An ancient Arabian war (ḥarb al-Basūs) as reflected in classical Arabic poetry

ABSTRACT

introduction

During March to July 1987, there was acute disagreement in my home village between its residents and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. It concerned the right to build in a nearby area known as al-Zābūd, with each side insisting they controlled this land. The quarrel very quickly developed into open conflict, with injuries, albeit minor, on both sides. We youngsters were delighted. It was one of the best years in our young lives! Unlike the adults involved in this, let’s say, skirmish, we enjoyed an ongoing school strike, which ran on into the long summer vacation.

The quarrel came to be known to locals as maʿrakat al-Zābūd (the battle of al-Zābūd), with some going so far as to call it malḥamat al-Zābūd (al-Zābūd’s battle), with both the land and the conflict etched into the psyche of the villagers and neighbouring communities. While there was, of course, no physical battlefield, and fortunately no one on either side lost their life, it is remembered as a battle, and is celebrated in poetry by local poets in fuṣḥā (formal Arabic) and in the vernacular. Countrywide, poems about this battle are scarce, mostly composed by public poets or ḥādīs, who visit the village to celebrate its wedding parties.

Fifteen hundred years earlier, according to Arab lore, a battle far lengthier and bloodier than our malḥamat al-Zābūd took place in the Arabian Peninsula. It is said to have lasted forty years, with several falling on its battlefields.¹ This war, too, was about land, although it was claimed by only one side. It began with the ill-starred straying of a she-camel onto the land of another tribe to graze. The resulting carnage was the war of al-Basūs, named for the camel’s owner or, according to some narratives, the camel herself.

The story of the al-Basūs war has inspired twentieth- and twenty-first-century plays, movies, television series, novels, short stories, and poems. Among them is the celebrated Lā tuṣāliḥ (Do Not Reconcile) by Egyptian poet Amal Dunqul (d. 1983), a poem which uses the clash between the two tribes as a symbol for the Israeli–Arab conflict.² In this article, I trace the influence of the war of al-Basūs on pre-Islamic literature, which was contemporaneous with this bloody war in space and time. With poetry the exclusive literature of the pre-Islamic era, I examine how this bloodstained war was imprinted on the minds of contemporary poets, and then follow its development in poems from later periods.

The war of al-Basūs, known as ḥarb al-Basūs in Arabic, is considered in Arabic lore as one of the lengthiest pre-Islamic tribal conflicts. It transpired between the sibling tribes of Bakr and Taghlib, both descended from Wāʾil, spanning roughly 492 to 532 ce.³ At the dawn of Islam, the Bakr b. Wāʾil subtribes dwelt between the desert of today’s central Iraq and al-Yamāma (the region of central Arabia and present-day Riyadh). One branch, the Shaybān clan, which played a major part in the war, controlled most of the southern Iraqi desert wastes. A sub-branch, the Dhuhl b. Shaybān, another major player in the ḥarb al-Basūs, lived to the south of Shaybān lands, close to al-Yamāma.⁴ Before the war, the Taghlib made their home in the Najd region. Following their ultimate defeat, they settled around the lower Euphrates.⁵

The causes and progression of the war are extensively detailed in accumulating prose narratives, a perspective that faced scepticism from Werner Caskel, who considers the war itself as a ‘Sagenkranz’ or an unhistorical event.⁶ These narratives incorporate numerous poems recited by the protagonists, though these will not be delved into in this article. It is plausible that the poems predate the prose narratives, and the prose was potentially crafted to elaborate on the scant historical information found in the poems. Nevertheless, it is not unlikely that, akin to practices found in subsequent sīra shaʿbiyya narratives (popular romances, see definition below) and later versions of the celebrated work The Arabian Nights, these poems were crafted either simultaneously with or subsequent to the development of the prose narratives. This could have been a deliberate effort to elicit diverse effects, primarily of a poetic nature, to complement the prose narrative.

These first appeared in books written in the second/eighth century, and steadily grew to feed popular eighteenth-century novels, such as Sīra shaʿbiyya and Volksroman.⁷ The oldest prose narrative I found is referenced in the Amthāl al-ʿarab (The Arabs’ Proverbs) by the Kufan philologist al-Mufaḍḍal al-Ḍabbī (d. ca. 168/784-5), in a chapter which clarifies a cluster of proverbs.⁸ Explaining Aʿazzu min Kulayb b. Wāʾil (better translated as ‘Stronger than Kulayb son of Wāʾil [tribe]’, than literally as ‘Stronger than Kulayb the son of Wāʾil [the man]’), al-Mufaḍḍal tells us that Kulayb b. Rabīʿa was a leader of the Wāʾil from the Taghlib branch, and a strong and authoritarian pre-Islamic leader. He dominated his land’s water sources down to the very rainwater, and none were allowed to hunt in his lands without his authorization. Opposing him was Jassās b. Murra b. Dhuhl b. Shaybān of the Bakr b. Wāʾil tribe. The conflict between them was sparked when a she-camel, belonging to a female relative of his mother, illicitly wandered into the neighbouring ḥimā (protected land) of Kulayb.⁹ According to al-Mufaḍḍal, ‘al-Basūs’ was the name of either the camel or its owner; he also indicates that the camel was called Sarāb. Kulayb took aim at the beast, his arrow piercing its udder, and the bleeding camel made its way home. Driven by his relative to exact revenge, Jassās, joined with his cousin ʿAmr b. al-Ḥārith b. Dhuhl b. Shaybān, attacked Kulayb, and killed him with a spear thrust. In some versions of the story, Kulayb dies only after a second thrust delivered by ʿAmr.¹⁰ As he lies dying, Kulayb begs Jassās for water. Jassās refuses. He seeks out his brother Hammām b. Murra, and finds him drinking wine with Kulayb’s brother Muhalhil (either a name or a sobriquet, meaning ‘the one who finely weaves poems’, for someone named either Imruʾ al-Qays or ʿAdī). Jassās tells his brother of the murder, and a troubled Hammām passes on the shocking news to his close friend Muhalhil, who initially refuses to believe it. When he does, war breaks out between the sister-tribes of Bakr and Taghlib. The Taghlib try to halt it, sending a delegation to Murra, the father of Jassās and Hammām, asking him to sacrifice one of his two sons for Kulayb, and thus allow the tribes to reconcile. Murra refuses. He claims that Jassās is an impetuous young man, whose crime was committed in the heat of the moment, and he has fled. His second son, Hammām, is father to ten children, and cannot give his life for a crime he did not commit. Murra offers the delegation another of his sons, or a thousand of the tribe’s she-camels. They refuse and the war persists.

