Part 25 (1/2)
Farazdaq and Jarir are intimately connected by a peculiar rivalry--”_Arcades ambo_--_id est_, blackguards both.” For many years they engaged in a public scolding-match (_muhajat_), and as neither had any scruples on the score of decency, the foulest abuse was bandied to and fro between them--abuse, however, which is redeemed from vulgarity by its literary excellence, and by the marvellous skill which the satirists display in manipulating all the vituperative resources of the Arabic language. Soon these 'Flytings' (_Naqa'i?_) were recited everywhere, and each poet had thousands of enthusiastic partisans who maintained that he was superior to his rival.[454] One day Muhallab b.
Abi Sufra, the governor of Khurasan, who was marching against the Azariqa, a sect of the Kharijites, heard a great clamour and tumult in the camp. On inquiring its cause, he found that the soldiers had been fiercely disputing as to the comparative merits of Jarir and Farazdaq, and desired to submit the question to his decision. ”Would you expose me,” said Muhallab, ”to be torn in pieces by these two dogs? I will not decide between them, but I will point out to you those who care not a whit for either of them. Go to the Azariqa! They are Arabs who understand poetry and judge it aright.” Next day, when the armies faced each other, an Azraqite named 'Abida b. Hilal stepped forth from the ranks and offered single combat. One of Muhallab's men accepted the challenge, but before fighting he begged his adversary to inform him which was the better poet--Farazdaq or Jarir? ”G.o.d confound you!” cried 'Abida, ”do you ask me about poetry instead of studying the Koran and the Sacred Law?” Then he quoted a verse by Jarir and gave judgment in his favour.[455] This incident affords a striking proof that the taste for poetry, far from being confined to literary circles, was diffused throughout the whole nation, and was cultivated even amidst the fatigues and dangers of war. Parallel instances occur in the history of the Athenians, the most gifted people of the West, and possibly elsewhere, but imagine British soldiers discussing questions of that kind over the camp-fires!
Akh?al joined in the fray. His sympathies were with Farazdaq, and the _naqa'i?_ which he and Jarir composed against each other have come down to us. All these poets, like their Post-islamic brethren generally, were professional encomiasts, greedy, venal, and ready to revile any one who would not purchase their praise. Some further account of them may be interesting to the reader, especially as the anecdotes related by their biographers throw many curious sidelights on the manners of the time.
[Sidenote: Akh?al.]
The oldest of the trio, Akh?al (Ghiyath b. Ghawth) of Taghlib, was a Christian, like most of his tribe--they had long been settled in Mesopotamia--and remained in that faith to the end of his life, though the Caliph 'Abdu 'l-Malik is said to have offered him a pension and 10,000 dirhems in cash if he would turn Moslem. His religion, however, was less a matter of principle than of convenience, and to him the supreme virtue of Christianity lay in the licence which it gave him to drink wine as often as he pleased. The stories told of him suggest grovelling devoutness combined with very easy morals, a phenomenon familiar to the student of mediaeval Catholicism. It is related by one who was touring in Syria that he found Akh?al confined in a church at Damascus, and pleaded his cause with the priest. The latter stopped beside Akh?al and raising the staff on which he leaned--for he was an aged man--exclaimed: ”O enemy of G.o.d, will you again defame people and satirise them and caluminate chaste women?” while the poet humbled himself and promised never to repeat the offence. When asked how it was that he, who was honoured by the Caliph and feared by all, behaved so submissively to this priest, he answered, ”It is religion, it is religion.”[456] On another occasion, seeing the Bishop pa.s.s, he cried to his wife who was then pregnant, ”Run after him and touch his robe.” The poor woman only succeeded in touching the tail of the Bishop's a.s.s, but Akh?al consoled her with the remark, ”He and the tail of his a.s.s, there's no difference!”[457] It is characteristic of the anti-Islamic spirit which appears so strongly in the Umayyads that their chosen laureate and champion should have been a Christian who was in truth a lineal descendant of the pagan bards. Pious Moslems might well be scandalised when he burst unannounced into the Caliph's presence, sumptuously attired in silk and wearing a cross of gold which was suspended from his neck by a golden chain, while drops of wine trickled from his beard,[458] but their protests went unheeded at the court of Damascus, where n.o.body cared whether the author of a fine verse was a Moslem or a Christian, and where a poet was doubly welcome whose religion enabled him to serve his masters without any regard to Mu?ammadan sentiment; so that, for example, when Yazid I wished to take revenge on the people of Medina because one of their poets had addressed amatory verses to his sister, he turned to Akh?al, who branded the _An?ar_, the men who had brought about the triumph of Islam, in the famous lines--
