Two centuries
before the advent of Islam - Makkah
(Mecca)
a town of some remote antiquity on the main trade route paralleling
the Red Sea, is already
an important natural stopping place for camel caravans trading goods from
the Yemen and Hadramuwt
(South Arabia) to the bazaars in the great cities of Syria,Iraq
and Faris to the North, and
East, and to Egypt to the West. The
time coincides with the decline and impoverishment of the Eastern Roman
(Byzantium) Empire and the ascendancy of the Sassanids
of
Persia.
However the rivalry between Byzantium and
Persia,
the two superpowers of the period, ignites into long drawn out wars. The
econmic recession which is gripping the
Near East, is affecting
Arabia.
The economic recession
which is gripping the Near East, is also affecting Arabia,
where urban civilization is waning while the simpler way of nomadic life
is attracting more adherents. In the midst of these chaotic conditions,
along the Northern routes, trade is often interrupted by wars. Makkan
merchants from the Quraysh tribe
show great astuteness and industry in profiting from their participation
in a contraband trade conducted through the back roads of the forbidden
landscape of the Arabian desert.
Eventually they become
the "middle man" of a thriving international trade. Within
this environment, Qusayy a descendant
of Fihr, made himself master of Makkah
and the Hidjdjaz.
He erected for himself in Makkah an
imposing palace in which the Principal Hall was used as the Council
Hall of the people - Dar al-Nadwah
- for the transaction of public business.
Within a decade he
transformed the town of Makkah, which
lay in the center of an oasis surrounded by a double range of desolate
treeless hills, into a crowded city of 3000- 5000 inhabitants, most
of whom lived in a cluster of flat roofed dwellings made of stone and sand
dried brick.
The one thing that
makes life possible in this punishing Arabian landscape is the fresh water
bubbling from the well of
Zamzam located
in the center of the town. Next to the well is a modest shrine with
its sacred meteorite known as the Ka`bah
a small cube (1)
like structure, which Qusayy rebuilds
and covers for the first time with a chevron design cloth material.
At the same time, he raises taxes for the upkeep of the town.
The shrine is devoted
to deities of all of the confederate tribes of Arabia.
To promote the site, Qusayy builds
stone houses around it, devises municipal rules for the administration,
and supplies food and water to the pilgrims who come from all over Arabia
to conduct business in the bustling bazaars of the city and worship at
the shrine.
The ritual of the
pilgrimage includes paying homage to Hubal
the chief resident deity and to the 360 lesser idols which are set
in a circle around the sanctuary
Arabian
poets in suwq `Ukaz
The harsh desert life
leads inevitably to competition among tribes for the limited resources
of wells and grazing areas. Eventually this leads to strife and bloodshed.
However, the Arabs set four months out of the year aside during which a
truce is declared and all the clansmen sheath their weapons.
The period of this
truce begins with the month of Muharram,
so called because fighting and the shedding of blood is prohibited. The
term Muharram originates from
the trilateral root “H+ r + m”
which literally means "forbidden"
and "prohibited".
“Fighting”,
which was restricted in the normal way, had to be channeled and so at this
point, the Arabs of the desert vent their energy in another direction:
"The
power of the spoken word! "
During the fairs and
festivals held in these months, such as the one held in the famous
suwq
`Ukaz
outside
of Makkah, poets
(shu`ara')
and
raconteurs/ storytellers
(Rawiy)
compete for the attention of the audience. Instead of the sword,
the rhymed prose (al-Saga`) and the
creative iambic meter of al- Ragaz,
the prosody of the bedouins' al- Qasiydah
with its various forms, Hamasah,
Higa'
,Ghazal
etc. takes hold of the clansmen’s soul and will not let them go.
Public opinion seems
to have decided at an early date to regard the poets in general and especially
the winners of the Mu`allaqat
(2)
, the most prestigious awards of the day, as the most eminent representatives
of their respective tribes are equally held in status and honor to their
champions and heroes in war.
Among these celebrities
were: The Royal Prince 'Imru' al-Qays;
the frivolous courtier Tarafah;
al-Nabighah,
the adroit mediator and friend of both the Ghassaniy
and the Lakhmiy; the bedouins:
`Aqlamah
and Hariyth B. Hillizah;
the two wise men of Arabia, Shaykh
Zubayr and Shaykh
Labiyd; and finally 'Umayyah B. al-Salt.
In addition, prose
(al-Saga`)
develops as a medium of expression incorporating proverbs
('Amthal), fables and riddles (Fawaziyr)(3)
such
as those found in the famous Diwan al-Hudhayl.
Often the Rawiy would recite
at the evening gatherings (samar) exploits
of the Arabs. The main themes of these stories are furnished by the
war-like deeds of the tribes, such as found in 'Ayyam
al-`Arab (The Arab Chronicles), which incorporates events
of great historical importance to the Arabs.
It is during the month
of
Muharram (one of four) that
the Classic Arabic of the desert develops as an extraordinarily
expressive medium, chanted by the fire at night, under the sweeping canopy
of the desert stars, and in the glimmering shadow of the sand dunes.
As the beauty of the Arab culture lies in the eloquence of its language,
any Arab so endowed with such tongue is looked upon with awe, as if he
is possessed with some supernatural force.
Ishinan
Next episode :
The month of Safar
 (1)
It is worthy to mention that the old Arabic term of _Ka`bah_
from the trilateral root of _K`b_ (Kaf
+ `ayn + ba') is another unacknowledged Arabic term which
was borrowed into Western languages as _Cube_.
Both the Greek "kubos" and Latin "cubos
"are from Late Medieval times. The term is part of a slew of technical
and scientific terms from various fields of Mathematics, Algebra,
Logarithm and Geometry etc. These were borrowed by the West along
with the _
Sifr_ (Zero) in Late Medieval
times. Unfortunately, only a minute fraction of these important terms
have been recognized by Western dictionaries. Part of the upcoming
series "The Outer limits of Historical linguistics"
will target some of these unacknowledged terms where they will be systematically
dealt with according to their Alphabetical order.
(2)Al-Mu`allaqat
are the suspended odes , selected from all the best of Arabic poetry and
written on pieces of fine white Egyptian/Coptic cloth (qabatiy)
with water-gold , and suspended upon the Ka`bah
for everybody to see.
(3)The
tradition of riddles (Fawaziyr)
recited
in festivals and fairs has continued to prevail through the Islamic period
during the month of
Ramadan down to
modern day Egypt.
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Excerpts
from Curriculum Material, originally designed for Educational purposes
.
AL-Yawmiyat
al-Misriyah-The Egyptian Chronicles © Copyright 1998
& Revised in 2003