The narrative now moves focus to a new figure: al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād of another Bakr sub-branch. Wise and courageous, he has deftly kept clear of the war. By chance, the Taghlib encounter al-Ḥārith’s son, Bujayr. They seize him and bring him to Muhalhil, who kills him. Believing the murder of his son will end the war, al-Ḥārith accepts it—until Muhalhil announces this revenge is equal to no more than the leather strap of Kulayb’s sandal. At this, al-Ḥārith enters the war on the Bakr side. He captures a brave, strong warrior in battle, and demands that he identify either Muhalhil or ʿAdī (apparently unaware they are one and the same). The warrior agrees on condition that al-Ḥārith free him. The promise is made and the warrior reveals that he himself is ʿAdī. Al-Ḥārith keeps his word, but asks that ʿAdī point out another noble warrior of his tribe. ʿAdī fingers ʿAmr b. Abān and al-Ḥārith kills him.¹¹

Another early version of the story appears in the work of Basran philologist Abū ʿUbayda al-Shaybānī, who died about three decades after the death of al-Mufaḍḍal al-Ḍabbī (in the year 209/824-5). He details the causes of the war, giving al-Basūs as the name of the maternal aunt of Jassās and Hammām, a woman who lived among the Shaybānīs with her husband, her son, a she-camel called Sarāb (literally, ‘mirage’), and the camel’s calf. Kulayb, he writes, insists that his wife choose who is the noblest man in the Wāʾil subtribes. She refuses at first, but the third time he asks she answers that the noblest are her two brothers. Kulayb reacts with fury, slaughtering the camel-calf with his bow and arrow. He later hears, however, from the husband of al-Basūs, that the calf’s mother Sarāb is alive and providing the family with milk. Kulayb returns to his wife, repeating his earlier question and receiving the same answer. This time, he goes after Sarāb, shooting an arrow into her udder. This addition may be related to different sources used by the Basran and Kufan scholars, giving us Basran and Kufan versions of the story; or they may indicate a development in the narrative, cited by al-Mufaḍḍal. In the Basran version of the story, Jassās and his cousin ʿAmr b. al-Ḥārith b. Dhuhl b. Shaybān seek revenge and drive a spear into Kulayb, breaking his back. The dying Kulayb begs Jassās for water, Jassās refuses him, and Kulayb dies, his thirst unquenched. A variation has the cousin of Jassās deliver Kulayb’s fatal injury.¹²

In his renowned work, Kitāb al-Aghānī (Book of Songs), Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī (d. shortly after 360/971), a polymath encompassing roles as a man of letters, historian, musicologist, and poet, drew upon the data from both al-Mufaḍḍal and Abū ʿUbayda. He amalgamated their accounts into a single chapter titled ‘Ḥarb Bakr wa-Taghlib’ (‘The war between Bakr and Taghlib’).¹³ Within this chapter, he references these two sources, consolidating their details, resulting in a compilation of diverse information, occasionally presenting contradictory elements. Additional details are also integrated into the chapter, including the introduction of other figures and names (such as Imruʾ al-Qays b. Abān instead of ʿAmr b. Abān, or referencing al-Basūsiyya as an alternative name for al-Basūs). Some of these details serve to clarify certain unexplained elements within the two narratives. An example of this is evident in the departure of the two tribes in search of new pastures, triggered by Kulayb shooting the udder of the she-camel. During their journey, Kulayb and his kinsfolk trail the Bakrīs, consistently obstructing them from accessing water sources. The names of these sources are specified as Shubayth, al-Aḥaṣṣ, Baṭn al-Jarīb, and al-Dhanāʾib. Jassās, who was previously aware of the udder incident but chose not to react, is now incited. Together with his cousin, named ʿAmr b. Abī Rabīʿa (also known as al-Muzdalif) this time, they confront and kill him. The obstruction of the Bakr from water sources sheds light on the motive behind Jassās’ denial of giving Kulayb a drink before his demise.¹⁴

Over time, further details were added to the narrative. In one version, the she-camel breaks the eggs of a skylark protected by the arrogant Kulayb, triggering his anger.¹⁵ In another, the camel is owned by a neighbour of al-Basūs, a woman named Jalīla from the Jarm tribe. After the killing, Jassās hurries to relay the news to his father. The family quickly prepares to leave. Hammām is drinking wine with Muhalhil, and they dispatch a slave-woman to summon him. In another version still, al-Ḥārith sends his son Bujayr as a messenger to Muhalhil, who kills him. It is related that al-Ḥārith triumphs so decisively in a battle at the Qiḍa mountain that the war ends.¹⁶ In another anecdote, Jassās’ nephew, named al-Hijris (the son of Kulayb), seeks vengeance for the murder of his father by killing Jassās, years after the war has concluded.¹⁷ In a fifth/eleventh-century telling, al-Basūs is given the additional name of Bussa. She is visiting her sister, the mother of Jassās, accompanied by her neighbour Saʿd b. Shams, owner of the she-camel.¹⁸ Other sources name the first four battles that the Taghlib waged and won against the Bakr: the battles of Nihy, al-Dhanāʾib, Wāridāt, and ʿUnayza.¹⁹ In the above-mentioned Kitāb al-Aghānī, the names of the battles and their chronological order are detailed as follows: the initial battle named ʿUnayza, in which neither of the two tribes emerged victorious. Subsequently, after a period, the two tribes engaged in further battles: Wāridāt (won by Taghlib), al-Ḥinw (where the Thaʿlaba b. ʿUkāba branch of Bakr, commanded by al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād, defeated the Taghlib), followed by the battle of al-Quṣaybāt, also known as al-Quṣayba, and al-Sarw (favouring the Taghlib), and the day of Qiḍa, alternatively named the battle of al-Taḥāluq or the battle of al-Thaniyya (‘the narrow road in the mountain’).²⁰ The story continues growing until its culmination in the sīra, Qiṣṣat al-Zīr Sālim (The Story of Sālim, the Womanizer), whose early manuscripts date from the eighteenth century. The terms sīra (‘romance’) and, since the 1950s, sīra shaʿbiyya (‘popular romance’) are employed by Arab narrators and folklorists to describe lengthy heroic narratives that focus on adventure and romance. The written versions of these narratives are often composed in rhymed prose, incorporating poems attributed to their protagonists, and centring around actual pre-Islamic and Islamic historical figures. Nevertheless, they embellish their stories with imaginative actions and fictional details, emphasizing the strength and power of the main figures they describe. The written narratives lack identifiable authors, and this, along with different structural and compositional characteristics, indicates that they originated and flourished within a tradition of oral public storytelling.²¹

The story of al-Zīr Sālim is one of the few surviving romances in Arabic culture. It depicts the two tribes settled on the outskirts of the Levant (aṭrāf bilād al-Shām). Kulayb’s brother is named Sālim, known as al-Zīr (womanizer) and al-Muhalhil. ʿAdī is brother to him and Kulayb, and he has a brave and beautiful sister called Asmā, nicknamed Ḍibāʿ, who fights wild beasts. There are many more incidents in the sīra, as well as characters unknown in classical sources who play no role in the early prose narratives cited.²² Some of these incidents are folkloric,²³ a number of them found in non-Arabic literatures. Louis Awad (Luwīs ʿAwaḍ), for example, argues that Arab storytellers of al-Zīr were familiar with the Trojan War epic and borrowed the Trojan horse motif for the men hiding in the chests (although this ruse is found in many places, such as the legend of the Arab queen Zenobia and the story of Ali Baba). According to ʿAwaḍ, there are other parallels between the Trojan War and al-Zīr stories, both deriving from the Pharaonic myth of Osiris.²⁴ Johan Weststeijn analyses the story of Jalīla in al-Zīr as well as in Graeco-Roman tales of the abduction of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon.²⁵ Shawqī ʿAbd al-Ḥakīm argues that many motifs from earlier Near Eastern literatures are recycled by Arab storytellers in their tales of al-Zīr.²⁶

The first accounts of ḥarb al-Basūs in pre-Islamic poetry are attributed to poets who lived during this war and even fought in its battles. Modern studies by scholars such as Suzanne Stetkevych, Abdullah Ali Yahya al-Udhari, and Ali Ahmad Hussein have explored these accounts extensively. Stetkevych analysed several poems composed by the same al-Muhalhil. She posited that his poetry, along with other related poems, serves as a paradigm of jahl (‘ignorance’), representing the obstinate impetuosity for which Muslims coined this term referring to the Arab pagan age.²⁷

Al-Udhari has examined several excerpts—mainly for content but sometimes for style, as well. Most are attributed to al-Muhalhil and al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād, with a few thought to be by Kulayb, Jassās b. Murra, the father of Jassās, Jalīla, and Hijris the son of Jalīla.²⁸