”Quraysh have borne away all the honour and glory, And baseness alone is beneath the turbans of the An?ar.”[459]
We must remember that the poets were leaders of public opinion; their utterances took the place of political pamphlets or of party oratory for or against the Government of the day. On hearing Akh?al's ode in praise of the Umayyad dynasty,[460] 'Abdu 'l-Malik ordered one of his clients to conduct the author through the streets of Damascus and to cry out, ”Here is the poet of the Commander of the Faithful! Here is the best poet of the Arabs!”[461] No wonder that he was a favourite at court and such an eminent personage that the great tribe of Bakr used to invite him to act as arbitrator whenever any controversy arose among them.[462] Despite the luxury in which he lived, his wild Bedouin nature pined for freedom, and he frequently left the capital to visit his home in the desert, where he not only married and divorced several wives, but also threw himself with ardour into the feuds of his clan. We have already noticed the part which he played in the literary duel between Jarir and Farazdaq. From his deathbed he sent a final injunction to Farazdaq not to spare their common enemy.
Akh?al is commended by Arabian critics for the number and excellence of his long poems, as well as for the purity, polish, and correctness of his style. Abu 'Ubayda put him first among the poets of Islam, while the celebrated collector of Pre-islamic poetry, Abu 'Amr b. al-'Ala, declared that if Akh?al had lived a single day in the Pagan Age he would not have preferred any one to him. His supremacy in panegyric was acknowledged by Farazdaq, and he himself claims to have surpa.s.sed all compet.i.tors in three styles, viz., panegyric, satire, and erotic poetry; but there is more justification for the boast that his satires might be recited _virginibus_--he does not add _puerisque_--without causing a blush.[463]
[Sidenote: Farazdaq.]
Hammam b. Ghalib, generally known as Farazdaq, belonged to the tribe of Tamim, and was born at Ba?ra towards the end of 'Umar's Caliphate, His grandfather, ?a'?a'a, won renown in Pre-islamic times by ransoming the lives of female infants whom their parents had condemned to die (on account of which he received the t.i.tle, _Mu?yi 'l-Maw'udat_, 'He who brings the buried girls to life'), and his father was likewise imbued with the old Bedouin traditions of liberality and honour, which were rapidly growing obsolete among the demoralised populace of 'Iraq. Farazdaq was a _mauvais sujet_ of the type represented by Francois Villon, reckless, dissolute, and thoroughly unprincipled: apart from his gift of vituperation, we find nothing in him to admire save his respect for his father's memory and his constant devotion to the House of 'Ali, a devotion which he scorned to conceal; so that he was cast into prison by the Caliph Hisham for reciting in his presence a glowing panegyric on 'Ali's grandson, Zaynu 'l-'abidin. The tragic fate of ?usayn at Karbala affected him deeply, and he called on his compatriots to acquit themselves like men--
”If ye avenge not him, the son of the best of you, Then fling, fling the sword away and naught but the spindle ply.”[464]
While still a young man, he was expelled from his native city in consequence of the lampoons which he directed against a n.o.ble family of Ba?ra, the Banu Nahshal. Thereupon he fled to Medina, where he plunged into gallantry and dissipation until a shameless description of one of his intrigues again drew upon him the sentence of banishment. His poems contain many references to his cousin Nawar, whom, by means of a discreditable trick, he forced to marry him when she was on the point of giving her hand to another. The pair were ever quarrelling, and at last Farazdaq consented to an irrevocable divorce, which was witnessed by ?asan of Ba?ra, the famous theologian. No sooner was the act complete than Farazdaq began to wish it undone, and he spoke the following verses:--[465]
”I feel repentance like al-Kusa'i,[466]
Now that Nawar has been divorced by me.
