hope that
the authorship of the poems would finally be forgotten by those
interested in literature, and that these would be content with his
selection of poetry and that they might not in this way become
aware of his plagiarisms.'
It is possible that Abu Tammam mixed lines of his own amongst
the verses of those whose names he did not give. He may, himself,
be the author of certain fragments of poetry that are remarkable
for their originality, so that he could show them to the public as
examples of a poetical style for which his own poetry was criticized 2.
In the case of those poems whose authors were known, philo-
logists could often prove that Abu Tammam had altered 3 the original
wording. In many instances, he had made changes in the text in
order to improve the way in which it had been expressed. Al-Marzuqi
in his preface to the Hamasa 4 says :
'You see him come to a verse which is essentially good, but yet
contains an expression that mars it. Thereupon he corrects the point
at issue and changes the word for another that, after critical examina-
tion, seems to him to be felicitous. This becomes plain to everyone
who has studied the collected poetry of the various poets and then
5
compares Abu Tammam's anthology with these.'
What al-Marzuqi meant precisely by words that marred the
 172

, quality of a verse, and had therefore been replaced by other and

better ones, was explained in a comment by Abu al-Fadl b. al- Amid 1:
'With all the care that Abu Tammam took in correcting numbers
of verses in his anthology, and in removing from them the dirt of
ugly expressions, I am surprised that he did not pay attention to
the expression 2

fa-l-ya'ti niszvatand

so shall he come to our women

'
and submit it to critical examination! This expression is ugly. And
how could he overlook this:

qultu li-qaumin fi -1-kanifi larawwahfi

`afiyyata bitnd "inda Maivdna ru??al?i
latidlg -1-giiid all tabliigii bi-nz fusikrdrrl
ild &ittstardhin mita hinzdmin mubarrihi 3

I said to men lying exhausted in the evening, as we settled

overnight in a thicket of bushes near Mawan : Get your-
selves on your way so that you may obtain wealth or that
your souls may be released from the hard-pressing fate of
death!

He even included the two words 'kanif' and `j?lzrstcardl>'in the

two verses 4. Look at the examples Abu Tammam gives of the
principles that guided him in selecting the poems!'
In some verses in the Hamasa, Abu Tammam has, on the other
hand, made alterations without there being any necessity for then
and without the new word seeming to be any better than the original
one. A few examples may serve to show what his intentions were
in this respect. First, a poem that he included in the Hamasa under
the name of Ga?far b. `Ulba al-Hariti 5:
 173

ald Id zrbali ba `da yaumi bi-Sabbalin

idd lam zr`addab an yagi'a bima-m 'gei-
tarakttt bi-ganbai Sabbalin zva-tilc? `ihi
mtträqa damin Id )'abrahu -d-dahra tdwiyd
idd md ataita l haritiyydti fa -n'ani
lahttnna zva-habbirhunna an /i taldqiya
wa-qawwid qalii¡i fi -r-rikabi , fa-innabd
sa-turjbiku )via.rrfiran baavdkiya
After my day of battle in Sahbal, it does not fret me that the
fate of death may overtake me, if only I am not to be pu-
nished.
Between the two sides of the Sahbal Valley and its stark rocks
I left a man who had bled to death; there he lies, and he
will never escape.
If you come to the women of the B. Harita, tell them of my
death and that they will never meet me again.
Take my camel mare often to the riding camel. She will make
to laugh him who rejoices, and will make to weep him who
mourns for me.

Only the two first verses are really by 6a'far b. 'Ulba, while the
two others are by another poet-in al-Marzuqi's opinion by Malik
b. ar-Raib 1. Whether Abu Tammam 'erroneousJy' ((ali sabili -1-gala 't)
set these two verses after those of Ga <far b. 'Ulba, as al-Marz-uqi
believes, is doubtful. It seems more likely that he did this purposely,
in order to produce a mood that should agree with the romantic
feelings of the reader.
A poem ascribed 2 to the poet 'Aqil b. cUllata 3 is similar:

tanahaar ma -s)alfi -bna .4bi Labidin

-? ciubdrimatu -n-ndlidfi
wa-lastum _fd `ilina ilrdlu battä
yandla aqdr4a -I-),Paqfid;i
ava-abgadu man wada'tii ilayya fihi
lisäni fila `sarun 'anbtim adudzi
ava-lastzr bi-sd'ilin idrdti baiti
174

a-,gitgyjbtiii ri?jliiki am .cuhudu

bi-sddirin `an baitii gäri
stidi7ra gam1JJarahtt -l Zvurudu
)Iva-ld mttlqin li-di -l wada `ati sauti
ula `ibuhr,r iva-ribatahu uridfi