Hussein analyses three poems by al-Find al-Zimmānī. The Zimmān are a branch of the Bakr b. Wāʾil tribe, and al-Find is said to have fought in the final battle of al-Basūs. This battle was known as yawm Qiḍa or yawm taḥlāq al-limam (‘the day of the shaving off of hair longer than the earlobe’), since the Bakr warriors cut their hair to identify themselves on the battlefield. In these poems, al-Find describes the bitterness between the sister-tribes Taghlib and Dhuhl b. Shaybān, and emphasizes the peerless victory of the Bakr tribe in the final battle of the al-Basūs war. He clarifies that his clan, the Zimmān, initially refused to take sides, unwilling to support one sister-tribe against another. They reconsidered only much later, realizing that the Taghlib would never stop fighting. The stubborn Taghlibī leader, apparently the same al-Zīr (his sobriquet appears elsewhere in the poems), is harshly condemned. Other battles in this war cited by al-Find are those of Wāridāt and al-Dhanāʾib. The poems also reference Bujayr’s story, as well as al-Zīr’s sad fate and the vast damage and loss exacted on the Taghlib by the war.²⁹

As shown, the war is covered from different angles: its origins in pre-Islamic poems composed by those who experienced the war; folkloric ingredients; and crossovers from non-Arabic literature. Its portrayal in classical Arabic poetry attributed to poets who had no role in it must also be examined to complete this panoramic image of the war. This article does so, guided by two research questions: (1) How is the war narrated in pre-Islamic poetry? (2) How is the motif of the war developed in later, pre-modern Arabic poems?

In this reconstruction of the war as conceived in Arabic poetry through the ages, I have used the Rhetorical Element Identifier database (REI; https://arabic-rhetoric.haifa.ac.il/welcome) developed by Ali Ahmad Hussein et al.³⁰ It comprises some 27,000 poems, extending from the pre-Islamic era (1,908 poems) to the fifteenth century ce.³¹ The database’s search engine located all verses with key words concerning this war. These words, taken from the prose narratives of ḥarb al-Basūs, are (alphabetically): ʿAdī, Aḥaṣṣ, ʿAwf b. Mālik (‘ʿAwf’ and ‘Mālik’ were also searched separately), Bakr, Basūs, Dhanāʾib, Dhuhl b. Shaybān (‘Dhuhl’ and ‘Shaybān’, also separately), al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād (‘Ḥārith’ and ‘ʿUbād’, also separately), Hijris, Ḥinw, Jalīla, Jarīb, Jassās, Kulayb, Murra, Muzdalif, Nihy (battle), Qiḍa, Quṣayba (the particular battle associated with the war between Taghlib and Bakr, distinct from another battle sharing the same name but linked to an entirely different conflict), Quṣaybāt, Rabīʿa, Sarāb, Sarw, Shaʿtham (including Shaʿthamān and Shaʿāthim), Shubayth, taḥāluq, taḥlāq, ḥalq al-limam (‘taḥlāq’, ‘ḥalq’, and ‘limam’, also separately), Thāniyya (only the particular battle associated with the war between Taghlib and Bakr), ʿUnayza (battle), Wāʾil, Wāridāt, al-Zīr Sālim (‘al-Zīr’ and ‘Sālim’, also separately), ʿAmr b. Abān (‘ʿAmr’ and ‘Abān’, also separately). Where more than one name appears in a verse, analysis of its content is according to the major figure, and not repeated for the minor.

The data show that contrary to other pre-Islamic poems, which meticulously describe contemporary wars,³² virtually no details of the Basūs war are related. At best, there is a brief sprinkling of references—Kulayb’s arrowshot into the camel’s udder and Jassās’ revenge killing of Kulayb, along with scattered intimations of Kulayb’s despotism. Nor do all al-Basūs characters appear, with Kulayb the most often cited. Before examining his appearances and development in classical Arabic poetry through the ages, however, let us look at the use of ‘Basūs’, from which the war takes its name.

Basūs

Astonishingly, the word Basūs is virtually absent from pre-Islamic poetry. It appears solely in two verses; one by Abū Jundab al-Hudhalī and another by al-Ḥuṭayʾa, both of whom are pre-Islamic poets who continued to compose poetry after the advent of Islam (the Arabic term for such poets is mukhaḍram).

Joseph Hell classifies Abū Jundab as a third-generation Hudhalī poet, the major part of whose life was lived between 600 and 650, and whose date of birth was some twenty years earlier.³³ His verses referring to the Basūs war are as follows:³⁴

As a classical prose text explains, this poem was composed after a brother of Abū Jundab is killed by an old man from another branch of the poet’s tribe. The old man’s camels drink from a water source controlled by the poet’s clan. The brother shoots an arrow towards the udder of one of the camels. The furious old man responds by stabbing the brother to death. Abū Jundab decides to exact revenge, but his tribe tries to persuade him to seek peace instead. The poem expressed the poet’s refusal to do so. He likens his enemy to Kulayb, who dragged his tribe into war, and to the Aḥmar (‘the reddish man’) from the ancient mythological Arab tribe, the ʿĀd. This same story appears in different sources, with the wrongdoer killing the magic camel of a prophet sent to guide his ignorant tribe, and the severe punishment that followed.³⁵

The second verse quoted here draws an analogy between the killer of the poet’s brother and al-Basūs. Both face the same demand from their families, which triggers war and results in both bringing the same destiny on their tribes. The ‘two thousand reins’ or horsemen should be understood not literally but as a periphrasis (kināya) for the legions of warriors who fought (in the case of Kulayb) or would fight (in the case of Abū Jundab) in war. That is, the man who killed Abū Jundab’s brother should ready himself with a large force against the poet’s attack on him and his tribe.

Abū Saʿīd al-Sukkarī (d. 275/888), the Basran scholar who collected and interpreted Hudhayl tribal poetry, says of this second verse that: (1) it is absent from other versions of the poem; and (2) al-Basūs is ‘a woman from the Tamīm tribe, who triggered war between the two tribes Bakr and Taghlib’. The verse’s absence may indicate it is a forgery added later, possibly in the third/ninth century, when Hudhayl poetry was collected and annotated. As for al-Basūs being a woman from the Tamīm tribe: this contradicts other prose narratives, which describe her as a relative of Jassās b. Murra. That is, by the third/ninth century, the true identity of this woman had become multivalent.

The other poet, al-Ḥuṭayʾa, appears to be younger than Abū Khirāsh. His year of death is believed to be between 41/661 and 54/674. In one of his poems, the name Basūs is depicted as a harbinger of misfortune, a motif that will later, since the second/eighth century, be employed more frequently. Al-Ḥuṭayʾa portrays himself as an ill omen for other poets, drawing comparisons between the harm he inflicts upon them and that which al-Basūs caused to the relevant tribes:³⁶

The expression ʿiqāluhā yatakawwaʿ (‘its rope inclined sideways’) suggests that in this verse, the name Basūs pertains to the she-camel rather than its owner. The ʿiqāl signifies a rope employed to tether the camel’s fore shank to its arm. The quoted phrase is conceivably a periphrasis (kināya) describing the she-camel when it suffered an injury and began staggering sideways.

As further examples show, the war of al-Basūs is sometimes linked to another pre-Islamic war known as Dāḥis wa-l-Ghabrāʾ (Dāḥis and al-Ghabrāʾ), fought in the latter half of the sixth century between the related tribes of Banū ʿAbs and Banū Dhubyān.³⁷ Named for the two horses over which the war began, Dāḥis and al-Ghabrāʾ, it became a byword for ill luck.

