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Sons of the Crescent: The Hero in Arabian Legend and Lore: Part One
| Article
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10428 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1993 |
3,577 Words |
| Author
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Jan Knappert
Jan Knappert is a folklorist and specialist in African and
Oriental languages who is based in Belgium. |
The oral literary traditions of Arabia can be traced back only to the sixth century A.D. They remained unwritten until the ninth century, which is the second century of the Islamic calendar.
In those pre-Islamic traditions we meet heroes of a typically Arabian character ideal: They are both warrior and poet, generous to their friends and expecting generosity in return.
According to one tale, when a man named Amr ibnu'l Qais was preparing to depart from the royal court in Egypt, the king presented him with a very meager farewell gift. On his way back to Arabia, Amr met a friend and recited to him a poem mocking the monarch's stinginess. The friend, in turn, recited this poem gleefully in public on reaching Egypt. The king, hearing of the poetic slander, was so enraged that he sent a band of armed men to Arabia with instructions to hunt down and kill Amr, which they did. This spurious tale implies that classical Arabic poetry was so powerful a weapon that it could doom offenders and bring even kings to despair.
The heroes were enmeshed in the complex patterns of tribal rivalries and clan loyalties that dominated life in ancient Arabia, as they do today, thought tribes no longer actually go to war. Students of the Bible know how the tribes of Israel fought each other, as recorded in the book of Judges.
Storytellers still can be seen at work in countries like Egypt and Morocco. Surrounded by groups of boys and men, they use colorful pictures of men earnestly decapitating enemies as a point of departure for their narratives.
Heroic traditions
The early battles of the Arabs are recorded in the famous late medieval book Ayyam al'Arab (The Arabian days), in which some twelve hundred battles are described, interspersed with numerous poems praising friends and mocking enemies, mourning the dead and glorifying combat. The men of the Middle Ages (and not only the Arabs) loved a good fight; they were thrilled by warfare, despite the danger of losing life, limb, or friends. These warriors of the desert could not keep themselves from rushing into battle.
In Arabia, the stakes of battle were so high that the loser lost everything, including his freedom, and therefore would have to be ransomed by his clansmen. But the winner took what he wanted--all the booty was
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