Leave and ask Ibn A. Labid if the strong lion has contented
him!
But I think you will not do this until the fire has reached the
outer edges of the log.
Of the people about whom I have spoken, those are the
most hateful to me whom I defend.
I do not ask the women who live under the protection of my
house whether their men are absent or at home.
I do not leave the house of my prot6g6 like the wild ass whose
thirst could not be stilled by going to the water.
I do not throw my whip to the (boy) with an amulet of shells
in order to play with him, when in reality I wish to ruin him.

Only the first three verses of this poem were written by 'Aqil b.
'Ullafa, while the other three were the work of Ibn A. Numair al-
Qattali. Here, also, it does not seem as if the interpolation was due,
as Abu Riyas believes 1, to an 'error'
Many of the poems in the Hamasa convey a melancholy mood
(riqqa) which is alien to that of old Arabic poetry. Things are different
with the modern poets, especially with Abu Tammam 2. This fact
accounts for the many older poems that he selected because of their
emphasis on feeling, such as the fragment by Sinan b. al-Fahl 3 in
which is written 4: .

zva-lakinni ?ulimtir f a-kidtu abki

mina -I-tvubayyani au bakaitii
but a wrong has been done to me and because of this obvious
wrong I almost wept, or perhaps I even really wept!
For those who adhered to the old ideas, this expression was
 175

non-Arabian. 1 said: 'The desert Arabs laid stern tests

Al-Marzaq!
upon themselves. Anyone who during these texts broke down in
tears was held to be blameworthy.' At-Tabarsi 2 wrote similarly
about this verse in his commentary on the Hamasa : 'It was a reproach
upon Abu Tammam that he quoted such verses in the book of
"Bravery". To weep about a (suffered) wrong is a sign of incapacity
and weakness.'
In the manner in which he selected his anthology, Abu Tammam
showed how many conceptions had changed. For example, the idea
of bravery (hamasa) had become ever more attenuated until it was on a
par with the idea of perseverance and that of even-tempered en-
durance It implied bravery if a man assumed 'carelessness
towards home and friends' 3 and had to bear 'separation from familiar
places and home' 4. 'In this regard, many similar verses were included
in the Hamasa' 5, like the following poem by an unknown author 6 :

lijamna'annaka pafda da'atiii

nafsin ild abliii wa-ait*tini
talqa bi-kulli bilddin in balalta bi*l)d
ablan bi-ahlin wa-giränan bi-lirdni

May longing for friends and the purlieus of home not cause
you to miss the pleasant part of life.
You will find in every land, when you settle there, friends to
replace the old and neighbours instead of the earlier ones.

The connection of this verse with the idea of bravery is explained

by al-Marzüqï 7: 'Abu Tammam set the verse in the chapter "Bravery"
because, as I earlier pointed out, it had its origins in hard severity
and equanimity in the face of departure from what was known
and trusted, because forsaking kindred is one with murder and
self-destruction. So firm endurance of this is equal to firm endurance
in the face of death. Consider His Word-He is sublime-. "And
had we ordered them: Kill yourselves! or: Forsake your dwellings!
8
they would not, with a few exceptions, have done this." '
176

CONCLUSION

By means of examples from the Hamasa, we have sought to show

some of the principles which guided Abu Tammam in his choice
of poems, many among which he chose in order to counter the
criticisms levelled at his own poetry. Ancient poetry showed, from
time to time, the same complications of language and meaning
for which he himself was criticized. Some verses he included because he
had a taste for poetry based on romantic stories, for example those
dealing with the Dahis and Basus wars. The same applies to the
third chapter of the vam£sa-verses on Wisdom in old Sayings.
That through this type of poetry he could address a greater number
of readers and listeners is certain. But this does not at all exclude
his personal interest in it.
Only the Hamasa brought to Abu Tammam the undivided admira-
tion that had been witheld from him as a poet. '/lb3 Tam-
mam, by his selections for this anthology "al-Hamasa", has proved
himself to be a greater poet than he has shown himself in his own
1
poetry.'
FELIX KLEIN-FRANKE

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