The remaining verses which cite al-Basūs are all from later periods, particularly after the second/eighth century. The name is used in two contexts: to signify love where a relationship between lovers is likened to this war, and to symbolize a bad omen. The earliest recorded instance of it conveying a reaction to unrequited love appears in a poem by Abū Nuwās, a renowned poet from the early ʿAbbasid era (d. between 198/813 and 200/815). He brings the war of al-Basūs, including the image of one of its main characters, al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād, to warn a man he loves not to end their relationship or the lover-poet will wage war against him as bitter as al-Basūs:³⁸

The Basran al-Khubzaruzzī (d. 327/938) perceives the field of love as more painful than a real battlefield:³⁹

Al-Basūs also illustrates the love theme in poems by Syrian al-Ṣanawbarī (d. 334/945), who viewed fighting in this war as easier for him than winning his beloved, and by the sixth/twelfth-century poet Bahāʾ al-Dīn Zuhayr (d. 656/1258), who uses it to describe a war between himself and his beloved. The former reads:⁴⁰

The verse of Bahāʾ al-Dīn Zuhayr reads:⁴¹

As demonstrated above, the earliest occurrence of the second symbol, the ill omen, dates back to the first/seventh century. Nevertheless, its prevalence increased notably from the second/eighth century onwards. It is present in a poem attributed to Wāliba b. al-Ḥubāb (d. before 180/796), describing a joyous wine gathering:⁴²

Basūs, in this context, denotes the absence of a bad omen during the wine session, contributing to the beauty of the gathering. This ill omen could be a person who previously prohibited them from drinking wine, another individual with whom the cup companions did not enjoy drinking, or possibly the term refers to unlucky stars that were absent on that day, ensuring the drinkers could fully relish the meeting.

Another verse presenting the name Basūs as a bad omen was composed by ʿUmar b. Salama, also known as Ibn Abī al-Saʿlāʾ, who was active during the reign of the fifth ʿAbbasid caliph, Hārūn al-Rashīd (r. 170–93/786–809). In an elegy lamenting the death of the caliph, he draws a comparison between the day on which he died and the figure of al-Basūs:⁴³

A comparable usage is found in a poem by the Syrian poet Abū Tammām (d. 231/845), dedicated to a man called al-Ḥasan b. Rajāʾ, whom he is asking for a horse. So that it should not bring bad luck like Basūs, the horse should with:⁴⁴

In the same century, al-Basūs appears in a poem by Baghdadi poet Ibn al-Rūmī (d. ca. 283/896), which mocks a contemporary family, denouncing them as bad luck to everyone they meet. Here, too, the Basūs war is coupled with that of Dāḥis wa-l-Ghabrāʾ:⁴⁵

The Basūs as ill omen appears again in a verse by Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (d. 449/1058), who compares wine with the camel of al-Basūs:⁴⁶

Kulayb

Kulayb is more greatly celebrated in Arabic poetry than al-Basūs. He is the most frequently cited ‘Basūsan’ figure in classical Arabic poetry. While his appearances in pre-Islamic poetry are slim, Kulayb’s motif grows in later poems. It is used in four main contexts: self-praise, love, satire (invective), and praise. Satire is the most common, whereas praise (not self-praise) is a later development which occurs only in the ʿAbbasid period.

The self-praise context dates from pre-Islamic poetry, with possibly the long ode by ʿAmr b. Kulthūm (d. ca. 584)—one of the muʿallaqāt or seven famous pre-Islamic odes—being the oldest surviving such use of Kulayb. The poet was a Taghlibī leader and is, according to classical tradition, the grandson of al-Muhalhil, son of his daughter Laylā.⁴⁷ He thus came from a younger generation than the warriors who fought in that war. His muʿallaqa praises his Taghlibī ancestors, among them Kulayb:⁴⁸

There is no reference in this verse or elsewhere in the poem to Kulayb’s involvement in war. The word sāʿī (literally, ‘the one who makes effort’) is the only epithet used to describe him. This is interpreted by classical commentators as al-sāʿī fī ḥālāt al-ṣulḥ (the one who makes effort towards reconciliation),⁴⁹ or saʿā fī al-majd or al-sāʿī fī al-maʿālī (he who makes efforts to gain honour or glory).⁵⁰ Hence, Kulayb, in the eyes of his descendants, is an honourable man and a peacemaker rather than warmonger.

This is the sole pre-Islamic use of Kulayb in self-praise poetry. It is revived in the Umayyad era (41–132/661–750), when al-ʿUdayl b. al-Farkh of the Bakr (d. ca. 100/718) praises Wāʾil ancestors, who intercede on his behalf with al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf (governor of Iraq, r. ca. 75–95/694–714), extracting a pardon for him. According to the Kitāb al-Aghānī, al-ʿUdayl wrote this poem to express his gratitude at belonging not only to the Bakr, but also to its father-tribe of Wāʾil and all its branches. The poem’s final verses extol the Bakr’s sister-tribe, the Taghlib, among whose members are both the poet al-Muhalhil and the generous Kulayb:⁵¹

This poem may be testimony to good relations between the two sister-tribes in the time of al-ʿUdayl. There is no reference to the war of al-Basūs or to Kulayb as a player in the war.

In the context of love, use of Kulayb is seen in only one poem. It is by Abū Dhuʾayb al-Hudhalī (d. ca. 28/649), a mukhaḍram poet considered by modern scholars as a unique innovator and developer of love poetry.⁵² In this poem, nothing short of the reincarnation of Kulayb will make the poet-lover forget his beloved. And since this will never happen, forgetting her is not conceivable:⁵³

In the other poems in which Kulayb appears, the context is either threatening, satirical, or of self-praise, but now, with Bakr poets celebrating their ancestors for killing Kulayb, Kulayb is portrayed as a tyrant, whose control is absolute. One such image is in a poem by Durayd b. al-Ṣimma (d. 8/630), a pre-Islamic poet who lived in western Arabia and witnessed the birth of Islam, although he never converted. Durayd alludes to the power of Kulayb and his despotism:⁵⁵

The story of Kulayb in the first verse is not clear. The phrase ḥīna dallā may indicate something habitual (‘when he used to send down [his dog]’) or may refer to a single incident (‘on the day he sent down [his dog]’). The verse thus relates that, for some unexplained reason, Kulayb either once or habitually sent his dog down into the well to bring water.

This verse is better understood in the light of others by al-ʿAbbās b. Mirdās al-Sulamī, a mukhaḍram poet who died between 18/639 and 35/656. He addresses an unnamed person, cautioning him that:⁵⁷

These verses serve to clarify those of Durayd b. al-Ṣimma. Kulayb trained his dog to draw water from the well and he prevented others using his pastures. The story of the dog perhaps indicates that Kulayb gave his animal privileges he did not extend to people: his dog is permitted to be in his wells, whereas others, or possibly strangers, are not.

