Mu'allaqat - The Hanging of The Poems

The Hanging of The Poems

Ibn Abd Rabbih in the 'Iqd al-Farid (The Precious Necklace) states "The Arabs had such an interest in poetry, and valued it so highly, that they took seven long pieces selected from the ancient poetry, wrote them in gold on pieces of Coptic linen folded up, and hung them up (allaqat) on the curtains which covered the Ka'ba. Hence we speak of 'the golden poem of Imru' al-Qais,' 'the golden poem of Zuhayr.' The number of the golden poems is seven; they are also called 'the suspended' (al-Mu'allaqat)." Similar statements are found in later Arabic works. But against this we have the testimony of al-Nahhas, who says in his commentary on the Mu'allaqat: "As for the assertion that they were hung up in the Ka'ba, it is not known to any of those who have handed down ancient poems." This cautious scholar is unquestionably right in rejecting a story so utterly unauthenticated.

The customs of the Arabs before Prophet Muhammad are pretty accurately known to us; we have also a mass of information about the affairs of Mecca at the time when the Prophet arose; but no trace of this or anything like it is found in really good and ancient authorities. We hear, indeed, of a Meccan hanging up a spoil of battle on the Ka'ba (Ibn Hisham, ed. Wiistenfeld, p. 431). Less credible is the story of an important document being deposited in that sanctuary (ibid. p. 230), for this looks like an instance of later usages being transferred to pre-Islamic times. But at all events this is quite a different thing from the hanging up of poetical manuscripts. To account for the disappearance of the Mu'allaqat from the Ka'ba we are told, in a passage of late origin (De Sacy, Chrestom. ii. 480), that they were taken down at the capture of Mecca by the Prophet. But in that case we should expect some hint of the occurrence in the circumstantial biographies of the Prophet, and in the works on the history of Mecca; and we find no such thing.

That a series of long poems was written at all at that remote period is improbable in the extreme. Up to a time when the art of writing had become far more general than it was before the spread of Islam, poems were never or very rarely written, with the exception, perhaps, of epistles in poetic form. The diffusion of poetry was exclusively committed to oral tradition. Moreover, it is quite inconceivable that there should have been either a guild or a private individual of such acknowledged taste, or of such influence, as to bring about a consensus of opinion in favour of certain poems. Think of the mortal offence which the canonization of one poet must have given to his rivals and their tribes. It was quite another thing for an individual to give his own private estimate of the respective merits of two poets who had appealed to him as umpire, or for a number of poets to appear at large gatherings, such as the fair of Oqaz as candidates for the place of honour in the estimation of the throng which listened to their recitations.

No better is the variant of the legend, which we find, at a much later period, in the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun, who tells us that the poets themselves hung up their poems on the Ka'ba (ed. Paris iii. 357). In short, this legend, often related by Arabs, and still more by Europeans, has no historical basis: it is a fabrication based on the name suspended. The word was taken in its literal sense; and as these poems were prized by many above all others in after times, the same opinion was attributed to "the Arabs," who were supposed to have given effect to their verdict in the way already described. A somewhat simpler version also given by Nahhas in the passage already cited is as follows: "Most of the Arabs were accustomed to meet at 'Oqaz and recite verses; then, if the king was pleased with any poem, he said, 'Hang it up, and preserve it among my treasures.'" But, not to mention other difficulties, there was no king of all the Arabs; and it is unlikely that any Arabian king attended the fair at Oqaz.

The story that the poems were written in gold has evidently originated in the name "the golden poems" (literally "the gilded"), a figurative expression for excellence. The designation "suspended" may be interpreted in the same way, referring to those (poems) which have been raised, on account of their value, to a specially honourable position. Another derivative of the same root is 'ilq, "precious thing." A clearer significance attaches to another name sometimes used for these poems assumut, "strings of pearls". The comparison of artificially elaborated poems to these strings is extremely apt. Hence it became popular, even in ordinary prose, to refer to speech in rhythmical form as nagm "to string pearls." The selection of these seven poems is unlikely to have been the work of the ancient Arabs, but rather some one writing at a later date.