The Mu'allaqat Compiled By Ar-Rawiya
The grammarian Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Nahhas (d. 949 CE) says expressly in his commentary on the Mu'allaqat: "The true view of the matter is this: when Hammad Ar-Rawiya (Hammad the Rhapsodist) saw how little men cared for poetry, he collected these seven pieces, urged people to study them, and said to them: 'These are the of renown.'" This agrees with all our other information, firstly the recitation of poems was his profession. Hammad (who lived in the first three quarters of the 8th century) was perhaps of all men the one who knew most Arabic poetry by heart. To such a rhapsodist the task of selection is in every way appropriate; and it may be assumed that he is responsible also for the somewhat fantastic title of "the suspended".
There is another fact which seems to speak in favour of Hammad as the compiler of this work. He was a Persian by descent, but a client of the Arab tribe, Bakr ibn Wa'il. For this reason, we may suppose, he not only received into the collection a poem of the famous poet Tarafa, of the tribe of Bakr, but also that of another Bakrite, Harith, who, though not accounted a bard of the highest rank, had been a prominent chieftain; while his poem could serve as a counterpoise to another also received the celebrated verses of Harith's contemporary 'Amr, chief of the Taghlib, the rival brethren of the Bakr. 'Amr praises the Taghlib in glowing terms: Harith, in a similar vein, extols the Bakr ancestors of Hammad's patrons.
The collection of Hammad appears to have consisted of the same seven poems which are found in our modern editions, composed respectively by Imru' al-Qais, Tarafa, Zuhayr, Labīd, 'Antara Ibn Shaddad, 'Amr ibn Kulthum, and Harith ibn Hilliza. These are enumerated both by Ibn Abd Rabbih (860–940 CE), and, on the authority of the older philologists, by Nahhas; and all subsequent commentators seem to follow them. We have, however, evidence of the existence, at a very early period, of a slightly different arrangement. Certainly we cannot now say, on the testimony of the Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab, that two of the most competent ancient authorities on Arabic poetry, al-Mufaddal (d. c. 790) and Abu 'Ubaida (d. 824 CE, at a great age), had already assigned to the "Seven" (i.e. "the seven Mu'allaqat") a poem each of al-Nabigha and al-A'sha in place of those of 'Antara and Harith. For meanwhile it has been discovered that the compiler of the above-mentioned work who, in order to deceive the reader, issued it under a false name is absolutely untrustworthy. However, the learned Ibn Qutaiba (9th century), in his book Of Poetry and Poets, mentions as belonging to the "Seven" not only the poem of 'Amr, which has invariably been reckoned among the Mu'allaqat (ed. de Goeje, p. 120), but also a poem of 'Abid ibn al-Abras (ibid. 144). In place of which poem he read this we do not know; and we are equally ignorant as to whether he counted other pieces than those indicated above among the seven.
Now Nabigha and A'sha enjoyed greater celebrity than any of the poets represented in the Mu'allaqat, with the exception of Imru' al-Qais, and it is therefore not surprising that scholars, of a somewhat later date, appended a poem by each of these to the Mu'allaqat, without intending by this to make them an integral part of that work. This is clear, for instance, from the introductory words of Tibrizi, Yahyá ibn Ali (d. 1109 C.E.) to his commentary on the Mu'allaqat. Appended to this he gives a commentary to a poem of Nabigha, to one of A'sha, and moreover one to that poem of 'Abid which, as we have just seen, Ibn Qutaiba had counted among the seven. It is a pure misunderstanding when Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406 CE) in his Muqaddimah speaks of nine Mu'allaqat; and we ought hardly to lay any stress on the fact that he mentions not only Nabigha and A'sha, but also 'Alqama ibn 'Abada, as Mu'allaqa poets. He was probably led to this by a delusive recollection of the Collection of the "Six Poets", in which were included these three, together with the three Mu'allaqat poets, Imru' al-Qais, Zuhayr and Tarafa.
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