Elsewhere, Durayd b. al-Ṣimma uses the Kulayb motif to urge rival branches of a tribe to stop fighting. Here, he links Kulayb to the war theme, with wars caused by Kulayb (possibly the Basūs war) and that of Dāḥis and al-Ghabrāʾ both mentioned. Both are considered brutal conflicts between kindred tribes, bringing only loss to the warring groups:⁵⁸

Al-ʿAbbās b. Mirdās addresses a contemporary rival named Kulayb, comparing him with Kulayb b. Rabīʿa. Here, too, the image of Kulayb is of a tyrant.⁵⁹

Kulayb’s despotism is described in verses by Maʿbad b. Shuʿba al-Tamīmī, an obscure poet whose biographical dates I failed to find. Maʿbad satirizes an individual called Ḍirār, comparing him to Kulayb, whose evil deeds are described in the following two verses:⁶⁰

Sources attribute these verses, too, either to Maʿbad b. Saʿna al-Ḍabbī or to his brother al-Aswad.⁶¹ It is plausible that the earlier attribution could be a misreading of Maʿbad b. Saʿna. The latter was a pre-Islamic poet who died in captivity during the reign of Persian ruler Kisrā Aparwīz (r. 591–628).⁶² Interestingly, the poet says that he tells of Kulayb what he has heard from others. This may indicate that by the late sixth and early seventh centuries nothing about Kulayb—according, at least, to some of the Arabs—was certain, and what was known of him by then came from collective memory. In other words, memories of Kulayb may have become anecdotal as early as the late pre-Islamic era and the beginning of Islam. The annexation of pastures and watercourses (aklāʾ al-miyāh literally means ‘the pastures which are near the watercourses’) suggests that Kulayb exercised unopposed control over territories that did not belong to him. His protection of animals connects with what is related in the prose anecdotes: he prevented people hurting animals in his pastures. In these verses, however, he protects them not from the members of his Bakr b. Wāʾil tribe, but from their afnāʾ (sing. finw), the strangers who once lived among them. This may support what was suggested earlier: that Kulayb banned strangers from his land, but gave free use of it to his own family clans.

The image of a tyrannical Kulayb persists into poetry of later periods. The fullest use of it is by poets who lived on into the Umayyad era. One is al-Nābigha al-Jaʿdī, a mukhaḍram poet whose long life began in pre-Islamic times and ended under the Umayyads, around the year 79/698-9. In one of his poems, al-Nābigha brings Kulayb as an analogy to threaten a rival. The poem addresses ʿIqāl b. Khuwaylid, a poet and tribal leader, who is protecting a member of the Wāʾil b. Maʿn, the killer of a relative of al-Nābigha. As the killer’s tribe is named Wāʾil, the poet draws an analogy between members of the two tribes—the killer and Kulayb:⁶³

This poem, composed at the latest in the second half of the first/seventh century (the exact date is unknown), contains details found in later prose anecdotes, but not all of them are found in poems from earlier periods: the killing of Kulayb by Jassās for shooting the camel’s udder, and his plea for water as he dies. Jassās’ answer—tajāwazta l-Aḥaṣṣa wa-Baṭna Shubaythin—appears in some prose versions. It later became proverbial, describing a lost chance for doing good.⁶⁴

Verses that narrate similar details with phrases resembling those used by al-Nābigha al-Jaʿdī are also found in a poem attributed to ʿAmr b. al-Ahtam, another mukhaḍram poet whose life extended into the Umayyad era (d. 57/677). In this work as well, the verses depict the injustice of Kulayb towards his people, his demise at the hands of Jassās, his cousin, and the motif of seeking a drink:⁶⁵

Description of this war, with minor detail, is also found in a work by the poet al-Qaṭirān al-Saʿdī. Nothing is known of him other than a footnote that he is an Islamic poet (shāʿir islāmī)⁶⁶—a common description of poets born after the coming of Islam, who sometimes lived on into the Umayyad era. Like al-Nābigha, al-Qaṭirān uses the story of the Basūs war in a quarrel between himself and an enemy. Telling his enemy to watch his words, he warns that he may meet a fate similar to Jassās and Kulayb, who led their tribe to war:⁶⁷

Here, too, the verses tell the story of the shooting of the camel as triggering war. They give a condensed version of the causes of the al-Basūs war, naming Jassās, rather than the relative or the neighbour, as the one who entered the forbidden place. The ḥimā belongs to the Wāʾil tribe. It may be that the two cases rhetorically depend on synecdoche. In the first, the she-camel is attributed to Jassās, but it is his female relative who is meant. In the second, the ḥimā is attributed to Wāʾil, but refers only to a single member—Kulayb. The use of synecdoche in this second instance may indicate that the ḥimā was open to anyone from the Wāʾil tribe, including Bakr and Taghlib. Since the she-camel’s encroachment infuriated Kulayb, it may be that the camel’s owner (that is, al-Basūs) was from a different tribe.

In Umayyad poetry, too, Kulayb symbolizes a tyrant, against whom the only defence is killing him. This is seen in the poetry of the Khawārij, an early politico-religious Islamic sect opposed to the Umayyad caliphate. Khawārij poet Bashīr b. Ubayy al-ʿAbsī (no year of death is given) condemns Muʿāwiya I, the first Umayyad caliph (r. ca. 41–60/661–80), comparing him with Kulayb:⁶⁸

Killing Kulayb, this time in the context of self-praise, is found in two verses attributed to an unnamed man (rajul). Some believe him to be a member of the Hilāl b. ʿĀmir b. Ṣaʿṣaʿa tribe, which had no connection with the war of al-Basūs. Others see him as a member of the Bakr—either a Bakrī who composed these verses after Islam, or the famous pre-Islamic poet al-Aʿshā Maymūn (although these verses do not appear in the latter’s dīwān). With the poet boasting of his tribe’s slaughter of Kulayb, he may well be simply a Bakrī poet:⁶⁹

Jarīr, too, refers to Kulayb being killed by the Bakr in revenge for the she-camel. He composed his verses in opposition to al-Akhṭal (d. 92/710), as a way of humiliating the latter’s Taghlib tribe:⁷⁰

ʿAbbasid poets used the Kulayb motif differently. For them, Kulayb featured in praise poetry (flattery of patrons, sometimes for financial help), not self-praise, as earlier. His image is portrayed in this poetry as a symbol of a courageous and honourable leader. Ibn al-Rūmī (d. ca. 283/896) endorses the courage of his patron, portraying it as greater than that of the major figures of the Basūs war—Kulayb, Jassās, al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād, and his father, ʿUbād:⁷¹

Al-Mutanabbī (d. 354/965), best known for his praise poems of governors of contemporary Muslim regions, writes that Sayf al-Dawla al-Ḥamdānī of the Taghlib tribe, who governed Aleppo, should be celebrated for his own strength and nobility, not because of his descent from Kulayb. He is more honourable and powerful than his ancestor:⁷²

Renowned court poet Ibn Hāniʾ al-Andalusī, who lived mainly in Seville and Tunisia (d. 362/973), flatters a patron that, if he were known to the Wāʾil tribe, they would switch allegiance from Kulayb to him:⁷³

The same poet cites Kulayb in another verse, along with some details of his story—Kulayb’s thirst and his futile plea for water. Several verses in this poem praise the Bakr, highlighting their loyalty to their neighbours:⁷⁴

ʿAbbasid poetry uses the image of Kulayb not only in panegyrics but also in satirical poetry—comic satire, not the threatening form of pre-ʿAbbasid poetry. Abū Nuwās (d. mid-198 or early 200/813-15) exaggerates the image to mock the bread of a contemporary miser:⁷⁵

Abū Nuwās’ verses provide further insight into Kulayb’s character as perceived in his legend. Those attending his assemblies were fearful and dared not speak loudly or improperly in his presence.

The same poet made reference to Kulayb, albeit without explicitly mentioning his name, along with his brother Muhalhil and a sister shared by both, in a poem dedicated as an invective against the northern Arabian tribes and as praise for the southern ones. The poem encompasses various tribes, including Taghlib and its two leaders:⁷⁶

In the initial verse, the mention of al-Dhanāʾib pertains to the location where the leader of the Taghlib tribe, i.e., Kulayb, met his demise, was interred, or, at the very least, where the tribe resided. The second verse, as elucidated in Abū Nuwās’ dīwān, alludes to the flight of Muhalhil, potentially after suffering defeat in the conflict with the Bakr tribe, seeking refuge with a specific Yemeni tribe (the Madhḥij). They compelled him to marry his sister to a man from their midst, who assigned animal leather as her dowry.