She was my Paradise which I have lost, Like Adam when the Lord's command he crossed.
I am one who wilfully puts out his eyes, Then dark to him the s.h.i.+ning day doth rise!”
'The repentance of Farazdaq,' signifying bitter regret or disappointment, pa.s.sed into a proverb. He died a few months before Jarir in 728 A.D., a year also made notable by the deaths of two ill.u.s.trious divines, ?asan of Ba?ra and Ibn Sirin.
[Sidenote: Jarir.]
Jarir b. 'Atiyya belonged to Kulayb, a branch of the same tribe, Tamim, which produced Farazdaq. He was the court-poet of ?ajjaj, the dreaded governor of 'Iraq, and eulogised his patron in such extravagant terms as to arouse the jealousy of the Caliph 'Abdu 'l-Malik, who consequently received him, on his appearance at Damascus, with marked coldness and hauteur. But when, after several repulses, he at length obtained permission to recite a poem which he had composed in honour of the prince, and came to the verse--
”Are not ye the best of those who on camel ride, More open-handed than all in the world beside?”--
the Caliph sat up erect on his throne and exclaimed: ”Let us be praised like this or in silence!”[467] Jarir's fame as a satirist stood so high that to be worsted by him was reckoned a greater distinction than to vanquish any one else. The blind poet, Bashshar b. Burd ( 783 A.D.), said: ”I satirised Jarir, but he considered me too young for him to notice. Had he answered me, I should have been the finest poet in the world.”[468] The following anecdote shows that vituperation launched by a master like Jarir was a deadly and far-reaching weapon which degraded its victim in the eyes of his contemporaries, however he might deserve their esteem, and covered his family and tribe with lasting disgrace.
There was a poet of repute, well known by the name of Ra'i 'l-ibil (Camel-herd), who loudly published his opinion that Farazdaq was superior to Jarir, although the latter had lauded his tribe, the Banu Numayr, whereas Farazdaq had made verses against them. One day Jarir met him and expostulated with him but got no reply. Ra'i was riding a mule and was accompanied by his son, Jandal, who said to his father: ”Why do you halt before this dog of the Banu Kulayb, as though you had anything to hope or fear from him?” At the same time he gave the mule a lash with his whip. The animal started violently and kicked Jarir, who was standing by, so that his cap fell to the ground. Ra'i took no heed and went on his way. Jarir picked up the cap, brushed it, and replaced it on his head. Then he exclaimed in verse:--
”_O Jandal! what will say Numayr of you When my dishonouring shaft has pierced thy sire?_”
He returned home full of indignation, and after the evening prayer, having called for a jar of date-wine and a lamp, he set about his work. An old woman in the house heard him muttering, and mounted the stairs to see what ailed him. She found him crawling naked on his bed, by reason of that which was within him; so she ran down, crying ”He is mad,” and described what she had seen to the people of the house. ”Get thee gone,” they said, ”we know what he is at.” By daybreak Jarir had composed a satire of eighty verses against the Banu Numayr. When he finished the poem, he shouted triumphantly, ”_Allah Akbar!_” and rode away to the place where he expected to find Ra'i 'l-ibil and Farazdaq and their friends. He did not salute Ra'i but immediately began to recite. While he was speaking Farazdaq and Ra'i bowed their heads, and the rest of the company sat listening in silent mortification. When Jarir uttered the final words--
”_Cast down thine eyes for shame! for thou art of Numayr--no peer of Ka'b nor yet Kilab_”--
Ra'i rose and hastened to his lodging as fast as his mule could carry him. ”Saddle! Saddle!” he cried to his comrades; ”you cannot stay here longer, Jarir has disgraced you all.” They left Ba?ra without delay to rejoin their tribe, who bitterly reproached Ra'i for the ignominy which he had brought upon Numayr; and hundreds of years afterwards his name was still a byword among his people.[469]