'Counting to the stars a number, calling them all [by] names;'[1] it is, however, doubtful whether this poetical passage is based on the conception of the starry heaven as a flock.[2] But also poems of non-nomadic poets have been written from a Beduin point of view. The Ḳasîdâs of the Andalusian Arabic poets are written as from the camel's back, and move in the scenery of the desert; and when a modern Arab writes a Ḳasîdâ for an English lady, as has been done, the circle in which he moves is the circle of Imrulḳais and ‘Antarâ.[3] This is not the effect of the traditional canon of the Ḳasîdâ only, but of the Arab's belief that true nobility is only to be found in the desert. Therefore his national enthusiasm transports him into the desert, for only there is life noble and free, the life of towns being a degradation. Even the town-life of the Arabs, says the celebrated African traveller George Schweinfurth,[4] 'is essentially half a camp life. As a collateral illustration of this, I may remark that to this day Malta, where an Arab colony has reached as high a degree of civilisation as ever yet it has attained, the small towns, which are inhabited by this active little community, are called by the very same designations as elsewhere belong to the nomad encampments in the desert. We must add, that
- ↑ Journal Asiatique, 1868, II. 378.
- ↑ Just as can be said of another passage closely connected with the above, Is. XL. 26. On the contrary, especially in the latter passage, the host of stars is compared to a war-host, ṣâbhâ; and the idea that each star is a valiant warrior is also not strange to Arabic poetry (e.g. Ḥamâsâ, p. 36, l. 5, comp. Num. XXIV. 17); for the conception of ṣebâ hash-shamayim 'host or army of heaven,' has taken as firm root among the Arabs as among the Hebrews. 'For thou art the Sun,' says al-Nâbiġâ (VIII. 10) to king No‘mân, and the other kings are stars; when the former rises, not a single star of these latter are any longer visible. With this is connected the expression juyûsh al-ẓalâm 'the armies of darkness' (Romance of ‘Antar, XVIII. 8. 6, XXV. 60. 69). In the last passage, indeed, it stands in parallelism with ‘asâkir al-ḍi'â w-al-ibtisâm 'armies of light and smiling,' just as with the synonymous juyûsh al-ġeyhab (‘Antar, XV. 58. 11).
- ↑ On this peculiarity of the poets of the towns an opinion of ‘Ajjâj very much to the point occurs in the Kitâb al-aġânî, II. 18.
- ↑ The Heart of Africa, I. 28.