The ʿAbbasids also used Kulayb in ascetic or, to some degree, religious or philosophical poetry. Dismissing the revival of certain religious or political figures as of ancients long dead, Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (d. 449/1058) writes rhetorically:⁷⁷

If Kulayb and Zayd al-Khayl, a brave warrior and poet of the Ṭayyiʾ tribe who died between 13/634 and 23/644, have not come back from the dead, no one will.

ʿAdī, al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād, and Ibn Abān

One major figure from the Basūs war, who is absent from pre-Islamic poetry, is al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād. His first poetical appearance is in Umayyad poems, largely from the works of the famed trinity al-Akhṭal, al-Farazdaq, and Jarīr, who use al-Ḥārith in satirical and self-praise poetry. During the ʿAbbasid era, he appears more frequently, often along with ʿAdī (the name given to Muhalhil) and Ibn Abān. The importance of these three men as Basūs war symbols emerges only after Islam.

Al-Akhṭal employs al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād’s story in a poetic satire that attacks his contemporary, Mālik b. Mismaʿ of the Bakr b. Wāʾil tribe. The poem makes unclear reference to battles fought by the Taghlib against the Banū Shaybān. It seems that all except one of these belonged to wars other than al-Basūs. Only one verse in this poem can confidently be linked to the war of Basūs:⁷⁸

Dhanāʾib and Shaʿtham appear in another poem attributed to Muhalhil.⁷⁹ The commentaries define al-Dhanāʾib as three hills in the Najd region, under one of which Kulayb is buried. Shaʿāthim, in Muhalhil’s poem, is used in its dual form: yawm al-Shaʿthamayn (‘the battle of the two Shaʿthams’). Commentators explain that these are two sons of the Bakr tribe, one named Shaʿtham, the other differently named. The sobriquet al-Shaʿthamayn refers to both noble brothers, ‘Shaʿtham and the other’ (such use of the dual is known in Arabic). Their father is Muʿāwiya, and all three died in the battle of Wāridāt, one of the first battles waged by the Taghlib against the Bakr in the Basūs war.

In this poem by al-Akhṭal, Dhanāʾib refers not to Kulayb’s grave, as in Muhalhil’s work, but to another successful battle fought by Taghlib against Bakr. The plural form (Shaʿāthim) is used here for those killed—possibly the two brothers and their father, all of whom al-Akhṭal regards as part of the family of al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād. In a poem by Bakrī poet al-Find al-Zimmānī, Dhanāʾib is a battle in which the Bakr defeated the Taghlib.⁸⁰ Assuming that these three poets are all describing a genuine historical incident, at least from their own perspectives, it seems that al-Dhanāʾib is where Kulayb was buried and where a battle was fought between two sister-tribes, each claiming victory. Classical sources accept that the Taghlib won the battle.⁸¹

Al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād also appears in a poem by al-Farazdaq (d. ca. 114/732), as an ancestor of his second wife. The poem praises this wife over his first wife, his cousin Nawār. According to the poem, Nawār does not love the poet, which is why he takes a second wife:⁸²

The claim in these verses that the daughters (more accurately, the descendants) of al-Ḥārith were less noble than the women of al-Farazdaq’s own Dārim clan is not necessarily historical truth. In his self-praise poetry, al-Farazdaq elevates his tribe over all others, especially when he is in poetic competition, when he avows he is the best poet from the noblest tribe.⁸⁶ The verses attest to his nobility: they reflect a narrative that is absent from the pre-Islamic poems used in this study but appears in later prose accounts of the war of al-Basūs. When al-Ḥārith is told of the humiliating dismissal of Muhalhil after the killing of his son Bujayr, he asks for his horse, Naʿāma, on which to ride to war.⁸⁷ The phrase qarribā marbaṭa l-Naʿāmati minnī (‘let the place where al-Naʿāma is tied become close to me’) appears in the poem, which al-Ḥārith is said to have composed at that very moment.⁸⁸

In reaction to this poem, al-Farazdaq’s famed opponent Jarīr, against whom he engaged in the renowned naqāʾiḍ poetry (flytings), denies that al-Farazdaq has married a descendant of al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād. The father of this new wife has, he claims, far lower status:⁸⁹

Al-Farazdaq’s verses appear not only in his own dīwān (collection of poems), but also in a book in which Basran scholar Abū ʿUbayda (d. 209/824-5) collected the ‘flytings of Jarīr and al-Farazdaq’—that is, the dual poems (or ‘main poems’ and ‘response poems’) of the two poets.⁹⁰ Jarīr’s verses, on the other hand, are found only in Jarīr’s private dīwān. It is not, therefore, known for certain whether Jarīr’s poem is an anti-poem (response poem) to that of al-Farazdaq and whether it rejects the affiliation of the woman al-Farazdaq mentions to al-Ḥārith’s family. What these poems do attest, however, is the perception, during Umayyad times, of al-Ḥārith as a heroic and privileged figure.

In the same era, the sobriquet Abū Bujayr surfaces in a brief poem by al-Kumayt b. Zayd (d. 126/743), alongside two other pre-Islamic figures: the Jewish poet and leader al-Samawʾal b. ʿĀdiyāʾ and the pre-Islamic leader Ibn Muḥallim. All three are censured for sacrificing their sons as a display of loyalty. The particular verse referencing Abū Bujayr is as follows:⁹¹

The editor of al-Kumayt’s dīwān elucidates that by referring to Abū Bujayr, the poem is making a connection to al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād. In the preceding two verses, al-Kumayt hints at the narrative of al-Samawʾal, who sacrificed his son to safeguard the trust bestowed upon him by the pre-Islamic poet Imruʾ al-Qays. Al-Kumayt contends that such a loyal act does not warrant such a sacrifice. In the quoted verse above, it appears that al-Kumayt is alluding to the account of consenting to sacrifice Bujayr to bring an end to the Basūs war. Thus, it becomes evident that such an anecdote was already known in the Umayyad era.⁹²

In ʿAbbasid poetry, the motif of al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād is used more widely and in different contexts. Further details of the story of al-Basūs, as related to the ʿUbād family, emerge, and the name of al-Ḥārith becomes a symbol for a brave and triumphant war hero. No longer appearing in satirical or self-praise poems, he is cited by poets of the time in Bacchic poetry, serving love themes, praising patrons, and even as a means of freeing war captives. Most poets who use the figure of al-Ḥārith lived in the court of Sayf al-Dawla, the illustrious emir of Aleppo and northern Syria (r. ca. 333–56/945–67), who was himself a member of the Taghlib.

In a second/eighth-century poem, Abū Nuwās describes a cupbearer who approaches the wine as if he were al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād approaching his enemies:⁹³

The cupbearer is eager to open the wine jar. He hurries up to it as if he is al-Ḥārith hurrying to war. He folds his sleeve, possibly to ease opening the tightly closed wine jar. He looks, at this moment, as if he were al-Ḥārith, folding his sleeve while holding his horse’s rein as he approaches the battlefield. Both display the same excitement about their goal.

Abū Tammām uses the Ḥārith motif both to express love and to praise his patrons. In one poem, the poet-lover tells a male slanderer that he is unlike al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād:⁹⁴

This verse bears two contradictory interpretations, both of which are referenced in the poet’s dīwān: the first portrays the protagonist as a humble lover, suggesting that his love is not as profound as al-Ḥārith’s on the actual battlefield. The second interpretation paints the protagonist as more accomplished or powerful than al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād. This perspective asserts that since al-Ḥārith initially refrained from engaging in the fight until Bujayr was killed, Abū Tammām is deemed superior to al-Ḥārith, not inferior.⁹⁵

In another poem, this poet warns Taghlib clans that should they fail to submit to his patron, ʿAbbasid commander Abū Saʿīd al-Thaghrī (d. 236/851), he will set upon them as harshly as al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād after the killing of his son, Bujayr:⁹⁶

Abū Firās al-Ḥamdānī (d. 357/968), a Syrian poet of Taghlibī descent who lived most of his life in Aleppo, describes the following incidents from the Basūs war:⁹⁷

The poem of which these verses are part was sent from prison. The story of al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād is brought, among others in the poem, to urge the cousin of Abū Firās, Sayf al-Dawla, to take rapid action against the Byzantines to free the poet from captivity. Do not delay, Abū Firās presses Sayf, but move against the Byzantines in the same way as ʿUbād’s family moved against their enemies. Although the incident that brought the ʿUbād family into the war is not specified, it is clear that wrong was done to their leader al-Ḥārith. The two verses hint of revenge from Ibn Abān instead of killing ʿAdī. While no reason is given in the poem, Ibn Khālawayh (d. 370/980), who spent most of his adult life at the court of Sayf al-Dawla together with Abū Firās, comments that these verses refer to Bujayr’s murder and the capture of al-Muhalhil, who was not initially recognized by al-Ḥārith. Ibn Khālawayh identifies Bujayr as al-Ḥārith’s nephew, not his son, and interprets the term Takhāluf as the name of the battle that transpired between the two tribes—a designation that I was unable to locate elsewhere.⁹⁸

The poet al-Sarī al-Raffāʾ (d. 362/972-3), who also lived in Sayf al-Dawla’s court, praises the Taghlib, as follows:⁹⁹

These verses are in a poem of praise by Abū al-Yaqẓān ʿAmmār b. Naṣr b. Ḥamdān, likely a relative of Sayf al-Dawla, and thus also a member of the Taghlib tribe. They are rich in animal metaphors. Pastoral societies branded the necks of their camels to mark ownership, and Time here is metaphorically branded by the Taghlibī war, famously remembered through the ages. White on horses’ legs and foreheads was considered a sign of beauty, and ʿAdī is considered the most beautiful part of glory, his heroic deeds a metaphorical white mark on the forehead of nobility. The Ḥārith of these verses is possibly al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād. Especially important is the final verse in which the generous Taghlib tribe fuel the nightly telling of tales in Arab society. It includes a reference to the asmār al-ʿarab—the nocturnal gatherings of classical times that narrated and heard communal tales.¹⁰⁰ This poem by al-Sarī al-Raffāʾ suggests that the story of the Basūs war was a major feature of such gatherings in classical times, and possibly into the poet’s own era.

Wāʾil, Bakr, and Taghlib

Praise of the Wāʾil tribe, mainly its two branches, along with self-praise for a blood connection with them appears in many poems.¹⁰¹ I have selected only those that relate to the war of al-Basūs.

Of the oldest verses which refer to Wāʾil, Bakr, and Taghlib in such a context is that by the pre-Islamic poet Ṭarafa b. al-ʿAbd (d. 564), a member of the Bakr but from the Ḍubayʿa clan, which was not involved in the Basūs war. Ṭarafa dedicates his poem to defending an injustice suffered by his mother. Injustice, he notes, divides close family, just as the war between Bakr and Taghlib:¹⁰²

There is no doubt that this verse refers to the ḥarb al-Basūs, even though it is not named. Nor does the poem specify the injustice that led to that war. The verse, however, expresses regret, during the pre-Islamic era, and by a member of one of the tribes which fought in the war of al-Basūs.

Linking war between the sister-tribes to injustice appears in the work of later poets, too. Among those who warn of it is the famous mukhaḍram poet from Madina Kaʿb b. Mālik al-Anṣārī (d. 50 or 53/670 or 673), who brings up the wars of ʿAbs and Wāʾil as examples. He also hints at the wars of Dāḥis and al-Ghabrāʾ and of al-Basūs, both of which were ignited by ill deeds not explained in the verse:¹⁰³

In another poem by a mukhaḍram poet, Umayya b. Abī al-Ṣalt (d. ca. 5/626), the two tribes are associated with the war, but in a distinct context. Umayya addresses the prolonged conflict between Bakr and Taghlib over the years, highlighting the eventual transformation of their relationship into one of close friendship, wherein they lived together harmoniously:¹⁰⁴

The poetry of Umayya b. Abī al-Ṣalt was distinct from that of his contemporaries and those preceding him. Consequently, the authenticity of his poetry has been a subject of scrutiny in modern research.¹⁰⁵ In the present article, I lack the means to assess the authenticity of Umayya’s poetry, including the quoted poem. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that this poem presents content that diverges from the themes found in all the other poems cited in this study. During Umayya’s time, around the end of the sixth century and the first few decades of the seventh century ce, the tribes had already reverted to their previous peaceful coexistence, and remnants of the war were no longer apparent. The portrayal of the war in the poem aligns with what is narrated in the prose narratives, indicating its prolonged duration.

The link between the Basūs war and the two Wāʾil tribes is not a common theme in Umayyad poetry. It appears in only one hemistich composed by al-Akhṭal, who vaunts the defeat of the Bakr by his Taghlib kinsfolk. The war is not named but may be the Basūs war:¹⁰⁶

Only ʿAbbasid poetry directly names one of the war’s battles—the battle of Qiḍa (yawm Qiḍa), also known as yawm ḥalq al-limam (‘the day of the trimming of hair to below the earlobe’). Abū Tammām praises Abū Saʿīd Muḥammad b. Yūsuf, who defeats the Byzantines, comparing this battle with the last of the Basūs war, only fiercer. Both of the wars’ names appear in Abū Tammām’s poem with a slight derivative change:¹⁰⁷

Al-Buḥturī (d. 284/897) cites the war between Bakr and Taghlib in his elegy to Mālik b. Ṭawq of the Taghlib, said to be a descendant of muʿallaqāt poet ʿAmr b. Kulthūm, governor of Damascus and Jordan, who died in 260/874.¹⁰⁸ Al-Buḥturī praises Mālik’s generosity and metaphorically compares the feelings it engendered with those of the Bakr towards the Taghlib. He hints at the final defeat of the Bakr in the war of al-Basūs:¹⁰⁹

Abū al-Firās al-Ḥamdānī, another Taghlibī, describes the relationship between himself and his cousin Abū al-ʿAshāʾir with that between Muhalhil and his Wāʾil tribe:¹¹⁰

Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s description of an old shield notes that it was used in both the war of al-Basūs and that of Dāḥis and al-Ghabrāʾ:¹¹¹

Commentators explain that the kayd Wāʾil (the deceit of Wāʾil) refers to the war of al-Basūs, and that ‘the blue eyes’ is a general reference to an enemy. It is first used to describe the Byzantines, many of whom were blue-eyed, and then extended to all enemies.¹¹² In this verse, the blue eyes apparently refer to the two tribes descended from the Wāʾil, who fought that war. The war of Dāḥis and al-Ghabrāʾ is mentioned in the second hemistich in reference to one of its key figures—Dāḥis, one of the two horses that caused this war between sister-tribes. Assuming the contents of the two hemistiches to be parallel, an additional explanation of ‘blue eyes’ is proposed: it may signify not an entire rival tribe, as classical commentators indicate, but possibly a character or characters who play a key role in the war, in the same way that only a single figure is recalled in connection with the war of Dāḥis and al-Ghabrāʾ. Possibly a specific individual was believed to have blue eyes, according to tales known in the time of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī—Kulayb, al-Basūs, the camel-owner, or someone else.

Jassās and ʿAmr b. al-Ḥārith

Jassās and ʿAmr b. al-Ḥārith, possibly a cousin who was with him in the killing of Kulayb, are conspicuously absent from the poetry, with their presence limited to the quoted verses above and a few other instances, which will be mentioned below.

The figure of Jassās is mentioned in one hemistich by al-Ṣanawbarī, who describes a violent relationship between him and his companion al-Waṣīfī, whom he kills, as Jassās kills his enemy (apparently Kulayb):¹¹³

The killing is possibly because of the vast amount of wine that al-Ṣanawbarī poured for his companion until he was intoxicated. In another of his poems, the poet uses this same motif to describe how he feels physically and mentally when he drinks the wine:¹¹⁴

The name of ʿAmr b. al-Ḥārith is not directly mentioned in the poetry, although he is alluded to as the ‘son of al-Ḥārith b. Dhuhl’ in a love context in a poem by renowned Umayyad love poet ʿUmar b. Abī Rabīʿa (d. ca. 93/712). The noble beloved is praised as his descendant:¹¹⁵

Yawm Qiḍa / Yawm al-taḥāluq

The battles of the Basūs war are found in the poems only infrequently. Its putative final battle is cited directly in only one pre-Islamic poem, in which Bakrī poet Ṭarafa b. al-ʿAbd boasts of it, describing the women captured and the camels seized:¹¹⁶

The verses relate that in battle, a vast amount of booty, including camels and Taghlibī women, is seized by the Bakrīs. The white legs of the women are seen after they were put on camels or horses, as captives. It may also be a euphemism for their flight from their abodes: they rolled up their clothing and ran.

Qiḍa, indicating a place-name (mountain), and yawm al-taḥāluq are found in two pre-Islamic poems, but not related to the Basūs war. The first is connected with the poet’s in-laws, and the second possibly indicates a place or time where the lover-poet and his beloved will meet.¹¹⁷

Summary and Conclusion

In summary, the corpus used in this study shows that the war of al-Basūs was an infrequent theme in pre-Islamic poetry, at least in surviving poems from that time. Its resonance in Arabic poetry begins later, starting in the Umayyad period and continuing more widely into the ʿAbbasid and post-ʿAbbasid periods, from the second/eighth century.

As shown, the earliest use of the word ‘Basūs’ is in the work of a mukhaḍram poet, who lived approximately between 600 and 650 ce. At that time, the war was a motif for ‘Do not reconcile!’, with Kulayb’s brother refusing to make peace with his brother’s murderers. Its use became more common in the ʿAbbasid and post-Abbasid eras (the poets quoted in this article lived between 200/815 and 581/1186), where it is used to express the theme of love (love is easier than fighting the war of al-Basūs, and waging war against a lover is similar to that of al-Basūs), and as a bad omen. This second meaning features in praise and satirical poetry, as well as in poetry that condemns wine.

While not directly mentioned, the war can be also identified in an older work by the pre-Islamic poet Ṭarafa b. al-ʿAbd (d. 564), who refers simply to ‘a war’ between the Bakr and Taghlib tribes. On one occasion, he laments the rift between two sister-tribes. On another, he supports his Bakr tribe against the Taghlib.

The majority of those who played key roles in the war and appear in later prose stories are not found in the poetry. Kulayb is the most frequently mentioned Basūs-figure, but is seen little in pre-Islamic poems and his engagement in the war itself is often not cited. The few pre-Islamic texts that feature Kulayb do so in four different ways. One, by a Taghlibī poet, ʿAmr b. Kulthūm (d. ca. 584), boasts of Kulayb’s great virtues as a peacemaker or as a person of high status. A second, possibly by a Bakrī poet, is self-praise, telling of the murder of Kulayb by his ancestors. A third, by Durayd b. al-Ṣimma (d. 8/630), calls for quarrelling sister-tribes to make peace, and thus avoid the destiny suffered by Kulayb’s tribe. The most familiar context in which Kulayb is mentioned, however, is satire. In poems by Durayd b. al-Ṣimma and Maʿbad b. Saʿna al-Ḍabbī (active between 591 and 628), the injustice of the poets’ rivals is compared with that of Kulayb, as a warning against meeting his fate. Featured in all these poems is protection of the ḥimā and its animals, the story of Kulayb’s dog, and the shooting into the camel’s udder.

Kulayb’s despotism is a constant, particularly for mukhaḍram and Umayyad poets. All poems from this era make reference to his absolute control of the lands and his barring of strangers (other than Wāʾil members) from grazing or injuring animals within them. For the first time, a relatively long account of Kulayb’s engagement in the ‘war’ is told (without the war being named) in a poem by al-Nābigha al-Jaʿdī (d. ca. 79/698-9). Jassās is named as Kulayb’s killer, and the story of the dying Kulayb’s thirst is narrated. Kulayb’s death also appears in a love poem, written by mukhaḍram poet Abū Dhuʾayb al-Hudhalī (d. 28/649), and Bakrī poet al-ʿUdayl b. al-Farkh (d. ca. 100/718) praises his ancestors for killing Kulayb. Rebel poet Bashīr b. Ubayy al-ʿAbsī uses the image of Kulayb to urge the assassination of the Umayyad caliph, likening his despotism to that of his pre-Islamic antecedent.

Under the ʿAbbasids, the image of Kulayb was extended to serve wider contexts—principally the praise theme (Ibn al-Rūmī, d. ca. 283/896; al-Mutanabbī, d. 354/965; and Ibn Hāniʾ al-Andalusī, d. 362/973). Kulayb is held up as an ideal strong leader, with whom patrons are compared. A relatively detailed story of Kulayb occurs in a poem by Ibn Hāniʾ al-Andalusī. Kulayb was also used in humorous satire (Abū Nuwās, d. between 198/813 and early 200/815) and ascetics (Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, d. 449/1058).

Arabic poetry features further figures and details from this war only in the Umayyad era (for example, the mention of al-Ḥārith b. ʿUbād) and the ʿAbbasid period (when the final battle, the Qiḍa, in the Basūs war is named).

The sparse presence of the war in pre-Islamic poetry and its growing emergence in later poems can be explained in different (although, in my view, unconvincing) ways. One is that there were pre-Islamic poems which described the war more often and in more detail, but they have not survived. Another is that those who collected pre-Islamic poetry, starting in the second/eighth century, were insufficiently interested in including such poems in their collections and dismissed them. Why, it may be asked, did these specific poems fail to serve the poetry collectors while so many others did, and why did these specific manuscripts fail to survive?

More believable, in my view, is that Umayyad poetry, and ʿAbbasid and post-ʿAbbasid sources, prose and poetry alike, gave greater weight to the Basūs war than pre-Islamic poets. In other words, that war meant little to the Arabian tribes, other than to the poets who actually fought in it. It was no more than a local incident, of interest to those involved, and not to other Arabians. It was only later that the story of al-Basūs was invested with meaning, suggesting that it may not have been as bloody as described in later sources or lasted as long. It may simply have been a local war, or perhaps even a skirmish, significant only to those who took part. The war’s battles were told in the nocturnal asmār or telling of tales among tribes during the pre-Islamic era (according to verses attributed to Maʿbad b. Saʿna al-Ḍabbī). These asmār were embroidered in later times (according to verses of al-Sarī al-Raffāʾ, d. 362/972-3), until the story became far richer, possibly with additions from other stories and literatures, combined with imaginative contributions from storytellers. Thus imbued with new meaning, it fed the sīra literature of the post-ʿAbbasid or pre-modern period.

And while this war may have seen greater bloodshed than the modern Zābūd malḥama in the present author’s home community, both initially held little interest for those who were not part of it. With time, one of these two incidents developed into an interesting theme. The other remained strictly local.

Footnotes